The Implementation of the Principle of Economy in the Formation of Psychological Terms in English and Russian

Abstract

The paper addresses the ways of applying economy principle to the sublanguage of psychology. The authors identify the most productive term formation methods, which show the tendency of both languages to compression of nominal words and phrases. In the system of psychological terms of the English language, the most productive ways of linguistic compression are affixation and compounding. The English terminological system is rich, functional and economical because of its unlimited potential for compounding and affixation. The Russian terminological system is more likely to enrich the vocabulary through phonetic borrowings, semantic derivation and calque. It is argued that the borrowings acquired by the Russian terminological system account for the multitude of synonymous terms. On the other hand, phonetic borrowings and semantic calque have enriched the vocabulary without effort and redundancy. It is concluded that economy principle plays a fundamental role in the creation of new words and their adaptation to the English and Russian terminological systems.