Skolintų ir lietuviškų ekonomikos terminų konkurencija

9 8 Rasuolė Vladarskienė | Competition of Borrowing and Lithuanian Economic Terms Borrowed and Lithuanian ekonomikos terminų konkurencija RASUOLĖ VLADARSKIENĖ Vilnius Gediminas Technical University KEY WORDS: competition, synonymy of terms, variability, economic terms The dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian language provides a fairly broad meaning of the word competition – “competition for leadership”. The International Dictionary of Words gives three meanings, indicating that one of them is specific to the economic field: "1 competition, competition in any field to achieve the same goal 2 interaction between two or more species, populations or organisms that need the same food, territory or sexual partner 3 e. market situation when there are enough buyers and sellers, it is possible to freely enter and exit the market" (TŽZ 2013). Thus, competition is a widespread phenomenon in various fields. In language, as in economics or other fields (e.g., in the natural world), competitive relationships can arise. The aim of the article is to clarify the concepts of competition (competitor), synonymy (synonym), variantity (variant) and their mutual relationships, to examine the peculiarities of competition of borrowed and Lithuanian economic terms. Competition in language takes place constantly, because it is precisely based on language development, but in Lithuanian linguistics the theoretical basis of language means competition has been established relatively recently. Kazimieras Župerka was the first to consistently apply this principle to stylistic linguistics, evaluating it in a synchronic way, and to give it theoretical meaning in his habilitation thesis Competition of language means as an object of stylistics in the Lithuanian language (1995), based on the works of Czech stylistics researchers, especially Milan Jelínek. up to that point, competition had been discussed only in a diachronic dimension. Thus, two approaches to the competition of language tools are distinguished: 9 9Terminology | 2015 | 22 1) diachronic – competition is perceived as a dynamic phenomenon, when one variant becomes dominant in the consumption pattern, having pushed out another, sometimes non-normative variant; 2) synchronous – when during the act of speaking one has to choose one of several means of language having the same (or similar) meaning (Župerka 1995: 10). According to K. Župerka, the idea of the competition of language means developed from the concept of synonyms, because the same thing or action can be named by more than one word. Synonymy forms the centre of language means competition (Župerka 1995: 13). However, the concept of variants and their relationship with synonyms is also very important when talking about the competition of language tools in common language. The theoretical aspects of the competition of language tools in general usage are examined by Rita Miliūnaitė in her monograph Current Lithuanian Language Use Variants (2009). She believes that “variants of contemporary Lithuanian usage are to be considered as regularly repeated linguistic phenomena having the same or very similar meaning, between which in usage there is a relationship of variantity – the ability to replace each other” (Miliūnaitė 2009: 177). The most important sign of the functioning of variants in the usage is their stronger or weaker competition, which usually means the competition of several things, and eventually the establishment of one of them and the displacement of others (Miliūnaitė 2009: 188). This concept of language variants is quite broad and includes synonyms. Turning to terminology, it should be said that in order to clarify how the competitive relationships of terms can be analyzed, it is very important to understand the fundamental concepts related to the phenomenon of competition of language tools. And they can be given different content: in general and terminological usage, the concepts of synonym and variant differ. In terminology, we usually talk about the synonymy of terms. In terminology, synonyms name the same object, associate it with one concept, but do not describe different characteristics of that object and do not perform a stylistic function (Danilenko 1977, cited from Zemlevičiūtė 2001). and although theoretically synonymy of terms was considered a great terminology defect, unnecessary and even harmful thing, but it is still an inevitable phenomenon in one branch of science (Gaivenis 2002: 34; Keinys 2005: 25; Kaulakienė 2009: 167). Often, a normative term takes effect and becomes established in terminology from several synonyms or variants (Kaulakienė 2009: 168). In the opinion of terminologists, synonymy is particularly characteristic of the initial stages of the formation of terminology subsystems, when not only terms, 100 Rasuolė Vladarskienė | The competition between borrowed and Lithuanian economic terms, as well as the concepts themselves and their scope, are not sufficiently clear (Kaulakienė 2009: 168; Gaivenis 2014: 176). Therefore, synonymous terms compete for some time, until one term is used for one concept. Variations are considered to be part of synonymy in a broad sense. In the opinion of Alvydas Umbrasas, term variants should be regarded as terms that consist of the same words with only minor differences (e.g., spelling, phonetics, morphology, pronunciation, transliteration) (Umbrasas 2004: 101). This is the traditional conception of variants, but it is acknowledged that the boundary between synonyms and variants of terms is not clearly drawn, so when it is not very important to distinguish them precisely, taking into account also the fact that synonymy can be of a very diverse nature, “[t]he concept of competitor introduced by K. Župerka into Lithuanian linguistics, which would include both narrowly understood variants, and systematic synonyms, and other terminological units of language competing in the text, is appropriate to use in terminology” (Mitkevičienė 2015: 47). In the understanding of terms as it is usual in the theory of general language, synonymous terms are also variants that are characterized by competitive relations. In the article, competitors (competing terms) are considered synonymous terms (words of the same or very similar meaning or their combinations that can replace each other in one field of science), of which one, having displaced the others, eventually becomes dominant in usage. Terms can compete in the same dictionary or text (in a scientific text, a legal act): in the dictionary, the line of synonyms is marked and their order, the first is written the main variant of the norm, and in the text the author uses the competitor he prefers, but other competing terms can also be indicated as secondary variants in a descriptive way (helpful means of expression are used or, also called, saying differently, etc.) or in a graphic way (a secondary variant is presented in parentheses). Competition of terms can also occur in different dictionaries or texts of the same field: the author, after evaluating the competitors for the name of the same concept, chooses one of them. There are four types of terminology management: terminography, terminology standardization, computerized terminology management and textual terminology management (Gaivenis 2002: 63–87). All these terms management methods are important for the establishment of a certain competitor in the user base. Also, certain language policy policies play a significant role in the competition of terms. 101Terminology | 2015 | 22 kii and legislation. For example, in 1991 the Government of the Republic of Lithuania approved the Decree “On the Registration of Firm Names” (VŽ 1991, No. 35-967). In this legislation it was specified that enterprises, institutions and organizations are referred to as one word firm. The Register of Company Names was established and the Law on Company Names was adopted in 1999 (VZ 1999, No. 63-2060); It defines the term firm as ‘a company of any kind, a public body, a credit union or any other credit institution’. The term has become widely used, presented in the dictionaries of terms BBBŽ 1994, AĮVTŽ 2000, the latter dictionary also contains compound terms, in which the firm is the main element, e.g.: consulting firm, also performs the function of a dependent element, i.e. describes the main element, e.g.: company name, company goals; it also states that a synonym for a company may be a company. However, after the 2003 Law on Company Names was declared invalid (VŽ 2003, No. 116-5252), and the data of the Company Names Register were transferred to the Register of Legal Entities, the term firm gradually began to be pushed out of use by its competitors company, company, legal entity, etc. In the search database of legislation of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter – LRSB) it was found that between 1994 01 01 and 2004 01 01 813 documents were published in the VŽ, in which the word firma nominative was used, and between 2004 01 01 and 2014 01 01 this word nominative was found in only 83 documents. Currently, in Lithuanian legislation, the term firm is used only to designate foreign legal entities or in translations of documents adopted by European Union institutions, for example, “Directive 2002/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on the supplementary supervision of credit institutions, insurance undertakings and investment firms belonging to a financial conglomerate”. In later dictionaries (eTŽ 2005; 2006) is no longer in operation. The competition between foreign and native terms takes place in every eKONOMiKOS TeRMiNŲ KONKUReNCiJA language. Angelė Kaulakienė (2009: 182) considers the synonymy of international and Lithuanian terms to be justified and inevitable. Comparative studies of synonymous terms in different languages are also carried out. For example, Sigita Stankevičienė, comparing the synonyms and variants of electrostatics terms in Lithuanian and German, found that the expression of terms in the comparable languages differs both quantitatively and qualitatively, but the tendencies of using synonyms are similar (Stankevičienė 2012). Asta Mitkevičienė in her dissertation thoroughly 102 Rasuolė Vladarskienė | Competition between borrowed and Lithuanian economic terms Having examined various types of synonymous terms, Rasuolė Vladarskienė points to the synonymy of borrowed and Lithuanian terms as a typical case of a more broadly understood lexical synonymy of terms (Mitkevičienė 2015: 42–43). In order to clarify how the competition of borrowed and Lithuanian terms takes place in economic terminology, a study was carried out. Four dictionaries of economic terms published between 1994 and 2006 were analyzed; checked how the cases of competition of found borrowed and Lithuanian terms are reflected in the texts of economic documents. It should be said that when evaluating the competition of terms, it is the spread of terms in scientific and administrative texts, rather than their establishment in dictionaries, that indicates the end of competition. The field of economics was chosen for the study because in Lithuania at the end of the 20th century there was a fundamental restructuring of the economic system, new concepts and various competing means of their expression appeared. Focusing on the competitive relationships of terms of different origin, the structure of terms was not very important for the study, so not only homogeneous terms were studied, but also cases when those terms are elements of composite terms. Hybrids with a foreign root but a Lithuanian suffix (e.g., convertibility, reserve, consolidation) are conditionally also considered to be borrowed in the article. When counting the groups of competitors, both solid terms and composite terms are included in one group, if they consist of words having the same root as the solid term, e.g.: trend / removal of the transfer AeTŽ 2006, long-term trend / transfer AeTŽ 2006; equal utility, indifference AeTŽ 2006, curve of equal utility / curve of indifference AeTŽ 2006, image / map of equal utility AeTŽ 2006, indifference curve / indifference curve eTŽ 2005. in total, 213 groups of competing terms of foreign and native origin were found in four dictionaries: the most of them are BBBŽ 1994 – 129, less AeTŽ 2006 – 62, and the least – eTŽ 2005 – 31 and AĮVTŽ 2000 – 161. As can be seen, the largest number of competing terms is presented in the earliest published dictionary BBBŽ 1994, their abundance, it must be assumed, is determined by the fact that at that time Lithuania was transitioning from a planned economy to a market economy, therefore the best means of expression were sought to name the new concepts. There were few competitors found in AĮVTŽ 2000, the editors of this dictionary, following the requirement of unambiguity of terms, tried to avoid their synonymy, therefore provided as few competing terms as possible. eTŽ 2005 1 The total number of competing term groups is less than the sum of the competing term groups found in the individual dictionaries, because some of these groups overlap in some dictionaries. 103Terminologija | 2015 | 22 stands out from other dictionaries in that some of the borrowed terms are clearly actual, e.g. biznis ntk. = business; įvertinami kaip neteiktini ekonomikos terminijai, žodyne duodami jų atiharmonisation ntk. = harmonisation; overdrafts ntk. = account credit. Data from AeTŽ 2006 show that this dictionary provides Lithuanian equivalents of those borrowed terms that were in previously published dictionaries, e.g.: amortizacija BBBŽ 1994, AĮVTŽ 2000, eTŽ 2005, depreciation / amortization AeTŽ 2006; faktoringas BBBŽ 1994, AĮVTŽ 2000, eTŽ 2005, debt sale / factoring AeTŽ 2006; multiplikatorius eTŽ 2005, AĮVTŽ 2000, daugiklis / multiplikatorius AeTŽ 2006. Comparing the borrowed terms fixed in the dictionaries of economic terms published in different periods and their Lithuanian equivalents, the tendency to Lithuanianize the terms becomes apparent, when over a decade the Lithuanian term outcompetes the borrowed term and becomes established in the dictionaries, e.g.: aukcionas BBBŽ 1994, eTŽ 2005 „public sale of goods and services to the highest bidder“, aukcionas, aucytėnės eTŽ 2005, aucytėnės AeTŽ 2006; biznis, verslas BBBŽ 1994 „activity related to the production, trade and provision of goods and services in order to obtain profit“, verslas AĮVTŽ 2000, eTŽ 2005, AeTŽ 2006; businessman, entrepreneur BBBŽ 1994 „person organizing a business enterprise (producing products or providing services) on his own expenses and seeking to make a profit“, entrepreneur AĮVTŽ 2000, eTŽ 2005; export, export BBBŽ 1994, AeTŽ 2006 „sale of goods, services and capital assets to foreign countries“, export AĮVTŽ 2000, eTŽ 2005; factoring BBBŽ 1994, eTŽ 2005 „the method of transfer of commercial debts by which a company sells these debts to a financial institution“, debt sale / factoring AeTŽ 2006; import, import BBBŽ 1994, AeTŽ 2006 „purchase of goods, services and capital assets from foreign countries“, import AĮVTŽ 2000, eTŽ 2005; contract, contract BBBŽ 1994 „a document establishing the rights and obligations of the parties to the contract and their terms of performance“, contract AĮVTŽ 2000, eTŽ 2005, AeTŽ 2006; management see management BBBŽ 1994 „planning, organizing, motivation and control to achieve the goals of the organization“, management AĮVTŽ 2000, AeTŽ 2006; manager, leader BBBŽ 1994, manager AeTŽ 2006; 104 Rasuolė Vladarskienė | Competition of borrowed and Lithuanian economic terms transaction, transaction BBBŽ 1994 „legal contract between buyer and seller“, transaction AĮVTŽ 2000, transaction method, transaction balance AeTŽ 2006. Regarding the structure of competing terms in the examined dictionaries, it should be said that for the majority (69.6%) of single-word terms single-word equivalents were found, because then their competitive power is greater, e.g.: leasing – lease BBBŽ 1994; deposit – deposit BBBŽ 1994; devaluation – devaluation AeTŽ 2006; recession – decline eTŽ 2005; chance – opportunity BBBŽ 1994; economic base – economic basis AeTŽ 2006; capital formation – capital formation AeTŽ 2006; deposit certificate – deposit certificate AeTŽ 2006. Most of the time there is only one equivalent in the group of competitors, but sometimes there are several competing terms: Lithuanian and borrowed, monoand bi-word, e.g. : preference – advantage, priority BBBŽ 1994; testing – testing, trial, examination BBBŽ 1994; depository – depositary, custodian BBBŽ 1994; donation – gift, subsidy BBBŽ 1994; companion – accomplice, partner BBBŽ 1994; deficit AĪVTŽ 2000, AeTŽ 2006, shortage AĪVTŽ 2000, lack of funds AeTŽ 2006; annuity BBBŽ 1994, eTŽ 2005, AeTŽ 2006, annual payment BBBŽ 1994, annual rent AeTŽ 2006. Such cases show that the search for the most appropriate expression is still intense. In the dictionaries examined, 52 cases (24.4%) were found where a borrowed one-word term competes with a two-word term, which may also include other borrowed words, e.g.: denonsavimas – termination of contract BBBŽ 1994; filialas – subsidiary company AĮVTŽ 2000; moratoriumas – tax deferral BBBŽ 1994; prolongacija – deferral, extension of deadlines BBBŽ 1994; rangas – occupied position BBBŽ 1994; reeksportas – re-export AeTŽ 2006; vakancija – vacant position eTŽ 2005. There were only 7 cases (3.3%) where a one-word term competed with a three-word term, e.g.: reinvestment – additional capital injection BBBŽ 1994; revaluation – exchange rate increase AeTŽ 2006. There were 5 (2.7%) cases of competition of one-word and four-word terms, e.g.: reimport – reimportation into the country BBBŽ 1994; guarantor – share purchase option agreement AeTŽ 2006. This means that one-word terms are usually tried to be replaced by one-word competitors, because the law of language economy is quite important when competing for several terms. However, even longer terms can outcompete shorter, less well-known borrowed terms if the meanings of the words that make them up reveal the description of the concept they denote, e.g. : hedging – risk insurance AeTŽ 2006; seniority – money issue tax AeTŽ 2006. 105Terminologija | 2015 | 22 The real competition of terms is quite well revealed by the use of terms in documents. From them it is possible to obtain not only statistical data showing usage tendencies2, but also to see how the competition of terms takes place: initially in the usage appears debt, later – one or several synonymous Lithuanian terms, next to which debt is presented in parentheses as a secondary variant, and finally in the texts only the Lithuanian term used indicates the end of competitive relations, cf. (rare R. V. ): „Finansų h oldingo bendrovė – finansų įstaiga, kurios visi kontroliuojami subjektai arba jų dauguma yra kredito įstaigos arba finansų įmonės, iš kurių bent vienas yra kredito įstaiga.“ (LRS 2002-06-11); “When establishing a management (holding) European company in accordance with Article 2(2) of the Regulation, the draft terms of establishment of the management (holding) European company must be assessed by the audit firm with which each company initiating the establishment of the management (h oldingo) European company concludes a contract” (VZ 2004-05-11, No. 78-2710); “Financial holding company – a financial institution whose all or most of the undertakings under its control are credit institutions or financial undertakings, of which at least one is a credit institution” (VZ 2002-09-18, No. 91-3891); “Financial holding company – as defined in Article 4(1)(20) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms” (TAR 2015-03-31, No. 2015-04829). After analyzing the research material, it can be said that some borrowed terms and their Lithuanian equivalents are still in fierce competition even in those cases where the Lithuanian equivalent is provided in dictionaries and term databases. The most striking example could be the competition between the debt marketing BBBŽ 1994 and its Lithuanian counterpart marketing „organization and execution of sales strategy“ AĮVTŽ 2000, eTŽ 2005, AeTŽ 2006. 2 The statistical data are not entirely accurate, because in the search database of the legislation of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania it is automatically possible to obtain only the number of documents in which the word or their combination was used, and not the exact number of cases of use (it may be that in some documents the searched word or combination was used more than once). Another thing is that the searched word or combination of words may be used not in a generic but in an actual meaning, i.e. may form the name of the legal entity or may be included in it, e.g. : UAB „Marketingas“, „Baltijos regiono marketingas“, „Nemuno marketingas“, „Progresyvus marketingas“. However, in any case, the usage tendencies are quite clearly reflected in this database, assessing the competition of terms, its certain stages are well marked and the dates of preparation of documents. 106 Rasuolė Vladarskienė | Competition of borrowed and Lithuanian economic terms were used in 191 documents, and the genitive – in 358 documents (the genitive is most often used as a dependent point in a compound term). One of the formal reasons why this loan is still actively used in official texts is that marketing has been included in the Classification of Educational Fields: 342 marketing and advertising (VŽ 2000-07-28, No. 62-1887), and it is also included in the names of study programs accredited in recent years by the order of the Director of the Study Quality Assessment Centre, e.g.: business management and marketing, marketing and trade management (TAR 2015-05-20, No. 2015-07647); public relations and marketing (TAR 2014-10-21, No. 201414467); marketing and media art (TAR 2014-07-08, No. 2014-09941); international marketing and branding (TAR 2014-06-02, No. 2014-0605); marketing, marketing and international commerce, marketing management, marketing and sales, marketing management, international marketing and trade (TAR 2014-03-28, No. 2014-03628). Another legislative act that also contributes to the competitive power of this term is the State Loss Report template, in which one column is called “Marketing Expenses” (TAR 2015-04-03, No. 2015-05160). kainų ir energetikos kontrolės komisijos nutarimu patvirtintas pelno ir Lithuanian names of financial instruments have been successfully established not only in dictionaries, but also in usage, rather than variants from other languages, despite the fact that their scope of use is rather narrow and specific, for example: future contract BBBŽ 1994; future settlement contract BBBŽ 1994, AeTŽ 2006 and future contract BBBŽ 1994; forward contract BBBŽ 1994, AeTŽ 2006 and forward; option AeTŽ 2006 and option BBBŽ 1994, AĮVTŽ 2000, eurooption BBBŽ 1994. However, other specific Lithuanian terms used only by specialists in a narrow field do not easily compete with borrowed terms, cf. trendas ir nuonešis AeTŽ 2006 „1. the substantial long-term component of time-series data, which is often calculated to show the long-term trend in the change of a variable; 2. a measure of the average value of an economic variable (e.g. income) at a given point in time.’ The LRSB found only 11 documents with different terms trend, e.g.: „<...> the influence of time is determined using the methods of pair sales analysis, resale analysis, sales price trend coefficient analysis and multi-member regression analysis“ (LRSB, 2002). No document found in this database.