Dostoevsky’s Favourite Discursive Words: Possibilities of Lexicographic Description

Abstract

This article discusses the possibility of creating a dictionary of Dostoevsky’s discursive words. Discursive words are non-semantic lexical units whose function is to ensure the coherence of the text and to regulate the process of dialogue between the speaker and the listener. Dostoevsky’s texts are saturated with such lexical units, and there is no doubt that this is one of the features of the author’s style. The methodological basis of the research is the concept of the Dictionary of Dostoevsky’s Language. Idioglossary proposed by Yury N. Karaulov and Efim L. Ginzburg. The lexicographic representation of discursive words requires the introduction of additional parameters into the dictionary entry, e.g. taking into account the type of speech in which these units are used. Other lexicographic parameters of the idioglossary require significant transformation, especially the nature of the definition, in which presuppositions and possible reflexive contexts should be taken into account when describing the functions of discursive words. Excerpts from Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment from the 30-volume edition of the writer’s complete works are used as material. The article proposes the structure of the dictionary entry of the dictionary of Dostoevsky’s discursive words in the most general form, reflecting the features of the author’s linguistic personality. The dictionary entry includes the frequency distribution of the described word by genre; definition; illustrations, i.e. contexts of the described word usage; word index; textual associations; hypotaxis and parataxis; wordplay; usage in an ironic context; usage as part of someone else’s speech.