Elementa Greco-Latina Dictionarium: Principles of Compiling a Trilingual Terminographic Publication

Abstract

This article presents an approach to constructing a dictionary of Greco-Latin terminological elements in linguistic terminology. The authors examine their representation across languages of different morphological types – agglutinative (Kazakh), analytical (English), and inflectional (Russian). The focus is on the concept, structure, and methodological principles underlying the Elementa Greco-Latina Dictionarium. The dictionary is built around 111 lemmas – terminological elements extracted from twelve codified sources in three languages. The methodological framework comprises an exhaustive survey of dictionary sources for term selection, componential analysis to disambiguate homonymous terminological elements, and contrastive analysis revealing cross-linguistic discrepancies. The findings show that the three terminological systems are fundamentally commensurable while retaining their national specificity. Cross-linguistic asymmetry reflects differences in scholarly traditions, the typological heterogeneity of the languages involved, and the mediated nature of borrowing in Kazakh. The authors conclude that the central principle for constructing such a dictionary is the direct extraction of units from codified sources in all three languages simultaneously, rather than translation between them. Equally significant are the vertical organization of dictionary entries with explicit gap marking, and the differentiation of homonyms and paronyms. The proposed methodology is applicable to terminographic projects of different subject-matter and linguistic scope.

Keywords: terminography, Greco-Latin formatives, linguistic terminology, trilingual dictionary, cross-linguistic asymmetry, lexicographic description, Kazakh language, English language, Russian language.