Open Access

Das vorliegende Handbuch vermittelt einige ausgewählte Untersuchungsperspektiven auf die Phänomene Wort und Wortschatz. Die einzelnen Beiträge ordnen die Gegenstände in einen jeweils spezifischen Zusammenhang ein und fokussieren dabei auf sprachliche Kontexte, interdisziplinäre Zusammenhänge, methodische Herangehensweisen unter dem Blickwinkel der linguistischen Theorie oder der angewandten Linguistik. Das Konzept des Wortes und des Wortschatzes erhält daher in jedem Beitrag eine eigene Bedeutung und Funktion. In Summe kommt dadurch ein komplexes Verständnis von Wort und Wortschatz zum Ausdruck, das Vielfalt und Interdisziplinarität statt Einschränkung und singuläre Ausrichtung zulässt.

The following is based on the idea that the function and presentation especially of quoted examples in the DWB as in lexicography in general is in large part determined by traditional lexicographic and non-lexicographic concepts of "example". This requires a methodological approach which is diachronic and hermeneutic instead of an approach which is synchronic and typological, therefore it seems not to be appropriate to base the analysis of the role and function of DWB examples on a typology (of examples) which was created for some modern dictionaries. At first I present the history of five "functional aspects" of examples, then I show how each aspect was treated by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm during the planning of their dictionary. The first functional aspect was taken from the imitatio tradition which has been practiced at least since renaissance dictionaries. The second appears to have conceptual connexion with the (new)platonic image ("Urbild") which is inherent in utterances as well as in all objects of the material world. The third aspect concerning the illustratio tradition was developed by the enlightenment philosophy and it is the only one which was rejected by the Grimms, but became more and more the leading idea behind lexicographic practice in later periods of the DWB. The fourth aspect concerns examples as quotations to support (to prove) the statements made by the word explanations. It traditionally refers to philological principles and dominated esp. the second period of the DWB. According to the fifth functional aspect quotations are the basic material for semantic analysis before becoming examples. This aspect was more or less ignored, but it caused some of the main methodological problems in handling the enormous material after 1912. I then show how Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's original concept was partially retained and partially changed by later lexicographers, and how in practical work the more or less theoretical, idealistic concepts were transformed and reduced to two main functions: show and prove. Finally some light is shed on the reception of the examples in the DWB, i.e. the way readers have used them and how they can be used today.