GENETICS AND GENETIC ENGINEERING TERMINOLOGY FORMATION IN MODERN RUSSIAN, ENGLISH AND SPANISH: DNA AND GENOME ERAS
The article investigates the influence of the development of Genetics and Genetic Engineering on the corresponding terminological systems formation in the Russian, English and Spanish. The paper considers the origin of key genetic terminological units, as well as some of their etymological, structural and systemic features. A complex research method that combines the method of continuous selection of terms, definitional, contextual, etymological types of analysis, component analysis of the semantic structure of terms, the method of quantitative data processing enabled to analyze the issues under consideration in all the variety of their connections and relations. As a result, the main stages of development of the scientific fields of Genetics and Genetic Engineering were identified and subjected to further analysis depending on the way the relevant terminological units appeared in the languages and on their functioning patterns, particularly, in DNA and genome eras. It was concluded that the Genetics and Genetic Engineering terminology systems were developing in close connection with the development of appropriate reference spheres and can be traced back to the scientific discoveries that were made in the fields. The study shows the complexity of the structure of terminological units in the periods in question in comparison with the era of classical Genetics manifested in a more frequent use of syntactic (the formation of term-phrases, 67% of the terminological selection) and morphological-syntactic (for the most part, compounding, 16%) derivation patterns as contrasted with morphological patterns (mainly suffixation, 12%) and non-derived units (5%). The connection with the reference spheres of Genetics and Genetic Engineering, in particular, was expressed by the use of proper names in the process of terminological nomination - the creation of eponymic terms in all the three languages.