The Lexicon in Dickens.(Book Review)

Tadao Yamamoto, Growth and system of the language of Dickens: An introduction to a Dickens lexicon. (3rd, revised, edition). Hiroshima: Keisuisha Publishing Company, 2003. Pp. 589.

Tadao Yamamoto (1904-91) studied under the tutelage of Dr. Sanki Ichikawa in Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo). He began his teaching career at the Hiroshima Normal College, and after five years, was appointed Assistant Professor at Hiroshima University of Literature and Science (both of which were incorporated into Hiroshima University). In those days his chief concern turned to stylistics as well as syntax. During the dark days of World War II he devoted himself to the studies of Dickens's language, and wrote a doctoral dissertation on the language of Dickens with a special reference to idiomatic expressions, and obtained the degree of Doctor of Literature from the University of Tokyo in 1946, the following after the termination of the War. The dissertation, entitled Growth and system of the language of Dickens: An introduction to a Dickens lexicon, was issued in 1950, and for its excellence the Japan Academy Prize was awarded to him in 1953, the first time it had been won by a scholar of English language and literature. Its outline will be given below.

In studying the language of Dickens Dr. Yamamoto's fundamental view is that "the language is primarily an organic unity consisting of innumerable individual languages" (a kind of langue--parole theory), that "an individual system is the smallest living unit of the great system of the national language" (p. 1), and that at the foundation lies the sense of value closely connected with the lire and thought of nation. This view leads to the significance of the study of Dickens's language. That is to say, Yamamoto, directing his special attention to colloquialism as one of the inherent qualities of English, considers the underlying structure of Dickens's English idiomatic. Moreover, his studies, based on close and sensitive reading, are made against the whole history from Chaucer to the present-day through Shakespeare, Defoe, Swifl, Fielding, and Smollett, from an idiomatic point of view in particular. Yamamoto in "Historical Background" (Part I, Chapter I) points out the prominent periods in making English idiom, each of them being represented by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Swift and Dickens. Those periods were preceded respectively by those which brought about hot only phonetic and grammatical change but the whole importation of foreign words and the coinage that had added a great deal to the vocabulary. This fact is intimately related with the changes in the social and cultural life of the people. What must be noticed here is that Dickens inherits English expressions from the earlier ages, particularly 18th century writers, such as mentioned above. Accordingly, Dickens's language is regarded as a collection of colloquial English since the 18th century, while his language contains various aspects of Victorian English. This comes to that his lifetime indicates a section of the history of English at his day. For example, a comparison of Sketches by Boz (1836) with David Copperfield (1850) reveals some differences in linguistic quality--a development of English as well as of his language as an individual one. Yamamoto mentions this fact as "growth".

In defining the term "idioms" Yamamoto adopts Charles Bally's idea of "delimitation" with due modification. Because Bally applies this term to "a word, a word-element, or a phrase, which corresponds precisely to a unit of thought or a psychological element" (in other words, Bally banishes a historical point of view and "aesthetic intention") (p. 392). Yamamoto asserts the case in which, unlike sounds or words, idioms are the last delimitable units of a language, and adds historical facts and rhetorical expressions and attempts to determine linguistic units that correspond to units of the life and thought of the English people. Then, the units can be delimited by "a peculiar sense of familiarity" (p. 394) which comes from "habitual use connected with intimate associations, dear recollections and national inclinations"--"idiomatic sense" (p. 393). And after such a logical argument he defines "idioms" as "those expressions which are delimitable units of a language, which may happen to be single sounds, single words, phrases, sentences" (p. 393-94). Needless to say, this "idiomatic sense" is a native speaker's, but he asserts that, as Jespersen says, even foreign students, by carefully collecting, comparing, and arranging materials at our command, will take hold of points which native students are liable to miss by over-familiarity. Moreover, he distinguishes "idiom" and "idioms". The former, which consists of the latter as its component parts, is an English Idiom as a whole--this may be a kind of langue--parole theory, too.

A Dickens lexicon, for which Yamamoto worked out a detailed plan, treats such idioms. He remarks "by accumulating such Lexicons [of individual authors] we shall be able to compile the Lexicon of English Idiom" (p. 394). And Yamamoto explains the limit of units according to the dictionary, grammar and lexicon by way of illustration of the phrase "the (three) wise men", as follows (p. 398):

 
Dictionary   "the / (three) / wise / men" 
Grammar      "the" & "(three)" ...