ZOOSEMISMS IN RUSSIAN AND CHINESE LEXICOGRAPHY: KIND AND GENDER

Abstract

The paper considers features of the grammatical genus and biological sex of Russian zoosemism. In the process of secondary nomination, zoosemisms acquire characteristic values that are not characteristic of the zoononyms that motivate them. Transformations also affect the grammatical properties of zoosemism. On the material of the “Russian Semantic Dictionary”, “Dictionary of Offensive Words” by L.V. Dulichenko and the “Great Russian-Chinese Explanatory Dictionary of the New Era”, the grammatical genus of zoosemisms and ways of representing the biological sex are described. Attention is focused on the ambiguity of grammatical labels, on the discrepancies between the two Russian dictionaries in their use, on inconsistencies in the methods of transmitting information about the biological field of zoosemisms in Russian dictionaries. Based on the material of the National Corps of the Russian Language, the usual characteristics of zoosemisms of a general kind, their composition and syntactic compatibility are specified; the gender-specific characteristics of individual zoosemisms are established. The study revealed some inaccuracies in the representation of the gender and gender of Russian zoosemisms in a bilingual Russian-Chinese dictionary: the absence of zoosemic meanings; deviations from rhodopean information in Russian-language lexicography. The greatest difficulty for a bilingual dictionary is the interpretation of Russian zoosemisms without regular biological sex markers. The problems associated with the inadequacy for a foreign language user of the information about gender and gender, which is available in Russian dictionaries, with the need for its specification, explication or formalization are identified.