Structural Types Of Terms In The Subject Area Of Maritime Engineering

Topicality

This study interprets the maritime terminology sphere of functioning following Yarovaya’s approach (Favorov, 2002) as the usage of maritime terms in technical documentation and oral professional communication. In these forms, the term does not appear in an ideal form, which makes this kind of research very relevant, i.e. achieving the goal of this research involves analyzing how terms of ship engineering recorded in specialized dictionaries are used in professional communication (its written and oral varieties).

The presence of a single term system is of particular importance in the professional maritime communication of mixed crews members, since even a minor misunderstanding caused by the lack of foreign language competence can lead to an accident. This demonstrates the important role that communication plays in the work of seafarers, especially in matters related to interaction with other vessels at sea. Communication between the crewmembers of each individual vessel is also of primary importance in ensuring the safety of navigation. Their communication skills often determine not only the safety of the ship and cargo, but also the preservation of the environment and human lives.

The research material

The research material of the present study involved texts of technical documentation accompanying the activities of the ship's engineer, as well as terminological units selected and recorded in the process of oral professional communication carried out in the course of the second engineer professional activity. Six hundred of such terminological units selected by the continuous sampling method were compared with the dictionary articles of the “The Modern English-Russian Maritime Technical Dictionary” by Lysenko (2005), “The Russian - English and English-Russian Technical and Business Dictionary of the Ship Engineer” by Voznitsky (2004), “The Russian-English Dictionary for Ship Engineers” by Voitenko (1997), “The Compound English-Russian Maritime & Naval Dictionary” by Favorov (2002) “The Dictionary of Terms of Mechanical Engineering” by Atkins (2013), reference books and phrasebooks for ship engineers and motormen. The presence of such units in lexicographic sources served as confirmation of their terminological status.

Thematic groups (TG) of the maritime engineering terminological system

The subjective area of ship engineering is as specific as the conditions of their professional communication and cognitive activity. As the analysis showed, these differences are reflected in the semantic organization of the term system of ship engineering. This fact has determined the possibility to distinguish two main thematic groups (TG) of the MET system. The thematic group in this study contains lexical units based on the relationship with denotations (objects and phenomena of real reality) and is defined as a subject-logical category that reflects the structure of the professional picture of the world and its fragments. Different types of connections can be observed within a thematic group, both paradigmatic and syntagmatic. In this study, thematic groups include words or word combinations connected by means of subordination. In their composition, you can find various lexical and semantic groups (LSG).

The syntactical method of word formation in the terminological system of maritime engineering

The selected terminological units were subjected to word-formation analysis in order to identify their structural specificity. At the first stage, they were divided into groups according to the number of components. As the statistical analysis showed, the multicomponent maritime engineering terms (MET) made up 78 % of the sample and only 22 % of the analyzed units consist of a single word.

This fact led to the conclusion that the most productive way of term formation within the framework of the studied term system turned out to be the syntactical method, which allows you to clarify the name of a technical term, referring it through peripheral components to a situation correlated with the professional activity of a ship engineer.

The ratio of multicomponent structures is shown in Figure 1.

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The diagram shows that among multi-component terms of marine engineering are represented mostly by two-component structures (52 %), for example,Among the two-component terms, we registered literal terms with the first component represented by means of a letter (,.

28% of the multi-component marine engineering terms consist of three components, for example,In addition, one-fifth of multicomponent structures consists of four, five, six and even 7 words, for example:

Fuel tank usage (3)

Auxiliary boiler shut down (4)

Auxiliary boiler emergency operation mode (5)

Forward stern tube lub oil pump(6)

Starboard vacuum condenser cooling sea water pump (7)

Term-phrases are created by adding to the main term element, denoting a generic concept, concretizing features in order to get hyponyms that have a direct connection with the original one. Such terms are actually brief definitions that bring this concept under a general meaning and at the same time indicate its specific feature. Thus, peculiar terminological nests are formed within the MET system (Yarovaya, 2005), covering numerous varieties of the designated phenomenon. For example, the English term "valve", defined in technical dictionaries as "a doorlike part of a pipe or tube which opens and shuts so as to control the flow of liquid, air, gas, etc.", is used as the basis for a number of terms that specify the nature and characteristics of the valve:

globe valve

relief valve –

butterfly valve –

straight valve –

suction valve -

The analysis of the parts of speech composition for multicomponent structures revealed the prevalence of nouns in all multicomponent terms with the exception of four-component terms. 72% of two-component, 38% of three-component, 25% of four-component and 25% of five-component terms consist exclusively of nouns, for example:

scale formation,

diesel oil tank

funnel emergency escape hatch

starboard boiler water circulation pump

The most productive syntactic models of MET are presented in the table below in the descending order from the most frequent to the least frequent (Table 1):

The data presented in the table shows that the second element, most frequent in multicomponent terms, is the adjective; participles, gerunds and conjunctions are less frequent as the secondary components of multicomponent structures.

The morphological method of word formation in the terminological system of marine engineering

The single-compound terms that made up the minority of TSSM terms were analyzed according to the word-formation feature (Figure 2).

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Most of them (53%) are formed by affixation (clearance, alternator, deflection, residual). The suffix models of MET include the following:

N  +  -ing,

N  +  -age,

N  +  -er/-or,

N + -ency,

N + -al,

N +-tion,

N + -ance,

N+ment,

V+ance, for example, surging, clearance, sounding

Prefix models within the system of MET do not appear to be frequent. They are formed mainly according to the models presented below.

re  +  Adj. (restart)

de  +  N (deflect)

over  +  N (overheat)

under  +  N (V) (undercut)

dis + V (disengage)

Mixed type models of the prefix-suffix kind are also represented in the MET sample affixation ().

In addition to morphological methods of term formation, in the field MET, conversion (the transition of one part of speech to another) should also be noted. Non-derivative terms () are approximately twice less common (25%) among the single-component MET. 15 % of the single-part terms of ME are formed by combining word roots (.).

In addition, the sample contains terms formed from structural models created as a result of abbreviation (6%): SWL (safe working load), MSBD (Main switchboard), PMS (Planned maintenance system), IGS (Inert gas system), IGG (Inert gas generator).

MET structural differences in oral communication and written texts

It should be noted that MET in oral communication and technical documentation differ in their structure. The conditions of oral professional communication determine the tendency to compress the structural model of the term. As a result, in oral communication, one-component and two-component terms are used in approximately equal proportions. Structures consisting of three or more units are reduced by eliminating or contracting elements that carry peripheral semes clarifying or concretizing the nuclear seme. Thus, in oral communication, cross-hyponyms are more often used. They consist of either the nuclear element “” instead of “” (), or nuclear with the nearest periphery –) instead of).

As the experience of practical work as a maritime engineer shows, the nuclear component of meaning is implied and recognized due not only to the linguistic, but also to the extralinguistic context. For example, in oral communication is replaced with "", which is the concretizing element of the "" core.

In the ship engineer’s oral speech, the peripheral (concretizing) components of the terms are often omitted. Such omission of the nuclear components of the terms is made possible by the context. It allows you to restore the implied parts of the meaning to the participants of the communication and, in fact, makes it possible in this way. The full use of the term at the beginning of the dialogue allows you to further omit the peripheral component, less often the nuclear ones.

Thus, the prevalence of multicomponent terms in the texts of technical documentation reflects the process of concretization of the concepts of ship engineering, and the tendency to reduce the number of MET components used in oral communication indicates the manifestation of the principle of language economy. At the same time, in written samples of oral professional communication, a multicomponent term is often replaced with a single-component unit that carries a peripheral seme.