Thematic Workshop 4: The history of lexicography: language variation in bilingual lexicography 1500-1900

Contacts: Elizaveta Zimont (elizaveta.zimont@univ-reims.fr ) and Nicola McLelland (nciola.mclelland@nottingham.ac.uk)

Keywords: bilingual dictionaries; language variation; language standardization; metalinguistic labelling; language ideologies

Panel description:

We invite contributions to a panel on the history of bilingual lexicography in the period 1500-1900 with a particular focus on vernacular lexicography (i.e. dictionaries of two vernacular language pairs). Contributions are welcome on any aspect of bilingual lexicography, but especially papers comparing across two or more language pairings and/or over time. We are particularly keen to explore the potential of bilingual vernacular dictionaries  as sources for the history of language variation and attitudes to it, in parallel to the better-studied monolingual dictionaries. We therefore especially welcome contributions exploring the theme of language variation of all kinds in bilingual vernacular dictionaries. Contributions may, for example, explore one or more of the following questions:

  1. To what extent do dictionary compilers take into account language variation in their choice of lemmas and examples of usage? To what extent are they oriented to one or more standards or norms, and to what extent is this explicit and/or implicit?
  2. What kinds of sources do compilers rely on: their own or native speakers’ experience or intuition, specific sources (monolingual and/or bilingual or other lexicographical/and or learned sources, such as botanical treatises), or a combination?
  3. What is the nature of metalinguistic labelling of lemmas or examples of usage? For example: To what extent does it show awareness of regional, diastratic, diaphasic, diachronic or other kinds of variation; or suggest a hierarchization of varieties and variants? How consistent is it, and how does it measure up against compilers’ stated intentions? What typographical conventions are adopted? How user-friendly are the labelling systems, and do they imply any prerequisite knowledge from language learners?
  4. To what extent are language ideologies and/or models of language variation evident in bilingual lexicography, which repeat, reinforce, or perhaps differ from those in the respective monolingual lexicographical traditions? Can we trace routes of transfer of particular ideologies and/or models of language variation (e.g. standard language ideology, concepts of register and style) from one lexicographical tradition to another?

We explicitly invite proposals on bilingual vernacular lexicography from any part of the world. We also welcome papers on European classical, Neo-Latin, or Hebrew bilingual lexicography where it interacts with vernacular lexicography.

Indicative references:

Cormier, Monique C. 2008. ‘Usage labels in the Royal Dictionary (1699) by Abel Boyer’, International Journal of Lexicography, 21: 153-71.

Glatigny, Michel (ed.) 1990. Les Marques d’usage dans les dictionnaires (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles). [Lexique 9.]Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille.

McLelland, Nicola. 2024. ‘Language authority, language ideologies, and eighteenth-century bilingual lexicographers of French, German and English: comparing Abel Boyer, Christian Ludwig, and Lewis Chambaud.’ In Historical and Sociolinguistic Approaches to French, edited by Janice Carruthers, Mairi-Louise McLaughlin and Olivia Walsh. Oxford: OUP.

Polguère, Alain. 2020. ‘Vers une approche systémique des marques d’usage.’ In Marques de registre dans les dictionnaires bilingues, edited by Gueorgui Armianov. 3–32. Paris: Presses Inalco.

Voeste, Anja. 2024. ‘Beispiel und Regel im 18. Jahrhundert. Ein Blick in Christian Ludwigs zweisprachige Wörterbücher.’ In Stildiskurse im 18. Jahrhundert. Beiheft der Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie Berlin 2023, edited by Eva Axer and Annika Wittler Hildebrandt, Kathrin, tbc. Berlin.

Zimont, Elizaveta. 2020. ‘Variation diatopique dans la lexicographie français ↔ néerlandais aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles : réception et usage des marques diatopiques.’ In Essays in the history of dialect studies. From ancient Greece to modern dialectology, edited by Raf Van Rooy. Münster: Nodus Publikationen.

Zimont, Elizaveta & Pierre Swiggers. 2014. ‘Diatechnische markering van lexemen bij Kiliaan: de invloed van Hadrianus Junius’ Nomenclator‘, Trefwoord, tijdschrift voor lexicografie 13. (13p.) URL : https://ivdnt.org/