Supplementing a new historical dictionary with older citations

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Abstract

The Dictionary of Old Norse Prose (ONP) at the University of Copenhagen covers the lexicon of prose texts preserved in Norwegian and Icelandic manuscripts from c. 1150 to the close of the Middle Ages. ONP is now an online digital dictionary which is still in progress. At the current point in time around 50% of the headwords and citations have been edited. The newest version of ONP online (onp.ku.dk) was launched in 2019 and contains diverse digital connections to other relevant resources and digital tools.
ONP began as a supplement to the main previous historical dictionary (Fritzner’s from 1886- 96) but then switched to a systematically excerpt-based dictionary based on a comprehensive reading of the corpus by two expert readers. Since editing began the policy has been to supplement the exceptions with the citations from Fritzner’s dictionary and other major historical dictionaries, thus ensuring that the dictionary encompasses all senses previously identified and the examples used to illustrate them. This process is slow, as it involves identifying the citation in an edition that has been superseded in almost all cases, and then locating it in the new edition and entering both the text and metadata into the database. This process consumes a considerable portion of the time devoted to editing.
Over the decades various tools have been produced to assist editors in this process, including an index of the editions used by the older dictionaries and their relationship to the new ones. In particular, the old dictionaries’ references have in a very large number of cases been recorded. We have recently developed digital tools that can be used through ONP’s web application that allow editors to leverage these resources in order to greatly streamline the process of supplementing. This paper demonstrates these resources and the benefits they can have for end-users, as well as reflecting on the relevance and utility of the supplementing policy itself.
Original languageEnglish
Publication date22 Jun 2022
Publication statusPublished - 22 Jun 2022
EventInternational Conference on Historical Lexicology and Lexicography 2022 - Lorient, France
Duration: 22 Jun 202224 Jun 2022
Conference number: 2022
https://ichll2022.sciencesconf.org/

Conference

ConferenceInternational Conference on Historical Lexicology and Lexicography 2022
Number2022
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityLorient
Period22/06/202224/06/2022
Internet address

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