Topics
The network of internet lexicography, through intensive academic exchange between practising academic lexicographers and meta-lexicographers, as well as between individual academic dictionary projects, aims to answer the following research questions:
• Data modelling for online dictionaries: Which forms of data modelling are most suitable for online dictionaries, if flexible access and presentation are to realised? Does the extraction of data from different sources (e.g. electronic text corpora, reference archives) influence the form of modelling chosen? These and further questions were discussed at the 1st workshop. The outcomes of this discussion are published in the volume Datenmodellierung für Internetwörterbücher (ed.Annette Klosa and Carolin Müller-Spitzer).
• Network strategies and access structures: How can information about semasiological and onomasiological relations between lexemes in online dictionaries be obtained through lexicographical development, as well as through the (partly) automatic extraction of electronic text corpora? How should the diverse network of lexicographical data in online dictionaries, or in portals that connect several online dictionaries, be coded, so that it can be made useable for different access structures? Which navigational paths should users be able to follow? These and further questions were discussed at the 2nd workshop.
• Automatic extraction of lexicographical information: Which lexicographic information can be extracted (partly) automatically from electronic text corpora, and how should it be integrated into the online dictionary? How can such information be linked to lexicographically compiled information, and how important is it in this context that it is linked back to the online dictionary’s corpus? These and further questions will be discussed at the 3rd workshop.
• The lexicographical process in online dictionaries: To what extent does the lexicographical process differ when publishing online dictionaries and how are users affected by this? What influence do new ways of extracting data from electronic text corpora have on the lexicographical process? These and further questions will be discussed at the 4th workshop.
• Research into dictionary use and user-adaptive access: How are online dictionaries used? Do users really want user-adaptive access to the online dictionary and different display formats for lexicographical information in the dictionary entries every time they look something up? How can the use of log file analysis or other ways of researching the use of online dictionaries help bring about a stronger orientation towards the user? How can users be more involved in the development of a dictionary? These and further questions will be discussed at the 5th workshop.
• Issues of layout and design of online dictionaries: How should lexicographical information and networks be presented in the online dictionary to ensure that words can be looked up successfully? How can users be more involved in the development of an online dictionary? What influence does the fact that online dictionaries can increasingly be accessed on different types of screen (e.g. Netbook, mobile phone) have on the presentation of online dictionaries? These and further questions will be discussed at the 6th workshop.
The results of this work will be included in the individual publications of the participants, as well as in a collaboratively compiled ‘Handbook of Internet Lexicography’, which will summarise current research into this topic.