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Вестн. Моск. ун-та. Сер. 19. Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация. 2011. № 2
ВОПРОСЫ ЛЕКСИКОЛОГИИ И ЛЕКСИКОГРАФИИ
Robert Ilson
BUILDING LEXICAL BRIDGES; OR, HOW TO TURN
A BILINGUAL DICTIONARY INTO A BILINGUAL THESAURUS
В статье рассматриваются отношения реверсивности между частями двуязычного словаря (англо-русского и русско-английского). Показано, что части двуязычного словаря не полностью совпадают по содержанию, и их сопоставление позволяет выявить языковые единицы, требующие добавления в двуязычный тезаурус.
Ключевые слова: двуязычный словарь, тезаурус, реверсивность.
The article is about the relation of reversibility between the two parts of a bilingual dictionary (e.g. English-Russian and Russian-English). The examples provided demonstrate that the halves of a bilingual dictionary may not be mirror images of each other. By projecting each half of a bilingual dictionary on to the other, one may discover in each half items that should be added to the other half — and incorporated into the bilingual thesaurus which can in principle be derived from a bilingual dictionary by lexicographers and/or computers.
Key words: bilingual dictionary, thesaurus, reversibility.
My first problem in writing this paper is to tell you what it's about. On mature consideration I think it's about what bilingual lexicographers occasionally call "Reversion" or "Reversibility"; i.e., the relation between the two parts of a bilingual dictionary.
Suppose you start with a dictionary from English to Russian. Could you in principle convert that dictionary into a dictionary from Russian to English? In principle, Yes. Starting from the entry:-
Илсон Роберт (Ilson Robert) — почетный научный сотрудник Университетского колледжа Лондона (University College London), известный лингвист и лексикограф. В Университетском колледже Лондона он занимал пост заместителя директора Центра изучения английского языка (The Survey of English Usage at UCL), являлся председателем секции лексикологии и лексикографии Международной ассоциации прикладной лингвистики (AILA), основателем и редактором "Бюллетеня ЕВРАЛЕКС" (EURALEXBulletin) и Международного журнала по лексикографии (The International Journal of Lexicography), а также членом редакционного совета Оксфордского словаря английского языка второго издания (OED 2). Бывший консультант программы Фулбрайта по преподаванию английского языка, Р. Ил-сон имеет награды от Союза говорящих на английском языке (English-Speaking Union) за "Словарь сочетаемости английского языка" (The BBICombinatory Dictionary of English — в соавторстве с М. Бенсоном и Э. Бенсон), а также за работу "Верное слово в нужное время" (The Right Word at the Right Time); e-mail: roberti@dsl.pipex.com
dog = собака
you reverse it to produce (in its alphabetically proper place) the entry:-собака = dog.
(Sometimes, in moments of hubris, I even think I could using this procedure produce a two-way bilingual dictionary of two languages neither of which I knew.) Of course, a Russian-English dictionary thus conjured forth mechanically as the mirror image of even an outstanding English-Russian dictionary would probably not be very good. It would probably lack all manner of items, and information about those items, needful to Russian-speakers. But you already know about such caveats from the work of your great Russian theoretician Лев Владимирович Щерба! Nevertheless, it's worth investigating what we can learn about lexicography and about language from projecting, as it were, each half of a bilingual dictionary on to the other.
If we do so, we soon learn that not everything is as straightforward as the relation between dog and собака. In what follows I shall use Kenneth Katzner's English-Russian & Russian-English Dictionary1, an excellent dictionary of its type that was recommended to me by Igor Melchuk quite some time ago. Suppose, for instance, that we look up in the English-Russian part:-redwood = секвойя sequoia = секвойя
and then, in the Russian-English part:-секвойя = sequoia; redwood.
Well, it is from the Russian-English part only that we learn that sequoia and redwood are synonyms (pace some pernickety botanists): in the English-Russian part redwood (at R) and sequoia (at S) are miles away from each other, and there is no reason for the Anglophone to know that they have exactly the same Russian translation equivalent.
Slightly more problematic is the treatment accorded an eminent American beast called variously puma, cougar, and mountain lion:-puma = пума пума = puma
cougar = кугар кугар = cougar mountain lion = пума; кугар.
Well, these entries display what our French colleagues might call un certain manque de cohérence dans le projet. Puma/пума and cougar/кугар are obviously kept well away from each other on both sides of this dictionary. It is only at the entry for mountain lion that their kinship is displayed. Moreover, there is no link in the English-Russian part between puma, cougar, and mountain lion — nor does mountain lion appear in the Russian-English part at all! I've got lots more to say; but it might be prudent even now to make some recommendations. I'd suggest for the English-Russian part:-
1 KatznerKenneth. English-Russian & Russian-English Dictionary. N.Y.; Wiley, 1984.
puma = пума; кугар cougar = кугар; пума mountain lion = пума; кугар and for the Russian-English part:-пума = puma; cougar; mountain lion кугар = cougar; puma; mountain lion.
But I know only too well that to pursue this line consistently would swell the dimensions of the dictionary perhaps unfeasibly (unless perhaps it was a bilingual dictionary with a smaller macrostructure to make room for a larger microstructure).
Enough of Natural Kinds for now! Let us proceed elsewhere by considering the English adjective rich (="wealthy"). In so doing, we shall move in a zig-zag, bouncing between the two parts of the dictionary:-rich = 1. (wealthy) богатый богатый = rich; wealthy
wealthy = богатый; зажиточный; состоятельный зажиточный = prosperous; affluent; well-to-do состоятельный = well-to-do
prosperous = зажиточный; состоятельный; обеспеченный обеспеченный = well-to-do affluent = богатый; состоятельный
well-to-do = зажиточный; состоятельный; обеспеченный. If one were to adopt here the dictionary improvement I suggested for puma etc above, then each of the five English bold-face entries would have all four Russian equivalents = богатый; зажиточный; состоятельный; обеспеченный (total 20 translation equivalents); and each of the four Russian bold-face entries would have all five English equivalents = rich; wealthy; prosperous; affluent; well-to-do (total also 20 translation equivalents). The "surge" in space would be considerable.
However, one could also imagine these data laid out as a bilingual thesaurus; for instance, in adjacent parallel columns or rows:-English: rich; wealthy; prosperous; affluent; well-to-do Russian: богатый; зажиточный; состоятельный; обеспеченный. There would have to be some key words or phrases to direct the searcher to these items. I'd suggest for Russian богатый and for English wealthy (less ambiguous than rich although rich seems less marked stylistically than wealthy).
We're not finished yet. As a native speaker of English, I can think of a few other near-synonyms of wealthy; amongst others: loaded; not short of a bob or two; well-heeled; well-off; comfortable. Katzner's English-Russian dictionary doesn't enter not short of a bob or two or well-heeled. What it does offer is:-
loaded = 5. slang (rich) при деньгах. He is loaded — он купается в золоте.
деньги = ... — быть при деньгах, to be in the chips. chip = ... — in the chips, при деньгах.
(As for он купается в золоте, I think it means 'he bathes in gold' — but it's not in Katzner's Russian-English dictionary.)
well-off = зажиточный; состоятельный; обеспеченный (just as for well-to-do)
comfortable = ... 3. (fairly well-to-do) безбедный безбедный = materially secure; comfortable materially = ... materially well-off, материально обеспеченный. Well, these isolates (not included in the main series above) have opened up a whole new world of near-synonyms for rich/богатый! It's as if I'd dredged up in my bathyscaphe a slew of creatures from the bottom of the sea. There's no access to them from the main rich/богатый series. But they ought to be included somehow with the other items to which they are related semantically. And they should certainly be added to the bilingual thesaurus:-
English: rich; wealthy; prosperous; affluent; well-to-do; well-off; (slang) loaded; (informal) in the chips; comfortable; materially secure.
Russian: богатый; зажиточный; состоятельный; (материально) обеспеченный; безбедный; при деньгах; купаться в золоте.
Once such a bilingual thesaurus is available the next step would be to distinguish its near-synonyms through nuances of meaning and differences of register.
We lexicographers are even now still like Galileo: wherever we cast our telescopes we discover new planets.
Reference
Katzner Kenneth. English-Russian & Russian-English Dictionary. N.Y.; Wiley, 1984.
