The MoNoPoli database: Or how to catch Macronitis

International audienceIn this article we present our method to build a derivational database of French deanthroponyms, which we call MoNoPoli for Mots construits sur Noms propres de personnalités Politiques, ‘complex words based on politician proper names’. MoNoPoli contains 6,545 complex wordsamounting to a total of 55,030 tokens and includes almost only neologistic forms. TheWeb is the only conceivable resource for collecting them: it alone gives massive access to discourse genres that contain neologisms. To feed the database, a program automatically generates the set of allpossible derived words. Generated forms are then used as queries on theWeb. Attested forms are kept with their context. This method provides a potential alternative to collect data that cannot be found elsewhere. Finally, this article describes some of the remarkable results obtained withthe analysis of the deanthroponyms of MoNoPoli