3.1.3. Structure of the article

In his horizontal reading of an article, the modern dictionary user expects to find (in a monolingual dictionary): If the user is consulting a bilingual dictionary, he expects the articles to include: Irrespective of the type of dictionary, the user expects the different components to occupy the same location in each article of the dictionary. In this section we discuss the principal aspects of the construction of articles in our corpus.

Wooldridge (1977: 149f.) explains that modern lexicography distinguishes between, on the one hand, the headword (see 3.1.1.) and its implicit treatment through examples of use, which concern language, and on the other hand, the explicit treatment of the headword by definitions and orthographic, phonetic, etymological, grammatical and stylistic information, which concern metalanguage. We look briefly at each of these modes of treatment.

3.1.3.1. Language

3.1.3.1.1. Citations and examples

The use of citations to illustrate terms in a glossary probably goes well back into Antiquity (Della Casa 1981: 36). Certainly it was established in Greek lexicography by the beginning of the modern era. Apion used a quotation to illustrate each term in his collection of Homeric glosses (Daly 1967: 31). In the first or second century A.D. Valerius Harpocration included quotations from the works of poets, historians and other scholars in his Technical Terms of the Ten Orators (Collison 1982: 33). The Onomasticon compiled in the second century by Julius Pollux of Naucratis cites works where examples of the use of the more specialized words and phrases are to be found (id. 1982: 34). Near the end of the first century B.C. Verrius Flaccus quoted extensively from contemporary writings in his De significatu verborum (id. 1982: 34).

Quotations were common practice in medieval lexicography, beginning with Isidore. Quotations from classical authors are especially plentiful in Osbern and Hugutio. Brito's references to the Vulgate are frequent, and he also cites a large number of classical authors, as well as Papias and Hugutio. Balbi often completes articles with citations from the Bible, classical authors, Hugutio and Papias, and contemporary grammarians such as Peter of Riga.

Le Ver rarely names his principal source, the Catholicon. but he frequently mentions Papias, and occasionally Hugutio and Brito. His chief grammatical source is the Graecismus of Eberhard of Bethune, and he also draws from the Doctrinale of Alexander of Villedieu and the Opus synonymorum of John of Garland; however, he seldom attributes his citations. Citations from the Vulgate are numerous in DLV, but there are few references to classical authors.

An example is often used to illustrate the meaning of a term in the Catholicon: Adversus [...] ut: adversus eum .i. contra eum and in the DLV: LAR [...] unde dicitur: video larem per larem laris, gallice dicendum: je voy le feu par le treu de la maison.

3.1.3.2. Metalanguage

3.1.3.2.1. Grammatical information

Latin possessed eight parts of speech, according to medieval grammarians: [69] noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, participle, conjunction, preposition and interjection. (Adjectives were considered to be part of the 'noun' category.) All categories are present in our corpus, but marking as to function and grammatical attributes varies considerably.

Papias includes as articles in the Elementarium lengthy descriptions (drawn from the Graecismus, whose source was Priscian) pertaining to many aspects of grammar: cases, parts of speech, prosody, and so on. Balbi devotes four sections of the Catholicon to grammatical matters, and the Comprehensorium and DLV include similar material, either in articles or commentary.

Papias only infrequently marks lemmata with grammatical indicators, but marking was followed more consistently in later texts. Nouns and adjectives are usually marked for gender in Catholicon, Comprehensorium, Aalma and DLV by abbreviations: m or mas.ge. (masculini generis), f or fe.ge. (feminei generis), n or n.ge. (neutri generis), c or com.ge. (communis generis), o or o.ge. (omnis generis - for adjectives). In the other lexica the markers are written in full.

The term nomen is rarely used except when qualified for some reason: grecum nomen, nomen indeclinabile, verbale nomen, nomen collectivum, nomen proprium or proprium nomen, etc. Nomen occasionally appears in a definition, e.g. Altilis nomen est avis (Placidus).

Verbs are qualified in all texts as activum, deponens, neutrum, inchoativum, frequentativum, desiderativum, defectivum, impersonale, and so on. They are also marked in Catholicon, Aalma and DLV by abbreviations: a or act (activum), n (neutrum), d or de (deponens), inch or incho (inchoativum), np (neutropassivum) and f, ff, fre, fr (frequentativum), etc.

Adverbs, marked adverbium, occur infrequently in Papias. They are frequent in the Catholicon, usually as sub-lemmata, although they are not always marked. Adverbs are invariably marked as such in Aalma and DLV. Adverbium is frequently marked for comparison (comparatur) in DLV and may also be qualified as to meaning or function: adverbium loci, adverbium temporis, adverbium quantitatis, adverbium personale, adverbium discretivum, etc.

Past participles, treated as adjectives, and present participles, which are considered to be adjectives/nouns, are included as lemmata in the Aalma manuscripts, and as either lemmata or sub-lemmata in the treatment of a verb in the Catholicon, MPST and DLV. The term participium occasionally qualifies both past and present participles.

Some conjunctions and prepositions occur as lemmata in all of the glossaries and dictionaries in our corpus (see 3.1.1.1.), and are usually marked conjunctio or prepositio. Conjunctions may also be qualified: affirmativa, adversativa, appellativa, causalis, copulativa, disiunctiva, etc. In Aalma, MPST and DLV, prepositions are usually identified (either in Latin or in French) by an indication of the case which they govern.

Grammatical terms are especially likely to be assigned more than one function (see Appendix 3) or to be incorrectly identified. Confusion of identification is not uncommon since the functions of parts of speech are not firmly fixed in Latin or Latin-vernacular dictionaries at this time. [70] It seems that adverbs were the part of speech considered to have more than one function.

Interjections are found as lemmata in all lexica, marked as interiectio and occasionally qualified, e.g. interiectio dolentis.

3.1.3.2.2. Phonetic and orthographic information

Phonetic and orthographic information is not common in Papias and is virtually nonexistent in Osbern. It appears occasionally in Brito, Hugutio and the Comprehensorium, and occurs very frequently in the Catholicon and DLV. By reason of the simple nature of their structure, the Aalma, MPST and GGL only rarely include details on phonetics and orthography.

Vowel length is indicated by absolute expressions such as media correpta and penultima producta, e.g. Accola .le - media correpta (DLV), or by the corresponding verbs, corripitur, producitur, e.g. Maioro [...] Et producit io (Catholicon).

The verbs acuitur and accentuatur point out the location of the accent: UNA adverbium congregandi [...] et acuit in finem (DLV); Maginas [...] Et accentuatur in fine (Catholicon).

Orthographic information is usually introduced by a form of scribere, e.g. AMMAUM per duplex m debet scribi et proferri... (Brito); or may appear without a connector, Abscissus .sa .sum per geminum s... (Catholicon).

3.1.3.2.3. Internal references

Lemmata which are marked with instructions to look for details in another location are common in the Catholicon and DLV but are uncommon or missing entirely from the other lexica in our corpus. The references are, of course, the result of the fact that both the Catholicon and the DLV group members of one word family in an article. The markers are exponitur, dicitur, vide.

In the Catholicon there are two kinds of instructions: to refer to another lemma in Part V: Accesso sis. vide in Actio tis., or to refer to another part of the Summa: Acirologia est impropria dictio et supra dixi in quarta parte in capitulo De viciis annexis barbarismo et soloecismo.

In DLV the lemma is usually followed by a definition in Latin or French or both, as well as the reference marker: ABITIO .tionis .i. recessio in Abeo, abis dicitur.

3.1.3.2.4. Polysemy

One of the major steps in the construction of the dictionary article is the assembly of all of the meanings for one entry. In the early inventories, based on the association of one form and one meaning, each lemma is considered to have one meaning (Quemada 1972: 104). In Latin glossaries, multiple meanings for one form are usually expressed in multiple articles:

Papias's Elementarium is a mixed text in almost every respect. At times, multiple meanings are indicated by multiple articles, while at other times two meanings are grouped in one article. Where multiple meanings are listed in one article, connectors are vel or autem.

Multiple meanings are noted in Magnae derivationes: In the Catholicon, diverse meanings of one lemma are grouped in one article. They are often introduced by nam, item or sed est. The various meanings of a form are usually grouped in one article in the Comprehensorium, where they are introduced by item or vel: Early manuscripts of the Latin-French Abavus series tend to give only one meaning of polysemic lemmata, while later manuscripts show several meanings and combine them in one article, using the connector vel. In A1 of the Aalma series, we find multiple meanings in one article. The connectors are usually ou or a punctus: Treatment of multiple meanings in DLV is, predictably, well-organized. They sometimes are grouped under one entry but, more often, are shown as sub-entries within an article. Various meanings are usually introduced vel or eciam dicitur:

3.1.3.2.5. Techniques of definition

We do not feel that an analysis of Latin techniques is relevant to this study, and therefore limit our examination to definitions in which French is the language of exit. Our corpus includes Abavus, Aalma, MPST and DLV.

The essentially traductive nature of bilingual dictionaries is clearly revealed by the simple definitional methods used in our corpus. These may be classified as follows:

  1. One term.

  2. Two or more terms, which are approximately equivalent.

    At times, multiple terms express nuances of meaning:

    The Latin source may frequently be detected in these strings of equivalents.

  3. Syntagm or verbal locution.

  4. Relative clause.

  5. Definition.

  6. Equivalent + explanation.

  7. Mixed methods.

    Other examples of mixed definitions are:

    Wagner (1967: 106) observes that words having an abstract or notional character are often calqued on the Latin lemma:

    Lemmata which are somewhat technical in nature may be glossed by a generic term followed by a specific feature which indicates its purpose or use (id. 1967: 101):

    In early manuscripts, it is common to find a generic term without a specific marker. Such instances frequently relate to natural history:

    or to proper nouns:

    In speaking of seventeenth-century dictionaries, Quemada (1972: 119) notes that the enrichment of previous definitions through addition of supplementary markers is standard practice. We find examples of the same progress in our corpus:

3.1.3.2.6. Location of information

Very slowly, and by no means systematically, certain types of information came to occupy particular locations within articles. Merrilees (1994a: 50f.) identifies the positions commonly used in medieval lexica for both definitional and metalinguistic material. Basic positions are: lemma, post-lemmatic, definition, post-definitional, and marginal (i.e. at the right-hand edge of the text column). There are, of course, a number of possible variations, depending on the complexity of the article and on whether the dictionary is monolingual or bilingual.

There does not appear to be a privileged position for information in Papias. In Hugutio grammatical information usually follows the definition. Etymological and grammatical information is usually found post-lemmatically in Osbern, the Catholicon and MPST. In Aalma the scarce etymological information usually follows the definition. Grammatical details occasionally follow the definition but are usually found in abbreviated form at the right-hand column margin. The abbreviations are those described in 3.1.3.2.1. Etymological information is usually found post-lemmatically in DLV, and grammatical information may occur in post-lemmatic, post-definitional and marginal positions. GGL and DLV use the same grammatical sign system as Aalma.

Definitions usually directly follow the lemma or sub-lemma in Hugutio, while in the Catholicon they commonly follow post-lemmatic grammatical information. Although the lemma at the head of an article is commonly followed in DLV by etymological information, the sub-lemmata are often directly followed by their definitions.

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