Heming Yong - Böcker

This comprehensive account of the history of Chinese lexicography is the first book on the subject to be published in English. It traces the development of Chinese lexicography over three millennia, from the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC-256 BC) to the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911). Revealing how the emergence of lexicographical culture in ancient China was linked to the teaching of ancient characters, it describes the subsequent development of primers, thesauruses, and dictionaries of all major types, including those of dialects and technical terms. These works originated and appeared in ancient China, predating their western counterparts by hundreds of years: and in one form or another most of them remain in use today. Throughout their account the authors show how changes in the organization, content, use and researches of Chinese lexicographical works reflected broader social and political developments. This book not only makes an important and original contribution to the history of Chinese lexicography and the social and cultural history of China but also provides illuminating insights into world lexicography and new forms of comparative researches in lexicography in the global context.

A Sociolinguistic History of British English Lexicography traces the evolution of British English dictionaries from their earliest roots to the end of the 20th century by adopting both sociolinguistic and lexicographical perspectives. It attempts to break out of the limits of the dictionary-ontology paradigm and set British English dictionary-making and research against a broader background of socio-cultural observations, thus relating the development of English lexicography to changes in English, accomplishments in English linguistics, social and cultural progress, and advances in science and technology.It unfolds a vivid, coherent and complete picture of how English dictionary-making develops from its archetype to the prescriptive, the historical, the descriptive and finally to the cognitive model, how it interrelates to the course of the development of a nation's culture and the historical growth of its lexicographical culture, as well as how English lexicography spreads from British English to other major regional varieties through inheritance, innovation and self-perfection.This volume will be of interest to students and academics of English lexicography, English linguistics and world English lexicography.

A Sociolinguistic History of British English Lexicography traces the evolution of British English dictionaries from their earliest roots to the end of the 20th century by adopting both sociolinguistic and lexicographical perspectives. It attempts to break out of the limits of the dictionary-ontology paradigm and set British English dictionary-making and research against a broader background of socio-cultural observations, thus relating the development of English lexicography to changes in English, accomplishments in English linguistics, social and cultural progress, and advances in science and technology.It unfolds a vivid, coherent and complete picture of how English dictionary-making develops from its archetype to the prescriptive, the historical, the descriptive and finally to the cognitive model, how it interrelates to the course of the development of a nation's culture and the historical growth of its lexicographical culture, as well as how English lexicography spreads from British English to other major regional varieties through inheritance, innovation and self-perfection.This volume will be of interest to students and academics of English lexicography, English linguistics and world English lexicography.

This book unfolds chronologically, comprehensively and coherently, for the first time and under one cover, a spectacular landscape of how lexicographies of core native-speaker varieties of English (other than British English) originate and develop, directly or indirectly, from their British roots to current shapes and prosperity, tracing their evolutional links with and inheritance from British (occasionally American) lexicographical tradition, their interrelation to socio-cultural settings, as well as their reformation and divergences through innovation and self-expansion. This pioneering work gives special focus to many unknown aspects and areas of world English lexicography and concludes with visions, prospects and possible transformations of its development in the 21st century. It is the first attempt to go beyond the traditional confines of ontological studies in the history of lexicography, integrating sociolinguistic and lexicographical approaches and setting the diachronic explorations of world English lexicography against the broad background of socio-cultural observations. It is the most updated and wide-ranging on the subject treated within a unified framework of English dictionary paradigms going from its archetype to the prescriptive, to the historical, to the descriptive and to the cognitive model.