"THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO SAY IT" OR ONE MORE TIME ABOUT THE SYSTEM, THE NORM AND THE USAGE (a lexicographer 's view)

The article considers the relationship between the system, speech practice and the norm in the lexicographical aspect and with regard to problems and opportunities of creating word lists for various kinds of comprehensive dictionaries. Having analyzed lexical material the author has come up with three types of speech situations: 1) speaking is based on a system and is supported by the norm ("it is both possible and correct to say that") 2) speaking is based on a system but is not supported by the norm ("it is not correct to say that") 3) speaking is based on a system but does not exist in real usage ("you could say that, but no one speaks this way"). From the point of view of lexicography the unused, artificially created vocabulary can only play a meaningful role as a storage of lexical possibilities in orthographic dictionaries and those comprehensive ones that are aimed at a system and not concerned with showing the real life of a word in its everyday usage.