The phenomenon of synonymy in Ukrainian homeopathic terminology

2013;
: pp. 55 - 59

Lukovenko T. The phenomenon of synonymy in Ukrainian homeopathic terminology // Website of TC STTS: Herald of L'viv Polynechnic National University "Problems of Ukrainian Terminology". – 2013. – # 765.

1
Donbass State Pedagogical University

The article continues the cycle of the author’s publications devoted to the studying of the Ukrainian homeopathic terminology. The peculiarities of functioning of the term-synonyms and the structural and semantic features of equivalent terminological units of the researched area are analyzed in this work.

The question of organization of the national scientific and technical terminology is extremely important nowadays. In the context of solving this problem Ukrainian linguists study questions of lexical-semantic organization of terms in various fields of knowledge. However, researchers paid attention not all professional terminology, including scarcely explored homeopathic field at the level of linguistic terms.

The urgency of the article is conditioned by the necessity of the research of lexical-semantic aspect of Ukrainian homeopathic terminology.

The aim of scientific research is to analyze the specific effects of synonymy in terms of homeopathy.

Implementation of the assigned aim implies the fulfillment of the next tasks:

1) to determine the nature of relationships between terms synonymous in studied area;

2) to analyze the variations of synonymous pairs in homeopathic terminology.

The descriptive method is used in this work.

Synonymy – is a phenomenon which is common both for literary and for special (terminological) vocabulary. Synonyms – is something appropriate because it is the most expressive way of stylistic text in the literary vocabulary. Operation with words which are equal – is one of the urgent problems of modern terminological research in professional areas. The presence of several specific lexical items to denote a concept is contrary to the requirements to the term - no synonyms within a particular field terminology and aspiration of the terminological vocabulary for accuracy. Issues of expression of terminological synonymy had been examined by V. P. Danilenko, I. N. Kochan, D. S. Lotte, G. P. Matsyuk, T. I. Panko etc. However, there is no general interpreting which is correct and definite in the problem of synonymy in modern terminology. For the most part, linguists who consider synonymy as a negative phenomenon in the terminology because “parallel use of terminology within the same even quite equal system in terms in common literature prevents its normal functioning”[8, p. 6] agree with the presence of terms-synonyms in terminological systems, because it is an indicator their continuous development. In reliance on the conventional definition of modern linguistics synonyms ("word which inevitable semantic feature is only this feature that consistently neutralized in certain positions" [9, p. 141]), we note that terminological synonymy certain inherent certain characteristics which mark it. Synonyms in terminology "have a different nature and other functions" [3, p. 73]. In terminological system, unlike the commonly used language, synonyms manifest one concept and describe its specific properties. We support the thesis of T. Panko that the terminology, including homeopathic, are synonymous are the terms that have common referents, but some differences on the conceptual level, the different semantics of derivational elements, etymology, the degree of modernity, especially the operation [6, p. 181]. In linguistics, there are various approaches to the classification of terms, synonyms (V. P. Danilenko, I. N. Kochan, T. V. Mikhailova, L. О. Symonenko etc.). Homeopathic terms with equal meanings are appropriate to consider according to the following criteria: the degree of identity of the main syllable (absolute synonyms, relative synonyms) as belonging to a specific semiotic systems (verbal, symbolic, symbolic-verbal), the structure (syntactic constructions) and morphemic structure (mutual base, different base).By the degree of identity of the main syllable time-synonyms are divided into absolute (terms with the same meaning) and relative (terms whose values are partly similar) synonims in the linguistic literature. However, there is no clear opinion on the correctness of synonyms in terminological vocabulary. So, D. S. Lotte considered absolute synonymy as harmful to the terminology because the operation of two terms for one concept for a long time is not possible because one of the terms "gradually embedded content or narrower than the other, or wider, or, eventually, very different" [4, p. 22]. D. S. Lotte suggested the presence of terminological synonymy only in the following cases: 1) if the word’s creative foundation for building some terms specific to different terminological systems of different signs of the concept or design terms, the components of which are the same lexical items (elements of the term); 2) if one of the two terms - a short form of the other, that contains elements of the term that are part of another term, but in smaller quantities or in abbreviated form [4, p. 23].

We follow the unanimous position of B. M. Golovin [2, p. 54], V. P Danilenko [3, p. 74], T. I. Panko [6, p. 181] and others that the status of synonyms of terminology, namely: it is absolute synonyms, called doublets or time-equivalents. These terms in the homeopathic industry include: Antidote – antidote (a substance that stops or violates the therapeutic effect of the drug before the appointed [TFFS, p. 127]), extract - extract (stable dosage form long shelf life is concentrated extraction of medicinal plants raw [TFFS, p. 171]), toxicity - toxicity (property pharmacological or medicinal cause undesirable biological effects at doses greater than therapeutic [TFFS, p. 152]) and others. The features of these markers terms synonymous pairs are the frequency of application. For example, the term extract and its derivatives (alcohol extract, extract water, glycerol extract, extractives, extraction, extractor and under) are actively functioning in homeopathic texts.

Usually, the term-doublet characterized by a different semantics. For example, the term extract has the meaning: 1. Drugs – concentrated extract, extract (water, alcohol, etc.) with herbs (sometimes animal) medicinal materials. 2. Thickened fruit juice or berries. Garlic extract [USUM, p. 251]. The term has a wider range hood correctly interpreting: 1. A device that ventilates enclosed space, the air filled with poisoned by gases, vapors etc. 2. The substance, a drug manufactured by processing vegetable or animal tissue specific liquids (alcohol, ether, water, etc.). [USUM, p. 132]. Term extraction involved in the conceptual field of homeopathy based on other values. Mutual sems of these lexems of the term assume their parallel operation, but the practice of using the term is not supported ambiguity for cross-sector level, as appropriate in homeopathy is the use of the term is an extract. Homeopathic terminology served by terms belonging to different semiotic systems, namely, time, words, terms, symbols, term-symbol of the word that we devote to the doublet synonyms because they express one concept means in different sign systems. Nomina "tribasic carboxylic acid", which means homeopathy raw material for the manufacture of drugs, represented terms: acetic acid – oral term, S6N8O7, FNL (SN2SOON) 2SOON – term symbol. The structure of homeopathic terms, synonyms are divided into one-word terms and timing – syntactic constructions. Among one-word synonyms we distinguish a group of concepts to describe them in parallel function derived category and specific Ukrainian name: адсорбція (лат.)  поглинання, дисперсність (лат.) – розсіюваність, сорбент (лат.) – поглинач тощо. Синонімічними є однослівні терміни іншомовного походження: мікроелементи (лат.) – біотики (гр.), гомеостаз (гр.) – гомеостазис (гр.), ферменти (лат.) – біокаталізатори (гр.) – ензими (гр.) etc.

In terms of homeopathy among terms-equivalents primary attention is paid to absolute synonyms, where each word is equivalent to syntactic structures correlated to the value. Among the analyzed units have identified three groups of synonymous matching:1) "word – the phrase": ahravatsiya – increased reaction, modality – specific features, relaps – return of symptoms, etc.; 2) "phrase – the phrase" high breeding – high potency, homeopathic constitution – drug constitution, breeding by Korsakov – method of the same glass etc. In a significant number of synonymous phrases terms of reference of the word remains unchanged; 3) "full form of the term – a short form of the term." Active development of the studied area contributes to the creation of complex nominations for the designation of new concepts and refine existing ones, because homeopathic terms are mostly term-phrase. However, the operation complete forms verbose timing eliminates the principle of linguistic economy. The need to optimize the communicative language makes use of short forms. In the traditional terminological classification [3, p. 183–188] we distinguish three methods of forming such terms in homeopathic terminology:

1. Lexical reduction: a wordy term missing one component terminological phrases while maintaining the "semantic structure of the term, is in a classification number" [3, p. 183]. In homeopathy lexical reduction is realized through the following structures:

– Adjective + noun → noun: гомеопатичний монопрепарат – монопрепарат;

– Adjective 1 + adjective 2+ noun → adjective + noun: гомеопатична лікарська форма – лікарська форма.

2. Reduction by the means of word formation occurs in the following models:

– Shortened form of the word with a truncated base adjective: гомеопатичний препарат – гомеопрепарат, гомеопатична терапія – гомеотерапія etc.

– Initial abbreviations (short-term of all words in phrase): БАР – біологічно активні речовини, ГМН – гомеопатична матрична настоянка etc;

3. Reduction be the means of symbols (shortened version, represented by letter (s) that is not correlated with the first letter of an abbreviated words as part of a complete term): LM-потенції – п'ятдесятитисячне розведенняХ-потенції – десяткове розведення etc. Not only functioning of the synonymous pairs but also synonymous series is typical operation in homeopathic terminology: викривлене реагування – спотворене реагування – сифіліс, динамізація – потенціювання – розведення, життєва сила – життєвий принцип – життєва енергія – динамічна сила – духовна сила – самокерувальна енергія etc.

Distinction of synonyms and variations in terminology is the actual problem. In the linguistic literature there is no unanimous meaning of this issue. In this way S. G. Berezhan believed that separation of the mutual part of the word entities with equivalent affixes into separate words and variants "is possible only in terms of physical concepts (this term does not exist in terms of functional concept, so that any specific function for identifying word unit, regardless of their material expressions are independent specific displays in some abstract functional unit "[1, p. 232]. L. O. Symonenko believes that derivational variants "unit derived from the same root with different affixes that have the same lexical and grammatical meaning" [7, p. 39]. Sometimes the options considered formal transformation of certain words [5, p. 102].

The suffix type of variability is used in homeopathic terminology to manifest words with the same base to describe a concept created by various suffixes: гармонійний – гармонічний, відновлення – відновлювання, екстрактовий – екстрактний, лікарський – лікувальний etc. As a classification of timing options, which are inherent phonetic differences due to transliteral processes: автонозод – аутонозод, гельземіум – гельземінум, сенситивність – сензитивність etc. Formal options are also changing the number of forms: засіб – засоби, препарат – препарати, поліхрест – поліхрести etc. Synonymous terms are classified according to frequently spoken expressions: substantival (випробування – прувінг, випробувач – прувер, виробництво – підприємство) and adjectival (викривлене – спотворенепідшкірне – гіподермальне). A specific phenomenon in studied synonymous terms are synonyms that defined by B. M. Golovin as a special phenomenon of semantic identity meanings of the term and its definition, the semantics of the term and its definition are determined by the essential features of concepts: "being short", "identify the object or phenomenon", "focus on the properties, qualities, attributes" [2, p. 57].

In the field of homeopathic terminology following definitional synonyms are functioning: гетеронозод – лікарський препарат, виготовлений із чужорідного патологічного матеріалу за правилами гомеопатичної фармаціїнозод – лікарський препарат, виготовлений із патологічних тканин та виділень організму за правилами гомеопатичної фармації etc. The determining criterion of the definitional synonyms and semantic analysis of grammatical structure definitions are difficult wordy phrase that marks all the important features of the term concept [2, p. 57]. In homeopathic literature synonymous counterparts are used due to the specific style of a scientific text. Thus, the use of terms of foreign origin inherent in the academic style of presentation (habitus, psoriasis), autochthonous equivalents – popular science works, textbooks (body structure, skin lesions pustules) and others.

In this way, the equivalent operation of nomens in homeopathy shows the continuous development of the investigated area, which determines the specificity of synonymous relations, diverse and different aspects for expression. The feasibility of the use of an equivalent must comply with state regulations and lexicographic publications.

Lexical-semantic aspect in Ukrainian homeopathic terminology is considered as a promising direction of scientific research.

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