Explanatory dictionaries have traditionally been used as an empirical foundation for theoretical research of literary language: its semantic structure and grammatical features of its lexical units, derivational models, stylistic stratification, etc. However, the language of science and especially its terminology remained at the periphery of such dictionaries. This article argues in favour of using materials of the Dictionary of the Russian Language of the 21st Century, which is currently being compiled by the Laboratory of computer lexicography, as the basis for theoretical description of the modern language of science. This full-type dictionary is focused on synchronic description of the Russian lexical system, which is under a substantial influence of the intellectualisation process. It does not only include words, but also collocations, which form a significant part of the language of science. Entries in the dictionary are compiled according to significant relations within lexical-semantic groups. This allows the explanatory dictionary to describe systemic interrelations of lexical units both inside the terminology of a particular area of knowledge and the modern lexical system in general. Terminology dictionaries — which are based on achievements of contemporary terminology studies — are widely used in the compilation process, so resulting definitions are highly specialised. A system of thematic labels used in the dictionary makes it possible to identify a definition as belonging to a particular area of knowledge or to several scientific fields. A dedicated label is used for definitions of general scientific nature to specify another important layer of the modern language of science. This results in a wide list of scientific language units — words of different parts of speech and collocations — marked with labels indicating a particular area of knowledge they belong to or their general scientific nature, provided with verified definitions and illustrative examples from modern texts.
The publication of the first volume of “The Dictionary of the Russian Language of the 21st Century” marks a specific stage in the development of traditional lexicography of the modern Russian language. This dictionary represents a model of the lexical system, built on a large volume of words with detailed and comprehensive analysis of semantic structures — the full dictionary will contain more than 200 000 units (compared with over than 12 000 words, idioms and collocations included in the first volume). Systemic links, connecting entries throughout the alphabet (hypero-hyponymic relations, synonyms, antonyms, thematic clusters and so on), are included in semantic explanations whenever possible, although beyond the context of entire the dictionary some definitions illustrating lexical consistency may remain incomplete. These systemic links could be demonstrated in the electronic version of the dictionary by means of balloon tips or hyperlinks, before all the alphabetic parts of the dictionary are ready for print. Each entry field in the dictionary is specifically marked, which provides for the delivery of the results in different searches in the electronic version and, furthermore, presupposes the use of the dictionary as a foundation of the lexicographical system of modern Russian. This lexicographical marking was approbated in a wide range of specific and explanatory dictionaries, which can be used as additional blocks or modules in such a lexicographical system. In addition, this universal marking system can be applied to the majority of other dictionaries and lexicographic materials. Such detailed lexicographical marking can serve as a basis for linking information from different lexicographical resources not only based on vocabulary matches, but also including account collocations, idiomatic meanings and other specific parameters of the dictionary entry. The foundation of a lexicographical system should meet the requirements of scientific validity, contemporaniety, normativity, be explicitly structured and cover a significant amount of data, and the materials of “The Dictionary of the Russian Language of the 21st century” correspond to all these requirements.
