I leksikografiens periferi – tydingsbeskriving av som i Norsk Ordbok

Resumé

The Norwegian word som ‘as; like; that, which, who’ is a prime example
of a grammatical word whose meaning must be characterised
in very abstract terms, thus representing a fairly untypical challenge
for the editors of a general monolingual dictionary. In this article we
present our analysis of som as a word with a specific meaning that
is apparent in all of its uses. We show how this analysis is reflected
in the format of a dictionary entry, where the main guiding principle
behind the division into submeanings is linguistic context and
construction types. Dictionaries provide a focused and condensed
format that in some cases is well-suited for presenting analyses of
grammatical phenomena.