Information on the thesis

Thesis for the Candidate Degree in Philology: Speciality 10.02.04 – Germanic Languages. – L’viv Ivan Franko National University. –  L’viv, 2016.

The thesis focuses on the structural and semantic peculiarities of the English Terms of Environmental Protection (EP).

In Chapter 1 an attempt has been made to look at different definitions of the word “term” offered by well-known researchers and on the basis of that own definition of the EP term has been formed. The problem of differentiation between terms and words which has always been the most disputable item in terminological discussions has been considered and features that differentiate terms from other lexical units have been defined and analyzed. Moreover, major stages in the development of the EP terminology have been identified. The author also defines the place of term in the lexical system of professional language and analyzes it from the point of view of different classifications.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of basic linguistic methods applied in the research of EP terms: method of continuous sampling, word formative, distributional analysis etc. The basic structural method widely used in the study is componential analysis. Identification of semantic invariant and application of componential analysis is clearly illustrated on the example of the EP term “emission”.

Chapter 3 deals with the structure of EP term system. It has been found out that the researched term system consists of narrowly specialized terms, terms from related sciences and general terms. Term system of EP has been divided into eleven thematic groups inside of which lexical-semantic groups are built. It has been also offered to study the researched terminology in the aspect of hyper-hyponymic relations which very often become the basis on which thematic groups are identified. Borrowings and neologisms as parts of EP term system have been described. This chapter also covers the analysis of structure of the terms which are analyzed from the point of view of morphological and syntactic methods of term-formation. Structurally EP terms are divided into non-derivative, derivative terms, composites, abbreviations and terminological phrases dominating of which are the last ones. The productive structural models of each type have been identified. Terminological phrases consisting of two components prevail in the researched terminology.

Chapter 4 focuses on semantic and pragmatic peculiarities of EP terms. The main types of secondary nomination are metaphorical and metonymical transfers. The terms of the researched system which are formed as the result of metaphorical transfer the basis for which can be: 1) external similarity; 2) functional similarity; 3) external and functional similarity have been analyzed. Furthermore, attention is paid to metonymical transfer as the way of semantic development of terminological unit, the productive models of metonymical transfer in the researched term system have been revealed. Such lexical-semantic processes as synonymy, antonymy, polysemy taking place in the English EP term system have been also distinguished and characterized.

Pragmatic aspects of term analysis include 1) the research on distribution of terms in professional texts and 2) standardization of the terminological system.

Some aspects of terms’ functioning in professional texts taken from journal (Journal of Environmental Protection) have been described. Terminological saturation of such texts has been also defined.

In addition, parallel analysis of the structure and semantics of EP terms has been done making a contribution to the process of normalization and standardization of the researched terminology and can be also used for the further formation of new EP terminological units.

Key words: term, term system, terminological phrase, thematic group, synonymic, antonymic and polysemic relations, metaphorical and metonymical transfers, terminological saturation of the text, standardization.