Types of historical context information and their representation in historical semantic dictionaries: Presented at Presenting Information session

My paper will deal with a metalexicographic and typological problem in semantic historical lexicography as it is addressed in various major German dictionaries: how should the historical dimension of a given word be treated within the microstructure of a dictionary article, and how comprehensively can this be done? While some words cannot be dealt with adequately without reference to their cultural or social background or without recourse to encyclopaedic information to explain their meaning or the relation of their various meanings over time, in other cases it could be argued that extended information of a not strictly linguistic kind may overshadow the primary goal of semantic representation of words, threatening to turn the dictionary - especially if it is a text-based one that also quotes liberally from its sources – into more of a commentary.I will look at three types of information that serve to contextualize a word in its historical dimension: firstly, encyclopaedic information (of a factual or of a cultural kind); secondly, more specifically linguistic information concerning the relation of a given word to other words (e.g. of a paradigmatic or syntactical kind); and finally, information concerning the history of a concept as represented by words.This typology of information classes will be illustrated by examples from a number of lexicographical projects that I have written articles for: the panchronic Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm (= German Dictionary of the Grimm brothers, new edition, Göttingen); the Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch (= Dictionary of Early Modern High German, Heidelberg), i.e. a dictionary of a special historical period; and the Goethe-Wörterbuch (= Goethe Dictionary, Hamburg), the largest current author-dictionary project both in German and worldwide

Types of historical context information and their representation in historical semantic dictionaries

My paper will deal with a metalexicographic and typological problem in semantic historical lexicography as it is addressed in various major German dictionaries: how should the historical dimension of a given word be treated within the microstructure of a dictionary article, and how comprehensively can this be done? While some words cannot be dealt with adequately without reference to their cultural or social background or without recourse to encyclopaedic information to explain their meaning or the relation of their various meanings over time, in other cases it could be argued that extended information of a not strictly linguistic kind may overshadow the primary goal of semantic representation of words, threatening to turn the dictionary - especially if it is a text-based one that also quotes liberally from its sources – into more of a commentary.I will look at three types of information that serve to contextualize a word in its historical dimension: firstly, encyclopaedic information (of a factual or of a cultural kind); secondly, more specifically linguistic information concerning the relation of a given word to other words (e.g. of a paradigmatic or syntactical kind); and finally, information concerning the history of a concept as represented by words.This typology of information classes will be illustrated by examples from a number of lexicographical projects that I have written articles for: the panchronic Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm (= German Dictionary of the Grimm brothers, new edition, Göttingen); the Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch (= Dictionary of Early Modern High German, Heidelberg), i.e. a dictionary of a special historical period; and the Goethe-Wörterbuch (= Goethe Dictionary, Hamburg), the largest current author-dictionary project both in German and worldwide.</p