Getting informality into the dictionary: colloquial neologisms

Citació

  • Bernal E, Freixas Cardona M. Getting informality into the dictionary: colloquial neologisms. In: Freixa J, Guardiola MI, Martines J, Montañé MA, (eds.). Dictionarization of catalan neologisms. New York; Berlin: Peter Lang; 2022. p.315-38. DOI: 10.3726/b20021

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Descripció

  • Resum

    For a language to be suited to all situations of use, its dictionaries must adequately represent colloquial words and expressions. Since the publication of the Diccionari general de la llengua catalana by Pompeu Fabra in 1932, lexicographical paradigms have changed significantly, as have perspectives on the various functional varieties each language possesses. Thus, to prevent dictionaries from being seen as fossils only applicable to formal, but not colloquial, usage, colloquial lexis and phrasemes must be included. Two reasons apply: use of colloquial language is on the rise,1 and the official language academy's new Gramàtica de la llengua catalana (2016) breaks new ground by including many colloquial structures and phrasings that do not appear in the normative dictionary, DIEC2. The lexis contained in this dictionary does not meet the needs of today's society, because we no longer limit our use of colloquialisms to informal situations. Rather, we tned to blen registers; the needs of dictionary users diversified greatly.2 Includins words and expressions from lower registers is all the more problematic considering the current state of most Catalan language dictionaries.3 Furthermore, current labelling systems that give usuage information on pragmatics, register and speaker intentions are unsystematic and chaotic, demonstrating that colloquial lexis (and its inclusion in dictionaries) is one of the dimensions less attended by lexicographers. This study uses a corpus of colloquial lexis consisting of entries and subentries marked with an evaluative usuage label in the four major Catalan language dictionaries, the DIEC2 (2007), the GDLC (1998), the DNV (2014) and VOX (2015), as well as in brief articles labelled informal on ésAdir, the language website of the state Catalan broadcasting corporation (CCMA). The 1,003-item corpus allows us, firtsly, to describe and compare the way colloquial words contained in these dictionaries are treated through usage labels, with special emphasis on a comparison between the DIEC2 and the other works. Secondly, our lexicographical analysis is complemented with data generated by the NADIC project regarding neologisms labelled col·loquial [colloquial] in its database. Our lexicographical analysis shows, among other things, that the boundaries between labels are poorly defined, and that lexicographers are themselves in disagreement about the limitations of usage labelling; contemporany lexicography will have to address this issue. Furthermore, we show that, while achieving global consensus on the formal/informal status of given words is relatively straightforward, the presence of connotations has the effect of creating various degrees of informality. Thus, we are led to complete a task begun rather timidly by Pompeu Fabra a century ago: defining a standard for colloquial language, as called for by Secció Filològica,4 in order to give colloquial Catalan prestige it deserves in real everyday use.
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