Le Traitement différentiel en lexicographie diachronique : l'exemple de chansonnier

The lexicographical treatment of chansonnier features disparities of a diatopic type (Quebec meanings as against French meanings) and of a diachronic type. As regards geolinguistic variation, the sememes describe the definitions associated with the song activities of the two French-speaking communities. As regards history, a complex problem arises in so far as the medieval song collection was not termed chansonnier at the time, but rather by co-existing and varied lexicons (particularly albums de chanson). Moreover, the first reference acknowledged by the lexicographical tradition (1717) refers not to /recueil/ (collection') as expected but rather to /faiseur de chanson/ (song maker'). Indeed the title in which this first definition appears la Clef des chansonniers is to be interpreted as a collection of then-popular tunes for singers, not as the key to song collections' (/la clé des recueils de chanson/). This paper seeks to elucidate the semantic programme of the lexeme chansonnier in diachrony.