Using Russian Synonyms by Terence Wade, Nijole White

Abstract

9I8 Reviews tant topics and questions in the study ofYiddish after theHolocaust. Itwill be of great interest to scholars in all areas ofYiddish Studies and related disciplines. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO ELIZABETH LOENTZ Using Russian Synonyms. By TERENCE WADE and NIJOLE WHITE. Cambridge: Cam bridge University Press. 2004. vii + 633 pp. ?27.95. ISBN 978-o-52I-79405-3. Now that large bilingual dictionaries fromprestigious publishers can appear to con tain all theanswers a studentmight need, itis more important thanever todemonstrate what a blunt instrument even thebiggest ormost prestigious bilingual dictionary still is.Teachers implore students who findRussian words in an English-Russian dic tionary at least to check them in a Russian-English dictionary and preferably in a monolingual Russian dictionary. This advice too often goes unheeded, as does the related plea to read a dictionary entry in itsentirety rather than rushing for the first alleged equivalent to be offered. In this context, Terence Wade and Nijole White's volume is a particularly welcome companion toDerek Offord's Using Russian: A Guide toContemporary Usage (2nd edn, 2005) and to other synonym guides from CUP. It follows the tradition, common inmodern-language studies, of treating syn onyms in a broad sense by organizing words and phrases 'into lexical groups ("series" or "frames") that include words close inmeaning to a dominant concept (the "frame title"), but differing from it incertain respects' (p. 56). To English-speaking students and users ofRussian, Using Russian Synonyms will prove infinitely more inviting and practical than itscounterparts produced inRussia, to which itnaturally acknowledges a clear debt. The work isorganized intoentrieswith Russian words as frame titles,ordered alphabetically. Each title is given an English gloss, and each item in the frame isgiven one ormore English glosses, accompanied in the case of verbs by information about aspect partners, conjugation, and associated constructions. The register of all items is clearly indicated, with the broad division into informal, neutral, and formal supplemented where appropriate by indications such as jocular or bookish. All lexical items are exemplified by complete sentences. Word-finding is facilitated by two indexes, ofRussian and of English words, both of which direct the reader to theappropriate Russian frame title.Russian in the indexes and in the frame entries is stressed, though in theRussian of the examples and in occasional added notes at the ends of entries stresses are notmarked. The 'toeat' frame (pp. i io-i i) exemplifies thewealth of information offered,with thirteen items distinguished, three of them informal and ten neutral; even of the latter it is noted that two are informal in some senses. Conjugation and associated constructions are indicated, such as the fact thatnaedat'sia takes an instrumentalwhen used in the sense 'to eat one's fill (of)', but the genitive in the sense 'to eat a large quantity (of)'. Est' is illustratedwith no fewer than ten sentences. The related and much-needed entries for 'food,meal' (p. I07) and 'to feed' (p. I74) are also particu larlyclear and helpful. The fact thatexamples are taken fromprimary and secondary sources (p. I2) no doubt accounts for the occasional presence of a gloss even within Russian examples, such as (= ochen'vkusno!) (p. i io). Teachers may well find themselves wondering whether they had previously been aware of some of the items, choices, and uses offered.The 'send' frame (pp. 339-40) is particularly interesting in this respect, distinguishing ten verb-pairs, while seven kinds of 'shoe' are carefully distinguished (p. 38), even though neither theposylat'nor thebotinok frame strays intonon-neutral registers.Two separate privykat'frames are distinguished, with tenofferingson the 'toget used to' side and six on the 'toget into thehabit of' side; how many of us would have thought ofmaking thatbroad separa tion to startwith? And I know I am not alone inhaving eaten atmany aRussian table MLR, 102.3, 2007 919 without ever having internalized the fact thatRussian vaza means not only 'vase' but also 'fruitbowl' (p. 3). On the other hand, perhaps more than twowords for 'box' could have been distinguished (p. 530). Wade andWhite have given English-speaking readers awork in the best Russian tradition of synonym dictionaries. The book, to that extent, is laudably Russian centred. It isworth...