ABSTRACT
Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield, attended Lichfield Grammar School, and went on to Pembroke College, Oxford. His university career ended after fourteen months when shortage of funds forced his departure without a degree. In 1747 he announced his 'Plan of a Dictionary'. The Dictionary published in 1755, gaining Johnson immediate acclaim, an honorary degree from the University of Oxford, a Crown pension of a year and an honoured place in the contemporary literary world. Johnson's work, which contained 40,000 entries whose senses established by 114,000 quotations, was the most substantial contribution to the art and stature of lexicography before publication of the New English Dictionary in 1884. Although the passage quoted below demonstrates Johnson's awareness of the dynamic nature of language, it is clear that he does not view this fact with much satisfaction, and his method in compiling the Dictionary was more in accord with the statement in the 'Plan', and fundamentally prescriptive.
