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Research

Centlex - Centre for Lexicography, Research into Needs-Adapted Information and Data Access - is a research centre at Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences.

Lexicography at Centlex is much more than the several hundred years old scientific discipline dedicated to the investigation and development of dictionaries, consultation works, reference works, and other types of lexicographically designed information tools.

Ground-breaking main thesis
At Centlex we work on the ground-breaking main thesis that lexicography is a modern, interdisciplinary and independent discipline of which the subject field is not limited to lexicographic user-needs adapted information tools, but also encompasses all kinds of information tools and reference works that can be optimized with the very same user-needs adapted information and data access - from handbooks and manuals to dynamic information websites and web portals.

Establishing User-needs at the Centre
By establishing user-needs at the very centre of our theory making, the overall objective of our fundamental research is to ensure the design of intelligent information access and retrieval systems for the benefit of the information and knowledge society. We focus on the following research themes:

  • The development of a general theory for user-needs adapted information and data access
  • The development of theories for data search and data presentation in printed and online lexicographic information tools
  • The development of theories for different basic types of lexicographic information tools
  • The development of theories for the implementation of the lexicographically designed needs-adapted information and data access in other types of information tools
  • The application of theories in the design of innovative, lexicographic information tools

International network
Centlex has established a close cooperation with an international network of specialists in the development of the new theories and the new information tools. The research staff of Centlex participate in international conferences, organize symposiums, invite guests from other universities and leading lexicographic research centres all over the world, and publish research articles in many top ranked international journals.

Formal business partners

  • Ordbogen A/S, Odense
    ­- concerning a number of online dictionaries and potential dictionaries (www.ordbogen.com)

Academic business partners

  • Universiteit van Stellenbosch, South Africa
  • University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Sentrum vir Tekstegnologie (CTexT), Noordwes Universiteit (Potchefstroom), South Africa
  • Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
  • Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan
  • Airlangga University, Indonesia
  • Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
  • Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, Germany
  • Universität Leipzig, Germany
  • Ivanovo State University, Russia
  • Kazan State University, Tatarstan
  • Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
  • Université de Bretagne Sud, Lorient, France
  • Université de Cergy-Pontoise, France
  • Université Lyon 2 Louis Lumière, France
  • Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot, France
  • Université Paris 13 Villetaneuse, France
  • Université  de Rouen, France
  • Université de Strasbourg, France
  • Université de Montréal, OLST, Canada