Open Access

This paper presents a short insight into a new project at the "Institute for the German Language” (IDS) (Mannheim). It gives an insight into some basic ideas for a corpus-based dictionary of spoken German, which will be developed and compiled by the new project "The Lexicon of spoken German” (Lexik des gesprochenen Deutsch, LeGeDe). The work is based on the "Research and Teaching Corpus of Spoken German” (Forschungs- und Lehrkorpus Gesprochenes Deutsch, FOLK), which is implemented in the "Database for Spoken German” (Datenbank für Gesprochenes Deutsch, DGD). Both resources, the database and the corpus, have been developed at the IDS.

Digital or electronic lexicography has gained in importance in the last few years. This can be seen in the increasing number of online dictionaries and publications focusing on this field. OBELEX (http://www.owid.de) - one of the bibliographic projects of the Institute for German Language in Mannheim - takes this development into account and makes both online dictionaries and research contribulions available in a bibliographical database searchable by different criteria. The idea for OBELEX originated in the context of the dictionary portal OWID, which incorporates several dictionaries from the Institute for German Language (http://www.owid.de). OBELEX has been available online free of Charge since December 2008. As of 2011, OBELEX includes two search options: a search for research literature and (as a completely new feature) a search for online dictionaries, a Service which is unique in the world.

Digital or electronic lexicography has gained in importance in the last few years. This can be seen in the growing list of publications focusing on this field. In the OBELEX bibliography (http://www.owid.de/obelex/engl), the research contributions in this field are consolidated and are searchable by different criteria. The idea for OBELEX originated in the context of the dictionary portal OWID, which incorporates several dictionaries from the Institute for German Language (www.owid.de). OBELEX has been available online free of charge since December 2008. OBELEX includes articles, monographs, anthologies and reviews published since 2000 that relate to electronic lexicography, as well as some relevant older works. Our particular focus is on works about online lexicography. Systematically evaluated sources are relevant journals like International Journal of Lexicography, Lexicographica, Dictionaries, Lexikos; furthermore Euralex-Proceedings, proceedings of the International Symposium on Lexicography in Copenhagen as well as relevant monographs and anthologies. Information on dictionaries is currently not included in OBELEX; the main focus is on metalexicography. However, we are working on a database with information on online dictionaries as a supplement to OBELEX. All entries of OBELEX are stored in a database. Thus, all parts of the bibliographic entry (such as person, title, publication or year) are searchable. Furthermore, all publications are associated with our keyword list; therefore, a thematic search is possible. The subject language is also noted. With this type of content, the OBELEX bibliography supplements in a useful way other bibliographic projects such as the printed ‘Internationale Bibliographie zur germanistischen Lexikographie und Wörterbuchforschung’ by H. E. Wiegand (Wiegand 2006/2007), the ‘Bibliography of Lexicography’ by R. R. K. Hartmann (Hartmann 2007), and the ‘International Bibliography of Lexicography’ of Euralex (cf. also DeCesaris and Bernal 2006). OBELEX differs from all these bibliographic projects by its strong focus on electronic lexicography and its ability to retrieve bibliographic information.

The paper presents an ongoing project in the domain of lexicography of language contact, namely, the “Internet Dictionary of Words of German Origin in Tok Pisin”. The German influence onto the lexicon of the main pidgin language of Papua New Guinea has its roots in the German colonial empire, where Tok Pisin played an important role as a lingua franca in the colony of German New Guinea. Tok Pisin also served as an intermediate language for many borrowing processes; that is, German loans entered many languages in the South Pacific via Tok Pisin. The Internet Dictionary of Words of German Origin in Tok Pisin is based on all available lexicographical sources from the early 20th century up to now. These sources are systematically evaluated within our project; the results will be documented in the dictionary. The microstructure of the dictionary will be presented with respect to its major features: documentation of sources, examples for word usage, audio files, and lexicographic comment.