Scholarly record

UNIVERSAL MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARIES AS REFLECTION OF RUSSIAN LEXICOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT TENDENCIES

L. N. Kaminskaia, N. B. Smolskaia

Abstract

The paper dwells upon the historical process of introducing multilingual dictionaries into the Russian linguistics and its influence upon the Russian lexicography development. In the article two first Russian multilingual dictionaries of P.S. Pallas (1787-1789) and of T. Yankovich de Mirievo (1790-1791) were examined. It is noted that this type of dictionaries marked the qualitative shift from pure language facts collecting to comparative-historical and typological linguistics beginning, as multilingual dictionary introduction reflected the processes in the material and spiritual spheres of the Russian society life that determined the prospective development of the Russian and world linguistics. It is pointed out that the idea of creating this type of dictionaries belonged to Empress Catherine II. The work on creating dictionaries contributed to the development of scientific contacts of the Russian Empire and Russian scholars and international research centers. Their concepts, structure, wordstock organization principles are analyzed and discussed. The main principles ruling the dictionaries development during the time were universalism, rationalism, systematization. The role of the first Russian dictionaries and their importance for the history of science and the development of linguistics are significantly higher than those flaws, errors and miscalculations that are present in them. We believe the rich material collected during the work on the dictionary formed the basis for further linguistic research. To sum up, dictionaries embodied and retained many of the linguistic, lexicographical achievements of the world science of the time.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018H/31/S10.067

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