CROSS-CULTURAL PARALLELS IN THE TERMINOLOGY SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH AND ITALIAN

Abstract

Language contacts arising as a result of interaction between peoples are a significant factor in changing their linguistic and cultural community. Language faces new realities that cannot always be reflected by its internal resources. New words appear, including those coming from other languages, irrelevant ones disappear, and those that already exist may be reinterpreted. The terminological system, on the one hand, is more stable compared to the commonly used lexicon, on the other hand, the globalization of modern processes of society and the relentless development of computer-mediated multimodal communication create prerequisites for increasing the number of borrowed terms. Specificity of concepts of the material and inner world of representatives of different ethnic groups, their way of thinking, cultural and mental features influence the forming mechanisms of the scientific terminology diversity. The formal side of the word activates in the recipient the meanings necessary in a given narrowly focused communication situation. Terminological vocabulary has a special expressiveness, facilitates communication in a specialized, and often highly specialized field of knowledge. Terms in different languages gravitate towards unification, maximum unambiguity and internationalization. Linguistic loyalty, which allows borrowed terms to penetrate, is related to the greater social significance of the experience of the language community that stands out in its development and has an important impact on cultural and social trends, shaping not only national but also global trends. Latin language is the foundation and starting point in the field of terminological vocabulary. English has undergone several waves of interaction with Latin, first directly and then through French. More than half of the English terminological vocabulary is made up of Latin words. Italian, on the other hand, is the closest heir to Latin, primarily in terms of vocabulary. At this stage of the development of science, when English language has become the lingua franca of international scientific communication, English terminology is gaining more and more space in the world scientific vocabulary.