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LECTURE 6
TERM CREATION: SEMANTIC TERM FORMATION
AND BORROWING

6.1 Semantic term formation.
6.2 Borrowings.
6.3 Other ways of term formation.

Key terms: semantic term formation, borrowing, artificial
ways of term formation

6.1 Semantic term formation.
The term creation by using existing linguistic forms of
common words or terms from other professional fields is called the
semantic term formation or the transformation of common words
into professional units. The word that is used to construct a new
term is called a prototype, and the newly created term is
denominated as a transform. The transformation of common
words into terms is based on similar features between "old" and
"new" objects, phenomena. Depending on the feature that is the
basis for term creation we differentiate the following main types of
transformation:
• nomination through qualifying the meaning;
• nomination basing on the similarity between features
(external features or functions);
• nomination basing on the contiguity of concepts.
Nomination through qualifying the meaning. If we compare
the common word wing with a biological term wing at first sight
there are no differences at all between them: they represent the
same object, hence their meanings seem to be identical. The same
we observe comparing the common word market and economic
term market, brittleness, hardness, etc. But let’s compare the
definitions of the signs:

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