Swedish lexicographic history revisited

• During the 1990s the history of the Swedish lexicography was thoroughly investigated at the University of Gothenburg. The outcome of the research project was three Ph. d. theses and a vast number of articles. In 1855, the first monolingual Swedish dictionary was completed. Although this was a groundbreaking work, the lexicographer did have a well-developed tradition of lexical description of the Swedish language to build on. This presentation will provide a quick overview of the early stages in the history of the Swedish lexicography. During the 16th and 17th centuries, it was dominated by the continental Latin tradition, with bi- or multilingual dictionaries, including Swedish. These dictionaries did not, however, contribute but little to the lexical description of the Swedish language. From the beginning of the 18th century, the repertoire of languages alongside Swedish in the bilingual dictionaries is extended also to include the European vernaculars, e.g. English, French and German. The presentation will focus on how the Swedish lexicographers drew on the influences from the continental lexicography. It will also demonstrate the importance of the bilingual lexicography for the standardization process of the Swedish language, not only regarding the establishment of an adequate vocabulary but also as to the description of the grammatical features of the Swedish language.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

History of Lexicography

Lexicographic Traditions

Language Planning

Swedish Lexicography

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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