The Historical Dictionary as an Exploratory Tool: A Digital Edition of Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic's Lexicon Serbico-Germanico-Latinum

Abstract

My work on the digital edition of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić’s Srpski Rječnik: Lexicon Serbico-Germanico-Latinum advances the theory and practice of digitizing historical dictionaries by demonstrating how detailed, annotated, electronic editions of legacy dictionaries can improve the scope of users' interaction with non-contemporary lexicographic data. I provide a substantial critique of the Function Theory of Lexicography as it pertains to historical dictionaries by spelling out how any theory of lexicography which reduces the dictionary – a complex socio-cultural assemblage – to a simplistic look-up tool ultimately limits its functionalities in the electronic medium. I propose a taxonomy of dictionary-specific information-related behaviors as a guiding principle for designing and implementing digital editions that fulfill the potential of the dictionary's functional affordances. Starting with an exploration of TEI markup at the intersection of the text's linguistic properties (as an interpretative 'model-of') and its potential functionalities in the digital environment (as a prospective 'model-for'), I develop the innovative concept of dictionary slices and feature-based browsing to expand the exploratory potential of remediated historical dictionaries. I articulate and justify the need for a medium-specific theory of electronic lexicography that will be firmly situated within the wider field of Digital Humanities, and sketch out some of the main challenges facing the field in the years to come. A TEI-encoded text of the Lexicon-Serbico-Germanico-Latinum, an application programming interface (API), and a published online edition are essential parts of this dissertation. Details on how to access them are provided in the appendices to the main text.