Models of the Dictionary: Evolution in Dictionary Design

Transcription

Models of the Dictionary:
Evolution in Dictionary Design
JEAN DUBOIS
INTRODUCTION
Monolingual dictionaries, in the strict sense of monolingual lexical1 dictionaries, form one of the categories into which standard reference works can be
divided (others being specialist dictionaries, encyclopaedic dictionaries2 and
encyclopaedias proper). The lexical dictionary is essentially a teaching aid or
instrument whose function is to provide information about the language in
question as a means of communication within a given speech community.
Access to lexical information is by means of entries: the language is treated
as being made up of words (in the sense of lexemes), the set of inflected forms
by which each word is realized being reduced to one representative form, or
'headword'. (For French, this is the infinitive in the case of verbs, and the
masculine singular in the case of adjectives.) Headwords are then ordered
alphabetically in terms of their standard orthography (Lyons 1977:512). Such
an arrangement presupposes some knowledge of the written form of the language and calls for a particular approach to the use of the dictionary, that of
'consultation'. Taking the form of a lexeme as his starting-point, the user
consults a dictionary to obtain information about its meaning. The monolingual dictionary provides a series of extended statements about words, giving
information about their use in the language, their meanings, the syntactic
constructions in which they normally function, their usual contexts and
possibly their history; it indicates, by means of examples, expressions and
constructions in common use; and it serves, by virtue of the literary material
which it contains, as a kind of cultural yardstick (Dubois and Dubois 1971).
As regards French dictionaries at least, these are the most widely-shared
general features. However, while until comparatively recently lexicographers
had scarcely looked beyond one type of user—persons of cultivated literary
tastes, sharing the same educational and linguistic background as
themselves—more recently they have been led to acknowledge that the choice
of linguistic information in a dictionary, and the means of access provided to
it, will vary with the class of user for whom the dictionary is intended. It is
clear that the scope and nature of the entry-words and common expressions,
the types of examples, the range of meanings and language registers, will
depend on whether one has in mind the (assumed) educational and linguistic
background of a child of 11, an adolescent of 17, an adult of 30 (perhaps with
a specific training), or the average educated reader. Educational differences
within a speech-community and, even more so, beyond that community (in
the case of nonnative dictionary users) are of course considerable: they are
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JEAN DUBOIS
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1. THE TRADITIONAL MODEL
Dictionaries designed along traditional lines were based on the following
assumptions:
1.1 The basic linguistic unit was the word, represented by its citation-form
(for French, the infinitive in the case of verbs); its syntactic patterning was
reduced to a few simple grammatical categories (transitive, intransitive,
reflexive, for verbs). The word had a historical unity; a continuous history
was reconstructed for it; for two words to be considered homonyms they had
to have different etymologies. Yet even in regard to etymology, the scientific
basis for claims was often quite unsound. Thus, French dictionaries gave no
proper account of items which were introduced into the language as a result
of several successive borrowings from Latin (in the 12th century, then in the
14th, and finally in the classical period), without there being any connection
reflected in the command of syntax, the range of vocabulary and the diversity
of spheres of interest of various socio-economic groups. In short, there exists a
cultural plurality which lexicographers must take account of when setting up
any dictionary project. The language recorded in the dictionary is not an
undifferentiated whole, such that the user can gain access to any kind of
information he wishes; a kind of vast lexical reservoir on which he can draw.
Such a view of the dictionary's role, which underlies large-scale Utopian
projects aimed at capturing an entire language, is unrealistic, and constantly
being overtaken by the evolution of language and education.
The dictionary has also had to take account of developments in teaching
method, which have affected the teaching of the mother tongue as well as that
of modern foreign languages. These are developments which have brought
about changes in the nature of the information provided in dictionaries and in
the means of access to it. The traditional monolingual dictionary rests on the
assumption that the user already has an adequate knowledge and control of
his language; he consults the dictionary to check a point of information, to
capture a shade of meaning, to look up the sense of a rare word, or to find a
literary reference. If on the other hand, one's readership consists of children
whose knowledge and control of the language are not yet sure, or of foreign
learners who, while lacking a perfect command of the target language, may
nonetheless have a sound knowledge of their mother tongue and native
culture, it is clear that the kind of model envisaged must have as its starting
point information which is easy to identify, such as grammatical
constructions, commonly occurring expressions in current use, and complete
sentences, before moving on to the complexities of meaning. It must also take
account of whether the medium commonly taught is the present-day written
or spoken language.
The variety of monolingual dictionaries now in use is a reflection of the
diversity of demands made upon them by users. Like all didactic reference
works, dictionaries have become more diverse. The all-purpose dictionary,
capable of meeting all kinds of needs, has disappeared, or is now disappearing, in favour of dictionaries whose purpose is simply to provide answers to a
limited range of questions.
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EVOLUTION IN DICTIONARY DESIGN
1.2 The functioning of the word was viewed in essentially semantic terms;
the user was assumed to know its syntactic properties. This sense of priorities
had the effect of giving prominence to the definition (considered as a paraphrase, in which the semantic features of the headword were dispersed over
a larger number of terms, which might or might not form a sentence).
The ordering of senses was based on two different principles. The so-called
logical (or notional) principle of ordering moved from the general to the
particular, or the reverse. The two most common types of notation were thus
'by extension', indicating a move from particular to general, or 'especially' or
'in particular', denoting a shift from general to particular. This rationalization
of semantic relations carried with it a kind of 'metaphysical' order of
precedence: one passed from living beings to objects, and from concrete to
abstract (when, that is, interactions between different areas of experience were
noted). In such cases, the labels 'hence' or 'figurative' were used.
The historical principle of arrangement favoured the (supposedly attested)
chronological order of senses, giving the dates of first appearance. The
assumption was that the history was known. An arrangement based on historical principles was moreover often confused with an ordering based on notional principles, somehow suggesting a logic of history which is subject to
universal laws.
1.3 The examples and quotations which followed the definition referred the
user to his own educational background, or supplemented it, in various ways.
The examples followed the definitions, supporting it with sentences specially
constructed for that purpose by the lexicographer; they were in general
declarative sentences indicating the contexts in which the word occurred.
These contrived examples provided semantic but not syntactic information.
The literary extracts, with their references to known authors, related to and
reinforced the cultural background of the user. In this way, the word served to
mediate between the dictionary user and various aspects of the humanistic
culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries: literary quotations and encyclopaedic examples added to one's knowledge of the 'thing' denoted by the word.
The literary extracts helped the reader to recall the wider contexts from which
they were drawn, and which he might already have read, or else they acted as
a spur to further reading. These were the 'morceaux choisis' of a literary
culture, stressing the values enshrined in a literary history based on ideological assumptions. These texts represented a kind of respectable complicity
between reader and lexicographer. As for the encyclopaedic examples, these
were pedagogical devices aimed at the popularization of scraps of scientific
knowledge.
between the earlier and the later loans. Dictionaries3 treated the so-called
'literal' and 'figurative' senses of adresse, for example, as if they were related,
even though they had been introduced into French by different routes; and
this leaves out of account political and scientific borrowings from English
(adresse = 'Parliamentary address'; adresse = '(computer) address'). Assumed
historical continuity of this kind, which was in most cases erroneous, was
represented in entries by means of etymologies, the dating of successive
senses, and with few exceptions a refusal to recognize homonyms.*
JEAN DUBOIS
239
2. THE TRADITIONAL MODEL IN EVOLUTION
2.1 In the Grand Larousse Encycbpedique, and even more so in the Tresor de
la Langue Francaise one could see a clear distinction being drawn between the
synchronic and diachronic treatment of words. The functioning of the language as reflected in written texts of the 19th and 20th centuries—or at least in
literary texts of that period—formed the basis of dictionary articles. Meanings
and constructions which were in use in French classical literature, but which
disappeared in the 19th century, were treated in a separate part of the article
in the Grand Larousse Encycbpedique. In the Tresor, the entry was concerned
solely with lexical usage in texts of the 19th and 20th centuries; the history of
an item before the 19th century was treated in a separate diachronic section.
To some extent, this plan had already been adopted by Littre, except that he
regarded French from the beginning of the 17th century to the beginning of
the 19th as a timeless unity.
This distinction, which was sharpened and clarified in several dictionaries
of more modest size, including the Larousse Classique (1958) reflected the
embarrassment of lexicographers when faced with the fictional historical unity
of the word and its uses. Such labelling as vx (vieux, 'old'), vieilli ('dated'),
classique, litt'eraire, and so on, which appeared with growing frequency in all
dictionaries (see the Petit Robert, the Grand Larousse de la Langue Francaise)
had the effect of setting aside certain items and certain senses as belonging to
a dead language. Little by little the description of the present-day language
won greater prominence. It was clear that this trend was developing hand in
hand with a profound transformation in the educational background of users,
which had ceased to be purely literary, and above all with the progressive
decline of classical studies. The balance of educational programmes was shifting towards a different, more 'modern' pattern.
2.2 Lexicographers began to introduce syntactic patterns and to indicate
collocations, thus giving prominence to the nominal and verbal groups in
1.4 Onto the basic plan of the dictionary article (definitions; historicological ordering of senses; quotations) were grafted certain supplementary
features, such as synonyms, antonyms and other related items; these were
woven together into a very loose network, and represented a crude attempt to
prompt the lexical memory of the dictionary user. The bunching together of
this information (in most cases) at the end of the article implied that the user
was perfectly capable of interpreting it.
The traditional dictionary model—to which might be given the further title
of 'cultural' dictionary—corresponded to a conception of language and culture which flourished in the 19th century. It experienced its greatest expansion
at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century with Littre, Pierre
Larousse, and the Dictionnaire General of Hatzfeld and Darmesteter. This
model was for long kept in being by the universities, which were the inheritors
of a classical pattern of teaching which remained dominant until about the
1950s. It has since undergone modifications which, though limited, are nonetheless real: these are usually ascribed by lexicographers to the development
of linguistics. (See Grand Larousse de la Langue Francaise 1971-78; Tresor de
la Langue Francaise 1971-79; Grand Robert 1951-64; Petit Robert 1967.)
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2.3 Principles governing the arrangement of senses changed also. The purely
logical principle, which reached its high point in the Dictionnaire General, and
the historico-logical principle favoured by Littre, gave way to a much less
consistent form of sense arrangement which owed something to logic and
something to history, but which was also governed by frequency of use in the "
20th century. An arrangement based on the latter criterion would, of course,
not correspond with one based on the 'logic' of semantic relatedness, or on
the successive emergence of meanings over time. Hence the impression of
disorder created by the 'transitional' traditional dictionary, which tended to
become more unsystematic and more unrepresentative of the category. Such
dictionaries required from the reader an implicit knowledge of the language if
he was -to find his way about an article and retrieve the information he
needed; they provided more and more information, but did not always give
the means of access to that information.
3. THE PEDAGOGICAL MODEL
Changes which had taken place in the teaching of the mother tongue and in
descriptive linguistics from the 1950s onwards led to the publication in the
mid 1960s of a series of monolingual French dictionaries based on an altogether
different model. This new model, which originated with the Dictionnaire du
Francois Contemporain (1966) was later to gain ground very substantially;
and its influence shows no sign of weakening, as various imitations displaying
the essential features of the model have since appeared: Nouveau Dictionnaire
des Debutants (1977), Les Dix Mille Mots (1976), and so on.
3.1 The descriptive principles governing the new model are as follows:
3.1.1 A language is regarded as a means of communication in current use
between members of a speech community; the linguist is principally concerned with what is common to all speakers of a language, and less with what
is marginal or peculiar to individuals. The language described consists of the
common-places of communication: divergences from the norm, including
those of literature, are to be avoided.
which the headword habitually functioned, and they did so by means of
specially constructed examples. These made-up expressions and constructions
were no longer instances of usage designed to clarify the definition or to
extend it. Common syntactic constructions now began to appear in all monolingual dictionaries. Occasionally, though without any attempt at a systematic
arrangement, the Tresor de la Langue Francaise, the Grand, Larousse de la
Langue Francaise and the Petit Robert gave the grammatical construction of
the verb first and its definition second. This gradual development can be
followed in the Grand Larousse de la Langue Francaise where the first volume
is designed along traditional lines, with literary quotations, while the last,
published five years later, gives great weight to the lexicographer's own
examples, on the one hand, and to common constructions, as a way of distinguishing multiple meanings, on the other.
JEAN DUBOIS
241
3.1.3 The language system is seen as primarily syntactic: the sentence takes
precedence over the word. Formal points of reference and social contexts of
use allow the interlocutor to interpret utterances. For a listener or reader,
meaning emerges from the text or from the sentence. And the sentence in turn
is interpreted by virtue of formal relations between words as manifested in
syntactic constructions and, especially, through verbs and structural words
such as prepositions. In short, interpretation has its starting-point in the
syntactic pattern. This approach to description, it will be noted, favours
receptive skills (reading).
3.1.4 The lexicon is viewed as a complex structure: words are no longer seen as
forming an inventory whose members contract only the loosest of relations
with each other. Derivatives are defined syntactically in relation to the
(simple) stems from which they are formed (cf. section 3.3, below), and the
semantic links between simple and complex words are also denned in syntactic terms. Then again, it is no longer regarded as feasible to trace the distinct
history of each word without taking account of semantic fields, of the results
of language contact, or of lexical interaction between various specialist fields.
3.1.5 The sense relations which hold between lexemes, even when only
'synonyms' and 'antonyms' are taken account of, are always denned in terms
of the constructions in which they function. A word may be the synonym of
another in some contexts, but not in others. Each synonym is thus defined
according to the context in which it can be substituted for the headword in
question, and is placed in the appropriate sub-section of the entry.
3.2 Features of the pedagogical model have also been affected by developments in language-teaching methodology. The teaching of the mother tongue
is now concerned less with the knowledge and critical exploration of 'beaux
textes' than with competence in oral and written expression. The institutional
changes which have taken place within the state education system in France,
the decline in importance of the classical languages, the emphasis given to
scientific and technical studies, the grouping together of children of the same
age but very different levels of attainment, all these factors have worked
together to give the standard non-literary language a favoured status.
The emphasis laid in French language teaching on the production of sentences and continuous texts, as distinct from mere listening, reflects the
influence of the theory and practice of foreign language teaching. Written
composition is now less concerned with the imitation or reproduction of texts
3.1.2 Examples are thus drawn from the most normal and recurrent types of
exchange between speakers of the same language: everyday conversation in
the case of the spoken language, mass circulation newspapers in the case of
the written language. Literary quotations are to be avoided when they represent a personal and original use of language, since the object is precisely not
to describe abnormal usage. Examples drawn from a corpus of this kind are
no longer viewed as illustrations of senses, but as the basis for defining
senses; they are the point of departure of the lexicographer's definition and no
longer the proof of its fitness.
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3.3 The dictionary has thus been transformed to meet the new needs of
language teaching, and it has in the process drawn heavily on descriptive
linguistics.
3.3.1 The basis of the dictionary entry is no longer the word (lexeme) as
such, identified by its inflected forms. Rather, the entry is made up of that set
of complex forms (derivatives) which are linked to the simple stem of the
lexeme in terms both of syntax and of meaning (Dubois 1962).
Consider the verb construire, which functions in the transformationally
related sentences:
Les ouvriers construisent la maison
The workers build the house'
-• La maison est construite par les ouvriers
The active sentence is defined in terms of a certain sub-class of noun (animate,
human noun) functioning as subject and having the participant role of agent,
and of another sub-class of noun (inanimate) functioning as direct object.
Nominalization yields:
La construction de la maison par les ouvriers
where the derivative construction functions in noun phrases whose structure is
analogous to that of the passive sentence.
In the same way, we can account for the following sentence in terms of
morpho-syntactic rules:
Les ouvriers ont construit a nouveau la maison
'The workers have built the house afresh'
which yields successively:
Les ouvriers ont reconstruit la maison
-* La reconstruction de la maison par les ouvriers.
Compare:
Ce terrain peut etre construit
'This site can be built on'
-»Ce terrain est constructive
and more with (so-called) spontaneous narrative. Sentence building is based
on manipulative procedures, making use of structural or transformational
insights in a practical way.
The dictionary takes on an important role in the classroom. During the
first half of the century it had been no more than a reference tool: it existed to
remove uncertainties or fill gaps in knowledge; in general it was not used in
the classroom itself. It is now an indispensable and officially-sanctioned aid to
study, which must be used for purposes of language production; its example
sentences are often used as a starting-point for composition; it acts as a check
on grammatical accuracy and no longer simply on the accuracy of spelling.
JEAN DUBOIS
243
which is derived from
On peut construire ce terrain/sur ce terrain
'One can build on this site'.
The corresponding negative sentence in turn yields other derivatives:
Ce terrain ne peut pas etre construit
The agentive noun constructeur can be added to the cluster of derivatives on
the basis of phrases like:
Un nomine qui construit (une maison/un terrain/une theorie)
'A man who builds (a house/on a site/a theory)'
and construed/on
the basis of:
Des critiques qui peuvent construire (quelque chose)
'Criticism which can construct (something)'
-• Des critiques constructives
'Constructive criticism'.
The dictionary article for construire thus includes: (i) a grouping of three
distinct syntactic series: construire une habitation, etc.; construire un terrain,
etc.; construire une theorie, etc.; (ii) the derivatives construction, constructeur,
constructif, reconstruire, reconstruction, constructive, inconstructible.
The number of derivatives included in an entry will depend solely on the
pedagogical level of the dictionary (i.e. on the overall number of words
chosen).
3.3.2 The unity, or identity, of a word no longer resides in its phonological
or orthographic form, nor in a history which in more than one respect is
known to be contestable. Its unity rests on its morphological-syntactic distribution, and specifically on that particular cluster of complex words (nouns,
adjectives, etc.) which function in a set of sentences which are themselves
syntactically related and semantically equivalent.
We thus find syntactic and morphological 'clusters' around a given word
(here construire), but at other times 'divisions' within a given word, of which
two or more 'meanings' correspond to different sets of derivatives. In such
cases, the divisions are regarded as constituting functional homonyms, and
are assigned to separate numbered entries. Thus abuser 1 ('abuse, misuse') as
in // abuse de sa force/de son autorite/de la situation, has as a corresponding
noun abus (cf. abus de la force/d'autorite, etc.), as corresponding adjective
abusif, as in mere abusive, and as corresponding adverb abusivement. It contrasts with abuser 2 ('deceive, mislead'), as in // abuse son p'ere par des mensonges continuels/Il s"abuse sur ses possibilites; this use has no equivalent
noun, but an antonym: Je Fai disabuse ('disabused, undeceived').
The treatment of words in a pedagogical dictionary of this kind leads to a
radically different organization of the lexicon from that which informs traditional dictionaries. Thus, affecter has four distinct entries corresponding to
four quite different 'senses' and morphological-syntactic distributions:
-• Ce terrain est inconstructible.
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1 affecter qqch a qqn ('assign'): affecter une residence a un fonctionnaire, affecter
les nouveaux batiments aux services administratifs/Affectation (Tune residence a un
fonctionnaire/desaffecter les batiments/desaffectation.
2 affecter un sentiment ('affect'): affecter unejoie que Ton ne ressent pas, affecter
de grands airs/Avoir une prononciation affectee/Parler avec affectation/'Une affectation de tendresse, de bonhomie.
4 affecter qqn ('suffer from sth'—esp. passive): Etre affecte de rhumatisme. The
corresponding noun is affection (souffrir d'une affection).
3.3.3 'Divisions' based on contrastive derivational and syntactic distribution
(as in the above examples) explain the separation of the entries. A homonymous treatment takes the place of a polysemous one. At the same time, purely
syntactic relations become the basis for determining variations of meaning
within a particular entry. Two factors are taken into account:
(a) The participant role of subject and object nouns. Consider:
(i) apprehender ('fear') un danger, apprehender de faire la route seule,
apprehender que les enfants reviennent seule de V'ecole.
(ii) apprehender un voleur ('arrest a thief).
Here, the verb has, as subject (i) a human noun with the participant role of
'patient' (ii) a human noun with the participant role of 'agent' or 'actor' (e.g.
policier, police).
(b) The syntactic construction of which the verb is part (i.e. whether it has
two or more complements and/or adjuncts, and whether the latter are
adjuncts of place, manner or instrument). In aller quelque part, for example,
aller followed by a directional adjunct denotes movement: le malade va a
rhbpital. When aller is followed by a manner adjunct, on the other hand, it
denotes a state or condition: le malade va mal.
Description along these lines has been further refined in subsequent editions of the Dictionnaire du Francois Contemporain. Thus in the 1980 edition,
the following meanings and constructions are distinguished in the entry for
croire.
croire v. I ( c 74). 1. Croire qqch, croire ( + inf.),
croire que {+ind.\
ne pas croire que [+subj.).
considerer comme vrai, etre convaincu de qqch:
Personne ne voulau croire une nouvelle ausii
surprenante. Je crou ce qu'on m'a raconle (syn. SE
HER A, AJOUTER FOl K\ Sous croyont fermemenl que
tout se passera bien (syn. AVOIR CONFIANCE). II croyau etre le seul heritier.—l. Croire ( + inf.), croire que
( + ind.\ ne pas croire que ( + subj.), estimer probable ou possible: Je crois avoir trouvi la solution
(syn. PENSES). Je crois qu'il me reste asset iTargent
pour cet achat. On ne croyait pas que faccord se
fosse.—3. Croire qqn, qqch ( + attribui), considerer
comme: Je vous crois capable de reussir (syn.
JUGER). Beaucoup croient impossible qu'il fosse
mieux (syn. ESTIMER). On le croyait ailleurs (syn.
SUPPOSE*).—4. Croire comment, comme, combien,
etc ( + interrogative ou exclamative objet), imaginer, se representer: Vous ne saunez croire a quel
point fax ite louche de ce geste.—& Croire qqn.
ajouter foi a ses paroles, avoir confiance en lui:
Inutile tTinsister, je vous crois. Ce temoin merite
d'etre cm.
Nouveau Dictionnaire du Francais Contemporain
3.3.4 The benefits of updating syntactic information in this way are
considerable. The language described is made to reflect present-day usage.
Accuracy and descriptive rigour contribute to a firmer mastery of the language by the user, since definitions can now be checked (i.e. against distributional statements), and no longer depend on the uncertainties of intuition.
3 affecter qqn ('affect sb'): La nouvelle du decks Fa affecte/Etre affecte par cette
nouvelle.
JEAN DUBOIS
245
4 . MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARIES OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
4.1 The first point to be grasped is that foreign learners cannot all be
assumed to enjoy the same degree of mastery of a given language. Clearly, one
cannot call upon the kind of intuitive understanding which is shared by all
adult native speakers. Foreign language teaching in France is roughly speaking based on the notion of 'levels', whether these are simply identified by a
number (level 1, level 2) or by the name of the category of learner (beginners,
adult beginners, threshold level, etc.); and in contrast with LI teaching those
levels are not tied to a single chronological and educational progression.
4.2 The second observation is that the vocabulary covered must be more
limited in scope than that treated in ordinary monolingual dictionaries. In the
early stages, learning a foreign language does not require an understanding of
the corresponding technical and scientific terminologies in the L2, but calls
rather for skill in manipulating structures in current use; moreover, while the
latter are virtually unlimited in number they need bring into play only a
restricted vocabulary. At an earlier stage, dictionaries of this type made use of
the results of the first investigations into 'le francais fondamental', treating the
first 1,500 then the first 3,000 words established by Gougenheim (1974). The
problem subsequently has been to reconsider those word-lists (and the senses
of each word) in order to establish more accurate groupings which were at
the same time more firmly rooted in the everyday life of modern urban
society. It is thus that level 1 of the Dictionnaire du Francais Langue Etrangere
contains 2,581 words and level 2 5,000 words. These levels were determined,
within wider limits established according to frequency of occurrence, on linguistic grounds. Priority was given to verbs and adjectives, since these serve as
the morphological and syntactic basis for sentence construction (in the sense
indicated in 3.3, above), whereas monosemous nouns are often simple unproductive stems. The verb construire, for example, as has already been shown,
can be used to form sentences containing its various derivatives, whilst words
such as camembert or autobus, though of frequent occurrence, do not yield the
same diversity of sentences. The 2,500 or so items at level 1 in fact yield 4,700
simple and complex words, and the 5,000 items at level 2 6,000 simple and
complex words (roots and derivatives).
4.3 The design of entries was governed by two considerations. Firstly, it was
felt that once the user had located an entry, its meaning could be best
conveyed by means of commonly occurring expressions and reference to
ordinary situations from everyday life. In addition, it was considered that the
Monolingual dictionaries of the pedagogical type were until the 1970s
designed to be used by speakers for whom French was a mother tongue.
It is true that the methodology of teaching French as an LI had
drawn closer to that used in the teaching of foreign languages; but the conditions under which dictionaries are used in LI and L2 teaching are quite
different. As a result, alphabetical arrangement, the way information was
presented, and the nature of that information itself has needed to be
rethought.
246
so-called 'commentaire' (the use of synonyms, paraphrases and so on to indicate meaning) was information best directed towards the teacher. It was
therefore separated from the sentences illustrating usage and forms a distinct
part of the entry, as is shown in the following extract from DFLE (Niveau 2).
boules ou A LA PETANQUE.
. , r. , ,
boolean [bulo] n. m.
[arbre] A la limue du champ, ru oois un petit bois de
bouleaux, ou il y a du gibier en septembre
s
u
ullUsi
bgultm
^^
e s , u n ubn
d o n , ,e b o i s b , a n c e s ,
faire d e u p i t e d p a p i e r
boulerard [bulvar] n. m.
[lieu, passage] Us habuent au 120, boulevard du
Montparnasse. • Le plus simple pour vous est de
nemr par le boulevard de la Bastille.
S. Le boulevard est une voie de communication a
Finterieur d'une ville Ce mot designe, comme
I'avenue, une artcre plus large que la rue. Le
boulevard PERIPHERIQUE (OU LE PERIPHERIQUE
[n-1>-]) fait le tour de Paris.
Dictionnaire
Niveau 2.
du Francais
Langue
Etrangere
4.4 Syntactic description of the type presented in pedagogical dictionaries
has also acted as a model for entries in dictionaries of French as a foreign
language; but it has also been necessary to go beyond the fragmented information provided at the alphabetical place of entry. An attempt is made to do
this in the DFLE (Niveau 2) by linking the dictionary proper to a grammatical appendix.
Nouns are all given a semantic classification at their point of entry, and this
information precedes the examples. (There are 80 semantic categories and
sub-categories: locative, instrumental, personal, etc.) This semantic information is a first step towards the interpretation of the headword; but it also
refers the user to the syntax characteristic of that class of noun.
The syntactic information itself is provided in the grammatical section of
the dictionary. Consider the item boulanger. This is given the semantic label
[personne, profession] at its own alphabetical place; this indicates that it has
the syntactic potential of nouns denoting persons and also that of nouns
denoting members of a trade or profession. If the user now refers to the
grammatical section, he will note that such nouns possess, among other characteristics, that of functioning attributively without determiners:
Pierre est boulanger
Pierre est boulanger dans le XVI* arrondissement de Paris
as distinct from
Pierre est le boulanger du village.
4.5 We have seen how new models of the dictionary have been evolved to
suit users with ever more different needs and educational backgrounds. The
stage has already been reached where the information provided varies within
the French-speaking world (monolingual dictionaries specially designed for
French speakers in Africa are now appearing).5 Such information must clearly
vary even more radically for those for whom French is a foreign language. In
such cases, it cannot be sufficient to make changes which affect the design of a
dictionary only superficially (some kind of regional or institutional adapta-
bonle [bul] n. f.
I. [objet] On a accroche de grosses boules de toutes
les couleurs aux branches du sapm de Noel. • On
joue a se lancer des boules de neige?
II. [objet, jeu] (compl.) tToublie pas tapponer les
boules sur la plage, on /era une partie. + [)eu] (noncompt, au plur.) IJ y a des gens qui jouent aux
boules tous les soirs en has de chez mot.
S.I. Une boule (sens I) est ronde et a la forme
d'une sphere.—2. Comme jeu (sens II), les boules
sont le plus souvent en metal. On dit jouer aux
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247
isk [a:sk] v, -s [-s], -ed [-t] ~ it sthg Ask your
question now, £4rfw.(Maintenant posez votre
question, Eddie.) • Hell, we forgot to ask him his
address! (Mince, on a oublie de lui demander son
adresse1) • How's your work?—Oh, don't as*.(Alors,
ton travail, ca marche?—Oh, ne m'en parle pas.)
~ si for/about sthg But why didn't they ask for
adoice/help7{Mais pourquoi n'ont-ils pas demande
conseil/de I'aide?) • Marion has a new boyfriend? I
must ask her about it.(Marion a un nouveau
copain? II faudra que je la questionne la-dessus.)
• You can't ask £20 for that old bike '(Tu ne peux
pas demander 20 livres pour ce vieux velo!) ~st
wb-/ifAsk themwhere they went yesterday (Demandeleur oil ils sont alles hier.) • Fit have to ask
how to do (t.(H faudra que je demande comment
il faut faire.) • Did Mum ask the mechanic
if the car would be ready by Monday ?(Maman a demande au garagiste si la voiture serait
prete pour lundi?) ~ si to do Good grief! Couldn't
you ask them to keep quiet upstairs '(Bon sang, tu ne
pourrais pas leur demander de se tenir tranquilles
la-haut!) ~ si to\for sthg How about asking the Stuarts to dinner/for coffee/for the weekend*[S\ on invitait les Stuart a diner/a venir prendre le cafe/pour le
week-end?) • Ask sb in/ou((Faire entrer qqn/Inviter
qqn a diner dehors, aller au cinema, etc.)
—for/after si Has anybody asked for me while I was
away.'lQuelqu'un m'a demande pendant mon
absence?)
+ Ask for troui/f (chercher la bagarre/les ennuis);
You've asked for i(.'(Cest bien fait!, Tu 1'as bien
cherche!)
_. .
Dictionnaire de rAnglais Contemporain.
(c) The use of expressions commonly found in everyday situations, with
translations into French.
(d) Information on stylistic levels, pronunciation, fixed phrases, etc.
(provided in a separate 'commentaire').
(e) A French-English section constituting a fully explicit index, and containing translations with cross-references back to the English-French section.
Such bilingual dictionaries represent a clean break from earlier patterns.
Previous dictionaries had been addressed to translators who already knew
English well or to occasional users held up by an unfamiliar word in the
course of their reading. They did not meet the demands of those concerned
with the actual everyday use of English.
5. CONCLUSION
5.1 Dictionaries reflect the cultural universe of their users at particular
moments in time, and can be categorized according to the reference needs of
socio-cultural groups whose parameters the lexicographer has previously
tion). The need rather is for new dictionaries compiled to meet particular
local conditions.
Let us take the special case of English (for French speakers a foreign
language). The efforts of French lexicographers in the late 1970's have been
directed towards the compilation of new bilingual dictionaries (see for
example Atkins et aU 1978). One model is informed by the same principles as
those which have been implemented in the preparation of the monolingual
dictionaries already described. In the English dictionaries of Dubois Charlier,
for instance, we find the same design features.
(a) Establishment of a limited vocabulary on a pedagogical basis: 1,000
words in the level 1 dictionary, 5,000 in the more advanced Dictionnaire de
TAnglais Contemporain (1980). These basic lists, once account has been taken
of derivatives yielded by syntactic transformations, in fact end up as more
substantial vocabularies: the DAC thus contains an alphabetically ordered
stock of 14,200 items, with supplementary lists of 800 specialized terms.
(b) Entries organized on a syntactic basis, with structures shown, as in the
following entry for ask (where each construction corresponds to a different
word in French).
248
identified. It is the function of the dictionary to meet these reference needs,
but it is not for the dictionary to decide what they shall be, any more than it
is its task to prescribe the kind of language to be taught in schools, or the
standards to be aimed at in writing (Dubois and Dubois 1971).
NOTES
1
The French dictionnaire de langue has no exact equivalent in English; lexical dictionary is
used in an attempt to convey the contrast implied in the original French between dictionaries
which supply mainly semantic information and those which add encyclopaedic information for
good measure (cf. Leech 1974:203-204). Here, as in all matters concerning translation, I am
indebted to my colleague Rene Herail for his invaluable help. (Ed.)
2
For English, the Collins English Dictionary (1979) is a recent example; for French, the bestknown general encyclopaedia is the Grand Larousse Encyclopidique (1958-64). (Ed.)
1
See, for example, Hatzfeld and Darmesteter (1890-1900), adresse, s.f.
4
Cf. the treatment of the above item in Littre (1885).
9
For example, Le Nouveau Dictionnaire Moderne (forthcoming).
REFERENCES
Atkins, B. T , et aL, 1978. Collins-Robert French-English/English-French Dictionary.
London and Glasgow: Collins.
Didier, M., 1976. Les Dix Mille Mots. Paris: Bordas.
Dubois, C , et a/., 1958-64. Grand Larousse Encyclopedique. Paris: Larousse.
Dubois, J., 1962. 'Recherches lexicographiques: esquisse d'un dictionnaire structural'.
Etudes de Linguistique Appliquee 1, 43-8.
Dubois, J, 1978. Dictionnaire du Francois Langue Etrangere: Niveau I. Paris: Larousse.
5.2 The reference needs of dictionary users in the last quarter of this century
are quite different from those of ten or twenty years ago; this is to state the
obvious. Language and education have undergone profound changes, and so
too has the character of the dictionary. These linguistic and educational
changes call for continuous adaptation to the new conditions in which knowledge is diffused and acquired. It is equally necessary that dictionary-makers
and users should take account of the substantial changes which have affected
the educational tools at their disposal. It would not occur to anyone to
suppose that motor cars are the same today as at the beginning of the
century: the technical modifications which they have undergone are considerable, while changes affecting their role in everyday life are greater still. The
same is true of educational aids, yet it is more difficult for users, as for
lexicographers, to become fully aware of developments. One has only to
glance at the shelves of personal libraries to realize that they reflect a cultural
reality closer to the owner's youth than to the period of his adult life. Though
the modifications which dictionaries have undergone are as substantial as
those which have affected other reference works, they keep their place on the
shelves throughout the owner's lifetime and thus contribute to the intellectual
time-lag between their users and current developments. This is particularly
striking in countries where powerful traditions favour inertia, and where more
than elsewhere any change is seen as an attack on the intellectual heritage.
JEAN DUBOIS
249
Dubois, J , 1979. Dictionnaire du Francois Langue Etrangere: Niveau II. Paris:
Larousse.
Dubois, J , et a/, 1966. Dictionnaire du Francois Contemporain. Paris: Larousse.
Dubois, J., et a/, 1980. Nouveau Dictionnaire du Francois Contemporain. Paris:
Larousse.
Dubois, J., and Dubois, C, 1971. Introduction a la Lexicographie: le Dictionnaire.
Paris: Larousse.
Gougenheim, G., 1974. Le Francois Fondamental. Paris: Scopen.
Guilbert, L., et a/, 1971-1978. Grand Larousse de la Langue Francaise. Paris: Larousse.
Hatzfeld, A , and Darmesteter, A., 1890-1900. Dictionnaire General de la Langue Francaise. Paris.
Imbs, P., et al., 1971-79. Tresor de la Langue Francaise. Paris: Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique.
Lagane, R., et al., 1977. Nouveau Dictionnaire des Debutants. Paris: Larousse.
Leech, G. N., 1974. Semantics. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Littre, E., 1885. Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise. Paris: Librairie Hachette.
Lyons, J., 1977. Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Robert, Paul, 1967. Dictionnaire Alphabetique et Analogique de la Langue Francaise (le
Petit Robert). Paris: Societe du Nouveau Littre.
Robert, P., et al., 1951-64. Dictionnaire Alphabetique et Analogique de la Langue Francaise (Le Grand Robert). Paris: Societe du Nouveau Littre.
Dubois Charlier, F., et aU 1980. Dictionnaire de rAnglais Contemporain. Paris:
Larousse.

Models of the Dictionary: Evolution in Dictionary Design

Transcription

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