engleski

Multi-Word Lexical Units in English and Croatian Terminology of Electronics

The paper examines and compares the use of multi-word lexical units (MLUs) in the electronics vocabularies of English and Croatian. Using the terminological database of the English-Croatian and Croatian-English Dictionary of Electronics as a source of lexical data, regular patterns of multi-word correspondence in the two languages are analyzed. The analysis has shown conceptual, syntactic, and lexical differences. We also found that English multi-word lexemes are shorter than Croatian ones and are limited to a considerably lower number of combinations. The reasons for this are attributed to differences in the basic structural characteristics of the two languages, the metaphorical use of language in the two terminological systems, and the formation process of MLUs. Whereas English multi-word lexemes were formed in the process of primary term formation, most Croatian MLUs were formed as translation equivalents of the English lexemes.

Multi-word lexical units; Electronics vocabulary (English; Croatian); Morphological characteristics of MLUs in the two terminological systems

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