Moskva, Moscow, Russian Federation
The purpose of this article was to conduct an analysis of scientific terminology in use. The analysis was based on the perception of the terminology in interlanguage contexts. Regarding the source of the study, a number of international terms were analyzed, which showed a specific ‘word usage’ in professional communication in order to prevent ‘false analogies’. In addition to its value for comparative linguistics, the study also reveals universals of lexical conceptual space. We present a typological study of terminology polysemy in order to construct a special perception on semantic similarity among the basic scientific terminology and in borrowings, specifically. The findings provide a sound basics and valuable implications for further research in this field which will improve, as we believe, the understanding among professionals on the global level and speed up the development of science.
scientific terminology, polysemy, semantics, comprehension, cognition, imagery, false analogy, word usage.
It’s a well-known fact that physicists in Russia, in addition to the subject they’re qualified, should have literacy in foreign languages (German, English, etc.) for reading foreign journals and special articles published abroad, as well as communicating with their co-partners and taking part in discussions with their foreign colleagues during different meetings and conferences. During years Russian scientists have been trying to increase their knowledge in languages in order to reach particular level of comprehension but, finally, they began to realize that some terms in their specific scientific fields, where they have good knowledge, are replaced, as they think, by synonyms or even other words, at least, with a slight
semantic change, taking into account that most of these terms have Latin or Greek origin. Everybody knows that Latin was the language of science in the Middle Ages — Sorbonne, Cambridge, Oxford students studied only in Latin. As for Russia, Latin was the language of sciences up to the 18th century. So a great number of terms came into science from Latin or Greek: such words as “atom, quantum, theory, energy, radiator, transmission, airplane, hydroplane, antenna, radius, radio”, and many others. We use these words while studying nuclear physics or mechanics, etc. The time passed and we have Natural Science Collages, actually, in every country and students’re still learning and using the same scientific terminology. And everybody’s sure that terms which are used in this or that scientific context are firm and constant, especially, if it concerns international borrowings, but at the same time, while reading special literature or discussing issues at international functions, every now again, specialists face a phenomenon when some terms are used in unusual meaning for them, at least they see it that way. To clarify this matter a group of scholars from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow, Russia) decided to investigate the phenomenon and find where it comes from, why scientists in Russia face difficulties in using this or that specific term and do it quite often: when they read scientific literature in English or discuss particular issues at international functions. From the social psychology we know that ‘any forms of communication are the specific forms of mutual activities’ (Andreeva 2001:93). S. Traweek (1992) uncovered some coping behaviors and described the culture of a highenergy physics community: ‘A community is a group of people with a shared past, with ways of recognizing and displaying their differences from other groups, and expectations for a shared future. Their culture is the ways, the strategies they recognize and use and invent for making sense, from common sense to disputes, from teaching to learning, it is also their ways of making things and making use of them ...’ (Traweek, 1992:437–438).
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