ABSTRACT
The term metalexicography can indicate a rather abstract approach to the way the basic information categories are described, for example, linguistic data and their classification in relation to aspects of their graphic, morphological, syntactic, semantic and encyclopedic features, but they are essential for the process of introducing the whole field to a new generation. The tensions between theory and practice have affected the often confused way in which research on the structure and compilation of dictionaries and other reference works has progressed. Practical and theoretical aspects of the discipline have been opposed to each other for a long time, but in recent years more efforts have been made to bring them together in more realistic and accurate descriptions, for example, by means of several influential textbooks such as the Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography.
