The Concept ‘Intellect’ In Russian And German Lexicography

Abstract

The following study is devoted to the lexicographic description of the German lexeme
Intellekt in comparison with its equivalent интеллект in Russian. The review covers the existing
explanatory and synonymous dictionaries of the German and Russian languages. The analysis of
the various definitions presented in lexicographic sources made it possible to get a complete
picture of the general linguistic semantic features of the lexemes under consideration and to
determine the composition of their main paradigmatic series. A comparative analysis made it
possible to reveal the nationally specific characteristics of the concept verbalized by the indicated
lexical units in the two compared languages. The study of the etymology as well as the semantic
structure of the lexemes that express the studied concept was carried out both on the basis of
book lexicographic sources and online dictionaries of German and Russian languages. The work
also reflects the results of a quantitative analysis of both lexemes Intellekt and интеллект and
their paradigmatic correlates. The study was carried out in compliance with research for
intercultural communication and is meant to help foreign language teachers and interpreters.