Vitskaplegheit og samfunnsrelevans for store ordboksverk

Abstract

Norsk Ordbok, a 12 volume scholarly dictionary of the Nynorsk written language and all Norwegian dialects, was completed in 2015 and launched in March 2016. The publishing history of Norsk Ordbok lasted for 66 years, with 4 volumes published in the first 52 years and 8 in the following 13, after the dictionary was redefined as a project and moved to a digital platform. With this publishing history as its basis, this article explores the development of scholarly lexicography in terms of scientific theory and technology underlying macrostructure, microstructure and the genre itself. Finally relevance, legitimacy and societal and scientific worth of scholarly lexicography are briefly summed up.