UDC

81ʼ373:811.161.1

DOI

10.37482/2687-1505-V433

Authors

Olga N. Ivanishcheva
Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Prof., Prof. at the Philology, Intercultural Communication, and Journalism Department, Murmansk Arctic University (address: ul. Kapitana Egorova 15, Murmansk, 183038, Russia).
e-mail: oivanishcheva@gmail.com, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8495-0502

Abstract

The article describes the methods of interpreting paroemias in modern phraseological and proverb dictionaries. The paper aims to identify the principles of such interpretation. It is known that determining the meaning of a paroemia, which is presented in most phraseological and proverb dictionaries of the modern Russian language, is not enough for the correct use of the phraseological unit or proverb in speech practice. However, the question of selecting such information for dictionaries and its systematization has not yet been raised in scientific literature. The article studies the following methods of interpreting paroemias: determining their direct (if any) and figurative meanings, historical and etymological commentary, as well as situational and contextual characterization. As a result, it was established that historical and etymological commentary in the definitions of modern dictionaries explains the origin of a paroemia, taking into account regional specifics. Situational characterization is defined here as a description of a situation with the identification of its participants and their social and speech intentions, while contextual characterization is understood as the content of a formulaic reply to the interlocutor’s question. It is argued that determining a hierarchy of methods for interpreting paroemias accomplishes the main task, i.e. the actualization of the image underlying a paroemia and the presentation of this image in a dictionary. The theoretical significance of the paper lies in its contribution to the theory and practice of lexicography. In practical terms, the results can be used when compiling dictionaries of phraseological units and proverbs of different languages, including those with different structures, as well as when teaching Russian as a first and second/foreign language.

Keywords

paroemia, interpretation of paroemias, phraseological dictionaries, proverb dictionaries, principles of lexicography, historical and etymological commentary, situational characteristics, contextual characteristics

References

1. Oparina E.O. Leksikografiya v svete kul’turologii [Lexicography in the Light of Cultural Studies]. Sotsial’nye i gumanitarnye nauki. Otechestvennaya i zarubezhnaya literatura. Ser: 6. Yazykoznanie, 2022, no. 1. Available at: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/leksikografiya-v-svete-kulturologii (accessed: 2 January 2025).
2. Khayrullina R.Kh., Vorob’ev V.V., Fatkullina F.G. Sovremennye tendentsii v leksikografii: lingvokul’turologicheskiy slovar’ [Modern Trends in Lexicography: Linguoculturological Dictionary]. Mir nauki, kul’tury, obrazovaniya, 2020, no. 4, pp. 441‒443. Available at: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sovremennye-tendentsii-v-leksikografii-lingvokulturologicheskiy-sl... (accessed: 2 January 2025).
3. Krylova M.N. Modern Trends in the Development of Russian Lexicography. Kazan Linguist. J., 2022, no. 5, pp. 166–179 (in Russ.). https://doi.org/10.26907/2658-3321.2022.5.2.166-179
4. Haider A.S., Shuhaiber R. Netflix English Subtitling of Idioms in Egyptian Movies: Challenges and Strategies. Humanit. Soc. Sci. Commun., 2024, vol. 11, no. 1. Art. no. 949. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03327-4
5. Mahdi H.S., Sahari Y. A Corpus-Based Study of Translating Idioms from English into Arabic Using Audio-Visual Translation. Int. J. Inf. Learn. Technol., 2024, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 244–261. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJILT-07-2023-0128
6. Sipayung K.T., Pasaribu A.N., Sinaga N.T. Common Problems and Overt Errors in Translating Idioms in the Film Maleficent. Eurasian J. Appl. Linguist., 2024, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 23–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.32601/ejal.10203
7. Wu M., Hu Y., Zhang Y., Zhi Z., Su G., Sha Y. Mitigating Idiom Inconsistency: A Multi-Semantic Contrastive Learning Method for Chinese Idiom Reading Comprehension. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2024, vol. 38, no. 17, pp. 19243–19251. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v38i17.29893
8. MacArthur F., Alejo-González R. Beyond Idioms, the Use of Metaphor in ELF Academic Settings: A Comprehensive Review. J. Pragmat., 2024, vol. 219, pp. 48–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.11.002
9. Berkov V.P. Dvuyazychnaya leksikografiya [Bilingual Lexicography]. Moscow, 2004. 237 p.
10. Baranov A.N., Dobrovol’skiy D.O. Aspekty teorii frazeologii [Aspects of the Theory of Phraseology]. Moscow, 2008. 656 p.
11. Ivanishcheva O.N. Leksikografirovanie kul’tury v dvuyazychnom slovare [Lexicography of Culture in a Bilingual Dictionary: Diss.]. St. Petersburg, 2005. 412 p.
12. Mokienko V.M. Printsipy larinskoy leksikografii v trekhtomnom bol’shom slovare poslovits, pogovorok i sravneniy russkogo yazyka [Principles of Larin’s Lexicography in the Three-Volume Big Dictionary of Proverbs, Sayings and Similes of the Russian Language]. Voprosy leksikografii, 2012, no. 1, pp. 70‒84.
13. Baranov A.N., Dobrovol’skiy D.O. Printsipy semanticheskogo opisaniya frazeologii [The Principles of the Semantic Description of Phraseology]. Voprosy yazykoznaniya, 2009, no. 6, pp. 21‒34.