Contenu du sommaire : L'exemple dans le dictionnaire de langue Histoire, typologie, problématique, sous la direction de Alise Lehmann

Historical and typological study of the example in early French lexicography The first dictionaries of French language — those of Estienne and Nicot in the 16th century — contain the gradual development of the set of functions of the exemplification of the headword in context that remains characteristic of modern dictionaries : linguistic (syntagmatic and semantic collocates), philological (textual attestations), encyclopedic (referential information), ideological (conscious or unconscious) and literary (the author as privileged model). In early dictionaries the example is frequently introduced by a copula — comme, ainsi on dit, etc. — , whereas in modern dictionaries it is normally signified typographically by being printed in italics.

A Jesuit doctrin of the example. The Dictionnaire Royal Augmenté by François- Antoine Pomey. In 1671 François-Antoine Pomey published a French-Latin dictionary, the Dictionnaire Royal, which reflects of the changes of the lexicographical practices of the times. The originality of Pomey's dictionary consists partially in a new conception of the example, which now becomes a constitutive element of the dictionary. Pomey has recourse to two categories of examples : made-up examples and quotations. The made-up examples investigate into syntactic constructions, transmit knowledge (encyclopaedic and cultural value), and give examples of « amplification » (pedagogical function). The quotations of Latin authors induce perfect eloquence ; the quotations of French authors justify a word's introduction into the nomenclature. In addition to these pedagogical and didactic examples, there arises the role that the examples and quotations will play in future single-language dictionaries.

Quoting authors in late 1 7th century dictionaries (Richelet and Furetière). The well-known opposition between dictionaries that quote the authors, Richelet and Furetière, and the dictionary of the Académie that refuses to do so, has as its counterpart an opposition opposing in turn Richelet and Furetière. In Richelet' s dictionary (1680), quoting « good authors » ensures the description of good usage, the quotation acting at once as a source for the selection of entries and as a procedure of exemplification (syntactic value and semantic-rhetorical value). In Furetière (1690), the quotations, rare and selective (in verse only), correspond to literary intentions, where Furetière expresses his literary feeling and manifests a very modern sense of extracting quotations.

« Anonymous » quotations in Feraud's Dictionnaire critique. Abbé Féraud's Dictionaire Critique (1787), with its made-up examples and quotations, contains a rather large number of anonymous quotations. Either these are followed by the sign Anon. , which Féraud seems to use more freely than usual ; or they are attributed to « a modern author » unnamed ; or the reference is reduced to the title of a periodical. This type of example, which is neither the quotation of an author nor a made-up example — but nevertheless an example — functions at times as an « objet de critique » (the model of the Dictionnaire Grammatical is continued in the Dictionaire Critique), at other times as a « simple exemple ». Féraud is a grammarian and it is the grammatical tradition, rather than the lexicological, that accounts for ordinary discourse, in order to correct it, or in order to describe it and define therein the usage.

The treatment of examples in the large dictionaries of the second half of the 19th century (Littré, Larousse, Hatzfeld and Darmesteter) This study deals with the treatment of examples at a time dominated by what Littré calls « the desire of history », thus bringing out its relations with the aims pursued by the dictionaries' authors and with the microstructure of the articles. It attempts to specify the status of the examples in each work : the tools for glorifying the language, the illustration of the rules of its semantic evolution, etc. The comparison of these dictionaries reveals simultaneously the different facets of the language's relation to the texts, to the world and to the description of meaning.

The status of the example in Abbé Girard's Synonymes françois. The articles in abbé Girard's Synonymes françois (1736) reveal constant characteristics of the microstructure of a dictionary : the order of succession definition /example, the paired statements in opposition, and the italics reserved for the key-words, all constitute a stable organisation. Nevertheless, the unique enunciative source at times weakens the frontier between usage and mention, explication of meaning and discourse about the world. Definition and example are in fact in close cooperation : the example, heuristic and differentiating, although coming after in the article, is at the source of the gloss that has the status of definition.

Towards a problematics of the example. Starting from a selection of texts and/or spoken language, dictionaries cannot but extract (exemplum), show or illustrate (paradigma), and quote (citatio) phrases and sentences that are supposed to represent a language ; in fact they construct an ideal state of language properly called a norm. Examples and illustrations in dictionaries constitute the core of their more or less creative aspect in politics. With definitions and semantic analysis which are often inspired by examples, illustration and quotation form their main witnesses of cultural ideology. French lexicography, in particular, is linked to social and cultural values as these are embodied in literature, which comprises in fact only a very small part of the total speech (Saussurean « parole ») in a language. Thus, the choice of examples dictionaries make is one of the best possible ways to understand how a society chooses to construct its own linguistic model and norm. Examples and illustrations in dictionaries constitute the core of their more or less creative aspect in politics. With definitions and semantic analysis which are often inspired by examples, illustration and quotation form their main witnesses of cultural ideology. French lexicography, in particular, is linked to social and cultural values as these are embodied in literature, which comprises in fact only a very small part of the total speech (Saussurean « parole ») in a language. Thus, the choice of examples dictionaries make is one of the best possible ways to understand how a society chooses to construct its own linguistic model and norm.