English linguistics department

CHAPTER 2. LINGUISTIC AND STYLISTIC FEATURES OF SCIENTIFIC SCIENTIFIC TEXTS


2.1 Lexical features of scientific style texts

One of the most characteristic features of the scientific style is the choice of vocabulary. The selection of vocabulary is subject to one main task: to adequately convey to the reader the described phenomenon in the variety of features that characterize this phenomenon.

Figurativeness, as a rule, is not characteristic of the scientific style. Therefore, it is rare to find metaphors, metonymy, hyperbole, comparisons and other means of creating imagery. However, this does not mean that figurative speech is not found in scientific works at all. Unlike the style of business documents, where imagery is excluded as a phenomenon that violates the style, and unlike the style of artistic speech, in which imagery becomes the most characteristic feature, in the style of scientific prose, imagery is a means of manifesting an individual manner of presentation.
The vocabulary of the scientific language is divided into three main layers. First of all, these are the most general, basic words, i.e. those words that have the maximum frequency and without which no speech can be built at all. This layer of the so-called "general" vocabulary, which also includes all service words, is the basis of any style of speech and is neutral not only in terms of style, but also in relation to the author. Next, the actual terminological layer is highlighted. And finally the third layer−layer of general scientific vocabulary.
Particular attention in this work should be paid to general scientific vocabulary and terminology.
General scientific vocabulary is designed to convey information related to human cognitive activity: with discoveries, observations, systematization of material, etc.
In the system of general scientific verbs, M.M. Glushko identifies the following thematic series:
1) Verbs expressing an active impact on the object of study, such as: to affect, to alter, to arrange, to change, to compare, to construct, to invent, to select, to transform: compare this approach to an adapted version of multiple hypothesis tracking.−This approach is compared with a simplified version of the method of tying traces based on a multivariate hypothesis.
2) Verbs expressing the thought processes of the researcher, such as: to analyse, to apprehend, to consider, to reason, to regard, to solve, to suppose: exhaustively consider all possible linkages.−We will consider in detail all possible methods of tying traces.
3) Verbs expressing the state (characteristic) of the object of study, such as: to arise, to belong, to coincide, to depend, to diverge, to exist, to remain, to result, to serve, to underlie:, we are asking for all sets of observations that could feasibly belong to a path.−In particular, we analyze the entire set of observations that could relate to any trajectory.
4) Verbs of transferring the results of the work done, such as: to address, to communicate, to convince, to describe, to explain, to express, to introduce, to outline, to point, to report, to state:introduce a new methodology for track initiation that exhaustively considers all possible links.−A new approach is proposed to the procedure for linking routes, which allows a detailed analysis of all potential routes.
5) Communication verbs such as: to cite, to exemplify, to list, to quote, to register, to symbolize, to illustrate:1illustrates the computational problem that we are trying to solve.
The same lexico-semantic divisions as for verbs, M.M. Glushko also finds for nouns:
1) Active influence on the object of study (application, arrangement, classification, distribution, elaboration, investigation, research, treatment): 4: An arbitrary probability distribution and the resulting bounds.−Figure 4. Arbitrary probability distribution and resulting bounds.
2) The state (characteristic) of the subject (appreciation, attitude, consideration, doubt, intelligence, discussion, reason, sense, standpoint): discussion below focuses on two major types of tracks: linear and quadratic.−Our discussion below is limited to two main types of traces: linear and quadratic.
3) The state (characteristic) of the object (availability, complexity, contradiction, exception, feature, importance, level, order, problem, process, reaction, relation): level of discretization of parameter space can drastically affect the accuracy of the algorithm.−The level of discretization of the parametric space can greatly affect the accuracy of the algorithm.
4) Presentation of research results, information transfer (brief, definition, description, explanation, expression, presentation, representation, recommendation): above definition of feasibility is compatible with a range of statistical noise models.−The definition of feasibility given above is in the domain of statistical noise models.
5) Communication media (article, citation, formula, list, note, sign, symbol, figure): 3 shows an example of a feasible triplet using linear tracks and one feasible track for these points.−Figure 3 shows an example of a suitable measurement triple using a linear model for the case of a single trace fitting through all points.
As for adjectives, they are also quite clearly divided into five main thematic groups:
1) Active influence on the object of study (reductive, adaptive, transformational, tentative): a tentative track matches multiple observations at a given time step…−When the trial trace matches the multivariate observations at a given point in time…
2) The state (characteristic) of the subject (competent, experienced, imaginative, irrational). Typically, such vocabulary is typical for fragments of articles containing information about the authors. Such information, as a rule, is given in scientific collections published on the basis of materials of conferences and symposiums. However, in some works close in form to a monograph, such information may be absent.
3) The state (characteristic) of the object (applicable, basic, complex, concrete, definite, elementary, simple, factual, general): 2 shows a simple one dimensional example with five time steps and a linear model.
4) Presentation of research results, information transfer (communicable, descriptive, explanatory, observational):
The next generation of sky survey is designed to provide vast amounts of observational data…−A new generation of space exploration instruments…designed to capture large amounts of observational data…
5) Means of information transfer (illustrational, quotable, schematic).
Based on the foregoing, we can talk about the systemic nature of general scientific vocabulary, since verbs, nouns, and adjectives quite clearly fit into a semantically unified, internally ordered system of meaningful relations.
A common feature of all scientific works is terminology. There are many definitions of the term, but there is no single generally accepted one today. According to O.S. Akhmanova, the term−this is “a word or phrase of a special (scientific, technical, etc.) language created (accepted, borrowed) for the exact expression of special concepts and the designation of special objects.” I.V. Arnold notes that “the most conspicuous, but not the only feature of the scientific style is the use of special terminology. Each branch of science develops its own terminology in accordance with the subject and method of its work. Terms differ from commonly used words in that they have a definition that reveals the most significant features of special concepts. The terms are mostly devoid of emotional meaning, although in some cases they can acquire a certain emotional coloring in the text. In addition, the terms are monosemantic. The terms are unambiguous and independent of context. The main condition for the stylistic use of terms is a clear identification of the terminological meaning. In other words, the prerequisite for the stylistic use of a term is its complete correlation with one, and only one, terminological series.
The requirements for terms and term systems were formulated back in the 1930s in numerous works by the founder of Soviet terminology D.S. Lotte. He put forward and substantiated the following requirements applied to the term: brevity, unambiguity, motivation, simplicity, coordination with other terms available in the term system, i.e. consistency, preference for already introduced and Russian terms over new and foreign ones.
Having a specific scope and a special object of designation, the terms are part of a certain terminology. Terminology−a set of lexical units of a natural language denoting the concepts of a certain field of knowledge or activity, spontaneously developing in the process of its origin and development. Terms do not exist in isolation, but are part of a set of units−terminological system, which is a linguistic (sign) model of some special area of ​​knowledge or activity.
Term−a word of a special language serving for professional, scientific communication. It expresses a scientific concept and, in essence, must clearly define the boundary of a scientific concept in accordance with its etymology, since the term (terminus) in translation from Latin means: “border”, “limit”. This is the specificity of the term, its difference from the words of the general literary language.
At the same time, the terminology is not isolated from the latter, and the processes that take place in the language are also reflected in the terminology. In the real functioning of the term, interscientific terminological homonymy often takes place, when the same term can be included in various terminologies of a given language.
Let's take for example the word tracking, which appears repeatedly in the article by Jeremy Kubica "Fast and Robust Track Initiation Using Multiple Trees". In English, the word tracking has many meanings. Its main meanings are as follows: “tracking”, “tracking”, “routing”, “railways”, “tracking” [http://www.multitran.uz/]. The word tracking in the meaning of "tracking", "tracking" is borrowed from the general literary language by specialists in various fields of knowledge. Moreover, terminology, this word reflects in each separate branch a quite definite concept in the corresponding system of concepts. So, tracking in computer technology means “setting the line spacing”, in electrical engineering−dielectric tracking (formation of breakdown traces on the surface), in the media−"scaling", "accounting" [http://www.multitran.ru/]. We are also interested in the field of radar, in relation to which tracking means “target tracking with the help of radar equipment” [http://www.multitran.ru/]. These terms are assigned different definitions, and they function in different terminological systems, which is a sign of homonymy.
The next problem to dwell on is synonymy.−coincidence in the main meaning (usually while maintaining differences in shades and stylistic characteristics) of words, morphemes, constructions, phraseological units, etc. The main reason for the emergence of synonyms can be considered the desire to avoid repetition, tautology, i.e. desire for variation. In the article "Fast and Robust Track Initiation Using Multiple Trees", the authors deliberately resort to this synonymy: this paper we examine a fundamental problem in many tracking tasks: track initiation (also called linkage).−This article explores one of the main target tracking problems, namely the trace tying problem (also called the mark merging problem).
In addition, mention should be made of cases of polysemy, when the words of a general literary language, becoming terms, are used in a figurative sense. So, for example, the word noise, which has several meanings, is also used as a radio engineering term "noise", "interference":
At each time step k we observe Nk points from both the underlying set of tracks and noise.−At each moment of time k, we obtain Nk points both from the main set of trace marks and from the marks due to the influence of noise.
Terms, as a rule, according to structural features are divided into monolexemic and polylexemic. Monolexemic terms are mainly represented by nouns that are either simple root morphemes or suffix formations, for example: value, class, line, set, circle, quantity, probability, solution. Polylexemic terms, mostly binary, make up a significant part of the terminological system of any science. This may be the addition of nominal bases (confidence interval−confidence interval, error bar−the magnitude of the error) or the formation of so-called "family terms". These terms are built according to the type of an unstable compound word. Although they are not always presented in terminological dictionaries, according to some researchers, they are undoubtedly terms. The proof can be the fact that family terms express briefly and succinctly a concept for which there is a special, sometimes too long, expression or formula, i.e. they are definitive. So, in the article “Fast and Robust Track Initiation Using Multiple Trees”, behind the short expression the Hough transform is a complex algorithm: Hough transform looks for lines by using grid-based counts of the number of lines that go through a particular region of parameter space.−In the Hough transform, the search for lines can be carried out using a grid counting the number of lines that pass through a certain region of the parametric space.
Phrases also belong to polysemantic terms. They can be built according to the adjective + noun model (raw data−initial data), noun + preposition + noun (set of observations−series of observations) and participle + noun (dashed line−dotted line).
In addition to terminology, so-called book words are used in scientific texts: data, analogous, approximate, calculation, phenomenon - phenomena, etc. Book words are usually long, polysyllabic borrowed words, sometimes not fully assimilated, often having simpler ones in a neutral style and short synonyms. Incomplete grammatical assimilation is expressed in the preservation of the plural form adopted in the language from which the given noun is borrowed: criterion - criteria:
In contrast to the flexibility for noise models, it should be noted that the above criteria does not allow for a concept known as process noise.−It should be noted that, in contrast to the adaptability of the measurement error noise model, the criteria discussed above are not applicable to the concept known as the noise process.
A characteristic feature of the vocabulary of scientific prose is the formation of neologisms. New concepts that appear as a result of research urgently require new words to denote them. Especially frequent are cases of neoplasms with the help of affixation and conversion.
Unlike neologisms that appear in lively colloquial speech and in newspaper and journalistic style, neologisms that appear in the style of scientific prose turn out to be much more stable. Depending on how widely this or that scientific discovery becomes known to the general public, neologism words denoting them are included in the fund of common vocabulary or remain in circulation only in a narrow area where such a neologism arose.
In addition, the vocabulary of the scientific style is characterized by its abstractness. The very task of the scientific style - the generalization of the facts of reality - necessitates the appropriate words expressing the most general features of the studied objects and phenomena of reality. This in some types of scientific prose leads to the replacement of words with the corresponding abstract formulas, symbols, special signs. Symbols, unlike words, do not tend to acquire additional meanings. For example, kd-tree−kd-tree, D dimensional space−space of dimension D.