The analysis of concepts in a terminology: a case study of russian and english terms in the field of photonic crystals

Abstract

Since the 20th century, cognitive linguistics has been extremely influential. Scientists became interested not only in what is represented in the language but also in how speech occurs. The language ceased to be understood as something isolated and began to act as the primary means of expressing a person's thoughts. Through observing language forms, the process of cognition is indirectly studied. A human cognizes reality through senses, logical understanding and practical verification. With regard to scientific knowledge, it also includes modeling, synthesis and prediction. Language, in this case, acts not only as an intermediary between thought and its verbalization. It becomes a unique and self-acting tool. This article is devoted to the concept analysis of the photonic crystal terminology. For terms selection, the method of continuous sampling was applied. The work shows how to find the most constitutive terms for terminology and which concepts are objectified foremost. Particular attention is paid to the process of correlating main concepts with thematic groups. The correlation is necessary to determine the boundaries of the terminology and its place in modern science. The difference between Russian and English nature of term-creation is investigated. The relevance of the research is to show how mental knowledge is represented through terms.