031_Morton Benson (Pennsylvania) -Soviet Lexicography_ a Survey

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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.

Documents

031_Morton Benson (Pennsylvania) -Soviet Lexicography_ a Survey