Book excerpt: This book puts forward the specialised lexicographical approach (SLA) as the result of a natural evolution in the field of specialised dictionary-making that goes a step further the «mere» terminographical practice. The kind of specialised lexicographical works to be obtained with this approach are specialised, active, user-friendly, user-focused, corpus-based dictionaries deeply grounded on the belief that terminology has a practical, communicative dimension that terminographical works have not normally reflected. All through this book the theoretical and applied aspects of this approach have been illustrated by showing the elaboration process of an active, corpus-based, bilingual (English-Spanish, Spanish-English) dictionary of the ceramics industry. The first part of the book provides a sound theoretical framework in which the different aspects involved in the creation of dictionaries within the SLA for speciality areas of knowledge have been progressively disclosed - namely, a review on specialised languages, corpus linguistics, terminology and socio-economic aspects - all this leading to the final characterisation of specialised lexicography from a theoretical perspective. On the basis of this theoretical framework and according to the SLA, this book also presents an innovative, corpus-based method of work for specialised dictionary-making, closely linked to the use of corpora, terminotics and new technologies.