Linguistic Sign

Terms as Systematic Units

A term is a unit with systematic linguistic characteristics used in a special domain, which renders scientific concept.

A word is a unit described by a set of systematic linguistic characteristics and has the property of referring to an element in reality. A term is a unit with similar linguistic characteristics used in a special domain. From this standpoint, a word of a special subject field would be a term:

thermometer (metrology) – an instrument used to measure temperature

thermometry (technology) – the technology of temperature measurement

Linguistic analysis of the above examples does not provide any specificity of the terms to differentiate them from words in the common lexicon. From a linguistic point of view, a word is a unit characterized by having a phonetic (and graphic) form, a simple or complex morphological structure, grammatical features, and a meaning that describes the class to which a specific object belongs. A term is also a unit presenting the same characteristics.

Terms as Pragmatic Units

Pragmatics, one of the fields of applied linguistics, deals with the description of language usage. It studies the purpose of linguistic units, the subject dealt with, the users, the communicative situation, the types of discourse in which terms and general language words appear. So the basic purpose of terms is referential; they deal with specific subjects, their users are specialists, communicative situation is structured, discourse is professional scientific.

Term-Concept Relationship

The terminologists’ concept system is represented by a semiotic triangle.

Linguistic Sign

Object Image (realization of an object, concept)

In the base of concepts there is a certain object.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14