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Hello, I'm Ricard Ferrer, a linguistics technician at the UA,
and I will present each unit that correspond to specialized language and terminology.
The objective of this presentation is for you to have a general idea of the characteristics
that belong to specialized language. In a general point of view of language, we will begin with the linguistic variation,
in which we can include the technical register of language.
We will define it, analyse it, and finally, we will give a brief introduction into what terminology is,
a topic which we will look at in more detail in the next video.
Language is like water. It adapts to circumstances, at least it should do so.
Every time we talk, we adapt our way of expressing ourselves according to our personal characteristics.
This is what we define as a structural variety which includes our dialect, diachronic variations,
in other words, which era we are from, and social variations, which indicates whether we are students, judges,
operators in a factory etc. On the other hand, we have registers, in other words, when language adapts to situations.
Here everyone's ability to know how to change from different registers comes into play, speaking colloquially
in an informal situation and changing register when necessary.
In short, adapting oneself to the communicative context.
Specialized language is a functional variation.
If we look at language as a whole, specialized language would occupy a plot.
It is one of the most difficult plots to cultivate: you cannot get access to it
unless it is through training and, in some cases, curiosity.
It includes the most difficult topics such as neuroscience or chemistry, technical language
of basic gardening tools, Valencian pilota and more.
Topic, channel, user and function.
As well as the topic, the interlocutor marks the difficulty: topic, interlocutors.
Interlocutors. Two coin collectors, for instance, that talk about their interest by using standard language,
and they include technical words, but in general we could understand them.
Things would change in a conference on construction or in an article about proteins, for example.
And linked to that we have the function or the speaker's intention: a neurologist who wants to explain headaches
in an informative magazine should do so by using an understandable general register.
In general, specialized language has a few a features that define it over common language.
The basis needs to be standard language (or it should be).
From this point, if we analyse this register, we can extract some common characteristics.
Scientific language wants to be objective as is describes processes, phenomenon etc. in general terms,
and this is why it preferably uses present indicative in Catalan. Joan Pellicer, an ethnobotanist, said:
"ferns from a well are herbs that have played a relatively important role in traditional phytotherapy".
It is all written in present, as you can see. In order to be objective, the majestic plural is resorted to: we.
To mark formal language, and also to make the object of the study stand out over who is studying it,
it is very typical to find passives that hide the author. Another example from Pellicer is:
"Acanthus has been used as a moisturizer. The leaves, heated up and cleaned...".
Now we will do a short practical exercise to see what specialized language is like.
Here you can see three sentences that refer to the same, but in different registers, from high to less register.
In the first sentence a traumatologist writes the following observations in a diagnosis for a General Practitioner:
"Lateralized protrusion L5 S1 due to contusion".
It is an incomprehensible sentence for the majority of us, between specialists and in which we can see there is no verb.
In the second sentence, which would be said from the doctor to the patient, is more comprehensible and has two participles,
in other words, nominal forms of the verb: "a discal hernia caused by a contusion suffered from...".
And the third sentence is what a trainer would say to a sportsperson. It is nearer to common language and it has 3 periphrasis in Catalan!:
"if you don't want to injure yourself again, you must strengthen your muscles".
Therefore, we can see that, the higher the register, fewer verbs there are.
Therefore, specialized language is...nom-in-al.
Let us look back at the same sentences to check the amount of nouns,
to check out hypothesis. In the diagnosis the sentence was practically made up of only nouns:
"Lateralized protrusion L5 S1 due to contusion".
In the second sentence we can only find "hernia and contusion".
In the second sentence uses verbs for intentions, actions etc. and we can only find one noun, "muscles".
So, specialized language has a lot of nominal den-si-ty.
The higher the technical register, more nouns we can find.
These nouns in specialized language are called terms.
With a term we can express what the word X means in a specific speciality of a field.
If the field changes, then the meaning will most likely change.
The meaning is not the same if we say: "I have put up a fence in the garden" and "I am going to do fencing".
In the following video we will expand the concept of terminology.
Therefore, after having looked at the characteristics, we can state that specialized language:
adapts to people and situations, as common language should also do.
It has mechanisms to show objectivity.
The higher the register, the more nouns we can find in the sentence.
Nouns normally mean only one thing.
