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A. PARIANOU/P.I. KELANDRIAS–TRANSLATION OF TERMS OF GREEK ORIGIN IN LSP TEXTS
denotatively synonymous terms that are not equally used. For example the Greek term
Hepatitis – when used in German – is a more LSP-oriented term than the German
Leberentzündung. The difference between Hepatitis and Leberentzündung lies in the different
registers that exist within LSP. There are terms that belong to a higher LSP register and
others to a lower LSP register. This means that Hepatitis belongs to a higher LSP register
and Leberentzündung to a lower LSP register. This does not mean that the synonyms of
Greek and German origin are interchangeable. As there is no total synonymy, not only
between common language and LSP, but even within LSP, each of these “synonymous”
terms has its own function within its language community, its contextual and situational
factors of communication. The English language often lacks registers in LSP because it
possesses the Greek or Latin term without having an English equivalent. So, while the
German language has two LSP terms for pericarditis (Herzbeutelentzündung and Perikarditis)
the English language has only the Greek term.
Most LSP terms contain a large amount of loanwords from Greek and Latin via
French, German or English LSP, except for terms in economics, public administration
and legal specialised language where the loanwords are less frequent. LSPs with lower
cultural commitment are more likely to borrow loanwords from other languages than
LSPs whose cultural commitment is higher. This is, for instance, the case with medicine
where cultural commitment is not so strong or evident compared to law or public
administration, where cultural commitment is higher.
PSEUDOGRECISMS AND TRANSLATION
“Pseudogrecisms” are terms consisting of Greek components but which are not
quite understandable to a common Greek reader who reads them e.g. in a German text
since they are used in the particular German LSP only. Examples of this phenomenon are
Legasthenie and Parodontose. These are neologisms not used in the Greek language since
their Greek equivalents are different: duslex…a (dyslexia) and oul…tida (oulitida).
In both cases, the morphology of these neologisms is not different from any other
Greek word. Yet, when trying to translate them, we become aware of the difficulties that
arise because, while morphologically these terms do not differ from any other Greek term
semantically they do. The Greek audience will understand that both words have medical
background but it will not be able to understand their exact meaning. Etymologically, for
example Legasthenie derives from Ancient Greek, from legein (read) and astheneia (weakness).
The Greek duslex…a has Greek morphology but is a loanword from the English dyslexia
since the term first appeared in English.
So, we may conclude that some termini technici of Greek origin are created in one
language and are later adopted by other languages. This means that scientists often create
a technical term to use it only in their own language because their main concern is to
denominate even the smallest scientific or technical discovery in a way that some
linguists and terminographers will perhaps criticise because terminology acts not “through
a single language and not according to the semantic rules governing any one language”
(Rey 1995: 54). As Greek and Latin LSP terms already existed during the last centuries
the majority of scientists helped themselves creating new terminology by recurring to this
linguistic arsenal. The flexibility and easiness (e.g. due to confixation, blends between
Greek and Latin, and between Greek or Latin and English or German) of the two ancient
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