Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
Overview"One may be forgiven for opining that there is something very French about fighting over a dictionary. After all, this is a country where people follow polemics between intellectuals as avidly as first-division soccer, the government makes laws aimed at stanching the use of English in business and advertising, and each new update of the Petit Robert dictionary is a media event. This book suggests that the special place of dictionaries in French culture today, along with the specificity of France as a linguistically focused community, has a long history. ""The Dictionary Wars"" narrates and analyzes a series of polemics surrounding French lexicography in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From the apogee of the monarchy under Louis XIV through the Revolution which toppled it a century later, while French was becoming the most prestigious language in the Western world, the dictionaries which codified it became a privileged front for ideological skirmishes waged in alphabetical order. No sooner was a French dictionary published than another arose to challenge it. Many of the great Men of Letters of the Classical Age - Corneille, Racine, Perrault, Boileau, LaFontaine, Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire et al - publicly took up sides and even collaborated in the authoring of dictionaries, lexicography being considered a genre of literature. As the controversies invariably spilled over into the nascent periodical press, political and religious authorities were impelled to intervene. The stakes were considerable: Whose usage constitutes le bon usage? Who should have the right to define the fundamental concepts of life - God, man and woman, virtue, sin and salvation, nature and labor? It is impossible to tell to what extent a few books about words had an impact on the language, influenced public opinion or reshaped mentalities throughout an era at the end of which social and ideological tensions would erupt cataclysmically. What is certain is that over the course of that era, dictionary-makers came to view their products as playing key roles in linguistic, religious and political conflict. Inflected by disciplines as diverse as sociolinguistics and cultural history, ""The Dictionary Wars"" illuminates a genre of writing which has become an authoritative cultural icon yet is often mistakenly considered innocent and anodyne, if considered at all." Full Product DetailsAuthor: David EickPublisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd Imprint: Equinox Publishing Ltd Weight: 0.544kg ISBN: 9781845531591ISBN 10: 1845531590 Pages: 288 Publication Date: 10 December 2020 Audience: College/higher education , Undergraduate Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Not yet available  This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release. Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: One Faith, One Law, One King...One Dictionary : The Dictionnaire De L'Academie francaise Vs. Furetiere's Dictionnaire universel Chapter 2: Dictionary Wars Of Religion: The Dictionnaire Universel Vs. The Dictionnaire de Trevoux Chapter 3: Jesuits Versus Enlightenment Philosophes: The Dictionnaire De Trevoux Vs. The Encyclopedie Chapter 4: Error Has Seeped Into The Dictionary. Let Us Reinsert Truth : Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique Vs. The Anti-Dictionnaire-Philosophique, the Dictionnaire Philosopho-Theologique Portatif, And The Dictionnaire Philosophique De La Religion Chapter 5: Dictionaries And Linguistic Thought During The French Revolution Conclusion BibliographyReviewsAuthor InformationDavid Eick is Assistant Professor of French at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
