Principles of creating an English-Russian glossary of toponymic vocabulary

The article examines the lack of a clearly agreed and defined terminology in the field of toponomastics and, in particular, the need to create an English-Russian glossary of toponymic terms. The novelty lies in the first attempt to compare Russian and English terminological systems in the field of geographical names. The description of the methodology includes the approach used and steps taken to systematize the terms, as well as variants of translating the lexemes that have no equivalents. The author touches upon the aspects related to the selection of usual equivalents to the English toponym-oriented thematic and terminological vocabulary, which should form the basis of a glossary to help the readers and translators of texts on geographical names. In the course of the work, English-Russian correspondences of terminology were searched for, based on the components of meaning demonstrated by the English and Russian scientific literature on the subject. The translation is based mostly on the interpretations of terms in the Dictionary of Onomastic Terminology by N.V. Podolskaya and, in cases where no equivalent is available, on the author's own suggestions. As a result of the analysis and the selection of contextual meanings, the structure of the toponymic glossary was developed, which can be useful for solving methodological problems in translation training and in writing articles in English by specialists in the field of onomastics. The study shows the differentiation of terminological vocabulary, illustrated by the example of conditionally selected four groups of terms. During the analysis of the input units the presence of the so-called special top-onymic terminology, general onomastic terminology, transliterated terms and units to which no exact equivalent has yet been matched is noted. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that previously the onomastic terminological system as a whole has never become an object of English-Russian bilingual analysis. The lexicographic description of the array of toponymic vocabulary is characterized by scientific novelty due to the lack of industry-specific translated dictionaries. The developed glossary is an alphabetical dictionary. A comparative analysis of the English and Russian versions of the glossary of toponymic terminology made it possible to systematize the mechanisms of toponymic terminology entry into the Russian language and to suggest optimal strategies of translation of new terms in this sphere. Creation of the English-Russian glossary of toponymic vocabulary is of practical value both for teachers and students, as well as for researchers and translators.

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