Филологические науки/7. Язык, речь, речевая коммуникация

Latunov I.S., Karasyova O.V.

The National University of Pharmacy, Kharkiv, Ukraine

Scientific terminology in English

The modern era of foreign languages is characterized by significant growth in terms of different areas of science, and their active penetration into the spoken language. With the rapid development of scientific and technical information, it becomes urgent problems studying the functioning of the terms in the scientific and technical translation.

The main aim of learning foreign languages at the university is student`s achievements in practical knowledge in a foreign language. It allows to read the original literature in their specialty, to extract from it necessary scientific and technical information, to get skills in translating, annotating, and abstracting it, as well as taking part in the oral communication. In order to deal with all these activities, students should master the basic grammatical minimum.

In the process of working with scientific texts, students are faced with a large number of scientific terminology. Terms are words that represent emerging concepts associated with the development of science. It is important to remember that terms are ambiguous, translation of the term depends on the specialty and area of use it.

Due to the multivalence of terms, it happens some difficulties in their translation. From all of the terms used in scientific literature, especially stand out the terms of Latin and Greek origin. These terms are borrowed. Many of the Latin and Greek loans belong to the so-called international vocabulary; they can be repeated in the languages of many nations, united by the common features of the cultural and social development. Such terms are easy to translate because of their sound and graphic similarities with the Russian language, for example:

atom (eng.), das Atom (ger.), атом (rus.)

radio (eng.), das Radio (ger.), радио (rus.)

energy (eng.), die energie (ger.), энергия (rus.)

generator(eng.), der Generator (ger.), генератор (rus.)

A large majority of documents today are written in specialist language, 30-80% of which is composed of terminology.

Quality of specialist communication depends largely on the quality of the terminology employed.

The Latin origin of the word:

English Latin Russian

abdomen abdomen брюшная полость

pharynx pharynx глотка

esophagus esophagus пищевод

pancreas pancreas поджелудочная железа

duodenum duodenum двенадцатиперстная кишка

appendix appendix аппендикс

intestine intestinum кишечник

rectum rectum прямая кишка

Terminology is a safety and a quality factor of translation.

Nevertheless, not always a term borrowed from Latin or Greek, can be easily translated. There are a number of words, which have preserved the original method forming the plural. They are unusual for English or German.

The Greek origin of the word:

English Greek Russian

a cavity cavitas полость

a diagnosis diagnosis диагноз

an injection injectio инъекция

a symptom symptom симптом

a tumor tumor опухоль

an ulcer ulcus язва

It should be noted that it is often possible to meet usual English plural for words such as antenna - antennas, formula - formulas, stratum - stratums.

Special attention in the translation of scientific terms requires so-called "false friends" of interpreter, lexical units that have the same internal form, but cause false association in connection with the presence of other meanings. For example, the English word "resin", is not Russian word "rubber"; word «data" is often mistakenly translated as "date". The German die Radioastronomie - radio astronomy, but das Radioelement – isn`t radioelement, but a radioactive element.

A large number of the profile vocabulary is used in pharmacy. It happens historically, that in this medical profile are always used only the Greek-Latin terminology. It is known that the medical education in European universities in the Middle Ages was conducted only in Latin. Later teaching at other faculties was conducted in different countries in national languages. However, in this field of science, such as pharmacy still studied Latin terminology.

Medical profiles always used only the Greek-Latin terminology. Future professionals in the field of pharmacy should orientate in medical terminology, is a widely borrowed from Latin.

Examples of medical terminology:

English Latin Russian

muscle musculus мышца

nerve nervus нерв

ventricular ventriculum желудочек

dental dental зубной

thorax thorax грудная клетка

оccipital occipitalis затылочный

femur femur бедро

coccyx coccyx копчик

pelvis pelvis таз

phalanges phalanges фаланги

In English, there is also a group of lexical units, which are used very often in professional medical English.

These words indicate the parts of the human body, organs, terms relating to patient care and nursing care. Their formation, spelling and pronunciation do not have anything to do with Greco-Latin terminology.

There are many examples of words in this group:

English Latin Russian

a heart cor сердце

a blood sanguis кровь

a head caput голова

a hand manu кисть руки

a foot pes стопа

a leg pes нога

a body corpus тело

a liver hepar печень

Interesting facts.

The word computer has been used to refer to a person since 1613, to a machine since 1869, and to an electronic device since 1946.

In early use, girl was used to refer to a child or young person of either sex. The origin of the term is not known for certain, but perhaps it is related to Low German gör, meaning ‘child’.

Sarcasm comes from the Greek sarkazein ‘to tear flesh’.

The adjective awkward is based on the Old Norse afugr, meaning ‘turned the wrong way around’. In this sense, it could be applied, for instance, to an animal that was on its back and was unable to get up.

Squirrel comes from the Greek word skiouros, literally meaning ‘shadow-tail’.

According to the research, an x was used the first to represent a kiss in a 1763 letter from Naturalist Gilbert White.

In order to work with any terms in a scientific text in a foreign language, to be successful you should:

· To know a certain minimum of general scientific terms;

· To own terminology, characteristics for this or that sphere of activity (specialty);

· To remember the ambiguity of words in English and German;

· To know the methods of forming the plural of some words of Latin and Greek origin;

· To avoid false associations with their own language.

Possession of professional terminology in a foreign language makes the future specialist competitive, motivated, and better prepared for the implementation of professional activity, as in a native and in a foreign language. At this point, it is important to pay enough attention to this aspect during the studying process.

Литература:

1. Фридман Л. А. Справочник англицизмов. Владимир, 1973. - 77 с.

2. Чернявский М. И. История и проблемы медицинской терминологии.

3. Филиппов А.В. Латинские заимствования в английском языке — Ульяновск: изд-во Современного гуманитарного университета, 1998.

4. Муравейская М.С. Английский язык для медиков — М: Наука, 2000 — 384 с.

5. С.Т. Onions. Dictionary of English Etymology. New York, 2004. - 1024 p.