PARALLEL CORPUS GLOSSES AND THE DOCUMENTATIONAL POTENTIAL OF BENEŠIĆ’S DICTIONARY OF THE CROATIAN LITERARY LANGUAGE FROM THE REVIVAL TO I. G. KOVAČIĆ

Abstract

Dictionaries based upon chronologically arranged excerpts of writings by ‘the best authors’ play an important role in the history of any national lexicography. An outstanding one, developed at the midpoint of the twentieth century and still under progress, is Rječnik hrvatskoga književnoga jezika od preporoda do Ivana Gorana Kovačića [Dictionary of the Croatian Literary Language from the Revival to I. G. Kovačić]. Conceived as an anthology of literary quotes, it documents the historical progression of the Croatian language, ranging from the mid-1800s, when the Croatian standard language was established and systematized, to the end of the Second World War and the beginnings of the Communist era. Due to the fact that Benešić’s dictionary merely registers language, employing a descriptive, documentary policy rather than a prescriptive and normative one, it includes various, at times co-existing linguistic practices, encompassing spelling and grammar and lexicon, as well as diff erent, rather opposing political and ideological world views of the time in question. Accordingly, it records genuine Croatian literary tradition, dating back to the second half of the 19th century, its lexicon as well as its prevailing spelling system and salient case and plural endings. In addition to this, it also registers linguistic habits belonging to the shared history of the Croatian and the Serbian language, marked by convergent and unitarian language policy, the beginnings of which date back to the late nineteenth century. However, it also documents the language policy of the fascist Independent State of Croatia (1941–1945), when genuine Croatian linguistic features were restored to life. In order to truly document the language of the cited period, we juxtapose (starting with volume 14), i.e. put within the same entry, corpus glosses/quotations that belong to two or even three different editions of the same work. As such, Benešić’s dictionary is a valuable social and historical monument and a constituent part of the Croatian cultural and linguistic identity.