How the vocabulary of Mapuzugun is presented in dictionaries: a contrastive analysis of nouns registered in the Calepino Chileno-Hispano, the Diccionario Araucano-Español and the traditional texts compiled in Estudios Araucanos

Abstract

Dictionaries are widely used as a source of lexicological research in Mapuzugun language. This study aims at assessing how vocabulary presented in dictionaries is representative of the Mapuzugun language by comparing it with the vocabulary that was actually being used in written texts at the same period when dictionaries were published. For that purpose, the semantic fields and word formation processes of the noun entries of two dictionaries (Febrés, 1765, and Augusta, 1916) were compared to the nouns that appeared in the compilation of traditional texts Estudios Araucanos (Lenz, 1895-1897) and were not included in Mapuzugun-Spanish dictionaries published in Chile until 1916. Results show that word formation processes of nouns in dictionaries and texts is similar, with the exception of loanwords, which are underrepresented in dictionaries. Furthermore, the semantic field of traditions is best represented in both groups of nouns. Dictionaries mostly include vocabulary related to religious and social traditions, whereas Estudios Araucanos include vocabulary related to war and horse riding, which is coherent with the purpose of the texts. However, the vocabulary related to human body and herbs is widely represented in Augusta (1916); this could be explained by the fact that the author was a physician. Despite these differences, it is concluded that the vocabulary presented in the dictionaries is representative of the vocabulary being used at the same period, which confirms that these works are reliable sources for lexicological research.