41st International LAUD Symposium

Theme Session (1). Lexicographic Description of L2-Varieties of English

This section focuses on the documentation of institutionalised Second Language (L2) varieties of English. While some of these varieties have received substantial lexicographic coverage (e.g., Indian English, Nigerian English), many others have not been documented in dictionaries so far. Potential topics for contributions include:

• L2-dictionaries of English in progress.
• Methods for identifying and validating variety-specific lexis (e.g., neologisms, loan words, semantic shifts).
• Balancing endonormative stabilisation with global intelligibility in dictionary entries.
• The politics of representation: Who decides what constitutes a lexicalised L2 item?

Theme Session (2). Representation of Cultural Conceptualisations in Dictionaries of English

Language encodes unique cultural worldviews and cognitive schemas. This section investigates how dictionaries can better capture culture-specific conceptualisations and make their systematicity explicit. Contributions are invited on topics such as:

• Lexicographic frameworks for capturing cultural metaphors, blends and categories.
• The role of encyclopaedic notes and usage labels in explaining culturally grounded vocabulary.
• Empirical studies on how users decode culture-specific information in dictionaries.

Theme Session (3). Lexicographic Description of Under-Resourced Languages through Multilingual Dictionaries Involving English

Multilingual dictionaries involving English can serve as tools for language revitalisation and documentation. This track addresses practical and theoretical aspects of this work, e.g.:

• Strategies for building bidirectional bilingual or multilingual dictionaries for endangered languages.
• Community-based lexicography: Collaborating with native speakers on language documentation.

Theme Session (4). English Dictionaries in the Educational Context

Dictionaries are fundamental to language learning and academic literacy. This section explores how pedagogical lexicography can adapt to modern learners, e.g.:

• Designing pedagogical dictionaries for specific purposes and groups of learners.
• The integration of lexicographic tools into Second Language Acquisition (SLA) curricula.
• Empirical studies examining how students interact with dictionaries.
• The role of dictionaries in fostering autonomous learning and digital literacy.

Theme Session (5). Lexicography and Developments in AI

The rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative artificial intelligence is transforming how dictionaries are compiled and used. This section looks to the future of the discipline, e.g.:

• Using AI and LLMs to automate sense differentiation, definition drafting and example extraction.
• The reliability of AI in generating lexicographic data for low-resource environments.

Theme Session (6). Visualisation of meaning in dictionaries

Online formats and the use of AI tools facilitate the integration of imagery into dictionary entries. This section explores dual/multiple coding and the selection and use of different types of visual representation in general and specialised dictionaries (e.g. idioms dictionaries).

• The arrangement of text and imagery within a dictionary entry and its effect on the comprehension, disambiguation, retention and subsequent use of the lexical item.
• The effects of different types of visual representation (e.g. photographs, realistic digital images, cartoons, diagrams, short animations/videos).
• In the case of metaphorical expressions and idioms: The choice between representing the literal scene, the figurative meaning or both (i.e. blending).