Norma a korpus w leksykografii historycznej na przykładzie Słownika łaciny średniowiecznej w Polsce
Historical lexicography meets corpora. How corpus analysis could improve norm description in the Lexicon Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis Polonorum

Author(s): Krzysztof Nowak
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Latin; historical lexicography; corpora; prescriptivism; normativism
Summary/Abstract: In the present paper we demonstrate how the linguistic norm is reflected in The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Polish Sources (Lexicon Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis Polonorum, henceforth LMILP). We illustrate how selected elements of lexicographical description might be improved by wider adoption of corpus analysis methods in historical lexicography. The paper begins with a brief discussion of the term norm: we show that one should distinguish between its extra- and intra-linguistic understanding. Next, we argue that the lexicographer may access the norm by analyzing corpus occurrences and that the frequencies retrieved from corpora reflect the actual language use. This relation, however, is less transparent as far as historical corpora are concerned. The main part of the paper comprises of a detailed analysis of the entries selected from the LMILP. We show how the dictionary presents collocational properties, frequency, and abnormal linguistic phenomena of the lexical units. We also discuss potential improvements that the corpus analysis might bring into it.

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