Dictionaries of Synonyms and Their Use in the Italian Tradition

Dictionaries of synonyms were a test bed for the 19th century Italian debate on the "questione della lingua." The most prestigious ones followed Girard & Beauzee's (1736-1769) French model, which did not cover the whole vocabulary, but rather a selection of words. Italian followers of the Enlightenment thought the language had to be set free from worthless & "harmful" synonyms, including phonetic variants & truncated words used in poetry. When Italy reached political unity in 1861, the number of illiterate people was dramatically high. The national language was mastered only by an intellectual elite & was not able to spread. Dialects were used as the primary medium of communication within the family & in everyday life. Consequently, under the action of conservative purism, the Italian language became a sort of dusty storehouse where lexical goods were lying still. This created a deceptive impression of wealth, even though in reality the practical use of the language was being hampered. Dictionaries of synonyms were seen as tools to access such a dangerous wealth. Nowadays, recently published dictionaries show a renewed scientific approach since some authoritative linguists have introduced remarkable changes. Hyperonyms & hyponyms have been distinguished, different registers have been identified, & the problem of providing several structured pieces of information in a limited space has been faced. Modern dictionaries of synonyms also contain thesaurus-like sections, maps of geosynonyms, & lists of adapted toponyms, such as Split/Spalato. 40 References. Adapted from the source document