This book analyses Noah Webster's and Samuel Johnson's use of verbal examples in their
dictionaries as a means of giving guidance on word usage. The author's major interest lies in
elucidating how uniquely Webster who was originally a grammarian made use of verbal examples.
In order to achieve this purpose the author provides chapters based on types of entry words in
their functional contexts. Johnson's selection of sources of citations and the frequency of his
quoting citations tended to vary strongly according to the type of entry word he also supplied
invented examples rather than citations when he thought it especially necessary to clarify the
use of a word. By contrast with the exception of biblical ones almost all of Webster's
citations were taken from Johnson's »Dictionary«. However Webster significantly made full use
of such citations to express his view on word usage which differs essentially from Johnson's.
Besides Webster had a strong tendency to quote phrases and sentences from the Bible for the
same purpose.
