Some aspects of the origin and the structure of technical terms in science and literature

Abstract

The thesis is a study of the origin and the structure of technical terms in literature, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and medicine. The study of origin includes not only the proportion of words and word-elements derived from Greek, Latin, French, Anglo-Saxon, and other sources, but also the proportion of terms of metaphorical origins, terms named after Greek and Roman deities, and terms named after persons and places. Statistical tests have been used in order to ascertain whether the differences between the five subjects and particularly the difference between literature and the science subjects taken together are chance differences or whether they are statistically significant. The claims made by most linguists and literary scholars that literature and science are, from the point of view of their technical terms, very different from each other and that technical terms in science are characterized by objectivity, impersonality, and emotional neutrality, have been examined and it has been found that some of these claims are untenable. It has been pointed out that technical terms in science subjects do share certain features but some of these features have never been systematically discussed in the published literature on the subject. A list of word elements graded from the point of view of the number of times they have been used in the formation of technical terms in a subject has also been provided for the use of teachers, textbook designers, and syllabus planners.