Peculiarities of term nomination synonymy in the domain of computer linguistics

Olena Yuzhakova

The article is aimed at proving the statement that term synonymy or variability cannot be the sign of terminology emergence. For that purpose the article studies term variant pairs and rows in the domain of computer linguistics on the basis of their seme structure constancy/variability as well as gives morphological and other lexical characteristics of term variants in this domain.

Ukrainian language

term

variant

term variant pairs and rows

seme structure

The article considers term synonymy or variability as the natural phenomenon that is necessary for the development of any terminology. The study is aimed at proving the statement that term variability cannot be the sign of terminology emergence or its underdevelopment. Among the terminological instruments doublet, synonym and variant the latter is used as the most exact one inasmuch as a synonym or a variant is the efficient way of implementing the energy of thought in the word that will reflect the new part of human reality and therefore cannot be a doublet.

Taking the above-mentioned into account, in the domain of computer linguistics (hereinafter referred to as CL) among 200 nominations 89 (44.5%) term variant pairs and rows (hereinafter referred to as TVP/Rs) are singled out. They are divided into two groups and studied on the basis of their seme structure constancy/variability. The first group consists of approximately 25 (12.5%) TVP/Rs from other sciences that maintain their plan of content and plan of expression in CL and the ones that are synonyms for words in general use and general scientific words, e. g. ключові слова – дескриптори; лексикографічні процесори – словникові ~; штучний інтелект (artificial intellect) – штучний розум (artificial mind); незмінні основи слів – константні ~.

According to our classification the rest of TVP/Rs (64 of them, i. e. 32%) belongs to the second group. In their semantic structure there are certain divergences (shifts) that are the result of different interpretation of nominations in the light of CL ideas. A typical example of the second group of TVP is блок-схема алгоритму – граф-схема ~ that describe the algorithm as the unified image or the Gestalt (блок-схема), and as the visual image (граф-схема).

In addition, the term components that are not terms beyond CL terminology become variants, e. g. комп՚ютерний словник – автоматичний ~, that can be considered inexact from the logical point of view as there is a seme «self-acting», «operating automatically» in the element semantics but the computer dictionaries are compiled by the experts using the corresponding programmes. Nevertheless, the attributive component автоматичний is relevant as the variant as it singles out a new category of dictionaries, that is why традиційний словник is словник-оригінал (with integral seme «printed») and the antonymous pair for them will be комп՚ютерний and автоматичний словник (with integral seme «compiled by means of certain computer programmes»).

Besides, in the second TVP/R group there are such shifts in the variant seme structure due to which TVP/Rs can be partly motivated and predictable (the first subgroup in the second group) and unmotivated and unpredictable (the second subgroup in the second group).

The example of the first subgroup is the term row діалогова система – питально-відповідна система – інтерфейс – система спілкування (діалогу) з комп՚'ютером – система людино-машинної взаємодії. We can see that діалогова система contains the new prevailing seme «by means of questions and answers» which is semantically different from the lexemes діалог and діалогічний that involve free exchange of thoughts.

The second subgroup variants are illustrated by metaphorical, emotionally coloured terms as well as the ones not formed by lexico-semantic means, i. e. дурнестійкі системи – fool-proof systems, терм – об՚єкт – термінальний вузол. The first TVP and the second term row are both obscure, the former probably due to lack of another Ukrainian variant whereas the latter because of ambiguity of the concept терм, polysemy of the unit об՚єкт and its semantic relation to both row elements.

Everything stated above indicates that despite its frequent occurrence the phenomenon of term variancy in the domain of CL is rather the sign of search for the most suitable among the available nominations in the domain of CL, than the sign of terminology emergence. This is also confirmed by the figures in the study as well as the registered semantic shifts caused by nomination of the newly arisen concepts in the new computer domain, i. e. the linguistic one, which affected the semantic «reformatting» of terms in a lot of sciences, linguistics in particular.

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