Study of the Effectiveness of Russian-Persian Dictionaries in the Exact Translation of Russian Adjectives-Paronyms

Abstract

There is no standard view about the concept of paronyms, but generally they are defined as words, that are pronounced or written similarly, but have different lexical meanings. The formal similarity of paronyms often complicates their differentiation, and therefore paronyms are included in problematic objects of teaching Russian as a foreign language, as well as translating texts from Russian and into Russian. Dictionaries as the main means of teaching and translation can help to overcome this difficulty. This research analyzes the effectiveness of three Russian-Persian dictionaries (“Russian-Persian dictionary” edited by I.K. Ovchinnikova, “Russian-Persian dictionary” edited by G.A. Voskanyan, “Russian-Persian dictionary” edited by GA Voskanyan [new edition]) in translation of Russian adjectives-paronyms. Among various parts of speech, we chose adjectives due to their frequency among paronyms in Russian language. For this purpose, 50 pairs of paronyms were chosen from Dictionary of Russian Paronyms by Olga Vishniyakova. The results of the analysis show that Russian-Persian dictionaries cannot always provide the necessary assistance to Iranian students in overcoming their difficulties in understanding and translating Russian adjectives-paronyms. Moreover, student’s and translator’s knowledge about Russian word formation in many cases can help him to overcome the limitations of dictionaries.