Samuel Johnson: The Lexicographer

“I even took to reading all the scraps of english newsprint and wrapped up our groceries and begged my brothers for definitions”(Choy 157).

As Samuel Johnson writes the letter of denial to a woman ,that asked a request from him,for her son to be sent to a university as a recommendation from the archbishop . Johnson writes in a very formal and sophisticated tone towards the reader.Johnson uses other methods to deny the request that was granted upon him.The the block style of organization of johnson was intended to calmly reject the lady.

He announced his research as reply regarding her demand extremely long to hinder her class and halt an assignment as if politician made filibuster and questioned “ who says that d-o-g implies the thing that goes ‘woof’ and wags its tail? Who say so?’. And she answer that dictionary was worked on by hundreds of numerous brilliant people for innumerable years. Therefore dictionary is law and as all we agrees to the law, we should love and worship dictionary”.

The diction being very ornate as the author uses unusual word pairings that pair well with the

Reading and writing have been in our lives and around our lives ever since the beginning of time. It is something we are naturally born into. Almost every human being has performed some type of reading or writing, whether they live in the big city, or whether they live in the woods. They have all performed some form of reading or writing in their life. It is human nature. We are born into it. I have many memories of reading and writing, though I may not be very fond of it when it concerns schoolwork, it is something I have naturally adjusted to and it somehow has made me, and probably everyone else around me as well, who we are today.

King is weary of his primary audience as well as the secondary one. He writes the letter specifically as an answer to Birmingham’s clergymen. When writing it is important to

I learned that he did not have an education higher than eigth grade. I would never have guessed that such a well spoken man would have obtained his knowledge from reading and writing the dictionary.

The rhetorical devices he chose to use through his letter play a role in the quality of his letter and why it makes such a strong point. Johnson uses metaphors and comparisons to raise questions about the conditions of the gaols. His narrative voice and diction in the letter creates a sense of sarcasm that lightens the serious topic of the letter. The amount of prisoners in gaols for debt is unreal and Johnson uses rhetorical strategies

“There comes John, and I must put this away,--he hates to have me write a word.”(Gilman, 2)

In his letter, Johnson uses techniques such as foreshadowing, logical reasoning, and expressing goodwill in order to convince the woman to whom he was replying to accept that he would not fulfill her request.

The diction

Malcolm begins his auto-biography in his frustration of “not being able to express” his thought and even calls himself “[dysfunctional]” (Malcolm 2) to demonstrate his initial helpless condition. To make it worse, as if to appeal to the reader’s pathos, he was situated inside a prison. In his helplessness, he reveals his innocent motivation of how he starts to attain literacy; by mere jealousy to another people. He describes his own effort in an exciting tone, exhausting every inch of the dictionary by copying it. He describes his dictionary as a “miniature encyclopedia” which allows him to understand the book’s

This was the most ostensible service to an ascendant mercantile nation such as sixteenth century England, but due to this discourse’s destination, Roger seems over-concerned with enumerating his other services and successes, often to the point of exaggeration. However, these, alongside concerns about payment are a recurring theme in diplomatic reports of the seventeenth century. Rogers, no different, extolled his successes preventing Danes sailing under Spain as it was ‘against the leagues and intercourses’ as well as minor services like freeing English customs-avoiders from captivity.

Reeve, Clara, and James Trainer. The Old English Baron: A Gothic Story;. London: Oxford U. P., 2003. Print.

It was in London on 16 May 1763 when James Boswell first met Dr. Samuel Johnson his future best friend and his main character of his book Life of Samuel Johnson at Thomas Davies’ book shop. The meeting occurred unexpectedly during Boswell’s educational trip to London. Biographical story unfolds the heroic image of Samuel Johnson whose moral wisdom is won through the constant struggle with despair.