Basic Scientific Terminology CTL 3352 Scientific and Technical

Basic Scientific Terminology CTL 3352 Scientific and Technical Translation Ivan Yeung

0 Basic Terminology • 0. 1 Concept – the mental representation of an object – the basic element of a knowledge system • 0. 2 Term – the expression of an object in language • 0. 3 Definition – the description of the concept

0 Basic Terminology • 0. 4 Technical Terms – A form of any given language that is used by people involved in a specialism and that has a set of expressions that are used in a different or more specific way than in the common language

1 Technical Language vs Common Language • 1. 1 technical terms are largely derived from common language – friction, motor, heart, plant, bone… – 熱、寒、風、濕… • 1. 2 technical terms are more specific and precise – The leaves were blown yellow by the autumn wind arriving early. – Chlorophyll, the chemical responsible for photosynthesis, is found in leaves.

1 Technical Language vs Common Language • 1. 3 some technical terms are used metaphorically – Light bulb – Glühbirne (glow pear) – 電燈泡

2 Technical Term Formation • New terms are invented when there’s “lexical gap” between the SL and TL • • “Alzheimer’s disease ”【醫】阿爾茨海默病 “cerebellum” 【解】小腦 “melamine” 【化】三聚氰胺 “barrier island” 【地】堰洲島 “Hemiptera” 【動】半翅目 “calculus” 【數】微積分 “Miranda” 【天】天衛五

2 Technical Term Formation • 2. 1 combining of lexical terms in compounds – carbon, oxygen → carbon dioxide • 2. 2 borrowing of foreign words – cardiovascular disease, penicillin • 2. 3 abbreviation – AIDS, ECG, MRI, DEHP • 2. 4 notation – ∫, ∑, ♂, ♀. ∆x, ln(x)

3 Etymology of Technical Terms • 3. 1 Etymology – the study of the origin and the histories of words • Food for thought – What are the most important source for building scientific terms?

3 Etymology of Technical Terms • 3. 2 Greek and Latin Roots – many scientific terms were derived from Greek or Latin roots • • • arthr (o) - G - joint – arthritis cephal (o) - G - head – cephalopoda mega - G - large, enlarged – megacolon aqua – L – water – aquaculture albo – L – white – albino

3 Etymology of Technical Terms Numerals Latin prefix Greek prefix 1 uni mono 6 sex(t) / se hex 2 bi / duo di /dy 7 sept hept 3 tri 8 oct 4 quadri / quart tetra 9 nonus / nona ennea 5 quint penta 10 dec(a) / de dec(a)

3 Etymology of Technical Terms Color Black Blue Green Red Scarlet White Yellow Latin Atr-, nigr. Cerule. Virid-, viridi. Rubi-, rubr. Coccin. Alb-, candid. Flav-, lute- Greek Melan-, melano. Cyano. Chloro. Erythro. Leuco. Xantho-

3 Etymology of Technical Terms Suffixes of common organic compounds -al -ane -ase -ene -diene 醛 烷 酶 烯 二烯 -one -ose -oyl -ylene 酮 糖 醯/酰 基 (一價基) -ol -diol 醇 二醇 -yne 炔 亞基 (二價基 )

4 Guidelines for making technical terms • 4. 1 The term must be well motivated** – literal meaning matches the concept as understood in the overall system of concepts – eg, television, melanocyte • 4. 2 the term should be as short as possible without adversely affecting its clarity

4 Guidelines for making technical terms • 4. 3 the term should not be polysemous and should have no synonyms* – care should be taken when translating terms containing a polysemous morpheme • • Subcranial Sublingual Subculture Subgallate Subexcite Subchronic Subluxation subinflammation 顱下 舌下 次培養菌 次沒食子酸 亞興奮 亞慢性 不全脫臼 輕炎

4 Guidelines for making technical terms • 4. 4 the term should be systematic – heart disease, lung disease, liver disease vs disease of the kidney – carbon monoxide 一氧化碳 – carbon dioxide 二氧化碳

4 Guidelines for making technical terms • 4. 5 the term should be productive of any necessary derivations – oxygen → 氧 / 氧氣 – oxidize → 氧化 – oxidizing agent → 氧化劑 – oxidation → 氧化作用 – plastics → 塑料 – plasticity → 可塑性 – plasticize → 塑化 – plasticizer → 塑化劑 – plasticization → 增塑作用 / 塑化作用

4 Guidelines for making technical terms • 4. 6 the term should be formed in accordance with the syntactic rules of the language – 清膽瀉火湯 – → Clear Gall-bladder and Drain Fire Decoction* – → Gallbladder-Clearing Fire-draining Decoction

4 Guidelines for making technical terms • 4. 7 the term should be internally logical – 帶下青 • → green leukorrhea * • → green vaginal discharge – 礦物類中藥 • mineral herbs * • mineral medicines

5 Biological Terminology • 5. 1 Biological Hierarchy – – Kingdom ─ Animalia Phylum ─ Arthropoda Class ─ Insecta Order ─ Diptera • Suborder ─ Nematocera – Family ─ Culicidae • Subfamily ─ Culicinae – Genus ─ Aedes – Species ─ A. albopictus

5 Biological Terminology • 5. 1 Biological Hierarchy – – Kingdom ─ 動物界 Phylum ─ 節肢動物門 Class ─ 昆蟲綱 Order ─ 雙翅目 • Suborder ─ 長角亞目 – Family ─ 蚊科 • Subfamily ─ 家蚊亞科 – Genus ─ 伊蚊屬 – Species ─ 白紋伊蚊

5 Biological Terminology • Food for thought – What is the importance of scientific naming? • 5. 2 Binomial Nomenclature – binomial nomenclature is a standard naming convention used by scientists when referring to organisms – the scientific name of each organism is the combination of two names • the genus and the species

5 Biological Terminology • Food for thought – Why is scientific naming important? • Consider: – English common name: Many-banded Krait – 中文(俗)名*：銀環蛇 / 銀腳帶 (港)、雨傘節 ( 台) – Bungarus multicinctus

5 Biological Terminology • English common name: Point-scaled Pit Viper / Chinese Habu / Taiwan Habu / Formosan Pit Viper • 中文名稱：原矛頭蝮 / 烙 鐵頭 (港)、龜殼花 (台) • Protobothrops mucrosquamatus

5 Biological Terminology • 5. 2 Binomial Nomenclature – binomial nomenclature is a standard naming convention used by scientists when referring to organisms – the scientific name of each organism is the combination of two names • the genus and the species

5. 2 The Hierarchy of Biological World Kingdom 界 Animalia 動物界 Phylum 門 Chordata 脊索動物門 Class 綱 Aves 鳥綱 Order 目 Coraciiformes 佛法僧目 Family 科 Alcedinidae 翡翠科 Genus 屬 Alcedo 翠鳥屬 Species 種 A. atthis 翠鳥

5. 2 The Hierarchy of Biological World Kingdom 界 Animalia 動物界 Phylum 門 Chordata 脊索動物門 Class 綱 Actinopterygii 幅鰭魚綱 Order 目 Lepisosteiformes 雀鱔目 Family 科 Lepisosteidae Genus 屬 Atractosteus 大雀鱔屬 Species 種 A. spatula 大雀鱔 雀鱔科

5 Biological Terminology • 5. 2 Binomial Nomenclature • certain rules should be observed – the scientific name must be in Greek or Latin language – genetic name should come first and must begin with a capital letter – the same name should not be used for two or more species under the same genus – the scientific name must be either underlined or written in italics – the name of the author who first described the species should be written after the specific name • e. g. Homo sapiens Linnaeus

End • Take a break

¡ The flu viruses are a large family, each possessing a mere 10 genes encoded in RNA. l 流感病毒族群龐大，成員眾多，每個病毒只具有 10 個 由 RNA 編碼的基因。 ¡ time for fun~ l All of the 16 known groups originate in water birds, especially ducks and gulls. ¡ 已知的 16 個病毒種群，全都源自水鳥，尤以雁 鴨類和鷗類最為重要。

¡ ¡ The virus is well adapted to their immune systems, and does not usually make them very sick. l 病毒對禽類的免疫系統適應良好，禽鳥通常不會病得 太重。 time for fun~ l This leaves the animals free to move around and spread the virus - just what it needs to persist. ¡ 病禽可自由往來，傳播病毒，這正是病毒賴以持 續的條件。

¡ Just such a strain of H 5 N 1 flu, named after its surface proteins, has been rampaging through large chicken farms in east Asia. l 因表面蛋白* / 表面抗原得名的H 5 N 1流感病毒株， 就曾經橫掃東亞的大型養雞場。 ¡ But flu is at its most deadly when it first makes the jump to people, having had no opportunity to adapt itself to our immune systems. l 當流感病毒初轉移至人體時，由於沒有機會適應 人類的免疫系統，最為致命。

¡ ¡ H 5 N 1 has continued to infect humans as the outbreak in poultry has raged, with an apparently high fatality rate. l 當禽流感在家禽中傳播越演越烈之際，H 5 N 1 病毒繼 續感染人類，造成頗高的死亡率。 time for fun~ l It has so far has been hard to contract, and has not spreadily between people. ¡ 到目前為止，人類不會輕易罹患禽流感，人與人 之間的傳播亦不容易發生。

¡ time for fun~ l If this viral strain should acquire that ability, it could become a lethal pandemic - the name for an epidemic that spreads worldwide. ¡ 假如病毒獲得在人類之間傳播的能力，可以造成 致命的全球大流行。 l That is what happened in 1918, when a virulent flu strain appeared in humans and killed 50 million people within a few months. ¡ 1918 年就發生了一次這樣的大流行，致病力強 大的病毒株在短短數月內讓五千萬人喪命。

¡ There have also been two less catastrophic pandemics. The so-called "Asian" flu of 1957 caused between one and four million deaths, while 1968's "Hong Kong" flu - with about half the estimated deadliness of the Asian flu - caused one to two million deaths. ¡ 此外，尚有兩次殺傷力較小的大流行。1957年，所謂的 「亞洲型」流感導致一至四百萬人死亡；而1968年的「 香港型」流感，造成的死亡人數為一至兩百萬，約為亞洲 型流感的估計致死人數一半。

¡ Both of these were human flu viruses which had recombined with bird flu viruses, rendering them unrecognisable to the human immune system. l 造成這兩次大流行的，都是和禽流感病毒重組的人類 流感病毒，致使人類的免疫系統無從辨認它們。 ¡ The 1957 strain was nearly released by accident in 2005. l 2005年，造成 1957年大流行的病毒株險些意外地釋 放出來。

¡ Even if H 5 does not trigger the next pandemic, its cousins H 7 and H 9 could. l 即使 H 5 病毒沒引發下次的大流行，近似株 H 7 或 H 9 也可能會。 ¡ H 7 is present in the same region and also infected large numbers of Dutch people in an outbreak in 2003. l H 7 病毒見於 / 分布於同一區域，在 2003年的爆發中 感染了大量的荷蘭人。

¡ Some scientists are not willing to wait and see. They are trying to breed contagiousness into H 5 N 1 to see if it is likely to happen. l 有些科學家不願意呆等，嘗試透過病毒雜交，看 看能否給 H 5 N 1 病毒引進感染力。* l 有些科學家不願意枯等，透過病毒雜交試驗，以 找出H 5 N 1 病毒感染力會否增加。

¡ Others are breeding replicas of the 1918 virus from samples recovered from victims - to see just what made it so deadly. l 其他科學家從病人樣本複殖 1918 病毒株，以了解是 甚麼因素讓病毒殺傷力這麼大。 ¡ But some feel that those experiments, because of the potential for escape from the lab, put us at as much risk as the natural evolution of the virus. l 但有人認為，由於病毒有可能從實驗室外洩，這些實 驗帶來的風險，不遜於病毒自然演化而產生的危機。

End ¡ See you next week