Leksykografia – tradycja i współczesność

Abstract

At the times of surplus, or indeed surfeit of information, an exceptional role is played by encyclopedias, lexicons and dictionaries. This kind of works have the character of compendia of knowledge. Keeping to all the methodological rules they present knowledge in an orderly and systematic way. They also fulfill the difficult task of extracting significant information from the depot of all information – important and not important, necessary and useless, true and false, objective and subjective. In this way these works are an attempt to build a system of knowledge in its chosen aspect. However, history shows that lexicography sometimes was an experimental area for all totalitarian systems and all reductionisms. Even if the 20th century is a time of exceptional “explosion” of encyclopedic and lexicographic works, this editorial-academic branch may boast of a very old tradition. Lexicons have always served forming a world view. They have been and they will remain necessary works.