Speakers
Description
This article outlines the Dictionary of the Dubrovnik Idiom project at the Institute for the Croatian Language. Given its unconventional conceptual framework, this dictionary adopts a diachronic approach, incorporating headwords from diverse historical periods (spanning from the 16th to the 21st century) and across a broad spectrum of linguistic registers: from the vernacular to high-prestige literature. From the perspective of a fixed point on the diachronic axis (e.g. present-day usage), some synonyms may, depending on their temporal distance, be classified as obsolete or archaic. However, when arranged along both the synchronic and diachronic dimensions, synonym sets can be further differentiated according to functional-stylistic and register-based distribution. The paper presents a typology of the synonymy encountered during the lexicographic processing. Particular attention is paid to cases in which the dictionary records synonyms that never met, that is, synonyms for which corpus evidence shows no temporal overlap.