English mathematical terminology

A.A. Kulzhumiyeva – a first - year magister,

WKSU after M. Utemisov

The purpose of this article is to train the students of Physics and Mathematics faculty, to teach them to apply the available basic knowledge of the English language in professional work with English-language scientific tests.

Present time is a century of development of high technologies and computerization in all areas of human activity, which requires a highly qualified specialist, who has competent terminology and special vocabulary. It is terminological literacy, contributing to the mastery of scientific knowledge and practical skills, makes the specialist competitive.

The term (latin terminus "border, limit, end") is a special word or phrase used in a specific professional field and used in special circumstances. The term is a verbal designation of a concept that enters into the system of concepts of a certain sphere of professional knowledge.

Within the lexical system of language, the terms manifest the same properties as other words, that is, they are characterized by both antonymy and idiomatics. For example, the term ʽpowerʼ in mathematics means ʽdegreeʼ, in physics ʽpowerʼ ʽenergyʼ, in optics - ʽlens enlargementʼ.

The same term may be included in different terminologies of the given language, which is an inter-scientific terminological homonymy, for example: ʽreductionʼ in mathematics - reduction to the common denominator, in medicine - repositioning (dislocation), in chemistry - restoration.

In determining the structure of terms, the following groups of words were distinguished:

1. Half of mathematical terms form non-derivative words:

to solve, to add, functions, formula, a multiple, simple, special, symbol, to divide, equal, a power, to add.

The predominance of simple words indicates a tendency to the conciseness and brevity inherent in scientific speech.

2. One third are derived words. Among them were the following groups of word-formation models and word-formation methods:

 а) the suffixing way of word-formation is the most common. The word-formation model is the root + suffix:  - tion (-sion), -ic (-s), -or (-er), -t, -y, -ing, - ance (- ence), -(i)ty, -age. For example: equation, definition, expression, systematization, multiplication, division, addition, mathematics, arithmetic, divisor, linear, product, unity, solving, containing, applying, cancelling, difference, equality, percentage.

With the above mentioned suffixes, verbal nouns with arithmetic operations are most often formed.

By the same model adjectives are formed with the help of the following suffixes: - ible, -al, -ive, -ate. For example: divisible, possible, numerical, arithmetical, general, polynomial, relative, negative, positive, intermediate.

б) the word-formation model is the prefix + root: -un, -non, -re -ir denying the qualities that numbers and values have, or with the retry value -re. For example: uncommon, unnecessary, unacceptable, non-periodic, non-multiple, anti-log, reordering, irrational, irregular.

3. Compound terms. Often, mathematical terms are represented by a phrase. Terms-word-combinations form the basis of terminological units of various branch terminologies. For example: Pythagoras's Theorem, Leibniz rule, Bernoulli equation, Euclidian algorithm, solid body, British units, common dominator, a mean proportional.

In English mathematical terminology there are a large number of terms consisting of several components. For example: algorithmic theory of sets - ʽалгоритмическая теория множествʼ, absolutely continuous functions - ʽабсолютно непрерывные функцииʼ, partial differential quotation of second order - ʽуравнения частных производных второго порядкаʼ.

However, the increase in the number of components of a composite name can not be infinite. Any text is always characterized by a desire for brevity and conciseness.

 It is often necessary to meet abbreviations:

e.g – for example

etc – (from Latin et cetera)

SI – System International,

HCF – the highest common factor.

In these examples, the initial abbreviations of the alphabetic type act as brief equivalents of compound names.

Structural analysis shows that the linguistic units of the sublanguage of mathematics are mostly non-derivative words that have entered the English language from ancient languages - Latin and Greek, and often non-derivative words are combined into terminological word combinations.

Great importance in the formation of any sublanguage, including mathematical, has its lexical stock. The vocabulary of the language is faster than other subsystems responding to changes. New words appear faster than new grammatical categories and, and better, than new phonetic rules.

The semantic structure of a word is formed by a set of lexical-semantic variants of a given linguistic unit. Each value, in its turn, has several semantic features that distinguish the given word from a number of other similar words. For example, the following English mathematical terms have in their semantic composition such semantic features as:

to add

1) ʽinterconnection actionʼ

2) ʽmathematical addition operationʼ

power

1) ʽaction of force, energyʼ

2) ʽmathematical operation of degreeʼ

to multiply

1) ʽmagnification actionʼ

2) ʽmathematical multiplication operationʼ

For the purposes of the formation of terms, by analogy of concepts, a word with a commonplace concept is used, which is analogous to the term to be termed. For example, probability (вероятность), energy (энергия), stability (устойчивость), description (вид), way (метод), relativity (теория относительности), essence (сущность).

Mathematical vocabulary forms thematic series due to the fact that the science of mathematics itself includes arithmetic, algebra, geometry and other departments, and also because it co-exists alongside other exact sciences (for example physics) and borrows from them terms. So it is possible to categorize terms by thematic series:

arithmetic terms (division, factor)

algebraic terms (negative quantity, equation, literal coefficient)

planimetric terms (triangle, area, parallelogram, trigonometric)

stereometric terms (cone, sphere, a solid body)

physical and mathematical terms (time, mass, volume, pressure, velocity, length). Thus, we can say that the lexicon of a mathematical sublanguage can be studied both from the point of view of the seminal composition of the word, and from the point of view of analyzing the entire dictionary word. In addition, all mathematical vocabulary can be divided into terminology series.

Texts of mathematical content allow not only to form a system of mathematical terms for students, but also to develop critical thinking through reading and writing. The methodical reception of the organization of critical reading of the text on mathematics assumes the work of students, during which they reveal the following information: mathematical terms that the student knew, unknown terms he met for the first time, the identification of terms for future professional activity. After working with mathematical terminology based on the use of texts of mathematical content and holding a discussion, the educational vocabulary necessary for mastering the basic sections on mathematics is corrected.

Literature:

1. A.A. Kulzhumiyeva., G.M. Aitenova., G.A. Abdikalikova., A.A. Kulzhumiyeva / Mathemetics – Uralsk. – 2017.

2. A.A. Reformatskyi / What is the term and terminology. Terminology issues. – Moscow: Pub. AN – 2000.

3. I.S. Bogatskyi., N.M. Dyukanova / Business course of English. – Kiev: "IP Logos-M" LLC.– 2006.

4. L.L. Kutina / Language processes arising in the development of scientific terminology systems. – Moscow. – 1970.

5. S.A. Shanshiyeva / English for mathematics. – Moscow: Pub. MSU. – 1976.

6. N.I. Shashkina., L.A. Lazurenko / Extralinguistic determinism of the functioning of multicomponent terminological combinations // Collection of scientific papers "Semantics and grammar in speech communication". – Dnepropetrovk. – 1991.