Linguistic terminology in lexicography: the experience of the gizaurus description

Abstract

The review of S. V. Lesnikov’s “The Metalanguage of Linguistics” (2021) seems relevant due to the demand for such a genre of lexicographic representation of linguistic terminology today. The genre of the hysaurus itself in contemporary reference literature is distinguished by scientific novelty, therefore, the review pays special attention to the characteristics of the formal and substantive features of the hysaurus. Lesnikov’s work, created specifically to be used digitally, contains the following features of a dictionary: hypertext, expanded dictionary descriptions, multimedia, interactivity, and updatability. All the while, a significant achievement of S. V. Lesnikov’s work is the preparation of a printed version, which serves as an additional format for a digital ideographic dictionary on linguistic terminology, which involves the analysis and refinement of lexicographic information in an interactive format. The review notes other advantages of this type of lexicographical work. The reaction of the hysaurus to the expansionism and interdisciplinarity of modern linguistics is manifested in the coverage of three groups of terms: 1) special terms used only in linguistics; 2) terms of related branches of knowledge denoting the concepts necessary for a given subject area; 3) general scientific terms that exist in any branch of knowledge. The infographics used in the hysaurus is methodologically effective as it shows the reader the results of the lexicographical research. The depth of S. V. Lesnikov’s systematization of the terminological system of the metalanguage of linguistics shows the current development of linguistics as a science of the language. This review contains several remarks that are inevitable for this kind of research. Namely, the reviewer notes the problem of the principle of selection of vocabulary in the dictionary, the violation of the system in the presentation of material, the discrepancy between the electronic and paper versions of the hyasaurus on the example of narrative.