Towards a Holistic Vision of Terminology Study:Based on an Analysis on the Applicability of“Phraseological Term”in Chinese Terminology

College of Foreign Languages,Minjiang University,Fuzhou,China Email:814230015@qq.com

[Abstract]This paper investigates the typical features of Chinese language as well as the problems brought about by the features,and further justifies the inapplicability of the terminological expression“phraseological term”in Chinese terminology.On the basis of the reasoning,it is proposed that terminology study in the future should take into account more Asian languages and more academic conversations be convened between the West and the East in order to have a more holistic vision on terminology study.

[Keywords]phraseological term;Chinese language;compounding;semantic segmentation

Introduction

The expression“phraseological term”constantly appears in terminology-related articles,journals and books.It is a term for terminology study and can also be taken as a part of the terminology theories.As a part of terminology theories,it is supposed to be general and applicable to all languages,and fits European languages,within which the terminology study takes a lead.However,does it fit a language from a totally different language family,like Chinese for instance? Chinese,unlike the languages in Europe,is a character-based language.It is written without spaces and relies less on the use of grammatical words like“the”,“of”and so on to constitute a“phraseological term”.Since the term is created in European languages,it puts a doubt on the applicability of it to some Asian languages like Chinese.This paper studies the definition of“phraseological term”as well as the typical features of Chinese lan⁃guage and justifies the applicability of the terminological expression in Chinese language.It further explores the cause behind the inapplicability of the terminological expression and argues a holistic view towards the theoretical study of terminology.

Definition of“Phraseological Term”

Regarding the definition of“phraseological term”,it can be referred to the“judge of language”- dictionar⁃ies-for an answer.Dictionaries are recordings of the proper use of words.It(terminography)is also a product of ter⁃minology study(Cabré,1999,p.44).It is the most authoritative source of information,especially a mega lexicograph⁃cial source like OED-Oxford English Dictionary.

“Phraseological”,according to the definitions in Oxford English Dictionary Online,also known as“OED On⁃line”,is about words in combination that constitutes a certain syntactic feature or a style of expression,referring to the following definitions for more information(OED online,June 20,2020):

a.A small group or collocation of words expressing a single notion,or entering with some degree of unity into the structure of a sentence;a common or idiomatic expression.

b.Applied to a single word.Now rare.

c.Grammar.A small,unified group of words(in a sentence)that does not include both a subject and a predicate or finite verb;(more recently also)a single word having an equivalent syntactic function;(gen.)any syntactic unit larger than a word and smaller than a clause.

According to the definitions in“OED”,Item“a”and“c”of the second sense fit terminology study most,and it relates mostly to syntactic structure,which constitutes grammatical aspects.The definition in“OED”represents how the term is understood and used by proper English language speakers,and all of its information is collected in the form of dictionary,behind which is the lexicographical theory-lexicography.So it is also referred to the lexicograph⁃ical definition of“phraseological term”for an answer,and in this way it can be understood as the expression from both theoretical and applicable approaches.In“Dictionary of Lexicography”(Hartmann & Gregory,1998,p.109),which is all about the terms used in the study of lexicography,the following relevant definitions of phraseological terms are thus defined:

a.Phrase:two or more words combined into a unit which performs a syntactic function;

b.Phraseological dictionary:a type of reference work which lists fixed expressions,phrases or sentences;

c.Phraseological information:one of the information categories presented by the compiler and consulted by the user of a dictionary,based on phraseology,or words and phrases in syntactic context.

According to Hartmann and Gregory’s definition,it can be found out that the lexicographical definitions of the term are in line with those in the OED.A“phraseological term”is related to a syntactic function.“Phraseological term”mainly refers to several words that are used together with grammatical words involved.

Problems concerning“phraseological term”

“Phraseological term”is a term created for terminology study,and it is supposed to fit all languages.Within the European languages,it makes sense to define several words used together as“phraseological term”because of the use of grammatical words.However,for some Asian languages like Chinese,within which grammatical words like“of”,“the”,do not exist and several non-grammatical words can be used together to form a so-called“phraseologi⁃cal term”.In other words,grammatical words is not a necessary part for a term made up of several words.Such being the case,does the expression“phraseological term”fit the terminology study within these languages? For a term in the form of a string of words and with no grammatical words in it,is it still“phraseological”? If not,what should it be?Whatever it is,“phraseological term”is obviously not an appropriate expression for Chinese terms that are com⁃prised of several words.

To find out why the expression fails to fit Chinese language,this study has had a closer examination on relevant features of Chinese language.By“relevant”,it refers to the lexical features in Chinese texts,as the topic of this study is based on a terminological expression.

Features of Chinese language

Chinese language belongs to a language family that is totally different from that of any European language.Among all the differences,the most typical feature of Chinese language is that words are flexibly compounded.

Compounding

The truth about Chinese people who learn Chinese language is that Chinese people learn the language character by character,and compounding practice is a very important part at the beginning of our school years.Take“牛奶”(“niu nai”,milk)for instance,we have to learn both the two characters in order to put the two characters together as a semantic unit.When the first character“牛”(“niu”,bull,ox,cow)is taught,12 compounding practice of the char⁃acter with the other character learned will be carried out under teacher’s guidance,“牛肉”(“niu rou”,beef),“吹牛”(“chui niu”,brag),“牛角”(“niu jiao”,horn)and so on; when the other character“奶”(nai)in“牛奶”(niu nai)is taught,students are requested to do compounding with the other characters learned,“牛奶”(“niu nai”,milk),“奶奶”(“nai nai”,grandma),“奶油”(“nai you”,cream)and so on.

The workbooks for students at the beginning years of primary schools,even some examinations or school tests,items relating to compounding are included.In the dictionaries for primary school students,lemma words are normal⁃ly single-character-based,and users have to find a lemma character and then its compounded collocations which are listed as entries under the lemma.Take“牛奶”(“niu nai”,milk)for example,users have to access through ei⁃ther of the two characters“牛”(niu)or“奶”(nai)for“牛奶”(“niu nai”,milk),depending on the setting of a dic⁃tionary,unlike in an English dictionary in which users don’t have to follow such practice.Under the head-character of“牛”(niu),users can find“牛角”(“niu jiao”,horn),“牛肉”(“niu rou”,beef)or“牛津”(“niu jin”,Oxford),which are collocated with“牛”(niu)and treated as independent entries in dictionaries.A single character in Chi⁃nese is too broad to define semantically,and it relies on compounding to narrow down its semantic scope.That’s why the collocations through compounding are treated as individual entries in Chinese dictionaries.Some scholars(McBride,2016;Huang,1998)have noticed this point and also pointed out that Chinese lexical building relies heavi⁃ly on compounding.

Flexibility in compounding

In addition to the compounding feature,many cases in Chinese language-when two compounded words are re⁃versed- still make sense,because Chinese is a language based on compounding which can happen either before or after the other word.Examples can be found in:“学科”(“xue ke”,discipline)and“科学”(“ke xue”,science),“实证”(“shi zheng”,empirical)and“证实”(“zheng shi”,proof),“女子”(“nv zi”,girl)and“子女”(“zi nv”,chil⁃dren,sons and daughters),“顶楼”(“ding lou”,penthouse)and“楼顶”(“lou ding”,roof),… We are not claiming that all compounded semantic units can be reversed this way,but there are a lot of cases like this.Regarding the flex⁃ibility features of Chinese terms that are comprised of several words in combination,an example can be found in“硅酮结构胶”(“gui tong jie gou jiao”in Chinese pinyin,meaning“silicon sealant”)and“结构硅酮胶”(“jie gou gui tong jiao”in Chinese pinyin,meaning“silicon sealant”).Both the two terms are comprised of five same Chinese characters but in different sequences,they are two terminological variants both referring to“silicon sealant”in Eng⁃lish.The only difference of the two terms is that the first two words“硅酮”(“gui tong”in Chinese pinyin,meaning“silicon”)in“硅酮结构胶”(“gui tong jie gou jiao”,meaning“silicon sealant”)is placed on the third and the forth place in the second term,“结构硅酮胶”(“jie gou gui tong jiao”in Chinese pinyin,meaning“silicon sealant”).Re⁃ferring to the part highlighted in black in the two terms for more information,we can find from the two terms that“结构”(“jie gou”in Chinese pinyin,meaning“structure”)can be compounded with“硅酮”(“gui tong”in Chinese pinyin,meaning“silicon”)either before or behind it and they still refer to the same thing.This aspect highlights the flexibility feature of Chinese words,as a word could be compounded with the same other word either presiding or be⁃hind it(Zhang,2006),and in this case,the two different term variants that are comprised of the same words but ar⁃ranged in different sequence to refer to the same concept or object.

The examples given are not exceptional in Chinese language.Chinese language has only about 3755 characters;but it does not mean the 3755 characters is all for Chinese language;it is compounding that makes this language pro⁃ductive(Yang et al.,2012,p.1034).Actually compounding is the most productive means of word formation in Chi⁃nese(Ceccagno & Basciano,2007,p.207); more than 70% of Chinese words are compounds that consist of two or more morphemes(Institute of Language Teaching and Research of China,1986),and thus knowing how morphemes“legally”fit together in one’s native language might facilitate reading of new words,particularly when only one of the Chinese characters of the word can be identified(Liu & McBride-Chang,2010,p.63).75-80% of Chinese words are compounds formed from two or three morphemes characters(Xing,2006,p.12).In general,there are about 82%of all characters are compound characters in Chinese(Xu,Pollatsek,&Potter,1999,p.383).More strikingly,a recent corpus analysis indicates that 95%of the new words inThe Contemporary Chinese Dictionary(2002)are com⁃pound words(Ceccagno and Basciano,2007,p.209).

Written without spaces

The European languages are written with spaces between words,while Chinese language is written without spac⁃es within a complete sentence(Emerson,2005,p.123).This feature would create a big difficulty for term users to identify terms from texts.We can even imagine how hard it would be to cut up the right terminological units from a text if English is written without spaces,let alone a language like Chinese,characterized by written without spaces and high flexibility in compounding in the meantime.In addition,European languages feature the use of grammatical words,and the relationships between words within a word complex are thus clearer than those in Chinese.For Chi⁃nese terms within contexts,it would be a bigger challenge for people to identify them.According to the communica⁃tive approach of Terminology(Cabré,1999),terms are in different forms within different contexts and among differ⁃ent term users.Chinese terms with their own characteristics as mentioned,flexibility in compounding and written without spaces,would be more difficult for term users to identify when they are placed within texts(Rayner et al.,2007,p.1022).For terminology study,these aspects about Chinese language would be a blank spot currently as they bring more problems to be settled in terms of term collection,terminology products like terminographies and so on.These aspects could be new to current terminology study.

Problems Concerning the Chinese Terms in Texts

Since Chinese characters are written without spaces and flexibly-compounded,it would be difficult for people to identify proper terms from texts,because the semantic boundaries for terms in texts are hard to determine.Within a specialized text,if a term is one-character-based,there would be no problem for users to identify them,but,for a term made up of several characters in combination,readers would have to cut up the terminological unit correct.Let’s take the term“混凝土施工技术”(meaning“techniques of concrete placement”)of civil engineering for instance.It is a term made up of seven concrete characters without a grammatical one involved.“施工”(meaning“place⁃ment”herein)in the whole semantic unit highlighted in black literally refers to“engineering work process or engi⁃neering operation”.It is a compounded semantic unit itself and it can be compounded with other semantic units to form a new and bigger one,as the term complex“混凝土施工技术”(meaning“techniques of concrete placement”)suggests that“施工”(meaning“placement”herein)can be placed between“混凝土”(meaning“concrete”)and“技术”(meaning“technology”).It can be compounded with“混凝土”(meaning“concrete”)to form a new seman⁃tic unit“混凝土施工”(meaning concrete placement or with“技术”(meaning“technology”)to form a new seman⁃tic unit“施工技术”,meaning“placement technology”herein,or all the seven words used together to form“混凝土施工技术”,meaning“techniques of concrete placement”.When a term like this is embedded in a text,the possibil⁃ity of identifying the right terminological unit is contingent on readers’field knowledge and their comprehension of the context.A term made up of several characters in combination in Chinese language is unlike the so-called“phra⁃seological term”in European languages,in which the ubiquitous presentation of grammatical words would suggest the relation between words.The Chinese terms made up of several words in combination rely less on grammatical words to build a word complex and would thus create a bigger difficulty for term users to use and identify them with⁃in texts properly,especially in bilingual situations.Zhu Jiehua(2013,p.1)points out that in Chinese-English trans⁃lation,the semantic units should be cut up according to the features of the target language- English.It can be in⁃ferred from it that semantic units of different languages are set in different ways,and that’s why we may have to cut up the semantic units in a way different from our own language when translating a text.Based on the above reason⁃ing,the requirement of the ability of cutting from texts the complete terminological unit for consultation is more de⁃manding in Chinese text than in English ones,and it can also be inferred that there might be some blank spots in ter⁃minology study regarding terminological variants caused by linguistic differences,such as how people from different language communities define terms,especially in a bilingual context,the semantic segmentation for terminology with⁃in texts of an Asian language like Chinese,as well as terminology inclusion for dictionaries.

Conclusion

This study probes into the typical features of Chinese language and investigates the applicability of the term-“phraseological term”- in Chinese terminology study.It is proposed that more attention be given to non-European languages and more academic conversations be opened up between the East and the West on the issues of terminolo⁃gy.With more languages to be included into the terminology study,the theory will be placed in a bigger vision and be more inclusive and applicable as a theory.

Acknowledgements

This paper is funded by 2019 Minjiang University’s research fund for new talents(No.:MJY19036).