Prescriptivism in Lexicography. A Bird’s-Eye View

Abstract

This paper considers the relation between prescriptivism and descriptivism in practical lexicography. Using data extracted from two major dictionary projects conducted in different cultural contexts, we argue that these notions are easier to tease apart in theory than in practice. First, we point at the mismatch between the linguistic neutrality aimed for by lexicographers and the authority status conferred on dictionaries by the general public. We then posit that the labels descriptive , prescriptive cannot apply to a dictionary as a whole since, in the process of dictionary making, some tasks are factual and objective, while others call for the lexicographer’s ruling on what is right or wrong in terms of language use. It is such rulings and the factors that determine them that are the focus of attention here, in keeping with the places in which they are likely to occur: the front matter, the macrostructure, and the microstructure of the dictionary.