Dynamicity of Specialized Knowledge Categories (DIKA), UIP-2017-05-1769
Duration: 10 March 2018 ‒ 9 March 2023
Source of financing: Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ)
Research team
Martina Bajčić, Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka
Ivana Brač, Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics
Larisa Grčić Simeunović, Department of French and Francophone Studies, University of Zadar
Maja Lončar, Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics
Ana Ostroški Anić, Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics, Principal Investigator
Martina Pavić, Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics
Ivanka Rajh, Zagreb School of Economics and Management
PROJECT SUMMARY
The main objective of the project Dynamicity of Specialized Knowledge Categories is establishing a research group that will work on internationally competitive research topics in the field of terminology. Theoretical research of terminological units and specialized knowledge categories at conceptual and linguistic levels, syntactic and semantic analyses of the syntagmatic term relations, as well as theoretical research of the communicative functions of terms in discourse based on examples from the domains of aviation, law, marketing and karstology. Attention will also be given to the research of phraseological terminological units and the role of figurativeness in the construction and expression of a specialized meaning. This will provide an insight into the categories of different fields, and confirm the assumption that semantic frames are an appropriate way to present the dynamicity of conceptual relations in the categories of specialized knowledge.
The research follows the theoretical framework of Frame Semantics and Frame-Based Terminology, taking into account relevant findings from the Communicative Theory of Terminology and the Sociocognitive Terminology Theory. Frame-Based Terminology sees the following key features of specialized knowledge: the dynamicity of categories that has to be reflected both in the dynamic description of concepts and conceptual relations and in their presentation; the multidimensionality of terminological units and the interconnectedness of linguistic and encyclopaedic knowledge that can be best presented with frames as conceptual structures based on experience.
Contrastive analyses of the translation equivalents in Croatian, English, German and French will contribute to the development of theoretical research in the field of specialized translation. The project’s applied results include an English-Croatian parallel corpus in the domain of air traffic, and the terminological database of semantic frames AirFrame, in which the aviation terminology is defined in semantic frames including semantic elements, conceptual relations, and figurative and phraseological terminological units. English, French and German equivalents of terms and linguistic contexts are added to the Croatian part of the aviation terminology. A translator-oriented descriptive terminological database created following this methodology will serve as a model for the creation of a similar multidomain and multilingual knowledge base of the Croatian language.
A terminology workshop on translation oriented terminology will be organized in the third project year, while an international conference on terminology and specialized communication will be organized in the fourth project year. The results of the research will be used as the basis for the initiation of new interdisciplinary research projects with applications to the calls for competitive research projects.
The proposed research is the first all-comprehensive research of specialized knowledge categories and language for special purposes in Croatian that follows contemporary cognitive linguistic and terminological findings. The achieved model of the description of dynamicity of categories of knowledge on the conceptual and linguistic levels in semantic frames as contextually or situationally conditioned structures of knowledge will be applicable in other languages and in the research of various terminologies.