doi.org/10.35321/term27-16

Lina Rutkienė

COMPOUNDS IN CONSTRUCTION TERMINOLOGY: FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT:

doctoral dissertation

Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas, 2021, 227 p.

PALMIRA ZEMLEVIČIŪTĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

ORCID id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8679-3253

On 18 June 2021, Lina Rutkienė’s doctoral dissertation Compounds in Construction Terminology: Formation and Development was defended remotely on the Zoom platform (supervisor Dr Albina Auksoriūtė).

Research into the historical terminology of any field of science is important and necessary. It forms the basis for research into current terminology. To determine and understand the circumstances in which current terms function in the language of science, we need to know how they were formed and developed. It is therefore a great pleasure that we have received another dissertation in the field of terminology, whose research may be described as comprehensive, since it covers not only historical but also current construction terminology, in this case one of its subsystems—compound terms. Moreover, it is the first dissertation in terminology to examine compound terms from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.

The “Introduction” to the dissertation begins by explaining the relevance of the topic, the reasons that led to its selection, and the problems it addresses. Although compounds have been studied extensively in Lithuanian linguistics and terminology, “the subsystem of compounds in scientific construction terminology has not been examined separately” (p. 12), except for pa-

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current for use compound construction terms. The prevailing word-formation, morphological, and prescriptive approach to compounds would be broadened by examining them from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, which expands the very concept of a compound and supplements research on compounds. Hybrid compounds with classical combining forms in the initial position, which often outcompete native terms, currently require greater attention. The issue of how to assess and designate the components of international compounds is also raised here as a problematic and debatable one.

It is argued that “compounding makes it possible to create new, motivated terms” (p. 13) and thus avoid the polysemy of words already in use. In construction terminology, compounding is “a productive way of forming new terms” (p. 13). “Being shorter and more convenient than two-word terms” (p. 13), compounds express a postmodern worldview that elevates the principles of convenience and economy as among the most important.

The aim of the dissertation is “to identify the directions, regularities, and trends in the development of this subsystem by conducting a multifaceted study of compounds in construction terminology of the 20th–21st centuries” (p. 14). To achieve this aim, the author set herself five tasks: 1) after discussing theoretical issues concerning compounds, assess the ratio of true and false compounds and its changes in construction terminology; 2) examine the formation of native and hybrid compounds in construction terminology and identify the differences in how native and hybrid compounds are formed; 3) by applying the theory of propositional models in cognitive linguistics, identify cognitive propositional models based on fundamental concepts of human consciousness, according to which the semantics of compounds in construction terminology is formed; 4) classify compounds in construction terminology into thematic groups that reveal a particular fragment of the overall picture of construction science; 5) identify the syntactic-semantic relations between the components of compounds in construction terminology (p. 14).

The subject of this dissertation is native and hybrid compounds (nouns) of the 20th–21st centuries that function as generic construction terms. The compounds in construction terminology were collected from 290 sources, which vary greatly in genre. These include popular educational booklets, dictionaries, reference works, textbooks, conference-paper abstracts, lecture materials, monographs, study books, scholarly journals, collections of scholarly articles, methodological materials, newspapers, doctoral dissertations, and conference proceedings. A total of 6,181 compound construction terms were manually extracted from these sources and entered into the Microsoft Access database.

Referring to the originality of the work and its practical and theoretical value, the author states that “this dissertation is the first work to examine the subsystem of compounds in construction terminology comprehensively and from various perspectives,

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revealing its development and current state. It should contribute to research on Lithuanian terminology and be useful in coining new construction terms. The work could also benefit construction specialists preparing standards and dictionaries, as well as scholars writing on terminology. The new compounds in construction terminology collected for the dissertation could be used to supplement the Terminų bankas of the Republic of Lithuania” (p. 17).

At the end of the “Introduction,” after formulating the propositions defended, briefly describing the structure of the work, and indicating its approval, the discussion turns to a linguistic analysis of compounds in construction terms, presented in six chapters. By examining construction terms that are compounds in stages, structurally and semantically, the author provides a comprehensive picture of their formation and development, beginning with the pre-scientific period (before 1918) and ending with the present day (2019), “not only revealing the specific nature of the construction field and showing the rapid development of construction science, but also allowing, at least in part, conclusions to be drawn about Lithuanian word-formation tendencies, the links between Lithuanian and foreign languages, their influence on Lithuanian terminology, and, more generally, the mental models of thought that underpin the naming of concepts” (p. 204).

The first chapter, “General Theoretical Aspects of Compounds,” examines the concept of the compound and discusses its features (orthographic, phonological, syntactic, and semantic) from three perspectives: word formation (and morphology), cognitive linguistics—more specifically, the theory of cognitive propositional models—and syntax. Drawing on the insights of Lithuanian and foreign researchers into formations with classical combining forms derived from Latin, it raises and explores the problem of true and false compounds and considers the positions compounds occupy in the terminology of various languages and fields of science.

In the second chapter, “The Concept and Sources of Compounds in Construction Terminology,” the author defines what is considered a compound construction term in the dissertation and discusses their sources. In the author’s view, “compounds in the construction field do not have any distinctive, specific features in terms of their origin; they arise in the same way as terms in all other fields and terms formed by any type of word formation” (p. 32), namely: by terminologizing compounds from colloquial and standard language, i.e. assigning them a terminological meaning (semantic formation, or terminologization); by transterminologizing compounds from other subject fields (internal borrowing, or transterminologization); by coining new compounds when there is a need to name new concepts (word formation); by borrowing existing compounds from other languages (borrowing); and by translating compounds from other languages (calquing, either complete or partial).

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The third chapter, “Compound Words in Construction Terminology in the Context of the Development of Construction Science and Literature,” discusses the principal construction literature, which is divided “according to the main stages in the development of construction science in Lithuania, coinciding with the stages in the development of construction terminology and its subsystem of compound words” (p. 37). This reveals “how, as construction science developed and historical circumstances exerted their influence, construction terminology’s compounds, initially formed spontaneously and sporadically, gradually gave way to the formation of a subsystem within this layer of terminology” (p. 37).

The beginnings of scientific construction terminology are associated with folk terminology and early writings. In the turbulent and difficult period from the early 19th century to 1918, compounds of construction terms were also used in Lithuanian educational booklets. They can still be found in construction books published after the lifting of the press ban, as well as in works of lexicography not specifically devoted to construction, such as J. Šlapelis’s Dictionary of Foreign and Unfamiliar Words (1907).

The years 1918–1940 marked a new stage in the development of construction terminology, and 1918 marked the true beginning not only of the system of scientific construction terminology but also of its subsystem of compound words. Following the restoration of Lithuania’s independence, construction activity and publishing intensified. During the interwar period, numerous textbooks and educational books on construction were published, along with scholarly articles about construction and reviews of scholarly construction publications, which also addressed questions of the terminology used in publications in the field. For a long time, construction terms were coined not by professional terminologists but by construction specialists. Construction engineers who had studied and/or worked abroad and then worked in Lithuania, conducted significant research, wrote articles and books, and taught young people played a major role in the development of the construction terminology and professional language of that period. These included such distinguished figures as Kazimieras Vasiliauskas, Jonas Šimoliūnas, Pranas Morkūnas, Anatolijus Rozenbliumas, and Pranas Jodelė. Their publications were most often translations (from German). Thus, German, a language rich in compounds, played an important role in the creation of new compounds during the first period of Lithuania’s independence.

The period 1940–1990 was a stage in construction that began when the USSR occupied Lithuania. During the Soviet period, many educational resources were published—textbooks, instructional books, and lecture notes—and the first monolingual dictionaries of construction terms appeared. A considerable proportion of these materials were either translated from Russian or written by authors who drew on Russian-language literature in the field. The intensive publication of construction books is regarded as a positive feature of this period, although construction terms are assessed ambivalently. On the one

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hand, it is noted that borrowed words are used sparingly in construction literature and that Lithuanian equivalents are sought; on the other hand, however, the Russian word-formation system began to exert a strong influence on Lithuanian word formation: compounds modeled on Russian became more numerous, as did Russian calques and the like.

The final stage of construction literature is dated to 1990–2019. It is noted that, following the restoration of Lithuania’s independence once again and amid positive changes in the construction sector, a wide variety of construction literature was actively prepared and published, and new construction terms were coined. The Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language, and the Lithuanian Standards Board have become important to ensuring the correctness and systematicity of these terms. Particularly welcome is the author’s forthright naming of one of the ills prevalent in Lithuania’s academic world during this period, hindering the creation and development of Lithuanian construction terminology (and, without a doubt, not only that! – author’s note): “the higher evaluation accorded to ‘scholarly articles written in English and published in English-language journals’” (p. 48).

The fourth chapter, “Word Formation of Compounds in Construction Terminology,” analyzes compound construction terms from the perspective of word formation. After discussing the concept of native and hybrid compounds and related problem areas, the chapter examines separately the formation of native (true and pseudo-) and hybrid (true and pseudo-) compounds in construction terminology. All these compounds are analyzed chronologically, from those used in popular science literature from 1918 to those used in 2019; that is, their formation is discussed according to the stages in the development of construction terminology. The types of word formation, characteristic features, and developmental trends of construction-term compounds from four periods—(1) before 1918, (2) 1918–1940, (3) 1940–1990, and (4) 1990–2019—are thus examined systematically. Attention is paid to the choice of stem, gender, and ending, as well as the linking vowel, in native compounds, and to the origins of the borrowed constituents of hybrid compounds.

The fifth chapter, “Syntactic-Semantic Relations in Compounds of Construction Terminology,” examines compound construction terms from a syntactic-semantic perspective. It first presents Lithuanian and foreign linguists’ views of the compound as a syntactic-semantic formation, then classifies compound construction terms according to the syntactic-semantic relations between their constituents. Determinative, or subordinative, and copulative, or coordinative, compounds are discussed separately. Since the dependent constituent of the former defines the head, they are further divided into six groups: attributive, objective, circumstantial, completive, comparative,

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subordinate-member compounds. Within these groups, compounds are discussed according to the kind of entity designated by the dependent member. The relationships between the members of the latter compounds are not further subdivided, since both members are of equal status.

In the sixth chapter, “Thematic Groups of Compounds in Construction Terminology from a Cognitive Perspective,” construction terms formed as compounds are divided into thematic groups on the basis of the propositional structures underlying compound semantics and their lexical-semantic features. This “presents the system of construction names denoted by compounds and the cognitive models according to which the units of this system are formed” (p. 126).

When discussing compounds, one of the most important terms in cognitive linguistics becomes relevant: the term concept (the minimal unit of human experience). From a cognitive perspective, a compound can be seen as “a relation between basic concepts that are shared by people regardless of their language and that constitute a propositional structure” (p. 202). In compounding, concepts are linked by predicates, e.g.: BE, BE WITH, BE USED FOR, BE PART OF, BE CHARACTERISTIC OF, BE MADE OF, ACT WITH. Such combinations of concepts are called propositions, or propositional structures. The construction terms formed as compounds under study are assigned to four conceptual domains (PEOPLE, NATURE, ABSTRACT PHENOMENA, ARTIFACTS), and the concepts predominant in each are identified. Construction terms formed as compounds and named after these conceptual domains are further subdivided into thematic groups, within which the cognitive propositional models underlying the semantics of the names assigned to them are discussed.

The dissertation concludes with detailed research findings, a list of 290 source entries, and a multilingual bibliography comprising 165 entries.

It is important to note that in the dissertation the author does not shy away from discussing various problematic cases of compounds in construction terminology, considering them and formulating hypotheses. It is clear that she is well prepared theoretically to undertake scholarly work.

Lina Rutkienė’s doctoral dissertation Compounds in Construction Terminology: Formation and Development is outstanding not only in its analytical approach but also in its scholarly style, correct, clear, fluent language, and coherent presentation of ideas. It is a mature seed added to the granary of Lithuanian terminology research.

Received 2021-10-01

Palmira Zemlevičiūtė Lietuvių kalbos institutas P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius E. paštas [email protected]

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