ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we offer some preliminary reflections on the anthropological dimensions of the dictionary as an information source. We establish a dialogue between the most recurrent ethnographic topics of anthropology, and the way in which they may be reflected in the macros-tructure and microstructure of a sample of three major dictionaries of the Spanish language, the Diccionario del español actual (Seco, Andrés y Ramos 2011, DEA2), the Diccionario integral del español de Argentina (DIEA 2008), and the Diccionario del español de México (DEM 2010), as well as a bilingual dictionary, the Otomí-Spanish bilingual dictionary of the state of Querétaro (Hekking et al. 2010, DOE).
First, we present the relevance of conceiving lexicographic practice and the use of dictionaries as cultural activities in their own right. We point out the main ethnographic interests of anthropology as a science of culture and explain how we came up with the sample of lexicographical works used in this study. We then present some examples that show how a dictionary may encode different types of information that can be of great documentary and ethnographic value, and finish with some final considerations.
