Theories

Introduction

Agenda setting theory is first developed by Professor Maxwell McCombs and Professor Donald Shaw in their Chapel Hill study in 1968. The agenda setting theory is separate into three parts which is media agenda, public agenda and policy agenda. Agenda setting theory is defined as the power of news media whereby mass media set an agenda which will influences the public which is called as public agenda by highlighting the issue frequently in media. Therefore the main effect of media in agenda setting is telling people not what to think, but what to think of.

The policy agenda is the issues that policy makers consider important after the public start to make campaign or petition to show protest against the organizations. Mass Communication plays an important role in our society its purpose is to inform the public about current and past events. Mass communication is defined in “Mass Media, Mass Culture” as the process whereby professional communicators use technological devices to share messages over great distances to influence large audiences.

Within this process the media, which can be a newspaper, a book and television, takes control of the information we see or hear. The media then uses gate keeping and agenda setting to “control our access to news, information, and entertainment” (Wilson 14). Gate keeping is a series of checkpoints that the news has to go through before it gets to the public. Through this process many people have to decide whether or not the news is to be seen or heard. Some gatekeepers might include reporters, writers, and editors. After gate keeping comes agenda setting.

Elaboration of the Theory

The Agenda-Setting Theory says the media (mainly the news media) aren’t always successful at telling us what to think, but they are quite successful at telling us what to think about. The power of news media is to set a nation’s agenda, to focus public attention on a few key public issues, is an immense and well-documented influence. For example, newspapers provide a host of cues about the salience of the topics in daily news. They will lead story on first page, large headlines and etc. Besides that, television also consider as a mass communication tool.

Television offers numerous cues about salience too. Their opening story is on newscast, length of time devoted to the story and etc. As said by Walter Lippmann, Agenda-Setting Theory is “the world outside & the pictures in our heads”. The news media are a primary source of those pictures in our heads about the larger world of public affairs, a world that for most citizens is “out of reach, out of sight, out of mind. ” Agenda setting is divided into two levels where the first level stress on common subject that media thinks the subject is important.

The second level decides which part of the subject is important. Both level leads to the concept of agenda setting where the concept is divided into three parts. The first part of the process is the importance of the issues that are going to be discussed in the media. Second, the issues discussed in the media have an impact over the way the public thinks, this is referred as public agenda. Ultimately the public agenda influences the policy agenda. Furthermore, the media agenda affects the public agenda, and the public agenda affects the policy agenda.

People would attend only to news and views that didn’t threaten their established beliefs. Agenda-setting will reconfirms the power of the press while still maintaining that individuals were free to choose. The agenda-setting function is a 3 part-process. Firstly, media agenda is the issues discussed in the media. Secondly, public agenda means issues discussed and personally relevant to public. Lastly, policy agenda is the issues that policy makers consider important. Media agenda and public agenda are close to each other. Media agenda is the set of issue addressed by media sources.

It is a composite index of media prominence reveled the importance of foreign policy, law and order, fiscal policy, public welfare and civil rights. While public agenda are issues the public consider important. It is the rank of the five issues was identical to the media agenda. The key concept and terms are agenda setting, salience transfer, gatekeeping, framing, priming and determinants of agenda-setting effects. Agenda setting is giving priorities to alternative policy issues but in the early communications studies, shown a mixture about the ability to influence public opinion on the given issue.

Salience transfer refers to the capacity of the media to influence the relative importance individuals attached to the policy. Next is gate keeping is a process that control the media content. Framing is the importance and interpretation of people attach to potential items on the public agenda are strongly influenced by how the media present news stories. Priming happen when framing centers on political loading of the presentation of news, it can be conscious and not conscious. Priming basically mean draw attention to certain issue even in a neutral manner. Last but not least is the determinant of agenda-setting effects.

Media credibility or also known as media reliance are found that the determinant is weaker than the media exposure and media exposure are more important than media credibility in relation to presidential state of the union addresses. Application of the Theory In Malaysia, one of the case studies was to examine the Malay language newspaper’s media agenda during the general election. (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, UPM) The study was conducted to examine the use of the Barisan Nasional (BN) manifesto as the media agenda during the general election for the year 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995 and 1999.

A model for the study was constructed based on the Agenda Setting Theory. A content analysis was conducted on 50 issues of Utusan Malaysia (UM) and Berita Harian (BH). Throughout the studies, it was found that there were 11 major themes frequently used in the BN manifesto namely: politics, foreign policy, development, economy, social education, security, religion, workers welfare, agriculture and the quality of life. Above were the main themes in the news during the general election for the year of study.

The content analysis also found that there were 4461 news with the BN manifesto shown in 11 major news themes with “politics” in the lead and the “quality of life” ending the list. It also showed that the BN manifesto was mainly covered in various sections such as the Local News, Foreign News, Special Column, Main Column, Editorial, Advertisement, Economy, Asean, Forum, Articles and others. While the coverage on News, Articles, Photographs, Editorial, Letter to the Editor, Cartoon, Columnist and Comments also showed the present of BN manifesto.

There was also a small difference between the two newspapers in terms of its news coverage on the BN manifesto during the general election. The study clearly showed that the media agenda of the two mainstream newspapers in the country was framed by the content of the BN manifesto during the duration of the general election for the year 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995 and 1999 and thus, strengthening the Agenda Setting Theory. The media institution and politic institution are closely linked to each other and are hardly being separated. Both the institutions are interdependent on each other.

In Malaysia, we are practicing the democracy system, thus, media are an important instrument to achieve the democracy level; Media play a role in influencing the public in deciding their votes during a general election, either to vote for the specific individual or the party. Besides, media also take control in the politic process as mentioned earlier in the Agenda Setting Theory. In a democratic country like Malaysia, the process in politics often involve media as a tool to spread the news on certain parties’ issues and frame some of the suggestions or views on certain parties or individuals.

In order to achieve a country that is practicing democratic system, the general elections were often used as a measurement tool in testing the level of support among the voters toward a specific party. Personal experience & interpersonal communication among elites and other individuals So, the process of general election in Malaysia is a very crucial component in a democratic way. There were 12 general elections being held so far in Malaysia which were in the year 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999 and 2004.

Also, there were 6 Prime Ministers that have involved themselves in became the main politic communicators in every general election that have been done. Every Prime Minister has their own plans in collaboration with the media to enhance their communication through media, and utilized it in a proper ways. Gatekeepers’ influential media & spectacular news & events Policy Agenda Public Agenda Media Agenda Real world indications of the importance of an agenda, issue or event Figure 1: Three Main Components in Agenda Setting Process

In political communication, media is one of the aspects to be deal with. Others include media agenda, public agenda and policy agenda. All these three main components form a process (Agenda Setting Process) by which a complete political communication is carried out where the media were used to disseminate the messages or information to mass audiences. This process is involved in the Agenda Setting Process and has TWO levels: The media agenda affects the public agenda, and the public agenda affects the policy agenda.

The communication using media has done by the politicians to publish their views and news or in this case, the manifesto of Barisan Nasional in Utusan Melaysia and Barita Harian in the media agenda. However, there are existence of gatekeepers that may influence the news and events to be published. In the case studies on BN manifesto, the gatekeepers here would be the editor and the owner of Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian newspapers publishers.

The purposes of having gatekeepers here is to avoid harmful, negative, sensitive or religious issues being discussed which may cause misunderstanding within the nation According to the research, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian used media agenda to influence the public, and this has brought the issue to a broader step which is the public agenda, where the public start discussing about the issue. In the case studies, there are some similarities in the manifesto of Barisan Nasional.

During the general election, extensive media coverage on the political issues of BN were published continuously especially in the front page of the newspapers being analyzed: Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian. Those issues are similar to the manifesto of BN. Therefore, the public can gain most of the information about BN from the newspaper than the other party. After the public has start discussing about the issue, which is the involvement of BN’s manifesto in both the newspapers being mentioned, there were some activists who tried to support or banned the manifesto.

The real world indicator will decide the importance of the agenda itself. Then, through the personal experiences and interpersonal communications among the elites and other individuals, there might be changes in the policy agenda. Finally, the policy agenda causes the media agenda to publish about the news and information all over again. The Agenda Setting Process will be repeated. Strengths and Weakness of the Theory We found that agenda setting theory has three strengths. First, agenda setting theory has explanatory power.

Because this theory explains why most of the people prioritize the same issues as important. Therefore, most of the people will discuss the same issues at the same time. They will also concentrate discuss the issues because they think that the issues are affecting them. Second, this theory also has predictive power as it predicts that if people are exposed to the same media, they will feel the same issues as important. For example, if one issue be the headline of all the newspapers for one week, people will feel that this issue is very important and it will affect their life.

Furthermore, this theory has organizing power because it helps organize existing knowledge of media effects. There are also weaknesses, such as media users may not be as ideal as the theory assumes. People may not be well-informed, deeply engaged in public affairs, thoughtful and skeptical. Media just tell them what to think about the issues. People just know the appearance of the issues and not deeply engage in the issues. They will also think that are the issues reported correct or the media have hide something bad that they do not know about the issues.

So, some of the people do not trust what the media have said. Instead, people may pay only casual and intermittent attention to public affairs and remain ignorant of the details. For people who have made up their minds, the effect is weakened. News media cannot create or conceal problems; they may only alter the awareness, priorities and salience people attached to a set of problems. Research has largely been inconclusive in establishing a casual relationship between public salience and media coverage.

Suggestions to Improve on the Theory

For communication theory to be adopted by researchers and remain viable, it must be able to survive and grow through its ability to adapt to changing environments, encourage further research, and serve as a foundation for studies beyond those in which the founders originally applied their theory. According to McCombs and Shaw (1972) the result of their study shows that fewer voters knew about specific issues. While they found out that media were often effective in raising awareness of issues with undecided voters.

They also found that issues presented by media that were new to audiences were better received by the public than issues with which the public was already familiar. The key factor to the ability of media to have an agenda-setting effect upon their audiences depends on the desire of the viewers to become informed about the issues. For example, when the voters wants to know more about their ideal government leaders the public have to search for more information about the leaders and the party as the desired for them to become informed on the issues instills a strong motivation factors for the public’s.

Although the theory may seem to be acceptable but the theory still have its own weaknesses and failure which are visible and need to be improved. For example, while the article concentrate on the presentation of the issues during the election campaigns, the willingness of voters to listen to issues presented by the media, they fail to examine the degree to which mass media is able to raise issues and attract information-seeking audiences on its own but they fail to examine the degree of how the mass media is able to heightened public interest of political issues during election seasons to perform an agenda-setting function.

Besides that, the media agenda in agenda-setting theory have their own limitations, as media may not be as ideal as the theory assumes. The information from the media may not deliver appropriately, deeply engaged in public affairs, thoughtful and skeptical. Therefore to improve the theory effectiveness of the theory, the media should increase the understanding of the issues by reporting a more detail information about the election with wide range of information.

In addition, the media can also carry out a survey to understand better the level of absorption information of the readers, listeners and viewers. The media should also aware of the public acceptance and understanding of the issues as the agenda-setting theory has its own limitations in dispersing the news. Conclusion In conclusion, the Agenda Setting Theory is a very important practice in media industry especially in a democratic country like Malaysia. The media collaborate with government to control what to be think and discussed among the public.

The purpose is to shape their perception over certain issues. It can be from a political issue to welfare issue. This theory proved that whatever issue has been discussed shape the importance of that specific issue and bring to the discussion in the public as in the public agenda. If the public or majorities think that there are some dissatisfactions or objections going on, there will be changes in the policy agenda. Thus, agenda setting is a very important tool in media even though there are still some weaknesses in this practice.

So, the media should take in to account to improve their practice by injecting more information not only to a specific area but make it more widely than today in order for the public to have more knowledge about our nation and this may create a more critical thinking nation.

References

1. Agenda-Setting Theory – Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw(n. d. ). Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://www. ninosoriadeveyra. com/uploads/3/0/1/1/3011660/agenda-setting_ justine_kate_gian. ppt.
2. Agenda-Setting Theory: Presentation paper & abstracts (n. . ). Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://realhomepages. com/wecapps/agenda%20setting. htm Agenda-Setting Theory: Strengths and weaknesses of theory (n. d. ). Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://www. servinghistory. com/topics/Agenda-setting_theory::sub::Strengths_And_ Weaknesses_Of_Theory Garson, G. D. (2006).
3. Agenda setting theory. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://faculty. chass. ncsu. edu/garson/PA765/agendasetting. htm Media Tenor Innovatio – Agenda setting theory (n. d. ).
4. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http:// www. agendasetting. com/res_theory. php M. Sanchez Spring 2002. (2002).
5. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://zimmer. csufresno. edu/~ johnca/spch100/7-4-agenda. htm Spring 2001 theory workbook. (2001).
6. Retrieved July 30, 2010, from http://www. uky. edu/~ drlane/capstone/mass/agenda. htm The Agenda-Setting Role of the Mass Media in the Shaping of Public Opinion (n. d. ).
7. Retrieved July 30, 2010 from http://www. infoamerica. org/documentos_pdf/mccombs01. pdf

When Walt Disney released its adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” it had become a box-office hit.  Yet, the movie captured the attention not just of young girls back in the late 1980s, but sociologists and anthropologists as well since the movie became a perfect example of what they had termed as the “.”  In this paper, the concept of the muted group theory as proposed by Cheris Kramarae will be discussed as well as supporting evidence seen in society in general and in the movie of Walt Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.”

Kramarae’s Muted Group Theory

According to Chris Kramarae, language is something that was constructed by man.  The words and thoughts of women are ignored in our society.  Because of this, it is difficult for women to express their experiences as opposed to men.  Kramarae further stated that language does not serve all its speakers in an equal manner regardless of the culture because women are not as free as men to say what they want when they want and where they want. Men have dominant control of society and how the members of society should express themselves.

As such, different terms are used to describe tasks done by both males and females even when they are doing the exact same thing.  It is also because of this that most sexual suggestions that are considered degrading are usually referring to women than to men (Anderson & Haddad, 2005; Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003; Prentice, 2005; West, 1983).  In order for women to express themselves to others, they must do so as to how males express themselves (Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003; Rogers. 1978; Stets & Burke, 1996).

The concept that women are a muted group was first proposed by Edwin Ardener.  Edwin Ardener was an anthropologist who discovered that a group becomes mute due to the lack of power that is experienced in a group with a low status.  Ardener called the theory the muted group theory because these muted groups are likened to black holes since they are muffled, overlooked and invisible (Griffin, 2003; Prentice, 2005; Rogers, 1978).

Muted Group Theory in Today’s Society

Although today’s society stresses equality between the male and female genders, various sociologists, linguistics and anthropologists have gathered substantial evidence to show that the muted group theory proposed by both Ardener and Kramarae is still evident.

In a classroom which is composed of both male and female, female students tend not to speak as confidently as their male classmates. They also speak in classless frequently than males.  In events that the females do participate in class, they do not talk as loud or as candidly as males do.

This is because it is the social norm that females should be polite and restrained while the males are assertive and vocal (Anderson & Haddad, 2005; Canada & Pringle, 1995; Epstein, 1986; Walker, Ilardi, McMahon & Fennel, 1996).  Because of this norm instilled in women at an early age, women more often avoid confrontations and direct disagreements even after completing their academic degrees (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992).

In the workplace, women tend to be subordinate to men.  For example, women in the military are not deployed in combat as often as men.  In the academic community, most of the academic departments and schools of knowledge recognize the contributions of men rather than women (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Walker, Ilardi, McMahon & Fennel, 1996).  Also, what many would be considered as a powerful speech when used by man will not to be as effective if the same speech is delivered by a woman (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Epstein, 1986; West, 1983).

In the study of cultures and societies, research would only focus on the information given by male informants and would ignore the information received from female informants since the researchers assume that women are less articulate than men, causing anthropologists not to be able to understand women.  As a result, interest in female roles and status had slowly diminished since many researchers view males were more important in society than females (Ardener, 1985; Prentice, 2005; Rogers, 1978).

Muted Group Theory in “The Little Mermaid”

When Kramarae began her research on the muted group theory, she used cartoons as the basis of her study (Griffin, 2003).  For this paper, the cartoon that was selected is Walt Disney’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”

This paper will be focusing on one scene in the movie which is that between Ariel, the mermaid who wanted to become a human more than anything in the world, and Ursula, the sea witch.  After an argument with her father, Ariel visits Ursula in her lair under the impression that she could be able to give her the very thing her heart desired: to become human and to be with the human Prince Eric.

Ursula told her that she is will be able to make her into a human being for three days.  In order for her to be able to remain human permanently, she would have to be kissed by the prince as a symbol of his true love for her.  If she fails, she would go back to being a mermaid.  As payment for this, Ursula demanded Ariel her voice (Clements & Musker, 1989).

As previously mentioned, one of the premises of Kramarae on the muted group theory, in order for a woman to be able to express herself, she must do so the way how men express themselves (Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003; Rogers. 1978).  This is clearly explained by the character of Ursula:

The men up there don’t like a lot of blabbers.  They think a girl who gossips is a bore.  Yes, on land it’s much preferred for ladies not to say a word and after all, dear, what is idle prattle for?  Come on, they’re not all that impressed with the conversation.  True gentlemen avoid it when they can. But they dote and swoon and fawn on a lady who’s withdrawn. It’s she who holds her tongue who gets her man (Menken & Ashman, 1989).

Here, Ursula had advised Ariel what a human woman should be like.  Since Ariel mentioned that she would want to remain human and the only way to get that is for the prince to fall in love with her, the only way for her to do so is to act like a proper human woman would.

Indeed, the accepted norms in human societies are based on the activities, values and expressions of males.  Hence, the means of how women interact with others are considered to be improper (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Stets & Burke, 1996).

In the movie, Ariel has been known for her beautiful singing voice.  This made Ariel more superior than anyone in the kingdom.  It was because of her voice that she is not only the favorite of King Triton among his daughters but also the reason why in spite of her age, she is looked up upon by her siblings (Clements & Musker, 1989).  Ariel’s ability to sing can be likened to the way how a woman would express herself in society.

The ability for a woman to express herself as a woman would give her a separate identity and thus give her a superiority that may rival that of a man, or even surpass it.  Furthermore, her ability to save Eric’s life during the storm shows how a woman could be able to surpass the capabilities of a man given the opportunity.

By stripping her of her ability to sing, Ariel is also stripped of the very thing that would set her apart from everyone else, her ability to sing.  This is the very thing reason why women are considered a muted group by many sociologists and anthropologists.  The act of a man listening to a woman would mean that the man would be denouncing their dominant position in society because men view discussions initiated by women as not to have any importance (Dras, 1986; Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003).

For this reason, the cultural establishment had prejudged and excluded art, poetry, plays and films created by women (Ardener, 1985; Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003) since it is a way for women to express themselves through various forms.  Also, since she had been used to swimming, being given legs made her vulnerable since she is not able to do things on her own.  As such, the roles of Eric and Ariel have become reverse with Ariel becoming dependent to Eric to teach her how to walk, showing his dominance over her.

Conclusion

Initially, the muted group theory would appear to be sexist in nature since it puts females at a disadvantage in society.  Given the premises proposed by both Ardener and Kramarae, however, the muted group theory sheds light on the reason why society even today still refers to women as the “inferior sex.”  The muted group theory had proposed that the gender difference experienced in society particularly in how women express themselves lies on the fact that society is a patriarchal society, meaning that society’s norms and values are based on the norms and values of the male gender.  Movies such as Walt Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” have shown that in spite of the ability of the female gender to express itself, society prohibits them to do so.

References

1. Anderson, D. M. & Haddad, C. J. (March 2005). Gender, voice, and learning in online course environment. Journal of asynchronous learning networks, 9(1), 3-14. Ardener, S. (October 1985).
2. The social anthropology of women and feminist anthropology. Anthropology Today, 1(5), 24-26. Canada, K & Pringle, R. (July 1995).
3. The role of gender in college classroom interactions: a social context approach. Sociology of education, 68(3), 161-186. Clements, R. & Musker, J. (Directors). (1989).
4. Walt Disney’s the little mermaid [Motion picture]. United States: Walt Disney Pictures. Drass, K. A. (December 1986).
5. The effect of gender identity on the conversation. Social psychology quarterly, 49(4), 294-301. Eckert, P. & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1992).
6. Think practically and look locally: Language and gender as community-based practice. Annual review of anthropology, 21, 461-490. Epstein, C. F. (Winter 1986).
7. Symbolic segregation: similarities and differences in the language and non-verbal communication of women and men. Sociological forum, 1(1), 27-49. Griffin, E. (2003).
8. A first look at communication theory, 5th Ed.  New York: McGraw-Hill. Menken, A. & Ashman, H. (1989).
9. Poor Unfortunate Souls [Recorded by Pat Carroll]. On Walt Disney’s the little mermaid: an original Walt Disney records soundtrack. California: Walt Disney Records. Prentice, C. (2005).
10. Third-party candidates in political debates: muted groups struggling to express themselves. Speaker and gavel, 42, 1-12. Rogers, S. C. (January 1978).
11. Woman’s place: a critical review of anthropological theory. Comparative studies in society and history, 20(1), 123-162. Stets, J. E. & Burke, P. J. (September 1996).
12. Gender, control, and interaction. Social psychology quarterly, 59(3), 193-220. Walker, H. A., Ilardi, B. C., McMahon, A. M. & Fennell, M. L. (September 1996).
13. Gender, Interaction and Leadership. Social psychology.

Brecht’s Epic Theatre is a theatre of destroyed illusions and a wide awake audience which took birth from the theory of Korschian Marxism which saw ideology as a material force that served as an important tool of dominance. It is a theatre of instruction and hence is also termed Didactic theatre and because of the binary opposition present in its themes it is also known as Dialectical Theatre.

The biggest aim of Brechtian plays is to alienate the audience to bring about an understanding which can affect change, Brecht terms this phenomenon as the Verfremdung’s Effekt (Alienation Effect or the A-effect), which comes from the Chinese play tradition. The audience is never one with the actor, they are always aware that the play is not real and that whatever is being presented on stage is not reality but a depiction of a certain reality.

The ‘A-Effect’ is also known as the technique of defamiliarization wherein the familiar is made strange through alienation tropes such as addressing the audience directly, changing clothes in front of the audience, use of songs etc, which ensures that the audience is at all times rational, intellectual, and act as scientific observers so that they are able to question the industrial world and its authoritarian structures. As Walter Benjamin while summarizing Brecht’s theatre said “for its public the stage is no longer ‘the planks which signify the world’ (in other words, a magic circle), but a convenient public exhibition area.

For its stage, the public is no longer a collection of hypnotized test subjects, but an assembly of interested persons whose demands it must satisfy. For its text, the performance is no longer a virtuoso interpretation, but its rigorous control. For its performance, the text is no longer a basis of that performance, but a grid on which, in the form of new formulations, the gains of that performance are marked…”1 and so Bertolt Brecht’s theory of Epic Theatre transforms into its praxis in his play The Good Person of Szechwan.

The Good Person of Szechwan is a purely Marxist play that deals with the social conditions of its milieu and how the people who are put in those situations react to it and towards one another. The major theme being that of survival in a world that is ruled not by goodness of character but by the evil and corruption of the society. The juxtaposition of poverty with plentitude is a leit motif in the play. Wang’s ‘The Water Seller’s Song In The Rain’ brigns forth this juxtaposition beautifully when he laments, “I sell water. Who will taste it? -Who would want to in this weather? All my labour has been wasted

Fetching these few pints together. I stand shouting by my Water! And nobody thinks it Worth stopping and buying Or greedily drinks it. ”2 Since its rainy season and there is plenty of water no one bothers buying the water from Wang and this plentitude becomes poverty for Wang. We start to pity Wang’s character when we realize that he is a proletariat and is burdened by poverty, but Brecht alienates us from Wang’s character by showing us his cheating and swindling side so that we rationalize his character and see him as the representative of the proletariat ideology of swindling and cheating.

There is no Bourgeois enemy present in the play. The problem is within the proletariat and not amongst the proletariat and bourgeois. The problems that Shen Teh or the other characters face are due to their social conditions. The province of Szechwan can be seen as a microcosm of what is happening all over the world. Throughout the play there is constant reference to “hunger. ” Hunger is seen as annihilating honor. Shen Teh’s hesitancy to take the God’s in is because she has an empty stomach. She says “…I’m afraid that a rumbling stomach is no respecter of persons. 3 The motif of hunger and poverty can also be seen in Brecht’s other play The Life of Galileo. The play starts with Galileo saying “Put the milk on table…”4 and Andrea replying “Mother says we must pay the milkman, if we don’t he’ll be describing a circle round us, Signor Galilei”5 and later on when Galileo says “…and I like to eat decently. It’s when I’m eating I get most inspiration. A rotten age. They haven’t paid me as much as the man who drives their wine-carts. ”6 We are always reminded of the juxtaposition of plentitude with poverty.

The play is dialectical in its split between Shen Teh’s self fulfillment and Shui Ta’s self preservation. It is the “inevitable clash between desire and fact and as the paradox of ends and means. These are two sides of the same coin. Shen Teh’s wish to be generous must employ Shui Ta’s profiteering meanness, or else she would be deprived of her charitable self. ”7 Prosperity is associated with lack of goodness and “social conditions twist the natural goodness of human beings into opposites”8 and hence if Shen Teh wants to prosper then she needs to give into Shui Ta’s calculating nature.

In The Good Person of Szechwan we have constant interruptions that are brought about by the musical interludes and all these songs work to alienate the audience from the play and to make them question the situation being presented in front of them. They are made to question the worth of Shen Teh’s goodness as it leaves her not ennobled but economically emaciated. Walter Benjamin says that, “the interrupting of action is one of the principle concerns of epic theatre. Therein lies the formal achievements of Brecht’s songs with their crude, heart rendering refrains. 9 and hence ‘The Water Seller’s Song In The Rain’ comes just after the love scene between Shen Teh and Yang Sun, disrupting the audience from getting involved in the play and again bringing their attention to the dialectics between poverty and plentitude. Brecht says that “in the epic theatre moral arguments only took second place. Its aim was less to moralize than to observe. ”10 So we see that Shen Teh’s goodness is constantly thwarted by the social circumstances and harsh necessities of survival in a competitive world but no moralizing comments are made.

The play begins on a note of despair and ends with one. For Shen Teh to survive it is necessary that Shui Ta also survives. The God’s in the play are ignorant, humanized and a satire on the hegemony in Christianity, questioning the absolutism of Christianity in the early twentieth Century. Instead of one god head we are presented with three Gods and none of them can do anything to lift Shen Teh out of the drudgery that she is a part of even though she is good.

In the trial scene the gods are seen as nothing but impostors, their omniscience and all powerful stature is questioned. The idea of justice is questioned, deconstructed and done away with. Neither is virtue rewarded nor vice punished, instead vice is seen as a means to an end. Shui Ta is not punished for any of the crimes and Shen Teh is not rewarded for her goodness. Brecht here blends divine justice with legal justice by making the Gods don on the attire of the magistrate to mock at divine justice. It is a Marxist onslaught on the institutionalization of religion.

In his other play The Caucasian Chalk Circle we have the character of Azdak whose method of delineating legal justice is more serious in purpose and intent as compared to the three Gods here who appear as mere fools. One is forced to question if justice is being delayed or if there is no concept of justice in an industrial world. The open ended-ness of the trial scene erodes the moralistic nature and it prises upon the mind of the audience and affects change. Brecht in all his plays comments on “Jetztzeit”, a term that Walter Benjamin coined for the presence of “now” in Brechtian plays.

According to Walter Benjamin, “history for Brecht was an ever present arena, never as with Lukacs a thing of past” and hence we see that Mother Courage and her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan or The Life of Galileo all have topical references in the World War I and II, the failure of the Russian Revolution/Communism/Dictatorship and questioning of the viability and feasibility of science in a post Hiroshima-Nagasaki world, respectively. Also epic theatre is literarized. “The literarization of theatre by means of verbal formulas, posters, captions, is intended to, and will, make what is shown on the stage unsensational. 11 The performance is not aimed to draw the audience into the play but to make them stand at the periphery so that they question the bourgeoisie ideology and break free from it, so that the proletariat is emancipated and socialism can be constructed. Brecht believes that society can be changed through intellectual action and that is the reason that his plays are so highly dialectical. We see the dialectics between Good and God when Shen Teh as Shui Ta sings the ‘Song of the Defencelessness of the Good and The Gods’ “The good Cannot remain good for long in our country Where cupboards are bare, housewives start to squabble.

Oh, the divine commandments Are not much use against hunger. So why can’t the god’s share out what they’ve created Come down and distribute the bounties of nature And allow us, once hunger and thirst has been sated To mix with each other in friendship and pleasure? ”12 Gods here are seen as privileging the aristocrats and Christianity is seen as a perpetrator of class difference. The motif of hunger is again visible in the song. Hunger can not be satiated by following the commandments, one need to have money to buy food and that money comes not from praying but by being economically independent and well of.

When the audience hears the song they realize the futility of religion in an economic world. It brings to the forefront the debate between spirituality and materialism. It makes the spectators question both the value of a bourgeoisie society and that of religion. Being but a Marxist play every theme is given a Marxist interpretation, even the idea of love and marriage. Shen Teh has to choose between Yang Sun and Mr. Shu Fu. It is as Shui Ta that she favors Mr. Shu Fu for he can provide her with a future but as Shen Teh her emotions sway her towards Yang Sun.

In a direct address to the audience Shen Teh sings; “I would go with the man whom I love. I would not reckon what it costs me. I would not consider what is wiser. I would not know whether he loves me. I would go with the man that I love. ”13 “As Shui Ta she knows the worthlessness of her charming but rascally lover Sun. But with her emotional feminine self, as Shen Teh, she cannot give up the physical passion and tenderness that bind her to him. In Shen Teh’s love the drive for self-fulfillment and the need for self preservation clash in hopeless combat that can never be decided. 14 Brecht in The Good Person of Szechwan presents us with a Marxist theme, a dialectical debate between poverty and plentitude, goodness and god, religion and materialism etc, all of which is made apparent to the audience by the alienation effect brought about by the musical interludes that are present through out the course of the play, Shen Teh’s changing clothes in front of the audience, direct address to the audience; in an attempt to make sure that the play raises questions in the minds of the audience and breaks their identification with the bourgeoisie ideology.

In totality Brecht’s play The Good Person of Szechwan is an apt representation of his epic or intellectual theatre that is built on the concept of critical theory translating into intellectual action on stage wherein Brecht seeks to illumine historically specific features of a milieu in order to show how that milieu influenced, shaped and often battered and destroyed the individual. Instead of focusing on the universal elements of human situations and fate, Brecht on the other hand is interested in depicting the attitude that people adopted towards each other in a specific historical situation or context.

There are many ways by which an educator can look at learning and the teaching process. M. David Merrill, Patricia Smith and Dr. Tillman J. Ragan are three educators who believe that instruction may be done more effectively with given the proper approach and pacing that students may be able to follow. Merrill sought to change the way instruction is done following theories of cognitive learning by integrating consideration for the learner’s background and requirements. Smith and Ragan on the other hand, favor an approach to instruction that is more audience centered and based on real-life experiences of their students.

Instructional Design Theory According to M. David Merrill, Patricia Smith and Tillman Ragan.

An educational psychologist, M. David Merrill has written numerous books and articles on the field of instructional technology and has taken part in the development of various educational materials including instructional computer products.  Merrill has been cited as being among the most productive Educational Psychologists (Gordon, 1984), among the most frequently cited authors in the computer-based instruction literature (Wedman, 1987), and ranked among the most influential people in the field of Instructional Technology (Moore & Braden, 1988).

A co-author of the leading book “Instructional Design,” Patricia Smith is an assistant professor at Cy-Fair College in the North Harris Montgomery Community College District. She holds a doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the Louisiana State University.

Smith’s co-author is Tillman J. Ragan, Ph.D. a Professor Emeritus on Instructional Psychology and Technology from the University of Oklahoma.

Basic Beliefs

Merrill is a proponent of the Component Display Theory or CDT.  Under CDT, learning is classified by two dimensions: content and performance.  Merrill lists four types of information that falls under “Content:”

1. Facts which consist of statements and information

2. Concepts that establish relationships between symbols and objects to form a single unit

3. Procedures or ordered/chronological steps required in problem solving

4. Principles that deal with causal relationships

Performance on the other hand refers to the way content is used by the learner.  Applications is demonstrated through remembering (information recall), using (practical application) and generalities (finding or development of new abstract concept from given information). CDT presents data in four major forms: rules, examples, recall and practice. Information is further qualified by secondary forms such as are prerequisites, objectives, help, mnemonics and feedback.

Merrill believes that based on CDT, effective instruction is achieved when it contains all necessary primary and secondary forms that a learner may use as standards. (Merrill, 1983)

The pace of learning is dictated by the accomplishment of the objectives of each task. Evaluation is limited to determining whether the criterion for that particular task is met.

What makes CDT different from other cognitive learning theories is that it takes into consideration the capabilities of the learner.  The presentation of information as well as the graduation to the next level/step is determined by what the learner has already accomplished. Also central to the concept of CDT is the empowerment of the learner wherein learners select by themselves their own instructional strategies.  Merrill believes that instructional material becomes highly individualized when done along the CDT guidelines.

While Merrill places huge emphasis on course structures rather than the lesson itself, Smith and Ragan believe that creating instructional material starts in determining the needs, experience and capabilities of its intended users.

“As you design instruction, it is critical that you have a particular audience in mind, rather than centering the design around the content and then searching for an audience that is appropriate” (Smith & Regan, 1999).

They believed that if an instructor knew about the learning background of their students as well as their capability of assimilating new information, he or she would be better equipped to speak or instruct the students in a way that they can understand.

In their book Smith and Ragan summarized thousands of studies in the hope of identifying which steps to take and instructional techniques to use to achieve each type of learning objective. Smith and Ragan also presented the ideas of authentic learning and case based learning.

“Authentic learning refers to the idea that learners should be presented problems from realistic situations and found in everyday applications of knowledge while case-based learning is based on using case studies to present learners with a realistic situation and require them to respond as the person who must solve a problem.” (Smith & Ragan, 1999).

Merrill for his part has presented a newer version of the CDT wherein advisor strategies have taken the place of learner control strategies.  Merrill also subscribes to a more macro view which gives more emphasis on course structures and instructional transactions rather than presentation forms. (Merrill, 1994)

Cognitive vs. Constructivist Learning

Merrill belongs to the theorists who based their ideas on cognitive learning. He believed a systematic and structural approach to learning by using repetition and consistency makes the instruction method more effective. The weakness in cognitive learning lies in its perceived inflexibility in adapting to new situations or methods or accomplishing things. Merrill sought to address this by proposing structured instruction tailored to the requirements and situation of the learner.

Smith and Ragan takes a more constructivist or individualistic approach where learning is based on interaction with real-life situations. Adjustment to new situations would be easier and the learner is capable of interpreting multiple realities and individual choice of method in solving a problem or accomplishing a task. The flaw in this design however is that there are situations wherein a degree of conformity is expected and “individual approaches” will not be acceptable.

References

Gordon, et al.  (1984, Aug/Sep). Educational Researcher. American Educational Research

Association.

Merrill, M.D. (1983). Component Display Theory. In C. Reigeluth (ed.), Instructional Design

Theories and Models.  Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.

Merrill, M.D. (1994). Instructional Design Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

Moore, D. M., & Braden, R. A. (1988, March).Prestige and influence in the field of educational

technology. Performance & Instruction 21(2): 15-23.

Smith & Ragan. (1999). Instructional Design (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Young, M.

Wedman, J.M., Wedman, J.F., & Heller, M.O. (1987). A computer-prompted system for

objective-driven instructional planning. Journal of Computer-Based Instruction, 14 (1),

31-34.

This theory comes to explain the uncertainty among people who communicate with each other and how different types of communication will help to reduce the uncertainty. As a starting point, the developers of this theory (Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese) stated that uncertainty is an unpleasant feeling, which people prefer to avoid as much as they can. Every person has been confronted with the feeling of uncertainty, rather if it was when arriving to new a destination or more commonly when meeting a new person.

In order to reduce the unpleasant feeling, people tend to seek information about the uncertain and by that creating more comfortable feelings, and more predictable relationships in case of communication with other people. “Coping with uncertainty is a central issue in any face-to-face encounter, whether interactants are conscious of this fact or not” (Uncertainty Reduction Theory Then and Now. Charles R. Berger), but when the uncertainty is reducing automatically the feeling of attraction (not only physically) start to emerge.

In the heart of this theory, Berger and Calabrese connected uncertainty with seven concepts that are in the base of communication: verbal output, nonverbal warmth, information seeking, self-disclosure, reciprocity of disclosure, similarity, and liking. Sales & the Uncertainty reduction theory “There are at least two ways uncertainty is relevant to interpersonal communication processes. First, in the broad sense, uncertainty reduction is a vital concern for the conduct of almost any communicative transaction. Second, uncertainty reduction’s impact on interpersonal relationships can be looked at in a more narrow sense; that is, the role-played by uncertainty reduction in the prediction of specific relationship outcomes.

The broader role of uncertainty reduction concerns the interaction process itself, whereas the narrow sense concerns the outcomes of the interaction” (Charles Berger). The interpersonal communication process is crucial for any sales person in any kind of industry no matter what kind of products / services he or she trying to promote or sell. The essence of building relationship is the uncertainty reduction theory as the two sides (more important for the sales person) trying to discover the person who stands in front of him.

Definitely being able to help to the other person to know more about yourself (the salesperson point of view), will help in the purpose of reducing his uncertainty and uncomfortable feelings he deals with, while developing relationship with the salesperson. Assuming I am a salesperson, first thing in the process of building relationship (before the first contact with a customer) is to use the passive and active strategies in order to gather as much information I can about my customer.

Form the moment the first meeting was conducted, I will use the interactive strategy as I wish my customer will know everything he want to know about me (or about the product / service I wish to promote),and by that making him feel more comfortable and not vulnerable. The purpose of using this theory expressed best in the course book “SELL”, It was mentioned that “The more the sales person knows, the easier it is to build trust and gain the confidence of the buyer. Buyers have certain expectations of the salesperson and the knowledge that he or she brings to the table”.

This quote reflects best why a salesperson must use the uncertainty reduction theory in order to achieve his goals. As a salesperson, I should adjust my content and tactic toward my customer habits; this is another reason why it is important to use the three ways for gathering information according to the uncertainty reduction theory (Active, Passive and Interpersonal). The Social Penetration Theory This theory takes the theory of Berger and Calabrese one step deeper, as it xamines more deeply the interpersonal relationship / communication between two or more parties. The theory developed by Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor (1973), in which they stated that as relationship develop, it become deeper and deeper, from non-intimate levels through to more personal levels. This method also called ‘Onion analogy’, as the intimacy grows and time pass by, more layers of the personality revealed to the other side, that is also the way social penetration is being made, through self disclosure.

According to this theory, the disclosure goes through few stages: Orientation stage, exploratory affective stage, affective stage, stable stage and de-penetration stage. Each stage reflects the level of intimacy / level of familiarity with another person. Number of studies examined this theory, all agreed that development of relationship between people come together with development from knowing peripherals aspects of personality into deeper aspects. The theory of social penetration provides a framework for describing the development of interpersonal relationship. These behaviors include exchange of information, exchange of expressions of positive and negative affect, and mutual activities” (The development of interpersonal relationship: social penetration processes). The salesperson should be aware both to his personality, together with the customer personality, and to understand to which level of intimacy the customer is willing to reach / or to which level he want to get with the customer. Sales & The Social Penetration Theory

Salespersons should understand the implications of the social penetration theory on the best side in order to create long term relationship between them (or the company they are represent) and their consumers. These days any business, no matter how big it is, wishes to create base of loyal customers who had good experience with the business directly or through the business sales force. From that reason, the business sales force has to be skilled in the aspect of interpersonal relationship. For example, a salesperson who skips the levels / stages of disclosure (according to theory) will fail in his purpose of ‘capturing the customer’.

On top of that, his self-disclosure should be done precisely as well and he should not give to much information about himself or the product / service in the early stages of the relationship. “Most service marketers today recognize the importance of keeping customers and making them into better customers (Berry 1983). In marketing whole life insurance (and, perhaps, similar services), the sales-person’s ability to affect the customer’s commitment and dependency on the provider may be determined largely by the interpersonal relationship he or she establishes with the customer.

Likewise, in service contexts characterized by continuous exchange activity and considerable purchase uncertainty, the long-term interests of the customer may be best served by initiating and maintaining enduring relationships with salespeople” (Relationship Quality in Services Selling: An Interpersonal Influence Perspective). As mentioned in the quote above, establishing good interpersonal relationship between the salesperson and the customer is crucial for any business these days.

Moreover, in order to create good brand name for the business, the salesperson must have the ability to answer all the expectations of the customer, and to be trustworthy while doing so. The key issue for salesperson when he implicate the social penetration theory is not to hurry thing too much, for instance he can’t be intimate with the customer at the early stages of the relationship. He should be peaceful, and should have the ability to give the customer the opportunity to disclose himself and not to push him into the corner and by that scare him away.

Content…………………………………………………………………………………….. 2 1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………. 3 2. Chapter 1 1. Theoretical problems of terminology……………………………………….. ….. 6 1. 1 Terms, their definition and classification 1. 2 Terminology 3. Chapter 2 Semantic peculiarities of English and Ukrainian medical terminology ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15 4. Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………… 6 5. The list of literature used………………………………………………….. …… 28 Anotation Terminology appears spontaneously as a result of knowledge accumulation and appearance of special notions and concepts. The importance of our investigation is determined by the necessity to study the semantics of medical terms. The aim of our year paper is to define the main semantic peculiarities of English and Ukrainian medical terms and their interaction with the words of general language.

The achievement of the aim provides accomplishment of the following tasks: 1) to study theoretical literature on the problems investigated; 2) to study medical terms and their meanings on the basis of explanatory and special dictionaries; 3) to apply the methods of formalized analysis of semantics for building the matrix of semantic space of the English and Ukrainian medical terminology on the background of general language; 4) to define the correlation of terminological and general semantics of lexemes under study.

The object of our year paper is 50 English and Ukrainian medical terms with the explanation of their medical and general meanings. The subject of our investigation – semantic peculiarities of the English and Ukrainian medical terms. The language material for the year paper was taken from four dictionaries. The lexical material for our research presents 50 English medical terms the semantics of which we have analyzed from medical vocabulary (Mondofacto) and explanatory (Longman) dictionary, we also used Ukrainian medical and explanatory dictionaries.

We separated the semes from the meanings of the terms that have been studied in order to the basis of English and Ukrainian terminological and explanatory dictionaries. We analyzed the peculiarities of their special and general semantics. The year paper consists of the introduction, two chapters, conclusions, the list of literature used and supplement. Chapter I. Theoretical problems of terminology Modern life of society is characterized by steep development of science and technology that’s why it leads to improvement of languages of these branches, especially scientific and technical terminology.

The term “terminology” is assigned to several concepts: Terminology 1: Terminology science. Inter-and-Trans disciplinary field of knowledge dealing with concepts and their representations (terms, symbols, etc. ) Terminology 2: Aggregate of terms, which represent the system of concept of an individual subject field. Terminology 3: Publication in which the system of concepts of a subject field is represented by terms. [6;18] The functions of terminology: ) the ordering of knowledge on grounds of the relationships of concepts. 2) the transfer of knowledge, skills and technology (education, training, reading of scientific and technical texts, etc. ) 3) the formulation and dissemination of scientific and technical texts into their information. 4) the translation of scientific and technical texts into their languages. 5) the abstracting and condensing of subject information. 6) the storage and retrieval of scientific and technical information. 6;18] Theories of terminology as they have developed over at least six decades, consider that concepts are: 1) units of thought, focusing on the psychological aspect of recognizing objects as part of reality; 2) units of knowledge, focusing on the epistemological aspect of information gathered on the object in question; 3) units of communication, stressing the fact that concepts are the prerequisite for knowledge transfer in specialized discourse.

The development of terminologies as a crucial part of special purpose languages reflects scientific, technical and economic progress in the subject fields concerned. Due to different speeds in this dynamic co-evolution of knowledge in the individual domains, specialized discourse continues to differentiate into more and more sectorized special languages and terminologies. 18; 7] But these communication tools become increasingly ambiguous due to the sheer number of concepts to be designated and the limited linguistic resources of every natural language: terms are taken over from one domain into another, usually with varying meanings in the form of metaphors or analogies; new homonyms, and terminological meanings, synonyms arise, motivating or even forcing subject specialists to standardize their terminology and harmonize them on the multilingual level in order to reduce and manage the constantly rising communicative complexity that faces their discourse communities.

Terminology research is not limited to semiotic and linguistic studies of term formation and the epistemological dimension of the evolution of scientific knowledge. The agenda of terminology science also includes socio-terminological studies of the acceptance of neologisms proposed by terminology and language planners, case studies on terminology development by standardization and harmonization efforts, research and development concerning the establishment and use of terminology databases for various user groups and purposes and concerning controlled vocabularies for documentation and information retrieval purposes.

Terminology displays the notions that were created, and spontaneously exist in every branch. Terminology is the study of and the field of activity concerned with the collection, description, processing and presentations of terms. The field of terminology is not independent as a discipline. Terminology though traced back for some decades got a more theoretical and methodological background in the past years. Terminology is an inter disciplinary field of research because it is highly influenced by the activities and methods of the areas if serves. Earlier terminology was a problem of engineers needing concepts for naming new technical items.

Now linguists claim it to be another dimension of lexicology and lexicography. Terminology has become a specialized aspect of computational linguistics and information science[17;10]. Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. The discipline Terminology studies among other things how such terms of art come to be and their interrelationships within a culture. Terminology differs from lexicography n studying concepts, conceptual systems, and their labels (terms), whereas lexicography study words and their meanings. Terminology thus denotes a discipline which systematically studies the labelling or designating of concepts particular to one or more subject fields or domains of human activity, through research and analysis of terms in context, for the purpose of documenting and promoting consistent usage. This study can be limited to one language or can cover more than one language at the same time (multilingual terminology, bilingual terminology, and so forth) or may focus on studies of terms across fields [26;45].

Terminology is a science whose aim is to study terms, which are lexical elements used in specialized fields (subjects or their branches) and generated in such fields or modified from elements already existing in other fields. In Terminology, the “term” or “terminological unit” is the meaning unit made up of one single word (simple term) or several words (complex term) and represents a concept in an univocal way in a specific semantic field (Office of the French Language of Quebec). From this definition, we can understand that a term is a specialized word in relation to its meaning and the field in which it is used.

It is considered in that way when used in a certain context in which it takes the function of a “term”. Terms are elements of natural languages, as are other lexical units too. As far as terminologies reflect rapid development of science, they are opened to language planning, systematic management and different kinds of manipulation more than other lexical subsystems or strata. This causes terminologists to fulfill three comprehensive projects 1) the standardization of existing terminologies; 2) the creation of new national terminologies as well as 3) their international unification. 18; 8] A definition is description of a concept by means of other known concepts, mostly in the form of words and terms. It determines the position of this concept in a system of other related concepts. Definitions can be categorized according to their purpose into descriptive prescriptive definitions. A descriptive definition states which meaning a term has. A prescriptive definition states which meaning a term should have. [15;11] In the seventies of the xx century the peak of interest towards system character of terminology could be observed and that was connected with the popularity of the biologist Bertalanffy.

This scientist suggested the programme of building general theory of systems, which contained general principles and laws of the systems behaviour no matter what elements and the relationships between were. The difference between terminology system and terminology is, first of all, in the way they come into being. Terminology appears spontaneously as a result of knowledge accumulation and appearance of special notions and concepts. Terminology enters the mental world far from being accomplished and crowned; its lexical units are very far from systematic.

Terminological system is completely isomorphic to the system of concepts and terminology is not. [23;17] Terminology-is the section of vocabulary which covers the terms of different spheres of science, art, social life, and technics. [9;23] Terminology is closely related to such sciences as ontology, logics, linguistics, communication theory, information and documentation science, computer science, etc. In the GTT the notion ‘‘concept’’ and its relationship to other concepts have a central position. They are cornerstones of the GTT and the starting point of any terminology work.

The conceptology which is a basic discipline of logic is closely connected in this respect with terminology. The most important link of terminology to linguistics is that the term is a linguistic symbol, which is formed by words or word elements. [18; 7] Terminology is not connected to information retrieval in any way but focused on the meaning and conveyance of concepts. “Terms” used in an information retrieval context are not the same as “terms” used in the context of terminology, as they are not always technical terms of art. 9;20] The problems of terminology were investigated by such linguists as:L. A. Kapanadze [10], V. I. Malcey [11], V. P. Danulenko [9;9], O . S. Achmanova [5;58], A. A. Reformatskuj [11;27], H. O. Vinokur [7;11] and others. Semantic aspect of English and Ukrainian medical terminology was studied by such linguists as:Balyshyn S. I[3], Chabirova Z. P,[11], Orlova A. S, Philipova Y. B. [21;22], Skinner H. A[23], Dorian A. F[54;20]. and others The English language began creation of modern terminology from Choser’s time.

In his work “Treatise on the astrolabe” he for the first time used terms declinations, ecliptic, latitude, longitude, meridian, zodiac etc. Term (lat. Terminus – boundary, limit) is alexico -nominative unit that needs definitions( V. P. Danylenko[11;20], T. L. Kandelaki[25] and others). Definition is a necessary dependency of term which has a meaning for its selection from the vocabulary stock of language(S. V. Novak)[15;23]. Term is considered to be a nominative sign that operates in the language with a special purpose (V. M. Leychik).

Term is determined as a language unit, correlated with conceptions of special professional spheres ( V. A. Tatarynov) [14;27]. It is understandable that a large number of terminological definitions as a conception of a word and scientific term do not lead to distinct and simple solution of their theoretically linguistic essence. The study of early works in terminology shows that linguistic essence of term is not enough researched. Mainly researchers were interested in lexicographical aspect of terminology and not in definition and uncovering semantic peculiarities of term .

A term is a word or a certain word- combination that distinctly and definitely designates scientific or special notion. The term does not designate the notion like an ordinary word, but inversely, the concept is attached to a term. Thus, a specific concept determined by a term is understandable only due to its definition-laconic, logical, which points out essential indications of a subject and denotes its notion and matter. According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, a term is “a word or expression that has a precise meaning in some uses or is peculiar to a science, art, profession or subject. [18; 10] One more definition of a term explains as “any conventional symbol for a concept which consists of articulated sounds or of their written representations. A term may be a word or a phrase. ”[20; 10] As it is vivid from the definition the term always stands for a concept and it should preferably stand for a single concept. This concept has a meaning that is fixed, abstract and general. Only features that are considered to be relevant are retained in the meaning, other features are rejected. Concepts are mental representations of individual object or comprise a set of individual objects having certain qualities in common.

Concepts are mental representations of individual object or comprise a set of individual objects having certain qualities in common. A term is defined by the content it stands for and not by any peculiarities in its linguistic structure. [15; 11]. An expression is a term within the framework of a conceptual system in which it is defined as a term. Membership of a terminological system thus gives an expression terminological status. Ancient Greek philosophers said that a term has two meanings: In broad definition a term-is a word or word-combination, which denotes real or abstract subjects.

In this case the word term coincide with the meaning of a “name”, it means that a term the same as name. In narrow definition, as we already know the term- is a word or word-combinations introduced into a science as the designation of subjects, appearances that are studied by the science. [12;272]. To descriptive terms belong: a)set-expressions, which name or denote empirical and abstract objects. They designate a “term”-as proper and general names. b)predicative expression-is a word or word-combination which denotes properties and qualities of subjects and relations between the subjects. )objective functional expressions, which denote objective functions and operations, to which special mathematical and logical signs and words denoting scope, weight, growth, colour belong. [14; 30] Terms can be more or less complex lexical units that are generated following several processes: • The extension of the meaning of a word in the standard language (for instance, “mouse” in computing terminology is a device that allows the user to interact with the computer). • Generation of a phrase that functions as a whole with one specialized meaning (superconducting magnet). Symbolic expressions, as chemical element symbols (Na) or chemical and mathematical formulas (H2SO4). • Abbreviations (PVC) and acronyms (NATO, from North Atlantic Treaty Organization). • Names of post (Prime Minister), organizations or administrations (United Nations, Prime Minister). The border line between word and term is drawn by the use of the lexical unit in a specialised field of knowledge with a specialised meaning or not. That is why a certain level of specialised knowledge is needed to recognise a term (we will only know that mouse is a term if we know the computing terminology).

The characteristics of a text –communicative purpose, subject, specialisation grade– are also helpful to recognise the presence of terms. • The extension of the meaning of a word in the standard language (for instance, “mouse” in computing terminology is a device that allows the user to interact with the computer). • Generation of a phrase that functions as a whole with one specialized meaning (superconducting magnet). • Symbolic expressions, as chemical element symbols (Na) or chemical and mathematical formulas (H2SO4). • Abbreviations (PVC) and acronyms (NATO, from North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Names of post (Prime Minister), organizations or administrations (United Nations, Prime Minister). The border line between word and term is drawn by the use of the lexical unit in a specialised field of knowledge with a specialised meaning or not. That is why a certain level of specialised knowledge is needed to recognise a term (we will only know that mouse is a term if we know the computing terminology). The characteristics of a text –communicative purpose, subject, specialisation grade– are also helpful to recognise the presence of terms.

In order to establish the limit between term and word, it is important to know the characteristics of terms in a specialised language. According to Gutierrez Rodilla (1998: 88-94) the characteristics of terms are precision, emotional neutrality and stability over time. For instance, “aplasia” is a medical term meaning incomplete or faulty development of an organ; it is monosemic which implies precision; it is neutral emotionally; and finally, it is stable over time since it has been used without any variation in use, form and meaning for a long period of time in scientific documents.

A concept can be described either by the definition or explanation. If it is not possible in a certain case to provide a definition at least an explanation should be given. The definition is the key to any scientific work. A definition is description of a concept by means of other known concepts, mostly in the form of words and terms. It determines the position of this concept in a system of other related concepts. Most foreign linguists pay more attention to semantic character of the term.

They discover universal theoretical cases concerning terminological science, but not language facts are estimated by them superficially, without proper argumentation, unconvincingly. Terminological principles and methods are the basis for the unification of terminology work. They concern the analysis of concepts, the determination of their intension, the investigation of relationships of concepts, the design of systems of concepts, the description of concepts(definition), the assignment concept- designation(terms, symbols, etc. or vice versa, selection of adequate words or word elements for the formation of terms, creation of correct new terms etc. [23;25]. Characteristics of terms The reality around us is made up of a wide variety of objects that are observed or simply seen. The human mind is able to perceive every objects and generate a conceptual image that allows recreating the object even if it is not within our senses’ reach. In human communication, it is necessary to represent an objectconcept with a material and recognisable with the means available for humans.

In a verbal language such representation is the word –oral or written– and the term in specialised communication. Thus, the term, as with any other word, is a sign with a triple dimension: • Linguistic: the signifier (the formal aspect of the term). • Cognitive: the meaning of the concept represented by a term. • Ontological: the referent, the object from reality to be named. The three dimensions give three different, but related, aspects of terms: • Linguistic dimension – symbolic aspect: this refers to a term as a symbol representing an object, a referent. Cognitive dimension – conceptual aspect: in relation to the concept that allows the human mind to keep the referent. • Ontological dimension – referential aspect: the referent itself to be named and understood. Dimensions of a term cognitive linguistic ontological concept term referent conceptual symbolic referential aspects. To the three dimensions already explained, it is possible to add a fourth one that is implicit at the beginning of this section, the communicative dimension (associated with a discursive aspect).

According to this dimension, the terms are inserted in a discourse with the purpose of taking part in the message produced in a communicative event. From this communicative point of view, the sender of the message, the author of the text, uses each term with a sole meaning, regardless of whether it is the term’s meaning, one chosen among the different concepts and referents represented by a single polysemic term, or an altered, modified or adulterated meaning that the author assigns to a term accidentally (perhaps due to a lack of competence in a specialised knowledge) or intentionally (a personal use of language and terminology).

The balance in the relations between the different dimensions and aspects defines the characteristics of each term, but not all the terms share the same level of relations, that is why the features of terms as a whole are more of a trend, desired by their producers and users, than a reality. According to Gutierrez Rodilla (1998: 88-94) the features of terms are precision, emotional neutrality and stability. A term has to meet a number of requirements: 1. The term must be well motivated. The motivation of a term should be self-evident. 2. The term should be systematic. That means that it must be a member of terminological system. 3.

The formation of the term must be in accordance with the syntactic rules of the language. 4. The term must be potentially productive of derivations. 5. The term must avoid pleonasm. This part of pleonastic formation generally occurs through a lack of linguistic knowledge. 6. The term should not contain superfluous elements. This may occur when the generic term and the specific term form a new term. 7. The term should preferably not have synonymous, homonymous or polysemous terms. 8. The term should be as short as possible without affecting its clarity. 9. The term should preferably not present orthographical or morphological variations. 18; 11] At the present stage of language development society influences all language terminological processes such as term formation , interaction of generally used lexics and terminology, borrowing of terms from other languages and subsystems, development of polysemy, synonymy, antonymy, standardization and unification of terms, etc. In this chapter we observed theoretical problems of terminology, functions of terminology, requirements of a term, terms, their definition and classification, terminology and terminological system, the principles of terminology and methods.

Also we named famous linguists who studied the problems of terminology. We observed the term as an indivisible unit of mentality that arises the smallest segment of concrete mentality process. By this segment in our year paper is a scientific concept of linguistic that indicates term- word which we receive on the basis of imagination about practical and theoretical activity of a person. We consider that linguistic term as a word is a part of vocabulary and is not isolated from the laws that influence on the lexical system in general.