Normering og deskription i Den Danske Ordbog – mere eller mindre?

Abstract

As a corpusbased dictionary, The Danish Dictionary has constantly during its
compilation been confronted with the gap between the norm of the standard
language and the variability of language use observed in natural texts. In this article,
the problems involved are discussed in relation to four selected areas where the
difficulties are particularly pronounced: orthography, inflection, meaning and lemma
selection. Editorial considerations as well as lexicographic examples are discussed,
and possible solutions are suggested that try to balance the need for uniformity and
recommendations of the dictionary user, on the one hand, with the diversity of the
linguistic reality that serves as the descriptive basis of the dictionary, on the other.