Towards a theoretically-motivated general public dictionary of semantic derivations and collocations for French

We present two twin-projects aimed at the description of French semantic derivations and collocations: the DiCo, a formal database whose encoding methodology borrows heavily from explanatory combinatorial lexicology (postulated by Meaning-Text theory), and the Lexique actif du français (LAF, ‘Active lexicon of French’), which accounts for the same phenomena but is tailored for use by the general public. The LAF is generated entirely from the content of the DiCo, thereby ensuring a rigorous basis to its “popularized” descriptions. Section 1 introduces the general goals of our projects and defines the concepts of semantic derivation and collocation. Section 2 is an example-based presentation of the DiCo; this is mirrored in Section 3, for the LAF. We conclude with remarks on our methodology and information on the progress of the work.