TY - CHAP U1 - Buchbeitrag A1 - Storjohann, Petra ED - Klosa-Kückelhaus, Annette ED - Engelberg, Stefan ED - Möhrs, Christine ED - Storjohann, Petra T1 - The public as linguistic authority: Why users turn to internet forums to differentiate between words T2 - Dictionaries and Society. Proceedings of the XX EURALEX International Congress, 12-16 July 2022, Mannheim, Germany N2 - This paper addresses the question of why we face unsatisfactory German dictionary entries when looking up and comparing two similar lexical terms that are loan words, new words, (near) synonyms, or confusables. It explains how users are aware of existing reference works but still search or post on language forums, often after consulting a dictionary and experiencing a range of dictionary based problems. Firstly, these dictionary based difficulties will be scrutinised in more detail with respect to content, function, presentation, and the language of definitions. Entries documenting loan words and commonly confused pairs from different lexical reference resources serve as examples to show the short comings. Secondly, I will explain why learning about your target group involves studying discussion forums. Forums are a valuable source for detailed user studies, enabling the examination of different communicative needs, concrete linguistic questions, speakers’ intuitions, and people’s reactions to posts and comments. Thirdly, with the help of two examples I will describe how the study of chats and forums had a major impact on the development of a recently compiled German dictionary of confusables. Finally, that same problem solving approach is applied to the idea of a future dictionary of neologisms and their synonyms. KW - confusables KW - internet forums KW - problem-solving approach KW - sense discrimination KW - synonyms KW - Compterunterstützte Lexikografie KW - Internetforum KW - Deutsch Y1 - 2022 UN - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-111452 UR - https://euralex2022.ids-mannheim.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Proceedings_11.07.2022.pdf SN - 978-3-937241-87-6 SB - 978-3-937241-87-6 U6 - https://doi.org/10.14618/ids-pub-11145 DO - https://doi.org/10.14618/ids-pub-11145 SP - 155 EP - 170 PB - IDS-Verlag CY - Mannheim ER -