PRINCIPLES OF IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECEDENT PHENOMENA (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN DICTIONARIES AND THESAURI)

Abstract

Тhe article focuses on the principles of describing precedent phenomena in dictionaries with an ideographic/conceptual structure or combining explanatory (explanatory-encyclopaedic) and ideographic approa ches to the organisation and description of the vocabulary. The grounds for attributing a lexicographic work to the dictionaries of precedent phenomena, as well as the logic of the ideographic organisation of the vocabulary units, the structure and content of the rubrics of dictionaries of precedent phenomena are studied. The study involves dictionary material in English and Russian. The analysis of theoretical sources and dictionaries has shown some discrepancies in the use of terms nominating precedence and the lexicographic form of dictionaries of precedent phenomena accepted in Russian and English linguistic and lexicographic traditions. The notions of precedence, precedent phenomenon, etc., distinguished in Russian linguistics, can be compared with the notions of allusion, reminiscence, paraphrase, quotation, intertextual metaphor in English-language scientifi c literature and dictionaries. The ideographic approach is implemented in the works called dictionaries, thesauri (both in the English and Russian traditions), ideographic, thematic, semantic dictionaries (in the Russian tradition). Ideographicity is manifested at the level of dictionary macrostructure, where head units are presented within conceptual or thematic fi elds (rarely with more than one level of categorisation), and/or microstructure – through references to conceptually or thematically similar units. The study pays special attention to the approaches adopted to describe the cultural, etymological and pragmatic aspects of precedent phenomena characterisation. The approaches used in English and Russian dictionaries reveal an eff ort to highlight the axiological nature and intertextuality of precedent names and statements. Defi nitions contain an element of interpretation, indications of objects or situations that can be named or characterised by a given precedent unit. The units are identifi ed as key cultural signs, symbols and standards. Dictionary entries (rubrics) contain verbal illustrations selected mostly from secondary texts (except for author’s dictionaries), which makes it possible to assess the precedent status of the described units. Some dictionaries take into account the associative perceptions of precedent phenomena as components of linguoculture, demonstrating their cultural functionality and allowing to establish their role in the formation of the identity of the linguocultural community.