Computer dictionary of phraseological units of friendly letters of Pushkin's time: a project of a discursive dynamic dictionary

Dictionary work throughout its existence moves from meaning to sense. Such a direction of development is due to the fact that the object of description in an explanatory dictionary can be two different realities: language and speech. A discursive dynamic dictionary of idioms can unite them. The source of the compilation of the dictionary was the author's card index including 1026 idioms identified by the method of continuous sampling of texts of friendly letters of Pushkin's time. The dictionary aims to present the changes taking place in the phraseological fund of the language of the first third of the nineteenth century as a system with the features of functioning of idioms that appear in the texts of letters as in a discourse. In full this can be implemented in the format of an electronic dictionary. The dictionary gives an opportunity to obtain information about the idiom (both in dynamic and discursive aspects) in a sufficient volume. The dynamic aspect is represented through links (meanings in the dictionaries of the Russian language from the 17th to the 21st century, stylistic colouring, details on belonging to the active vocabulary of the language from the point of view of modern Russian language and, if it is possible to draw appropriate conclusions, language of Pushkin's epoch). The listed information comes up on the screen when the cursor is on the line the reader needs. The discursive aspect of idioms is reflected in their occasional variations in the usage activity of phraseological synonyms and antonyms within the friendly correspondence (if they operate in letters and in language), in the examples of the usage of idioms in texts of different authors. The dictionary is navigated in two ways: 1) using hyperlinks; 2) using the content, which exhaustively presents all the idioms (in alphabetical order, as belonging to semantic-grammatical classes, as belonging to a particular author). The dictionary has an alphabetical list of idioms, a list of abbreviations and references (dictionary sources and scientific publications the author of the dictionary uses when specifying meanings and origins of certain idioms), detailed instructions on how to use the dictionary, etc. The computer dictionary can, taking into account the user's needs, organise the material by other parameters (frequency, style, categorical meaning of idioms (subject, attribute, process idioms, etc.), separately display occasional options, etc.). The opportunities are endless and open up broad prospects for researchers of language. The computer discursive dynamic dictionary may become the most productive source for linguistic studies carried out in various directions, allowing scholars to maximize the potential of the linguistic material which becomes the subject of description.

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