ABSTRACT
In our paper, we explore the relationships between English-French and English-Spanish lexicography at the beginning of the 18th century. It should be noted that no comprehensive historical study has yet been undertaken to clarify the connections between the two pairs of languages. According to our calculations, Stevens' EnglishSpanish Dictionary of 1705 contains approximately 22,500 entries. We know that the bulk of his material came from Minsheu's Spanish-English/English-Spanish bilingual dictionary (1599, 1623), to which Stevens added some 4,350 entries. Where do these entries come from? Is it possible that Boyer's renowned publication of 1699 influenced Stevens' English-Spanish dictionary of 1705? If so, what aspects of Stevens' work were influenced by Boyer? Is it possible to trace an influence on the macrostructure, the microstructure, or both? In this paper, we endeavour to answer these questions and, in so doing, we will explore the links to previous compilers, including the potential relationship to monolingual English dictionaries of the period. A total of seven dictionaries make up our corpus, including Boyer's and Stevens'. This corpus should allow us to determine whether or not Boyer's dictionary influenced Stevens', and, in the case of an affirmative answer to this question, the extent of that influence. In the end we should gain a better understanding of the interconnections between English-French and English-Spanish lexicography during the 18th century.
