On Monday, October 20, 1997 at 12:53:12 pm MET, Hans Aberg <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Maarten Gelderman <[log in to unmask]>: >>The `van' problem can never be countered by a computer program, >>unless you specify the language with each author name. Americans >>generally treat the van part as a part of their last name. In dutch >>van etc are not used to put items in alphabetical order... > > May I point out that there is a difference in displaying the author name >and the way a name should be sorted in an index: > > An author would expect their name to be displayed as they are used to, >normally as that of their own language, whereas in an index, the best way >is to sort is according to the rules of the language of the readership (so >the readership is "English" if the publication is in English"). (Because >otherwise it can be difficult to find someone in the index.) > I immediately admit that the outline of my previous message was far from good. However, I dear question whether it is advisablwe to follow the `English' rules in this case. Imagine a book on French literature in which all authors whose names start with `de' or `de la' are underneath `de' in the index. I would not label that convenient. One encounters even more problems in situations where the word-in-between is not really a part of the name, like in von Beethoven, where the von is kind of equivalent to the English `lord' (it also means `of' but if I do not err, Beethoven was not a von Beethoven all of his life). I would prefer to find him underneath B. However, I have to admit that this is at least partly a matter of personal taste (or editorial policy). Maarten ========================================================================= Maarten Gelderman email: [log in to unmask] Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam phone: +31 20 444 6073 De Boelelaan 1105 room 3a-36 fax +31 20 444 6005 NL-1081 HV AMSTERDAM The Netherlands