Systemic and innovative lexicon of the economic discourse

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Systemic and innovative lexicon of the economic discourse

Natalia Molodcha, PhD (Kharkiv)

The article discusses the lexical composition of the economic discourse. The structural, semantic and functional characteristics of the terminological and professional jargon units of the given type of discourse are considered. Special attention is given to the conventional and nonce innovations of the economic discourse. Based on the factual material the study proved the economic discourse to be an environment generating systemic and non- systemic lexical units, including lexical nonce words and semantic nonce words, created by means of lexemebuilding and sememe-transformation mechanisms, functioning as a mean to express speaker's emotions and nominate new phenomena in the economic sphere.

Key words: economic discourse, lexical nonce word, neologism, nonce word, professional jargon, semantic nonce word, terminological unit.

В статье рассматривается лексическая композиция экономического дискурса. Анализируются структурно-семантические и функциональные характеристики терминологических единиц и профессиональных жаргонизмов данного вида дискурса. Особое внимание уделяется узуальной и окказиональной инновационной лексике экономического дискурса. В результате анализа фактического материала исследования утверждается, что экономический дискурс является средой существования и возникновения системных и несистемных лексических единиц, в том числе лексических и семантических окказионализмов, созданных с помощью лексемо- и семемообразующих механизмов, реализующих в экономическом дискурсе экспрессивно-регуляторную и номинативную функции.

Ключевые слова: жаргонизм, лексический окказионализм, неологизм, окказионализм, профессионализм, семантический окказионализм, термин, экономический дискурс.

У статті розглядається лексична композиція економічного дискурсу. Аналізуються структурно-семантичні та функціональні характеристики термінологічних одиниць і професіональних жаргонізмів даного виду дискурсу. Особлива увага приділяється узуальній та оказіональній лексиці економічного дискурсу. На основі фактичного матеріалу дослідження стверджується, що економічний дискурс є середовищем існування і виникнення системних і несистемних лексичних одиниць, у тому числі лексичних та семантичних оказіоналізмів, створених за допомогою лексемо- і семемоформуючих механізмів, що реалізують в економічному дискурсі експресивно-регуляторну та номінативну функції.

Ключові слова: економічний дискурс, жаргонізм, лексичний оказіоналізм, неологізм, оказіоналізм, професіоналізм, семантичний оказіоналізм, термін.

The present period is characterized by the globalization processes resulting in integrating all spheres of human activity, faster economic growth of the countries and intensive introduction of modern technologies in almost all spheres of life. During such dynamic transformations the attention of scholars is drawn to the economy, as the “the economic sphere of the society is its system-building component, a crucial area of society's life which determines the course of all processes taking place in it» [3]. Contribution of the language researchers is seen in studying syntactic, lexical, functional characteristics of the texts and fragments united by the economic theme as well as identifying new words and phrases representing new concepts in the economy that are generated under the influence of the recognized factors.

Considering the economic discourse research diachronically it is worth noting that the end of the twentieth century was marked by an intensive interest in the economic discourse (ED). The foreign studies were dedicated to the cross-cultural aspects of the ED, lexical and syntactic composition of the ED, genre analysis of ED texts, politeness strategies in ED, methodical-didactic aspect of ED [5]. During recent period of time researchers have been differentiating ED in the system of discourses and defining its characteristics and elements [2; 4; 6], analyzing lexical units and phraseological units of ED as well as innovations and their lexicographic description [1; 8; 7; 10]. Insufficient level of knowledge of the lexical organization of ED, due to regular emergence of new words reflecting new phenomena in the economic sphere, determines the actual value of the present study and its obj ective which is defining the structural and functional characteristics of the systemic and innovative units of ED.

The object of the research is innovations generated in the contemporary discourse; the subj ect of the study is the structural, semantic and functional characteristics of the innovative units of ED.

Lexical body of the English-Ukrainian Glossary on Knowledge Economy [10] and English-Russian Dictionary of Semantic Nonce Words with lingua- cultural commentaries [9] has served as the factual material of the study. In the selected dictionaries innovations representing new realities of the modem economic life have been identified and analyzed.

ED is interpreted differently by researchers due to the objectives of the study. This paper uses the wider concept of ED viewing it as «a set of speech acts in the economic sphere, oral and written texts reflecting phenomena of the economic world» [2].

The creators of ED are, on the one hand, executive authorities (e.g. the Ministry of Finance, the Department of Tax Policy, the Department of financial institutions and markets, the Department of Foreign Economic Relations, etc.), business stmctures and their participants (producer - consumer, buyer - seller, employer - applicant for a position, employer - employee), and, on the other hand, - housewives, students discussing economic news and ideas on the non-professional level. It is therefore advisable to speak about institutional and personal nature of ED.

It should also be noted that ED has a property to integrate adjacent kinds of discourses, such as financial, insurance, accounting, corporate, tax discourses, each of which can be the subject of the differentiated analysis. The main modes of the ED representation are scientific articles of the economic nature, contracts, financial reports, business correspondence, interviews, economic news, lectures, discussions, conferences. ED is being intensively formed in the mode of the Internet, radio and TV and attracts a wide audience.

ED is designed to meet the need for experts to obtain professional information and for non-economists to understand and adequately interpret texts of the economic nature. Another purpose of ED is to form an opinion of the audience with the help of the proper tools and techniques.

Analysis of the lexical system of the modern ED has shown that this type of discourse integrates, in addition to general vocabulary, a significant group of the terminological units and professional jargon, slang. In the classical understanding the term or terminological unit is a word or phrase denoting a particular concept of the given field of knowledge. It is a part of the specific terminological system within a certain discipline. The term is characterized by the presence of definition, lack of expressiveness, and stylistic neutrality [11]. Here are some examples of terms of the economic sphere: asset, balance of payments, balance of trade.

Professionalisms or professional jargon units are the words and expressions peculiar to the discourse of representatives of a particular profession or field of activity, usually performing the role of an emotive equivalent of terms. Professionalism is a reflection of the ironic attitude to the subject of reality of the certain sphere. Jargon of ED includes units such as greens (n.) - to refer to the concept of “salary”; greenie (n.) - “soft money”, two-comma (adj.) (Anything that costs over $ 1,000,000. «We just landed a two- comma contract this morning.) - “six-digit, million grease (v.) - to bribe [12].

Inconsistently attention is given to the analysis of new words appeared over the last decade in ED. According to the accepted view, based on the famous Saussure's dichotomy «language - speech», all the new words are differentiated as conventional innovations - neologisms, and speech innovations - nonce words.

The first group has formed the part of the language system and can be used by any speaker in the discourse. Let us consider some groups of neologisms of ED ingrained in the language and still keeping a touch of novelty.

With the advent of the Internet and rapid spread of the digital technology in the economic activity of the society, there has become a building-up of the new cognitive paradigm, displaying new economic phenomena, such as conducting business transactions with the cash flow through the Internet, participating in the online conferences and online auctions. Actualization of the concepts related to electronic business operations caused the following neologisms in ED: e-shopper, e-sourcing, e-retailing, e-recruitment, e-paying, e-purse, e-meeting, e-networking, e-lancer, eConference, e-training, e-signature, e-delivery, e-business, e-Bayer, e-cash, e-wallet, є-currency e-coin [10].

Neologisms of the ED also include words such as, for instance, McDonaldization, McDonaldize referring to the emergence of McDonald restaurants around the world, symbolizing the American style and globalization in general; McJob, Me Worker denoting part-time, unpromising jobs that do not require serious skills jobs [10].

Innovations, unassimilated in the language with names such as «author's neologisms», «individual neologisms», «situational neologisms», «meteor- words», «egologisms», partly reflecting the concept, received at different times, form a group of nonce words. The term «occasionalism» or «occasional word», introduced by Nina Feldman in 1970s implying a word created for a specific purpose and context with the help of the unproductive model, was accepted in the Slavic linguistic tradition [9].

Nonce words contain a pragmatic component in its semantic structure reflecting nominator's desire to express attitude and emotions; evaluate a particular object or phenomenon; influence the consciousness and behavior of the recipient, creating an emotional resonance and pushing evaluative information to the forefront of communication. The pragmatic component of the nonce word includes expressiveness, emotiveness, evaluation, imagery, and novelty providing de-automatic perception of the nonce word by a potential recipient.

The effect of expressiveness is frequently accompanied by the presence of the emotive and evaluation components in the semantic structure of the innovation. It should be noted that the extent of the actualization of each component in the frame of a single word may vary. economic discourse lexical jargon

The introduction of the image within the semantic structure in the recipient's mind provides clarity, accessibility and memorability of the unit. The expressive characteristics of the nonce words serve as an incentive for the recipient to participate in the communication, as the introduction of a new word makes the listener think about the possible meaning of the word and creates intellectual tension through which the listener / reader is involved into a joint cognitive space of the broader context. The effect of novelty and expressiveness of the speech enables not only to attract the recipient's attention and interest in the transferred information. It also suggests that the immediate respond of the nonce-word recipient will stimulate further communication following new word adequate interpretation [9].

According to the current understanding, occasional/ nonce innovations are differentiated by the method of formation. Nonce words which experience lexeme transformation using mechanisms of word formation and word invention are called lexical nonce words.

Among the most productive methods of forming lexical nonce words are (a) affixation (cannibalize - to release a new product dominating all the other brands on the market, cyberplaza, cybermall, cyberpreneur); (b) telescoping - the result of combining two words cropping at least one of them (brandalism (brand + vandalism) - the creation of architectural facades using billboards, brandscape (brand + landscape), meaning brand among competing brands, cubiquette (cubicle + etiquette ) referring to the rules of conduct in the office premises of an open type); (c) abbreviations and acronimization can be demonstrated by the example DEY (dollar, euro, yen) denoting the prototype of a universal world currency, presumably more stable than dollar, euro and yen; EAGLEs (emerging and growthleading economies) meaning fast-growing countries, including Brazil, China, Egypt, Indonesia, and others [10].

Nonce words formed with the help of semantic transposition and demonstrate transformation on the sememe level with lexeme “untouched” form a micro group of the semantic nonce words, or nonce sense formations. They are characterized by several properties, such as discursivity, anthropocentricity, novelty, accompanied by the unpredictability due to the asymmetry, inconsistency between the plane of expression and the plane of content, which manifests itself in the absence of structural markers that partially automate the process of interpretation of the occasional meaning; semantic derivativeness, contextuality, realized as the ability to interpret the unit in generating vertical and horizontal contexts; non-codified status (unregistered in the conventional dictionaries) [9]. The special analysis has showed that most productive methods of semantic nonce word formation are metaphorical antonomasia, metaphor, metonymy [9].

New improvements and phenomena in the corporate culture of organizations have found an expression in the following semantic nonce words:

torpedo n. - An incompetent coworker leaving - with some encouragement - for a competing company is a «torpedo». Jennifer Pellett and CJ Prince, «When “e” Was Just a Letter,» Chief Executive, January 1, 2001;

boomerang - an employee who quits to take another job and later returns to the company, http:/ /wordspv.com/words/boomerang: an employee who is laid off and then rehired as a consultant or contract worker, http ://wordspv.com/words/boomerang;

Rosie's unyielding spirit lives on as Ford Motor Company salutes five modern-day «Rosies» strong and inspiring leaders who continue to redefine women's roles for a fast-changing world. Good Housekeeping magazine. Nov. 2004. - P. 94 / occasional meaning - successful, recognized in business. It is known that Rosie the Riveter (Rosie The Riveter) is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and military equipment. Rosie is the embodiment of leadership qualities, diligence, perseverance and patriotism, (occasional meaning - successful, recognized employee);

Policy Guide - What is a «Sensitive» Position.

As a result of recent legislation, agencies are now required to identify positions that are «sensitive» and designate them in PMIS. They are further required to conduct a fingerprint-based criminal history check on finalist candidates when filling vacancies in those positions. The Code of Virginia (§ 2.2- 1201.1) defines sensitive positions as those «generally described as directly responsible for the health, safety and welfare of the general populace or protection of critical infrastructures.» http:// www.dhrm.virginia.gov (occasional meaning - threatening to health, safety and well-being of the individual and society); dot-com - has gone from connoting fabulous wealth to denoting foolish waste of capital. Word that has `pulled a 180' in meaning. Top Ten Word Lists of 2000 Announced by yourDictionary.com.

The functional analysis of the semantic nonce words in ED shows that the main factor of their emergence in ED is the nominator's intention to draw recipient's attention to the new object in the economic sphere. This is achieved due to the imagery, novelty, evaluation and originality of the unit, as well as asymmetry between the plane of content and the plane of expression of the sign that, to certain extent, regulates the behavioral system of the recipient. In the examples 3), 4), 5) semantic nonce words, based on evaluation, imagery, asymmetry, are used as an expressive mean to appeal to the recipient's mind. Examples 1) и 2) illustrate that along with expressive value the unit reflects the capacity to nominate new phenomena in the corporate culture. New tendencies in the corporate culture require names for such phenomena as “incompetent employees (with certain help) leaving for a competing company” (the name torpedo is creatively used for this purpose) and “employees that leave the company and in a period of time return to it” (the word boomerang is created).

It should be noted that the division of lexical groups of ED is to certain extent symbolic. The terminological units of the economic sphere are re-semanticised, redefined losing consistency and uniqueness, gaining emotive and expressive components. And innovations, in their turn, after the spread and assimilation in the language change their status enriching a number of terminological units.

To summarize the above stated, conclusions are made that ED stands as an environment of existence and emergence of various lexical groups, forming a number of terminological and professional jargon units, functioning as systemic means of transmitting main concepts of the economic sphere, with the latter category containing an emotive and evaluation components. The group of innovations of ED is differentiated, firstly, between neologisms and nonce words, and, secondly, within the latter group, between lexical nonce words and semantic nonce words, created for a specific purpose by means of lexeme-building and sememe-transformation mechanisms, accordingly. Nonce words in ED are to realize an expressive- regulatory function due to expressive components in the semantic structure as well as to nominate new phenomena in the economic sphere.

Presented statements may become perspective to pursue further research of the innovational lexicon of the corporate discourse of business organizations.

ЛИТЕРАТУРА

1. Бєлозьоров M.B. Нова економічна лексика і термінологія англійської мови / М.В. Бєлозьоров // Вісник Запоріз. держ. ун-ту. Філологічні науки. - 2001. - № 3. - С. 28-31.

2. Евтушина ТА. Экономический дискурс как объект лингвистического исследования [Электронный ресурс] /Т.А. Евтушина, Н.А. Ковальская // Вестник Челябинск, гос. ун-та. - 2014. - № 6 (335). Филология. Искусствоведение. Вып. 88. - С. 42-46. - Режим доступа : http://www.lib.csu.ru/ vch/335/010.pdf

3. ЗацнийЮ.А. Сучасний англомовний світ і збагачення словникового складу / Ю.А. Задний. - Львів : ПАІС, 2007. - 228 с.

4. Клименко А. Раздел V. ЭКОНОМИКА [Электронный ресурс] / А. Клименко, В. Румынина // Обществозна- ние : учеб, пособие. - Москва : Дрофа, 2004. - Режим доступа : http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/ Pravo/Klim/05.php

5. Лікунь М. Російський економічний текст у функціонально-стилістичному та соціолінгвістичному аспектах : автореф. дне. на здобуття наук, ступеня канд. філол. наук: спец. : 10.02.02 «Російська мова» / М. Лікунь. - Сімферополь : Таврійськ. над. ун-т імені В.І. Вернадського, 2008. - 20 с.

6. Соколов В.В. Глобальна фінансова криза як мак- рочинник поповнення словникового складу сучасної англійської мови / В.В. Соколов // Нова філологія : зб. наук, праць. - Запоріжжя : ЗНУ, 2009. - № 34. - С. 252-255.

7. Шереметьева А.А. Основные характеристики экономического дискурса (на материале немецкого языка) [Электронный ресурс] / А.А. Шереметьева // Вестник Кузбас, гос. пед. акад. - 2011. - № 7(13). - Режим доступа : http:// vestnik.kuzspa.ru/articles/61.

8. Royce Т. The Analysis of Economic Discourse. A General Review. CHAPTER

2 The Analysis of Economics Discourse by Economists and Applied Linguists [Электронный ресурс] / T. Royce. - Режим доступа : http://www.isfla.org/ Systemics/Print/Theses/RoyceThesis/Chapter%202%20- %20Review%20of%20Economics.pdf

1. Byeloz'orov, M.V. (2001). Nova ekonomichna leksyka і terminolohiya anhliys'koyi movy [New economic lexical and terminological units of the English language]. Visnyk Zaporiz'koho derzhavnoho universytetu. Filolohichni nauky - Bulletin of Zaporizhzhya National University. Philology, 3, 28-31 (in Ukrainian)

2. Evtushina, T.A., and Koval'skaja, N.A. (2014). Ekonomicheskij diskurs kak obekt lingvisticheskogo issledovanija [Economic discourse as an object of the linguistic analysis]. Vestnik Cheljabinskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta - Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University, б (335), 42-46 (in Russian)

3. Klimenko, A., andRumynina, V. (2004). Obshhestvoznanie [SocialStudies]. Available at: http://www.gimer.info/ bibliotekBuks /Pravo/Klim/index.php

4. Likun', M. (2008). Rosiys'kyy ekonomichnyy tekst и funktsional'no-stylistychnomu ta sotsiolinhvistychnomu aspektakh. Avtoref diss. kand. filol. nauk [Russian economic text in functional-stylistic and socio-linguistic aspects. Cand. philol. sci. diss. synopsis], Simferopol (in Ukrainian)

5. Molodcha, N. (2014). English-Russian dictionary of semantic nonce words (with linguo-cultural commentaries). Kharkov: Planeta-print Publ.

6. Royce, T. (1999). Visual-Verbal Intersemiotic Complementarity in the Economist Magazine (Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Reading, UK). Available at: http://www.isfla.org/Systemics/ Print/Theses/RoyceThesis/

7. Sandiy, L. (2015). English-Ukrainian Glossary on Knowledge Economy. Temopil: Vektor Publ.

8. Sheremet'eva, A.A. (2011). Osnovnye harakteristiki ekonomicheskogo diskursa (na materiale nemeckogo jazyka) [Basic characteristics of the economic discourse based on the German language]. Vestnik Kuzbasskoj gosudarstvennoj pedagogicheskoj akademii - Bulletin of Kuzbass State Pedagogical Academy, 7(13). Available at: http://vestnik.kuzspa.ru/ articles/61/

9. Sokolov, V.V. (2009). HlobaTna finansova kryza yak makrochynnyk popovnennya slovnykovoho skladu suchasnoyi anhliys'koyi movy [Global financial crisis as macro-factor of the English language vocabulary enrichment]. Nova filolohiya - New Philology, 34, 252-255 (in Ukrainian)

10. The Ridiculous Business Jargon Dictionary, (n.d.). Available at: http://www.theofificelife.com/business- j argon-dictionary-T.html/

11. Yartseva, V.N. (Ed.) (2002). Lingvisticheskij jenciklopedicheskij slovar ' [Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary]. Moscow: Bol'shaja rossijskaja jenciklopedija Publ.

12. Zatsnyi, Yu.A. (2007). Suchasnyy anhlomovnyy svit і zhahachennya slovnykovoho skladu [Contemporary English speaking world and vocabulary enrichment/. L'viv: PAIS Publ.

ЛЕКСИКОГРАФИЧЕСКИЕ ИСТОЧНИКИ

1. Англо-русский словарь семантических окказионализмов (с лингвострановедческими комментариями) = English-Russian dictionary of semantic nonce words (with lingua-cultural commentaries) / H.C. Молод- чая//Харьков : Планета-прінт,2014. -222с.

2. Англо- український глосарій лексико-фразеологічних інно- вацій-актуалізаторів феномену „економіка знань” = English-Ukrainian Glossary on Knowledge Economy / Л.В. Сандій// Тернопіль: Вектор, 2015. -160 с.

3. Лингвистический энциклопедический словарь / гл. ред. В.Н. Ярцева. - 2-е изд., доп. - М. : Большая рос. эн- цикл., 2002. - 709 с. 12. The Ridiculous Business Jargon Dictionary. Available at: http://www.theofificelife.com/ business-jargon-dictionary-T.html/.

Размещено на Allbest.ru