Lexicographic Activity of S. I. Ozhegov in 1926–1936. (Leningrad Period)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to theLeningradperiod of S. I. Ozhegov’s activity (1926–1936), which is insufficiently described in biographical works devoted to the scholar. The period of his post-graduate studies and work at theInstituteofLanguagesand Literature of the West and the East is briefly described. Based on archival materials, interesting facts are presented about the graduate studies of S. I. Ozhegov: the study of Russian participles in the context of the history of the Russian literary language, the development of the question of the first South Slavic influence on the literary language, the work in a research group on compiling Russian dialectology bibliography, and the participation in the compilation of a card index on the article and bibliographic material of the “Russian Philological Bulletin” journal, a joint work with B. A. Larin on the study of vernacular and the city language, etc. The article discusses little known lexicographic projects, on which S. I. Ozhegov worked in 1920–1930s: the vocabulary for “Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboedov (edited by L. V. Shcherba) and “Draft Dictionary of the Revolutionary Era”. Particular attention is paid to the academic explanatory «Dictionary of the Russian language», edited by N. S. Derzhavin, in which S. I. Ozhegov was the compiler of the issue “D – Dayatelny” (1937). The vocabulary, semantic development of words, illustrative material, etc., of this dictionary are briefly reviewed. Work on this issue was an important stage in the formation of S. I. Ozhegov’s lexicographic experience and presents particular interest, since it was carried out in parallel with the work on the first volume of the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” edited by D. N. Ushakov.