ОБНОВЛЕНИЕ СИНОНИМОВ ТЕРМИНА “УЧИТЕЛЬ” В ЛЕКСИКЕ СОВРЕМЕННОГО АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА (ОТ MISSIONARY ДО ZOOM TUTOR)

Introduction

The concept “teacher” is in the focus of attention of domestic researchers, not to mention the international researches about new functions and roles of a modern pedagogue working in difficult social, ethnical, religious and multicultural environments. This is particularly noticeable in the studies of Russian researchers, pedagogues, philologists, psychologists and philosophers, in which the personality of a teacher is considered in different aspects: the psychological aspects of the teacher's pedagogical activity (E.R. Ganeeva, L.V. Lidak, L.M. Mitina, O.K. Pozdnyakova, S.V. Subbotin, L.N. Talalova); teacher's mission (A.V. Utkin); evolution of the personal and professional ideal of the teacher (I.D. Lelchitsky); social and psychological foundations of the teacher's image (A.A. Kalyuzhny); teacher as a phenomenon of a culture and social reality (E.N. Zarechneva, N.Yu. Maksimova, E.V. Piskunova, I.P. Safronov); model of a modern teacher (L.M.Sharova, S.L. Fomenko) and many others.

We should also mention critical studies of foreign scientists touching upon the following problems: the functioning of American schools, the goals and values ​​of modern education, problems of the quality of education, features of the teacher's pedagogical activity in modern society, the priority personal and professional qualities of a teacher, current teaching methods, the impact of learning on a  personality and others (M. Barber, J. Bruner, J. Gatto, T. Gordon, J. Goodlad. F. Jackson, A. Dreher, J. Kozol, A. Cohn, D. Cohen, D. Lemov, P. Mac-Laren, D. Ravich, C. Silberman, B. Skinner, R. Slater, K. Tucker, E.L. Thorndike, L. Ferlazzo, M. Fullan, A. Hartman, J. Hattie and others).

A teacher has to perform a lot of functions, the main important of them are social, educational, emotional, informational, administrative and control. The variety of terms with the connotation “teacher” justifies this statement. As an example we can list the dictionary entry “teacher” from Merriam-Webster’s Thesaurus numbering 49 synonyms: “educationist [chiefly British], educator, instructor, pedagogue / pedagog, preceptor, schoolteacher, headmaster, master, rector, schoolmaster, headmistress, instructress, mistress [chiefly British], schoolmarm (or schoolma'am), schoolmistress, coach, guide, guru, preparer, trainer, mentor, tutor, tutoress, drillmaster, inculcator, dean, docent, doctor, don, prof, professor, regius professor, academe, academic, academician, didact, pedant, governess, homeschooler, intern (also interne), practice teacher, reader, student teacher, catechist, lecturer, moralizer, preacher” [9]. Why are there so many synonyms? What are their origins? What do they mean? What are the reasons for updating the synonymic set of the term “teacher” in modern English? The article examines these questions and offers options for answers.

Methods

The study of the development and updating the synonymic set of the term “teacher” in English required the following scientific methods: semantic and comparative analysis of a synonymic set “teacher” from various dictionaries, thesauruses and glossaries; method of interpretation; elements of quantitative analysis to determine the ratio of synonyms close in meaning and thematically related terms with the meaning of “teacher / university lecturer”; elements of historical and etymological analysis, which made it possible to trace the emergence of new synonyms of the term “teacher” in the terminological systems of secondary and higher education in Great Britain and the USA.

Results and Discussion

To define an English-language term “teаcher” in the general education system, it is reasonable to mention some domestic linguists who touch on the nature of the term in their studies (M.Ya. Blokh, V.M. Leichik, S.D. Shelov, K.Ya. Averbukh, Tserkun Yu.B., and etc.). In this study the English term “teacher” is understood as a linguistic sign denoting or expressing the concept “teacher”, which has its own definition, on which those who use this linguistic sign rely.

In the study of the English-language terminological units of the education system in the linguistic and cultural aspects, according to Y.B. Tsverkun, the following properties of the term are important: “consistency, polysemy and synonymy” [7, P. 11]. Synonymy in this study is considered as “the implementation of terminological variance” [7, P. 11].

We discuss the semantic and lexical variance of the term “teacher” from the standpoint of its belonging to a certain terminology system of education: English, British, American, Oxford University terminology, Cambridge University terminology. The belonging of the term “teacher” to one or another local term system determines the semantics of the units under study with a cultural component of meaning.

To make the analysis of the designated topic objective and detailed, we should demarcate the definitions of the semantic units “synonyms” and “a thematic field”. According to the Soviet Encyclopaedic Dictionary, “synonyms (from Greek synōnymos – eponymous) are words that differ in sound, but identical or similar in meaning, as well as syntactic and grammatical constructions that coincide in meaning. Synonyms can be full and partial” [6, P. 1223].  

Yu.D. Apresyan, a well-known Soviet and Russian linguist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, gives his own interpretation of the thematic field: “it is a collection of lexemes of different parts of speech, united by one topic based on extra linguistic parameters” [1, P. 119].

Thematic fields of glossaries and thesauruses were also the objects of our research. We selected the terms that are (a) nouns, (b) close in their meanings to the term “teacher”. Thanks to the selection of synonyms from the thematic fields of lexicographic sources the study was enriched with a rather extensive synonymic set of the term “teacher”, lexical units close in meaning, including neologisms with the meaning teacher. We agree with the statement of M.I. Varlavina, who notes that “to understand the semantics of an individual lexical unit it is not enough to study it in an isolation, it is necessary to rely on the systemic organization and semantic relations in the vocabulary of the given language” [5, P. 77].

The analysis of the problem mentioned in the title is reasonable to begin with the review of the glossaries. A special interest for the research of a synonymic set of the term “teacher” presents Oxford glossary available on the website of the oldest English university – University of Oxford. The glossary comprises a rich set of educational terminology used within the staff, students’ society and denoting the traditional, specific just for this university terms, nominations, titles, abbreviations, and denotations. The terms denoting the titles of staff can be conditionally divided into three groups: teaching staff itself, managing staff, and research staff.

The teaching staff comprises a lot of terms, e.g.: don, Emeritus, lecturer, tutor, fellow, graduate. There is a special term for a person, who a student can turn to with concerns about their teaching or general welfare, it is a moral tutor. Nowadays his role and duties may vary widely.

Teaching in college is performed in the form of tutorials (or tutes), overseen by Colleges tutors. The title “reader” is “a medieval term for a teacher used to refer to a lecturer below the rank of professor, has recently been retired at Oxford in favour of the American title Associate professor” [15].

The managing staff consists of a dean who works as the Head of House at Christ Church and at the same time “a fellow responsible for supervising the conduct and discipline of the Junior Members of the College” [15] is also called a dean. Then come DGS (Director of Graduate Studies) and Director of Study.

Each college in Oxford has a head of house, but historically and traditionally there are various terms denoting this managing position, e.g.: Principal, President, Dean, Master, Provost, Rector, or Warden. For example, Master is a traditional title of the head of House of several colleges: Balliol College, Pembroke College, St Catherine’s College, St Cross College, St Peter’s College and University College. As for the term ‘President’, in Oxford University it is a title for the Head of House at Corpus Christi College, Kellogg College, Magdalen College, St John’s College, Trinity College and Wolfson College.

Fellows “together with the college head, constitute the governing body of the college” [15]. We should also mention the term ‘proctor’ who can be Senior and Junior having duties according to statutes and regulations for student discipline, “for ensuring the proper conduct of examinations and for dealing with complaints. They also carry out ceremonial duties, e.g. at degree ceremonies” [15]. As we can see, university teachers have a lot of additional duties besides teaching. A special attention must be put to PVC (Pro-Vice-Chancellor). There are five Pro-Vice-Chancellors with specific, functional responsibility for Development and External Affairs; Education; Personnel and Equal Opportunities; Planning and Resources, and Research.

Research staff in Oxford University comprises several representatives. First, DPhil (Doctorate of Philosophy, first mentioned in 1652). The world known term PhD is traditionally called and spelled as DPhil in Oxford. Among the academic terms we also find Junior Research Fellow (JRF), Regius Professor (first mentioned in 1609).

Compared to the glossary of Oxford University, the Cambridge University glossary contains a more detailed list of terms with the seme “teacher” and “university lecturer”. Again the terms denoting staff can be divided into three categories: teaching staff, academic or research staff, and managing staff.

Teaching staff comprises authentic terms, specific for the Cambridge University, such as: probationary faculty lecturer, Faculty Assistant Lecturer (the previous title Faculty Lecturer (1926) was changed into FAL in 1934), bye-fellow, reader (was introduced under the Statutes of 1882), father, full fellow, Lector / lectrice, master, moderator, pernoctate, Rede lecturers, senior Fellow, senior member, and visiting scholars.

Among the well-known synonyms of the “teacher” found in Cambridge glossary the following can be mentioned: assistant lecturer, don, emeritus, Scholar, supervisor, tutor, senior tutor and professor.

The university lecturers belonging to academic society are presented by the synonyms: academic, assessor, ADR (Assistant Director of Research), assistant in research, Full Doctor (first mentioned in 1880), higher doctorate, praelector, professor, research assistant, senior assistant in research. Having analysed this set of synonyms we can make a conclusion that research activities has been the most important part of education in Cambridge University, one of its distinctive features since early ages. A special attention must be given to the old titles of Professorships. “The first five Regius (i.e. Royal) Professorships, in Divinity, Hebrew, Greek, Physic and Civil Law, were founded by Henry VIII in 1504; the sixth, in Modern History, by George I in 1724, and the seventh, in English Literature, in the name of Edward VII in 1910. On the initiative, and probably at the expense, of Thomas Lorkyn, Regius Professor of Physic, the Henrician Regius Professors were granted official arms and crests in 1590” [14].

It should be reasonable to comment some managing titles of Cambridge University. For example, Director of Studies (DoS) is “a tutor in your subject who monitors your progression, helps you with your academic choices and organises your small-group teaching, known as supervisions. The post came into being in the early 1900s” [14]. This post having been originated in the beginning of the ХХ century, is actual nowadays. One more old term still used in Cambridge University is Father, which is “the old expression for a praelector, in the sense of the senior College member (not necessarily a Fellow in early times) who presents the College’s students (his ‘sons’) for formal admission to their degrees” [14]. And the oldest title is the term Rector. It is the “earliest, thirteenth-century, title of the officers who have since been called proctors” [14].

Moderator, in simple words, an examiner, was introduced “to assist the proctors with the assessing and moderating of undergraduate disputations, was in 1680/1; from then until 1810 the moderators were usually themselves also the examiners, but from then on the examinations were under the control of the proctors, the examiners and the moderators” [14].

Among the authentic Cambridge vocabulary we can find the term Reader. “Although the term ‘Reader’ was sometimes used in earlier centuries as a synonym for ‘Professor’, readers in the modern sense of the word were introduced under the Statutes of 1882” [14].

As an intermediate conclusion, we can highlight the following points. Oxford and Cambridge glossaries present a historically formed educational terminology. The educational terminology of these oldest European universities has influenced the formation of the similar terminology in other universities. Many terms are authentic words and phrases, e.g.: Reader, Father, moderator, praelector, Rede lecturer, Regius Professor and others. Some of these titles go back to the beginning of the XVI century.

Rede Lecturers “take their origin from an endowment left to the University by Sir Robert Rede, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1506 –19, a member of Buckingham College and later a Fellow of the King’s Hall. With this endowment Sir Robert’s executors bought an annuity of 20 marks (£13 6s 8d) from the abbot of convent of Waltham Holy Cross. The annuity was to be paid to the Master and Fellows of Jesus College who bound them to pay £4 annually to each of three persons who were to lecture on Humanity, Logic and Philosophy. Probably this represents the establishment of a fixed stipend for the ‘ordinary’ lecturers already in existence. They were to lecture to all the University without fees and in mid-term were to pray publicly for the soul of Sir Robert and of his wife, for whom the University also performed annual exequies” [14].

Some terms are the same as the nominations in the most universities of the English-speaking countries, e.g.: Professor, tutor, lecturer, etc.

There are terms peculiar for the oldest English universities, originated many centuries ago, e.g.: Higher doctorate which is “those superior to that of PhD., viz Divinity (D.D.), Law (LL.D.), Medicine (M.D.), Music (Mus.D.), Science (Sc.D.) and Letters (Litt.D.)” [14].

There is a difference in nomination Lector and Lecturer. A Lector is “an academical officer appointed to teach the use of language, usually a native speaker, and usually employed in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages. Some Colleges also employ lectors. The female of the species is sometimes known as a lectrice” [14]. As for lecturers, in Cambridge University they are of two kinds. “The post of University Lecturer came into being with the statutes of 1882; appointment is by the General Board in consultation with the appropriate faculty or department (or, in earlier years, Special Board). Others, listed in the Historical Register and its Supplements under ‘Special Foundations’ are, now, temporary appointments, with the appointed lecturer giving either a single lecture or a single course of lectures annually” [14]. Historical references in the Cambridge glossary allow to trace the appearance of the terms, often indicating the corresponding statute.

A special interest within the analysed subject must be given to the contents of the modern online and paper thesauruses. The synonymic set of the ‘teacher’ on  thesaurus.com contains the following nouns: “assistant, coach, educator, faculty member, instructor, lecturer, professor, scholar, schoolteacher, supervisor, tutor, advisor, disciplinarian, guide, mentor, pedagogue, preceptor, pundit, trainer, abecedary” [12]. An abecedary is a term that can present either a person who teaches grammar skills and literacy or a textbook with elementary knowledge of grammar and etc.

Merriam-Webster’s Thesaurus (mentioned in the Introduction) has got one of the richest collections of synonyms of the term ‘teacher’ (49 units). Our attention will be paid only to those synonyms, which were not mentioned above. We should point “drillmaster, inculcator, schoolmarm, preparer, headmistress, trainer, didact, pedant, intern / interne, homeschooler, practice teacher, reader, catechist, preacher, moralizer” [9].

One more online thesaurus.yourdictionary.com has its own set of terms denoting “teacher” [13]. It is reasonable to mention those synonyms that were not indicated in the thesauruses analysed above: “educator, teacher-in-training, schoolmistress, high school teacher, schoolmaster, schoolmarm, ta (inf. for teaching assistant), kindergarten teacher, coach (Coach class), pupil-teacher, rabbi, usher, public school teacher, swami, edifier, substitute-teacher (North America, Ireland, supply teacher), headteachers, trainee, teaching assistant, efl, LSAs, docent (a tour guide and lecturer, as at a museum), graduate assistant, pl. faculty, preacher, preceptress, prof (short for professor), wet-nurse, educator, instructor” [13]. Two synonyms – edifier and usher – have ironic meanings.

The American view on the term “teacher” will help determine the main peculiarities in educational terminology dealing with people involved in the teaching process. The competent printed edition is the American-focused dictionary of higher education, compiled by V.G. Budykina (2017). This resource comprises a lot of terms meaning teacher. The dictionary entry “teacher” directs us to other terms describing types of teachers and university professors. We can find the following collocations: “distinguished teacher / faculty / student award, highly qualified teacher, industrial arts teacher education, in-service, substitute teacher, teacher education, teacher-centred approach” [4, P. 306]. Our main interest is focused around the terms similar in meaning to the teacher or describing the types of teachers. That’s why such a phrase as “teacher education” is discussed in the article.

In this respect a particular interest presents a term “credentialed teacher” [4, P. 95] meaning a certified teacher. As a matter of fact, “staff and non-staff teachers, as well as administrative personnel of an educational institution in the United States must have the appropriate documents confirming the right to conduct teaching and other activities in educational institutions” [4, P. 95]. It would be reasonable to mention that a lot of young inexperienced teachers and instructors are involved in teaching activities. In the American system of education they are called student teachers, teaching assistants / assistant teachers, teaching fellows, higher level teaching assistants (HLTA). The next stage is a highly qualified teacher / HQT. The dictionary entry clarifies that he / she “is one who meets all of the following criteria: fully certified and / or licenced by the state, holds at least a bachelor degree from a four-year institution, and demonstrates competence in each core academic subject area in which the teacher teaches” [4, P. 162]. In the dictionary we can also find such terms as “foreign language teacher”, and “private tutor”.

As for the university teachers, the American-focused dictionary of higher education represents the following terms: “academic advisor, candidate’s dissertation advisor, thesis advisor, academic, academician, adjunct professor, adult teacher, assistant professor, associate professor, dean, dean of the college of education, director of education / education director, educator, educational specialist, faculty, full professor, full-time teacher, graduate teaching assistant, guest lecturer, instructor, lecturer, senior lecturer, postdoctoral fellow, professor, professor emeritus, associate dean, athletic director, supervisor” [4]. There are also substitute teachers who are paid only for the hours they have worked. The dictionary presents several terms containing the key adjective assistant describing the variety of titles at university, e.g.: “assistant dean, assistant director, assistant head teacher, assistant principal, assistant professor, and assistant teacher” [4].

A special attention must be given to the term “instructor” with the basic meaning in American English as ‘a university teacher’. The synonymic set “instructor” contains the following terms: “professor without tenure, adjunct professor, professor of the practice, visiting professor, visiting fellow, technical instructor, coach, lecturer, senior lecture, visiting lecturer, honorary lecturer” [4]. There is one more term denoting a teacher who is hired on probation, it is   a probationer. We also come across the terms learning mentor, mentor, curator, tutor, Master of Arts in teaching, and Master of Education. Our interest is focused on the term  ‘preceptor / preceptress’, who is “a mentor, teacher, practicing teacher in medical schools, student volunteer assisting the teacher during lectures. Нe is also responsible for extracurricular activities aimed at building team spirit. Sometimes they are specialists in different fields (music, literature, philosophy) conducting elective courses. Famous musicians, poets and writes are often among them” [4, P. 246]. As for a trainer, he / she can be a person who performs one or more functions connected with the teaching (theoretical or practical) either in educational institutions or in the workplace.

The managing titles at the universities are the following: president (head of an educational institution), vice-chancellor, and senior vice-chancellor for academic affairs. There are also vice-chancellor for research, vice-dean, and vice-principal. Some new terms denoting the research staff in the American-focused dictionary were revealed: candidate’s dissertation advisor, thesis advisor, adjunct professor, and postdoctoral fellow. The main peculiarity of the American-focused dictionary is that this lexicographic source gives us detailed descriptions of the terms with the examples of usage in the speech.

A special focus must be given to the synonym ‘missionary’. In American English the noun “teacher” has got several meanings, and some of them are a preacher / a missionary / a missioner / a gospeller. Over a three-century history of the USA an American teacher evolved from a missionary to a teacher-instructor. The first teachers to come to the North-American continent were missionaries bringing enlightenment to people through church scriptures and the Gospel. Not by chance the ideological background in the formation of the teacher's personality in the USA was the Christian reformism, and first of all it was Protestant ethics. “A Christian pastor enjoying a well-deserved prestige in society becomes a school teacher having a moral authority, charisma, conviction, personal example, increased attention to the requirements of the Christian and public morality of the Christian community” [3, P. 206].

The variety of terms denoting a teaching profession in the United States and Great Britain “testifies to the fact that in the education system of these countries the teacher plays a major role, and each specialist performs his own function in education” [2, P. 9].

The Smart dictionary [11] suggests about 57 synonyms, two thirds of which we met in other thesauruses and dictionaries. Still we could discover new variants of the term “teacher” not reflected above: Confucius, handler, headship, head teacher, homeschooler, housemaster, housemistress, professorial, professorship, lectureship and scribe. Each dictionary chosen for our research contains several new synonyms that are not found in other lexicographic sources.

A rather detailed synonymic set turned to be in the Roget’s Thesaurus of English words and phrases, where we could find both close synonyms and slang nominations, e.g.: “sage, crammer, nursemaid, pedant, wiseacre, interpreter” [8, P. 261-262] and some others.  

The most substantial synonymic  set for teacher is discovered in the online Dictionary – What is another word for? [16]. The dictionary article “teacher” selects all the synonyms according to concept group of nouns: a person who teaches or educates especially in a school; a Hindu religious teacher; a Jewish scholar or teacher of halacha (Jewish law), capable of making halactic decisions; a missionary; the forefinger; one who exercises discipline; a writer of history; leader of band [16]. We have chosen the first group – a person who teaches. Now we concentrate on those synonyms, which were not discussed. Many synonyms at first glance seem dubious, but they are quite reasonable when considering in detail their numerous meanings, e.g.: Counsellor US, dominie, leader, oracle, wizard, beak, chalkie, intellectual, manager, sage, expounder, psychoanalyser, cognoscenti and many others.

The overall analysis of the considered dictionaries and thesauruses allowed distinguishing several groups of synonyms (teachers themselves, research staff, managing staff at educational institutions) and inside these groups there are two quiet numerous subgroups of nouns: (1) metaphorical, ironic and slang names of teachers, e.g.: grind, exponent, sophist, chalkie, beak, egghead, sage, bookworm, brain, tipster, bluestocking, boffin, highbrow, dogmatist, expounder, acca, crammer, admonitor, nestor, skipper, kibitzer, chair, scholastic, expositor, quant, mind, mastermind, polymath, doyen, bookman, whizz, wonk, illuminati scientist, augur, bookish person, member of a policy unit,  member of a think tank, cereb, old soul, gnome; and (2) a teacher as a clever person with high intelligence: exponent, pandit / pundit, intellectual, expert, savant, specialist, egghead, sage, thinker, philosopher, bookworm, brain, bluestocking, boffin, highbrow, acca, intellect, buff, mind, mastermind, doyen, bookman, pointy-head, whizz, wonk, wise person, fundi, bookish person, learned one, member of a policy unit, cognoscenti, member of a think tank, mahatma, Solomon, elder, wise man / woman, learned man / woman, tohunga, statesman, old soul, man of learning, wise old man, guiding light, professor, master, educationalist, scribe, don.

   Conclusion

Consideration of the English language terms describing schoolteachers, university professors, as well as tutors and instructors in the linguistic and cultural aspects contributes to the understanding of the national specifics of the terms under study. The research made it possible to identify the general and specific in the naming of teachers who carry out their pedagogical activities in various educational environments, which is reflected in numerous lexicographic sources.

General features: all dictionaries, thesauruses and glossaries present a wide range of synonyms of the term “teacher” belonging to a terminological system education; the synonymic sets usually contain close synonyms of the same part of speech (a noun); synonyms cover both school teachers and university lecturers; most of the resources give ironic, metaphorical or metonymic names of the term “teacher”.

Specific features: British and American systems of school and higher education have some differences, that reflects in the educational terminology. The oldest term Rector dates back to the British history of the XIII century. Some terms describing teachers lost their original meanings and acquired new denotations. The newest terms appeared in 2008-2020, are indicated mostly in online dictionaries, thesauruses, and media sources, e.g.: Skype tutor, paraeducator, zoom tutor / zutor and others. For the first time the term “zutor / zoom tutor” appeared in the newspaper “The Guardian” from 23 July, 2020, during the growing coronavirus pandemic: “The role of a Zutor is a tutor, a nanny, and an angel for a parent” [10].

In the context of the globalization of education, a teacher presents an interest in terms of the image evolution and the emergence of new functions, which could not but affect the expansion of the synonymic set of the term “teacher”. The synonymic set of the analysed dictionaries present the so-called specializations of a teacher, e.g.: kindergarten teacher, scientific consultant, private teacher, singing teacher, spiritual mentor, maestro, and many others.

The modern functions the teacher performs today, give a new sound to the profession “teacher”, which, first of all, is reflected in the names of a modern teacher. The main duties of a teacher are to teach, educate and develop the ability to think in the younger generation. However, teaching methods and techniques often contribute to the emergence of specific words and phrases that reflect the type of a mentor, the ways of conveying information, and even the nature of the person who teaches. Examples of the given statements are the following phrases: zoom tutor, facilitator, life coach, swimming instructor, preacher, missionary, guide, trainer, paraeducator, visiting lecturer, and moral tutor.

British English (for example, Oxford and Cambridge glossaries) traditionally uses the names of teachers, which are rarely found in universities in the United States and other English-speaking countries, e.g.: DGS, Warden, PVC, DPhil, JRF, research fellowship and etc. The oldest universities in the world respect traditions and are reluctant to introduce modern terms into their educational terminology. At the same time, in colloquial speech, and especially in media texts, as well as in social networks, neologisms and slang units appear, denoting modern teachers and other terms related to the process of acquiring knowledge, self-study and self-improvement, e.g.: online tutor, Skype tutor, zoom tutor, edupreneur, educationalist, facilitator, life coach, licensed teacher, certified teacher, career coach, paraeducator, multicultural teacher, mathamagician (2008), The Rice University Neologisms Database), and redpen (2017).

American English has its own specifics. We could find a wide variety of school and higher education institutions terms, among which there are nominations that designate teachers, mentors and university professors. For example, we can mention several terms found only in the American-focused dictionary, e.g.: credentialed teacher, adult teacher, professor without tenure, learning mentor, visiting lecturer, professor of the practice, guest lecturer, postdoctoral fellow, athletic director and some others.

The analysis of dictionaries and glossaries indicates the most frequent synonyms of the word teacher in all analysed lexicographic sources, e.g.: professor, lecturer, master, tutor, teaching assistant, trainer, educator, pedagogue / pedagog, instructor, mistress, academician, scholar, preacher, and guru. The study of the synonymic sets of the term “teacher” can be represented as a kind of evolution of the teacher's image, starting from a preacher, missionary to a teacher-instructor. In this chain of evolution, some milestones can be set that characterize the change in the role and functions of the teacher. The first teachers are missionaries, bringing knowledge and enlightenment. Then there are terms for schoolteachers and university professors. Among university mentors, a whole class of words characterizing scientific workers stands out, e.g.: Regius Professor, Full Doctor, Doctorate, Research Assistant, academic advisor, pundit, scholar and etc.

Teaching special disciplines and narrow specialties required the appearance of teachers with special training, with unique knowledge, e.g.: singing coach, football coach, life coach, skiing instructor, instructor in psychology, polymath, self-appointed expert and etc. Technological progress and the emergence of new information technologies are also reflected in the layer of vocabulary, which names the teachers of the new formation. It is no coincidence that new terms as rocket scientist, zutor, guidance counsellor, right hand man, facilitator, and etc. appeared these days. The research cannot be completed because of several reasons. A teacher is a unique person performing a lot of different roles in his activity every day. Specializations can be changed together with the appearance of new activities and the development of information technologies. That’s why new synonyms and neologisms of the term ‘teacher’ are likely to appear these days.