Thesaurus is a dictionary with advanced features. The word "thesaurus" has entered our life relatively recently. It has a foreign origin and is perceived as unusual by the ear of a Russian-speaking person. To some, it still seems ridiculous and incomprehensible, and even now you can sometimes hear the question of what is "tuzuarus". And someone has long been used to it. Let's try to figure out what it is, where it came from and what it is for.
Etymology of the word "thesaurus"
This word is of Greek origin and literally translates as "treasure." Initially, the thesaurus denoted an ordinary dictionary, supplemented by semantic relations, determined by the grouping of words and divided by headings. The consonance of the word with the common names of dinosaur species has become the basis for many memes, logos, pictures, where the thesaurus appears in the form of a lizard, reading a book or wearing glasses. Now we can say that the dinosaur has become a symbol of the dictionary.
From the history of the dictionary
It was first published in 1852 in England. It was later reprinted in 1962. The dictionary was published under the editorship of P.M. Roget and contained 1, 040 headings, with 240, 000 words distributed over them. Mona-lingual dictionaries are also very close to thesauruses, for example, Ozhegov's dictionary, which expresses the semantic parameters of each of almost one hundred thousand words. In the 70s. of the last century, the information retrieval thesaurus gained popularity. This is a special kind of dictionaries where lexical units - descriptors are highlighted.
Descriptors
What does a thesaurus with descriptors mean? What is it and what are they for? With their help, you can automatically search for any documentary information. Each word in such a dictionary has a synonymous descriptor. In addition, generic and associative relationships are indicated. For example, published in the USSR in 1973, “Information Retrieval Thesaurus on Informatics” for each descriptor, provides for a dictionary entry in which synonyms, generic, associative descriptors are indicated. This helps a better orientation in associative relationships. With an automated information search, you can find documents in which, in addition to the request descriptor, the index also contains semantically related words. A thesaurus is a source of information that allows you to highlight specific associative relationships specific to a particular subject area. For example, a disease is a pathogen, a device is a measurable unit. Thus, the user has the opportunity to receive information not only about the morphology, meaning, etymology of the word, but also about the scope of its application, about the phenomena associated with it, about specific terminology. A thesaurus is a dictionary whose task is to provide the most complete and comprehensive information.
Thesaurus in Philology
The meaning of the word "thesaurus" in an expanded sense means a complete description of the entire system of knowledge about the surrounding reality, which is possessed by an individual information carrier or a group of carriers. This media acts as a receiver for additional information. The initial thesaurus determines the capabilities of the receiver in obtaining semantic information. This concept is considered not only by philologists. It is interesting to specialists in other areas. For example, it is considered by psychologists. In addition, it is of interest to those who develop systems equipped with artificial intelligence. In sociology and the theory of communication relations, the properties of thesauruses for individuals and collectives are considered, which provide the possibility of mutual understanding based on the commonality of thesauruses.
