The paper deals with the lists of proper names found in 22 Polish-French and/or French-Polish dictionaries out of the 45 dictionaries investigated, including dictionaries of different sizes published over the last 150 years. The lists most often include geographical names, gentilics and first names. A popular practice is to include certain items in the main body of the dictionary and to list other items in appendices; sometimes, these two sets of proper names overlap, which is incoherent. In addition to the quite evident information on spelling, the analysed lists may provide phonetic, grammatical, stylistic or encyclopedic data. However, the accumulation of such information, very valuable for users, transforms the lists into a succession of entries. That is why, instead of striving for originality by putting together lists of such exotic terms as Zodiac signs or celestial bodies, it would be better to incorporate proper names into the macrostructure.
This article deals with conceptions of proper names used in Czech monolingual dictionaries. It is focused on the difference between proper names that are in the body of the dictionary and special lists of proper names. Some conceptual and methodological problems are discussed as well, such as selection criteria, the inclusion of unofficial forms of proper names, creating potential forms of ethnonyms or names of inhabitants, etc. In my opinion, proper names should be included in the body of the dictionary along with the appellatives. Proper names have their specifics and there is no reason why these should be separated from the rest of the vocabulary. This is the only way to keep the relationship between proper names and other derived words obvious.
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