Functioning of biological terminology in modern English

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Izmail State University of Humanities

Functioning of biological terminology in modern English

Tetyana Vdovenko

Introduction. The article deals with the peculiarities of the biological terminological vocabulary of the English language, and attempts to describe and organize the biological vocabulary in a comprehensive way. In the context of the globalization of the modern world, there appear a large number of words and phrases associated with various branches of biology, which are actively used in life. In modern dictionaries, the appearance of new vocabulary is being regularly recorded. The scientific and technological revolution, the development of mass communication media, and the rapid development of public life lead to the emergence of a huge number of new words and meanings.

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to analyze modern English-language terms of biology and to identify thematic groups into which the vocabulary under study can be divided. The achievement of the aim involves such scientific tasks: to describe the term «biology»; to give the examples of biological terminology in modern English; to describe the prospects offurther research of English-language biological vocabulary, related to various branches of biology that are actively used in modern life.

The research material was a selection of terms on biological topics from dictionaries and popular scientific articles from Internet sources.

Methods. The author uses a descriptive method, general scientific methods (analysis, induction and deduction) and specific linguistic methods (semantic analysis and distribution analysis).

Results. The results of the research can be used in professional communication training of translators, for solving international problems in the field of biology.

Originality. The relevance of the article is determined by the increased interest in the study of biological terminology, the lack of knowledge of English terminology in biology. The novelty of the research is an attempt to describe English biological terminology. The existing classification of biological sciences does not give an idea of the entire variety of biological disciplines.

Conclusion. In our field of vision there were words related to biology and related fields: ecology, botany, microbiology, zoology, genetics, biochemistry, breeding, physiology and others. In the course of the research, the following biological terms were specified: simple terms; complex terms; multicomponent terms and abbreviations. The research has shown that in biological terminology, there are a large number of terms consisting of several components. The analysis of complex terms showed that the two component terms with the prefix bio- predominate.

Among the prospects of further research is the study of English-language biological vocabulary, related to various branches of biology that are actively used in modern life. The study of the peculiarities of biological terminological vocabulary in other languages is promising.

Keywords: biology, vocabulary, thematic groups, terminology, English-language terms of biology.

Функціонування біологічної термінології в сучасній англійській мові

Тетяна Вдовенко

Ізмаїльський державний гуманітарний університет Україна, м. Ізмаїл

У статті визначено особливості біологічної термінологічної англомовної лексики. Зроблено спробу здійснити комплексний опис та впорядкування біологічної лексики. В умовах глобалізації сучасного світу з'являється велика кількість слів і словосполучень на позначення понять, що стосуються різних галузей біології, їх активно використовують у житті. Сучасні словники регулярно фіксують появу лексичних новотворів, виникнення яких спричинила науково-технічна революція, розвиток засобів масової комунікації, динаміка суспільного життя.

Перспективним є вивчення особливостей біологічної термінологічної лексики в інших мовах.

Ключові слова: біологія, лексика, тематичні групи, термінологія, англомовні терміни біології.

biological terminology english

Функционирование биологической терминологии в современном английском языке

Татьяна Вдовенко

Измаильский государственный гуманитарный университет

В статье определены особенности биологической терминологической англоязычной лексики. Предпринята попытка осуществить комплексное описание биологической лексики. В условиях глобализации современного мира появляется большое количество слов и словосочетаний для обозначения понятий, касающихся различных отраслей биологии, их активно используют в жизни. Современные словари регулярно фиксируют появление лексических новообразований, возникновение которых вызвала научно-техническая революция, развитие средств массовой коммуникации, динамика общественной жизни.

Ключевые слова: англоязычные термины биологии, биология, лексика, тематические группы, терминология.

Introduction

The scientific and technological revolution, the development of mass communication media and the rapid development of public life lead to the emergence of a large number of new words and meanings. In the context of the globalization of the modern world, a large number of words and phrases associated with various branches of biology, which are actively used in life, appear. In modern dictionaries, the appearance of new vocabulary is regularly recorded.

The relevance of the article is determined by the increased interest in the study of biological terminology, the lack of knowledge of English terminology in biology, and the need for a comprehensive description of the analysis and ordering of biological vocabulary.

The object of research is English biological terminology.

The subject of research is English terminological units used in the terminological system of biology and their features.

Analysis of recent studies and publications dealing with the problem and serving as a basis for the research. The theoretical basis of the research is the ideas of domestic and foreign linguists in the field of terminology (Akhmanova O. S., Arnold I. V., Pronina R. F., Rosenthal D. E., Telenkova M. A., Tsitkina F. A., Vinogradov V. A. and others).

Purpose. The purpose of the study is to analyze modern terms of biology and to identify certain thematic groups into which the studied vocabulary can be divided.

The achievement of the aim involves such scientific tasks:

- to describe the term «biology»;

- to give the examples of biological terminology in modern English;

- to describe the prospects for further research of English-language biological vocabulary, related to various branches of biology that are actively used in modern life.

The research material is a selection of terms devoted to biological topics from dictionaries and popular scientific articles from Internet sources.

The novelty of the research is in the attempt to describe the English biological terminology.

Presentation of the main material

The word «biology» comes from the Greek «bios» (life) and «logos» (teaching, science) - the science of living beings and their interaction with the environment. Biology studies all aspects of life, in particular: the structure, functioning, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of living organisms on Earth. Biology classifies and describes living things, the origin of their species, their interaction with each other and with the environment [2].

As an independent science, biology stood out from the natural sciences in the XIX century, when scientists discovered that all living organisms have some common properties and characteristics that are not characteristic of inanimate nature. The term «biology» was introduced independently by several authors: Friedrich Burdach in 1800, the German botanist Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus in 1802, and the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1802.

Since the twentieth century, biology has been an intersection of the ideas of geneticists, agronomists and animal breeders. Biological sciences are closely related to physics, chemistry, mathematics, geology, geography and belong to a single complex of natural sciences, i.e. natural sciences.

The subject of the study of biology is the diversity of existing and extinct organisms, their origin, evolution, distribution, structure, functioning and individual development, relations with each other and with the inanimate nature surrounding them. Biology considers the general and particular patterns inherent in life in all its manifestations and properties (metabolism, reproduction, heredity, variability, adaptability, growth, development, irritability, mobility, etc.).

Currently, there are several biological dictionaries containing several tens of thousands of words. These include the dictionaries of Dumbleton K. U., Chibisova O. I., Kozyar L. A., Seledtsova V. I. and others [1; 3; 5; 6; 7; 8].

K. W. Dumbleton's Russian-English Dictionary of Biological Terms contains more than 35000 specialized terms used in general biology and biological disciplines, such as ecology, botany, microbiology, zoology, genetics, biochemistry, breeding and physiology.

This Russian-English reference book contains not only the words in alphabetical order, but also, in addition to the translation, provides a brief explanation. The uniqueness of the dictionary is not only in the presence of terminology that has developed in the last century, but also in the new, narrowly focused terms that have been formed in the course of recent scientific research in the field of biology and biotechnology, which confirms the significance of this publication.

A new life requires new words and thus determines the variability of the vocabulary. Changing the vocabulary is a natural and constant movement in the language. New realities introduce their own names into the language. Changes in vocabulary are caused by very diverse reasons, most of which are cultural, and not purely linguistic in nature.

At first, the new words can be used by a small number of people, then, if they are sufficiently expressive and sound in accordance with the nature of the phonetic system of the English language, they are used in more and more broad social and professional groups.

Currently, biology is widely used in many countries of the world and is becoming increasingly practical. The main reason for the growing interest in biology is its close connection with the most important problems of the modern world: the threat of diseases, the disappearance of plants and animals.

Scientists name five principles that unite all biological disciplines into a single science of living matter: 1) cell theory, 2) evolution, 3) gene theory, 4) homeostasis (the physiological processes that allow an organism to maintain the constancy of its internal environment regardless of changes in the external environment) and 5) energy.

Most biological sciences are disciplines with a narrower specialization. Traditionally, they are grouped by the types of organisms studied: botany (studies of plants, algae and fungi-like organisms), zoology (studies animals and protists), microbiology (studies microorganisms and viruses), mycology studies fungi (formerly a branch of botany).

Areas within biology are usually categorized either according to the scale of the study or with reference to the methods used: biochemistry (studies the chemical basis of life), biophysics (studies the physical basis of life), molecular biology (complex interactions between biological molecules), cell biology and cytology (the basic building blocks of multicellular organisms, cells), histology and anatomy (the structure of the tissues and of the organism of the individual organs and tissues), physiology (physical and chemical functions of tissues and organs), ethology (behavior of living beings), ecology (the interdependence of the various organisms and their environment), genetics (patterns of heredity and variation), developmental biology (the development of an organism in ontogenesis), paleobiology and evolutionary biology (the origin and historical development of wildlife).

Certain branches of biology arise as cross-boundary to the related sciences: biomedicine, biophysics (the study of living objects by physical methods), biometrics, bioinformatics and others. In connection with the practical needs of a person, such areas as space biology, sociobiology, labor physiology and bionics arise.

The biology of systematic groups includes: virology (the science of viruses), microbiology (the science that studies microorganisms), mycology (the science of fungi), botany (the science of plants), zoology (the science of animals) and anthropology (the science of humans). Each of these disciplines is divided into a number of narrower areas, depending on the object of the research.

In zoology, there are such sciences as entomology (the science of insects), ichthyology (the science about fish), theriology (the science about mammals), etc. In botany, there are: algology (the science of algae), bryology (the science about mosses), dendrology (the science about woody plants) and others.

In addition, zoology and botany distinguish sciences that study certain aspects of animal and plant life: structure (morphology, anatomy, histology, etc.), development (embryology, evolution, etc.), vital activity (physiology and biochemistry of animals and plants), distribution (zoogeography and phytogeography), classification by group (systematics of plants and animals) and others.

The levels of organization of living things are studied by: molecular biology (the science that studies the general properties and manifestations of life at the molecular level), cytology (cell science), histology (tissue science) and others.

According to the structure, properties and manifestations of the life of individual organisms, there are: anatomy (the science of the internal structure), morphology (in the narrow sense the science about the external structure), physiology (the science about the vital activity of the whole organism and its parts), genetics (the science of the laws of heredity and variability of organisms and methods of managing them).

Separately, the sciences of the development of living matter are distinguished: the biology of individual development of organisms; evolutionary theory (a complex of knowledge about the historical development of living nature); paleontology, which studies the history of life from the remains of living organisms.

The study of collective life and communities of living organisms is concerned with: ethology - the science of animal behavior, ecology (in the general sense) - the science of the relations of various organisms and the communities they form between themselves and the environment. Among the sections of ecology, we consider biocenology (the science of communities of living organisms), population biology (a branch of knowledge that studies the structure and properties of populations) and others.

According to the research methods, the following branches are usually distinguished: biochemistry, which studies the chemical substances that make up organisms, their structure, distribution, transformations and functions; biophysics (the science of physical and physicochemical phenomena in living organisms). Biometrics, which is also one of the most important branches of biology, is involved in planning quantitative biological experiments and processing the results with the use of mathematical statistics.

Depending on the field in which biological knowledge is used in human practice, there are such disciplines as biotechnology (a set of industrial methods that allow using living organisms and their individual parts with high efficiency for the production of valuable products - antibiotics, vitamins, hormones, etc.), for protecting plants from pests and diseases, for combating environmental pollution, in sewage treatment plants; agrobiology (a set of knowledge about the cultivation of agricultural crops); breeding (the science of methods for creating plant varieties, animal breeds, and strains of microorganisms with the characteristics that a person needs). There are also animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, medical biology, phytopathology and nature conservation biology.

The above classification of biological sciences is largely conditional and does not give an idea of the entire variety of biological disciplines.

In scientific and technical terminology, there are a large number of terms consisting of several components. Multicomponent terms are phrases in which the semantic relationship between the components is expressed by adjacency [3, p. 10].

In our field of vision there were words related to biology and related fields: ecology, botany, microbiology, zoology, genetics, biochemistry, breeding, physiology and others.

Conclusions and prospects of further research of the issue

In the course of the research, the following biological terms were singled out: simple terms (cell, catalyst, chlorophyll, chloroplast, dermis, embryo, evolution, exist, herbivore, heredity, inheritance, invertebrate, mutation, phylogenesis, predator, pollen, reproduce, seed, species, tissue, tentacles, vertebrate); complex terms (abiogenesis, azotobacterin, aminoacid, hyaloplasma, organogenesis, osmoregulation, thermoresistant, photoreceptor); multicomponent terms (natural selection, genetic code, biological rule, biological matter, genetic engineering, biologically active substances, biologically significant elements, genetic molecular biology) and abbreviations (DNA, AIDS, F, TNT).

The analysis of complex terms showed that among them the 2 component terms with the prefix bio- predominate: bioactive, biodegradable, biogenetic, biosafety, biosecurity, biosynthesis.

Among the prospects of further research is the study of English-language biological vocabulary, related to various branches of biology that are actively used in modern life. The study of the peculiarities of biological terminological vocabulary in other languages is promising.

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