Terminological activities are a part of the language modernization programme undertaken by a country. It is a continuous process in that knowledge and terminology grow together. Any new development in knowledge makes new demands on the language in terms of terminology, expression and style. The one who invents an idea also invents a term for it in his / her language. In a natural linguistic process, the term grows into a standard after it undergoes a spell of usage and attains social acceptability. But if the technical knowledge is borrowed by a speech community from another speech community, it has also to borrow its terminology which serves as a filter or base for coinage for equivalents in the borrowing language. Thus coinage of equivalents, by definition, involves a process of translation either directly or indirectly, because between the original expert knowledge and the translation equivalents is the filter terminology of the donor language, as for instance, English plays a role of filter language in the Indian context. Hence, a language community which intends to evolve technical terminology in its own language on the strength of donor language, has no option but to follow a reverse process of terminological evolution whereby an equivalent is first consciously devised and presented before the user and a norm or a standard even before it had been put to use or field-tested. While doing so it is essential to properly plan the process of terminological evolution and to provide it the necessary direction, failing which an anarchic situation may arise in the use of terminology. While planning, however, it is necessary to strike a balance between the sociolinguistic realities of the users and the linguistic requirements of word-formation. Moreover, the system must remain responsive to the user's feedback.
In the language community where technical terminology develops through a coinage-translation process rather than the natural process of usage, certain sociolinguistic problems or differences of opinion are bound to arise, influencing the course of terminological activities. In India for instance, three linguistic currents prevailed in the fifties which pulled the terminological attempts in three different directions: the purists tried to eschew all English terms in favour of Sanskrit or Hindi, the anti-purists eschwed all Sanskrit terms in favour of the colloquial form of Hindustani, and yet another school of thought pleaded retention of English as such with little need for Indian equivalents or coinages. Another feature that marked the Indian terminological scene in the mid-century was the sudden spurt of some pockets of enthusiastic scholars or agencies who began to mint their own terminology for English terms without any concern for uniformity or coordination, with the result that many terms developed various region wise equivalents which frustrated attempts at standardization, e.g. |
