Lexicographic Description of Pragmatemes in Bilingual Phrasebooks

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of lexicographic description of pragmatemes (pragmatically constrained phrasemes). 609 pragmatemes were selected employing a continuous sampling method from four English-Russian and Russian-English electronic phrasebooks. The results of the quantitative analysis show that on average pragmatemes comprise no more than 20% of the total number of the units listed in the phrasebooks; they are most commonly found in sections with basic expressions (e.g. greetings, goodbyes, and apologies). It has been revealed that the structure of a dictionary entry, which contains a pragmateme is characterized by uniformity, since in most cases it includes three components: a lemma, translation and practical transcription (or audio recording). Additional information about the lemma is sparse and disordered. It is concluded that the Russian-English and English-Russian phrasebooks available on the Internet do not provide information necessary for the adequate use and correct understanding of pragmatemes. This finding indicates the need to create a high-quality English-Russian and/or Russian-English dictionary of pragmatemes. The parameters of the potential dictionary of pragmatemes are suggested taking into account speech specifics of these units. The results of the research and speech material may be useful for linguists, lexicographers, translators and teachers of foreign languages interested in mono- or interdisciplinary studies of pragmatemes.