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* The Prologue to Samuel Johnson's Dictionary - 1755 page 3

Discussion points:

Bullet What do you think Johnson is trying to achieve, opening his prologue in this style, with this choice of vocabulary?
Bullet In his prologue, Johnson expresses his belief that the works of famous English authors formed 'the wells of English undefiled'. He wrote: 'Our language, for almost a century, has, by the concurrence of many causes, been gradually departing from its original Teutonick character, and deviating towards a Gallick structure and phraseology'. He has huge anxieties about the increase of 'translatours, whose idleness and ignorance, if it be suffered to proceed, will reduce us to babble a dialect of France.' From your investigation of this passage, do you think he has been using primarily Teutonic/ Old English vocabulary?
Bullet Johnson believed that the English language had been neglected and accused it of spreading with 'wild exuberance', without any planning or control. What do you think about English today - is it spreading out of control? Should we be regulating it in some way?

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