It Would Be Great to Compile a Dictionary of Bylina" (I.A. Ossovetsky About Folklore Lexicography)

The article deals with the problems of folklore lexicography. The aim of the work is to bring into science the ideas connected with compiling a dictionary of the Russian folklore that belong to the well-known dialectologist and lexicographer Iosif A. Ossovetsky (1908-1995) and to show the role of the scholar in formulating the problems of folklore lexicography, in organizing practical work on the dictionary that contains the vocabulary of the bylina, in developing the Kursk School of Linguistic Folklore Studies that formed the original concept of a conceptographic approach to the dictionary presentation of folklore texts. The research is based on Ossovetsky's letters addressed to his young colleagues from Kursk State Pedagogical Institute, in which the research school was developing. The correspondence covers the period from 1974 till 1988. The foundation for the research was Ossovetsky's works concerning the language of the Russian traditional folklore, the ideas of the classical scholars of the world and Russian science (F.I. Buslaev, A. Bely, P.A. Florensky, E. Benveniste), the publications of Kursk linguofolklorists on the theory of a Russian folklore dictionary, and various implemented lexicographic projects of Kursk lexicographers. In the course of the research, Ossovetsky's lexicographic conception of the dictionary description of a folklore lexicon unit was modeled; the peculiarities of folk poetic words Ossovetsky specifically mentioned were analyzed. The results received were assessed from the standpoint of the existing practice of compiling dictionaries. The author has found that the established structure of entries in explanatory dictionaries, in dictionaries of poetic words and of dialect speech will prevent an adequate presentation of a folklore word's function and semantics. Experimental entries have been made that prove the potential of a conceptographic approach to a lexicographic description of folklore texts. The author used methods that Kursk philologists worked out specifically for folklore lexicography. The author makes a conclusion that the experience of Ossovetsky's creative work proved to be productive both for him (he worded his conception of folklore lexicography) and for the young researchers who implemented several projects. This contributed to the formation of a scientific discipline that was called "linguistic folklore studies" and of a research school that offered several new directions in studies of the folklore word: cross-cultural linguistic folklore studies and folklore dialectology. Ossovetsky saw folklore lexicography not only as an object of professional interest but also as a perspective in the culture development. He outlined the future of a new science that at the end of the 20th century was called the ecology of language and culture.

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