Perspectives on front matter in monolingual dictionaries of Spanish and Italian

Abstract

This paper presents two short studies of front matter—one diachronic and the other synchronic—in the monolingual dictionaries of Spanish and Italian. Our study of the front matter in the various editions of the Spanish Royal Academy dictionary, which has undergone 23 editions over the past 240 years, takes a diachronic perspective and shows how front matter has developed, changed and expanded over time. Our study of the front matter in Italian is synchronic and concentrates on a representative case from one of the language’s most consulted online language resources. We show that the front matter in current print dictionaries of both languages, much of which is aimed at helping users fully understand entries, is often missing from online resources. Taken together, these two studies allow us to reflect on the changing role of front matter in dictionaries and its importance for online dictionaries.