LSP Dictionaries of Cultural Terms: A Case of Russian Cultural Terminology

1818

lsp2015

In her presentation for the ’20th European Symposium on Languages for Special Purposes’, Kseniya Egorova focuses on the results of the project “The Dictionary of Russia”, which will be available in electronic format. The second edition of this dictionary contains over 3 000 Russian cultural terms that are explained in English. It is useful both for translators and for those who seek a better understanding of the Russian culture.

The task of creating such a dictionary is a titanic one as a huge amount of research is necessary beforehand. As these terms are culture-bound, it is definitely a challenge to reproduce them in English. Foreign-culture-bound words refer to specific elements of a foreign culture. Therefore, the interaction of terminology and interculturality is definitely challenging. An interesting fact, stated also in the presentation is that many terms, such as tsar, balalaika, troika, Cossack and steppe, have become part of the general English vocabulary. This type of dictionary is a valuable instrument for intercultural communication, as it deals with both linguistic and encyclopaedic data, including personalia, ethnonyms and geographical names.

Kseniya Egorova’s presentation refers also to Russian proper names mentioned in the IATE termbase from domains like geography, agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Another useful aspect is the fact that the dictionary differentiates preferred terms from their transliteration variants.

Russia has a rich and multi-faced culture, reflected in its traditions, architecture, literature, food and beverages; a dictionary like this is a truly enlightening resource on this fascinating topic that is so hard to grasp.

Download the full presentation by Kseniya Egorova here.

Find a follow-up to the 20th European Symposium on Languages for Special Purposes with more downladable presentations on terminology here.

Open_Book-for-dictionary-site

 

Kseniya Egorova holds a PhD in Linguistics and works as a lexicographer, editor and Russian-English translator. Her research interests include lexicography, translation, cultural terminology, lexical semantics, corpus linguistics and Linguistic Linked Data.

 

 

 

 

Sources

http://www.translitteration.com/what-is-transliteration/en/ 

http://www.russianlanguageguide.com/culture/

Photo: https://goo.gl/mEAjiQ 

 

Written by Simona Ţigriş,
Terminology Trainee at TermCoord