Volume 03 Issue 04-2023
66
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
(ISSN
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2771-2273)
VOLUME
03
ISSUE
04
P
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:
66-73
SJIF
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FACTOR
(2022:
5.
445
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(2023:
6.
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OCLC
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1121105677
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
ABSTRACT
In this article, we study some important term characteristics and aspects of its rise and operation. It is shown that a
significant number of terms have a dual role as they operate in a specific domain where they are customary and widely
used, and in the common area where they have a highly specialized nature. It is conjectured that to carry out
demarcation of the terms from the non-terms, it is expedient to take into account the fact that all terms are generally
divided into two major groups: proper terms and terminological words. The national and international tendencies in
terminology are reviewed. As time progresses, the science of Linguistics, which is directly related to society, continues
to develop. New fields and branches of Linguistics are emerging, and new approaches to researching these areas are
also created. Since Terminology is a complex field, the study and research of this ground is vital. The scientific study
of the lexical-semantic features of legal terms, especially, the comparison of terminological units in three languages,
in English, Uzbek and Russia is quite complicated and requires a lot of research and effort from the researcher. This
article conveys the definition and distinctive features of terms from linguistic point of view. The author discusses the
origin of terms, term-formation, the requirements of terms and modern Terminology. As requirements of terms, the
author emphasizes structuralism, ambiguousness, brevity, clarity and linguistic basis. Moreover, research areas of
Terminology are mentioned in detail.
Research Article
CRITERIA FOR DEFINING A TERM AS A UNIT OF THE LEXICAL SYSTEM OF
ENGLISH
Submission Date:
April 20, 2023,
Accepted Date:
April 25, 2023,
Published Date:
April 30, 2023
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/ajps/Volume03Issue04-11
Tatiana Ivanova
Associate Professor, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Kazan, Russia
Sunnatullo Xojakulov
Phd Student, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Kazan, Russia
Journal
Website:
https://theusajournals.
com/index.php/ajps
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
Volume 03 Issue 04-2023
67
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
(ISSN
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2771-2273)
VOLUME
03
ISSUE
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P
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:
66-73
SJIF
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(2022:
5.
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(2023:
6.
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)
OCLC
–
1121105677
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
KEYWORDS
A term, term-formation, figurative meaning, colored meaning, borrowing, Terminology, Theoretical terminology,
Practical terminology, General terminology, Private Terminology, Typological terminology, Comparative terminology,
Semasiological terminology, Onomastic terminology, Historical terminology, Functional terminology.
INTRODUCTION
As we all know, with the times, attention to English
language is increasing day by day, and the scope of
learning, teaching and researching this language is
expanding more than ever. Despite the fact that
several studies have been conducted in the field of
Terminology, which is one of the most complex areas
of Linguistics, this area can not be said to have been
fully studied and researched. The reason for this can
be explained by the fact that the era is developing and
various new terms are entering the science.
The word “term” is derived from the Latin word
“terminus” which means limit, border. A term is a word
or phrase that is a clear and stable expression of a
particular concept specific to a field of science,
technology, or profession. [1] As terms move from
scientific communication to live speech, they become
words that are understandable to the public over time.
It is very difficult to imagine the scientific and
normative picture of the universe without terms since
the terms serve as the basic units that make up the
scientific text. Linguists have differing views in the field
of terminology, with different definitions of the word
“term”.
A term can obtain a figurative or emotionally colored
meaning only when taken out of its sphere and used in
literary or colloquial speech. But in that case it ceases
to be a term and its denotational meaning may also
become very vague. It turns into an ordinary word. The
adjective atomic used to describe the atomic structure
of matter was until 1945 as emotionally neutral as
words like quantum or parallelogram. [2] But since
Hiroshima and the ensuing nuclear arms race it has
assumed a new implication, so that the common
phrase this atomic age, which taken literally has no
meaning at all, is now used to denote an age of great
scientific progress, but also holds connotations of
ruthless menace and monstrous destruction.
The origin of terms shows several main channels, three
of which are specific for terminology. These specific
ways are: [3]
1. Formation of terminological phrases with
subsequent clipping, ellipsis, blending, abbreviation:
transistor receiver
→
transistor
→
trannie; television
text
→
teletext; ecological architecture
→
ecotecture;
extremely low frequency
→
ELF.
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VOLUME
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2. Use of combined forms from Latin and Greek:
aerodrome, aerodynamic, telegraph, thermonuclear,
supersonic. This process is common for terminology in
many languages.
3. Borrowing from another terminological system
within the same language whenever there is affinity
between respective fields. Terms can be formed by
affixation and prefixes: co-, counter-, cross-, dis-, ex-,
extra-, mis-, multi-, non-, over-, para-, poly-, post-, pro-,
quasi-, sub-, under-; suffixes:-er/or, -free, -ism, -less, -
like, -oid, -ologist, -worthy; combining of different parts
of speech.
Terms are not separated from the rest of the
vocabulary, and it is rather hard to say where the line
should be drawn. Due to the expansion of popular
interest in the achievements of science and technology
new terms appear more and more frequently in
newspapers and popular magazines and even in
fiction.
The Austrian Eugen Wüster, the Latvian Ernst Drezen
and the Russian Dmitrij Lotte are considered the
spiritual fathers of modern terminology. But Eugen
Wüster is considered the father of modern
terminology. All three were engineers who recognized
the deficits of professional communication. In 1931
Wüster’s
doctoral
theses
“Internationale
Sprachnormung in der Technik. Besonders in der
Elektrotechnik” was published and in the same year D.
Lotte wro
te his central article “Pressing Problems in
the Field of Scientific and Technical Terminology”. [4]
The main normative requirements for the term were
originally developed by D.S. Lotte. These requirements
are:
structural,
non-specificity,
brevity,
ambiguousness, clarity, simplicity, comprehensibility,
degree of applicability, etc. [5] We will focus on some
of these requirements below:
1.
Structural: Any term is part of a particular
terminological system. It is this feature that
elevates it to the status of a term. The term system
has two types of structure - logical structure and
linguistic structure.
2.
Unambiguousness: A term should represent only
one scientific or technical concept and one concept
should correspond to only one term. One of the
most serious shortcomings of the terminology,
according to D.S. Lotte, is that the meaning of the
term varies from context to context.
3.
Brevity: The short version of the term is
functionally equivalent to a term. It cannot be used
freely and voluntarily.
4.
Clarity: A scientific concept has a definite boundary
and this boundary is reflected in its definition. The
accuracy of a term means that it has all the
characteristics of a given concept.
5.
Linguistic basis: When it is necessary to choose one
of the terms based on one's own or another
language, of course, it is advisable to use the term
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itself. This is because the excessive and
unreasonable use of assimilation terms inevitably
leads to the separation of terminology from the
vernacular and its incomprehensibility to non-
experts.
A.V. Superanskaya, N.V. Podolskaya, N.V. Vasiliev are
credited with several meanings of the word
"terminology":
1)
a set or some indefinite set of general scientific
terms;
2)
a set of terms (concepts and names) of any
particular branch of knowledge (construction
terminology, medical terminology, etc.);
3)
the doctrine of education, composition and
functioning of general scientific terms;
4)
the doctrine of the formation, composition and
functioning of the terms of a certain branch of
knowledge used in a certain language, and their
equivalents in other languages;
5)
general terminological teaching.
Based on these definitions, we can say that the first
two definitions are associated with a system of
concepts of a certain branch of knowledge, and in the
last three the concept of terminology correlates with
the concept of learning - science about the system of
concepts. [10]
Terminology is a group of specialized words and
respective meanings in a particular field, and also the
study of such terms and their use. Terminology is
currently divided into several areas of research [11]:
1.
Theoretical terminology - studies the laws of
development and use of special vocabulary
(terms).
2.
Practical terminology - deals with the development
of practical principles of terms, recommendations
for overcoming the shortcomings of terms and
terminology, tools for their use, creation and
translation.
3.
General terminology - studies the general
properties and problems of special lexicons
(terms).
4.
Private Terminology - The study of terms that
belong to a particular area of a particular language.
5.
Typological terminology - comparative study of
individual terminology and defining the properties
of general and individual terminology.
6.
Comparative terminology - comparative study of
general and special terminology in different
languages and their properties.
7.
Semasiological terminology - studies the problems
of semantics of special lexemes, changes in
semantic units, polysemy, synonymy, antonym,
hyponym.
8.
Onomastic terminology - studies the special
lexemes of naming, the process of their naming,
the choice of the optimal form of naming.
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9.
Historical terminology - studies the history of
terminology and analyzes the origin and formation
of terms. This is how the terms are regulated.
Based on the results of this direction, a new
independent
science
in
linguistics
-
anthropolinguistics - emerged.
10.
Functional terminology - studies the role of
modern terms in various texts, in situations of
professional communication, training, as well as
the use of terms in speech and computer systems.
Now there are new areas of terminology - cognitive
and epistemological terminology.
Term forging on the basis of native language should be
the key instrument in building the field terminological
systems, because the term lexicon “is formed primarily
on the basis of linguistic resources of each native
language and only partly through foreign words” [12].
However, today one of the most common
–
although
not always justified and effective
–
ways to replenish
term lexicons, is borrowing. This causes a sharp
increase in the number of foreign words that retain
specificity of their own language and are usually poorly
adapted to peculiarities of the recipient language. Due
to their pronounced foreign qualities, such units
shatter formal semantic language balance because the
process of collection of inappropriate to native
language words is long, and many of such words cause
qualitative (but unwanted) changes at the lexical
semantic, structural, and morphological levels.
However, tendency to borrow is fairly traditional in the
Eastern-Slavonic term lexicons, because according to
famous Russian linguist A. A. Reformatskiy,
consequence of term mintage steps is as follows: 1)
borrowing of an international term (if any), 2)
translation of an established foreign professional term,
3) terminological specification of common words, 4)
borrowing a term from other fields, 5) modern word
coinage [13].
Many researchers, including specialists of the Institute
of Ukrainian scientific language, as well as D. Lotte, A.
Terpigorev, N. Moskalenko, A. D’jakov, T. Kyjak, Z.
Kudeljko and others, favour the use of internal
resources of the native language in new terms creation
[14]. Only “ignorance of the richness and creative
possibilities
of
the
native
language
and
misunderstanding of problems and ways of
international standardization of term lexicons can
explain refusal of building terminology based on the
native language” [15].
Given that a terminological neologism can and should
be based mainly on the native lexical tools, namely: 1)
by semantic transformations (narrowing or expanding
the semantics of common words or terms), 2) by
affixation, 3) by formation of terminologized
collocations, in particular, by the method of syntax
combination [16], it is inappropriate to ignore such
language capabilities and introduce into the scholarly
use new, often unjustified, foreign words.
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The term set as an integral part of the most dynamic
language level
–
the lexical one
–
is actively developing,
being continuously enriched with new units.
Therefore, quantitative expansion of term systems
occurs, particularly, at the expense of linguistic
potential, the use of which involves creation or finding
a native term, or by borrowing it from other languages.
In this regard, two major trends to replenish
terminological funds have been identified: national and
international. However, this distinction is rather
arbitrary, since it is based not that much on lingual but
as much on extra linguistic criteria. The national trend
is to provide advantage of native words over the
foreign ones, while the international trend manifests
itself in wide use of the borrowed lexemes, i. e. it is not
about internationalisms.
Since “purism has been one of the factors of language
stability” and “refines language taste and linguistic
consciousness of ordinary citizens” [17], the basis of
each naturally formed term system should be the
native words [18]. So those countries that care about
their language, defend and implement native term
lexicons. A. A. Reformatskiy had noted that the
developed countries “along with use of the old
terminological funds, updated term lexicons with their
native
words” [18].
In the Russian language, the desire to use specific
words is also felt. The father of Russian terminology
Mikhail Lomonosov spoke against dominance of
foreign words, and on the verge of 18th-19th centuries
the writer and statesman A. Shishkov was a strong
advocate of Russian purism [19]. At the dawn of
aviation, instead of foreign term aviator ‘airman’, the
Russians began to use the neologism летчик ‘pilot’ that
successfully operates now, as well as the Velimir
Khlebnikov’s neologism samolyot ‘airplane’ [20]. The
founder of the Soviet terminology D. S. Lotte and the
authors of the dictionaries of synonyms V. M. Kljueva
and Z. E. Aleksandrova give preference to own Russian
words against the borrowed ones, including:
бессмыслица “nonsense” agains
t abrakadabra,
великан “giant” against gigant, доказательство
“proof” against argument, изречение “aphorism”
against aforism, опрятный “tidy” against аккуратный,
очертание “cut, outline” against abris, перерыв
“break” against antrakt, предложение “assumption”
against hypothesis, принадлежности “accessory”
against atribut, etc. [21]. F. Filin was also proponent of
native Russian term lexicon [22]. This is despite the
declared tendency to “internationalization” that is still
noticeable in the Russian scientific terminology. Today
the main ways to create native scientific and technical
terms are: 1) providing new meanings to existing
words, 2) modification (creation of derivative terms
using derivative affixes), 3) compilation of term stems,
4) formation of collocations, 5) construction of
abbreviations [23]. The value transfer may occur by
classification subordination of concepts, by concept
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similarity, by technical analogy, by external analogy, by
contiguity of concepts [24].
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Reformatskiy A. A. “Thoughts about terminology.
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terminology”. Moscow: Science. 197p.
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66-73
SJIF
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(2022:
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)
(2023:
6.
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)
OCLC
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1121105677
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
20.
Seligey P. O. "Purism in
Terminology”. Moznavstvo
1: 2008. 49-66 p.
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Seligey P. O. "Purism in Terminology”. Moznavstvo
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