The Concept "Grekh" ("Sin") in the Context of the Lexicographic Description of Key Concepts of Russian Culture

The idea of a learner's dictionary of concepts of Russian culture which is still on the stage of designing is discussed in the article. The aim is to present principles of a lexicographic description of key concepts on the example of the concept "grekh" ("sin"). The theoretical foundations of the study are A. Wierzbicka's conception of "language of culture" research, T.B. Radbil's principles of analysis of language conceptualization of the world, Yu.D. Apresyan's ideas of integrative description of a language, and theoretical bases of a lexicographic interpretation of constants of national culture in Yu.S. Stepanov's works. The methodology of conceptual analysis in the aspect of its practical application in the sphere of a lexicographic description of concepts of Russian traditional culture designed by linguists of National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod is used in the work. The materials of the analysis are the data of modern philosophical and religious dictionaries and encyclopedias, the basic Russian lexicographic sources - explanatory and etymological dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms, idioms, word building, and the data of the Russian National Corpus. The dictionary entry "grekh" of the presented dictionary of concepts is analyzed. The dictionary definition of the concept has a complex character and includes linguistic and extra-linguistic data. The dictionary entry, therefore, is voluminous, detailed and extensive, with an expanded zone of illustrative material of different kinds, with graphic schemes, etc. It includes a description of the concept's cognitive signs and the scope of meanings, a model of its semantic structure, a definition of paradigmatic, syntagmatic and derivative peculiarities of the concept's verbalization, etc. It is a learner's dictionary, that is why the entry has a significant share of detailed commentaries on the represented definitions and on the illustrative language and text materials. A complex of questions and training tasks for students is also provided. The dictionary entry consists of the following composition fragments: (1) the etymological zone; (2) the extra-linguistic interpretation of the content and extent of the category "grekh " in cultural consciousness; (3) the conceptual content and the scope of meanings of the concept "grekh"; (4) the language objectification of the concept "grekh"; (5) new phenomena in the functioning of the concept "grekh" in modern Russian speech; (6) a brief description of the sources used: dictionaries and language and text illustrative materials. The duality of the religious and non-religious interpretations of sin is consecutively traced on all the levels of its conceptual content, and this phenomenon is reflected in the dictionary description of the concept. Practical implications of the study consist in the possibility to apply its basic results in university teaching of linguoculturological disciplines as well as in the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries of concepts and linguoculturological thesauri.

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