2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Morphological and Semantic Changes Seen in Late Modern English Dictionaries: In Comparison with a Writer's Invention Strategies

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	26370569
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	English linguistics
Research Institution	Okayama University
Principal Investigator	Wakimoto Kyoko 岡山大学, 教育学研究科, 教授 (00258295)
Project Period (FY)	2014-04-01 – 2019-03-31
Keywords	英語辞書 / 後期近代英語 / Samuel Richardson / Dr. Johnson / 複合語 / 18世紀
Outline of Final Research Achievements	I have made a close investigation on words peculiar to 18th century writers, particularly to Samuel Richardson, in reference to Late Modern English dictionaries. As is well known, Dr. Johnson's “A Dictionary of the English Language” (first published in 1755) is the most famous and influential dictionary in English history. I have conducted a survey of representative 18th century dictionaries, dividing them into two periods (the period before 1755 and the period after 1755), in hopes to find out differences between these two periods. Furthermore, I have tried to examine whether or not there may have been a significant influence by Richardson and/or his contemporary writers on Dr. Johnson’s adding new words to his dictionary.
Free Research Field	英語学：18世紀の英語の言語・文体研究
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	18世紀の英語を調査した先行研究は全般に十分とは言えず，辞書研究においても Dr. Johnsonの『英語辞典』の調査が主流を成し，史的辞書研究においては今後に託される研究余地が十二分にあった。この状況に鑑み，本研究では当時の作家の使用し始めた語彙の特性を特に複合語より調査し，Dr. Johnson の前後の辞書でどのように収録数や記載の仕方が異なるか調査した。英語は柔軟性に富む言語で，Dr. Johnson 以降大幅に収録語彙数が増えた一因が，当時の作家の創造した新語によるところがある一方，作家の自由な発想に対し，語彙によっては辞書の記載に及ぶにはかなりの時間的ずれもあることを指摘した。