En los orígenes del Diccionario de construcción y régimen de R.-J. Cuervo

Abstract

The Colombian language scholar R. J. Cuervo worked for a lengthy period on a Diccionario de construcción y régimen or dictionary of grammatical characteristics which he was unable to finish completely. Prior to this, in 1871, he had produced, in collaboration with his fellow countryman V. González Manrique, a set of specimen entries for a dictionary of the Spanish language. This was reproduced in a volume commemorating the centenary of the death of the latter. The availability of such a facsimile, together with the discovery of unpublished materials prepared by Cuervo reopens the question of the relationship between the specimen and the later construction dictionary. Despite their similarity with the later work, it seems probable that the notes were intended for neither, but reflect Cuervo’s abiding interest in government and construction. This was evinced in his early work on a Latin grammar which he published in collaboration with the Colombian M.A. Caro in 1867. He also cited approvingly the comments of the Venezuelan grammarian A. Bello who suggested that dictionaries should contain information on régimen [government], or specific syntax, and construcción [construction], or general syntax. Cuervo devoted forty years to work in this area. His Diccionario de construcción y régimen puts into practice this division of grammatical information into general and more specific rules, although being alphabetically ordered by headwords rather than by the virtually unmanageable ordering by government and construction that might have been attempted. Other than the influence of Bello, and of his own Latin grammar, Cuervo’s thinking is close to that structuring the Latin grammar of the French scholar J. L. Burnouf, which was translated in Venezuela, used at the University of Caracas and approved by the Ministry of Education. He was inspired to produce his own Latin grammar with Caro and more generally to develop his grammatical ideas by this work, though it is clear that his own contributions far outweigh the original germ. The modern development of grammatical valency theory and its extensive application to some areas of lexicography means that Cuervo’s work is of considerable relevance to this day.