Culturological Support of Dictionary Entries in the Digital Multilingual Dictionary of Metaphors

Abstract

The aim of this article is to develop general principles for creating linguaculture commentaries (LCC) in the Multilingual Dictionary of Metaphors (MDM) based on figurative words and expressions. Figurative words and expressions with a metaphorical internal form that reflect the food metaphor from Russian, English, Italian, and Kazakh are compiled. In this article, the material for the study is LCC texts accompanying dictionary entries of Russian figurative words and expressions motivated by names of phenomena of the gastronomic sphere. In line with the figurative lexicography, a digital MDM is developing. Currently, the three-volume lexicographic database of the Dictionary of the Russian Food Metaphor has been fully integrated into the digital version of MDM in the form of an Internet portal with the domain name metdict.ru, and the corresponding databases of English, Italian, and Kazakh have been prepared. The result of the study is a formalized structure of LCC accompanying the dictionary entries of MDM and examples of various types of commentaries for dictionary entries in the Russian lexicographic database. Prospects of creation and models of similar commentaries for foreign lexicographic databases are given. LCC serves as a supplement to the interpretation of figurative words and expressions in the dictionary. The text of the commentary is an encyclopedic information section on a cultural phenomenon that has become a source for the metaphorical characteristics of various extralinguistic phenomena. Creating LCC, their authors solve a complex of problems associated with the search for sources of reliable information; minimization of information, necessary and sufficient for explaining the cultural connotation, about the history and existence of phenomena that have received a cultural-symbolic rethinking and formed the basis of a metaphorical interpretation; optimization of the commenting text in terms of its content, style and composition. In order to unify the textual structure of the linguaculture commentary, its content and composition model has been developed. The model includes the following components: (1) an explanation of the internal form of a figurative word or expression; (2) encyclopedic information related to the history of the emergence and functioning of the product, dish, cooking and consumption processes; (3) the functioning of the gastronomic object in the modern food tradition; (4) characteristics of health claims of food; (5) an explanation of physiological processes associated with the preparation, absorption and sensory perception of food; (6) the symbolic and ritual functioning of the gastronomic phenomena; (7) an indication of citation source and additional semantisation of precedent figurative words and expressions. Minimal cultural and linguistic knowledge of an ordinary native speaker and special information of a linguistic and cultural nature are given in the linguaculture commentary inseparably. All structural components form a coherent text. The Multilingual Dictionary of Metaphors is a linguaculture dictionary; therefore, cultural references of an encyclopedic type are its integral part. The model of LCC was developed on the material of Russian. According to this model, commentaries for words and expressions of English, Italian, and Kazakh will be compiled.