engleski

Names in a dictionary: A lexicographic contribution to cultural memory and national identity

The representation and description of onyms (proper names) in dictionaries is an issue which Croatian linguists have tried to resolve on several occasions, but no consensus has been reached. Linguists only agree on the fact that onyms demand individual treatment in the lexicographic process. This paper explores the representation of onyms in the Croatian Encyclopaedic Dictionary, a kind of combination of a monolingual dictionary and a general lexicographic reference book. The paper attempts to answer the question of how much the lexicographic onomastic material in a dictionary of this type contributes to determining the national identity of different nations, thus illuminating the cultural memory (which "implies a rich collective stock of images, habits and texts, whose reproduction constitutes and maintains the identity of the individual and the community"). The notion of national identity is defined as a "source of meaning and experience of a nation" (Castells 2002: 16), and it "can best be interpreted as a relational value which arises from the relation of identity holders to others with different shared identities" (Škiljan 2000: 204), i.e. "a set of features determining the distinctiveness of an individual or a group in the sense of difference or belonging in relation to other individuals or groups." (Crljenko 2008: 67) In general, there are three principal elements that shape the national identity: consciousness about common territory, consciousness about common history, and consciousness about common culture. National identity and cultural memory which arise from the onomastic material of the Croatian Encyclopaedic Dictionary are based primarily on the individual identity of their holders, and it is stated in the Foreword that the dictionary contains 47 000 Croatian personal names, surnames and toponyms (which will not be dealt with in this paper!) and 18 000 entries of names from mythology, history, general culture and geography. Due to the rich history of Croatian linguistic and sociopolitical life and its various contacts with other nations and cultures, the rich onomastic material in this dictionary contributes – through individual identities (onomastic units – anthroponyms and toponyms) – to the description of different national identities (Hungarian, Slovenian, Italian, German, Austrian, Serbian, Macedonian...), to different extents. Concerning the contribution to the description of a national identity of individual nations, the onomastic material in this dictionary can be divided in two main groups: a) national identitiesthat are described by onyms only in relation to territory and nationality (toponyms and ethnonyms) and b) national identities which are determined both territorially and at the same time as a part of the world cultural heritage (anthroponyms – famous people who left their mark in politics, culture, science, art...). In order to show that direct or indirect contact of the two nations (Croatian and some other), i.e. historical influence, geographical contacts and cultural memory all determine the degree of representation of the onyms referring to individual nations in the Croatian Encyclopaedic Dictionary, the paper describes in more detail the onyms referring to two nations – Hungarian and American.

names, national identity, dictionary

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