Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

La professió de lexicògraf

1994; Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat; Issue: 17 Linguagem: Inglês

10.7203/caplletra.17.7399

2386-7159

Emilio Soler Pascual,

Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies

At the present time, there is no doubt that lexicography takes up an important place in the field of language Science and that this fact involves the possibility of speaking about the scientific task carried out by properly trained professionals: the l exicographers. This article reflects on the mentioned subject, paying special attention to the characteristics of the lexicographers’ work. The first section, From the Amateur to the Professional Lexicography, explains the fact that nowadays lexicography does not remain in the hands of the amateur and the enthusiast, but in those of the professional scientis t' . Lexicography has changed from «the art of making dictionaries» to «the Science and the technique of dictionaries». The second section, The Establishment of the Scien t ific Lexicography, comments on the importance of the Exeter International Convention of Lexicography (1983), the creat i on of EURALEX and the union of efforts and research works with the aim of determining the lexicographical science. The third section focuses explicitly on the several points of the lexicographer’s work. In this central part of the article, lexicography i s placed within the limits of applied ling ui stics and, therefore, they insist on the fact that the lexicographer i s not basically a language theorist The basic assignments in the treatment of the subject ma t ters are commented, and the lexicographer ' s work is related to the rest of the branches of language science and the need to attend to q u estions that were obv i ated from dictionaries not long ago; treatment of macro and micro- structure, problems of definition, indications for the use of verbs, noun position and combinatory, etc. Finally, the importance of the lexicographer in the establis hm ent of language use and the need of collaboration with other spec i alized professionals i s commented, as well as the Computer Services available for those who take up dictionary making.