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Part of
Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching: Historical perspectives
Edited by Richard Smith and Tim Giesler
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 20] 2023
► pp. 43–58

Chapter 3
Teaching phraseology in the 19th century

John Charles Tarver’s Royal phraseological English–French, French–English dictionary

| Roma Tre University

Phraseology has long been associated with lexicography (Knappe, 2004), especially with bilingual dictionaries, which have traditionally had a didactic aspect (Moon, 2000). In the 19th century, it was considered a fundamental area of concern in teaching and learning a foreign language and the Royal phraseological English–French, French–English dictionary (Tarver, Vol. 1, 1845; Vol. 2, 1849) addressed it by recording “an extensive phraseology to illustrate the proper manner of using the words” (1845, p. 7), with a novel lexicological, lexicographical and pedagogical approach. This chapter shows that Tarver’s dictionary innovates in relation to the few previous, comparable lexicographical works, and that it foreshadows later, especially 20th-century, approaches to the inclusion and treatment for didactic purposes of word combinations in English general-purpose and specialized learner dictionaries.

Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The RPD: Background, planning and description
  • Analysis of selected entries
    • English to abandon
    • French abandonner
    • English will
    • French volonté
    • French vouloir
  • Main findings
  • Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.20.03nuc
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