COMPUTER TERMINOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES AND WAYS OF FORMATION

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the computer terms in the English language: their structural peculiarities and the main ways of word formation. Terms are words that perform a particular function. Scientists reason the function of term in different ways. Some scientists believe that they perform the nominative function, others – the descriptive one. It is believed that terms perform both functions. Terms as words possess significative, communicative, grammatical features and functions. Simple terms are made by means of suffixation and prefixation. Termscompound words penetrate English because the meaning of a compound word is always more accurate than the value of the phrase. Among terms-wordcombinations, combinations of noun and adjectives, of nouns and nouns in the objective case are common. There are terms-phrases, components of which are words that can be used separately; terms-word-combinations, where one of the components is the technical term, and the second is from the common lexicon; and terms formed based on the words, existing in the language, but with new meanings. For the correct understanding of computer terms, it is necessary to know their morphological structure, semantic features that distinguish them from common words, contextual features of functioning of these units. Among the most productive ways of formation of computer terms are suffixes: -wise, -ment, -able, -itis, -ation; half-suffixes: -ware, -speak; and prefixes: cyber-, e-, net-, re-, non-, anti-, as-. It can also be said that convertible terms, both substantivized and verbalized, are common. Another most productive way of term-formation is abbreviation (acronyms), with the help of which the parts of computers and new software are described. Telescopic nomination is also worth mentioning as it accounts for a great number of computer terms in the English language. In telescopic terms the fragment of the first word forms the second fragment of the word, and whole word forms the whole word or whole word forms a fragment of a word.