1. According to Addison and Steele’s essay in the “Spectator,” No. 62, what is “wit”? How does it relate to literary creativity?
2.
In his preface to The Dictionary, Johnson speaks at length about language change, then describes his purpose for the dictionary:
It remains that we retard what we cannot repel, that we palliate what we cannot cure. Life may be lengthened by care, though death cannot be ultimately defeated: tongues, like government, have a natural tendency to degeneration; we have long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for our language.
Compare Johnson’s philosophy of language change–and his idea of the purpose of a dictionary–to that of the modern Oxford Dictionary. You can get a sense of the Oxford Dictionary’s mission and philosophy of language change on the Oxford Dictionaries FAQ page. How does this philosophy of language and dictionary purpose compare to Johnson’s?
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