Old english phraseology: problems of lexicographic description

Abstract

The article is concerned with analyzing the main problems of lexicographic description of Old English idioms. It also aims at developing a method of compiling an Old English dictionary of idioms intended for linguists specializing in anglistics, phraseology and history of English. The topic is understood to be insufficiently studied in Russian linguistics, the causes whereof are revealed in the present research. The needs of practical lexicography suggest a categorization of the main problems, which are distributed in four groups to be consecutively addressed. The research covers the following specific matters: a) defining the parameters of a phraseological dictionary featuring some evidence of historical linguistics; b) selecting the linguistic evidence itself; c) deciding on the layout of the word-list; d) composing the entries. The concept of an Old English dictionary of idioms is presumed to be based on a combination of features typical of both phraseological dictionaries proper and historical dictionaries. The task of selecting idioms is performed through analyzing old English written records alongside with some resort to the procedure of phraseological identification. The word-list is made on the basis of scrutinizing the obligatory and optional phraseological traits of Old English word combinations. An account is taken of the lexicographic data found in the existing dictionaries of Anglo-Saxon lexicon. In choosing the sequence of entries it is proposed to follow the established tradition of phraseography. The structure of the entry is seen as including a number of mandatory elements, such as the headword, lemma, all the text-proven forms of the idiom, definition, a modern phraseological equivalent, if any, a few contextual examples of use and the idiom forms in Middle and New English. The recommendations worked out in the research are followed to present sample entries.