Transformative resources of the terminological internationalization (on the material of German and English)

Abstract

The article on the vocabulary material of German and English presents the experience of studying the terminological internationalization, characterizing the current state of a large number of languages and their interaction which is most actively manifested in such lexical areas as scientific and technical terminology, social and political vocabulary. It discusses the landmarks of replacing German with English as the universal language of science and the universal means of communication in the global arena. It is suggested that the present epoch, though still characterized with the dominance of English as lingua franca, can be called the epoch of internationalization directed at the active intermediation and integration of national languages and cultures of all parts of the world under the auspices of the English language. The research results display the process of terminological internationalization as a consequence of the rapprochement of the nations on the basis of socio-economic, political, scientific and cultural ties resulting from globalization. A special emphasis in the article is placed on the terminological base, formed as a result of the processes of internationalization of the modern German and English languages vocabulary. The process of assimilation goes so deep that the foreign language origin of the terms is not felt by native speakers, on the contrary, a loanword is perceived as a generally accepted international nomination of an object or phenomenon. The obtained data suggest that English and German are moving toward each other, rather than becoming more different.