Monofunctional and polyfunctional information tools with an operative function
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Heidi Agerbo
Abstract
Though a vast amount of dictionary analyses have been produced over the years, hardly any of these have mentioned the operative function, which has been overlooked in most lexicographical literature. With short analyses of 12 existing dictionaries ranging from the 18th century to the 21st century, this article shows that many dictionaries have indeed been produced to satisfy operative needs. Based on this result, it is clear that the operative function deserves a place in lexicographical theory. An interesting finding that came out of these analyses was that especially dictionaries from the 18th to the early 20th centuries (the old dictionaries) were written to accommodate several types of information needs that their users would come across in the real world, including operative needs, whereas the focus of most contemporary dictionaries is to satisfy linguistic information needs. This is an interesting change in focus, which this article criticises. Based on the above mentioned analyses, a number of questions are raised to guide future research into the operative function.
© 2018 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Editorial
- Contents
- Nachruf auf Herbert Ernst Wiegand
- Thematic Part: Language contact in the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and in Early Modern Times (with special focus on loanword lexicography)
- Introductory note to the Thematic part
- Turkish as a Mediterranean language
- Greek as the receiving language in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period
- Croatian in the Mediterranean context: language contacts in the Early Modern Croatian lexicography
- Popular lexicon of Greek origin in Italian varieties
- Italian and Arabic
- The vocabulary of the Algerian Lingua Franca
- Maltese: blending Semitic, Romance and Germanic lexemes
- Language contact in Sardinian between the Middle and the Early Modern Ages
- Lexical contact in the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: French
- The lexical impact of language contact with Arabic on Spanish and Catalan
- Language contact on the Iberian Peninsula: Romani and the autochthonous languages
- Judeo-Romance varieties
- Non-thematic Part
- Monofunctional and polyfunctional information tools with an operative function
- A taxonomy of user guidance devices for e-lexicography
- Le Dictionnaire étymologique et historique des régionalismes de l’immobilier : structure générale, macrostructure et microstructure
- Reviews
- Elisabetta Ježek, The Lexicon. An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016 (Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics)
- Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch. Begonnen von Hans Schulz, fortgeführt von Otto Basler. 2. Auflage, völlig neu erarbeitet im Institut für Deutsche Sprache. Band 8: ideal – inaktiv von Herbert Schmidt (Leitung), Dominik Brückner, Isolde Nortmeyer, Oliver Pfefferkorn, Oda Vietze. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2017
- Félix Rodríguez González, Gran diccionario de anglicismos, Madrid, Arco Libros, 2017
- Lexicography in Higher Education
- Der Europäische Master für Lexikographie 2017 im Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programm
- Authors of the present volume
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Editorial
- Contents
- Nachruf auf Herbert Ernst Wiegand
- Thematic Part: Language contact in the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and in Early Modern Times (with special focus on loanword lexicography)
- Introductory note to the Thematic part
- Turkish as a Mediterranean language
- Greek as the receiving language in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period
- Croatian in the Mediterranean context: language contacts in the Early Modern Croatian lexicography
- Popular lexicon of Greek origin in Italian varieties
- Italian and Arabic
- The vocabulary of the Algerian Lingua Franca
- Maltese: blending Semitic, Romance and Germanic lexemes
- Language contact in Sardinian between the Middle and the Early Modern Ages
- Lexical contact in the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: French
- The lexical impact of language contact with Arabic on Spanish and Catalan
- Language contact on the Iberian Peninsula: Romani and the autochthonous languages
- Judeo-Romance varieties
- Non-thematic Part
- Monofunctional and polyfunctional information tools with an operative function
- A taxonomy of user guidance devices for e-lexicography
- Le Dictionnaire étymologique et historique des régionalismes de l’immobilier : structure générale, macrostructure et microstructure
- Reviews
- Elisabetta Ježek, The Lexicon. An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016 (Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics)
- Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch. Begonnen von Hans Schulz, fortgeführt von Otto Basler. 2. Auflage, völlig neu erarbeitet im Institut für Deutsche Sprache. Band 8: ideal – inaktiv von Herbert Schmidt (Leitung), Dominik Brückner, Isolde Nortmeyer, Oliver Pfefferkorn, Oda Vietze. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2017
- Félix Rodríguez González, Gran diccionario de anglicismos, Madrid, Arco Libros, 2017
- Lexicography in Higher Education
- Der Europäische Master für Lexikographie 2017 im Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programm
- Authors of the present volume
