Professor Zgusta's work in lexicography and linguistics proper is built upon a multilingual command of linguistic theory, literary history, the history of linguistics, and his experience as a >practical< lexicographer. The topic under consideration may be the organization and development of a standard variety of a language; explorations of the consequences of linguistic theory on the practical lexicographic applications in making dictionaries that range from Ahtna to Zoque and Batad Ifuagao to Yolngu-Matha; the method of definition in bilingual dictionaries; the state of affairs in Russian lexicography; learner's dictionaries; ancient Greek lexicography; pragmatics; scripts and morphological types; the history of English lexicography; or behind the scenes at the making of the Czech-Chinese dictionary. The reader will not only be offered a careful and wide-ranging study of these important topics in the discipline, but will be taken on a guided comparative and historical tour that illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of current practice and theory. His work reminds those linguists and lexicographers who are locked into >paradigm< battles of the Kuhnian kind that the wheel has already been invented. Most of the articles in this volume have been updated. The editors have also conflated six articles on the history of dictionaries into one seamless narrative with connective tissue supplied by Zgusta.

Lexicographica. Series Maior features monographs and edited volumes on the topics of lexicography and meta-lexicography. Works from the broader domain of lexicology are also included, provided they strengthen the theoretical, methodological and empirical basis of lexicography and meta-lexicography. The almost 150 books published in the series since its founding in 1984 clearly reflect the main themes and developments of the field. The publications focus on aspects of lexicography such as micro- and macrostructure, typology, history of the discipline, and application-oriented lexicographical documentation.

All known languages of the world have special lexical units called names or proper names, whose purpose is to designate the individuality of single persons, groups of people, families, places, hills, mountains, rivers, and animals, as well as things and institutions, etc. The study of names, also called onomastics or onomatology, is not simply a subdiscipline of linguistics; several other disciplines besides traditional philology cooperate in the study. The universe of names as objects of research lacks any clear-cut limits. The interest in names can be linguistic or philosophical, historical or contemporary, theoretical or practical, legal or political, ethnographic or religious; and in each of these and other cases, interest can concentrate on a single language, a group of languages, or a family of them. The present volume is the work of more than 250 authors from 42 countries. This fact alone shows how widespread the studies are. The three languages used in the volume (English, French, German) give only a partial impression of the supranational and transcultural character of the names and their studies. Among the main areas on which the volume concentrates are the following: Specifities of names as linguistic signs, and their systematic analysis; Idiosyncrasies of name studies in various countries in the past and present; The multiplicity of names and their properties in as many languages as was practical; Demonstration of the basic functional identity, yet endless formal variety, of names as identifiers of individual entities; The phenomena of change and assimilation that occur in contact between two or more languages; The importance of names in disciplines other than linguistics, such as history, law, philosophy, theology, geography, archeology, and many others; Names and their use in connection and interaction with other areas of human activities in society; Numerous case studies showing the variety of approaches and methods that must be applied if microanalyses of sets of data are to be used for important conclusions; Registers of names belonging to more than 50 languages of the world, which should make accessible this whole plethora of material and ideas, through their articulation (topical, onomatological, etc.) and the arrangement of material; 23 chapters which are systematically ordered according to specific characteristics of names and their study.

All known languages of the world have special lexical units called names or proper names, whose purpose is to designate the individuality of single persons, groups of people, families, places, hills, mountains, rivers, and animals, as well as things and institutions, etc. The study of names, also called onomastics or onomatology, is not simply a subdiscipline of linguistics; several other disciplines besides traditional philology cooperate in the study. The universe of names as objects of research lacks any clear-cut limits. The interest in names can be linguistic or philosophical, historical or contemporary, theoretical or practical, legal or political, ethnographic or religious; and in each of these and other cases, interest can concentrate on a single language, a group of languages, or a family of them. The present volume is the work of more than 250 authors from 42 countries. This fact alone shows how widespread the studies are. The three languages used in the volume (English, French, German) give only a partial impression of the supranational and transcultural character of the names and their studies. Among the main areas on which the volume concentrates are the following: Specifities of names as linguistic signs, and their systematic analysis; Idiosyncrasies of name studies in various countries in the past and present; The multiplicity of names and their properties in as many languages as was practical; Demonstration of the basic functional identity, yet endless formal variety, of names as identifiers of individual entities; The phenomena of change and assimilation that occur in contact between two or more languages; The importance of names in disciplines other than linguistics, such as history, law, philosophy, theology, geography, archeology, and many others; Names and their use in connection and interaction with other areas of human activities in society; Numerous case studies showing the variety of approaches and methods that must be applied if microanalyses of sets of data are to be used for important conclusions; Registers of names belonging to more than 50 languages of the world, which should make accessible this whole plethora of material and ideas, through their articulation (topical, onomatological, etc.) and the arrangement of material; 23 chapters which are systematically ordered according to specific characteristics of names and their study.

Since about 4000 years ago, lexicography has been a component of all cultures in which script was known. The path of its development goes from word lists on clay tablets to computer stored data banks. In our day, lexicography has a scientific and a non-scientific form. The former form comprises works on various sources of information and reference that pursue various important purposes, such as: help in the acquisition of the mother tongue and of foreign languages; in various types of acquisition of scientific and technical knowledge; in translation; and in cultural exchange and in ideological developments, either within one`s own or in a foreign linguistic community. The social importance of lexicography is occasionally taken cognizance of even in international politics. The last two decades have witnessed an upsurge in interest in lexicography. On the one hand, international contacts are becoming more intimate in terms both of culture and economy; on the other hand and as far as scientific considerations go, the lexicon is being studied more within the framework of various theories, problems of the vocabulary are being studied within the area of foreign language teaching, and the application of the computer in lexicography and in other fields has brought new problems, together with many advantages. The increase in interest in the lexicon has been accompanied by the emergence of the study of dictionaries as a scientific discipline. This discipline studies the tools of reference as to their forms, structures, the way they are used, their history, and their criticism; ultimately, it is the study of those reference tools in relation to the culture in which they are embedded. The Encyclopedia deals with lexicography and with the study of dictionaries; its three volumes cover the whole area in a great wealth of detail but in a coherent way: authors have written 349 articles in English, French, and German. They are distributed in 38 chapters. The Encyclopedia pursues the following goals: to describe the lexicography of all the language families, with particular attention given to the European languages and their transplanted varieties, to develop a typology of the lexicographic reference books, above all the linguistic dictionaries, within the various cultures and societies, to provide the basis for the study of the lexicon within a general theory of lexicography in relation to the study of various functions of dictionaries in individual cultures and in relation to the theories of the lexicon in various linguistic schools of thought, to develop the methodology of lexicographic work in all its phases, beginning with the appointments of a lexicographic office and ending with the application of the computer, to pinpoint areas in greatest need of improvement both in the lexicographic practice of individual territories and in the theory of lexicography, to offer a rich bibliography both of dictionaries and of secondary literature, to foster the development of lexicography into a discipline that while pursuing practical goals will be suitable for being taught and learned in a scientific way.