Modern terminography, its main tasks and problematics

Abstract

Scientific and technological progress is predetermined by the intensive development of science and technology, which brings noticeable changes in the different areas of knowledge. More than 90 % of new words in languages are the terms. There is a need in the publication of new terminological dictionaries. The dictionaries are considered to be the main programme resources of many scientific subjects. However, the problem is that mentioned dictionaries do not meet the requirements of theoretical lexicography; some of them are not reasonable and conceptualized.

There is much tension around the issue of theoretical substantiation, because it is impossible to compile qualitative terminological dictionary irrespective of the theoretical basis of lexicography. There are some Terminological centres and associations in Kharkiv and Kyiv which define common task: creation of single supervisory union which unifies Ukrainian scientific terminology of each subject area and coordinates terminological dictionaries’ publications, checking their quality, actuality and correspondence to theoretical terminological requirements. The aim of the article is to represent theoretical framework of terminography and generally accepted methodological requirements to the compiling of qualitative and reasonable terminological dictionaries. Terminography is one of the most important human activities in the branch of terminology, which aims are to systematize, organize and unify scientific terminology. Key challenges of the modern terminographical theory are: the development of methodological principles of the terminological dictionaries; the formation of scientifically grounded typology of special dictionaries; the development of invariant project of the dictionary for the description of different special layers of the vocabulary; the determination of basic parameters of terminology dictionaries; preparation of principle requirements to terminographical works; the study of macro- and microstructure of the dictionary; analysis of the ways of selection of the terminological dictionary; the establishment of basis receptions of terms’ description; the computer use in creating terminological dictionaries.

Modern published terminological dictionaries have some weak points: random terms set; absence of distinct limits of correspondent term systems; deviance of orthography. The solution of these problems is in organization of a single Terminography Union which creates the unified registry to a dictionary, including reflection of lexical and semantic relations, develops the question of equivalence in translation of these terms and gives their grammatical and semantic characteristics. Taking into account the above mentioned problems of therminography, the scientists define the following requirements to the terminological dictionaries: in-depth coverage of special lexis of the elective branch; availability of the necessary information about special lexical units; lack of the unnecessary information which increases the volume of the dictionary and complicates the search for the necessary information; unification of the composition and references of similar dictionaries to facilitate users from switching from one vocabulary to another; maximum harmony between all the elements of the methodological setting and the composition of the dictionary.