Samuel Johnson: "Preface" to "A Dictionary..."

Kevin Yee
Discussion 1B

Samuel Johnson’s “Preface” to “A Dictionary of the English Language” is found under the “Criticism” theme, as it is apparent that it was intended to distinguish and sanctify the English language – in practice and purpose. Johnson wants to free the English language from the encroaching spirit of commercialization, whose corrupting tastes is attributed to the prevalence of trade. This type of trade can be seen in Addison and Steele’s “The Royal Exchange”, which takes a divergent stance on the same issue, the presence of foreign influences invited in by trade. While “The Royal Exchange” favors the ethnic, cultural, and ideological diversity afforded by trade, the epitome of which occurs at the “royal exchange” marketplace, Johnson’s “Preface” asserts the opposite. Johnson’s “Preface” is meant to safeguard the English language, to preserve the indigenousEnglish “nativeness”, “naturalness”, and culture. It is intended as an exclusion of the political and cultural “contamination” introduced by the tainting of foreign influences. This ideology is carried over from the notion that “English” is “natural” and native, and therefore all non-English was abnormal.

Johnson declares his purpose directly, in the following statement: “I have devoted this book, the labor of years, to the honor of my country, that we may no longer yield the palm of philology without a contest to the nations of the continent.” Johnson claims that he has labored to make this dictionary to prevent the English study of literature and linguistics (philology) from being watered-down by the ubiquity of foreign influence. Johnson does not want to “yield”, to give up “without a contest” to the pressures of the time. It is a means of exclusion, not of inclusion. This is Johnson’s call for protection, for preservation, for defense.