S0207 · johnson_webster_dictionaries · registry identity
Standardization of English via Dictionaries
Bears on
Canonical propositions this source was matched as evidence for.
How Hirsch uses it
Every occurrence, grouped by book and chapter, with the claim it was linked to support and (where the extraction regenerated one) the underlying warrant.
2016 · Why Knowledge Matters
The work of Dr. Johnson and Noah Webster in creating dictionaries to standardize the English language in England and America.
direct American English is a deliberate, invented national culture founded on the work of Dr. Johnson and Noah Webster.
Warrant (explicit): The creation and adoption of standardized dictionaries by a culture is an act of deliberate invention that defines the national identity.
could fail ifDictionaries often follow rather than lead; they may simply record the linguistic evolution that has already occurred organically among the population.
2022 · American Ethnicity
Spelling reforms by Noah Webster which became established in Britain and America.
direct Dictionaries like Samuel Johnson's (1755) and Noah Webster's (1806) served as the primary, albeit indirect, agents of English language standardization.
Warrant (implicit): Changes in orthography that successfully cross national borders and persist in educational texts indicate that lexicographers are the architects of standard language.
could fail ifWebster's reforms may have merely documented or accelerated spelling simplifications that were already occurring naturally among the literate public.
Raw source_reference strings seen
As they appeared before normalization/consolidation into this source identity.
Dr. Johnson; Noah WebsterNoah Webster (1789)