U6 SCIENTIFIC TERMINOLOGY Flashcards
Why don’t we use colloquial language for scientific terminology?
It lacks precision, conciseness and emotional neutrality and dosen’t provide universality.
There is a need to maintain the professional secrecy, incorporate new words and specific resources
What are the general characteristics of scientific language?
- Universality: interantional, but adapts to spelling in each language
- Conciseness: economy of time
- Accuracy: 1 signifier, 1 meaning
- Neutrality: no affective components and use of 3rd person
What are the origins of scientific terminology?
Traditional lexical heritage (greco-latin)
Words form modern languages (replaced latin words)
Vocab with other meanings:
- unknown origin
- associations of an indirect or metaphorical character
Types of vocab with other origins?
- EPONYMS: names of invertors, places, gods…
- ACRONYMS
- ONOMATOPOEIAS
Types of neologisms (new terms)?
Of form, of sense or syntactic neologisms
What are neologisms of form?
Creation of a term or a new expression
What are neologisms of sense?
Attribution of new sense to an already existing term
From what words are neologisms formes from?
From Greco-Romas morphemes. These new neologisms have to have coherence with existing terms and universality
What are the different combinations?
DETERMINATIVE, COPULATIVE AND MIXED
What does the DETERMINATIVE combination consist on?
A main root the ir delimited by other roots, prefixes or sufixes
What does the COPULATIVE combination consist on?
Several morphemes combine to associate their meanings
What does the MIXED combination consist on?
A main root combiend with another root which ahve prefixes and sufixes to specify
What vowel is inserted when there is a comb of 2 Greek roots or Greek + Latin?
Usually a “o” is added
What vowel is inserted when there is a comb of 2 Latin roots?
Usually an “i” is added
When using several words to form an expression what are the combinaitons?
In juxtaposed from or in a coordiinated way
What is terminologisation?
Incorporation of a new meaning to a word in every day language
What is an example of neologisms of sense?
Passing the meaning fo a term from one branch of knowledge to another, acquiring different meaning from the on it had in the first place
What is syntatic neologisms?
Change of grammatical category or change of function of a word
What are the reasons for scientific language to not have a logical and uniform criteria?
a) semantic phenomena
b) changes of meaning
c) associations of an indirect or metaphorical character
d) words of ambiguos meaning or unknown meaning
Types if semantic phenomena?
- synonyms
- polisemia and homonimia
- antonyms
- generic - specific relations
Difference between polisemia and homonimia?
Polisemia: dos palabras con significado relacionado
Homonimia: dos palabras con significado muy diferente
Types of meaning changes?
- Transfer: simple change of meaning of a term
- Contraction: reduction of meaning occurs
- Expansion: term with a broader meaning than the starting point
Nomeclature…
List or catalog of terms approved by a specific scientific community accorgind to norms that determine their meanings
Classification…
Establishment and characterisation of systematic gruops according to the knowledge and resources available at any moment
Nomeclature and classification are the solution to what problem?
The lack of LOGIC and UNIFORMITY of terminology
