Original scientific paper

From the history of multilingual thesauruses

Anja Nikolić-Hoyt ; Zavod za lingvistička istraživanja HAZU, Zagreb

Abstract

Multilingual, thematically organized thesauruses derive from the pedagogically focused lexicographical tradition of 'vocabularia' (and Renaissance 'vulgaria'). Reviving the practices of the Mesopotamian scribal schools, this tradition dates from the Middle Ages, when aspiring young priests attending Catholic schools throughout Europe would learn how to read and write in Latin most often with the aid of bilingual, thematically organized word lists, or 'vocabula', with Latin words in the left-hand column. While the earliest vocabularies were relatively disorganized and fragmentary, with time the tendency to devise classifications of an all-encompassing range of interconnected concepts gradually became the dominant practice, and eventually led to the production of the first (proto-)thesauruses.

Keywords

thematic lexicography; thesaurus; vocabularia and vulgaria

Hrčak ID:

173217

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/173217

Publication date:

20.5.2002.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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