últimas corrientes teóricas en los estudios de traducción - Gredos ...

A. PARIANOU/P.I. KELANDRIAS–TRANSLATION OF TERMS OF GREEK ORIGIN IN LSP TEXTS
TRANSLATION OF TERMS OF GREEK ORIGIN IN LSP TEXTS
ANASTASIA PARIANOU/PANAYOTIS I. KELANDRIAS
Ionian University
Neologisms of Greek and Latin origin were created and used in specialised texts,
especially in philosophy and medicine, as far back as the 16th century. Greek and Latin
terms constituted the main source of LSP terminology, through a) latinised Grecisms, e.g.
cauterizare (engl. cauterise, germ. cauterisieren) and clysterizare (engl. clysterise, germ. clystieren) in
medical terminology and b) synonyms in both Greek and Latin, e.g. diaphragma (gr.) and
proecordia (lat.), all examples from medical terminology 1 . Later, French was added to the
languages that created new terminology. For example, terms such as perron, billett and coupé
were used to describe the terminology of the railways. While Greek and German language
coined their own equivalents for these three terms a long time ago, they are still using
coupé (in Greek and mostly Austrian German) for compartment and in the German-speaking
part of Switzerland Billett 2 is used for ticket and Perron for the railway platform. Today,
English has almost taken over the role of the language that provides new terminology to
the rest of the world, sometimes using Greek and Latin morphemic material. Examples of
new English terminology are body-mass-index 3 , craving 4 , reward dependence, harm avoidance,
markup language and IDA-program which are all used not only in English but also e.g. in
German.
English and German terms such as angiography, antigene, myopathy, Dyskalkulie and
radiculär are the evidence of the preference for Greek and Latin in medical terminology.
Yet, there were many people that claimed the purity of their language reacting to foreign
terms. The reason for this aversion lies in the misunderstanding of language. Language
does not follow a diachronically ideal and mythical path but is used by a language
community that forms it according to its needs. Mostly cultural, political and economic
needs of a language must be satisfied to assure an understanding within a language
community 5 . This understanding will not be offended and the language community will
not lose its cultural identity if it integrates words coming from other languages. Speaking
from a linguistic point of view, the lexicon may be affected by the introduction of new
words, but not phonology, morphology or syntax of a language.
Greek and Latin provide most of the lexical wealth of modern scientific languages.
These lexical units are called neologisms when no counterpart exists in either of the two
languages mentioned (Scheler 1995: 162). Neologisms are created to denote new aspects
1 RYFF, Walther Hermann, Die groß Chirurgei, 1545.
2 Billett is known in Germany though it has an anachronistic connotation for the Germans. The term used all
over Germany is Fahrkarte. Yet, new terms such as billett and coupé caused dissent among scholars and scientists all over
Europe. For example, in Germany the Allgemeine Deutsche Sprachverein was established in 1885 to prevent the infiltration
of the German language by foreign linguistic influence. This attempt for linguistic purity was quite successful in
substituting foreign words with German ones.
3 Übergewicht, definiert nach dem Body-Mass-Index (BMI), ist ein bekannter Risikofaktor für die Entwicklung
von Hochdruck, koronarer Herzerkrankung sowie einiger Krebsformen […] (Der Internist. 1999, vol. 6, p. 693)
4 Der Internist. 1999, vol. 6, p. 597
5 While in many countries, new words coming from another language were called loanwords and are listed in the
dictionaries as any other word, in Germany these words were mostly called foreign words and could be found in special
dictionaries (cf. Hill 1999). As already Saussure (1916: 26) recognised, the synchronic examination of language does not
ask whether a term is a loanword or a foreign word. What matters, is the relationship it develops with the words
associated with it.
550