ABSTRACT
The availability of raw and summarized natural language databases for lexicographic use online and in other digital formats has been steadily increasing since the late twentieth century. The ease of access to such data and its abundance for the world’s major languages make it easier for lexicographers today to take a fully evidential approach to the development of sense inventories, definitions and the selection of the most appropriate illustrative examples of usage. Dictionaries generally, and especially learner’s and bilingual dictionaries, have benefited greatly from the more complete information about word behaviour that is now readily available. During this same period, a great deal of language reference in the form of dictionaries and other works has migrated from the printed page to the Internet, with its nearly limitless storage capacity. This in turn has given the lexicographer much more room to display the fruits of his labours.
