Aspects grammaticaux d'un dictionnaire de langue : deux traitements de la morphologie par le Dictionnaire de l'Académie (1694)

Abstract

: The first edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Académie (1694) presents an original treatment of the morphology, that partakes of a work establishing the language. It is in that sense that we suggest to interpret the morphological classification of the entries, which conveys the idea that the French language has its own lexical creativity. The decisions about the word list go along with the institution of the morpho-semantic definition, which we observed through the nouns derived from verbs. For that category of derivatives, the invention of the morphological definition looks innovative and original since it was stated at a time when the noun derivation on a verbal base had not yet been theorised by Grammar and when the other monolingual dictionaries were all following a different line.

2. Word-formation research from its beginnings to the 19th century

“…Firstly, at a micro-structural level, it enables the emergence of morphosemantic definitions (Mazière 1996;Leclercq 2002). This dictionary, which aims at showing the creativity of the French language, is important for lexical morphology for two reasons.…”