Josette Rey-Debove (November 16, 1929 – February 22, 2005), was a French

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

and

semiologist Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is an ...

. She was the first female lexicographer in France, and held many prominent posts in this field, where she used her influence to promote

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

changes to French language usage. Her husband, Alain Rey, was also her colleague.

Early life and education

Josette Rey-Debove was born November 16, 1929, in

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

(Pas-de-Calais), France. She was a graduate of the

University of Sorbonne The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

, with a doctorate of linguistics.

Career

She began her career in 1952 as a lecturer of French at the Edgar-Quinet College in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The following year, she became an editor of language dictionaries at the Société du Nouveau Littré (later Dictionnaires Le Robert), one of the most prominent publishers of dictionaries in the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

. It was there that she met Alain Rey, whom she married on September 11, 1954. She contributed to dictionaries for Dictionnaires Le Robert, collaborating on the

Petit Robert ''Le Petit Robert de la Langue Française'' (), known as just ''Petit Robert'', is a popular single-volume French dictionary first published by Paul Robert in 1967. It is an abridgement of his eight-volume ''Dictionnaire alphabétique et analo ...

for the French language, at Robert des Enfants (the company's division for publishing the children's dictionaries), to the Dictionnaire du français (foreign language edition) and to Robert Méthodique-Brio. In 1977, she became

secretary-general Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

of Dictionnaires Le Robert, a position she held until 1994. A well-known linguist who promoted feminist changes to French usage, she was named to various commissions to develop the standards of the language: the Commission de la féminisation du vocabulaire au ministère des droits de la femme between 1984 and 1985, the Commission d'expertise pour la réforme de l'orthographe au Conseil supérieur de la langue française in 1989, the Commission d'orientation pour la simplification du langage administratif au ministère de la Fonction publique et de la Réforme de l'État in 2001, the

Office québécois de la langue française The (, OQLF; ) is an agency of the Quebec provincial government charged with ensuring legislative requirements with respect to the right to use French are respected. Established on 24 March 1961 by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage, the ...

sur la terminologie, la néologie et la méthodologie du travail terminologique during the 1970s. She was also a professor of

lexicology Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that analyzes the lexicon of a specific language. A word is the smallest meaningful unit of a language that can stand on its own, and is made up of small components called morphemes and even smaller elemen ...

and

semiology Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

at the University Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle throughout the 1970s, subsequently at the University Paris VII-Denis Diderot during the 1980s, and at the

École des hautes études en sciences sociales The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (, EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The school awards Master and PhD degrees alone and conj ...

beginning in 2002. A friend of many of the members of

Oulipo Oulipo (, short for ; roughly translated as "workshop of potential literature", stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. It wa ...

( Bernard Cerquiglini, Paul Fournel), she was their visiting scholar in 1986. She died February 22, 2005, in

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

Awards

* Ordre national du Québec (National Order of Quebec) in 2004 * Chevalier (Knight) of the

Ordre national du Mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

(National Order of Merit) of France.

Works

Le Petit Robert ''Le Petit Robert de la Langue Française'' (), known as just ''Petit Robert'', is a popular single-volume French dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabe ...

, in collaboration, 1967 * Étude linguistique et sémiotique des dictionnaires français contemporains, Mouton De Gruyter, 1971 () * Recherche sur les systèmes signifiants, 1973 * Le Métalangage : étude du discours sur le langage, Armand Colin, 1978 (), and the second edition in 1997, revised in 2007 (). * Lexique de sémiotique, 1979 * Dictionnaire méthodique du français actuel, 1982, revised in 2003 * Le Petit Robert des enfants, 1988 * Dictionnaire des anglicismes, with Gilberte Gagnon, Le Robert, 1991. () * Le Nouveau Petit Robert, in collaboration, 1993, revised in 2006 () * Le Robert quotidien, 1996 * La Linguistique du signe : une approche sémiotique du langage et le Robert du français, 1998

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rey-Debove, Josette 1929 births 2005 deaths French lexicographers French semioticians Women lexicographers University of Paris alumni Academic staff of Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3 Knights of the National Order of Quebec 20th-century lexicographers French women linguists Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite