El tractament dels manlleus en la terminologia catalana: criteris i noves perspectives

Resum

One of the aspects that most stands out, in the phenomenon of incorporating new units into the lexicon, is the treatment given to the new terms that reach the language with borrowed forms. This article describes the general criteria that the Terminology Center, termcat applies when studying loan words originating in the scientific and technical areas. The article discusses the elements that characterize loan words, what new tendencies "some of which may be a reflection of profound changes affecting the general processes of lexical innovation" can be observed in recent years in this field, as well as what aspects are taken into account in the studies leading up to a decision, what relative importance each of these elements has vis-à-vis the others, and how terminological standardization is organized in Catalonia. The study of loan words offers new and interesting perspectives: the increase in cultural exchange makes the knowledge of distant realities, especially botanical, zoological and other physical or conceptual realities, more widespread and universal. Furthermore, this increase in cultural exchange makes it indispensable to give a name to these realities. The increasingly common knowledge of more than one language, especially English, acts as a check on the natural tendency of the speaker to adopt foreign phonetic pronunciations to his own phonic system. The spoken language is acquiring increasing importance, and in neologistic forms, pronounceability becomes a very important factor. The increasing use of loan words in all kinds of contexts raises graphic problems as regards typographic marking, and the immediate dissemination of any novelty that suddenly gains currency demands a great deal of agility from the media in the study and dissemination of alternative Catalan proposals. The analysis of these new tendencies inescapably means that the bodies having codifying capacity need to adapt their approaches and criteria to a social reality in which factors such as multilingualism or the universalization of knowledge are increasingly relevant. Terminology must be able to work in this changing environment; it must be capable of offering useful responses to specialists working in the many and varied realms of knowledge. Adequate neologistic proposals may help demonstrate the validity of the language's own resources. termcat believes that this task should be performed from a perspective of service to and cooperation with all the sectors concerned (specialists, scientists, technicians and linguists).