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orthography and prosody. But it is in the Preface, often
anthologized as an independent text, that we find an unprecedented
statement of the theoretical basis of a dictionary project. The
statement is notable for its awareness of the realities of the
lexicographer’s task, and also for its descriptive intention – an
interesting change of opinion from the prescriptive attitudes
Johnson expressed in his 1747 Dictionary plan. There he had
written: «The chief intent is to preserve the purity and ascertain the
meaning of our English idiom». The Preface, by contrast, stresses
that his aim is «not form, but register the language»; and it is this
principle which introduces a new era in Lexicography.
The Johnsonian Method.
This page illustrates several features of the approach Johnson
outlines in his Preface:
1. Most of the definitions are appropriate and consistent
between entries;
2. He plays special attention to the different senses of a word
– five, in the case of eternal;
3. There’s a copious use of quotations to support a definition
– 116,000 in all;
4. He routinely identifies parts of speech;
5. He shows the most strongly stressed syllable in a
headword by an accent;
6. There’s an openness of approach;
7. He includes topical explanations of some words;
8. A wide range of ordinary words are included alongside
technical terms;
9. It includes, in the «hard-words» tradition, many
cumbersome Latinate forms, such as cubicula, estuation, whose
status within English was doubtful;
10. His creations are highly selective, chosen more for their
literary or moral value than for their linguistic clarity;
11. Several of his definitions use difficult words, such as
reciprocates in estuary;

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