MetaLEX

Digital Metalexicography of Historical Legal Languages in Europe

Genealogie der Rechtsprachen mit Justitia

Project Management: Prof. Dr. Rainer Maria Kiesow  (L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales Paris (EHESS)) · Falk Bretschneider  (L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales Paris (EHESS)) · L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales Paris (EHESS) · Prof Dr Claudine Moulin  (Universität Trier - Germanistik (Ältere deutsche Philologie)) · Prof Dr Christof Schöch  (Universität Trier - Computerlinguistik & Digital HumanitiesUniversität Trier - Trier Center for Digital Humanities (TCDH)) · Dr Thomas Burch  (Universität Trier - Trier Center for Digital Humanities (TCDH)) · Dr Joëlle Weis  (Universität Trier - Trier Center for Digital Humanities (TCDH)) · Universität Trier - Trier Center for Digital Humanities (TCDH)

Sponsors: Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme Paris (FMSH), Universität Trier - Trier Center for Digital Humanities (TCDH), L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales Paris (EHESS)

Running time: since

Contact person (TCDH): Prof Dr Claudine Moulin; Dr Joëlle Weis

References:

Falk Bretschneider, Rainer Maria Kiesow, Claudine Moulin, Christof Schöch: Les mots de Beccaria. Métalexicographie des langues du droit de punir à partir de Dei delitti e delle pene (1764) et ses traductions en Europe. In: Beccaria. Revue d’histoire du droit de punir 5 (2019) 117-125.

Claudine Moulin / Christof Schöch : Cesare Beccaria’s Dei delitti e delle pene (1764): Approaching the multilingual textual and paratextual tradition from an (undogmatic) digital point of view, in: Jan Horstmann et al., Toward Undogmatic Reading: Narratology, Digital Humanities and Beyond, Hamburg: Hamburg University Press 2021, 133-143. Available as online and as pdf document.

Falk Bretschneider, Rainer Maria Kiesow, Claudine Moulin, Christof Schöch: “Die alten Wörter des Rechts. Über MetaLEX – digitale Metalexikographie der historischen Rechtssprachen in Europa”. In: Das Achtzehnte Jahrhundert 45.2, 2021, S. 257-271. (Themenbereich Hermeneutik und Recht im 18. Jahrhundert, konzipiert von Frank Grunert und Denis Touard.) – Angenommen.

Research Area: Software Systems and Research Infrastructure, Digital Edition and Lexicography

Keywords: Legal Language, Translation Cultures, Multilingualism, 17th century, 18th century, 19th century

Technologies:

A comprehensive documentation of the vocabulary of historical legal languages in Europe exists at best in rudimentary form. The aim of the Franco-German MetaLEX project is to close this research gap by establishing a source-based, dynamic and interdisciplinary metalexicographic information system on historical legal languages in Europe. The project is based on three types of sources and initially focuses on the period between 1700 and 1900. The resulting information system is designed generically and is intended to cover a larger period in a follow-up project and potentially accommodate an unlimited number of sources.


MetaLEX is to be understood as a historical conceptual information system of European legal languages that does not offer dictionary articles in the “traditional” sense, but rather maps historical word concepts in their temporal development by making use of research and visualization methods as well as analysis procedures of the digital humanities and the computer science. MetaLEX will thus generate a multilingual concept-oriented information system, a dynamic and networked metalexicographic repository of knowledge for the indexing of historical legal languages in Europe in the period from 1700 to 1900. MetaLEX is historically and philologically anchored, but in the long term and in the full development stage, it is also intended to be a best practice example for the processing and reflection of current legal multilingualism in Europe.

Currently, the concept is being tested on the basis of the sub-project “Cesare Beccaria, Dei delitti e delle pene  (1764) and its 18th Century Translations: Networks, Multilingual Edition and Metalexicographic Approaches”.

Furthermore, workshops on the project were held regularly at Villa Vigoni/German Italian Centre for the European Dialogue since 2018.

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Team TCDH

Anne Klee
E-mail: kleeatuni-trier [dot] de
Phone: +49 651 201-3120

Dr Claudia Bamberg
E-mail: bambergatuni-trier [dot] de
Phone: +49 651 201-3790

Dr Joëlle Weis
E-mail: weisatuni-trier [dot] de
Phone: +49 651 201-3017

Dr Thomas Burch
E-mail: burchatuni-trier [dot] de
Phone: +49 651 201-3364

Prof Dr Christof Schöch
E-mail: schoechatuni-trier [dot] de
Phone: +49 651 201-3264

Prof Dr Claudine Moulin
E-mail: moulinatuni-trier [dot] de
Phone: +49 651 201-2305

Topics

Neural Networks

Data Retrieval

Structures in terms of content and logic are developed formally and modeled independently of the system in data collections via computer-aided methods.

Kinderleichte Recherche

Digital Lexicography

Via the digital merging of several dictionaries, comprehensive searches can be easily achieved.

Technological concepts

Implementing Research Projects Digitally

We model text data and multimedia objects, apply our tools and establish procedures, design websites and ensure sustainable research data management.

Network

Networked Research

We rely on scientific cooperation and targeted network building in international research associations.

open science

Open Science

Open Access, Open Source, Open Data as well as other terms represent a research sector with transparent approaches and freely available results.

Project management

Project Management

We consider our work processes to be an interface between technical expertise, knowledge-based services and humanities research in the range of Digital Humanities.

national research data management

Research Infrastructures

As is often the case, the key to success is cooperation. Together with our partners, we participate in international, national and regional research infrastructures.

Data preparation

XML / Web-Technologies

We consistently use generally accepted methods for the modeling, development and transformation of information.