Lexicology and lexicography department (Larin Lexicography Research Laboratory) — The Philological Research Institute of Saint Petersburg State University

Fundamental lexicography in Russia is developed mainly by Larin Lexicography Research Laboratory (LRL) of the Philological Faculty of the Saint Petersburg State University and Lexical department of the Linguistic Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2000 LRL celebrated its fortieth anniversary.

On September 1 st 1960 at the initiative of the prominent linguist professor B.A.Larin the Laboratory (scientific laboratory for compiling experimental dictionaries of different kinds) at the Philological Faculty of Leningrad (now — St. Petersburg) State University was established.

At present LRL is an important centre of lexicography, which carries out innovative lexical work: thus “Pskov regional dictionary including historical data”, a bilingual thesaurus of Nikolai Vaptsarov poetry and M.Puimanov prose, the “Dictionary of Russian dialects in the region of the downstream Pechora” have been accomplished. These works provide a reliable basis for significant generalizations in the domain of lexicography and lexicology, phraseology and stylistics.

Another direction of lexicographic research (in phraseology) following Professor Larin’s ideas was organized after his death: phraseological dictionaries of different types are being intensively elaborated. The LRL has come close to the realization of Larin’s intention to compile the “Dictionary of Colloquial Russian of Moscow Russia of XVI-XVII centuries” (the 1 st volume “ А — Бязь ” was published in 2004).

Such project as “Contemporary Dictionary of Living Russian language”, being entirely new for the Laboratory, is quite appropriate for the development of lexicographic ideas of Professor B.A. Larin. A series of dictionaries “Let’s talk correctly” and “Thesaurus of Contemporary Russian Language / Linguistic Changes of the end of the XX-th century” were created within the framework of this project.

The results of various longstanding investigations of Russian vocabulary performed by the research staff of the Laboratory are embodied in subject collections, monographs and articles published by the Laboratory. Following the tradition, established by B.A. Larin, weekly seminars in lexicography dedicated to the developed dictionaries are held; thus the LRL has become a specific school for trainings lexicographers.

Research work of the Laboratory is one of the fundamental guidelines of scientific and pedagogic activity of the linguists of the Saint Petersburg State University, who are lecturers at the Russian Department, Dep. of Slavic Languages, Dep. of Russian for foreigners, Dep. of General linguistics, Dep. of Applied linguistics.

The staff of the Institute of Linguistic Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, lecturers from the Department of Russian of the Pskov State Pedagogic University and the Department of Russian and Komi Languages of the Komi State Pedagogic University also take part in creation of dictionaries.

The Laboratory is a noteworthy representative of Larin Lexicographic school and has considerable achievements: published dictionaries (“Lexicon and phraseology in “Praying” of Daniil Zatochnik”, “Dictionary of autobiographic trilogy of M.Gorky” in 6 issues with supplement “Dictionary of Proper Names”), which were awarded by Ministry of Higher Education and by the University.

Lexicographic Laboratory is also a considerable card-index base, which includes unique lexicographic card indexes. They could be divided into dialect and historical card indexes, card indexes of a writer’s language, a combined card index of Russian proverbs and sayings stands apart.

Card indexes of the LRL supplement the resources of tape recordings of dialect speech.