Notional structure of technical term system as basis for creating multilingual electronic dictionary

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Notional structure of technical term system as basis for creating multilingual electronic dictionary

E.V. Kuprijanov

National Technical University Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute

Стаття присвячена понятійному аналізу технічної терміносистеми як початковому етапу створення електронного галузевого словника, що допомагає перекладачам-початківцям набути знань про технічну галузь, у якій вони працюють. За результатами поняттєвого аналізу було розроблено макроструктуру електронного словника, що складається з лівої та правої частин. Ліва частина репрезентує поняття енергетичного машинобудування разом з термінологічними групами, а права містить характеристики терміна: поняття, яке він репрезентує, і термінологічну групу або підгрупу, до якій він належить.

Ключові слова: електронний словник, поняття, термін, терміносистема, фрейм. technical term electronic dictionary

Статья посвящена понятийному анализу технической терминосистемы как первоначальному этапу создания электронного отраслевого словаря, помогающего начинающим переводчикам приобрести знания о предметной области, в которой они работают. По результатам понятийного анализа разработана макроструктура электронного словаря, состоящая из левой и правой частей. Левая часть отображает понятия энергетического машиностроения вместе с терминологическими группами, а правая содержит характеристики термина: понятие, которое представляет, и терминологическую группу или подгруппу, где он находится.

Ключевые слова: электронный словарь, понятие, термин, терминосистема, фрейм.

The paper deal with notion analysis of technical term system to create an electronic specialized dictionary that would be able to help the beginning translators in gaining knowledge of technical area they work in. This kind of dictionary should contain not only semantic characteristics of a term, namely its definition, translation but the whole system of the notions to be applied in particular field of activity. By the results of the notion analysis the microstructure of the electronic dictionary comprising left and right part was developed. The left part represents the notions of power machine building with their term groups and the right contains the characteristic of term: the notion it represents and terminological group or subgroup it belongs to.

Key words: electronic dictionary, notion, term, term system, frame

Technical translation is one of the most dif-ficult activities due to a specialized terminology, style peculiarities and subject area. Therefore the translator is required to know native and foreign terminology as well as to be aware of term semantic features, able to select appropriate equivalents and keenly competent in the subject matter of translation.

However the practice shows that not every translator especially the beginner meets the re-quirements mentioned above. Thereby the problem of creating a dictionary which besides containing definitions and translations could show clearly the notional structure of the terminology and contain background knowledge about the technical area, becomes critical today. This dictionary would facilitate easy learning of the terms, their usage in different areas and, respectively, the correct selection of translation equivalents.

The goal of our research is to reveal the no-tional structure of technical terminology at the primary stage of electronic dictionary creation. The term system of power machine building has been taken as an example. To achieve this goal it is nec-essary to: 1) reveal the category framework of the term system; 2) define the basic notions of the sub-ject area and lexical units they comprise; and 3) select the means to represent the notional structure of the term system in the electronic dictionary.

The main stages of electronic dictionary creation are commonly term selection, macro-structure development and parameters selection for describing terms in the entry. In our opinion the first step that should be done is to conduct the linguo-cognitive analysis of the term system to discover its notional structure. By notional structure we mean the total of all the notions closely related to each other. As stated by L. V. Ivina, linguo-cognitive analysis is intended for discovering the whole structural organization of terms in the term system and determining the hierarchy of its elements [2].

The special-purpose term system will be considered as an arranged collection of terms reflecting the system of verbalized knowledge of the subject area. It is this knowledge that forms the notional structure of term system. V. V. Morkovkin considers this collection as a correlate of reality that exists in a form of clearly defined structure, and thus a new word isn't only joined to other ones but fits with the system developed by our mind [3]. According to V. P. Danilenko's observations, the terms are possible to be included in the term system provided that there is an organizing principle which can be typical categories and notions nominated by the basic corpus of the terms [1]. Revealing the no-tional structure of a term system implies extracting basic (key) notions of the subject matter, defining notion signs, grouping identical notions into the categories of the knowledge area and representing them as schemes (frames) of separate fragments and whole structure of the science [4].

The notional structure of power machine building term system consists of: 1) upper level including basic notions that characterize the subject area as a whole; 2) intermediate level, conor phenomena. For example, the basic notions of power machine building term system are pro-duction, equipment manufacturing and quality assurance.

For example, let us consider the fragment of the structure represented by the basic notion production. The intermediate level includes reference.

Notion notions such as equipment for energy generation, equipment for producing energy carriers and equipment for energy transmission. The former contains the notions primary engine and electric generator.

Each notion is represented by the term groups the amount of which depends on detail-ing degree of its signs. Such detailing is based on the sings which characterize the subject from different views. For example the notion primary engine (figure 1) is represented by the single group including terms gas turbine, diesel engine.

Fig. Frame for notion electric generator

Taining reference notions characterizing the notions of the upper level; 3) lower level comprising specific notions related to separate subjects hydraulic turbine, steam turbine. The terms are grouped by the sign working medium. This term group denotes the machines required to rotate the generator for energy generation; in respective cases gas, diesel, water and steam being used to drive the machines.

The notion electric generator is represented by the term groups formed on the basis of the fol-lowing signs: 1) «primary engine type»: wind generator, diesel generator, hydraulic generator, turbo-generator; 2) «current type»: AC generator (alternator), DC generator; 3) «phase number»: single-phase generator, three-phase generator;4) «excitation type»: permanent magnet generator, self-excited generator, external excited generator; 5) «type of winding connection»: generator with star-connected winding, generator with delta-connected winding. This example shows clearly how detailed description of the notion can be. The above indicated signs not only serve as a basis for subject classification but they also give a qualitative characteristic. The structure of the frame electric generator is shown in Figure 2.

Within the existing term groups the term subgroups reflecting additional signs of the notion can be formed. For example, the term subgroups of the notion hydro generator include the terms denoting different types of hydraulic generators by the signs: a) “shaft position”: vertical- shaft hydro generator, horizontal-shaft hydro generator; b) “design”: umbrella-type hydro generator, suspended-type generator. The term turbo-generator has only one subgroup uniting terms by the sign “cooling system type”: air cooled turbo-generator, oil-cooled turbogenerator, hydrogen-cooled turbo-generator.

By conceptualization nature the power machine building can be divided into the following groups:

1) terms used in one subject area: a) hyponyms: Pelton turbine, Francis turbine (hydro turbine production), cogeneration turbine, condensing turbine (steam turbine production), AC generator, DC generator (electric generator production), gas-fire boiler, liquid-fuel boiler (boiler production); b) terms denoting equipment components: generator rotor spider arm, generator excitation system (electric generator production); c) particular characteristics of equipment: generator power factor, leading power factor (electric generator production) etc.;

2) terms used in various machine building areas to denote different notions: turbine (in hydro, steam and gas turbine building); stator and rotor (turbines and electric engines building); blade and nozzle (steam and hydro turbines building) etc.;

3) terms used in all areas with the same meaning, among them are: a) commonly used parts: bolt, screw, flange; b) production equipment: boring machine, vertical lathe, milling machine; c) prime materials to manufacture equipment: steel, cast iron, copper;

d) technological operations: casting, forging, welding, machining.

Based on the results of the notional structure analysis of the subject area the electronic dictionary consisting of left and right parts has been created. The left part is intended for displaying the levels of the notional structure of power machine building term system. The right part represents term characteristics, namely its belonging to term group / subgroup, to a concept the signs of which it reflects. The figure 3 shows the example of how the left and right parts of electronic dictionary look.

Conclusions. The notional structure analysis is the primary stage of specialized dictionary creation as it reveals category framework of the categories. Knowing basic notions facilitates learning special-purpose vocabulary either in native or foreign language, this being of great importance for beginning translators. This analysis isn't intended for discovering all the features of structure and relationships of the term system, the usage of terms in different subject areas, nor does reveal their linguo- encyclopedic characteristics. However these problems are the subject of other analyses in particular semantic, paradigmatic and encyclopedic analysis.

Literature

1. Даниленко В. П. Терминология современного языка науки // Терминоведение и термино- графия; в индоевропейских языках. / В. П. Даниленко. -- Владивосток, 1987. -- С. 61--66.

2. Ивина Л. В. Лингво-когнитивные основы анализа отраслевых терминосистем (на примере англоязычной терминологии венчурного финансирования) : [учеб.-методологическое пособие] / Л. В. Ивина. -- М. : Академический Проект, 2003. -- 304 с.

3. Морковкин В. В. Идеографические словари / Морковкин Валерий Вениаминович. -- М. : Изд-во МГУ, 1970. -- 71 с.

4. Новодранова В. Ф. Развитие методов когнитивного анализа в исследованиях языков [Электронный ресурс] / В. Ф. Новодранова -- Режим доступа к статье : http://cognitive.rggu.ru/binary/object_95.1319546997.36104.doc.

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