Lexicography, or the Gentle Art of Making Mistakes

Autori

  • Giovanni Iamartino Università degli Studi di Milano

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/8303

Parole chiave:

Giovanni Iamartino is Professor of the History of English at the University of Milan, and the current chair of AIA, the Italian Society for the Study of English. Iamartino’s research focuses on the history of Anglo-Italian relations and on the history of

Abstract

The man in the street’s attitude of mind towards dictionaries is that they are the true repositories of all the words in a language, and that they are both authoritative and objective – in short, dictionaries are perfect. By mainly referring to the early history of English mono- and bilingual lexicography, this essay explodes the myth of the perfect dictionary and shows that mistakes in dictionaries may profitably be discussed under two headings: lexicographical mistakes, i.e. vague or circular definitions and the so-called ghost words in monolingual dictionaries, and non-insertable equivalents in bilingual dictionaries; and socio-cultural mistakes, which are related to the often elusive impact of ideology on dictionary-making.

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Biografia autore

Giovanni Iamartino, Università degli Studi di Milano

Giovanni Iamartino is Professor of the History of English at the University of Milan, and the current chair of AIA, the Italian Society for the Study of English. Iamartino’s research focuses on the history of Anglo-Italian relations and on the history of English lexicography. His publications in the latter field include journal articles and book chapters on Johnson, Baretti, Willson’s The Soldier’s Pocket-Dictionary (1794), Cleland’s The Dictionary of Love (1753), Dunton’s The Ladies Dictionary (1694), the relationship between lexicography and translation, and lexicographers as censors. Most recently he co-edited a monograph issue of the journal Language and History entitled “Towards a History of the English Normative Tradition”. 

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Pubblicato

2017-04-14

Come citare

Iamartino, Giovanni. 2017. «Lexicography, or the Gentle Art of Making Mistakes». Altre Modernità, aprile, 48-78. https://doi.org/10.13130/2035-7680/8303.

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Saggi Ensayos Essais Essays