engleski

Chronological arrangement of literary citations: First versus revised editions

Dictionaries based upon chronologically arranged excerpts of writing from 'the best authors' play an important role in the history of a national lexicography. Specifically, such dictionaries are documents of the historical progression of a language, the changes in its (refined) forms and contents over the course of time. Unfortunately, until more recent times, 'living speech' hasn't been taken into account, mostly for practical reasons. In the long and rich lexicographical tradition associated with the Croatian language, such dictionaries are scarce, but an outstanding one, developed at midpoint of the twentieth century and still under progress, is Benešić's Dictionary of the Croatian Literary Language from the Revival to I. G. Kovačić. Conceived as an anthology of literary citations intended to reflect the genesis of the Croatian lexicon at the tempestuous turn of the century, when the Croatian standard language was established and systematized, Benešić's dictionary remained unfinished after the death of its author in the 1957. After a long intermezzo, work on the Dictionary resumed in 2008. In addition to extensive improvements in methodology, the new volumes of Benešić's dictionary attach greater importance to the authenticity of both sources and excerpts. Due to the fact that Benešić's dictionary merely registers the language, employing a descriptive, documentary policy rather than a prescriptive and normative one, it includes the various linguistic practices as well as different world views of the time. Accordingly, it records genuine Croatian words as well as signifiers and signifieds that belonged to the common history of the Croatian and the Serbian language. In other words, in his general tendency towards use as it was found among the most renowned Croatian authors in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, Benešić provides us with an unrivalled picture of Croatian literary discourse at the turn of the century. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that Benešić does not limit himself only to 'the best writers', for he also takes examples from folk poetry as well as a collection of folk expressions, many of them representing rural rather than urban settings. In addition to this, the chronological range of written works from which the examples were taken is in fact more extensive. It actually encompasses works that came into existence as early as 1850 (when the issues of national and language identity were first being raised) and ending in the second half of the twentieth century. This paper addresses chronological concerns regarding first versus revised editions. Namely, it is a well-known fact that some works were published after having been extensively revised, i.e. adapted to the requirements of philological purists.

historical lexicography ; Benešić's dictionary ; literary citations

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