A necessary redefinition of lexicography in the digital age: Glossography, dictionography and implications for the future

Abstract

This paper deals with developments in the field of lexicography that resulted in the need for a new definition of this term. The paper offers a brief look at the origin, use and development of the term lexicography and at the use of glosses in former and current times. It is shown how the digital era enables the use of certain lexicographical features in other sources than dictionaries. This leads to an expansion of the scope of the term lexicography. A strong focus is on the use of glosses, originally inserted by scribes as snippets into manuscripts to help with the understanding of difficult words and expressions. The use of glosses has increased, and they are currently commonly used in a variety of environments. In digital products glosses play an innovative, productive and significant role to present new types of lexicographical data. This demands the recognition of glosses as lexicographical entries and leads to a redefinition of the term lexicography that includes two major sub-fields, namely dictionography and glossography.