Distinguishing features of terminologization in modern English

Ishchuk A.A.

Abstract

The article examines the features of the process of terminologization and determinologization in English. The concepts of the term, term system, terminology, and their characteristic features are defined, with an emphasis on the informative function of the term. Attention is drawn to the processes of terminologization and determinologization and the key role of the context and stylistic nuances of statements with the use of terms. It is emphasized that the emergence of new terminology and its functioning is associated not only with scientific and technological progress but also with a combination of styles (for example, for artistic purposes) and the transition of terms from one sphere to another (medicine - information technologies). This is a process of re-terminologization. The stages of terminologization of a lexical unit are traced, or its acquisition of special meaning. This is an integral part of word-formation processes. Special attention is paid to abbreviations because this is one of the most active ways to create neologisms in modern English. Abbreviation lets the term perform its two main functions at the same time - to be succinct and provide informative content. Terms can also become part of the idiomatic expressions and phrases with metaphorical or metonymic meanings. It is also noted that terminologization is not only associated with the emergence of neologisms. Existing lexical units may acquire new meanings too and become terms. This is how functional reorientation occurs.

It is important to study the next stage - when a lexical unit loses its special meaning (determinologization). When it happens, the term can continue its life, but now it is used exclusively to give the utterance speech expressiveness. So, the term becomes a kind of stylistic tool. Such semantic changes mean that the so-called «boundaries» between the sciences and professional spheres are blurred, and their special language enters the language of day-to-day use. All this allows us to talk about the growing role of the phenomenon ofpolysemy in the English language.

Key words: term, terminologization, re-terminologization, determinologization, word formation, term functioning.

Анотація

Іщук А.А.

Характерні риси процесу термінологізації в сучасній англійській мові

У статті розглядаються особливості процесу термінологізації та детермінологізації в англійській мові. Визначаються поняття терміна, терміносистеми, термінології та їхні характерні ознаки з акцентом на інформативну функцію терміна. Звертається увага на ключову роль у процесах термінологізації та детермінологізації контексту та стилістичного забарвлення висловлювань із уживанням термінів. Підкреслюється, що поява нової термінології та її функціонування пов'язана не лише з науково-технічним прогресом, а й поєднанням стилів (наприклад, із художньою метою) та переходом термінів з однієї сфери до іншої (медицина - комп'ютерні технології), це процес перетерміно - логізації. Прослідковуються стадії термінологізації лексичної одиниці, тобто набуття нею спеціального значення. Це є невід'ємною частиною процесів словотворення. Окрема увага тут приділяється абревіації, адже це є один із найактивніших способів творення неологізмів у сучасній англійській мові. При цьому виконуються дві найголовніші функції терміна - стислість та інформативність. Відмічаються випадки проникнення термінів у фразеологічні вирази із метафоричним чи метонімічним значеннями. Також наголошується, що термінологізація не лише пов'язана з виникненням неологізмів, а й набуттям усталеними лексичними одиницями нових значень. Таким чином відбувається функціональна переорієнтація. Окрім того, важливим вважається вивчення стадії втрати лексичною одиницею спеціального значення (детермінологізації). При цьому така лексична одиниця (колишній термін) вживається виключно для надання висловлюванню мовної виразності, тобто термін стає своєрідним стилістичним засобом. Такі семантичні зміни означають, що умовні «межі» між науками та професійними сферами стираються, їх особлива мова наближається до мови повсякденного вжитку. Усе це дає змогу говорити про зростаючу роль явища полісемії в англійській мові.

Ключові слова: термін, термінологізація, перетермінологізація, детермінологізація, словотворення, функціонування терміна.

Main part

Introduction. An increase in the importance of terminology is observed not only in the language of the specific industry but in the everyday language, which is a direct reflection of modern technological and scientific impact. Terms are increasingly included in media, art, and fiction discourses and become a characteristic of the language, style, and mentality of both the characters and the author of the text.

The frequency of terminological units in modern English-language discourse, the growing interest of modern linguistics in identifying the stylistic potential of terms, and the fact that the interaction of elements of different functional styles is one of the main reasons for the emergence of new meanings and functions of a special vocabulary create a background for the current study.

In addition, comparative analysis of terms makes it possible to study the options for their application and not only determine the properties of the compared units but also their direct and indirect connections as well as the general trend of terminology functioning in various discourses. Therefore, the identification of elements of certain term systems and the definition of the features of their implementation in works of various styles and genres is an important area of modern research in English philology. Namely, the economic term system is characterized by rapid development and constant enrichment, which opens up a wide scope for modern linguistic research.

Analysis of relevant research. The vocabulary of a language for special purposes reflects the organizational characteristics of the purpose (science, industry, or a discipline in question). It provides as many lexical units as there are concepts of the given sublanguage and clearly limits the use of each such lexical unit to a specific industry.

Levytsky defines terms as words «having a special meaning, expressing and creating a professional concept and being used in the process of understanding and development of scientific and vocational objects, as well as relations between them» [7, p. 200]. Each branch of knowledge has certain lexical units that make up the essence of its terminological system. The author also says that theoretically, the function of a term can be any independent commonly used word, if it is included as an element in the corresponding term system and within its limits unambiguously names a certain concept. Terms are also commonly used parts of speech - nouns, adjectives, verbs, but if they denote the qualities, actions, properties, signs, and processes of special concepts of a particular field of science and technology: neuron (N), to flap (V).

Meriam-Webster Dictionary defines a term as «a word or expression that has a precise meaning in some uses or is peculiar to a science, art, profession, or subject» [14].

In linguistics, a term is seen as a verbalized result of professional thinking. Also, it is the most important component of professional communication [2, p. 343].

The purpose of the study is to identify the features of a terminological unit and to study its types and functions in order to understand the process of transition from a common name to a term - terminologization.

Research findings. Compared to other types of vocabulary, terminological vocabulary is the most informative. Therefore, terms are mandatory for the language of science: they enable a scholar to formulate an idea briefly and accurately. The frequency of use of terminology units depends on the nature of the expression and the recipients of the text. Terms must fit certain criteria to be convenient for professional communication. They must be concise, succinct, and have an adequate form of expression.

Scientific texts and the style of official documents are the main areas of terminology functioning. At the same time, the terms can be used even in artistic discourse, where they acquire additional meanings, get more expressive or emotional connotations, and thus may lose their fixed meaning and translation (so-called codification). So, the use of the term as a figure of speech leads to its partial or complete semantic determinization [3, p. 143].

New industries and the technological evolution cause the appearance of new terms, development of the existing terms, and terminologization processes. «Change in semantics and appearance of semantic neologisms is a significant phenomenon for the evolution and enrichment of vocabulary. Quite often such changes are accompanied by the change of a stylistic marker of the word, in other words - by its stylistic re-focusing» [12, p. 26]. Stefanova supports the idea saying that the radical changes in economic life, new directions of economic policy, the introduction of new technologies in various spheres of life, the above-mentioned increase in the flow of information - all these factors contribute to the appearance of neologisms in the language, including abbreviations [10, p. 147].

We mention abbreviations specifically because «the vast majority of neologisms are formed by abbreviation - the most active way of word formation of the XXI century. The essence of the method is to ensure the transmission of the maximum amount of information per unit of time, in other words, to increase the effectiveness of the communicative function of the language. An important factor in the spread of abbreviations in both common lexis and terminology is extralinguistic influence, i.e., socio-economic, political, and cultural conditions» [13, p. 139].

Recently, there has been an instantaneous formation of terms, which is associated with rapid scientific and technological progress, and this process has been called the terminological explosion - when it is not only about creating new structural units but also giving a new terminological meaning to existing ones in other phrases, as well as rethinking common words. During terminologization, a word or phrase that already exists in the language is used to denote a new object or phenomenon for the purpose of special communication. The sonic frame of an existing word is used to assign a new object based on their similarity or adjacency. So ordinary words and phrases become terms and denote objects or phenomena in the field of certain science. The process of giving words that denote existing objects or phenomena a new, terminological meaning is called functional reorientation.

This process, according to Levytsky, occurs in the following ways:

• a commonly used simple word becomes

a word-term: off-line (Adj > Adv);

• a commonly used compound word becomes

a word-term: dump > memory dump;

• an occasional lexicalized phrase becomes

a word-term: off-the-shelf;

• a free phrase becomes a term combination:

answer back drum, blackjack;

• a phrase is converted to a term-abbreviation: MU (Memory Unit), ADC (analog-to-digital converter);

• a lexeme becomes a morpheme: - meter

(thermometer, amperemeter, barometer)

[6, p. 200-201].

A set of terms that is formed on the basis of a single concept and reflects the connections of concepts in a particular field of science or technology is called terminological systems (according to Golovin [1] and Leichyk [8]). Each term system is reflected in terminological planes, which can be considered in two aspects: first, as a component of the science of language and, secondly, as an essential element of reference literature.

The terminology dictionary represents the terminology of its discipline and, therefore, the term including process is very important. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the purpose of such a dictionary and what principles of selecting terms are used for its compilation.

Yurii Zatsny [4], analyzing semantic neologisms, which make up more than 20% of the total number of innovations of the 1980s - 1990s, distinguishes three main directions of functional and semantic development of vocabulary. First, it is terminologization - so-called specialization of words, or their use in highly specialized meanings; secondly, it is re-terminologization - a change in meaning due to the migration of words from one term system to another, and the last direction is determinologization, that is, the transition of terms to words of general use.

Terminologization (specialization) of words can be demonstrated using the example of computer terms (bus, icon, loop, menu, packet, window).

The new computer vocabulary well illustrates the process of re-terminologization - using medical terms as computer ones (allergy, disinfection, hygiene, infection, virus, vaccine). This process is also reflected in terms of various fields of science and technology, which serve to denote concepts and phenomena of economics and business, especially complex words (boiler-room, free-fall, poison-pill, rocket-scientist). For example, the medical term shock treatment is widely used to refer to radical economic reforms, so-called shock therapy [4, p. 264].

The scientific and technical revolution, accompanied by the widespread introduction of modern technology into everyday life, determines the process of transition of terms into general-language words, that is, their transformation into semantic neologisms. And if we take into account the potential ability of most new words to expand the scope of their application and compatibility, then the concept of a semantic neologism is significantly expanded and the number of such innovations among the total number of neologisms is growing.

This allows us to conclude that the processes that occur in existing lexical units are mainly related to their functional migration, with the processes of specialization, despecialization (generalization), and re-specialization.

Metaphorical and metonymic mechanisms that cause the emergence of figurative meanings can be combined and interact with other mechanisms, as a result of which the semantic motivation of a particular «content neologism» becomes complicated [5, p. 143-145].

Innovative semantic processes are also, in most cases, associated with word-forming processes, with the action of mechanisms of changes within units of the syntactic level (for example, an ellipsis) and within word-forming processes, which are often born at the syntactic level (for example, word composition).

The consequences of such semantic changes are the following:

1) the blurring of the line between generallanguage vocabulary that people use in everyday life and special-purpose vocabulary, between «standard» and «non-standard» vocabulary, and

2) an increasingly common phenomenon of polysemy.

In the process of phraseological unit creation, we also observe cases of repeated metaphorization. So, for example, to denote a variety of computer viruses, such phraseological units are used: logic bomb, phantom bug, Trojan horse, trap door.

In recent decades, linguists notice the dynamic processes of creation of the word-forming elements, both completely new and with new semantic and word-forming content. New affixes can arise both on the basis of real morphemes, especially full-meaning words, and on the basis of pseudo-morphemes that were singled out by dismemberment of the word. An effective mechanism for forming affixes is word formation by analogy, modeled on an existing word that serves as a model for the formation of new terms. Such word formation is carried out by changing the real or imaginary component in the word model. The formation of new word-forming elements can be carried out both on their own and on borrowed lexical material, and intra-language borrowings play a particularly important role in this process.

Discussing the determinologization stage, Kolesnikova and Tatarinov claim that terms are monofunctional units, and their area of usage is professional area only (unlike common vocabulary). Otherwise, these words get determinologized and lose their main function - to nominate a special concept. Such units, going beyond the boundaries of a highly specialized text, also lose the status of the term [6, p. 4; 11, p. 3].

The possibility and necessity of dynamic accumulation and transmission of information, epistemic and communicative needs of representatives of certain branches of knowledge determine the use of professional terminology in research-oriented texts. Rybachok notes that «being associated with the implementation of invariant features of the term (consistency, definitiveness, informativeness, unambiguity), each genre exists within the framework of certain discursively expressive norms and conventionally set attitudes» [9, p. 175].

Research articles and monographs create conditions for special vocabulary to exist in its terminological environment, and the entire complex of language tools of a certain term system is fully implemented. Such texts are addressed to competent users who have knowledge of the relevant professional area, so the basic terms there do not need to be interpreted and defined.

Conclusions. Terms act as characteristics of certain phenomena, serve as one of the means of creating the necessary connotation, and contribute to readers' perception of the described situations as real, thereby realizing the visual function.

Special attention should be paid to the use ofthe term in a non-terminological sense. Special vocabulary can act as a means of creating unique speech and portrait touches. The emotional and expressive connotation of a term depends on the sentence style and structure. When the term is placed next to various stylistic means and constructions, emotional saturation and psychological meaning extend to the objectively neutral object indicated by the term. Along with professional vocabulary, colloquial, and even vulgar words can be used, providing an emotional shade. The term, while retaining its meaning, may lose its status if the speaker is not related to the professional activity that is characterized by the use of such vocabulary, and, therefore, it is determinologized and becomes a purely stylistic tool (used for example in fiction style). Accordingly, terms can play an important role in creating an artistic image of the fiction story. Means of linguistic expressiveness can be intensified through the use of terms. This indicates that terminology is characterized by high information content not only in the scientific style, and it is an important source of replenishment of the means of imagery of the art language or creating a unique language portrait (for example, advertising needs).

The presented research results explain the stages of functioning of the term depending on the style in which it is used and require further study of the possible potential of special lexical units functioning in an unusual environment.

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