En SAOB-artikel växer fram

This article presents a specific example of how the work of an editorof the comprehensive historical Swedish dictionary, publishedby the Swedish Academy, (SAOB) proceeds. The example concernsthe Swedish preposition under ’under’ and accurately describes theprocess of writing that SAOB entry. Drawing from this particularword, it is shown how etymology governs also the semantic description,on what principles the different meanings of a word iseither divided into different main sections or kept together withinone and the same main section, how SAOB deals with borderlinecases, how the description interacts with already written parts ofthe dictionary, how the main sections may be grouped together inbigger subgroups, how subordinate sections are distinguished andfurthermore how the use of a word in compounds may influence onthe description of the simplex word