The Intertextual Web of Johnson's Dictionary and the Concept of Authorship [1994, rptd. 1995, 1996, 2008]

Abstract

What is distinctively different about Johnson's Dictionary, marking it off from earlier monolingual English dictionaries, is his use of quotations to illustrate the meanings of words. But Johnson's criteria for selecting these quotations were more than just linguistic. He saw his Dictionary as an encyclopedia of knowledge, and he wished his sources not just to illuminate and exemplify linguistic usage, but to transmit learning. Johnson also imposed ideological criteria on the selection of illustrative material. He refused to quote from Thomas Hobbes because he disapproved of his moral principles, Milton's prose works because he disapproved of his politics, and Samuel Clarke because he was not orthodox on the doctrine of the Trinity. On the other hand, a vast number of sermons is included from High Church Anglican divines who collectively present the orthodox conservative Protestant viewpoint.

When considered in the context of recent theoretical debate about the nature of authorship, the inclusion of these "authorities" raises some interesting questions. To what extent can the text be said to be authored by Johnson when most of the text consists of quotations from other writers? Does this "authorship" of the text conflict with the modern notion that dictionaries derive their authority from a sort of anonymity? Or do we have in Johnson's Dictionary a paradigmatic post-structuralist intertext to which the concept of authorship does not apply?