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Terminological systems

The borders of the semantic fields as those of so many other groups of words are rather vague. The easiest problem is to define the nucleus of the semantic field, while the definition of such field’s periphery is a much harder task. However, there are special or rather specialized semantic fields which can be defined most sharply and with the greatest exactness possible. Such fields are found in terminological systems.

A term is a word or a word group naming a notion, characteristic of some special field of knowledge, technology, industry, culture, etc.

Terminology is making today a substantial part of any national vocabulary. Terminology is a group of words developing most intensely, because this class produces the greatest number of new formations.

A term is in many respects a non-typical kind of word, because an ideal term should be monosemantic while almost every word of the language is polysemantic. A term must not depend in its meaning on the context and should be used in complete isolation. Polysemy of terms may be tolerated in one case only if the same word being the term has different meanings in different fields of knowledge. Thus the term “alphabet” has different meanings in linguistics and mathematics (or the world “language” in linguistics and computer sciences).

Another problem is the terminological use and application in speech of the words of everyday communication. Thus the word “word” can be used both as a common nomination and as a term of linguistics.

The term being used in its proper sphere does not permit any emotional or evaluative elements in its meaning. However, if taken out from its proper sphere, the term can obtain figurative and sometimes even emotionally colored meanings.

On the other hand one should bear in mind that in such cases terms stop being used as the units of terminological systems. E.g. the word “atomic”, even if used in isolation, is nothing else but a physical term. But within a metaphoric formula Atomic Age it becomes emotionally colored so that if within this formula the word “atomic” is perceived literally, it will have no meaning at all.

Terminology, like any other lexical grouping, forms a lexico-semantic system with its own regularities, norms and laws, which makes a deep study of terminological system quite possible. So terms may be systematized and standardized, their meanings may be checked and accurately defined.

Another problem with terms is the way they come to being or the origin of such words. Many terms are based on the lexical system of the dead classical languages, such as Old Greek, Latin, etc. The reason for such sources of terminology lies in the wish to attach an unchanging meaning to one word. As the dead languages are no longer developing, the meanings of their words (or rather roots and non-root morphemes) also stay unchanged. A strong tendency in modern term formation processes is not to use those words which once existed, but their elements to construct new terms. That’s why although it’s quite clear that this or that term is for example of an Old Greek origin, the word may have never existed in the language where from it’s taken.

The well-known paradox of the 20th century is that linguists paid much more attention to the branch of knowledge from the viewpoint of their terminology, but ignored linguistics. The work on systematization of linguistic terminology began only in the second half of the 20th century.

The ways terms are coined are generally the same as those of formation of other words: clipping, blending, abbreviation, combination of stems, borrowing. Borrowing is made not only from dead languages, but living ones too. Terminology is also replenished through the formation of set expressions. Some definite terms may be quite accurately defined by the time of their appearance in different spheres of knowledge. E.g. “stratosphere”, “gene” (1909), “vitamin” (1920), “behaviorism” (1914), “transistor” (1952), “bionics” (1960), “beam weapon” (1977), etc. Some terms retain the names of their inventors. E.g. “anode” and “cathode” were introduced my Michael Faraday, “vitamin” by Dr. Funk.

At the same time we should realize that terminology only serves the needs of professional communication. It takes a most active part in the formation of the professional discourse. But it does not make the whole discourse.

The usual communication practice should inevitably include many other groups of words such as the lexicon of common usage, non-terminological units, auxiliary elements, etc., which may be used in a special or specialized manner, but which have their meanings and communicative functions the same as in any other practical discourse, everyday colloquial speech included here. Finally, the practical interest in terminology is closely linked with the problem of compiling specialized dictionaries.

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