Eksplicitinė terminų sinonimija nemoksliniame sveikatos diskurse

doi.org/10.35321/term28-05 Explicit database), list. The main advantage of this method is that there is no need to decide each time whether specific linguistic units are synonyms and, indeed, whether they are terms at all. Another approach is to look for synonymous terms that were not anticipated in advance. In this case, one must either read the texts in their entirety or limit the search to explicitly expressed terminological synonymy. As is known, synonymous terms in a text may be distinguished graphically (by typeface, parentheses, etc.) or linked by metalinguistic comments (metalinguistic markers), for example: or, also called, otherwise, another term, and so on. Explicit terminological synonymy is relevant and merits closer examination not only because of its practical value, but also because it reflects the addresser’s conscious view of the relationship between terms and is not simply the result of inattention or oversight, as occurs in other cases of synonymy (or, more broadly, variation). The aim of this article is to discuss explicit terminological synonymy in non-scientific discourse. The study sought to determine the nature of this type of synonymy and to identify problematic cases. The research source is the Lithuanian Web corpus ltTenTen14, comprising over 778 million words. This corpus was compiled from web texts collected by the SpiderLing crawler in April 2014 and is available to users of Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff et al. 2014)1. The study used not the entire corpus, but only a subset of it—texts from health-related websites (discussed in more detail in the next section). Why not choose scientific texts, the traditional source for terminology research and the natural environment of terms? It is known that the choice of terms is determined not only by cognitive and linguistic factors, but also by communicative ones. Contemporary terminology recognizes that a concept may have as many linguistic forms as there are different communicative situations requiring different linguistic expression (Sager 1990: 58). Thus, it was expected that a heterogeneous web corpus would yield a wider variety of synonyms, which are presumably not characteristic of scientific texts. SELECTION OF SYNONYMS In Lithuanian terminology, little has been written about selecting synonyms by means of metalinguistic markers. Here, Sigita Stankevičienė’s dissertation should be mentioned, 1 This corpus belongs to the TenTen family of corpora, which comprises web corpora in more than 40 languages, compiled according to the same criteria. For more information, see https://www.sketchengine.eu/documentation/tenten-corpora/. Terminologija | 2021 | 28 101 which states that in Lithuanian physics textbooks synonyms are explicitly marked by verbs of defining meaning (to call, to say) with additive-meaning words (also), by the disjunctive conjunction or; synonyms are given in parentheses (sometimes with the clarifying reference i.e.) (Stankevičienė 2013: 136–137). A monograph on the automatic recognition and definition of Lithuanian terms mentions that synonymy in a corpus can be identified using the pattern method (x is also called y − x taip pat vadinamas y) (Bielinskienė et al. 2015: 71), but does not discuss in greater detail informative contexts containing synonyms in Lithuanian. In the Lithuanian academic language corpus CorALit (nine million words, texts from 1999–2009), an attempt was made to search for synonymous terms by entering the word stems vadinam and sakom. The latter search yielded only 26 lines, in which sakom* does not connect synonyms. The Vadinam* concordance is much larger (778 lines) and more informative, so lines containing also, otherwise, as well were then searched for automatically, after which the left collocates were additionally reviewed. It was established that the following metalinguistic comments signal synonyms: [otherwise] also called* sometimes [also] called* often / more often / most often [also] called* briefly / more briefly called* usually called* or called* (pronominal form) Thus, after confirming in the academic corpus that synonymous terms are indeed signaled by the participle vadinamas, –a together with appropriate adverbs or a conjunction, the study proceeded to the web corpus. In the web corpus ltTenTen14, a simple search for vadinam* yielded a concordance of more than 232,000 lines. Word-frequency data by website were then reviewed (the “text types” data category). It was observed that among the top ten (in tenth place) was the health-themed website sveikassmogus.lt (hereafter SŽ) (1,921 occurrences); among the top thirty was also sveikas.lt (hereafter SV) (30th place, 1,064 occurrences); and among the top hundred there were more websites on this topic, most aimed at the general public and educational in nature. This prompted an examination of corpus data specifically from health and medical websites intended for the general public. The search in that web corpus was limited to texts from the two websites mentioned above (hereafter the health subcorpus): the frequency of vadinam* on these sites proved sufficient for the study (nearly 3,000 lines), and the texts’ intended audience was also quite 102 Asta Mitkevičienė Eksplicitinė terminų sinonimija nemoksliniame sveikatos diskurse similar2. Next, the health corpus was called* automatically filtered for concordance lines in which, within three positions of the search term, dar, otherwise, also, often, briefly, usually, or was recorded; the left context was then reviewed. This identified metalinguistic comments linking synonyms (see Table 1). Such comments denote either simply an alternative, additional naming of a concept (the most popular pattern is also called*), or they also indicate a distinction between the names (style, frequency, etc.). This correlates with the functions of metalinguistic comments distinguished by Kazimieras Župerka: identifying expression variants and describing variable linguistic expression (see Župerka 2012: 130–142). In addition, lines containing inflected forms of the attributive participle called were automatically sorted, and each of those lines was then reviewed. Although searching for synonyms using so-called is productive, the attributive participle alone does not appear to be a direct synonym marker. The data analyzed show that synonyms in such lines can be identified by parentheses, commas, dashes, and other synonym markers (or, otherwise), rather than by the participle form itself; compare: so-called abdominal (belly-type) obesity SV; unwanted, so-called side effect SŽ; the so-called fish-odor syndrome, or trimethylaminuria SŽ. Nevertheless, examples of this type were included in this article because they also contain explicit terminological synonymy. The metalinguistic comments listed in the table are combined with one another, so various combinations are used, for example: also known as, often popularly called, and so on; particularly often, they include dar. Unlike the CorALit corpus of scientific language CorALit, the health corpus contains no synonyms linked by the pattern briefly / in shorter form called*. Only a few formal indicators of synonyms have been discussed here, and it should be added that some are not exclusively synonym markers. Among other usage facts irrelevant to this study, where the metalinguistic comments in question signal not synonymous terms (e.g., one can reach such a deep hypnosis, also called somnambulism, that SŽ), it is important that the material under study also marks terms denoting different concepts. However, they should be regarded at most as contextual synonyms, for example: 2 It should be added that these websites cover not only medicine, but also psychology, sports, nutrition, healthy living, and other topics. This also determines the terminology used. Another point relevant to the topic of the study is that spoken language is quoted or paraphrased in the texts, and its characteristics also affect terminology use—for instance, shorter forms of terms are used, among other things. Moreover, at least some of the texts may be translations. Terminologija | 2021 | 28 103 Because of its property of reducing the number of free radicals, vitamin [vitamin C – author’s note] is also called an antioxidant SŽ; <...> some patients may develop pneumonia (so-called interstitial lung disease), blood in the urine, severe itching of the skin, swelling of the face, lips, mouth or larynx, which may make it difficult to breathe and swallow, abdominal pain SV. Table 1. Metalinguistic comments indicating terminological synonymy with vadinam* METALINGUISTIC COMMENT DISTINCTION EXPRESSED BY THE METALINGUISTIC COMMENT also called* also known as* otherwise called* or called* called* variously [called* (attributive form)] – scientifically / by scientists called* style (scientific usage) medically / in medicine called* called* by doctors style (specialized, professional usage3) called by the people / in popular usage / popularly called* called by people* called in society* popularly called* commonly called* called* simply style (general, informal, popular usage4) sometimes called* often called* frequently called* frequency called in the world* called elsewhere* called here* place5 3 K. Župerka found that medical language is most often presented through metalinguistic comments on professional speech (Župerka 2007: 63). 4 Discussing metalinguistic comments on popular speech, K. Župerka states that “comments using forms of the verb vadinti most often comment on so-called folk terms, both traditional and more recent, including among the latter slang terms” (Župerka 2012: 188). 5 Only isolated cases were found. 104 Asta Mitkevičienė Eksplícitinė terminų sinonimija nemoksliniame sveikatos diskurse Thus, the next, much more complex stage of the study was to distinguish true synonyms from contextual synonyms. Since the study was conducted by an individual researcher, assistance from health sciences specialists was not available. Therefore, relevant information had to be sought in various reference works. The most comprehensive dictionary of medical terms (MedŽ) was published more than 40 years ago, while Medicinos enciklopedija (MedE) was published 30 years ago. Naturally, they record synonyms that are no longer in use, and do not include terms relevant to the study or designations for new concepts. The electronic Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (VLEe) proved useful for the topic of the study; term entries on the ligos.lt website, TLK-10-AM, Google searches, and other sources were also used (as already mentioned, the material under study includes terms that are not exclusively medical). Nevertheless, it was not possible in every case to determine whether the selected examples were synonyms, so no quantitative analysis of synonyms was carried out6. Thus, in summary, it should be emphasized that identifying synonyms (even explicit ones) requires answering the following questions: • Are both lexical units terms? • Are the terms systematic synonyms? THE NATURE OF SYNONYMY In the health subcorpus, explicit synonyms, as might be expected, serve informational (didactic) and/or explanatory functions. A synonym is presented as an alternative, additional designation for a concept (a), as well as a clearer term, more readily understood by the addressee on the basis of its internal form or more familiar to them (b), e.g.: a) adrenaline, also called epinephrine SV; Constipation, also called obstipation SŽ; the Forer effect, also called the Barnum effect SŽ; ectopic (so-called extrauterine) pregnancy SV; Liposuction, also called lipoplasty or liposculpture SŽ; color therapy, also called chromotherapy SŽ; b) acetylsalicylic acid (popularly called aspirin) SV; the Air Flow method (otherwise known as soda blasting) SŽ; fructose, also called fruit sugar SŽ; Vaginal candidiasis (otherwise known as thrush) SV; so-called abdominal (belly) obesity SŽ, etc. 6 Reference works do not always treat terminological relationships consistently. For example, VLEe lists the international term immunoglobulins as a synonym for antibodies, whereas the Explanatory Dictionary of Immunology and Allergology Terms (AIATŽ) does not treat them as synonyms (cf. immunoglobulins, “glycoprotein molecules that perform the functions of antibodies”). Terminologija | 2021 | 28 105 Of course, in many cases it is not possible to state categorically that the purpose of a synonym is explanation, since a synonym may be given not in order to explain, but simply to provide another name for a concept; cf. Stein-Leventhal syndrome, also known as polycystic ovary syndrome SŽ et al. When the second term seems clearer than the first, an explanatory function can be discerned7. As the examples show, the terms explicitly linked are not only synonyms that form an opposition based on origin, but also so-called motivational synonyms, which name the same concept according to different features (for more, see Mitkevičienė 2020: 11–12). As is well known, in usage terms may be shortened elliptically, replaced by hyperonyms or other terms with broader meanings, or paraphrased. They may also be lengthened when they seem not entirely clear, especially outside scientific language (Kazimieras Gaivenis mentions this latter, almost unstudied case (Gaivenis 2014: 122)). The features and tendencies of term usage mean that terms in imprecise forms are also linked as synonyms in the health subcorpus. For example, in type 2 diabetes is also called non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) SV, the first term is shortened by omission of the component mellitus (cf. type 2 diabetes mellitus TLK–10–AM), or in the example so-called mumps (parotitis) SŽ, the second term is used without the component epidemic (cf. mumps, epidemic parotitis TLK–10–AM, VLEe). The opposite example is the separation process (also called separation) SŽ8, where the first term is lengthened by the word process. Synonyms accompanied by metalinguistic comments reflect actual term usage in non-scientific discourse, where systematic and contextual synonymy intermingle, for example: a cervical cytology smear, otherwise known as a PAP test SV; a cytological examination, also called a Pap test SŽ; a PAP examination. This examination is also called an oncological or cytological cervical smear SŽ. The forms of the terms alone—that is, by applying the linguistic criterion of expression—may provide grounds for determining which synonyms do not have the same semantic scope. Of course, terminological variation cannot always be explained by textual features—not all terms are established. Inattention to expression and errors are also possible, and when a text is translated, the influence of the source language may play a role. 7 Ona Petrenienė found that synonyms in popular science texts are most often used to explain international terms (Petrenienė 2003: 48). 8 Context: “Clearly, the separation process (also called separation) begins much earlier than adolescence or the child’s reaching adulthood” SŽ. 106 Asta Mitkevičienė Eksplicitinė terminų sinonimija nemoksliniame sveikatos diskurse In the material under study, terms and their periphrases are explicitly linked. A periphrasis is “a descriptive rendering of the actual name” (KalbŽ), “the replacement of a word or its form with a descriptive word combination or another construction that denotes characteristic features of the relevant object (phenomenon) or describes it figuratively” (LKE). Since periphrases can explain terms that are not always clear and understandable to readers (Pikčilingis 1975: 231), they are useful in non-scientific discourse. Maria Teresa Cabré states that less specialized discourse is distinguished at the formal level precisely by an abundance of periphrases (quoted in Freixa 2006: 58). The paraphrasing of the names of various hormones may be considered quite well known, for example: estrogens, also called female-attractiveness hormones SŽ; endorphins—the so-called happiness hormones SŽ; cortisol (the so-called stress hormone) SŽ, and so on. This paraphrasing is based on the broader-meaning term hormone, which has entered general usage. If we examine the definitions of the cited terms in VLEe, we will see that endorphins are defined as polypeptides and estrogens as steroids, that is, by a closer hyperonym. The data analyzed clearly show that the same periphrasis is sometimes used to name different concepts, for example: hepatitis A, otherwise known as “the dirty-hands disease” SŽ; dysentery is also called the dirty-hands disease SŽ, and so on; thus the same periphrasis becomes a kind of hyperonym for those terms. The periphrases mentioned here can only be considered contextual synonyms and, of course, do not function as terms. It is difficult to imagine a specialized text written without terms, using only such periphrases in their place. If we take the criterion of permanence into account, although “permanent, frequently used periphrases become phraseological units and supplement sets of systematic synonyms” (Župerka 2001: 35), in terminology such periphrases should first and foremost function as terms (be terminologized)9. Returning to hormone names, VLEe gives somatotropin as a synonym for growth hormone, which means that this synonym could also be considered a systematic synonym (cf. human growth hormone, also called somatropin (=somatotropin) SV), at least in non-scientific discourse. FUNCTIONAL SYNONYMS Terminologist Judit Freixa, having analyzed in detail the causes of terminological variation in naming, distinguished five groups of causes, of which 9 Numerous periphrases were presented in MedŽ, where they were included as synonyms; many of them can be considered the result of terminology management. Terminologija | 2021 | 28 107 viena yra funkcinės priežastys (skirtingi komunikaciniai registrai) (Freixa 2006). Funkcinių priežasčių nulemta pragmatinė sinonimija yra itin būdinga medicinos sričiai. As can be seen from Table 1, some synonyms in the material under study are linked as belonging to different communicative situations, styles, or registers10—general or informal usage (expressed by words such as in popular usage, colloquially, etc.) and scientific or specialist usage (scientifically, medically, by doctors, etc.), for example: a) acetylsalicylic acid (popularly known as aspirin) SV (acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin, 2-acetoxybenzoic acid VLEe); the soft tissue inside the tooth root canal (pulp), colloquially called a “nerve” SŽ; sepsis (colloquially called blood poisoning) SŽ (sepsis, blood poisoning VLEe); light-cured composites, popularly called helium fillings SŽ, etc.; b) bee propolis, scientifically known as propolis SŽ (bee glue, propolis VLEe); pediculosis (the scientific term for having lice) SŽ (pediculosis, infestation with lice VLEe); inflammation of the peritoneum. Medically, it is called peritonitis SŽ; Constipation, called obstipation by doctors SŽ (constipation, obstipation VLEe), etc.11 Of course, synonyms used in different communicative situations are also expressed without metalinguistic comments indicating the usage situation, for example: Diuretics, <...> (which is why these medicines are sometimes called “water pills”) SŽ (diuretics, diuretic drugs VLEe); ectopic (so-called extrauterine) pregnancy SV (extrauterine pregnancy, ectopic pregnancy VLEe); Probiotics, so-called “good” bacteria SV, etc. The study data show that international terms are, of course, considered more scientific. This raises the question: can synonyms from popular usage also be regarded as term synonyms in scientific communication? 10 Registro terminas yra ypač nevienareikšmis (žr. Miliūnaitė 2009: 25 ir ten nurodytą literatūrą). Vertimo teoretikas Lionginas Pažūsis rašo, kad „kalbėdami apie „registrą“ (angl. register), kuriam priklauso žodis, turime galvoje tam tikras sąlygas arba kalbėjimo situaciją, kuri lemia kalbos priemonių, tarp jų ir leksinių vienetų, pasirinkimą“, ir nurodo penkis registrus: familiarųjį, neformalųjį, neutralųjį, formalųjį ir aukštąjį (Pažūsis 2014: 293). 11 It should be emphasized that terms used by doctors (practitioners) and those used in scientific literature (by researchers) should be examined separately, as they belong to different communicative situations. Although, as noted in foreign terminology studies, so-called diastratic variation (English diastractic variation) in terminology is often limited to the opposition between specialist (subject-field expert) discourse and discourse for non-specialists (popularization), it has been suggested that differences in the terminology used by experts in the same field—for example, researchers and practitioners—should also be taken into account (Picton, Dury 2017). Nevertheless, no such differences could be discerned in the material under study. 108 Asta Mitkevičienė Ekspl icitinė terminų sinonimija nemoksliniame sveikatos diskurse One may adopt the formal view that synonyms recorded in terminographic works or encyclopedias should be considered synonymous terms in the relevant field of science, although the drawbacks of this approach should also be emphasized: the recording of synonyms depends on intention, inclinations, attitudes, the intended audience, etc., and terminology itself is not static. For example, the aforementioned term peritonitas is included without synonyms in both VLE and MedE, whereas in the older MedŽ pilvaplėvės uždegimas is given as a synonym for this term. Thus, the latter phrase is probably now most accurately regarded as an informal synonym. This type of synonymy is treated differently in terminology. Some terminologists, such as Vladimir Leychik, believe that this kind of synonymy (called stylistic) is not an object of terminology, since one of the synonyms does not belong to the system of terms (see Сложеникина 2005: 120–122). According to the strict conception, only semantically identical units of the same formal register are considered synonyms in terminology (Cabré 1999: 110). Accordingly, the English-language terminology dictionary (GTUT) classifies linguistic units that denote the same concept but are used in different communicative situations as quasi-synonyms. Jonas Klimavičius has written that terms and non-terms are presented as synonyms in a dictionary of chemical terms (vario sulfatas – mėlynasis akmenėlis) (Klimavičius 1975: 100); thus, non-scientific names are not considered terms. Béatrice Daille, a researcher of term variants (in the broad sense), emphasizes that one of the register variants is terminologically stronger than the other (Daille 2017: 62). Here one may mention an interesting Spanish terminology project—a multifunctional database of variants in the medical field, VariMed, in which variants are classified according to various parameters. The data category relevant to this article is “register”: formal, informal, informal expert, neutral, and children’s. For example, the English variants for the concept ABDOMINAL PAIN – DOLOR ABDOMINAL (in Lithuanian, “pilvo skausmas”) are as follows: abdominal pain—neutral variant, abdominal tenderness—formal variant, belly ache—informal variant, belly pain—children’s variant. The inclusion of the latter, the children’s register, is a highly atypical and unusual choice in terminology resources, and is relevant not to all fields. Some variants are also rated for familiarity on a scale from least familiar (1 point) to very familiar (4 points). For example, the aforementioned belly pain is rated 4 points. It should be noted that VariMed has a data category “concept,” as well as “variants,” but no “term” category; consequently, variants may include both terms and non-terms. In terminology Terminologija | 2021 | 28 109 there are various classifications of variants, and more than one of them also includes non-terms as term variants12. Thus, among the corpus example pairs mentioned in this section, “nervas” and “gerosios bakterijos” would be fairly obvious informal variants. There are several such examples in the research material, e.g.: Diastolinis (dar vadinamas apatiniu) spaudimas SŽ (the terms are also abbreviated); kūdikių seborėjinis dermatitas dar vadinamas „lopšio kepuraite“ SŽ; vadinamasis „lojan-tis“, laringitinis kosulys SŽ; grybelį (medicinoje ši liga vadinama mikoze) SV (cf. grybelinės ligos, mikozės MedE), etc. Informal synonyms can, on the one hand, be identified by such features as vividness and metaphoricity, which point to informality. On the other hand, terms themselves can also be metaphorical, as in šienligė (cf. šienligė, dar gydytojų vadinama sezoniniu alerginiu rinitu SV). According to the register classification used by VariMed, šienligę is probably best regarded as a neutral term. In VLEe, the synonyms denoting šienligė are ordered as follows: šienligė, polinozė, sezoninis alerginis rinitas (the TLK-10-AM term šienligė is absent (cf. alerginis rinitas, sukeltas žiedadulkių; kitas sezoninis alerginis rinitas)). Botanical terms also stand out in the research material, as folk terms (or dialect names) are provided alongside them, for example: Kadagys, dar vadinamas egliu SŽ; medėjantysis alavijas (Latin Aloe arborescens), dar vadinamas alijošiumi SV, etc. Words that have undergone determinologization are also identified as informal term variants, even though their terminological meaning is quite different, e.g.: Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver, commonly known as jaundice SŽ. This can also be explained by linguistic factors—in the example given, metonymy (hepatitis is called jaundice on the basis of an external symptom). Although the standardization of synonyms is not the subject of this article, it is nevertheless worth quoting K. Gaivenis’s statement that “when evaluating and standardizing term synonyms, one must take account of the circumstances in which those terms are used, especially functional style” (Gaivenis 2002: 34–35). In recent studies of (descriptive) terminology (e.g., Cabezas García, León Araúz 2020), the presentation of synonyms without contextual indications of where each term should be used is highlighted as one of the shortcomings of terminographic resources. 12Here, for example, one may mention a more recent and comprehensive classification of variants by Pamela Faber and Pilar León Araúz, which, among others, distinguishes diaphasic variants (English diaphasic variants), further subdivided into 1) scientific variants: a) scientific names, b) neutral expert variants, c) jargon, d) formulae, e) symbols; 2) informal variants: a) amateur variants, b) colloquial variants, c) generic variants (English generic); 3) inter-domain variants (Faber, León Araúz 2016: 12–13). 110 Asta Mitkevičienė Ekspl icitinė terminų sinonimija nemoksliniame sveikatos diskurse CONCLUSIONS The metalinguistic comments examined—the indicators of terminological synonymy—perform two main functions in non-scientific discourse: they state another name for a concept and describe the usage of the second name. These functions are very general and insufficient for identifying terminological synonymy; therefore, each potential pair of synonymous terms must be analysed separately. The fundamental questions to be raised are: 1) are both lexical units terms, and 2) are those terms systemic synonyms? Moreover, even when examining explicit synonymy, it is impossible to avoid the fundamental question of what a term is. In texts on health websites intended for the general public, synonyms are presented as alternative or additional designations of concepts, or (also) as terms that are clearer, more readily understood from their internal form, or better known. Not only terms denoting different concepts (contextual synonyms) are linked as synonyms, but also terms in imprecise forms; this can be explained by textual factors (shortening, lengthening, paraphrasing, etc.), while also allowing for gaps in expression and errors. Among contextual synonyms, pairs of terms and their periphrases stand out; some periphrases can already be considered conventional. A distinctive feature of the terminology of non-scientific health discourse is functional synonyms. Based on metalinguistic comments, two broad groups of such synonyms can be distinguished: some are used in the language of science or field specialists, while others belong to general or informal usage. The distinguishing features of the latter group’s synonyms may be considered to include vividness and metaphoricity, although these features are not sufficient to distinguish them from genuine terms. Functional synonyms warrant further study. MAIN SOURCE Lithuanian Web 2014 (ltTenTen14). Available online: https://www.sketchengine.eu/lttenten-lithuanian-corpus/ [accessed April 2021]. REFERENCES AND ADDITIONAL SOURCES AIATŽ – Explanatory Dictionary of Immunology and Allergology Terms, comp. V. A. Tamošiūnas, R. Dubakienė, A. 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Župerka Kazimieras 2012: Metalingvistika: nekalbininkų kalbotyra, Šiauliai: Šiaulių universiteto leidykla. Слюженикова Юлия Владимировна 2005: Термин: семантическое, формальное, функциональное варьирование, Самара: Изд-во СГПУ. 112 Asta Mitkevičienė Ekspl icitinė terminų sinonimija nemoksliniame sveikatos diskurse EXPLICIT SYNONYMY IN TERMINOLOGY IN NON-SCIENTIFIC HEALTH DISCOURSE Summary The article addresses the synonymy in terminology expressed by metalinguistic comments. Explicit synonymy in terminology is a relevant topic deserving a more thorough study not only for its applied value but also for its reflection of the addresser’s conscious attitude towards the relationship of terms. Hoping to find more varied types of synonyms, the study did not focus on the synonyms of terms in scientific discourse; instead, the texts intended for the general public were chosen for the analysis. The main source of the study is the part of web corpus Lithuanian Web 2014 (ltTenTen14) compiled from texts taken from educational health websites. The study sought to determine the character of explicit synonymy, to distinguish the problematic cases. Considerable attention is paid to the issues of the selection of synonyms. The metalinguistic comments (with vadinam* ‘called’), as the indicators of synonymy in terminology, play two major functions in non-scientific discourse: they are used to indicate a different name of the concept and to describe the usage of the second name. The above functions are very general and do not suffice to identify the synonyms of terms. As a result, we need to analyse every potential pair of synonymous terms separately. The basic questions posed in the study are whether: 1) both lexical units are terms; 2) those terms are systemic synonyms. Besides, even with the focus on explicit synonymy, we cannot avoid the fundamental question of what the term actually is. In the texts appearing on the websites on health topics, which are intended for the general public, synonyms are provided as alternative and additional designations of concepts or (also) as more explicit terms, which are better understandable by their internal form or are more widely known. Not only the terms denoting different concepts (contextual synonyms) but also the terms of inaccurate form are linked as synonyms. The latter may be explained by textual reasons (shortening, lengthening, paraphrasing, etc.) by not disregarding the possibility of gaps and errors in expression as well. The pairs of terms and their periphrases stand out in the group of contextual synonyms; certain periphrases can already be considered stable. Functional synonyms are a peculiar feature of terminology in non-scientific health discourse. Based on metalinguistic comments, two large groups of such synonyms can be distinguished: those used in the scientific language or the language of experts of the domain, and those that belong to the general or non-formal usage. Vividness and metaphorical expression can be considered the distinguishing features of the latter group, though these features are not sufficient to separate them from proper terms. Received 2021-09-03 Asta Mitkevičienė Lietuvių kalbos institutas P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius E. paštas [email protected] Terminologija | 2021 | 28 113