Revival of a Dusty Old Profession

Abstract

This text is the inaugural lecture presented by Professor Sven Tarp at the Aarhus School of Business on March 14, 2008. Firstly, the text provides a brief retrospect of the history of lexicography with emphasis on the experience of the big Chinese encyclopedias and the fi rst big National Danish Dictionary. On this basis, it calls for the further development of an independent theory of lexicography in order to go beyond the experience of past and present lexicographic works and project the discipline into the future. It then discusses some of the problems hampering this process. With a call for innovation, it urges the lexicographers to produce the works that are really needed by users and the State to fi nance the production of such tools of national, cultural, social and economic importance in the present information era. Finally, it concludes that the researchers in lexicography need the audacity to go beyond the usual boundaries and generate new ideas, even if they are initially not welcomed or even understood.