The Dutch Language Institute (INT) develops and manages both historical and contemporary dictionaries. These were previously managed as separate projects with their own separate databases. Consistent with similar institutes abroad, the INT has been progressively integrating and linking lexical information across these separate databases. The institute has also been a main contributor to similar efforts on the European level within the European lexicographic infrastructure (ELEXIS).
Starting in 2007, the INT has invested in a central lexicon, named GiGaNT, with information about spelling and morphology for words in the Dutch language, ranging from historical Dutch (historic lexicon Hilex) to contemporary Dutch (modern lexicon Molex). From 2015 onwards, a diachronic semantic lexicon (DiaMaNT) was developed by linking synonyms across historical dictionaries. Currently, a sense inventory spanning both historic and modern Dutch is being developed as a semantic layer on top of GiGaNT. In this inventory, different types of lexicographical information from the INT’s historical and contemporary dictionaries are also linked at the sense level. Moreover, this information is also linked to corpus evidence from the historical and contemporary corpora. This results in a central database for the Dutch language that can function as an infrastructure for further lexical research aimed at the development of language materials and language software.
Further information and links:
- GiGaNT
- DiaMaNT
- Depuydt, Tiberius & Heylen (in press): Lexicography of the Dutch Language: from dictionaries to a lexicographical infrastructure. In: International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 3rd Edition [preprint]
- ELEXIS