Lexical Culture

Abstract

The paper focuses on the mutual relations between linguistics and lexicography. Against the background of etymology and comparative-historical linguistic studies and using the words 'lexical' and 'culture' as examples, an attempt is made to demonstrate the relevance of morphology, grammar and semantics to the description of vocabulary and its lexicographic codification. Issues of intralingual variety and interlingual diversity can now also be addressed within the theoretical framework of contrastive textology, supported by computer-aided parallel text corpus analysis. However, lexicography is not entirely dependent on the results of linguistic research; it needs to move on and develop its own theoretical base. Recent progress in four fields of dictionary research has indeed contributed to an international upsurge of 'lexical culture'.