Literary Lexicography

Abstract

Poetic language in the Western traditions subsumes two distinct categories of usage: elevation (whereby usage conforms to a conventional ‘high style’) and heightening (whereby meaning is enriched, often by mechanisms of defamiliarization). How should a historical dictionary of a dead language deal with literary, especially poetic, language? This chapter attempts to clarify the issues and sets out some principles for ‘literary lexicography’, with special reference to Liddell and Scott (LSJ) and ancient Greek poetry, and to Greek usage in the early and classical periods. The issues dealt with apply equally to Liddell and Scott and the Revised Supplement; for the most part the discussion will subsume both.