Veronika Telia (1930–2011)

Chief Researcher, Section of Theoretical Linguistics

PhD, Dr.habil., Prof.

Was employed at the Institute of Linguistics since 1963.

Veronika Telia was a major expert in the field of language theory, a prominent specialist on the problems of nomination, semantics and pragmatics of language units, an acknowledged classic in the field of general and Russian phraseology, the author of the linguoculturological paradigm of research in lexicology and phraseology.

Tealia has written more than 100 scientific works, including 4 monographs which became classic in the field: "What is phraseology?" (1966); "Types of linguistic meanings: The related meaning of a word in a language" (1981); "Connotative aspect of the semantics of nominative units" (1986); "Russian phraseology: Semantic, pragmatic and linguoculturological aspects" (1996). Under her scientific supervision and editorship, 15 collective monographs and 2 innovative phraseological dictionaries were published. One of them is "The Dictionary of Figurative Expressions of the Russian Language" (by Veronika Telia, Maria Kovshova, Tatiana Aristova, Irina Cherkasova, Elena Ryseva) was published in 1995; this dictionary provided the first-ever description of semantics, grammar, and stylistics of phraseological units focused on the comments "about him", "about you", "about oneself".

The research problems addressed in Talia's works are general and structural idiomatics, the category of indirect nomination, linguistic mechanisms of expressiveness, computer phraseography, cultural connotation, cultural interpretation of language signs and linguoculturology. This pioneering direction in phraseology was emerging in the 1990s under Telia's leadership; the goal of linguoculturology was to explore the synthesis of the natural language and the language of a culture. The linguoculturological analysis of language signs based on the material of Russian and other national languages was drawn up by the problem group "Linguoculturology" which was chaired by Veronika Telia (with Maria Kovshova) since 1986.

Telia's brand new linguoculturological workings served as a framework for the creation of "The Great Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language. Meaning. Usage. Culturological Commentary" by Maria Kovshova, Victoria Krasnykh, Irina Zykova, Dmitry Gudkov, Irina Zakharenko and Svetlana Kabakova (1st ed. - 2006; 4th ed. - 2009). This dictionary is unique in the world lexicographic practice: phraseological units there are presented as the signs of the "language of culture" — symbols, standards, stereotypes, etc., which are associated with natural language and which interact with it, reflecting the peculiarities of the Russian mentality, transmitting the attitudes of Russian culture through speech. By Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation of 08.06.2009, the Dictionary was included in the List of dictionaries and handbooks containing the norms of the literary language used as the state language of the Russian Federation.

Sciene organizer Veronika Telia was a member of the Commission on Phraseology and Phraseography within the Scientific Council on Lexicology and Lexicography at the Department of Literature and Language of the USSR Academy of Sciences; a member of the Scientific Council of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences "The Russian language"; a member of the Commission on Phraseology of the International Committee of Slavists; a member of the editorial board of the "International Journal of Lexicography", Oxford Univ.Press.

Twelve people presented their PhD and Dr.habil. theses under Telia's scientific supervision; her ideas and scientific methods still serve as a guidance and a source of inspiration for many researchers who work in the field of general and Russian phraseology, nomination and linguoculturology. As a nuanced and precise researcher, Veronika Telia neatly affirmed the problems of studying language and culture in their relationship and encouraged a creative perception of these problems which always united scientists and specialists from different fields around her and attracted young scientists.

Veronika Telia died on December 4, 2011 after a long and severe illness.

Audio recording of the lecture "Linguoculturology in the light of the anthropological paradigm"

The lecture was recorded on October 31, 2010 by Maria Kovshova.

The lecture was recorded before the conference "The vital connection of language and culture" which was dedicated to the anniversary of PhD, Dr.habil., Prof. Telia and was held on November 1-3, 2010 in Moscow and Tula. Veronika Telia could not personally attended the conference due to health problems. The first day of the conference took place in Moscow, at the Institute of Linguistics, it was opened by Viktor Vinogradov. In the evening, the conference participants went to Tula where the conference continued at the Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University (where Telia completed her postgraduate studies with Prof. Vladimir Arkhangelskiy as her research supervisor).

Conference materials are published: The vital connection of language and culture: materials of the International Scientific Conference dedicated to the anniversaryof PhD, Dr.habil., Prof. Telia, November 1-3, 2010. In 2 vol. / Scientific editorship: Maria Kovshova, Grigoriy Tokarev. Moscow; Tula: Publishing House of the Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University, 2010.

Photo gallery

The majority of the photos is published in the album "Veronika Telia (for her anniversary, with love)", 2010. Our special gratitude goes to Maria Kovshova for providing the photos.

Selected publications

Theses

  • PhD thesis, presented in 1968
    Tipy preobrazovanija leksičeskogo sostava idiom [Types of transformations of the lexical composition of idioms]. – Self-abstract of the thesis, Moscow, Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1968.— 22 p.
  • Dr.habil. thesis, presented in 1982
    Tipy jazykovyx značenij: Svjazannoe značenie slova v jazyke [Types of linguistic meanings: The related meaning of a word in a language]. – Self-abstract of the thesis, Moscow, Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1982.— 48 p.

Monographs

  1. Čto takoe frazeologija? [What is phraseology?].  – Moscow, Nauka, 1966. – 86 p.
  2. Tipy jazykovyx značenij: Svjazannoe značenie slova v jazyke [Types of linguistic meanings: The related meaning of a word in a language].  – Moscow, Nauka, 1981. – 269 p.
  3. Konnotativnyj aspekt semantiki nominativnyx edinic [Connotative aspect of the semantics of nominative units].  –  Moscow, Nauka, 1986. – 143 p.
  4. Russkaja frazeologija: Semantičeskij, pragmatičeskij i lingvocul'turologičeskij aspekty [Russian phraseology: Semantic, pragmatic and linguoculturological aspects]. – Moscow, Languages of the Russian Culture, 1996. – 288 p.

Dictionaries

  1. (co-authored by Elena Volf, Alexander Zholkovsky, Igor Melchuk). Igor Melchuk, Alexander Zholkovsky. Tolkovo-kombinatornyj slovar' russkogo jazyka: Opyty semantiko-sintaksičeskogo opisaniya russkoj leksiki [Explanatory combinatorial dictionary of the Russian Language: Experiments of semantic and syntactic description of Russian vocabulary]. — 2nd edition  — Мoscow, Publishing House LSC, 2016. P. 211—214, 215.
  2. (co-authored by Elena Volf, Alexander Zholkovsky, Igor Melchuk). Igor Melchuk, Alexander Zholkovsky. Tolkovo-kombinatornyj slovar' russkogo jazyka: Opyty semantiko-sintaksičeskogo opisaniya russkoj leksiki [Explanatory combinatorial dictionary of the Russian Language: Experiments of semantic and syntactic description of Russian vocabulary]. — 2nd edition — Мoscow, Publishing House LSC, 2016. P. 215—223.
  3. (co-authored by Elena Volf, Alexander Zholkovsky, Igor Melchuk). Igor Melchuk, Alexander Zholkovsky. Tolkovo-kombinatornyj slovar' russkogo jazyka: Opyty semantiko-sintaksičeskogo opisaniya russkoj leksiki [Explanatory combinatorial dictionary of the Russian Language: Experiments of semantic and syntactic description of Russian vocabulary]. — 2nd edition — Мoscow, Publishing House LSC, 2016. P. 380—384.
  4. (co-authored by Elena Volf, Lidia Iordanskaya) Igor Melchuk, Alexander Zholkovsky. Tolkovo-kombinatornyj slovar' russkogo jazyka: Opyty semantiko-sintaksičeskogo opisaniya russkoj leksiki [Explanatory combinatorial dictionary of the Russian Language: Experiments of semantic and syntactic description of Russian vocabulary]. — 2nd edition — Мoscow, Publishing House LSC, 2016. P. 387—390.
  5. Slovar' obraznyx vyraženij russkogo jazyka [The Dictionary of Figurative Expressions of the Russian Language]. / Written and compiled by Tatiana Aristova, Maria Kovshova, Elena Ryseva, Veronika Telia, Irina Cherkasova / Edited by Veronika Telia. — Moscow, Otechestvo, 1995. 367 p.
  6. Bol'šoj frazeologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka. Značenie. Upotreblenie. Kul'turologičeskij kommentarij [The Great Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language. Meaning. Usage. Culturological Commentary]. / Written and compiled by Irina Brileva, Dmitry Gudkov, Irina Zakharenko, Irina Zykova, Svetlana Kabakova, Maria Kovshova, Victoria Krasnykh, Veronika Telia / Edited by Veronika Telia. — Moscow, AST, 2006. 784 p.

Articles, conference reports

  • Lexicographic description of words and collocations. Feature-functional model // Proceedings of EURALEX, Malaga, 1990. P. 315—320.
  • Phraseological Entities as a Language of Culture (Methodological Aspects) // Eurofras 95. Europäische Phraseologie im Vergleich: gemeinsames Erbe und kulturelle Vielfalt / W. Eismann (Hrsg.). — Bochum: Brocksmeyer, 1998. S. 28—41.
  • (Bragina N., Oparina E., Sandomirskaja I.) Phraseology as a Language of Culture: It’s Role in the Representation of a Cultural Mentality // Phraseology. Theory, Analysis, and Applications. / Ed. by A.P. Cowie. —Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998. P. 55—75.

She is also the author, co-author and editor of more than 100 articles and conference reports in Russian.

About Veronika Telia