Slovensko leksikalno pomenoslovje

Arguably, modern lexicography in Slovenia was set in motion by the same discernment and interpretation of language as modern linguistics: at the dawn of the 19th century the mental attitude in Europe, engendered by the Enlightenment, affected also the science of language in Slovenia, both directly and indirectly, via the Humboldtian ontological understanding that differences between languages are caused by differences between »world-views« of linguistic communities. Kopitar’s grammar inaugurated an unprecedented methodological approach: no Slovene grammarian had attempted to base his description upon the distinguishing features of the Slovene language alone. With Kopitar, the normative contraposition against German, and/or against Latin (Bohorič, in particular), had to yield to contrastiveness with foreign languages as a basis for arguing statements about Slovene. Ceasing to act as a benchmark, a particular foreign language now tended to be chosen on the grounds of its potential to corroborate a linguistic discovery within the Slovene language.