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Communication dans un congrès Année : 2016

In Praise of Lexicography, and Lexicographers In Praise of Lexicography, and Lexicographers

Résumé

The title of this paper draws deliberately on that of John Sinclair's keynote in Lorient in 2004, In praise of the dictionary. Whereas John Sinclair concentrated on the product, the dictionary, I shall concentrate on the field, and the harmless drudges who undertake the activity, and more particularly in the area of lexicographical research. The starting point will be Georgian lexicography and its importance to the national language and culture. This leads naturally to what I consider two major challenges facing lexicographical research today and the science policy issues it faces: funding policy and notably our place in EC Framework Programmes and the effects of research evaluation. In a second part, I want to give praise to two particular " harmless drudges " – Antoine Furetière and Henri Basnage de Beauval – who illustrate the profile of lexicography in their time. This will allow me to discuss the importance of historical lexicography within the context of digital humanities. 1 A Fanfare for the Makers 1 This paper is about lexicography, the field, the craft, the discipline in all its forms. I owe the title to the late great John Sinclair as when I organised the 11 th EURALEX Congress in 2004, he entitled his paper as 'In praise of the dictionary'. He opened a new world for corpus-driven dictionaries and spoke about one way forward as he saw it. However, my aim here is not to discuss so much the product, although it is impossible to discuss the field without speaking about dictionaries, but the lexicographical research and some of the challenges it faces. I break my talk into two parts: the first deals with raising the profile of our harmless drudgery in the face of restricted funding. In praising lexicographer here, I speak to the converted, and the issues I raise concern the necessity for us to preach the importance of the field at both national and EU levels. The European Network for e-Lexicography shows that we can use our enormous networking capacities, but also that if we don't get in quick at policy level, the research window may well close. Another challenge is that even if computing has changed the face of lexicography, we more than ever need the drudgery of academic research, especially in areas as historical lexicography. 'E' is not all, and I develop the comparison with botanics to show that we must not neglect non-or less computational research in favour of technological promises. This is why, in a second part, I praise two harmless drudges who helped change the face of lexicography, Antoine Furetière and Henri Basnage de Beauval and show how digital humanities can open vistas, provided that is does not let the digital hold sway over the humanities.
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halshs-01502498, version 1 (05-04-2017)

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Paternité - Pas d'utilisation commerciale - Partage selon les Conditions Initiales - CC BY 4.0

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  • HAL Id : halshs-01502498 , version 1

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Geoffrey Williams. In Praise of Lexicography, and Lexicographers In Praise of Lexicography, and Lexicographers. 17th EURALEX International Congress, Tinatin Margalitadze, Sep 2016, Tbilisi, Georgia. ⟨halshs-01502498⟩
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