Digital Dictionary

Introduction

Marie CAULI¹, Laurence FAVIER² and Jean-Yves JEANNAS³

¹ Université d’Artois, Arras, France

² GERiiCO, Université de Lille, France

³ AFUL, Université de Lille, France

Why a digital dictionary?

The project of a Digital Dictionary is a challenge, as the term “digital” has become omnipresent in our discussions and increasingly indispensable in order to describe the penetration of information technologies in our lives. For example, in French, to the adjective “numérique”, meaning digital, has been added a noun – “le numérique” – which raises questions and reflections: “Dictionaries remain somewhat perplexed by the digital, and their definitions often refer only to the etymological and technical aspect – a sector associated with calculation, with numbers – and above all to devices opposed to the analog” explains Doueihi (2013). However, everyone agrees that “the digital designates something else” (Doueihi 2013). This “something else” refers to a cultural transformation whose importance continues to grow: “A digital man is not simply a man who uses digital tools, but a different man, who functions differently, who has a different relationship with what surrounds him: space, time, memory, knowledge...”, explained Vitali-Rosati and Sinatra (2014). The Digital Dictionary proposes precisely to illustrate these “differences”, starting with just a selection of them, before incorporating all those that are missing and may be added as later versions are released.

Definition ...