TNTL 112

K.H. van Dalen-Oskam en T.H. Schoonheim

Het Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek (1200-1300). Namen en hun plaats in de woordenschat

Abstract - The Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek (Dictionary of Early Middle Dutch) gives a lexical-semantic description of all Middle Dutch words in manuscripts written in the thirteenth century. The description includes all names occurring in the corpus, since it is often difficult to make a clear distinction between a name and an appellative. Moreover, some of the thirteenth-century regular vocabulary has only been attested functioning as a name. This contribution elaborates on the approach the editors of the VMNW have taken to describe the different types of names. It presents examples which will allow the reader to see that names are part of the language and just like appellatives sometimes do need explanation as to their etymology, morphology, inflection, geographical diversion or function - information that one usually looks for in a dictionary. It stresses the importance this information has for literary research.