Jonas KLIMAVIČIUS

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

DRIVING WHEELS

In considering the contrast between driving and driven in technical terminology, one often stumbles right at the outset over two stones—one from Lithuanian, the other from Russian, with which Lithuanian technical terminology has been associated for the longest time.

For some reason, the discussion invariably starts with the automobile, and its wheels (no longer a term, although even in 1959 PolŽ₁ колесо – wheel, wheel) obscure all technical wheels. So the discussion starts off well: if it is not an all-terrain vehicle (all its wheels/axles/axle assemblies are driving), then one set of wheels/one axle/one axle assembly is driving. How is the need for the passive participle justified? Torque is transmitted from the engine through the propeller shaft to a pair of wheels/an axle/an axle assembly. They are indeed driven, so why not call them driven? But the aim is not to drive them, but the whole automobile. Although the drive wheels themselves are driven, they propel the automobile, and so are called driving wheels: The transmission connects the engine to the d r i v i n g w h e e l s LTE I 506. The t h r u s t o f t h e d r i v i n g w h e e l s (...) i s t r a n s m i t t e d t o t h e d r i v i n g a x l e and onwards to the frame; this is why the automobile moves VairV 144. In theory, these wheels are propellers (a tractor’s are tracks, a ship’s or aircraft’s are propellers).

And what of the automobile’s other wheels? They are not connected by the transmission to the driving wheels. Therefore, in terminology they are sometimes designated with a negative prefix: In automobiles with dependent wheel suspension, the front (n o n - d r i v i n g) axle consists of a beam with a double-T cross-section (...) VairV 147. Their sometimes-used designation driven is also not without justification: they are moved by the automobile itself, by its traction. However, one should not draw sweeping conclusions from the fact that some technical terminology dictionaries do not list a driven wheel—the reasons may be quite irrational. For instance, ALPolŽ does not even list a driving wheel, although it does list a driving axle (driving axle), as well as a driving gear (drive gear); TechŽ likewise does not list a driving wheel, although it includes both a driving axle and a driven axle (ведущая и ведомая ось), as well as a driving shaft and a driven shaft (ведущий и ведомый вал); PolŽ₁ has only

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a driving wheel (бедущее колесо), although it has both a driving and a driven axle, and both a driving and a driven shaft. More significant is the fact that wheel in technical dictionaries need not mean an automobile wheel, and even in an automobile, axles need not be those on which the wheels rotate. Naturally, technical concepts should be used more carefully in dictionaries, but even AutoserŽ’s driving and driven wheel say nothing precise.

A different way of naming non-driving wheels and axles has now emerged—their opposite without a negative element: driving wheel (12. 2), Russian ведущее колесо, English driving wheel, German Treib rad, Antriebsrad, French roue motrice, roue couplée ↔ freely rolling wheel (12. 4), Russian колесо свободного вращения, English free rolling wheel, German Tragrad, French roue porteuse PAutŽ; driving axle (12. 6), Russian ведущая ось, English driving axle, live axle, German Tre ibachse, Antriebsachse, French driving axle ↔ non-driving axle (12. 8), Russian свободная ось, English dead axle, German Tragachse, French supporting axle, idler axle PAutŽ. There is a slight terminological shortcoming in the phrase freely rolling, as is the semantically somewhat ambiguous term free axle. But it is possible.

Misleading Russian колесо can also mean зубчатое колесо (though зубчатка, и шестерня are also used), which in Lithuanian is gear wheel (incidentally, English wheel and German Rad mean both wheel and gear wheel, whereas gear wheel is English gear-wheel and German Zahnrad). In Russian, the modifier зубчатое in the compound term is often omitted, and the hypernym колесо is used instead; consequently, Lithuanian translations likewise use not gear wheel but simply wheel, and this usage then carries over into texts not translated from another language, for example: The double final drive transmits rotation through two pairs of gears: one pair consists of 2 bevel gears, the other of 2 cylindrical gears (fig.). With a double final drive, the gear ratio (the ratio of the rotational speeds of the driving and driven gears) is greater LTE VIII 402. The gears are clearly visible in the illustration. And immediately after this: The single final drive consists of two bevel gears: the small driving gear turns the large one, so the wheels turn more slowly than the propeller shaft, while torque is greater LTE VIII 402.

To say the driving gear turns LTE VIII 402, the engine turns <...> the wheels LTE I 506 is semantically very imprecise: if the dri-

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iklis, pa-vara, var-ytuvas, it drives, although it turns the wheels are turned by the steering wheel when making a turn). The meaning of drive, sense 3, “to make operate (of mechanisms)” (steam drives machines, electric driving force) was already established in the 1954 DŽ¹. This meaning comes from colloquial speech (dialectal) – ¹to drive, sense 8, “to make operate, move, turn, push (mechanisms)”: Water turns all sorts of wheels and drives millstones Antašavà. The watermill is driven by water Ragainė. And then finally [there] horse-powered [threshing machines] driven by a horse Kārtėna. Some [bellows] were wind-driven, with a sort of wheel Ylakiai. The motor is driven by electricity Kernavė (LKŽ XVIII 210). As late as 1949, TechŽ still listed a borrowed meaning as well: ведущая ось – vedančioji ašis (although ось ведущая – varančioji ašis), ведущий шкив – vedantysis skriemulys, ведомый шкив – vedamasis, varomasis skriemulys.

In 1968, the German–Lithuanian LRKŽ V varyti 1 is illustrated with expressions such as: varomasis mechanizmas, ratas – Triebwerk, -rad, varomasis diržas, skriemulys – Triebrie­men, -scheibe, varomoji ašis, padarnė – Triebackse, -werk. The German equivalents show that varomasis here means “driving” (without them, an ordinary-language user, and all the more a technical specialist, would understand it to mean “driven”). When the opposition between the terms is disregarded, the term ceases to be a term here. This is merely a dialect sentence cited under the meaning of varyti 8 in LKŽ XVIII 210: There is [a] little wheel’s cord [i.e. string] driven Kintai. It is no secret that some people are very fond of pulling passive participles into terminology (they propose: calculating machines, controlled systems,...), although specialists strongly resist them. There is no shortage of ingenuity among the proponents. For instance, they say there is only a driven cord, not a driving one, and that the one which drives is called driven, so the wheels of a car that drive must also be driving. Never mind that for fifty years they were driving, while their opposites were driven. In fact, a spinner presses the treadle—the pedal drives the wheel, the wheel drives the cord, the cord the pulley, and the spool turns together with the pulley and draws the thread. Thus the cord is both driven by the wheel and driving the pulley. It has already been said that the car wheels, too, are both driven by the transmission and drive the car, but the term is driving wheels, because this is more important: they perform the most important action—they drive the car. One can look at those wheels in two ways, but one must see both them and the whole car. When naming concepts scientifically,

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the viewpoint chosen is the one that is relevant, and it is chosen not by linguists but by specialists in the subject being named. More importantly, scientific and technical terminology is not a do-it-yourself matter. There is so-called folk terminology, but there are no folk or Lithuanian (or even Samogitian) principles of mechanics or systems of gearing and transmission—the conceptual systems of terminology are international, just like science itself.

Incidentally, a driven cord is no less scientific—exactly analogous is belt drive in PolŽ₂ (ременный привод), driving belt, though it is now more often called drive belt in PolŽ₂, VLAutŽ—Russian приводной ремень PolŽ₂, Polish pas napędowy (:napęd – drive) RPTechS, German Antriebsriemen (:Antrieb – drive), Triebrie­men (:Trieb – drive) PAutŽ, English drive [transmission] belt RAPolS, French courroie de commande [de transmission] RFPolS. This is a monomial designation in all languages.

However, this says nothing about binary conceptual oppositions, which are likewise named in all languages (although there are also synonyms motivated differently from “drive,” but the opposition exists in those cases too):

Lithuanian driving wheel ↔ driven wheel

rus. ведущее колесо ↔ ведомое колесо

lenk. koło napędzające ↔ koło napędzane

koło napędowe

koło czynne ↔ koło bierne

German Antriebsrad ↔ Abtriebsrad

Treibrad, Triebrad

angl. drive wheel ↔ driven wheel

pranc. 1. roue motrice ↔ roue menée

roue menante ↔ roue commandée

2. (gear wheel)

engrenage moteur ↔ engrenage recepteur

barbotin

liet. varantysis velenas ↔ varomasis velenas

rus. ведущий вал ↔ ведомый вал

lenk. wał napędzający ↔ wał napędzany

wał czynny ↔ wał bierny

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vok. Antriebswelle ↔ Abtriebswelle

Triebwelle

angl. drive shaft ↔ driven shaft

driving shaft

pranc. arbre moteur

arbre d’entraînement ↔ arbre entraîné

arbre menant ↔ arbre mené

arbre de commande ↔ arbre commandé

(data from RPTechS, VLAutŽ, RAPolS, RFPolS).

And in multilingual automotive terminology (PAutŽ), this opposition is consistently maintained, although individual terms vary: driving shaft ↔ driven shaft (72.10 ↔ 67.3), Russian ведущий вал ↔ ведомый вал, English output [=input?! – J. K.] shaft ↔ output shaft, turbine shaft, runner, German Abtriebswelle [=Antriebswelle?! – J. K.] ↔ Abtriebswelle, French arbre de sortie ↔ arbre récepteur, arbre de turbine; for the timing mechanism, driving gear ↔ driven gear (31.5 ↔ 31.6), Russian ведущая шестерня ↔ ведомая шестерня, English crankshaft timing gear (pinion) ↔ camshaft gear-wheel (driven), German Kurbelwellen-Zahnrad ↔ Nockenwellen-Zahnrad, French pignon de distribution ↔ roue de distribution; driving pulley ↔ driven pulley (85.2 ↔ 85.8), Russian приводной раздвижной шкив ↔ приемный раздвижной шкив, English driving pulley, primary pulley ↔ driven pulley // input pulley ↔ output pulley, German Antriebs-Riemenscheibe, treibende Riemenscheibe ↔ Abtriebs-Riemenscheibe, French poulie motrice, variateur à dépression ↔ poulie réceptrice. A generalized opposition of modifiers is also given: driving ↔ driven (202.27 ↔ 202.28), Russian ведущий, приводной, движущий ↔ ведомый, приводимый, English driving, actuating ↔ driven, German treibend (-es Organ) ↔ angetrieben (-es Organ), French entraînant ↔ entraîne, actionne // menant ↔ mené, mis en marche, commandé.

The opposition between the automobile’s wheels is obvious, although the second member is currently designated in various ways – non-driving, driven, freely rolling wheels. Even when the non-active member of a similar conceptual opposition is not designated by a term, the active member can be expressed only by an active participle. For example, the concept “supporting con-

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struction” has not been designated, but “that which supports” is a supporting structure. PAutŽ lists the oppositions driving wheel ↔ freely rolling wheel, driving axle ↔ free axle. However, although the non-driving bridge is not designated, the active one is the driving bridge (62.13), Russian ведущий мост, English rigid driving axle, German starre Antriebsachse, French pont moteur.

Thus, the automobile’s driving wheels remain part of a larger system—the opposition must be terminologically unambiguous. When there is no opposition, especially when one is not even logically possible, terminology widely uses passive participles with generalized meanings, except for direct agents of an action (striking particle, falling star,...).

Abbreviations

ALPolŽ – Novodvorskis A. Anglų–lietuvių kalbų politechninis žodynas. Vilnius, 1948.

AutoservŽ – Russian–Lithuanian Dictionary of Automobile Service Terms / Compiled by R. Lapinskas. Vilnius, 1989.

DŽ₁ – Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas. Vilnius, 1954.

LKŽ – Lietuvių kalbos žodynas. Vilnius, 1997, T. 18.

LRKŽ – Dictionary of the Lithuanian Written Language. Vol. 5 / Compiled by A. Senn and A. Salys. Heidelberg, 1968.

LTE – Lietuviškoji tarybinė enciklopedija. Vilnius, 1976, T. 1. 1981, T. 8.

PAutŽ – Five-Language Dictionary of Automotive Terms / Prepared by R. Katalynaitė, A. Klibavičius, A. Kvietkauskas, R. Lapinskas, G. Paliulis. Vilnius, 1995.

PolŽ₁ – Russian–Lithuanian Polytechnical Dictionary / Editorial board: A. Novodvorskis (chair), L. Kumpikas, J. Mikuckas, J. Stanaitis, S. Vasauskas, J. Vidmantas. Vilnius, 1959.

PolŽ₂ – Rusų–lietuvių kalbų politechnikos žodynas / Sudarė G. Daugėla. Vilnius, 1984.

RAPolS – Русско–английский политехнический словарь. Москва, 1980.

RFPolS – Русско–французский политехнический словарь. Москва, 1980.

RPTechS – Wielki słownik techniczny rosyjsko–polski. Москва – Warszawa, 1973.

TechŽ – Novodvorskis A. Trumpas rusiškai–lietuviškas techninis žodynas. Kaunas, 1949.

VairV – Klenikovas V., Iljinas N. Automobile: A First-Class Driver’s Textbook. Vilnius, 1976.

VLAutŽ – Žitkutė A. German–Lithuanian, Lithuanian–German Dictionary of Automotive Terms. Vilnius, 1996.

Numerals indicate years, volumes (in Roman numerals), and pages.

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DRIVE WHEELS (DRIVE WHEELS)

Summary

The name of vehicle drive wheels in Lithuanian includes the active participle. The varantieji ratai (drive wheels) of the car vehicle are named after their essential characteristics – they drive (varo) a car. In other respects they are “varomieji”, i.e. they could be described using a word combination with the passive participle, because they are driven by the gearbox. In scientific nomination the essential, topical characteristic is chosen. And it is chosen not by linguists, but by the specialists of that particular field. Scientific and technical terminology is not a matter of housekeeping. Systems of concepts are international. Binomial opposition of “varantysis” ↔ “varomasis” of pair systems such as ratai (wheels), tiltai (ends), ašys (axles), also krumpliaračiai (tooth-wheel), skriemuliai (pulleys) and velenai (shafts) is present in terminology of all languages. Even in those cases when the passive member is not named, the active member is named by the active participle (laikančioji konstrukcija).

Jonas KLIMAVIČIUS Institute of the Lithuanian Language Antakalnio St. 6 LT-2055, Vilnius

Received 2000 10 10

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