Abstract for MLA Lexicography discussion group panel
MLA Annual Convention,
Panel Title:
Text and Hypertext: Dictionaries and their Readers/Users
Paper Title:
Reading Johnson’s Dictionary: Metatext, Hypertext, and Johnson’s Relationship with His Readers
Abstract:
With the availability of Johnson’s Dictionary in a
searchable CD-ROM format, scholars can study it more closely and more
comprehensively than ever before. Yet modern scholarly interpretations of the Dictionary
remain skewed by old, generally unexamined assumptions about how to read it,
and by reputed truisms about Johnson’s authoritarian stance toward his readers.
I offer two strategies to help us avoid common misinterpretations of the Dictionary.
First, I propose that we view the entries as consisting of “text” and “metatext.” The “text”
corresponds to those elements of the entry where Johnson’s personal voice
recedes or seems absent (head word, part of speech, definition, illustrative quotations),
and the “metatext” corresponds to those elements where Johnson’s voice is
foregrounded (usage notes, etymologies). Viewing the entries in this way
illuminates Johnson’s philological reasoning by showing how his etymologies, definitions, and usage notes are not discrete acts, but
complementary interpretive activities. Second, I propose that we read the Dictionary
as a richly interconnected hypertext, pursuing the connections Johnson builds
into the Dictionary so that readers can discover for themselves the
“structures and relations” of words. These reading strategies underscore the
frequently tentative nature of Johnson’s metatextual commentary, and show how
Johnson leaves room for readers to develop their own understandings of what he
calls the “frame” or “general fabrick” of the language. Moreover, these
strategies suggest that Johnson addresses his readers—whom he assumes to be
relatively well-to-do purchasers of the expensive folio in