6533b830fe1ef96bd1297a6b

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Du bricolage en général et des dictionnaires de langue en particulier

subject

description

If language dictionaries appear as an invariable norm to the general public, they are in actual fact the result of a series of adjustments, of subjective decisions and of empirical or even ideological choices. Those very hesitations are of prime interest and turn dictionary science into an art rather than a science proper. Whether the task of lexicographers consists in determining the word list, in organizing its structure, in synthesizing the meaning of terms, or in selecting their registered uses, they necessarily need to make personal choices since the language they are trying to reconstruct is nothing but an artefact, the synthesis of a so-called “standard Language”. But there is no such thing as a neutral or unbiased choice, so that eventually it is the portrait of a society, along with its taboos and prejudices, which will appear between the lines of a dictionary.