Volltext-Downloads (blau) und Frontdoor-Views (grau)

Verwechslungsfehler oder Wandel - sprachliche Veränderungen der Gegenwart und ihre lexikografische Dokumentation

  • Lexicographic meaning descriptions of German lexical items which are formally and semantically similar and therefore easily confused (so-called paronyms) often do not reflect their current usage of lexical items. They can even contradict one’s personal intuition or disagree with lexical usage as observed in public discourse. The reasons are manifold. Language data used for compiling dictionaries is either outdated, or lexicographic practice is rather conventional and does not take advantage of corpus-assisted approaches to semantic analysis. Despite of various modern electronic or online reference works speakers face uncertainties when dealing with easily confusable words. These are for example sensibel/sensitiv (sensitive) or kindisch/kindlich (childish/childlike). Existing dictionaries often do not provide satisfactory answers as to how to use these sets correctly. Numerous questions addressed in online forums show where uncertainties with paronyms are and why users demand further assistance concerning proper contextual usage (cf. Storjohann 2015). There are different reasons why users misuse certain items or mix up words which are similar in form and meaning. As data from written and more spontaneous language resources suggest, some confusions arise due to ongoing semantic change in the current use of some paronyms. This paper identifies shortcomings of contemporary German Dictionaries and discusses innovative ways of empirical lexicographic work that might pave the way for a new data-driven, descriptive reference work of confusable German terms. Currently, such a guide is being developed at the Institute for German Language in Mannheim implementing corpora and diverse corpus-analytical methods. Its objective is to compile a dictionary with contrastive entries which is a useful reference tool in situation of language doubt. At the same time, it aims at sensitizing users of context dependency and language change.

Export metadata

Additional Services

Search Google Scholar

Statistics

frontdoor_oas
Metadaten
Author:Petra StorjohannGND, Ulrich Schnörch
URN:urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-61960
DOI:https://doi.org/10.14712/24646830.2016.52
ISSN:0567-8269
Parent Title (German):Acta Universitatis Carolinae Philologica
Title Additional (English):Lexical confusion or change - current language change and its lexicographic documentation
Publisher:Karolinum Verlag
Place of publication:Prag
Editor:Martin Šemelík, Věra Kloudová, Marie Vachková
Document Type:Article
Language:German
Year of first Publication:2017
Date of Publication (online):2017/06/06
Publicationstate:Veröffentlichungsversion
Reviewstate:Peer-review
Tag:corpus linguistics; paronymy; semantic change
GND Keyword:Bedeutungswandel; Deutsch; Korpus <Linguistik>; Lexikographie; Paronym; Wörterbuch
Volume:2016
Issue:4
Page Number:40
First Page:133
Last Page:172
DDC classes:400 Sprache / 430 Deutsch
Open Access?:ja
BDSL-Classification:Lexikographie, Wörterbücher
Leibniz-Classification:Sprache, Linguistik
Linguistics-Classification:Lexikografie
Program areas:Lexik
Licence (German):License LogoUrheberrechtlich geschützt