Filologija, No. 14, 1986.
Original scientific paper
The bilingual dictionary as a source of cultural information
Maja Bratanić
Abstract
The author discusses the role of the bilingual dictionary not only as an interlingual but also as an intercultural intermediary. Establishing lexical equivalence is the crucial problem of bilingual lexicography. Contrasting the lexical items of two languages involves all kinds of culturological and civilizational implications. Such contrastive problems on the lexical level manifest themselves as the total or partial impossibility of semantic overlapping of the elements of two language systems. This is the consequence of the so called “anisomorphism” of languages,
i.e. the different organization of existing conceptual relations among the words of the individual languages and the corresponding elements of the extralinguistic world. The infeasibility of such direct lexical coordination is more evident in lexemes closely related to a particular culture and society. However, this distinction applies to any, even less distant, languages.
The problem whether it is possible to establish a boundary between so called “culture-bound” and “non culture-bound” words as well as to what extant can boundaries be drawn between lexical (non-encyclopedic) and encyclopedic items is discussed.
Suggestions are given regarding the more prominent orientation of bilingual lexicography towards more extensive inclusion of information of cultural and civilizational character.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
184028
URI
Publication date:
15.12.1986.
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