Dictionaries of Ukrainian Language in Activities of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Author

Tarasenko Oleksandr

a corresponding member of the NAS of Ukraine, a Doctor of Philology, a professor, a chief of General and Comparative Historical Linguistics Department of the O. Potebnia Institute of Linguistics of the NAS of Ukraine

Dictionaries of Ukrainian Language in Activities of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Abstract

The Ukrainian Lexicography development during the last century is divided into several stages. The first phase (1917 – the beginning of 1930s) has been marked with a sharp increase of dictionaries number and diversity (131 dictionary is published; particularly – in 1918 and in the Ukrainization period). It is determined with the Ukrainian statehood formation and the Ukrainian language use in different spheres of social life. The second stage (1933 – middle of the 1950s) is characterized by the contraction of the lexicographical work (connected with the Ukrainization policy curtailing, repressions against Ukrainian linguists), the Ukrainian vocabulary unification in the dictionaries. It has been caused with the struggle campaign with the Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism,wrecking in the linguistic sphere and the formal instructions don’tintroduce an artificial dissociation between Ukrainian and Russian languages. The third phase (the end of 1950s – the end of 1980s) is described by the increase of a lexicographical work and a certain weakening of the ideological pressure on it. The Ukrainian Language Dictionary in 11 volumes (Kyiv, 1970–1980) is known as the main lexicographic work of the period.  The fourth stage (from the beginning of the 1990s) is distinguished by the lexicographic work intensification in the connection with the formation of Ukraine as an independent state and the Ukrainian language proclamation as a state one. However, the absence of common normative basis of these dictionaries and even their orthographic principles should be mentioned.

Fundamental lexicographic work in the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences system has been concentrated in the Institute of Ukrainian Scientific Language from the 1920s, afterwards and till the present day – in the Institute of Linguistics, from the 1990s – also in the newly-created The Ukrainian Language Institute and Ukrainian Linguistic-Information Fund.  The Institute of Ukrainian Studies in Lviv works on the creation of the Ukrainian language historical dictionaries.

The prospects of the further lexicographic work in the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences system for the nearest period should be focused around two great projects: 1) Creation of the Ukrainian Language Academic Explanatory Dictionary of a new type – in six volumes approximately, till 250 000 of words according to the glossary amount, and more considerably, including the appendixes – the dictionaries of Ukrainian geographical names, Ukrainians personal names, abbreviations; 2) Creation of the composite dictionary of Ukrainian dialectal language. A whole chain of separate regions dictionaries has been already created with the efforts of the Ukrainian language departments and the solitary enthusiasts. But the formation of a single united dictionary of Ukrainian dialects should be organized by The Ukrainian Language Institute with its dialectologists and the present dialectal card index.

Keywords

Lexicography, the Ukrainian language dictionaries, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

References

1. Rylskyi M. (1973) A Dictionary and Issues of Language Culture. Like a Sprout of Vine (compiled by H. Kolesnyk). Kyiv, pp. 74–89.
2. Taranenko O. (1996) A New Dictionary of Ukrainian Language (Conceptions and Principles of Its Compilation. Kyiv, 172 pp.
3. Taranenko O. (2003) Inflexion in Ukrainian Language (Declension and Conjugation Tables). Nyáregyháza, 200 pp.