Lexical Peculiarities of the scientific style.

As scientific prose is restricted to formal situations and, consequently, to formal style, it employs a special vocabulary which consists of two main groups: words associated with professional communication and a less exclusive group of so-called learned words. The term “learned” includes several heterogeneous subdivisions of words. Here one can find numerous words that are used in scientific prose and can be identified by their dry, matter-of-fact flavour, for example, comprise, compile, experimental, heterogeneous, homogeneous, conclusive, divergent, etc. Another group of learned word comprises “literary” or “refined” words. Their very sound seems to create complex associations: deleterious, emollient, incommodious, meditation, illusionary.

A second and no less important feature, and perhaps the most con­spicuous, is the use of terms specific to each given branch of science. It will be wise to state in passing that due to the rapid dis­semination of scientific and technical ideas, particularly in what are called the exact sciences, we may observe the process of "de-terminization", that is, some scientific and technical terms begin to circulate outside the narrow field they belong to and eventually begin to develop new mean­ings. But the overwhelming majority of terms do not undergo this process of determinization and remain the property of scientific prose. There they are .born, may develop new terminological meanings, and there they die. Hence the rapid creation of • new terms in any developing science

Further, the general vocabulary employed in scientific prose bears its direct referential meaning, that is, words used in scientific prose will always tend-to be used^in .their primary logical meaning. Hardly a single word will be^found here which, in contrast to the belles-lettres style, is used in,more than one meaning. Nor will there be any words with contextual meaning. Even the possibility of ambiguity is avoided. Furthermore, terms are coined so as to be self-explanatory to the greatest possible degree. But in spite of this a new term in scientific prose is gen­erally followed (or preceded!) by an explanation.

The general vocabulary employed in scientific prose bears its direct referential meaning, that is, words used in scientific prose will always tend to be used in their primary logical meaning. Hardly a single word will be found here which is used in more than one meaning. Nor will there be any words with contextual meaning. Even the possibility of ambiguity is avoided. Likewise, neutral and cofnmon Hterary words used in scientific prose will be explained, even if their meaning is only slightly modified, either in the context (by a parenthesis or an attributive phrase) or in a foot-note.

A particularly important aspect of scientific and technological language is the subject-neutral vocabulary which cuts across different specialized domains. In particular, a great deal of scientific work involves giving instructions to act in a certain way, or reporting on the consequences of having so acted. Several lexical categories can be identified within the language of scientific instruction and narrative:
• Verbs of exposition: ascertain, assume, compare, construct, describe, determine, estimate, examine, explain, label, plot, record, test, verify.
• Verbs of warning and advising: avoid, check, ensure, notice, prevent, remember, take care; also several negative items: not drop, not spill.
• Verbs of manipulation: adjust, align, assemble, begin, boil, clamp, connect, cover, decrease, dilute, extract, fill, immerse, mix, prepare, release, rotate, switch on, take, weigh.
• Adjectival modifiers and their related adverbs: careful(y), clockwise, continuous(ly), final(ly), gradual(ly), moderate(ly), periodic(ally), secure(ly), subsequent(ly), vertical(ly).

lexical means - highly specialized scientific terminology, terminological groups, revealing the conceptual systems of the scientific style, the peculiarities of the use of terms in scientific speech, the use of nouns and verbs in abstract meanings, special reference words, scientific phraseology - clichés, stereotyped and hackneyed word combinations and idioms, priority of neutral vocabulary, limitations in the use of emotional- evaluative and expressive vocabulary and phraseology, absence of non-literary vocabulary and phraseology ( slang words, vulgarisms, obscene words) , peculiarities in word- building (standard suffixes and prefixes, mainly of Greek and Latin origin – tele-, morpho, philo- -ism, etc.), peculiarities in the scarce use of imagery (usually trite and hackneyed, the priority of the functions of intensification and decoration, non-systematic, narrow contextual character, absence of rich associations, schematic and generalized character);

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 2305