Тerms-synonyms as a mechanism for the formation of the register of valuable trees species and bushes

Abstract

Scientific terminology is an integral functional system that helps to create perceptual images, decode language codes, and understand the “content” of professional speech. A significant problem for scientists is the standardization of the terminological system, which sometimes becomes impossible (extremely controversial) due to the presence of such a “negative phenomenon in terminology” as synonymy, the appearance of which is due to linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. It is worth noting that the absence of this phenomenon has a negative component – the sciences, the branches of which “are closed” in their own space, and their terminology systems do not reflect the structures of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations in a special knowledge field, are not directed by morphological, semantic, syntactic connections of related terminologies , that is, they consciously eliminated from semantic derivation, and in the future they will have a zero query index in the information search systems – hence, the uniqueness of verbalized forms will be cut down.

For a long time the authors of State Standards projects qualified a sign of synonymy in terminology as a negative, undesirable or generally denied phenomenon. Synonyms are “masked” when taken into brackets, and when a recommendation is made to use shorter forms of the terms.

The current state of study of this issue is related to the ordering of scientific terminologies and, accordingly, the terminological apparatus, which provides the unification of existing terminological systems.

The conducted research is based on the use of taxonomy (botanical), analysis and synthesis, comparison of both general scientific methods and the linguistic ones. The work was carried out within the framework of the project № 110/551-PR “The development of the newest principles for the formation of a register of valuable plants, parks and gardens of Kyiv on the basis of terminological standards”.

We consider scientific terminology an integral functional system that helps to create perceptual images, decode language codes, and understand the “content” of professional speech. Therefore, another “crucial” criterion was suggested in determining the synonymy

-   the semantic one, associated with the nomination of realities, which is projected on the division of vocabulary definitions. When it comes to synonymy in plants systematics, we consider all the names that have ever been used to describe this or that plant. The name suggested the first is considered to be a “true name”, others are synonyms.

The emergence of synonymous or parallel names of plant species is caused by various factors: historical (the coexistence of the new and the old name), territorial (the coexistence of names suggested for this type by scientific schools of different countries), etc. However, according to the rules of the International Botanical Nomenclature, only the first of the published names can be valid. The rules for establishing synonymity of names apply only to scientific (Latin) names of taxa and are regulated by the relevant International codes of nomenclature.

While analyzing synonymous names of trees and bushes, we found out that the causes of synonymy occurrence could be: 1) the name was given by mistake; the plants had already been described; 2) different scientists simultaneously worked on the description of the plant; hence we have different names; 3) two forms, described under different names, are united into one kind; one name remains; 4) the name of the species suggested for the first time came out to be somehow “inconvenient”; it was used for another nomination.

Following our predecessors, we agree with the idea that “collective scientific knowledge is constantly multiplied, postulates are reinterpreted, new knowledge emerges”. The dynamics of giving a new meaning to the terms is a reflection of objectively existing globalization: the plurality of meanings of terminological units in terms of the relation of national and international in terminological systems is due to the rapid development of sciences.