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Soviet lexicography: A survey
Morton Benson
Pre-Soviet background
The historical roots of Soviet lexicography go back to Old Russia. 1 The first
glossaries were produced in the thirteenth century . As in England, they were ba
sically devoted to so-called 'hard' words. In Orthodox Russia, however, most o f
these words were borrowings not from Latin, bu t from Old Church Slavic andfrom Greek. Modern pre-Revolutionary lexicography began in the eighteenth
century . Its major accomplishment was the six-volume Dictionary of the Russian
Academy, completed in 1794. In this first Academy dictionary, many o f the
words were 'nested' — a term that requires explanation. Russian, like other Slavic
languages, is rich in expressive and derivational suffixes. In addition, there are in
Russian numerous compounds written as one word. 'Nesting' refers to the plac
ing of words with the identical init ial root in the same entry. This procedure saves
space. However, it may disrupt the overall alphabetical order and may make it
difficult for the reader to find a word when a prefix precedes the root.
The first Academy dictionary did not include colloquialisms; it did list many
Church Slavic forms. In 1822, the revised version (i.e., second edition) of the
Academy dictionary was completed; this revision eliminated nesting and intro
duced an alphabetical relisting o f the entries. The conflict between nesting and
alphabetizing was to reappear over a century later, during the Soviet era. In
1847, the last volume o f the third edition of the Academy dictionary appeared.
This four-volume work still contained a large number o f Church Slavic forms,
not used in the spoken or belletristic Russian of the mid-nineteenth cen tury. In
fact, its title was a 'Dictionary of Church Slavic and Russian'. A major step for
ward was the introduct ion of stylistic labels for Church Slavic forms suchasgfava
'head'.grad 'city', etc .
A number of studies and dictionaries of Russian dialects and jargons were
published during the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century (Perel-
muter 1974) . The most important dictionary devoted to dialectal and informal
Russian was Dahl's four-volume EXPLANATORY DICTIONARY OF CURR ENT
GREAT-RUSSIAN. The last volume appeared in 1866 . The third and fourth edi
tions of Dahl were edited by Baudouin de Courtenay, who added many slang
and vulgar terms.
1
For a survey, now outdated, of the history of Russian lexicography, see Cejtlin.
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The first volume of the fourth Academy dictionary was published in 1895.
It s original goal was to include only items used in belletristic literature during
the second half o f the ninet eenth centu ry. The first volume, covering the le tter s
A to D, conformed to this principle. However, when the editorship passed from
Ja . Grot to A. Saxmatov, the situation changed. In the second volume many
regional and technical terms were entered. This edition was never completed; its
last fascicule was issued in 1 9 3 7 . It must be emphasized that no com ple ted pre-
Revo lutionary dictionary described Standard Russian. This standard had come
into being, under the influence of Karamzin and Pushkin, around 18 30 .
Early Soviet period
The chaotic conditions following World War I, the Revolution, and the Civil Warparalyzed work on dictionaries for several years. Even after the country began to
recover from the physical destruction that it had suffered, lexicography lagged.
It was pointed out ab ove, for exam ple , tha t the fourth Academy dicti onary was
never finished. Two major reasons for the lag should be pointed out. The turbu
lence of the period 1 9 1 4 - 1 9 2 0 shook the foundations o f Standard Russian itself.
Many of the most highly educated people were killed or forced to flee the coun
try. The new bureaucrats were often semi-literate dialect speakers. A veritable
flood of regionalisms, neologisms, acronyms, abbreviations, vulgarisms, borrow
ings, and jargonisms swamped the language. One striking expample of the lexical
chaos of the 1920s was the wholesale transplanting of the English coun ting system
for tennis into Russian. Ôesnokov's DICTIONARY O F SPORT TERMINOLO
GY, lists as the norm fiftin, serti, forti, djus, Ijav, etc. Later, of course, these borrowings were replaced by native forms (Benson 1958 : 2 5 2 ) .
A second fac tor that impeded the normal development o f lexicograph y was
the dominance of the so-called 'Marr School ' of linguistics. Marr, a Georgian
compatriot of Stalin, had managed to establish firmly his Japhetic theory of lan
guage origin in the Soviet Union. The Japhetic theory rejected, among otherthings, the Indo-European, Semitic, Fin no-U gric, et c. language families. Marr
claimed that all the world 's languages were derived from a Jap het ic proto-language,
spoken at one time in the Caucasus. Marr advanced the fantastic claim that all
words of all languages go back to the four elements sal, her, jon, roi. Marrism
crippled the study o f philology and linguistics in the Soviet Union for many years
(Thomas 1957).
In spite of the difficulties just described, Soviet lexicography began to make
progress in the mid 1930s . An outstanding accomplishment was the compilationand publication of USakov's EXPLANATORY DICTIONARY O F RUSSIAN.
Ш а к о wa? assisted by the leading Soviet linguists of the time: Larin, OZegov,
Tomasevskij, Vinokur, and Vinogradov. 2 USakov's dictionary was, in fac t, the
2
Lenin himself is reported to have inspired the compilation of this normative dictionaryin a letter written in 1920 to the Minister of Eductation, Lunaîarskij.
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first dictionary o f Modern Standard Russian. The introduction to USakov's dic
tionary gives an excell ent description of the Moscow pronunciat ion , a descrip
tion, still used in courses on Russian phonetics. USakov cons isten tly gives the
stress not only for the base forms, but also for the declined and conjugated
forms. This is extremely important since in Russian the stress may shift from
one syllable to another within the declension or conjugation. USakov does pro
vide a partial respelling whenever the pronunciation does not conform to the
rules, as in borrowings i f a t or d is not softened before the vowel e. USakov's
method of dealing with pronunciation has been retained in contemporary Soviet
dictionaries of Russian. In his entries, USakov gives a great deal of grammatical
informat ion. Fo r example, he consistently supplies difficult genitive plural forms.
The Ш а к о dictionary was the first to indicate all aspectual pairs of Russian
verbs. This was a significant step forward in the lexicographical description notonly of Russian, but of Slavic languages in general. Once again, Ш а к о established
precedents that are followed by Soviet dictionaries today.
Post World War II period
After World War II Soviet lexicography became very productive . The direct con
tinuation of USakov's tradition was Ozegov's one-volume dictionary of standard
Russian - DICTIONARY OF RUSSIAN. Several revisions and reprints of this
dictionary have appeared; the eighteenth printing was issued in 1986 . A revised,
expanded edition is scheduled for 1988 (as indicated by the publishing house
Russkij jazyk in a letter to this writer dated December 13, 1984) . Around two
million copies o f this d ictionary have been sold in the Soviet Union and abroad.
It is of great value to the teacher and student of Russian since it contains detailed
information on Russian stress and grammar. Ozegov's dictionary is basically normative. It consis tent ly selects a preferred variant or two variants when several
exist. Ozegov's normative role reflects the strong pressure within the U S S R for
language standardization (Benson 1961).
In 1950 , one year after the publication o f Ozegov's first edition, Stalin issued
a pronunciamento officially putting an end to the privileged position that the
Marr linguistic school had occupied. The excesses of the Marrists had obviously
so embarrassed Soviet scholarship that the highest government circles felt com
pelled to act. The dethronement o f Marr facilitated progress in all phases o f So
viet linguistics, including lexicography. The first volume of the Soviet Acade
my of Sciences' new multi-volume dictionary also appeared in 1950 . The compi
lation progressed on schedule throughout the 1950s into the 1960s. The seven
teenth and last volume was issued in 1965. This dictionary describes the Russian
literary language beginning with the era of Pushkin. Many thousands o f cita tions
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from Russian literature are provided. It is a monumental lexcicographical achieve
men t . 3
A shorter four-volume Academy dictionary was issued from 1 95 7 to 1 9 6 1 .
This shorter dictionary was approximately the same size as the pre-World-War-II
Uäakov dictionary. A second, revised edition of the abridged Academy diction
ary was published in the years 1 9 8 1 - 1 9 8 4 . This revised edition was a distinct
improvement.
The publication of a large number of bilingual specialized and technical dic
tionaries began in the 1950s . The production of such technical dictionaries has
been one o f the strongest features o f Soviet lexico graphy. Space limitations pre
clude even an abridged listing here o f such dictionaries. A 19 8 6 catalog o f Kam -
kin's Bookstore in Rockville, Maryland, for example,lists an impressive number
of English-Russian specialized dictionaries in fields such as agriculture, animalhusbandry, aviation, chemis try, ecology , eco nom ics, elec troch emis try, metallur
gy, mining, physics, railway transportat ion, television, tex til es, et c.
In regard to etymological dictionaries, Soviet lexicography has made a late
start. Before the Revolution, Preobrazenskij's ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY
OF RUSSIAN, begun in 1910 and completed as far as su-, was the only work
available; the last part o f this dictionary was not co mpleted until 1 9 4 9 . Fr om
1950 t o 19 58 an importa nt ety mological dictionary o f Rus sian ,the RUSSISCHES
ETYMOLOGISCHES WÖRTERBUCH, was published in West Berlin by Max
Vasmer. It was so urgently needed that the Soviet publishing house "Progress"
translated it from German in to Russian , deleting certa in forms. The introduc tion
to the Soviet edition contains a sentence (looking harmless to those uninitiated
into Soviet mores), which indicates the "removal of certain entries" that can be
of interest only to "specialized scientific circles". This sentence meant, in fact,
that several colloquial-vulgar Russian terms were omitted. In 1963 , Moscow Uni
versity began publishing Sanskij's new multi-volume etymological dictionary of
Russian. Less than hal f of this dictionary has been completed. Thus, we see that
in the field of Russian etymology, Soviet lexicography has a long way to go before it can ma tch the work already done for English, Germ an, Fren ch , and o ther
languages.
It was mentioned earlier that pre-Revolutionary Russia saw the appearance of
several dialect and jargon dict ionar ies. The production o f such lexicons has
lagged in the Soviet Union. Publication of an Academy of Sciences multi-volume
DICTIONARY O F RUSSIAN DIALECTS was begun in 1965 under the editor
ship o f Fil in. By 1 9 8 5 , twen ty volumes had been published (up t o ne-). In the
early period of the Soviet state, approximately up to 1 932 , various descriptionsof professional jargons and substandard speech did appear. However, since 1932,
3 It should be noted that the old conflict between arranging words in nests or in alphabeti-cal order reappeared during the compilation of this dictionary. Once again, alphabetiza-tion prevailed.
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practically no studies of jargons or of slang have been published. When Dahl's
dialectal dictionary was reprinted in the Soviet Union in 1935 and in 1 9 5 6 , the
second edition was reproduced rather than the third or four th, to which Baudouin
de Courtenay had added vulgarisms.
Soviet lexicographers have devoted considerable attention to the language of
individual authors. An important result of this work is a four-volume concordance
- the DICTIONARY OF PUSHKIN'S LANG UAG E, 1 9 5 6 - 1 9 6 1 ; it was com
piled at the Academy of Sciences. Work has also been done on the language of
other authors such as Gogol, Gorkij, etc.
Soviet lexicography has achieved impressive results in publishing bilingual
dictionar ies o f Russian and other Slavic languages — Bulgarian, Czech, Po lish,
Ukrainian, White Russian, et c. Soviet lexicography has also accomplished a great
deal in the compila tion and publ ication o f bilingual dictionaries for Russian andthe non-Slavic languages spoken in the U S S R . Numerous bilingual dictionaries o f
Russian and of languages spoken outside the Soviet Union have been compiled
with varying degrees of success. Some of these dictionaries are excellent; others
are disappointing. Let us examine in som e detail the largest and best Soviet Eng
lish - Russian dictionary - Gal'perin et al., NEW EN GLI SH - RUSSIAN DIC
TIONARY. In many respects, this dictionary is impressive with its approximate
ly 150 ,000 main entries and huge number of illustrative phrases, idioms, proverbs,
and set expressions. At first glance, Gal'perin's dictionary seems to be a superb
accomplishment.
However, if we take a closer look, we begin to see grave weaknesses. The dic
tionary gives the British (Daniel Jones) phonetic transcription of English. One
would have hoped for at least a summary description of American pronunciation
in the introduction. Most of the translation equivalents and definitions are cor
rect. However, the dictionary con tains an enormous number of lexicographic
blunders — unacceptable English and faulty translations. To demonstrate the
magnitude of the problem, let us take one page, selected at random from the
first volume, page 6 9 1 . We can easily point out ten instances of inco rrec t, unacceptable, awkward English: to have immortal longings (vecno zafcdat'); all yourimmunities are rendered insecure by this change (v rezul'tate ètoj peremeny vymozete lislt'sja vsex vaslx privilegij); the student immured himself for study (stu
dent zapersja v cetyrex stenx, c"toby zanimat'sja); to impale smb. with one's eyes
(pronzit ' kogo-1. vzgljadom); impalpable powder (mel'Cajäij poroSok); impara-
dised (vkuïat' blaïenstvo); the smoke imparted its odour to his clothes (egoodeïda propaxla dymom); impartiality to pupils (bespristrastonoe otnoSenije k
uCenikam); to be impassible before danger (bezucastno otnosit'sja k opasnosti);impatience of contradiction (neterpimost' k vozvraïenijam). At least five addi
tional examples could be cited from this page. A spot check of other pages indi
cates that the total number of examples of unacceptable English is astronomical.
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Immola to r [' imo(u)l eiUl n CM . ImmolateI + - o r M .
im moment ti'mo umant] a y cm . п у с т я к о - Ы В , Г Г У С Т Б И , И И Ч Т О Ж Н Ы І .
Immora l [і 'т э г ( э ) 1] a i. а м о р а л ь н ы А , б е э -г р а в с т в е в в ы й ; р а с и у ш е н в ы н ; р в с п у т в ы и ;
conduct а к е р &л ь н о е п о в е д е в и е ; —іе г в о п б е э в р а в с п е н в ы й ч е л о в е н ; 2. « *р а м .т а ч , с у щ . 1) а м о р а л ь в о с т ъ . б е з н р а в е т в е н -ю с т ъ ; 2) а м о р а л ъ в ы в ч е л о в е к .
Immora l i ty [, tma'rs l i ti ] n l. а м о р а л ь -ю с т ь , б е э в р а в с т в е н я о с т ъ ; р а с п у щ е н н о с т ъ ;Î. а и о р а л ь ж т е , б е з я р а в с т о е н я о е п о в е д е к в е ;і и о р а л ь н ы а , б е з н р а в с т в е я я ы а п о с т у п о к .
Immo ra l i t é [ i' mar ala ti] t> ptàn. р а э а р а -д а т ь , п б р т в т ъ .
Immortal I ti 'mi tl ) n 1. pi м и ф . б е с -ік о р т я ы е (о г р г ч е с т л u т р и м с т и с б о г а х ) ;Е . О Б Ы Я К . р і т о т , ч ь в я ы я б е с с м е р т н о ;Shakespeare Is one of the —e Ш е к с п в ріе с с м е р т е в ; S. «б е с с м е р т н ы &> [ ч л е н Ф р а к - у з с к а и а к а д е м и и ).
Immortal II t V m i t l î а б е с с м е р т н ы й ; в е я -
ы в , в е у в я д а е м ы в ; - fame /glory/ в е т в я -іа е ы а я с л а в а ; — poem б е с с м е р т н о е с т и -[о т в о р е н в е ; to ha ve - long Inge в е ч н о ж а ж -і а т ь (wQ-л ,).
Immortality [ , i m s' t s l it i l n 1) б е с с н е р -г в е , в е ч я о с т ь ; 2) б е с с м е р т я е , н е у в я д й е -и а я с л а в а ; t o a tta in / to o bta in / — п о к р ы т ь: в о * й н я в е у в я д а е ы о й с л а в о й , о б е с с м е р -г в т ь с е б я ; t o cro wn s mb . w ith - у в е к о -а е ч в т ъ ч ъ е -л . й м я .
Immortalisation [і , œxtal(B ) i ' х е і /( э ) п ] nу в е к о в е ч е н в е .
Immortalise ( l' ms Ul ai zJ о о б е с с м е р т в т ь ,у в е н о в е ч н т ъ ; to — a deed у в е к о в й ч н т ъв б д в и г .
Immortelte t . ima't el l n Б А Т . б е с с и е р т -BRK . и и и о р т е л ь (Xeranthemum).
t m motile (l'mou til] a к н ш г н . н е п о -д в н ж я и я , я е с п о с о б н ы й а в й г а т ь с я .
Immovabili ty (i .muiva'bi l i t i ) n 1. к е п о д -в й ж н о с т ь ; 2. н е п о к о л е б й м о с т ъ , н е г г р е к л б н -в о с т ъ ; 3. с п о н б й с т в в е , в е в о э м у т я н о с т ъ ,б е с с т р а с т н е .
Immovable [ ( 'omvabl ] a t. t ) н е п о д в я ж -в ы я , н е д в в ж я в г ы н ; — а я a etatue в е п о д в я ж -я ы я к а н с т а т у я ; a ltog ether / co mp le te ly /- с о в е р ш е в в о н е п о д в в ж я ы й ; 2) т г х . с т а -ц я о в а р я ы я ; н а г л у х о з а к р е п л е в н ы а ; —foundation н е п о д в й ж н о е о с н о в а я в е / о с -в б в а / ; 2 . н е п о к о л е б й м ы я , н е п р е к л о н и ы й ,с т б в х я й ; — In h 1 decision в е п о к о л е б я м ы в -в с в о е и р е ш е в т я я : — purpose н е я з н е в в а яц е л ь ; a. с п о к б й н ы я , н е в о э м у т я м ы й , б е с -с т р а с п ш в ; I . к г р . н е д в я ж и м ы й ; — estate/property/ н е д в я ж я м о е я н у ш е с т в о .
Immovable! d'mu:vablx] я у п о т р . е г л .so «M. ч . ю р . в е д в в ж в н о е н ы у щ е с т в о , н е -д в й ж в м о с т ь .
Immune [i'mjuzn] a I. 1) м ід . , б и о л .
в н м ^ в в ы я , в е в о с п р п я м ч в в ы я (я з а р а л н ы мб о л е г к л м , я д а м u m. n.) ; to be — from smal lpo x о б л а д а т ъ в н н у в в т е т о м п р о т я в б с п ы ; 2)п е р е н . з а щ и ш ё н н ы я ; to be — against / t o/attack б ы т ь э а ш в щ в в н ы м or н а п а д е н и я ;
— game oxom. ш з ч ь , н а к о т б р у ю з а о р е -ш е в а о х б т в ; 2. с в о б б д и ы в , о с в о б о ж д е я -я ы я ; — from taxée с в о б о д н ы й / о с в о б о ж -д е н в ы в / о т я а л б г о в ; 3 . л г р а м . з н а ч . с у щ .м д . н е в о с п р п й н ч в в ы й к б о л е э в я ы (ч е -л о в е н ).
Immunity [i'mju:mtil n t. г и б . . б и о л .в м и у я в т е т , в е в о с п р н й в г ш в о с т ь ; natural[acquired] - в р о ж д ё н н ы й ( о р в о б р е т ё н -н ы й 1 и м м у н и т е т ; 2. ю р . н е п р н к о с в о в е в -в о с т ь , в м і г у в і г г е т ; — of a deputy в е п р в к о с -н о в е я я о с т ь д е п у т а т а : diplomatic — д я п -л о м а т й ч е с х я й в м м у н я т е т ; to guarantee ~г а р е я т я р о в а т ъ я е п р п к о с я о в е н я о с т ъ ; І. 1)
о с е о б о ж д б н в е (о ш н л л о г а , п л о т г ж а um. n .) : — from t a xa t io n о с в о б о ж д е н в е o rн а л б г о в ^ 2) л ь г о т ѳ , п р н в я л е г и я ; all yourimm unit ies are rendered Insecure by thischange в р е э у л ь т а т е э т о н п е р е ы е в ы в ын б ж е т е л в ш й т ъ с я в с е х в б и г а х п р н в в л е г в й
/ л ь г о т / .
Immnnliatlon [i ,mju( :)n(a) rzei / ( a)n] nм л д . в м а г у і і я з а ц я я . _
Immnnlxe i r m j u ( : ) n a r x ) 9 м г в . в и м у н в -а й р о а в т ь , д е л а т ь в н м ^в я ы м ( я м у >4 . ) .
— 691 —
I mmun ol og y [ . rmj ir ' na l^ t ji ] n я н и у в о л о -г а я .
Immnrat lon 1 ,i m| ir 'г е і /( о ) п І n е т п р . з а -д е л и а в к л а д к е ; а а и у р б в к а .
І ш ш а т е ( r r a j u s j e 1. з а т о ч а т ъ (в т ю р ъ м у ,м с н а е т ы р ъ u m. n.); п о д в е р г а т ь з а к л ю ч е -н и ю ; t o — s mb. in a c loi st er э а т о ч й т ь к о г о -л .в ы о в в с т ы р ь ; the student — D himself forstudy с т у д е я т э а о е р с я в ч г т ы р й х с т е н й х ,ч т б б ы э а н в и а т ъ с я ; 2. у с т . о *я і ] a 1. = Impa ssible 1:2. 1) а п а т н ч я ы й , б е з р а э л й ч н ы й ; 2) б е э>м н т е ж н ы й ; — countenance б е э н я т е ж н о ел и ц б ; 3 . ptdn. я е в ы н о с я н ы О , н е с я б с н ы п .
Impaste [im'peist] Р 1. м е с п т ъ , п р е в р я -щ а т ь в (к п к у к >-л . ) м А с с у ; 2. х ш . п и с а т ь ,
г у с т о н а к л а д ы в а н к р д с к я .impasto ( im 'pa st ou ) n ж и і . в а л о ж е н и ѳн р а с о н г у с т ы м с л б е м .
Impatience l im'pei/(a)ns] n t. н е т е р п е -я я е , в е т е р п е л и в о с т ъ ; to wa it wit h — forsmb. c н е т е р п е я н е м ж д а т ъ к о г б -л .; 2.1) р а з д р а ж я т е л ь я о с т ь ; 2) в е т е р п й и о с т ь ;— of contradiction н е т е р п й м о с т ъ к в о а р а -ж е я я я и ; — wi th red t ape н е т е р п я м о е or -н о ш е н и е м б ю р с к р а т а з м у .
Impatteot [ixo'pei/[s)nt] a І . н е т е р п е д й -
44*
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The treatment of American English in Gal'perin's dictionary is deplorable.
Whereas hundreds and hundreds of important Americanisms are totally ignored,
numerous rare, dialectal, obsolete, trivial words and phrases are dredged up from
various sources and attributed to American English with completely inadequate
stylistic labels. Here are ju st a few so-called Americanisms taken from Gal'perin's
dictionary — bird = 'military pilot'; blast v. = 'to advertise' (they blasted their
product); blizzard = 'accurate shot' (to take a blizzard at something); blow-off =
'(a performer's) best number'; bump v. = 'to shell'; etc.
As already sta ted, Gal 'perin 's dictionary is large, offering an immense number
of entries and phrases. Does it include enough? The answer is yes and no. Un
fortunately, the dictionary includes far too many words that never should have
been entered. Gal'perin lists such monstrosities as amylaceous, bonetta, chokage,
decreet, ernes, forfend, et c. Such words and the phrases cited earlier do not be
long in a dictionary that, presumably, describes modem, standard English — their
inclusion inflates the size of the dictionary to monumental dimensions. The
bloated size of the dictionary should not obscure the fact that many essential
words and phrases have been left out. For example, many hundreds of important
nominal compounds of the type articulated lorry, bargaining chip, case history,
defense mechanism, electronic transfer, flight attendant, etc. are no t given. In
the area of informal phraseology Gal'perin does not give expressions such as:
they blew their cover; they were bumped from the flight; to burp an infant; to field a question; to pull rank; to reverse (the) charges; to roll with the punches;
to shop for bargains, et c. In regard to American realia, Gal'perin misses many
items. He does not include, for example, the following: answering service; dean's
list; distributional requirements; dude ranch; to take the Fifth; garage sale; mail-
order house; open admissions; to pledge a fraternity; rural-free delivery; welcome
wagon, etc.
The SUPPLEMENT to Gal'perin's dictionary, which came out in 1 980 , con
tinues in the same vein. Although it contains much good material, it also contains
a large number of unnecessary, seemingly non-existent English forms: acrolect,
agreation, Aunt Jane, autocide, autoput, bafflegab, boccie, boite du nuit, etc. It
would appear tha t the most serious defects o f Gal'perin's dict ionary are attribut
able to the lack of collaboration with native speakers of English.
A welcome breath o f fresh air in Soviet bilingual English lexicography was in
troduced by a native speaker of English, Elizabeth Wilson, whose MODERN
RUSSIAN DICTIONARY F O R ENGLISH SPEAKERS ( 1982) was copublished
by Pergamon Press and the Moscow publishing house Russkij jazy k. Wilson con
centrated on spoken Engl ish, especially the British variety. Although spotty inits coverage, this semi-Soviet dictionary is exceptional in that it contains correct,
idiomatic English.
Soviet lexicography has also produced dictionaries of linguistic terminology,
word stress, homonyms, synonyms, word frequency, neologisms, difficult words,
etc.
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Recent developments — learner's dictionaries
In the 1970s , Soviet publishers in Moscow obtained licenses to reprint two Ox
ford learner's dictionaries - THE OXFORD ADVANCED LEA RNE R'S DIC
TIONARY O F CURRENT ENGLISH (Russkij jaz yk , 1982) and THE OXFORD
STUDENT'S DICTIONARY OF CUR RENT ENGLISH (Prosveäcenie, 1983).
The publishers obtained permission to make changes and did so; key political
terms were given new definitions. Thus, capitalism was defined as "an econom ic
and social system based on private ownership o f the means of production oper
ated for private profit and on the exploi tation o f man by man". In a lett er dated
January 2 8 , 1 9 8 6 , the Chief Executive o f the Oxford University Press,G.B.Rich
ardson, wrote that granting permission to the Sovie t publishers to alter defini
tions had been a mistake and should not have t aken place.Considerable attention is paid in the Soviet Union t o the use o f school diction
aries in the teaching o f Russian, especially to non-native speakers. As far back as
the 1930s , L . V . Scerba wrote in detail about the structure o f bilingual dictionar
ies used to teach foreign languages. He advocated t hat separate dictionaries be
compiled for those learners who wish to decode (translate from the foreign lan
guage) and those who wish to encode (translate into the foreign language).
Scerba's theories still exert influence both in the Soviet Union and abroad (Kro -
mann 1984 ) . The Pushkin Institute in Moscow , which promotes the teaching of
Russian to foreigners, now has a Division o f Pedagogical Lexicography. Many
school dictionaries have been published for the foreign student o f Russian. Typ
ical are Folomkina and Weiser with about 3 5 0 0 main entries and Lapidus and
Sevcova with about 11 ,000 main entries. Both of these dictionaries have been re
printed.
Two new kinds o f learners' dictionaries have appeared recen tly in the Soviet
Union. The first is a dictionary o f collocations. Such a dictionary gives the lin
guistic contexts in which ea ch headword often occur s. The first such dictionary
to appear was Anisimova et al., HANDBOOK O F LEXICAL COMBINATION INRUSSIAN: A REFERENCE DICTIONARY. A larger work is Denisov and Mor-
kovkin, LEARNER'S DICTIONARY O F WORD COMBINATIONS IN RUSSIAN.
The number o f main entries is disappointingly small - about 2 5 0 0 . Each entry
shows in great detail the various com binati ons in which the headword is normal
ly used. The noun entries, for example, contain those verbs that collocate with
the noun: pol'zovat'sja avtoritetom ( ' to exercise/wield authority'); vesti bor'bu
('to carry on/wage a straggle') ; prosluSat' kurs (' to take a course') ; profitât ' lekciju
('to give a lecture'); podat ' primer ( ' to set an exam ple) '; okazyvat' soprotivlenije
('to offer/put up resistance'); xranit ' tajnu ( ' to keep a secret'); et c. The diction
ary provides various other types of lexical and grammatical collocations, such as
adjective + noun, verb + preposition, noun + infinitive, preposition + nou n,e tc .
I f this dictionary could be expanded to include a sufficient number o f head
words, its value would be greatly enhanc ed.
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The second kind of recently published learners' dictionary is called lingvostra-
novedöeskij, literally 'linguo-areal'. The function o f such a dictionary is to pro
vide encyclope dic information about the terminology used in a given act ivity. A
series of such dictionaries is apparently scheduled for publication. The editors of
this series are E.M. VereScSagin and V. G. Kostomarov. The first dictionary to ap
pear in this series was Denisova's LINGUO-AREAL DICTIONARY: EDUCA
TION IN THE USSR. This dictionary treats the terminology o f education in great
detail. The editors of this series assume that many features of the Soviet educa
tional system do not exist elsewhere and that a linguo-areal dictionary, conse
quently, serves as a guide to Soviet culture.
The above survey has been brief and cannot be considered complete. Several problems referred to deserve more detailed study. My conclusion is that Soviet lexi
cography has achieved impressive results in publishing dictionaries of modem
standard Russian, specialized and technical dictionaries, learners' dictionaries for
foreigners, and some bilingual general-use dictionaries. So far, Soviet lexicogra
phy has been disappointing in the production o f etymological dictionaries, histor
ical dictionar ies, dialect dictionaries, and surname dictionaries.
The most disturbing aspects of Soviet lexicography are the following:
1. its refusal to treat Russian slang and other non-standard forms;2. its readiness to censor, expurgate existing dictionaries;
3. its isolat ion from Western lexicography — the result is a failure to keep up
with innovations now common in many dictionaries produced in the West,
such as pictorial illustrations, main-entry status for compounds, the inclusion
of real people and places, the utilization of synonym and usage essays;
4. its refusal to allow free interna tional coll aboration in the compilat ion o f bilin
gual dictionaries — the Wilson dictionary is a welcome exception.
These negative features are mainly attributable to the obvious fact that lexico
graphy in the Soviet Union is controlled by the government and party. Neverthe
less, let us hope that the future will bring more contac t between the Soviet and
Western lexicographers. We can all learn much from each other.
References
Cited dictionaries
[Note: Listed first are dictionaries published by the Soviet Academy of Sciences and its predecessor, the Imperial Academy of Sciences, founded in 1724
by Peter the Great. These dictionaries are designated 'AN' (= Akademija nauk= 'Academy of Sciences'). Th e following abbreviat ions are also used: S L . =
slovar'= 'dictionary'; RUS. = russkij or russkix or russkogo = 'Russian'; JAZ = jazyk or jazyka = 'language'; M = 'Moscow'; P = 'Petersburg'; L = 'Leningrad';AS = 'Academy of Sciences'; Imp. = 'Imperial'; GUNS = 'State PublishingHouse of Foreign and National Dictionaries'.]
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(AN) SL. AKADEMI1 ROSS IJSKOJP: Imp. AS (6 volumes 1 7 8 9 - 9 4 ) . (= 'first Academy dictionary').
(AN) SL. AKADEMII ROSSIJSKOJ (po azbucnomu porjadku raspolozennyj)P: Imp. AS (alphabetized, 6 volumes 1 8 0 6 - 2 2 ) . (= 'second Academy diction
ary').(AN) SL. CERKOVNO-SLAVJANSKOGO I RU S. JA Z.
P: Second section of the Imp. AS (4 volumes 1 8 4 3 - 4 7 ) . (= 'third Academydictionary').
(AN) SL . RU S. JA Z.
P: Second section of the Imp. AS (1895-never completed; fascicules issued upto 1937) . (= 'fourth Academy dictionary').
(AN) S L. SOVREMENNOGO RU S. LITE RATU RNO GO JA Z.
M-L: AS (17 volumes 1 9 5 0 - 6 5 ) .
(AN) SL . JA Z. PUSKINAChief ed. V.V. Vinogradov, M: GUNS (4 volumes 1 9 5 6 - 6 1 ) .
(AN) S L. RU S. NAR ODN YX GOV ORO V
F.P. Filin, ed. M.-L.: Na uk a (1 96 5) . (not yet completed).(AN) SL . RU S. JA Z.
M: GUNS (4 volumes 1 9 5 7 - 6 1 ) .(AN) SL . RU S. JA Z.
M: Rus. jaz. (4 volumes 1981—84). (an improved, completely revised version
of the preceding item).
(Anisimova) POS OBI E PO L E KS IC E S KOJ SOCETAE MOSTI SLOV RU S. JA Z.:SL.-SPRAVOCNIK
T.I . Anisimova et al., Minsk: VysejSaja Skola (1975) .
(Cesnokov) S L. PO FIZI CE SK OJ KU LT UR E
B.N. Cesnokov, L ( 1928).
(Dal') T O L K O V Y J SL. ZIVOGO VELIKORUSSKOGO JAZ.
Vladimir Dal', M and P: M.O. Vol ' f (4 volumes 1 8 6 3 - 6 6 ) .
(Denisov) UCEBNYJ SL . SOCE TAEM OSTI SLOV RUS. JA Z.
P.N. Denisov/V.V. Mirkovkin, M: Rus. Jaz. (1978) .
(Denisova) LING VOS TRA NOV EDC ESK IJ SL. : NARODNOE OBRA ZOVA NIEV S S S RM.A. Denisova, M: Rus. Jaz. (1978) .
(Folomkina) THE LE AR NE R' S ENGLISH-RU SSIAN DICTION ARYS. Folomkina/H. Weiser, M : GUNS (1962) .
(Gal'perin) NEW ENGLISH -RUS SIAN DICT IONA RYI.R. Gal'perin et al., M: Rus. Jaz . (2 volumes 1979) ; S UPPL EMEN T, M: Rus.Jaz. (1980) .
(Lapidus) A RUSSIAN -ENGLISH LE AR NE R' S DICT ION ARY
B.A. Lapidus/S.V. Sevcova, M: GUNS (1962) .(Ob gov ) SL . RUS. JA Z.
Sergej I. Oîegov, M.: GUNS ( 1 9 4 9 ) . (currently published by Rus. Jaz.).
(Preobraîenskij) ÈTIMOLOGICESKIJ SL . RUS . JA Z.Aleksandr G. PreobraJenski j, M: Tipografija G. Lissnera i.D. So bk o (1910—
v 4 9 )
"
(Sanskij) ÈTIMOLOGICESKIJ SL . RUS . JA Z.N. Sanskij, M : Moscow Univ. ( 1 9 6 3 ) . (no t yet comple ted).
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(Ш а к о ) TOLKOVYJ SL . RU S. JAZ .
Dmitrij N. USakov, M: Sovetskaja ènciklopedija (4 volumes 1935—40).
(Vasmer) RUSSISCHES ETYMOLOGISCHES WÖRTERBUCH
Max Vasmer, Heidelberg: Winter (3 volumes 1 9 5 3 - 5 7 ) .
(Vasmer) ÈTIMOLOGICESKIJ SL . RUS . JA Z.Max Vasmer, M: Progress (4 volumes 1964—73).
Other literature
Benson, Morton ( 1 9 5 8 ) , "English Loan Words in Russian Sport Terminology",
in: American Speech 3 3 , 151 — 159.Benson, Morton ( 1 9 6 1 ) "Soviet Standardization of Russian", in: Slavic and East
European Journal 5, 263—278.
Cejtlin, R.M., (1958), Kratkij oferk istorii russkoj leksikografli, Moscow.Kromann, Hans Peter et al. ( 1 9 8 4 ) , "'Active' and 'Passive' Bilingual Dictionaries:
The SCerba Concept Reconsi dere d", in: Hartmann R.R.K, (ed.) LEXeter '83
Proceedings, Tübingen: Niemeyer, 207—215.Perelmuter, Joanna ( 1 9 7 4 ) , "Russian Substandard Usage and the Attitude o f So
viet Lexicography", in: Canadian Slavonic Papers 16, 436 -437 .Rothstein, Robert ( 1 9 8 5 ) , "While Reading Soviet Dictionaries of Neologisms",
in: Slavic and East European Journal 29, 470.
Thomas, Lawrence (1957) , The Linguistic Theories of N. Ja. Marr, Berkeley and
Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press.
Recommended