К 80-летию Владимира Моисеевича Лейчика, ученого и человека

On the 80th Birthday of Vladimir Moiseevich Leychik, Scholar and Man SERGEI SHELOV V. V. Vinogradov Russian Language Institute The second book of Aristotle’s treatise Metaphysics begins with the words, “To investigate the truth is in one respect difficult, in another easy.” I recalled this because writing about Vladimir Moiseevich is easy for me in some respects and difficult in others. My longtime coauthor and friend, colleague, and often reviewer and critic, a man with whom our families have been close friends and whom I have known since the 1970s, Vladimir Moiseevich generally pursues a wholly independent research path in his scholarly priorities, sometimes coming close to my views and interests and sometimes diverging from them substantially. But since mutual scholarly and personal trust has remained unchanged throughout all this time, I venture to hope that I have the right to share my impressions of this remarkable researcher and person. Terminologija | 2008 | 15 271 unchanged, I venture to hope that I have the right to share my impressions of this remarkable researcher and person. The jubilarian’s ultra-brief biography is as follows. Vladimir Moiseevich Leychik was born on 06.11.1928 in the city of Odessa. His grandfather was an honorary hereditary citizen of the city, as stated in his diploma, an “expert in sugar”; his other grandfather cultivated vineyards. As a boy, at the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, he was evacuated to the capital of Kazakhstan, the city of Alma-Ata (as it was then called); after returning to Odessa and graduating from school with a gold medal, he entered the Faculty of Philology at Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov, the Romance Languages Department. After completing his higher education, Vladimir Moiseevich was assigned to that same Alma-Ata, where he worked as a French teacher for a full four years and where he first became—and remained forever—fascinated by lexicology, even beginning to write a dissertation entitled “Compound Nouns in French.” He then moved to Moscow, this time with his family—his wife Lyubov Yakovlevna, daughter Ella, and son Viktor—and thus began the Moscow period of his life, which continues to this day. In 1955, Vladimir Moiseevich defended his dissertation, whose idea had originated in Kazakhstan, and then worked for a long time in Moscow as a translator of scientific and technical literature. This work, together with the practical skills he acquired in processing various kinds of documents (scientific articles, standards, patents, etc.), sparked his inexhaustible interest—continuing to this day—in the various aspects of how scientific and technical terms function. If the beginning of this period can be dated somewhat provisionally to 1969, when his article “The Place of Terminology in the System of Modern Sciences” appeared in the journal Научно-техническая информация (Series 1, No. 8), then the other major milestone, after years of research and hundreds of publications, was undoubtedly his defense in 1990 of a doctoral dissertation at the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The monograph Терминоведение: Предмет, методы, структура, published in 2006 and based on his doctoral work, is perhaps one of the most frequently cited books in terminology studies, since, in addition to presenting Vladimir Moiseevich’s ideas and findings, it serves as an indispensable reference work in this field of knowledge... 272 Сергей Шелов | К 80-летию Владимира Моисеевича Лейчика,... Here I should interrupt the chronological account of events and note one striking trait of Vladimir Moiseevich’s character: his determination and constant desire to keep abreast of the results achieved, his abiding interest in synthesizing the work done by colleagues, and his attention to everything new (incidentally, he would always chide the author of these lines for citing works if they were the latest edition—he always insisted that reprints be taken into account, since they might contain changes and additions). Is this not why he so often serves as an opponent at candidate and doctoral dissertation defenses, publishes reviews, studies abstracts, and supervises students and graduate students? Is this not why he is the author of the monograph People and Words, written in the exceptionally challenging genre of popular science—a genre mastered by very few of the most distinguished and eminent researchers? Is this not why, among the few reviews, it is precisely his pen that has produced comprehensive works on Russian terminology studies, its history, its principal achievements (and sometimes failures), its current state, and its prospects for further development, with some of these reviews popularizing Russian terminology science abroad in English... However, after defending his doctoral dissertation, Vladimir Moiseevich’s scholarly activity did not diminish in the slightest. Soon he became a lecturer at the Languages and Cultures Faculty of the Russian Open University (where he worked alongside the author of these lines), and from 1993 he was elected professor at the Higher Pedagogical School in Słupsk, Poland. At the Institute of Neophilology of this educational institution, he taught courses in linguistics, whose list testifies to the breadth of his interests: “Fundamentals of Russian-Polish and Polish-Russian Translation,” “Russian Business Communication,” “Introduction to Linguistics,” “Russian Lexicology for Polish Students,” “Russian Graphics and Orthography,” and others. His lecturing was accompanied by vigorous international activity and conference presentations in Moscow, Copenhagen, Berlin, Grodno, and Samara, not to mention cities throughout Poland. Having spent a total of about six years in Poland, Vladimir Moiseevich returned to Russia, where he soon began working just as actively and enthusiastically as a professor at the State Institute of Russian Terminologija | 2008 | 15 2 7 3 Language named after A. S. Pushkin, where he continues to work to this day. Today, with more than 400 publications to his name (!!!), he has become one of the best-known specialists; in terminology studies, failing to cite him is considered simply bad form. But his work is also known and valued by stylisticians, lexicologists, and lexicographers. Personally, I would also like to mention a few more of the jubilarian’s human qualities. First, there is his gentle sense of humor, which is very important to me and may perhaps be connected in some way with his birthplace: in Soviet times, Odessa always had the aura of a southern city whose citizens were known for their distinctive humor and enterprise, traits that apparently still shape the character of the subject of these lines. Second, there are his rare, nowadays, reliability, punctuality, and, more generally, the dependability of a man of his word. If Vladimir Moiseevich has promised something, there is no need to worry... It was precisely this that prompted me to write a short poem for his jubilee, with which I would like to conclude these notes. To Vladimir Moiseevich Leichik 07.11.08 About Real Men A man is not the one who stands six feet tall, Nor the one who weighs a hundredweight or more, Simply given by God and birth a free gift, Without effort, without toil. But to the one who has overcome and endured so much, Brushing aside the hard pulse throbbing in his veins, Who remains so loved and needed by so many, I say: “Well, Moiseich, you’re a real man!” You’re a man—a husband, father, and grandfather, You’re a man—a great-grandfather and a comrade, Who knew how to earn respect, Even when starting from the ashes. 274 Сергей Шелов | К 80-летию Владимира Моисеевича Лейчика,... Call a man a horse, and truly he will be one—never ruining the furrows, he pulls the plow, whether healthy or lame... Moiseich, just keep on living; there are never enough men. Received 2008-11-20 Сергей Дмитриевич Шелов Институт русского языка им. В. В. Виноградова ул. Волхонка, д.18/2, Москва, Россия Эл. почта: [email protected] Terminologija | 2008 | 15 275