vernetziko: A Cross-Reference Management Tool for the Lexicographer’s Workbench

vernetziko is an assistive software tool primarily designed for managing cross-references in XML-based electronic dictionaries. In its current form it has been developed as an integral part of the lexicographic editing environment for the German monolingual dictionary elexiko developed and compiled at the Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim. This paper first briefly outlines how vernetziko fits into the XML-based dictionary editing technology of elexiko. Then vernetziko’s core functionality and some of the auxiliary tools integrated into the program are presented from both a practical and a technological point of view. The concluding sections discuss some software engineering aspects of extending the tool to handle cross-references between multiple resources and point out some of the advantages of vernetziko vis-à-vis corresponding features of proprietary dictionary writing systems. The software can be adapted to interconnect off-the-shelf components (database management systems and editors), thus providing a tailor-made lexicographical workbench for a wide range of XML-based dictionaries without vendor lock-in.