Empréstimos, tradução e uso na prática terminológica

Abstract

Assuming the dynamics which is inherent to specialized languages, especially to the scientific areas that are closely related to technological advances, we demonstrate how borrowings, especially from English, are extremely productive on neological formations in these areas. Borrowings are thus a reflection of the influence that languages have on each other. We analyzed a corpus of the field of Astronomy, of which terminology, in Portuguese, was exemplary in this regard. Thus, besides the option of keeping the English term, the texts of the corpus also revealed the use of some ‘translation ways’ by means of paraphrases, definitory phrases, the presentation of a translation after the English term and especially through calque, which proved to be predominant with regard to lexical creation in the field and it is related to the so-called néologie traductive. We can show, as a result, the current Brazilian astronomical community’s response to some translations proposed by astronomers in the late 1980s, who suggested the use of Portuguese unities or neologisms created according to Portuguese’s structure over foreign terms.