| Abstract: |
The paper examines the new prospects that hypertext technology opens up for creating innovative electronic dictionaries. It first discusses the ideas which are central to the concept of hypertext: The non-sequential storage and presentation of the data, the integration of text, sound, images and video, and the tools for searching and filtering lexical information that are provided by hypertext management systems. It will be argued that most existing electronic dictionaries are more or less digital copies of paper dictionaries which only utilize a small portion of the technical possibilities available. For this reason, the main part of the paper will establish seven theses and discuss ways of using the value-adding features of hypertext technology in future electronic dictionaries more efficiently. |