Term formation – a conscious process

Word

Invent
Create a new form to name a c -> byte (IT)
Rely on what already exist in the language
- 1 term -> 1 concept
 Concept 2 (polysemy)
- 1 word -> 1 concept

Concept 1
1 term
Concept 2

CURS SEPT 11

Term formation principles

1. Motivation -> very strong reason to create a term (no term for a concept; the existing
term is no longer appropriate)

Romanian – outsourcing – when you externalise some services to another company

Direct borrowing is not motivated
2. Transparency Johnson noise = thermal noise ( term in physics ) thermal noise is
more transparent because we don’t know the inventor
How do we achieve transparency when we create new terms? We use the
distinguishing characteristic in the name of the term ex: washing machine, thermal
noise ex: blackboard

3. Systematicity – following an already existing pattern

- Noble gases: Tyrion, neon – on
4. Precision 1:1
C: T
We use precision to avoid confusion and ambiguity

Chairman -> chairperson (it is more appropriate because is gender-neutral)

Fireman -> firefighter (the term is no longer precise and it is appropriate)
Stewardess -> flight attendant
 Blackboard (it is not precise anymore and it’s confusing because we have a white and
green board) -> it transformed into a chalkboard
Whiteboard -> used for markers

5. Linguistic economy -> as short as possible

 No unnecessary information

To make communication as smooth as possible

If you want to achieve transparency you insert characteristics in the name

It I possible to create variants of the terms

Ex: feature article -> feature (s) have you written your features? (feature articles) to
use linguistic economy but first, you should say the full term: feature article and after
that, you can only say feature

Ex: terminological data bank -> changed into term bank

6. Derivability
7. Linguistic correctness
– spelling, sintax
- Important with borrowings from English -> Romanian (er borrow the oneds that
is easily adaptable to the language, for ex: brand can adapt in romanian, un
brand doua branduri
8. Preference for native language (for Romanian in our case)
- We should always find an equivalent in Romanian
- Ex: exit poll – (a term used in politics) before getting the actual result , we have
the results fro the exist polls meaning that when you exist from the voting
station someone asks you who did you vote with but those are not the actual
results
- There is no equivalent to this term in Romanian (sondaje de opinie la iesirea
din urne) pentru ca incalca principiul de linguistic economy, it is too long, and
the borrowing from English to Romanian is motivated because of that.
Ex: follower -> urmaritor (inainte incalca princpiul de precisie sa fie appropriate pentru ca
atuci cand a a aparut facebook urmaritor avea conotatii negative gen stalker, de aceea am
imprumutat din englesa and the borrowing is motivated) follower – ul; followersi.
Or we paraphrase the term ex: cei/persoanele/utilizatorii care urmaresc profilul sau pagina.
Mereu adaugam ce urmareste gen pagina profilul ca sa evitam folosirra unei conotatii
negative in sensul de stalker.
Ex: reach (noun) – is a unit of measure – the number of people who have seen a post
There is no equivalent in romaninan so we borrow it directly; ex: ro reach-ul
IMPORTANT:
They are not all applicale to one term; a term cannot fill them all, which is more appropriate
to a certain situation
Exercises
Cybercommunity equivalents in Romanian
 - Comunitate cibernetica – prefixul cyber nu are nimic de a face cu stiinta de
cibernetica din roman pt ca e o stiinta exacta care se ocupa cu ceva si nu are
legatura cu comunitatea cibernetica de pe online
- Comunitate online
- Securitate cibernetica – not precise
- Comunitate virtuala – argumentul bun este ca acesta este echivalentul bun
pentru cybercommunity pentru ca e cuvantul efectiv in romana “virtual”, deci
asta e cel mai bun echivalent
- Cibercomunitate – this one is not productive because we do not ave such
prefixes in romanian like ‘ciber’
- Comunitate pe internet
- E-comunitate (e- prescurtarea de la electronic, ex: e-mail = electronic mail)
Cyber is a prefix that comes from IT, computers, internet domain cyber is very productive in
english
Cybersecurity
Cyberattack
Cyberbulling
In english this compound with e- is very productive
E-learning – avem echivalent in romana -> invatatmant la distranta but its too long and not so
precise and that’s why we use the borrowing which is e-learning
E-cash
e-book
e-banking
Virtual:
Online:
Digital
LA EXAMEN SE POATE SA AVEM UN EXERCITIU DIN ASTA DE ARGUMENTAT CA
ALEA CU CYBER DE CE NU E BUN SI DE CE E BUN
Term in social media
Organic (adj)

Transdisciplinary

Because it is natural without aditives, like in social media it grows organically, grows without
paying money

Ex: organic social media

Organic reach – the number of used to that see a post is natural
Organic growth
Organic engagement

And the opposite for organic in social media is PAID:

In Romanian the equivalent is REACH ORGANIC

ANOTHER TERM
Engagement rate – engaged user/audience (adj) = like, share, comment, reply)
Rata de interactiune
Grad de interactiune
Grad de implicare
Rata de engagement
Public angajat
ANOTHER TERM
Impressions is hard to equva;ed

Examen
Dommeniu si subdomeniu se gaseste undeva in primul paragraph

SAPTAMANA 12

1. Conversion: Google -> to google

Terminologization: (GL word -> term in a field
Transdisciplinary borrowing ( 1 term field -> field 2)

2. Derivation:
(prefix + suffix)
Compounding:

Compression:
- Clipping (flu -> influenza)
- Acronyms (AIDS)
- Initialism (PR) – BECAUSE WE PRONOUNCE IT INITIAL BY INITIAL
- Short forms (feature -> feature article)
- Abbreviations
 - Blends
3. Translingual borrowing
- Direct borrowing
- Indirect borrowing