Lexical Features of Scientific Prose

So, as mentioned before, scientific style is one of functional styles which is supposed to provide information in a distinct, logically organized and unbiased way which, in its turn, requires a certain organization of language material that will promote consecutive and systematic presentation of various scientific issues.

We should bear in mind that scientific style belongs to bookish ones as it is generally realized in writing. Though the rapid development of science in the modern society necessitates contacts and communication of different kinds, including speaking as well (at conferences, symposia, etc). It obviously increases the significance of speaking variety of the style. Therefore we can’t say that scientific texts are purely written ones, scientific style presents nowadays a combination of both writing and speaking varieties of the language.

On the basis of extralinguistic features, mentioned above, some linguistic characteristics of scientific texts can be outlined. Thus, the texts of the scientific style have the following basic linguistic features which can be divided into three groups – lexical, grammatical and compositional (some researches name morphological, syntactical, lexical and compositional):

LEXICAL FEATURES

- scientific terminology in a great number (discourse, co-text, interpretation; electric field, charge, magnetism, etc.);

- the use of exclusively scientific phraseology and set terminological expressions (as matters stand; in all respects; it is assumed; zero tolerance; to take part);

- extensive use of bookish words (not every-day ones), e. g. presume, infer, preconception, cognitive;

- use of words in their primary dictionary meaning, restricted use of connotative contextual meanings, interjections, expressive phraseology, phrasal verbs, colloquial vocabulary.;

- abundance of proper names;

- use of shortenings of different kinds and abbreviations (shortenings, contractions, initialisms, and acronyms);

- the use of diagrams, schemes, graphs, maps, systems of mathematical, chemical and physical symbols;

- the use of internationalisms;

- abundance of neologisms

- involvement of citations, foot-notes, endnotes and references to original, primary sources, bibliography;

Foot-notes provide details about the source of an in-text citation and are placed at the bottom of the page where the citation appears. Scientific and technical texts may have endnotes as well. They provide details about the source of an in-text citation and are placed at the end of the article or paper, on a separate sheet of paper. At the end of the article or paper, on a separate sheet of paper there is a bibliography which is a complete list of reference books, articles and other source materials cited in your work, in alphabetical order by author.

- the use of various logical connectors / linkers (таким чином, по-перше; as a result, obviously, firstly, etc.);

- extensive use of double conjunctions like as... as, either... or, both... and, etc.

Generally it must be said that scientific-technical writing must be clear, composed of carefully chosen words, not abstract and general language. Prose cluttered with language that is overly abstract, ornate, or vague becomes unreadable, either too dense or too vague to be understandable.

 

 

Lecture 3. Terminology

 

Terms

Technical terms are an essential part of technical and scientific writing. Each field or specialty typically uses the vocabulary that relays a variety of specialized concepts by means of technical language. These special terms convey concentrated meanings that have been built up over significant periods of study of a field. The value of a specialized set of terms lies in the way each term condenses a mass of information into a single word. Technical terminology is often thought of as shorthand, a way of gaining great depth and accuracy of meaning with economy of words. Technical terms often blend readily into formulae and mathematical manipulation, a term such as force being folded into a formula such as f = ma. This quantification allows the concept to be manipulated mathematically.

Despite terms numbering a great quantity, they are used by fewer people and therefore are not included into the general vocabulary. As the result terms are more constant and are, to a lesser degree, subjected to any morphological or semantic changes than the vocabulary of the every-day use.

Most researchers admit that terminology is one of the main features of the scientific style, informative core of the science language.

Terms are traditionally defined as words, compound words or word-combination used in specific contexts

In order to define correctly the concepts expressed with terms it is necessary to know the field of science or technology to which this term can be referred. Each term must be considered in connection with the words around it and the context in general, because a term is a word which acquires a definite meaning according to the field of its use in a particular case. Terminological meaning of a word is usually unchangeable but it can be revealed only in the context.

Terms are combined into systems of terms (terminology systems) that can be defined as a number of terms with fixed relations between them which reflect, in their turn, the relations between concepts that these terms designate.

A term has the same functions as any word does: nominative (nomination; i.e. naming the things), significative (generalization), communicative (communication), pragmatic ( a function that indicates an attitude of a speaker to the things said or written ).

There are a number of terms classifications in modern linguistics. They are based on different features of a term or aspects of their study.

In the vocabulary of a scientific / technical text one can find two main categories of terms:

- terms of a certain sphere / field that have their own definition / meaning in it;

- generally scientific terminological units (including terms of interbranch sciences), for example, widely-used terms of philosophy, political science, mathematics, philology, etc.

Terms of the first category can be, in its turn, divided into three groups: normative terms (nomenclature); professional terms (professionalisms ); professional jargonisms.

Normative terms, or nomenclature, are words that denote specific concepts and conform to all norms and requirements for national and borrowed terms: absorption, accountability, flux, time constant, waste etc);

Professional terms (professionalisms ) are words and word-combinations that nominate a concept but do not reveal its complete meaning, they are comprehensible mostly for professionals. Unlikenomenclature units, professional terms can be interpreted. Thus professionalisms, as the term itself signifies, are the words used in a definite trade, profession, or a name used by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. Professional words name anew already existing concepts and have the typical properties of a special code, but they do not aim at secrecy. They perform a socially useful function in communication, facilitating a quick and adequate grasp of the message. The main feature of a professionalism is its technicality. Professionalisms are special words in the non-literary layer of the English vocabulary, whereas terms are a specialised group belonging to the literary layer of words. Terms, if they are connected with a field or branch of science or technique well-known to ordinary people, are easily decoded and enter the neutral stratum of the vocabulary. Professionalisms generally remain in circulation within a certain community, as they are linked to a common occupation and social interests.

The semantic structure of the term is usually transparent and is therefore easily understood. The semantic structure of a professionalism is often dimmed by the image on which the meaning of the professionalism is based, particularly when the features of the object in question reflect the process of work, metaphorically or metonymically. Like terms, professionalisms do not allow any polysemy, they are monosemantic. Here are some professionalisms used in different spheres of activity: tin-fish (submarine), piper (a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of a cream-pipe); a midder case (a midwifery case); outer (a knockout blow). Some professionalisms, however, like certain terms, become popular and gradually lose their professional flavour;

Professional jargonisms do not require accuracy or monosemanticity. They are also figurative to a great extend and emotionally coloured; jargonisms are a periphery of terminological vocabulary which are used in speaking and are not regulated by and are often not fixed in the dictionaries. Professionalisms should not be mixed up with jargonisms. Unlike normative and professional terms, jargonisms aim at secrecy (hammer – local anesthetic, chippie – carpenter, mudslinger - calumniator, slanderer).

Specialized vocabulary is most important and most widely spread in technical texts because it is most informative.

Though when using specialized terms, it is necessary to observe the following:

· Match terminology to the ability of the audience. You may use a term with great accuracy and still not reach your audience. It is important that you be aware of your audience's level of understanding. If they are not experts in your field, you will need to substitute more general terms for your specialized terms. That means that you may not be able to write with great accuracy about your topic.

· Use terms with consistency. Be sure that you use the same term for a given item each time. If you shift from using mass to using weight in referring to the quantity of an object, if at first you call a tool a spanner and later call it a wrench, or if you shift from the Kelvin scale to Centigrade for measuring temperature, you may confuse the reader.

· Provide clear definitions or explanations of unfamiliar terms. If you are using a specialized term that is not widely used in your audience, even if the audience is an expert one, be sure you provide a clear definition of your term.

· Use a terminology list when you are introducing a variety of new terms into your discussion. The use of a list, which is generally placed before your introduction or in an appendix, can greatly aid a reader who wants to remind himself or herself of what you mean by the term.

Terms can also be classified according to their structure. So, due to the number of components we may have:

- one-word terms, for example: switch – вимикач;

- compound terms which are combinations of stems, either written together (flywheel – маховик hotlist - перелік адрес, що слід зберегти для майбутнього; keyword – ключове слово) or through a hyphen (аll-cast – суцільнозварний, self-noise – власні шуми (апаратури), to co-invent – винайти разом з кимось).

- terminological word-combinations (these terms can be of two-, three-, four- and more constituents (plate voltage change - перепад анодної напруги; very high-speed integrated circuit - інтегральна схема з надвисокою швидкодією; high voltage transmission line – лінія високовольтних передач; braking with rocket - гальмування за допомогою ракетного двигуна; light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation - квантовомеханічне посилення або генерація світла). They can be divided into: а ) free word combination (load governer – регулятор потужності; атомна електростанція, космічна швидкість, радіолокаційні установки; shock wave, internal storage, residuary estate, shock lung і т.д.) in which each component is a term that can be in two-sided relationship; b) fixed word-combinations (including phraseological units) in which components taken separately may not be terms but make terms when used together: мертва вода, важка вода, радіоактивний йод, мислячий робот; dead-wood, star system, live video, etc.)

The examples given above show that terminological word-combinations have a key word that is a core of the word group and one or more left-side attributes often together with one or more right-side or prepositional attributes that specify or modify the meaning of the term.

 

Abbreviations

 

Scientific texts which have a tendency for conciseness are often characterized by the use of abbreviations. Abbreviations are used to save time and space, and to make long names of organizations and long technical terms easier to remember and less tedious to refer to repeatedly in an extended piece of writing such as a newspaper article or textbook. In such contexts, if the abbreviation is not a very common one, the long name or technical term is often given in full at the first mention, with the abbreviation in brackets after it. After that just the abbreviation is used.

The term “abbreviation” is often defined as any shortened form in scientific writing. Though it is more correctly to distinguish between the following shortened forms of words or phrases:

True abbreviations (or s hortenings of words) usually consist of the first few letters of the full form. A few words lop off the first part, for example bus and plane, though these are now so well established that they are really no longer thought of as reduced forms, but as words in their own right.

True abbreviations are usually spelled with a final period when they are still regarded as abbreviations, for example, cont. = continued, in = inch. In the cases when they form words in their own right, the period is omitted, for example, hippo = hippopotamus, limo = limousine. Such shortenings are often but not always informal. Some become the standard forms, and the full forms are then regarded as formal or technical, for example, bus = omnibus, taxi = taxicab, deli = delicatessen, zoo = zoological garden. Sometimes shortenings are altered to facilitate their pronunciation or spelling: bike = bicycle

Contractions are abbreviated forms in which letters from the middle of the full form have been omitted, for example, can't = cannot, didn't = did not, you've = you have.

Suspensions are shortened word forms that consist of the frst and last letters of the full word. Examples are titles of persons (e.g., Mr, Ms, Mrs, and Dr) commonly used in combination with the full name, for example, Dr Albert Schweitzer.

Initialisms are made up of the initial letters of words and are pronounced as separate letters: CIA (or C.I.A.), NYC, pm (or p.m.), U.S. (or US). Practice varies with regard to periods, with current usage increasingly in favor of omitting them, especially when the initialism consists entirely of capital letters.

Acronyms word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words. They are pronounced as words rather than as a series of letters, for example, AIDS, laser, scuba, UNESCO, and do not have periods. In many cases the acronym becomes the standard term and the full form is only used in explanatory contexts.

Abbreviations of Greek and Latin origin. In scientific writing, there are a number of abbreviations in use which originate from Latin or Greek. Generally speaking, English terms and abbreviations are preferred to Latin expressions or other foreign words. However, some Latin abbreviations are commonly used in science, preferably confined to parenthetical references. The use of these abbreviations makes sense because they are shorter than their English equivalents.

Below is a selection of common abbreviations of Greek and Latin origin and their English equivalents.