diff --git a/ICHLL_Brenon.md b/ICHLL_Brenon.md index eb7647e7ca254037ebd74ea3a0a690e8821bdad0..baab964c655988472d13bc8f89dc04a7c8810ed0 100644 --- a/ICHLL_Brenon.md +++ b/ICHLL_Brenon.md @@ -1,43 +1,163 @@ --- title: The specificities of encoding encyclopedias: towards a new standard ? author: Alice BRENON +header-includes: + \usepackage{textalpha} --- # Dictionaries and encyclopedias -If the term "encyclopedia" was originally devised as a "meta-quality" to -describe the mastery of "all" (meaning 7 classical arts) fields of knowledge. +In common parlance, the terms "dictionaries" and "encyclopedias" are used as +near synonyms to refer to books compiling vast amounts of knowledge into lists +of definitions ordered alphabetically. Their similarity is even visible in the +way they are coordinated in the full title of the *Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire +raisonné des sciences des arts et des métiers* published by Diderot and +d'Alembert between 1751 and 1772 and which is probably the most famous work of +the genre and a symbol of the Age of Enlightenment. + +## "Encyclopedia" + +If the word "encyclopedia" is nowadays part of our vocabulary, it was much more +unusual and in fact controversial when Diderot and d'Alembert decided to use it +in the title of their book. + +The definition given by Furetière in his *Dictionnaire Universel* in 1690 is +still close to its greek etymology: a "ring of all knowledges", from *κÏκλος*, +"circle", and *παιδεία*, "knowledge". This meaning is the one used for instance +by Rabelais in *Pantagruel*, when he has Thaumaste declare that Panurge opened +to him "le vray puys et abisme de Encyclopedie" ("the true well and abyss of +Encyclopedia"). At the time the word still mostly refers to the abstract concept +of mastering all knowledges at once. Furetière adds that it's a quality one +is unlikely to possess, and even seems to condemn its search as a form of +hubris: "C'est une témérité à un homme de vouloir posséder l'Encyclopédie" +("it is a recklessness for a man to want to possess Encyclopedia"). + +Beyond this moral reproach, the concept that pleased Rabelais was somewhat dated +at the end of the 17\textsuperscript{th} century and attacked in the +*Dictionnaire Universel François et Latin*, commonly refered to as the +*Dictionnaire de Trevoux*, as utterly "burlesque" ("parodic"). The entry for +"Encyclopédie" remained unchanged in the four editons issued between 1721 and +1752, mocking the use of the word and discouraging his readers to pursue it. In +that intent, he quotes a poem from Pibrac encouraging people to specialize in +only one discipline lest they should not reach perfection, based on an +argumentation that resembles the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none". It +is all the more interesting that the definition remains unaltered until 1752, +one year after the publication of the first volume of the *Encyclopédie*. The +Jesuites who edited *Dictionnaire de Trevoux* frowned upon the project of the +*Encyclopédie* which they managed to get banned the same year by the Council of +State on the charge of attempting to destroy the royal authority, inspiring +rebellion and corrupting morality in general. There is much more at stake than +words here, but the attempt to deprecate the word itself is part of their fight +against the philosophers of the Enlightenment. + +The attacks do not remain ignored by Diderot who starts the very definition of +the word "Encyclopédie" in the *Encyclopédie* itself by a strong rebuttal. He +directly dismisses the concerns expressed in the *Dictionnaire de Trevoux* as +mere self-doubt that their authors shouldn't generalize to mankind, then leaves +the main point to a latin quote by chancelor Bacon, who argues that a +collaborative work can achieve much more than any talented man could: what could +possibly not be within reach of a single man, within a single lifetime may be +achieved by a common effort throughout generations. + +History hints that Diderot's opponents took his defense of the feasability of +the project quite seriously, considering the fact that they got the +*Encyclopédie*'s priviledges to be revoked again six years after its publication +was resumed and that its remaining volumes had to be published illegally until +its end in 1772. + +However, in their last edition in 1771 the authors of the *Dictionnaire de +Trevoux* had no choice but to acknowledge the success of the encyclopedic +projects of the 18\textsuperscript{th} century. In this version, the definition +was entirely reworked, mildly stating that good encyclopedias are difficult to +make because of the amount of knowledge necessary and work needed to keep up +with scientific progress instead of calling the effort a parody. It credits +Chamber's *Cyclopædia* for being a decent attempt before referring anonymously +though quite explicitely to Diderot and d'Alembert's project by naming the +collective "Une Société de gens de Lettres" and writing that it started in 1751. +Even more importantly, two new entries were added after it: one for the adjective +"encyclopédique" and another one for the noun "encyclopédiste", silently admitting +how the project had changed its time and the relation to knowledge. + +## A different approach + +If encyclopedia are thus historically more recent than dictionaries they also +depart from the latter on their approach. The purpose of dictionaries from their +origin is to collect words, to make an exhaustive inventory of the terms +used in a domain or in a language in order to associate a *definition* to them, +be it a translation in another language for a foreign language dictionary or a +phrase explaining it for other dictionaries. As such, they are collections of +*signs* and remain within the linguistic level of things. Entries in a dictionary +often feature information such as the part of speech, the pronunciation or the +etymology of the word they define. + +The entry for "Dictionnaire" in the *Encyclopédie* distinguishes between three +types of dictionaries: one to define *words*, the second to define *facts* and +the last one to define *things*, corresponding to the distinction between +language, history, and science and arts dictionaries although according to its +author, d'Alembert, each has to be of more than just one kind to be really good. +In the full title of the *Encyclopédie*, the concept is more or less equated by +means of the coordinating conjunction "ou" to a *Dictionnaire raisonné*, +"reasoned dictionary", introducing the idea of encyclopedias as dictionaries +with additional structure and a philosophical dimension. + +Back to the "Encyclopédie" article we read that a dictionary remaining strictly +at the language level, a vocabulary, can be seen as the empty frame required for +an encyclopedic dictionary that will fill it with additional depth. Given how +d'Alembert insists on the importance of brevity for a clear definition in the +"Dictionnaire de Langues" entry, it is clear that for the *encyclopédistes*, +encyclopedia aren't superior to dictionaries but really depart from them in +terms of purpose. -Attacked by TREVOUX in its four editions from 1721 to 1752 (1721, 1732, 1743, -1752): qualifies the word a parody ("burlesque") + // "jack of all trades, master -of none". - -The attacks aren't ignored by Diderot who acknowledges the impossibility for a -single ordinary man but explains the trick behind the encyclopedia: a -collaborative work accross disciplines and even generations. + Quotes Bacon, as -philosophical caution. In that sense, they don't refer to the same concept: a -sum of knowledge one man could possess or not vs. a collective epistemologic -strategy. + ulterior motive of "jesuits" vs. (Enlightenment) philosophers. - -The last editions from 1771, one year before the end of EDdA's edition -mentions the projects and adds entries for two new words: the adjective -ENCYCLOPÉDIQUE and the noun ENCYCLOPÉDISTE. It refers explicitely to Diderot & -d'Alembert's project although anonymously. - -Dictionaries are from the origin of the concept books that gather and define -words, and are as such collections of *signs*. There are "translation" -dictionaries that define terms in one source language by means of a term in a -destination language the reader is supposed to know +## La Grande Encyclopédie -The "dictionnaire" article is surprisingly small but distinguishes between -defining "words", and defining "things" (+ third other distinction, definining -"facts" which is associated to History). +After emerging from dictionaries during the 18\textsuperscript{th} century, +encyclopedias became a fertile subgenre in themselves which kept evolving over +the following centuries. One of offsprings of the *Encyclopédie* from the +19\textsuperscript{th} century is entitled *La Grande Encyclopédie, Inventaire +raisonné des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts par une Société de savants et de +gens de lettres* and was published between 1885 and 1902 by an organized team of +over two hundred specialists divided into eleven sections. The aim of +[CollEx-Persée project DISCO-LGE](https://www.collexpersee.eu/projet/disco-lge/) +was to digitize and make *La Grande Encyclopédie* available to the scientific +community as well as the general public. A previous version was partially +available on +[Gallica](https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&collapsing=disabled&query=%28dc.title%20all%20%22La%20Grande%20encyclop%C3%A9die%22%29%20and%20dc.relation%20all%20%22cb377013071%22&rk=42918;4#) +but lacked in quality and had not been fully OCRized. # The *dictionaries* TEI module +Producing *interoperable* and *reusable* data is paramount for them to be useful +for future other scientific projects. These are the two last key aspects of the +[FAIR](https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/) principles (*findability*, +*accessibility*, *interoperability* and *reusability*) which we strive to +enforce as a guideline for efficient and quality research. It entails using +standard formats and a standard for encoding historical texts in the context of +digital humanities is XML-TEI, collectively developped by the *Text Encoding +Initiative* consortium. It consists in a set of technical specifications under +the form of XML schemas, along with a range of tools to handle them and training +resources. + +The XML-TEI standard has a modular structure consisting in optional parts each +covering specific needs such as the physical features of a source document, the +transcription of oral corpora or particular requirements for textual domains +like poetry, or, in our case, dictionaries. + +In what follows, we need to name and manipulate XML elements. We choose to +represent them in a monospace font, in the standard XML autoclosing form within +angle brackets and with a slash following the element name like `<div/>` for a +[`div` element](https://tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-div.html). +We do not mean by this notation that they cannot contain raw text or other XML +elements. + ## Content -`<entry/>` +### The `<entry/>` element + +The central element of the *dictionaries* module is the `<entry/>` element meant +to encode one single entry in a dictionary, that is to say a head word +associated to its definition. Although it may be contained by `<entryFree/>` or +`<superEntry/>` elements which are respectively tools to relax some constraints +on `<entry/>` elements or to group several of them together, it is the - hom - model.entryPart.top @@ -46,7 +166,15 @@ defining "words", and defining "things" (+ third other distinction, definining - pc - sense -## Limits +# A new standard ? + +Studying the content of *La Grande Encyclopédie* and considering several +articles in particular, we identify structures specific to encyclopedias which +are not covered by the *dictionaries* module presented above. We hence conclude +that this module is not able to encode arbitrary encyclopedic content and +propose a new encoding scheme. + +## Nested structures ### The `<entryFree/>` option @@ -81,25 +209,19 @@ model.phrase: individual words or phrases (within § so still no) => + free text, but still no structure ! (<div/>, <p/>…) -# Proposals - -## Bend the semantics - -## Custom schema - ## The *core* module -# In context +### Implemented -## La Grande Encyclopédie +### Left-overs -## The constraint of automated processing +## The constraints of automated processing -## Our choice +## Comparison to other approaches -### Implemented +### Bend the semantics -### Left-overs +### Custom schema # Conclusion