Dictionary and Stereotypes: What is a Blonde Like in Mrežnik?

Istraživački projekt Hrvatski mrežni rječnik – Mrežnik Hrvatske zaklade za znanost pri kraju je prve faze (2017. – 2021.) svoje provedbe. U toj su fazi ispunjeni zahtjevi zadani radnim planom projekta, ali su se otvorila i pitanja kojima u budućnosti treba posvetiti posebnu pozornost. Jedno je od njih obrada riječi i izraza koji označuju stereotipizirane pojmove, što otvara i daljnja promišljanja o potrebi i načinu davanja informacija o konotativnome značenju u rječniku, odnosno o granici konotativnoga i prenesenoga značenja, koju nije uvijek lako odrediti. Upravo je stoga u suorganizaciji projekta Hrvatski mrežni rječnik – Mrežnik, Hrvatske zaklade za znanost i Instituta za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje, kao ustanove nositelja projekta, 11. prosinca 2020. održan Okrugli stol Rječnik i stereotipi posvećen toj temi. U ovome se radu na primjeru riječi i izraza kojima se označuje osoba plave/svijetle kose (s posebnim obzirom na riječi plavuša i plavušan) pokazuje koje podatke leksikograf dobiva iz skica riječi i s kojim se problemima suočava pri njihovoj interpretaciji. Posebno se na temelju riječi koje označuju osobu određene boje kose pokazuje kako se iz gramatičke (tvorbene) strukture nekih riječi mogu iščitati u njoj pohranjeni stereotipi i, primjerice, slika rodne (ne)ravnopravnosti u određenome društvenom trenutku.This paper is dealing with practical lexicographic issues connected to stereotyping by looking at data from the hrWaC corpus. Examples of terms and expressions used to denote people with blond hair, male and female alike – plavokosa djevojčica/djevojka/žena (blonde girl/woman), plavuša (blonde), plavokos dječak/mladić/muškarac (blond boy/young man/man), and plavušan (blond) – and the possessive adjective plavušin (blonde’s; hrWaC has no record of the male equivalent – plavušanov/blond’s) show their most frequent collocational behaviour. This brings us to the issue of linguistic (grammatical) stereotyping (like we see in plavuša with the feminine -uša suffix) and lack of semantic parallelism between the unit denoting a stereotyped notion and its derivatives (female plavuša/blonde vs. male plavušan/blond). The paper shows the extent of connotational/collocational differentiation between the Croatian expressions for female persons that contain adjective plavokos (blond-haired) (mostly implying delicacy, gentleness, fragility) and the term plavuša (blonde) (mostly implying physical attraction and lack of intelligence). As a dictionary that is corpus-based, but not corpus-driven, Mrežnik does not register collocations uncritically. This fact raises many questions: about the importance of a dictionary’s social responsibility and its realization; whether a dictionary should also have an educational role, in the sense that it should aim to change negative perceptions/stereotypes; What is the role of the assumed user profile as we choose the way in which to present a stereotyped concept? Can a lexicographer be scientifically consistent and socially appropriate at the same time? In fact, by raising this collocational issue with regard to Mrežnik and asking how Mrežnik perceives a blonde, we are bringing closer some of the doubts that emerge as we process words that reflect social, gender and other stereotypes, while offering a model for their processing