Dictionaries and the Digital Revolution: A Focus on Users and Lexical Databases
Marie-Claude L’Homme, Monique C. Cormier · International Journal of Lexicography · 2014
It was March 2012 in Paris: one of us was attending the annual Journée des dictionnaires organized by Jean Pruvost. Paul Bogaards was also there. During a break, we began discussing the upheavals in the dictionary world caused by the digital age. That was when the idea for this special issue of IJL was conceived. In August 2012, a number of people at the 15th Euralex Congress were approached about the project and, according to Paul, “the idea was enthusiastically received”. Paul Bogaards passed away only a few weeks later in October 2012, so naturally we wish to dedicate this special issue to him. Thank you to Anne Dykstra for making this issue possible. This digital revolution will take us from one universe to another, from paper dictionaries to digital dictionaries. The two editors responsible for this special issue, speaking from a professional standpoint of course, belong to one or the other of these universes. Monique C. Cormier specializes in historical lexicography: her medium is paper, at least for original versions. Terminology specialist Marie-Claude L’Homme deals primarily with digital media. We have extensive experience with both paper and digital media and agree on the need to understand our current intermediate state. We thus venture without regret and without fear.