T E R M I N O L O G I J A I R L E I D I N I A I

ENCYCLOPEDIC GEOGRAPHY DICTIONARY

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We are living in a period of change. Lithuania’s schools, teaching content, and teaching methods are changing too. New textbooks, methodological literature, and dictionaries are being written. One of them is Stasys Vaitekūnas’s new “Encyclopedic Geography Dictionary,” published by the “Šviesa” publishing house in 1994¹. It is intended for school students studying physical and human geography. The geographical concepts and terms in the dictionary are defined much more broadly than in textbooks; moreover, it includes terms indispensable for reading supplementary literature in the field.

Geography began to develop in Lithuania as early as the eighteenth century. But geographical terminology at that time was Latin or Polish. Lithuanian geographical terms began to be created in earnest only in this century. This field was not “neglected” even during the Soviet years, unlike, say, military affairs or transport. This was determined by geography’s subject matter, that is, the geographic sphere. One characteristic of the terminology in this field is that a large proportion of terms are ordinary words from the living language that have acquired technical meanings: žas, paplūdimys, lanka, and so on. Another large proportion consists of old international terms used in the major European languages, most often derived from Greek or Latin, for example, horizontas, irigacija, introdukcija, litologija, populiacija, and so on. Perhaps that is why geographers have little concern about the lack of lexicographic resources: over the past forty years, this new dictionary is already the fourth. It is true that the dictionaries of 1972 and 1987 are translations, but they have not “sinned” against Lithuanian terminology. Geographical terminology is also in a good state in that there is no confusion over terms with multiple meanings. Only a few terms (akvatorija, ašigaliai, locija) have more than one meaning.

The author of the “Encyclopedic Geography Dictionary” emphasizes that an effort was made to integrate geographical knowledge with knowledge from other fields—biology, history, geopolitics, astronomy, and geology. The aim is for physical and human geography to occupy an equal share of general geog-

¹ Vaitekūnas S. Enciklopedinis geografijos žodynas. K.: “Šviesa”, 1994. 256 p.

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raphy, which is why the dictionary includes many economic and social terms and their definitions. The author is convinced that everyone needs knowledge of economics, so here we find a core set of basic economic terms.

The dictionary further develops Lithuanian terminology in geography and the other fields mentioned, which in some cases can hold its own against familiar international terms, for example: air transport (cf. aviatransportas), geography of air travel (cf. infrastruktūros geografija), deposits (cf. depozitai), charity (cf. filantropija), interglacial period (cf. interglacialas), solstice (cf. solsticija), beach (cf. pliažas). In these cases, the international term is retained as a synonym. It is also worth noting the attempt—though not always an accurate one—to offer a Lithuanian equivalent for a particular airport: oruostis; galaxy: Paukščių Takas; and esker: ožnugaris. Commendable patriotism is evident in the choice of unikalus (not vulkanas), vandenynas (not okeanas), smailė (not pikas), pusiauja (not ekvatorius), Paukščių Takas (not Pieno Takas), lygiagretes (not paraleles), ašigaliai (not polius), and stačiatikybė (not pravoslavija).

The author proposes a new term for the instrument used to measure precipitation. The lietmatis found in earlier dictionaries is listed here as a synonym for kritulmatis. This term undoubtedly corresponds more precisely to the definition, but there was no need to change the existing one because: a) it is more difficult to pronounce and the word is one syllable longer; b) all precipitation is measured after it has turned into water—in other words, it is no different from rain (that is, “liquid precipitation falling from clouds in drops larger than 0.5 mm in diameter,” p. 112). The needlessly figurative and familiar term paukščių turgus has also been replaced with paukščių kolonijos without good reason. One must agree that the latter is more emotionally neutral, but a little vividness does no harm to terminology—after all, we still have white nights, the black market, and so on.

The stated goal of “replacing as many international words as possible with Lithuanian ones” (p. 3) is forgotten when discussing land reform, adaptation, an archipelago, a marketplace, an auction, and trade—here the terms used are agrarinė reforma, adaptacija, archipelagas, turgus, aukcionas, komercija. Nor can one excuse this by claiming that the Lithuanian terms are little known or unpopular!

The dictionary’s authors deserve praise for the correctness of their terms. The exception proves the rule: unidentified flying objects. Attributive forms are generally used in terminology, for example: humid tropical forests, gross national product, mineral resources. Therefore, this term should be unidentified flying objects.

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In the entry “Encyclopedic Dictionary of Geography,” the sixth explanation of the term “standing waves” gives pause. It should be said that this was not invented by the dictionary’s author; the term is taken from earlier publications. Logically, the meanings of the words in the phrase conflict; cf. to stand – 1. to be upright; 2. not to go, to remain motionless, to be inactive; 3. to lie fallow” (DŽ, 737) and wave – “a moving mound on the surface of water caused by wind or something else, a swell.” Perhaps the sixth explanation should be defined as “mound of water” or by some other word.

One desirable characteristic of terms is systematicity. Names for concepts of the same kind should be expressed uniformly. A term should reflect as clearly as possible the relations between concepts and other concepts in the system. Thus, if we call the “23° 27' parallels of north and south latitude” tropics, then we would also like to find this beautiful Lithuanian term in derived terms, rather than tropics (humid tropical forests, tropical air mass, tropical belts, tropical forests). The same applies to contour lines – isohypses. Both words are of Greek origin, but the latter belongs to a coherent system of isolines: isohypses (equal elevation), isotherms (equal temperature), isobars (equal atmospheric pressure), isobaths (lines on a map or diagram connecting points of equal depth).

It is excellent that the dictionary’s author seeks to make it easier to learn other subjects as well by including popular terms from economics, history, and sociology. However, one should not forget that the dictionary is, after all, “encyclopedic geography.” It is useful for students (the intended audience of this publication) to know what a republic, Catholicism, and Creoles are, but will they think in the future to look up the meaning of prayer book or textbook in a geography dictionary? One can understand the author’s possible fondness for hippies, but a slightly younger reader is disappointed not to find punks. If geography is to be “humanized,” why not do so systematically?

Considering the dictionary as a whole, it is difficult to understand the criteria for selecting terms. The preface states: “Unlike the translated dictionaries and reference books published to date (mostly from Russian), this dictionary omits highly localized (local) and specialized terms and concepts that are unnecessary for Lithuanian scholars and characteristic of the geography of more distant countries” (p. 3). In other words, it rejects the idea put forward by V. Gudelis in A. Solovjov and G. Karpov’s “Dictionary-Reference Book of Physical Geography” of popularizing many less common words from everyday speech that are already used in scholarly literature but are little known to young learners. In this way, what turn out to be “highly localized” are a hollow, a depression, drizzle-

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mud, frozen soil, upland, lagoon, bog, and so on, yet it is doubtful that they are any less localized than rūzgos, panuovalis, žiogis, palios, palvė, plova, šėklius, and žandaras, which are included in the dictionary. For instance, the term raistas is absent, while lieknas, that is, “a local name for a marsh, equivalent to raistas,” is included. The entire system of landforms is presented, but its constituent parts are explained selectively:

Landforms

megarelief mountain systems (−) plateaus (+) plains (+) ocean basins (−)

macrorelief uplands (−) plateaus (+) lowlands (+) mountain ranges (−) plateaus (+) intermontane lowlands (−)

mesorelief valleys (+) hills (+) ridges (+) hollows (−) canyons (+)

microrelief mounds (−) dunes (+) basins (−)

nanorelief

Who can explain to a student the difference between a “valley” and a “hollow”? The dictionary includes the terms kalalius and president, but it is just as important for Lithuanian schoolchildren to know what a duke is. If Latvian and Lithuanian are considered important, then Polish and Russian are no less important than Chinese. The same applies to terms for places of worship: for some reason, the synagogue has been forgotten, although church, mosque, and Orthodox church are included. kalalius, president, but it is just as important for Lithuanian schoolchildren to know what a duke is. If Latvian and Lithuanian are considered important, then Polish and Russian are no less important than Chinese language. The same applies to terms for places of worship: for some reason, the synagogue has been forgotten, although a church, mosque, and Orthodox church are included.

There is even greater confusion with biological terms. Why does the author think it important to explain, in a concise dictionary of geographical terms, what herrings, elephants, camels, and dolphins are? Are these terms in any way more complex or important than fish, mammals, which we search for here in vain? One gets the impression that the presentation of terms is—

Terms marked with plus signs are included in the dictionary; those marked with minus signs are not.

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territory – “what else do I remember here?” Here is a small handful of examples: ichthyofauna, ichthyology, ichthyosaurs, iguanodonts, iguanas, marine fauna, sea cow, seaweed, crinoids, sea lions. Is the principle being followed that special terms characteristic of the geography of distant countries have been omitted? After all, ichthyosaurs are just one of the reptile families in the order of bird-hipped dinosaurs, and are extinct, to boot. The marine fauna representatives listed are certainly not in any way so unusual as to merit special mention (biological terms make up only about a third of the dictionary). One could go on listing more. Even the possible excuse that terms supposedly understood by everyone were deliberately excluded from the dictionary does not apply here. If it is clear to all schoolchildren what the term settlement means, then it is just as clear what a small town or a single homestead is.

Thus, before starting to write a dictionary, it is essential to know whom it is for, what purpose it serves, and what its scope will be. If it is intended for schools, explanations of terms such as gravel “the coarse fraction of loose and cemented rocks <...>” should be avoided (perhaps the explanation in the DŽ would be more suitable: “stones abraded and rounded by sea or river water”). If it is impossible for a dictionary to cover all the terms in a given field, the necessary ones should be carefully selected according to their level of abstraction, frequency of use, and place in the structure of that field’s terminology. Alphabetical arrangement of synonyms would be very useful; for example, a pupil finds the term isohypses in a textbook, but it is not explained in the dictionary, and how is the pupil to know that in this case the explanation should be sought under contour line? If the pupil found a cross-reference saying “see contour line,” there would be no confusion. Moreover, this is a practical way to popularize Lithuanian equivalents of terms: the reader knows that “a specially organized public sale, trade, held periodically at a particular place of sale” is a public auction, also called an auction, and not the other way around.

In addition, the material in previously published works in the field should be used creatively. Then there would be no clumsy terms such as oscillatory movements of the Earth’s crust, since S. Agapov’s Lithuanian translation of “Geografijos žodynas” already has the straightforward fluctuations of the Earth’s crust. Thus, for the dictionary to be truly useful to schoolchildren and others interested in geography, it should be improved, although the idea of preparing such a publication is certainly a good one.

Jurgita JĖRINAITĖ

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In the “Encyclopedic Geographical Dictionary” prepared by Stasys Vaitekūnas

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