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Revista Universidad y Sociedad

On-line version ISSN 2218-3620

Universidad y Sociedad vol.13 no.5 Cienfuegos Sept.-Oct. 2021  Epub Oct 02, 2021

 

Artículo Original

The problem of typology in the onomastic educational dictionaries

El problema de la tipología en los diccionarios onomásticos educacionales

0000-0003-3236-0644Reyhan Habibli1  * 

1 Baku State University. Azerbaijan

ABSTRACT

Onomastic units are an important part of the vocabulary and they have a wide spectrum of problems. Onomastic dictionaries differ from the other dictionaries first of all by the structure of the lexicographic apparatus that is caused by semantic and other peculiarities of proper names. As a rule such dictionaries contain encyclopedic and linguistic information. At present there is a tendency of universalization of onomastic dictionaries. Improvement of the structure is connected with regulation of collected material and rational placing of entries. A dictionary is always one of the effective learning tools, but terminological, linguocultural dictionaries with educational purpose have not been compiled yet. In the modern world scientific and technological progress is a cause of creation of new onomastic terminological dictionaries. Choice of lexicographic resources that describe onomastic terminology is limited to small number of monolingual dictionaries. It is necessary to compile special onomastic dictionaries of linguocultural type that fully reflect onomastic material. The objective of this research is to analyze the main requisites to improve onomastic dictionaries in order to increase foreign students' vocabulary, to create conditions for better understanding and deeper acceptance of culturological texts with onomastic components, and to acquaint them with the national culture.

Key words: Educational lexicography; onomastic dictionary; onomastic terminology

RESUMEN

Las unidades onomásticas son una parte importante del vocabulario y estas tienen un amplio espectro de problemas. Los diccionarios onomásticos se diferencian de los demás diccionarios en primer lugar por la estructura del aparato lexicográfico que es causado por la semántica y otras peculiaridades de los nombres propios. Por regla general, estos diccionarios contienen información enciclopédica y lingüística. En la actualidad existe una tendencia a la universalización de los diccionarios onomásticos. La mejora de la estructura está relacionada con la regulación del material recolectado y la ubicación racional de las entradas. Un diccionario es siempre una de las herramientas de aprendizaje eficaces, pero todavía no se han recopilado diccionarios terminológicos y lingüísticos con fines educativos. En el mundo moderno, el progreso científico y tecnológico es la causa de la creación de nuevos diccionarios terminológicos onomásticos. La elección de recursos lexicográficos que describen terminología onomástica se limita a un número reducido de diccionarios monolingües. Es necesario compilar diccionarios onomásticos especiales de tipo lingüístico y cultural que reflejen completamente el material onomástico. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los principales requisitos para mejorar los diccionarios onomásticos a fin de aumentar el vocabulario de los estudiantes extranjeros, crear las condiciones para una mejor comprensión y una aceptación más profunda de los textos culturológicos con componentes onomásticos, y para familiarizarlos con la cultura nacional.

Palabras-clave: Lexicografía educativa; diccionario onomástico; terminología onomástica

Introduction

Modern linguistic and cultural dictionaries cover various fragments of the language worldview with their description and also give an idea of the language model of the world as a whole and within the framework of the concept that the author of a particular dictionary follows. Linguocultural lexicography is constantly developing and modifying. There is a tendency to expand the objects of the vocabulary description: new objects of description, new sources of factual material appear, and the semantic development of objects in the cultural aspect deepens (Katermina, et al., 2020).

Over the past decade there has been a growing interest in both theoretical and practical lexicography. An example of this is the publication of different lexicographical editions, scientific monographs, manuals, as well as thematic conferences. The number of different types and genres of glossaries, encyclopedias, and other reference books is growing rapidly. The problem of systematizing dictionary reference literature is increasingly important. There is a need for universal, precisely crafted dictionaries, compiled on the basis of modern typology. Despite the rich lexicographical traditions, there are always those problems that are not solved and are caused by the demands of the time. Most of them deal with both general and educational lexicography at the same time.

Educational lexicography has been a part of the general lexicographical tradition for centuries and developed its scopes. It is reflected in the development of educational dictionaries. The theoretical basis of educational lexicography began to develop only in the XX century. Actualization of the anthropocentric approach over the past decade has highlighted the explanation of vocabulary as a fragment of the language system. The anthropocentric approach considers an addressee to be taken into consideration during description of the vocabulary. In Sklyarevskaya’s opinion, dictionaries of an anthropocentric type don’t describe an abstract system, they describe really used living language aimed at contemporaries’ consciousness (Sklyarevskaya, 2013). Anthropocentrism of lexicography manifests itself in reflection of the important features of the portrait of the modern person, orientation towards user demands and maximal accounting of the factor of an addressee.

Though educational lexicography is an independent sphere vocabulary is explained by traditional methods in dictionaries and preference is given to the significative aspect of the lexical meaning. Such dictionaries are aimed at carriers of national language so it is rather difficult to use them by foreigners. Undoubtedly dictionaries aimed at carriers of national language have several advantages and high quality, however compiling educational dictionaries aimed at the specific educational conditions, particularly at foreigners is very significant. It is necessary to undertake theoretical and applied research in this field. In N.D. Golev’s view, deviation from the academic pole shouldn’t be understood as distortion of quality, it should be understood as quantitative reduction - compression of form and content. It should be understood as transformation of scientific concepts into the other of forms, not as their transfer to everyday concepts; as a result of such transformation educational discourse becomes a type of scientific discourse (Golev, 2009). The object of the article is the presentation and explanation of the material of monolingual dictionaries (particularly for foreigners). The purpose of the research is the elaboration of principles of compiling onomastic dictionaries, linguistic typology of explanation for monolingual educational dictionaries. In order to accomplish this some methods were used such as observation and classification, lexicographical and interpretative methods and onomastic analysis.

Development

One of the current problems of educational lexicography is compiling monolingual dictionaries that correspond to user requirements. Such problems as inclusion in an entry of culturological information about the word, formation of the glossary, descriptive parameters of lexical units are actively discussed by researchers. Dubichinsky (2009), shows the following principles of this field:

  1. The principle of fully consistent of the dictionary with the stage of training, level of knowledge, students’ psychological characteristics, regard for availability (or absence) of linguistic milieu.

  2. The principle of the gradual and sequential complexity of the studied material.

  3. The principle of the systemic: the system of interconnected dictionaries compiled on the principle of gradation aimed at the different stages of training which could be the greatest achievement of the national educational lexicography. The main feature of such a system must be the gradual increase of amount of diverse information about the head unit and complication of forms and character of its presentation.

  4. The principle of complexity that means a synthetic model of dictionary description - presentation of the largest possible number of the features and peculiarities of the described language unit.

  5. The principle of functionality - an educational dictionary being didactic modeling of a language must promote producing of live functioning speech and hence successful communication.

  6. The principle of normative vocabulary, its strict synchronicity and orientation towards certain subjects and purposefulness of education.

  7. The principle of minimization of the vocabulary, compression of structural and semantic characteristics of the lexical system of the language and frequency of units that are realized in the system of lexical minima.

The main directions of the development of educational lexicography are determined by linguistic ideas and needs of educational process. It is both an applied sphere concentrating theory and practice of compiling educational dictionaries and one of the aspects of explanation of the vocabulary with educational purpose. The function of the educational dictionary must be directed to the study of the language.

Mahmudov (1992), writes: “Naturally when learning a language it is impossible to remember all words of the vocabulary. So it is more advantageous to remember the most important words. The most important words are the ones that are used in the speech and written texts. Thus determination of frequently used and infrequent words in the texts connected with language teaching is of particular relevance”. Methodic factors determine an addressee, type of a dictionary, volume of its glossary, structure of entries, ways and methods of presentation of its lexical material.

The modern lexicographical publications reflect the linguistic environment of the present time, the most important changes in the modern native speakers’ lexicon. Dictionaries play a great role in preservation of people’s cultural memory. Dictionary-reference literature serves as auxiliary means in classification and systematization of the reality. The geopolitical changes and social processes taking place in the world cause changes in the language picture and in interlingual and intercultural relations as well as in the enrichment of the vocabulary and formation of new names. In this regard the study of onomastic units in educational lexicography and their inclusion in dictionaries are very significant. The necessary principles for their fixing in educational dictionaries of a new type can be used taking into account the result of the available researches.

The problem of compiling integrated dictionaries of the new type has become more actual lately. It is necessary to distinguish, on the one hand, the traditional classification of the dictionary genres (explanatory, educational, terminological, orthographic, translation and other dictionaries), and on the other hand, the typology of dictionaries based on the scientific constructs. At present researchers show special interest in onomastic lexicography. “Modern onomastic dictionaries including different fragments of a linguistic worldview, give an idea about a linguistic model of the world in general and in the boundaries of the theory the author of the dictionary follows” (Katermina, et al., 2020). In its turn scientific and technological progress onomastic lexicography promotes the appearance of new onomastic terminological reference books in the modern world. Choice of lexicographic sources that describe onomastic terminology is limited to a small number of monolingual dictionaries.

At present there is a tendency towards universalization of the onomastic dictionaries. It should be noted that the dictionaries of the onomastic terms are compiled on the basis of the traditional onomastic dictionaries. Educational onomastic dictionaries and educational-reference manuals perform both the referential and didactic functions. The referential function is based on the encyclopedic explanations of the onomastic terms; the purpose of the didactic function is enrichment of future specialists’ terminological lexicon: a student must know that a term as a sign of the relevant notion is not for mechanical cramming, it is necessary to understand the main and derivative meanings of the word and learn to use a term correctly. And furthermore, educational-reference manuals help to form student’s taste and ability to work with the dictionary materials in the specific pedagogical environment.

Compiling explanatory terminological onomastic dictionaries is caused by users’ desire for such a reference book. Users see such a dictionary as a source of linguistic (semantic, orthoepic, spelling, etymological and other characteristics) and extralinguistic (pragmatical, linguistic-regional, culturological and other components) information. Improvement of the structure is also connected with the collected material at present and with rational order of dictionary entries on the pages of dictionaries. Plenty of new books on onomastics appeared at the end of the XX century and at the beginning of the XXI. Onomastics theory has developed vastly, and it makes one look at terms quite differently. Defects of terminology show themselves more brightly during the periods of intensive development of science.

Certainly no science can do without its own terms; it is impossible to express scientific notions and laws and to show the essence of scientific ideas without them. Ideal terminology is a regulated system that meets different requirements. The system of terms reflects the system of scientific notions. This is what makes terminology systemic. A term as a sign of notion enters the system of notions and it enters as a word the system of words. However, development of science and new inventions cause reconstruction of the system of obsolete notions. The volume and character of the notion change, but words - names remain unchanged for a while.

Terminology is constantly developing; appearance of new terms is an immutable result of the scientific progress. Every year new terms are created not only for sections and subsections of onomastics but also for small groups of proper names. Especially onomastics directions that have developed intensively for the past decade are more problematic sphere. “Successful dictionary use requires two ingredients: (1) high-quality, user-friendly dictionaries and (2) dictionary users who know what they are doing. The bulk of the current research effort within lexicography concentrates on making better dictionaries, with new opportunities afforded by the electronic medium. In contrast, the other ingredient - educating the user - receives comparatively little attention”. (Lew, 2013)

Compiling of dictionaries of onomastic terms has been studied very little. It should begin from publication of the series of dictionaries of terms that are related to the outlying spheres. Widespread terms, little-known terms created in recent years and new terms that can fill the existing voids may be included in such dictionaries. It is expedient to compile such dictionaries both in the form of a book and in an electronic variant. Their task is an analysis of the existing terminology system, working up and preparation of its criteria of regulation and the creation and description of new terms. Such dictionaries will help the persons who aren’t specialists in sectorial terminology to understand it more easily, and they also will help to unify used terminology. Having passed extensive discussion these sources can be united in the dictionary of onomastic terms.

Certain principles are used as a basis in typology of the onomastic dictionaries and the type of the dictionary is determined: 1) comparison of the concrete lexicographical work; 2) collection of the dictionary indicators and lexicographical parameters etc. There are different types of dictionaries of onomastic terms:

(1) Monolingual terminological dictionaries.

There are explanatory dictionaries and glossaries among such onomastic dictionaries. Glossaries, list of unexplained terms are useful for compiling terminological dictionaries and regulation of terminology. Glossaries must fully cover the whole existing terminology. All synonymous terms occurred in literature are registered here. At this time it is useful either to refer to a certain term near each synonym or to place such a term as a head word and give synonyms near it. All derivative terms are to be recorded, too. Glossaries can be given in two parts. All terms can be given in alphabetical order in the first part, and the terms can be given on a thematic principle in the second part. Such arrangement of the material makes it possible to examine each term (an alphabetical dictionary) on the one hand and to determine the place of this term in the system (a thematic dictionary) on the other hand.

Explanatory dictionaries of onomastic terms can pursue the different aims, can embrace the various terms, so they are divided into two types: dictionaries of modern terminology and historical dictionaries. An explanatory dictionary of onomastic terminology is to register terms, give their explanation, reflect defects of modern terminology (polysemy and synonymy of terms, non-systemic nature of some terms), give recommendation about the use of terms, i.e. they are to be of reference-normative nature. Such dictionaries are to be general ones - to embrace the whole modern onomastic terminology and to be special ones - to include terminology of a certain part of onomastics. It is more expedient to arrange the material in alphabetical order in an explanatory dictionary: the main purpose is reference; alphabetic method facilitates searching the required word. Also, the system of reference marks makes it possible to reduce the volume of dictionary entries and the book on the whole.

Frequently used synonymous terms should be shown in the dictionary. Explanation of the word should be given near one of these terms, the other terms should be given on their places without explanation, with reference to the explained word. Homonymy of terms can be also reflected in the dictionary; if different authors use the same term in the different meanings it is permissible to give two or more explanations of some terms. The structure and content of the dictionary entry determine the tasks of the explanatory dictionary. Its origin, etymology are shown after a headword; as required it should be noted by whom the term was offered. Then the word is explained. If a term is understood as a monosemantic one in any scientific sphere it has educational-dogmatic nature. At the same time a dictionary must also reflect the different linguists’ comprehension of language phenomena. It would be better to compare the different authors’ ideas and definitions. Two types of bibliographic index is possible, the list of general linguistic works can be given. Besides some articles, main works dealt with the considered subject (if there are any) must be shown.

A historical dictionary of onomastic terms has two tasks: first it is to show the whole collection of terms brought up by a certain linguistic school or by a certain scientist. It is a work for compiling of general dictionary, because such a special dictionary makes it possible to choose terminology on the basis of the limited material. Creation of such a special dictionary makes the compiling of the general dictionary easy. Secondly such a dictionary makes it possible to form a notion of the terminological system of that school. Such a dictionary can include either all terms that occur in school representatives’ works or special widely used terms that are specific or typical for this school and have special meaning in those works. New onomastic terminology must be reflected in the dictionary, too. Naturally individual terms used by any author will also be included in such a dictionary.

If a term is monosemantic and is used by several authors it’s enough to give one citation and references from the other works. Such dictionaries being used in linguistic literature can be means of reference, giving information about new terminology they will help to realize the choice and unification of terms in the future.

(2) Translation dictionaries.

Bilingual and multilingual translation dictionaries make it possible to compare onomastic terms used in the different languages, hence they can be a basis of the further work on unification of terminology. The volume of the glossary of such a dictionary is to differ from the glossary of the explanatory dictionary of the onomastic terms, i.e. it must embrace the terms occurring in literature as much as possible.

(3) Onomastic terminological dictionaries

Onomastic terminological dictionaries can be general and sectorial. The general ones consist of terms of the different sectors of onomastics, the sectoral ones consist of terms of one sector of onomastics. It would be better to quote a corresponding term and term-combinations in a dictionary entry, to show their derivatives, to put the origin of a term between brackets after a headword according to the tradition.

There must be a card index that reflects the state of the onomastic system and serves as a material basis for compiling of dictionaries. As this index card consists of data about proper names it can serves a basis for the different onomastic researches. When compiling an index card collected on a certain system one must try to make it reflect onomastic vocabulary of the language, and each onomastic phenomenon must be provided with the different materials. In the first place it is necessary to determine onomastic sources in this process. Usually all written and oral sources which onyms are used in are considered to be onomastic ones. In reference books that make it possible to determine prevalence and frequency of use of oral speech materials, onomastic units are very interesting as sources of a card index. Sources must be effective and urgent. The complete registration of onomastic vocabulary is an important source for a card index of the dictionary.

The structure of the dictionary can be in two variants - alphabet and thematic ones. Each of these variants has its own advantages and disadvantages:

a) A dictionary is usually used as a reference book to know or to specify the meaning of the word. The alphabetic method is the most convenient for these purposes.

b) One of the purposes of a dictionary is regulation of onomastic terminology. A thematic dictionary is more convenient for this purpose, the terms are united because of their internal connections. Such a dictionary makes it possible to compare terms and to reveal the breaches of terminological system.

One of the optimal variants is a dictionary which is both alphabetic and thematic. The thematic part contains explanation of terms. The second part of the dictionary must contain the alphabetic list of all the terms given in the first part: the place where the term is explained (a page, a paragraph) must be shown.

The different grammatical forms of terms, some productive morphemes that serve for formation of terminological series (for example: allo-, homo-, meta-, etc.) must be arranged in the dictionary. Besides the list of sources and bibliographic abbreviations, table of reading letters in the different alphabets and index of names must be appended.

Definition of a headword-term takes a primary place in a dictionary entry. Choice of definition of a headword must be determined by accuracy, unambiguity, apprehensibility etc. As Hamza Zulfikar (2017), points out, “understandable definition, its conformity with linguistic rules, observance of spelling rules must be carried out under a linguist’s control”. If a term is not explained in the card index, its description and definition must be there. Entries of monolingual terminological dictionaries contain a head term, its definition, synonyms, illustrations (texts, citation, examples, pictures, draught, schemes, etc.). A headterm is to be stressed. Additional historical and stylistic information (when the term was created, who is its author; what speech environment it is used in etc.) must be included in the dictionary. Compiler’s notes (correction of mistakes, explanations, marks etc.) are given in the square brackets.

Addressees of the dictionary are not only linguists-specialists, but also students, PhDs. so widespread examples from the languages can be chosen as illustrative material. Bibliographical references must be given at the end of the dictionary entry. The main task of the onomastic terminological dictionary is reference, registration and analysis. It is to collect and explain terms in the linguistic literature. The final goal of the dictionary is not only explanation of terms, but also their codification, systematization and so unification. Compilers must be very objective and describe the modern onomastic terminology. It is very important to use special methods to compile new types of dictionaries.

In the case of Azerbaijan the political, economic and social innovations taking place in country have provoke a strong interest in the world community to learn the Azerbaijani language. In that regard, the role of educational materials has increased. An educational dictionary takes a special place among these materials.

The study of proper names in the practice of educational lexicography is explained by their important role in communication. Onomastics is a very complicated spectrum of name categories, and it is closely linked to history, culture, traditions and peculiarities of human psychology. Proper names are an inseparable part of vocabulary in any language: they are widely used in spoken language, carry out nominative, cumulative and communicative functions and have a certain lexical background. They influence all spheres language of human activity.

During the period of expansion of international relations sociolinguistic and regional approaches to study of vocabulary are considered to be important directions of lexicography. Onomastic vocabulary reflects the language picture of the world. From this standpoint the problem of compiling culturological onomastic dictionaries becomes more urgent.

The choice of names for culturological onomastic dictionaries must be on the basis of the following criteria:

  1. The type and volume of the dictionary.

  2. User language level.

  3. Nationality.

  4. Frequency of concrete onyms.

  5. Cultural and encyclopedic significance of concrete realities.

The choice of lexical units for culturological onomastic dictionaries must be solved concretely and the specific character of the dictionary and its general purposes must be taken into consideration. When determining a glossary for such a dictionary it is necessary to take into consideration the modern panorama of the social life, national cultural traditions, educational-methodic feasibility and regulation principles. The volume of the dictionary on the one hand must be optimal, not to bore users with unnecessary information, and on the other hand it must be sufficient. Cultural traditions and frequency of the names are the factors that influence their inclusion in the vocabulary.

The main condition in the culturological onomastic vocabulary is the cultural-encyclopedic information about proper names. In the case of illustrations related to onyms must be given in the culturological onomastic dictionary. It is not appropriate to give infrequent names and names that don’t have big culturological information and need additional explanation. The author’s individual aspirations in presentation of illustrations must be on the back-burner.

The different kinds of proper names can be included in the dictionary. As is known, geographical knowledge is very significant in the increasingly globalized world. From this standpoint the toponyms given in the dictionary can be used in the encyclopedic and culturological contexts. Cultural information can be reflected in anthroponyms that play an important role in communication and also names of literary and artistic works; the data about historical knowledge and social system can be reflected in chrononyms, ergonyms and ethnonyms. The factual material about the famous scientists’ and researchers’ names makes the scientific information. The other encyclopedic data must be given by astronyms as humanity has great interest in space issues at the present stage of development.

Conclusions

The special attention must be given to more effective presentation of actual data about the concrete onomastic units in educational dictionaries. For this, an optimal format of the entries that reflect the information about a name must be prepared but also it is possible to include some cultural encyclopedic information in the entry by means of proper names.

Significance of the onomastic educational dictionaries for comprehension of the onomastic units and facilitation of the terminological difficulties is great. Students may be able to take part in the used terms and also in term-formation. Such activities allow students to approach the material carefully and critically and to learn them to understand, clarify and increase terminology.

An educational dictionary must teach readers to use a language properly. The onomastic educational dictionary compiled on the basis of the principles put forward have some advantages in comparison with the other onomastic dictionaries because informativeness of onyms are completely manifests itself. Such dictionaries develop student’s ability for research. The results of this research can be used for regularization of the system of onomastic terms, compiling educational dictionaries of a new type, and for the presentation of linguo-culturological information of proper names in dictionaries.

References

Dubichinsky, V. (2009). Lexicography of the Russian language. Nauka. [ Links ]

Golev, N. D. (2009). Ordinary meta-language consciousness as an ontological and epistemological phenomenon (to the search for “Linguistic Epistemology”). Ordinary Metalanguage Consciousness: Ontological and Epistemological Aspects, 7-40. [ Links ]

Katermina, V., Plasin, V., & Zinovsaya, A. (2020). Onomastic dictionaries in pedagogical discourse. Proceedings of 5th International Conference on Education Science and Development. ICESD. [ Links ]

Lew, R. (2013). Online dictionary skills. Proceedings of eLex, 16-31. http://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl:8080/bitstream/10593/8138/1/Lew_2013%20Online%20dictionary%20skills.pdfLinks ]

Mahmudov, M. A. (1992). Frequency dictionary in language teaching. News of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, 3-4. [ Links ]

Sklyarevskaya, G. (2013). Anthropocentric lexicography: Ideas and practice. In, J. D. Apresjan, I. V. Cherviankova, I. V. Kosmarskaja, A. Tosheva and N. Deleva (eds.). Lexicography. Language. Speech. Collection of articles in memory of Anna Lipovskaya. (pp. 95-104). [ Links ]

Zulfikar, H. (2017). The applied methods and terms used in the lexicographical researches. Proceedings of the III International Lexicography Symposium. [ Links ]

Received: May 04, 2021; Accepted: July 22, 2021

*Autor para correspondencia. E-mail: rhabibli@bsu.edu.az

El autor declara no tener conflictos de intereses.

El autor ha participado en la redacción del trabajo y análisis de los documentos.

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