Lexicographic Projects Research Articles

V. I. ABAEV'S HISTORICAL-ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY: ISSUES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DIGITAL BILINGUAL EDITION

In this article, we discuss the conclusions of the project on digitizing and translating the Historical-Etymological dictionary of Ossetic by V.I. Abaev, which has been carried out by the authors since 2020. The entries of the original include information of several kinds: Russian translations of an Ossetic word, related examples, usage and etymological notes. The etymological notes are usually free-form texts with a large number of cited forms from other languages (cognates, loanword sources, etc.). We argue for maximal preservation and thorough encoding of this information when creating a digital database. The optimal format for such purposes is XML markup, more specifically its variant intended for annotating text documents, TEI (Text Encoding Initiative, https://tei-c.org/). For digitizing the dictionary, we created a modification of this markup language, a module for Oxygen XML Editor, and a set of CSS files that ensure maximum similarity between our layout and the original. The same combination of XML and CSS allows generating the print version of the dictionary using the Prince typesetting system (https://www. princexml.com/) without any additional processing. For ease of search and access, we suggest supplementing the XML sources with a relational database automatically created from the lexical entries. In our project, this database serves as the source for the online interface of the dictionary (https://ossetic.iranic.space), powered by the OnLex platform [Makarov et al. 2022]. Hence, the project combines the features of several database types, which fully corresponds to the multi-faceted character of the original dictionary. We hope that our experience can be used for other digital lexicographic projects.

Developing paremiological competence of international students within the framework of a Russian-Korean lexicographic project

The article examines the current issues of developing Korean students’ paremiological competence in the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language. The article shows the possibilities of implementing this task within the framework of a student lexicographic project. The participants in the project were Korean students of Russian and Russian-speaking students studying the Korean language and culture. The project activity was aimed at creating a bilingual (Russian-Korean) dictionary of proverbs. We describe the progress of the project and its results. In addition to the dictionary of proverbs published in Korea, the students developed precise interpretations of Russian proverbs, selected Korean equivalents of these proverbs and identified their ethnocultural specifics. Based on authoritative sources, linguocultural comments on proverbs of both languages were developed and included in the dictionary entries. This is how we realized the cross-cultural aspect of the paremiological material description. In the course of working on the project, the students developed the following parameters of paremiological competence: skills of disclosing the meaning, skills of establishing equivalence and providing a linguocultural commentary on proverbs. The final control section confirmed an increase in the students’ development level of these parameters, which allowed us to draw a conclusion about the effectiveness of the project work as a means of developing the international students’ paremiological competence. The article makes a conclusion about the possibility of using research materials in the practice of teaching Russian as a foreign language and in compiling educational paremiological dictionaries.

Leksikos vartosenos tyrimai ir leksikografinė praktika

The article presents research on the usage of Lithuanian lexis and lexicographical works on the Lithuanian language from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. It reveals how scientific research has been related to academic activity and lexicographic work (data gathering, analysis, dictionary development), and vice versa. Talking about the early and mid-20th century, the focus lies on the well-grounded articles on appropriate language use by Kazimieras Būga and on the preparation of the “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language”, as well as on Jonas Jablonskis’ interest in the standard language, creation of new words, his work on the dictionary of Antanas Juška and his reviews of earlier dictionaries. Jablonskis’ own “Mūsų žodynėlis” [Our Dictionary] is also briefly discussed. Further on, the article talks about the work of Juozas Balčikonis and the beginnings of the academic “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language”. Particular mention is made of Pranas Skardžius’ and Antanas Salys’ research on word structure and usage. In addition, various articles in language journals as well as the structure and editorial principles of the journal “Kalbos patarėjas” are reviewed. The research in the Soviet era is mainly associated with the lexicographical activities of Jonas Kruopas and Kazys Ulvydas and the editorial work on both the (historical) “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language” and the “Dictionary of the Present Lithuanian Language”. The research interest of this period lies primarily in the analysis of lexical structure and systemic relations, whereas publication activity focuses on editing special dictionaries (such as dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms, valency, phraseology, and comparisons), and the publication of textbooks and monographs in the field of lexicology. The article gives an overview of studies that analyse the development and change of various lexical items, describe different semantic groups, language variation, and its phrasal components. Furthermore, lexical databases and the information system e.kalba are given an overview. The main focus here lies on reviewing lexical research and lexicographical projects carried out in the 1990s and the early 21st century, and on revealing lexicographical problems.

Le Processus de Numérisation de la Lexicographie en Roumanie: Présent et Perspectives

Digitalization Process of the Lexicography in Romania: Present and Perspectives. In Romania, the lexicographic research is in a continuous development, in a natural process of digitalization. This step is absolutely mandatory for creating electronic instruments and resources, which are necessary for supporting the Romanian language and culture. The Romanian academic specialists in linguistics and applied informatics, as well as in computational linguistics fields, have initiated research projects by which they valorise the non-digitized resources by acquiring them in electronic formats or by which they create dictionaries and new resources and instruments directly in electronic format. The digitalization process put the Romanian academic lexicography at a level comparable to the international lexicography and allows the connection with lexicographic projects from abroad and the inclusion of Romania in the sphere of interest of the great international lexicographic networks. Keywords: Romanian lexicography, e-lexicography, electronic lexicographic corpus, digitalization, digital lexicographical resources, evolution, perspectives

Рецензия на книгу: Словарь языка русской поэзии ХХ века. Том IX. Книга 2: Уж – Цезарь / Сост.: Л. Л. Шестакова (отв. ред.), А. С. Кулева (ред.), А. В. Гик. – М.: Издательский Дом ЯСК, 2022. – 536 с. – (Studia philologica)

Consideration is given to the main features of the lexicographic project developed at the Vinogradov Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is the second book of the ninth volume of the Dictionary of the language of Russian poetry (20th century). The 2290 entries present the poetic lines from the sources of the Dictionary, the works of ten outstanding poets of the Silver Age: I. Annensky, A. Akhmatova, A. Blok, S. Yesenin, M. Kuzmin, O. Mandelstam, V. Mayakovsky, B. Pasternak, V. Khlebnikov, and M. Tsvetaeva. The review briefly describes the purpose, structure, and content of the Dictionary. Moreover, it delineates the frequency of individual lexemes, exemplifies instances of metaphorization, and establishes correlations with experiences in constructing the composite dictionaries. Dictionary entries provide insights into the history, frequency, and morphology of lyric phraseology in poetry, along with stylistic marks and information on word production and rhyming. The conclusion is made that the Dictionary demonstrates the variety and expressiveness of the language of poetry and the “artistic memory” of its words, enriching the reader’s aesthetic horizons.

Making Lexicography Sustainable: Using ChatGPT and Reusing Data for Lexicographic Purposes

In 2014, the International Centre for Lexicography, a research group at Valladolid signed a contract with Ordbogen A/S (a Danish language technology company) and the University of Valladolid for developing a lexicographic project, the so-called Diccionarios Valladolid-UVa (Fuertes-Olivera 2019, 2022a, 2022b; Fuertes-Olivera et al. 2018; Tarp and Fuertes-Olivera 2016). Each partner gave around €180,000 (the International Centre for Lexicography's contribution came from several research projects funded by the Spanish Research Agency), to be employed in the design and construction of Spanish dictionaries (in particular, a general dictionary of Spanish, a Spanish dictionary of accounting, a bilingual Spanish–English/English–Spanish dictionary and a bilingual Spanish–English/English–Spanish accounting dictionary). The above project has pro­duced several results, with the recent publication of the Diccionario Digital del Español (DIDES) its most relevant result (https://diesgital.com). Within the framework of these projects, this paper offers a general introduction of the project (Section 1), refers to the concept of sustainable lexicography (Section 2), indicates that sustainability lexicography implies a better understanding of lexico­graphic data (Section 3), and increasing lexicographic productivity, e.g., by crafting definitions for AI translations (Section 4) and using generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT in the day-to-day lexi­cographic work. Keywords: ChatGPT, DeepL Translate, DICCIONARIOS VALLADOLID-UVA, lexi­co­graphic productivity, sustainable lexicography, public funding, gen­era­tive AI

Dictionary of IT terms as a tool for Russian language studies and linguodidactics in the context of digitalization in education

The authors present a comprehensive description of the main features of a new vocabulary project aimed at expanding and systematizing the methodological competencies of a modern teacher of philology. The relevance of the work is determined both by the object of research itself, which is a corpus of terminological units relevant in the digital pedagogical space, and by the need to fix numerous changes in linguistic/linguopedagogical/philological education determined by the transition to convergent learning. The aim of the research is to characterize the specifics of the dictionary entry structure in this lexicographic resource, to describe the principles and methods of selecting terminological units, to identify ways of their defining and translation. The research material includes Russian terminological systems and their English versions, correlated with pedagogical and lexical phenomena of the Russian language. The following scientific methods and approaches were used: component analysis of dictionary entries, comparative method, functional analysis of English and Russian terminology (if there is a translated version), linguistic-cognitive analysis, data systematization and clustering, qualification data interpretation. The results of the study are as follows: a set of problems related to the constitution and categorization of new terminological units explicating the transformation of the educational paradigm is identified and described; the features of lexicographic definition and presentation of indices are characterized; various ways of defining IT terms in the aspect of foreign language teaching methods are proposed, examples of dictionary entries are given. The perspectives of the study are in further expanding, specifying and systematizing IT terminology in modern language education and creating on this base new lexicographic projects which would intensify teaching in Russian higher education institutions.

Периферийные глаголы в значении движения в хакасском языке: семантика и функционирование

The article analyses the functionality and semantics of the Khakass expressive verbs being on the periphery of the lexico-semantic group of movement. These verbs are common for native speakers’ everyday speech and acquire the meaning of movement when used in a particular context. Their semantics is complex, with emotional, evaluative and figurative elements intersecting and overlapping with each other. The meaning of movement can be acquired in different ways. Firstly, verbs with the meaning of behavior can combine with verbs of movement. Secondly, polysemous verbs can be combined with dependent lexemes of locative semantics. Lastly, onomatopoeic verbs in secondary lexical and semantic versions can be formed by adding the forced voice affix -t-. All these functionalsemantic and grammatical properties contribute to the transition to the category of expressives denoting the subject’s figurative movement. Almost all verbs expressing the subject’s movement in their secondary lexical and semantic versions originate from verbs with neutral semantics. The expressiveness in certain word-formation and combinational models is lexically motivated, with a significant focus on imagery. Despite being frequently used, many of these verbs are missing in lexicographical sources, and for those that are listed, no information on their seme of “movement” is provided. The situation is complicated by contextual ambiguity of expressive words. Given that the abundance of expressive vocabulary in everyday conversation indicates a reliable native language proficiency and guarantees the preservation and development of the Khakass language, further lexicographic projects should take into account all the semantic and expressive nuances.

Structuring a Collection of Lexicographic Data for Different User and Usage Situations

According to Fuertes-Olivera and Tarp (2020), lexicography is being currently shaped by three related tendencies: (a) the increasing use of disruptive technologies; (b) the necessity of finding new business models that can finance new lexicographic projects; and (c) the existence of growing competition from other information sources, e.g. Google. These trends have a particular influence on specialized dictionaries, defined here as tools that cover areas outside general cultural knowledge and its corresponding Language for General Purpose (LGP). This article adopts the view that lexicographers can deal with the abovementioned tendencies by preparing structured collec­tions of lexicographic data with details that can be easily converted into information and stored in DWSs that allow multiple combinations and possible retrievals. This option is suitable for the tenden­cies, as it uses adequate technologies, e.g. ways of profiling or individualizing searches, defends a new business model based on the creation of lexicographic data that can feed many dif­ferent tools, e.g. Write Assistant (Fuertes-Olivera and Tarp 2020), and offers better and more precise information than that of Google and other information tools. Keywords: lexicographic data, technology, specialized language, spe­cial­ized lexicography, e-lexicography

Representation of culture-bound items in a culture dictionary for German readers

Abstract In an increasingly multilingual and multicultural society, many different cultures meet and often merge with one another. The true meaning of the word ‘culture’, what it precisely denotes, and how much it can be described through languages have long been points of discussion. This paper shows how linguistic and cultural exchange and metalexicographic discussion on culture, as practised in the EMLex-Master’s programme, have led to a lexicographic project based on culture-bound words. After a short treatise on the definition of culture and culture-bound items, the ongoing project of a culture dictionary with its concept (macro- and microstructure) and first draft of examples are presented.

Bridging the gap between website accessibility and lexicography: information access in online dictionaries

AbstractInformation access has been one of the main concerns of lexicography since the first dictionaries were compiled. This paper draws an explicit link between the proposals made from the fields of applied linguistics and website accessibility to enhance the users’ experience in consulting online dictionaries. The paper starts with a reflection on two intertwined notions that are relevant for the discussion: Access and accessibility. After that, it focuses on elements connected to two Web Content Accessibility Guidelines principles, namely perceivability and understandability. It reflects on real practices regarding the way in which information is structured in today’s dictionaries, the use of text alternatives, typographic choice, the writing of definitions, and the use of abbreviations, and proposes measures to tackle the identified challenges. The implementation of easy-to-understand language is highlighted as a relevant resource for prospective lexicographic projects.

English-Sourced Direct and Indirect Borrowings in a New Lexicon of Polish Anglicisms

In recent decades, Polish has experienced an unprecedented influx of English-sourced borrowings, both overt (loanwords) and covert (calques). This linguistic influence echoes the social, technological, environmental and ideological transformations, with these changes reflected in the Polish lexicon. The paper describes a lexicographic project aimed at updating the Słownik zapożyczeń angielskich w polszczyźnie (A Dictionary of Anglicisms in Polish) that was published in 2010. We discuss the theoretical assumptions, the content and the sources of the data for a new, corpus-based dictionary that is in the making, and illustrate the lexicographic solutions we adopted with regard to both well-established and the most recent direct and indirect Anglicisms. We also address the issue of the frequency and the usage of the latter in present-day Polish.

Introduction

Abstract The papers gathered in this Special Issue cover different phases of ancient, medieval, and modern Greek and Latin and explore an array of issues and trends dealing with historical aspects of Greek and Latin lexicography. The articles have been organized into three thematic units following chronological order: (i) ancient Greek and Latin lexicography; (ii) Greco-Latin lexicography in late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the modern world; and (iii) uses, perspectives, and ongoing projects in Greco-Latin lexicography. Some papers address more formal issues (linguistic, morphological, semantic, and syntactic) relevant to the study of Greek and Latin lexicography, while other contributions deal with ongoing lexicographical projects, offering fresh perspectives on the future of lexicography.

Why a Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint?

Abstract Since 2010, an international team has been working on the first comprehensive lexicon dedicated to Septuagint Greek, which aims to fill an important gap in the fields of ancient philology and religious studies. The entries include all the relevant word groups used in the translation of the Hebrew Bible, Greek glosses that captured central concepts from classical Hebrew terms and sought to establish suitable expression for certain Realien. This lexicon aims to give a wide perspective on selected lemmas, taking the legacy of classical Greek literature as a starting point and subsequently analyzing the diffusion and usage of the word up through early Christian Literature. This paper will address some of the questions that are being faced by the team and will explore the innovative approach of this lexicographical project through the presentation of samples.

Hernando Colón’s New World of Books: Toward a Cartography of Knowledge

Hernando Colón’s New World of Books: Toward a Cartography of Knowledge

The lexicographic legacy of Professor B. A. Larin and modern lexicography (to the 130th anniversary of the birth)

The paper examines the lexicographic legacy left by Professor B. A. Larin (1893–1964). It also points out the direct correlation between Larin’s ideas and the controversial issues and moot points in modern lexicography. I provide a brief review of B. A. Larin’s biography and his philological interests. The conclusion underscores the significance of the lexicographic ideas in the linguist’s works as well as the versatility of his scientific interests. At the same time, they are united by such cross-cutting leitmotifs as a broad historical perspective, studying colloquial speech in its various manifestations, attention to semantics. B. A. Larin’s ideas that were far ahead of their time are identified as a result of comparing the concepts he developed and the directions of modern lexicography evolution. For example, one such idea is a complete dictionary. It directly correlates with the currently relevant project of a complex (universal) dictionary. Moreover, Larin raised the issues of combining linguistic and encyclopaedic information in a historical dictionary as well as of scientific illustration of historical dictionary entries, which are still unresolved. The ideas of bilingual author lexicography, onomastic author lexicography, and historical phraseology proposed by Larin have hardly been implemented yet. The paper emphasises that B. A. Larin is one of the founders of Russian historical lexicography. Also, he created such a type of historical dictionary as the thesaurus of one written monument and became the father of Russian sociolinguistics and comparative phraseology. He formulated principles for describing various aspects of vocabulary, proposed a number of innovative lexicographic projects, thus anticipating many modern lexicographic theories and developments.

Проблема лексикографування фольклорних власних назв на матеріалі українського обрядового фольклору

The article is a continuation of a number of author’s publications dedicated to lexicographical studies of folklore onyms. It is proved that the question of compiling a dictionary of folk proper names, which would systematically cover folk proper names, based on particular descriptive principles according to their specific features, is a current issue today. The paper dwells on the key moments of designing such lexicographical project and concrete samples of the dictionary entries are provided. The entries are based on different genres of the material found in collected works ‘Ukrainian ritual folklore of western lands: Musical anthology (Besarabia, Boikivshchyna, Bukovyna, Volyn, Halychyna, Hutsulshchyna, Zakarpattia, Lemkivshchyna, Pidliashshia, Podillia, Polissia, Pokuttia, Holmshchyna)’ compiled by A. Ivanytskyi. The main principles of compilation of similar lexicographic project were put into practice: polyaspect character; genre principle of compiling a lexicographic publication; denotative and nominative principles of collecting the material to place folklore onyms within a separate dictionary; alphabetical principle of compiling dictionary entries within the same class of onyms. The conducted analysis revealed that the implementation of the principle of polyaspectivity sets the conditions for the collection of factual material. Compiled onymy will have a complete description of the register, and regional and genre diversity. The statistical data is provided for each proper name including its variants that will enable to describe the structure of Ukrainian folklore onym space, trace its kernel and peripheral structure. The illustrations will demonstrate textual use of folklore proper names and their cultural senses. Definitions and information parts (provided if necessary) will specify the status of proper names and peculiarities of their use, will provide inherent to some folklore onyms textual and extra textual connotations, symbolism, ability to be used in semiotic oppositions, etc. Application of the principle of genre and denotative and nominative principles of classification of the material will facilitate scientists to form an objective picture of the national folk books. The compilation of an unabridged dictionary of folk proper names will provide scholars with the relevant material for comprehensive and in-depth studies of this component of national onymy and create optimal conditions for onomast’s studies of the material and types of its analysis. Key words: a folklore onym, а folklore onomastics, а dictionary of folklore onyms, a dictionary entry, lexicography.

Принципы нормативности и историзма в русской академической лексикографии: еще раз о типе большого толкового словаря

The article is dedicated to the problem of correlation between the two essential principles of explanatory lexicography in the conceptual design of the Great Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language (hereinafter the Dictionary): these are the principles of normativity and historicism. Within the scope of the Russian academic lexicography, the problem in question has not been well-developed in relation to an explanatory dictionary of the great type. In the 20th-21st centuries, the type of a fundamental multi-volume academic dictionary of the Russian language was embodied in three editions: today, the third one (in 35 volumes) is being prepared. The Dictionary proposes a comprehensive lexicographic evidence of the Russian literary vocabulary and, therefore, is often referred to as the biggest achievement of the Russian lexicography. For all its undeniable advantages, the Dictionary combines two contradictory principles: the principle of historicism (reflecting the Russian literary language “from Pushkin to our time”) and the principle of normativity (codifying the current standard language). To a great extent, the combination of these two principles has emerged occasionally, which was determined by the following factors: first, the lack of research in the dictionary typology, in the theory of standard language, in the problems of synchronic and diachronic lexicography, which was typical of the early 20th-century Russian linguistics; and, second, a very close relationship of the Dictionary with the previous imperfect lexicographic projects. The combination of the two principles results in two contradictions: the typological one, making it hard to constitute the exact dictionary type, and the methodological one, which does not contribute to a proper implementation of various lexicographic techniques and approaches. The typological contradiction is considered with respect to the definitions of basic notions, to their correlation in the concepts of academic dictionaries, and to the historical reasons that determined the emergence of the abovementioned lexicographic conflict in the late 1930s when the Dictionary workflow was launched. The methodological contradiction is due to the co-existence of the two basic principles in the current Dictionary (the third one). In a single entry, the description of modern semantic, stylistic, and grammatical features of the word as well as the specifics of its use in the contemporary language is often combined with the description of features that were typical of this word in the 19th-early 20th centuries. In the article, based on the description of obsolete vocabulary and interpretation of the word semantic structure, the authors study the lexicographic areas where the conflict of normativity and historicism leads to inconsistencies that may hardly be worked through. The statement and brief analysis of the problem is the first step toward the development of a non-contradictory concept of the following-now definitely electronic-Great Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

Project VVV and the Issue of Revitalising Valoc’

This article provides an insight into the complex issue of producing the first edition of the dictionary of Valoc’ – a variety of Lombard spoken in Val Masino, lower Valtellina (northern Italy). This new lexicographic project was initiated in 2017 and is called Vocabolär del Valoc’ de la Val Mäśen – VVV [Vocabulary of Valoc’ of Val Masino]. Our research team works on the material of an unpublished dictionary based on interviews collected in the 1960s and 1970s. Our methodological approach is both that of dialectology and sociolinguistics as we complement our study with observations and interviews among Valoc’ speakers of different ages, genders and occupations, to see how it is still used today. Moreover, our approach allowed us to observe the process of the transmission of Valoc’ from one generation to another as well as some discourses among speakers on its uses. In conclusion, this contribution brings us to reflect on how the new “global” society may influence the process of transmission of this endangered language which needs to be revitalised. Interventions at primary and secondary school have been offered in order to introduce Valoc’ as a language of everyday communication and not only as the “dialect” of pupils’ grandparents. We examine the importance of developing a dictionary in order to promote a norm of reference in writing as a way to preserve Valoc’ for the future.

Innovations in modern lexicographic discourse (based on the material of appendixes to the english online-dictionaries)

The concepts of neologisms and buzzwords are discussed in the article based on linguistic illustrations from two lexicographic projects. This paper examines buzzwords registered in the on-line format of The Global Language monitor in 2020 and on-line version of Macmillan Online Dictionary in 20162020. Buzzwords reflect the adaptation of language to modern trends in the development of society and language, as they appear in the modern world to denote new realities. They contribute to a more accurate description of new processes in the development of the world and sociocultural realities in the English-speaking society. Due to the fast changes within the bulk of English buzzwords in the epoch of globalization the problem of their linguistic status has not been studied and described in details that is why it is reasonable to consider some aspects of their functional potential in the terms of linguocultural and sociocultural characteristics to contribute to the adequate interpretation of this word cluster relevant for modern English lexicography. Moreover, the study of English buzzwords is aimed at renewing the information about the interaction between human beings and their social, cultural setting and cognitive requirements. The classification worked out is considered as another attempt to establish the role of English buzzwords in consolidating renewed information about modern trends in the development the English language in the XX1 century.