Lexicographic traditions and prefatory discourse of 17 th century dictionaries: Monolingual English, monolingual French, and bilingual French-English works

Abstract

In this study, we have explored the prefaces of monolingual English, monolingual French, and bilingual French-English dictionaries of the 17 th century. The monolingual works studied constitute the first of this kind to have been published. Over the course of this research, we have demonstrated that despite different lexicographic traditions, dictionary prefaces convey basically the same type of information, and address the same general issues. This study is divided into two main sections. In the first, we have provided historical information on the dictionaries, so as to illustrate the historical context in which they were published. In the second section, we have examined the prefaces themselves, first giving an overview of each text studied, and then providing a thematic analysis of the prefaces within each group as a whole, observing topics that are commonly treated among them, within the broader categories of dictionary content, lexicographic context, and linguistic context. Over the course of the research, we have established that though each text is unique, certain features are shared not only among the prefaces within one same category, but in fact across all three types of dictionary.