Yesterday's Words: Contemporary, Current and Future Lexicography

Yesterday’s Words: Contemporary, Current and Future Lexicography reflects the main issues of scholarly discussion in the fields of historical lexicography and lexicology including the historiography of lexicography. The state-of-the-art volume offers a wide range of contributions in five chapters. After the editors’ introduction to Yesterday’s Words, the chapter Dictionaries and Dictionary-Makers of Former Ages concentrates on historical lexicography, including both the main lexicographical works in English and German and dictionaries of minority languages such as Frisian, Welsh, Irish and Scots. The Vocabulary of the Past discusses historical lexicological and etymological issues such as the results of early language contact in the West-Germanic area and in Jamaica in more recent times. Researchers involved in ongoing lexicographical projects, such as the first dictionary of Old Dutch, report on their practice and methodological approach in Current and Future Lexicography and Lexicology. Many dictionaries or dictionary research projects discussed in the volume have been or are being carried out in a digital environment. In the final chapter, Technology of Today for Yesterday’s Words, special attention is paid to projects in which computer techniques and the development of new applications have been essential. The volume is an essential text for lexicographers, historiographers and historical linguists.

Marijke Mooijaart is an editor of the Oudnederlands Woordenboek (Dictionary of Old Dutch) at the Leiden Institute of Dutch Lexicology, after having worked on the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal (Dictionary of the Dutch Language) until its completion. She teaches historical linguistics at the University of Leiden. She has published articles on lexicography and word-history and is currently working, in co-operation with Stanisaw Prdota, on an edition of the 16th-century collection of proverbs by Reyer Gheurtz. Marijke van der Wal is Professor in the History of Dutch (KNAW-Muller Chair) at the University of Leiden. Her publications cover the fields of both historical linguistics and the historiography of linguistics. She has published the Geschiedenis van het Nederlands (in co-operation with Cor van Bree) and De moedertaal centraal. Standaardisatie-aspecten in de Nederlanden omstreeks 1650. Her current research is focussed on egodocuments, in particular the Dutch 17th- and 18th-century sailing letters (National Archives, Kew UK), and the language history from below. The editors are preparing a manual for Middle Dutch and Early New Dutch which is due to be published in the second half of 2008.