The dictionary as an observatory of subjectivity at the end of the 19th century: in the province, in the countryside, in the city

Abstract

This article approaches the dictionary as an observatory of subjectivity. O Dicionário de Vocábulos Brasileiros, by Beaurepaire Rohan, published in 1889, near the establishment of the Republic in Brazil, is analyzed. Theoretical and methodological issues about lexicographical discourse, corpus assembly and linguistic-discursive functioning of lexicographical definitions are discussed. Four series of subject names were assembled: a) provincials, explorers, leaders; b) occupations, professions, owners; c) races and miscegenation; d) subjects who fail. Relationships with territorial spatialities (province, countryside, urban space and others) were considered. It is shown that the meanings attributed to the subjects are affected by a contradiction between organization discourses and others that are distanced from them.