Convergentie en divergentie in de Nederlandse woordenschat

"Convergentie en divergentie" studies
the relationship between the vocabulary of Belgian Dutch and that of
Netherlandic Dutch (i.e. the varieties of Dutch spoken in Belgium and in
The Netherlands, respectively). By comparing onomasiological
alternatives (more specifically, the relative frequency of synonyms like
legging and caleço, "tight-fitting pair of trousers
for women") over a period of 40 years (from 1950 over 1970 to 1990), it
is shown that there is a process of convergence between both varieties.

At the same time, it is made clear
that the distance between the formal and the more informal language
varieties of the language is markedly different between Belgium and The
Netherlands: the informal variety maintains a much greater distance with
regard to the highest register in Belgium than it does in The
Netherlands. As such, it is much more of a substandard variety in
Belgium than it is in The Netherlands.

Methodologically speaking, the
consistently onomasiological method demonstrated in this book is an
innovation in the (relatively poorly developed) field of
"sociolexicology".