Entre grammaire et lexicographie: le traitement du verbe dans des ouvrages lexicographiques français (1789-1914)

Our thesis aims to investigate the relationship between grammar and French general lexicography between 1789 and 1914. The choice of this period is related to some innovative lexicographical aspects, such as the "democratization" of the dictionary’s role, the approval of the Guizot Law in 1833 (focusing on free primary school) and the publication of major works such as the Littré and the Grand Larousse. Without claiming to find a full grammar in a dictionary, we wanted to see if we could elaborate a "grammar of the verb" (starting hypothesis). Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive and systematic research for all words which, directly or indirectly, could relate to the subject matter; we analyzed the dictionaries, with a main focus on microstructure, but without forgetting to study the grammatical attachments (with or without verbal tables), which are included only in the first dictionaries of our corpus. By comparative tables, we took into account all aspects that affect the verb (types, modifications, tense formations, etc.), focusing on similarities and differences between the dictionaries themselves and the reference grammars (Port-Royal, Beauzée and Lhomond). The innovation of this work lies in a research on the verb starting from lexicographical works, not grammars. All the corpus’ dictionaries allowed us to verify the starting hypothesis; in particular, the most complete were the Bescherelle, the La Châtre and the Grand Larousse. We have mentioned these three works several times by grouping them as a "trio" with a very rich microstructure. In fact, by examining the articles dedicated to "verbe", "conjugaison" or "mode", we will find, in a more or less hidden way, true grammar extracts: articles contain many examples, but also educational recommandations.