Lexicography, Terminology, and Translation: Text-based Studies in Honour of Ingrid Meyer

Chapter 1. The Semantic Apparatus of Guy Mi

13 INTRODUCTION Toward the end of the 1950s, James E. Iannucci published an article dealing with a problem that he called “crucial” in bilingual lexicography methodology, that of meaning discrimination (1957, 272). A series of articles followed (Hietsch 1958; Iannucci 1959; Williams 1960), all addressing the same issue and pointing out the fact that “it is necessary to provide meanings as well as words” in bilingual dictionaries (Williams 1960, 121). A quick look at recent editions of the Grand Dictionnaire Hache
e Oxford and the Robert et Collins Senior shows that “semantic indicators and/or typical collocators” (Grand Dictionnaire 2001, ix), or “[p]artial definitions or other information which guide the user” (Robert et Collins 2002, xx), are included in modern FrenchEnglish /English-French dictionaries. But as we will see, long before Iannucci and his followers drew the a
ention of specialists to the issue of meaning discrimination, semantic features were taken into account in bilingual lexicography. In the following pages, we will look at the work of one specific lexicographer, Guy Miège. Miège’s first bilingual dictionary, entitled A New Dictionary French and English, with Another English and French,2 was published in 1677 in London. Its semantic content is particularly rich, especially compared with the dictionaries of Miège’s predecessors, Claudius Holyband and Randle Cotgrave. In the course of my study, I analyzed a corpus corresponding to ten percent of the New Dictionary, giving a total of 319 entries in the French-English part and 425 entries in CHAPTER 1 THE SEMANTIC APPARATUS OF GUY MIÈGE’S NEW DICTIONARY FRENCH AND ENGLISH, WITH ANOTHER ENGLISH AND FRENCH1 ALINE FRANCOEUR 14 Aline Francoeur the English-French part. Since all the derivatives of a word considered a “primitive” are grouped under the same entry, which acts as the headword,3 the entries analyzed in the French-English part total 944 headwords and sub-headwords, while those in the English-French part total 1,180 headwords and sub-headwords.4 The semantic features of the New Dictionary will be described in detail in the first part of this text. Their usefulness will then be discussed in the second part. SEMANTIC FEATURES OF MIÈGE’S NEW DICTIONARY Miège’s New Dictionary contains semantic features specifying the meanings of both headwords and equivalents. Semantic information relating to headwords is provided in the source language, whereas that relating to equivalents is provided in the target language.5 Three types of semantic information acknowledged by James E. Iannucci (1957), Edwin B. Williams (1960), Hans-Peder Kromann, Theis Riiber, and Poul Rosbach (1991), Bo Svensén (1993), and Mike Hannay (2003), among others,6 are represented in the New Dictionary. The first type corresponds to partial or complete definitions—that is, to direct semantic information: the defining elements relate directly to the meaning of the headword. The second type, consisting of context words or phrases, “discriminates meaning by giving just enough of the context or kind of context in which a word occurs to determine the meaning in question” (Iannucci 1957, 275). The third type takes the form of field labels used to specify the headword’s field of knowledge. These two la
er categories can be considered as indirect semantic information, since they provide information not about the signifié of the headword but about its more typical semantic or syntactic environment or the field in which it is most commonly used. DEFINITIONS The various forms of definitions used by Miège in the New Dictionary are comparable to those used in monolingual dictionaries. The simplest form, the hyperonym, or genus proximum, specifies the object class to which the headword or equivalent pertains,7 as shown in examples (1) to (6).8 (1) BRAME (f.) sorte de poisson, a bream, a fish so called. (2) CHEVRE (f.) sorte d’animal, a she goat. (3) EMERAUDE (f.) sorte de pierre precieuse, an emerald, a kind The Semantic Apparatus 15 of precious stone. (4) GUDGEON, a fish, goujon. (5) Ox-eye, œil de beuf, sorte de plante. (6) PHEASANT, a bird so called, un faisan. Note that, when a hyperonym follows the equivalent, it is oen preceded by an expression such as “a kind of” in English and “sorte de” in French. Such wording “prevent[s] the definition from being taken as a paraphrase” (Svensén 1993, 123). Synonyms, or synonymous phrases...