THE GENESIS OF THE INDIAN ENGLISH LEXICOGRAPHY: SOCIO-CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC ASPECTS
Journal Title: Записки з романо-германської філології - Year 2014, Vol 1, Issue
Abstract
The initial stage of the Indian English lexicography formation features its own peculiarities and distinctiveness. The revelation of both sociocultural and linguistic aspects of lexicography in India is ensured by the implementation of the critical analysis of the first lexicographic work bearing the title ‘dictionary’ published by George Clifford Whitworth An Anglo-Indian Dictionary: A Glossary of Indian Terms Used In English, and of Such English or Other Non-Indian Terms as Have Obtained Special Meanings in India. The dictionary exposes the formation of the of the Indian variant of the English language. The process of lexicographic interpretation of the variants of the English language common to the colonized lands began in the late eighteenth century and it was characterized by the peculiarity of the distribution of primary and secondary variants. In this case, the hallmark of the whole early period of lexicography is the inclusion of a large volume of encyclopedic facts in the monolingual dictionaries. Thus, on the territories where the modern primary variants of English were spreading the process of development of national lexicography started in the eighteenth century in the U.S.A. The first dictionaries were created to meet the needs of the educational system. The lexicography of emerging Canadian English was aimed at ensuring a successful trade of the British colonists with the indigenous population. The needs of the administration and the judiciary system in Australia led to the publication by James Hardy Vaux of dictionary of thieves' cant "A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language" in 1819. The purpose of this article is to determine the characteristics of the initial stage of formation of lexicography which developed on the basis of Indian English. The first lexicographical work, which bears the name "Dictionary" was the work of George Clifford Whitworth "An Anglo-Indian Dictionary: A Glossary of Indian Terms Used In English, and of Such English or Other Non-Indian Terms as Have Obtained Special Meanings in India". The analysis of this dictionary suggests that the formation of the Indian lexicography in the initial stages coincided with the general trends of lexicographic interpretation of the colonial variants: reflecting the particular cultural and linguistic environment in which it was created, and the peculiarity of the emerging variant of the English language, the dictionary was designed to meet the needs of the British colonists of that time. A significant encyclopedic component of the Anglo-Indian dictionary demonstrates a constant interest on the part of the British administration in all the cultural aspects of India. Identifying the features and trends of the development of Indian lexicography is also possible by resorting to a critical and comparative analysis of other dictionaries of the Indian variant.
Authors and Affiliations
N. S. Bytko
Keywords
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