I DIZIONARI DEI SINONIMI E IL LORO USO NELLA TRADIZIONE ITALIANA

Abstract

Dictionaries of synonyms were a test bed for the 19th century Italian debate on the ‘questione della lingua’. The most prestigious ones followed Girard and Beauzée’s (1736–1769) French model which did not cover the whole vocabulary, but a selection of words. Italian followers of the Enlightenment thought the language had to be set free from worthless and ‘harmful’ synonyms, including phonetic variants and 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 and was not able to spread. Dialects were used as the primary medium of communication within the family and 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 and hyponyms have been distinguished, different registers have been identified, and 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, and lists of adapted toponyms, such as Split/Spalato.