Interlinguality in historical conceptography

Abstract The article deals with theoretical and methodological questions raised by the idea of a multilingually oriented lexicography of discourse. The fact that words often cannot be translated exactly, but are to be seen in different lexical field contexts in each individual language will be treated as well as the phenomenon of interlingual influence (especially in cases of active multilingualism shown by single discourse actors). After some introductory remarks and general observations, a proposal will be developed (based on a historical example: the discourse of European Romanticism) as to how a discourse lexicography that crosses language borders could be structured.