Maria Grinchenko and the “Russian-Ukrainian dictionary”: lexicography and something else

Abstract

The relevance of the article is due to the urgent need for modern Ukrainian studies in general and in linguistics, in particular, to clarify the issue of language as a civilizational and nation-building value in the context of the struggle for Ukrainian identity. The research is devoted to the problem of personality in the Ukrainian nation-building process as a dynamic phenomenon. The subject of the research is the creative and scientific activity of Maria Mykolaivna Grinchenko and her role in the Ukrainian lexicographic process. The purpose of the research is to find out the researcher’s contribution to the study, codification, and dissemination of the Ukrainian language as a lexicographer and permanent member of the Commission of the Dictionary of the Ukrainian Living Language. By the method of structural analysis, lexicographic description, and generalization, as well as by the archival method we reveal: the features of M. Grinchenko’s selection of living language samples for the Ukrainian Dictionary; the volume and prevalence of citations of her language creation in RUD‑1933; the researcher’s activity during the work of the Commission (based on the materials of the case of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine). For the first time, a comprehensive portrait of M. Grinchenko as a lexicographer is proposed: a collector of lexical and illustrative materials, a compiler, editor, and ideologist of Ukrainianism. It is noted that in RUD‑1933, Maria Mykolaivna began to be cited from the second volume: as M. Grinchenkova — approximately 310 mentions; as Zahirnya — approximately 70 mentions. The main result of the investigation is that such a personal approach to the study of the nation-building process, in particular the dictionary work of the early twentieth century, is an ideological basis for solving lexicographic issues of the modern language. One of the foundations for the restoration, development, and affirmation of national identity is linguistic, in particular lexicographic, research. The prospects for further study are that the materials under consideration are the basis for developing and deepening the theory of nationally oriented lexicographic works.