Angelė Kaulakienė. Lietuvių fizikos terminijos raida

ALBINA AUKSORIŪTĖ Lietuvių kalbos institutas Angelo Caccamo. LITHUANIAN TERMINOLOGY OF PHYSICS: A MONOGRAPHY. Vilnius: Technika, 2009, 440 pp. Published in 2009 by the linguist doc. dr. Monograph of Angelė Kaulakienė Development of Lithuanian Physics Terminology. The publication of this monograph is a truly important event for Lithuanian terminology. Its author — an experienced terminologist — examines in detail the development of Lithuanian physics terminology since the first popularized physics articles. printed in the first Lithuanian newspapers Keleivis (1849-1880) and Aušra (1883-1886), to the latest standardized terminographical physics publications. According to the preface, the monograph “is the result of the author’s many years of research and extensive articles. Issues of Lithuanian Linguistics, Language Culture, Lituanistica, Terminology and other scientific publications”. The book consists of two parts: in the first theoretical part Lithuanian 268 Albina Three | stages of the development of physics terminology are examined, and in the second part a glossary of the development of physics terms is presented. In the first chapter, The first stage of the development of physics terminology, the terminology of the popularizing articles of the newspapers Keleivis and Aušra and of the textbook Populiariszkas rankvedis fizikas (1899) by Petras Vileišis (1851-1926) is analyzed. Terms are examined in terms of origin and creation, their variantity and synonymity are discussed, the categorical polysemantic of terms in P. Vileišis textbook is discussed. Concise summary conclusions follow the in-depth examination of each chapter. The second stage of the development of terminology in physics is examined from the discussion of terminology in Ignas Končius’ manuscript Physics textbook. Ig. He wrote the textbook for high schools and finished it in 1919, but it was not printed. It is interesting that Ig. Končius consulted and corresponded with K. Būga, the author of the monograph presents K. Būga’s suggestions and corrections. In the subsection Elements of Lithuanian Physical Terminology of the second chapter Ig is analyzed. Končius compiled a list of terms Terms for Physics, which was reviewed by J. Jablonski and discussed by the Terminology Commission at the Ministry of Education. As it is written in the book, “This is a bilingual (Lithuanian and Russian) dictionary of terms with elements of an explanatory dictionary. It attempted to present as much of the physics and technology terminology of the time as possible” (90). The monograph discusses in detail the terms and terminological vocabulary presented in the dictionary Termai fizikos reikalams, their interpretations, synonyms and variants provided, shows the clearly visible in the dictionary hints of terminology standardization, and concludes that this dictionary is “the first stage of Lithuanian physics terminology, which gave rise to other dictionaries of physics terms” (90). Another source of the second stage of the development of physics terminology discussed in the monograph —Konstantinas Šakenis’ Physics (1920) — a textbook for upper secondary school pupils, which was written at the same time as the already mentioned Ig. Končiaus textbook, so a separate subsection of the monograph is dedicated to Ig. Končiaus and K. Šakenio physics textbooks to examine the terms of mechanics. The author, having discussed and compared the terms of mechanics in both publications, emphasizes that “from the variation of the names of the concepts of mechanics in the aforementioned textbooks, the synonymy of terms, systematisation, combination of generic and related terms, it can be concluded that at that time the terminology of physics was still being created and was characterized by all the characteristics of the creative stage of terminology” (110). Terminology | 2009 | 16 269 The study of the second stage of the development of physics terminology ends with the examination of the terminology of the first Lithuanian physics textbook for higher education. In 1923-1926 Prof. V. Čepinskis wrote a comprehensive textbook of experimental physics Physics Lectures, which is like the first Lithuanian encyclopedia of physics. As the author observes, “The lectures on physics undoubtedly had a considerable influence on the development of Lithuanian physics terminology, especially since the professor had to constantly consult about the suitability of terms with J. Jablonskis and the Terminology Commission of the Ministry of Education” (111). This textbook was the main high school textbook of physics used by students of various specialties. A. Kaulakienė examines the terms of the textbook in detail and states that “already in the first decades of the 20th century a certain part of the physics terminology was established. On the other hand, the abundance of synonyms and variants of both solid and composite terms indicates another thing: some concepts did not yet have established terms. The terminology of such concepts was still being developed” (135). In presenting the third stage of the development of physics terminology, the author of the book analyses in the first and second subsections the formation, origin, synonymic and variant expression of terms in the textbook of General Physics by Povilas Brazdžiūnas (I-IV d., 1960-1965) and the terminology of magnetism and electricity in the textbooks of K. Šakenis, V. Čepinskis and P. Brazdžiūnas from the point of view of usage. In this section it might have been useful to discuss the work of the famous physicist K. Baršauskas (M. Krikščiūnas, K. Rindzevičius. K. Baršausko Fizika (I. 1940), K. Baršausko Fizika (111-1V, 1947)) textbook terminology. First, the Sie textbooks were not touched by the editors’ hands, so their terminological vocabulary remained authentic. On the other hand, the physics terms used by K. Baršauskas and his colleagues would have supplemented not only the third chapter of the monograph, but also the Dictionary of the Development of Physics Terms itself. Perhaps this hint will be an incentive for the author to prepare a separate and comprehensive dictionary of the development of Physics terms, covering even more physics sources. A. Kaulakienė separately discusses and summarizes the synonymic and variant expression of terms of all three stages of physics development, shows which groups of synonyms were used in one or another stage, indicates their presentation methods, evaluates the relationship of Lithuanian and borrowed physics terms in various stages of development, reviews factors determining synonymy and variantity of physics terminology, analyzes undesirable phenomena caused by synonymy of Lithuanian and borrowed terms in terminology. At the end of the subsection, the author draws two important conclusions: 270 Albina Auksoriūtė | “First, the requirement of unambiguity of the term is unattainable for the practice of this terminology. That requirement could therefore be considered optional, but not essential. Secondly, the optionality of the requirement should be based only on reasonable synonymy of terms (when a concept is called a Lithuanian and a borrowed term), the variability of compound and elliptic terms” (182). In Lithuanian terminology, the boundary between synonymous and variant terms is not yet strictly and clearly defined. This is also commented on in footnote 6 of the monograph. However, the monograph shows that the concept of the author’s version is somewhat broader. Such a broader understanding of the version should be considered the author’s prerogative, which could also be discussed. The last subsection of the third chapter examines the normative aspect of Lithuanian physics term dictionaries, comparing and discussing four physics term dictionaries: Termai fizikos reikalams (1923—1924), Fizikos terminų žodynas (1958), Fizikos terminų žodynas (1979) and Fizikos terminų žodynas (2007). At the end of the first theoretical part of the book are presented rather concise but detailed conclusions, which the author of the book concludes with the statement that “the current terminology of physics is fairly well standardized, corresponding to the cases of possible ideal nomination, where the term names only one concept, and the concept corresponds to only one term” (198). In the second part of the book, A. Kaulakienė presents a dictionary of the development of physics terms, in which the terms are given in alphabetical nested manner, in chronological order of usage of terms; Furthermore, each term, synonym or variant that has varied over time is illustrated by a sentence or fragment from the source. The dictionary includes most of the main related and specific physics terms, not only the main terms of the sources discussed in the first part of the monograph, but also all their synonyms and variants, authentic illustrations of the sources explaining the concept. The dictionary is based on the 1979 and 2007 dictionaries of physics terms, but the author also includes some terms not included in the dictionaries, which are used in the physics publications discussed in the first part of the book. The author’s carefully compiled dictionary clearly shows the beginning of the use of each presented genus and species term, the development of the designation of the concept, the term that has entered into force in the current use, so the dictionary contains incredibly valuable physics terminology material, on the basis of which more than one scientific research can be carried out. Terminology | 2009 | 16 271 It should be noted that we have not yet had monographs, in which a linguist-- theminologist would have carried out a detailed study of the development of terminology in any field of science for almost 160 years, so this work is important not only for terminologists, but also for specialists of the analyzed field — physicists. [S] ~J bo Retrieved 2009-12-23. Albina Auksoriūtė Lietuvių kalbos institutas P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius, Lithuania E-mail: albinaa@- ]lki.lt Albina Auksoriuté |