{"id":15430,"date":"2026-01-15T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/borisnemeth.com\/?page_id=15430"},"modified":"2026-01-15T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:25:51","slug":"the-dictionary-document","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/borisnemeth.com\/index.php\/the-dictionary-document\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dictionary Document"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Dictionary Document (2008)<\/h1>

\u00a0<\/p>

The Dictionary Document began as a simple game with language. I wanted to see what happens when a portrait of a person is paired with a dry dictionary definition \u2014 a sentence meant to clarify, not complicate.<\/p>

Some definitions feel amusing, others uncomfortably precise. And that is exactly the point: language, whose job is to explain things, suddenly becomes uncertain when placed next to a specific human face. As if, for a moment, it quietly admits its limits.<\/p>

Here I\u2019m close to a thought by Ludwig Wittgenstein: that the meaning of words doesn\u2019t live in the dictionary, but in how we actually use them. Move the same sentence into a new context, and it starts to sound entirely different.<\/p>

For me, The Dictionary Document is a reminder that people can\u2019t be reduced to definitions. And perhaps a gentle irony aimed at language itself \u2014 always trying to pin us down, and always charmingly failing.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"THE_DICTIONARY_DOCUMENT_Photo_Boris_Nemeth_06\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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your partner is the person you are married to or are having a romantic or sexual relationship with<\/h6>
Bratislava, 2008<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"THE_DICTIONARY_DOCUMENT_Photo_Boris_Nemeth_05\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A\u00a0telephonist is someone who works at a\u00a0telephone exchange or whose job is to answer the telephone for a\u00a0business or other organization.<\/h6>
Liptovsk\u00e1 tepli\u010dka, 2008<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"THE_DICTIONARY_DOCUMENT_Photo_Boris_Nemeth_02\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A\u00a0planet is a\u00a0large round object in space that moves around star.<\/h6>
Berl\u00edn, 2008<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The mayor is a\u00a0person at the head of a\u00a0town goverment.<\/h6>
Liptovsk\u00e1 tepli\u010dka, 2008<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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An animal is a\u00a0living creature such as a\u00a0dog, lion or rabbit..<\/h6>
Berlin, 2008<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"THE_DICTIONARY_DOCUMENT_Photo_Boris_Nemeth_07\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A\u00a0believer is someone who is sure that God exists or that their religion is true.<\/h6>
Rusk\u00fd Potok, 2007<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A fireman is a person (ussualy a man) whose job is to put out fires.<\/h6>
Liptovsk\u00e1 tepli\u010dka, 2008<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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a cleaner is someone whose job is to clean a particular type of things.<\/h6>
Rusovce, 2007<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dictionary Document (2008) \u00a0 The Dictionary Document began as a simple game with language. I wanted to see what happens when a portrait of a person is paired with a dry dictionary definition \u2014 a sentence meant to clarify, not complicate. Some definitions feel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15430","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/borisnemeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/borisnemeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/borisnemeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borisnemeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borisnemeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/borisnemeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/borisnemeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}