Nauji žodžiai su dėmeniu „techno-“

JURGITA MIKELIONIENĖ Kaunas University of Technology NEW WORDS WITH THE ELEMENT TECHNO- The relationship between language and culture is very close. Language responds immediately to new cultural phenomena, naming them with words of foreign or native origin. This article analyzes from various perspectives words naming the realities of one subculture—technoculture—and containing the element that best represents it: the Greek-derived element techno- (Greek technē—craft, art), which is “the first component of compound words, indicating that their meaning is associated with technology, craft, or method” (TŽŽ 2003: 731). In the works of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle, this concept was associated with the art of governing the state, healing, hunting, building, weaving, playing the flute or lyre, navigation, wheelmaking, and some other crafts, and in a broad sense—with philosophy or a way of life in general (Brennan 2002). Although the element techno- has now been appropriated by the natural and exact sciences, we can see that its semantic origins included the meaning of art. The semantic diversity of technoculture and, more generally, of the entire vocabulary containing this element should therefore come as no surprise. Technoculture, which became popular in Europe in the 1980s, has already entered mass culture and become popular among a large proportion of young people. Even the use of an individual neologism by one person or another today may eventually become widespread; therefore, an overview and analysis of formations with the element techno- is relevant. The status of Techno- and similar elements (ekspo-, info-, pop-, etc.) in Lithuanian linguistics is not clear-cut. According to Stasys Keinys (1999), such an international combining form, like a prefix of this kind, is placed before a word of any structure without changing its form at all. Such combining forms are akin to semi-affixes (affixoids). However, the tendency for them and their derivatives to proliferate is evident (Kupčinskaitė 1997). The elements moto- (Klimavičius 2005) and euro- (Ryklienė 1999) have been examined separately. The insufficiently defined place of non-Lithuanian elements in the Lithuanian language system and the inadequate study of their actual use are probably the main reasons why such elements spread and new formations made with them emerge. J. MIKELIONIENĖ. Naujı žodžiai su dėmeniu techno- 185 Most of these new words have moved away from the original meaning of techno, that is, they are associated not so much directly with technology as specifically with a new kind of music, a new look, tattoos depicting not traditional dragons, hearts, or sharks, but pipes (technobiomechanics), interiors decorated with metal structures, and even new synthetic drugs and other rather shocking elements that are not favorably received by all of society. Techno style rejects the past, coziness, and ideal order; perhaps this is why our dictionaries are very cautious about admitting neologisms that name it. Only 11 lexemes of the model under analysis are included in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language and the latest editions of dictionaries of contemporary Lithuanian and foreign words (see Table 1): technocrat, female technocrat and the derivatives technocratism, technocracy, technocratic, technocratess, as well as technologist, female technologist – technology, technological, technological, technologic, technologicity. The most recent entries among those recorded in dictionaries are technomusic and technosphere. 1 TABLE. Words with the element techno- recorded in dictionaries LKŽ | DLKŽ | TŽŽ technocrat, female technocrat | + | + | + technocracy | + | + | + technocratic | − | + | − technocratism | − | − | + technologist, female technologist | + | + | + technology | + | + | + technological | + | − | − technologic | + | − | − technologicity | + | − | − technomusic | − | − | + technosphere | − | − | + This seemingly rather limited international-word use of techno is contradicted by examples recorded in the Corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian (http://donelaitis.vdu.lt) or used directly on Lithuanian websites— 186 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 81 …se. Clearly, the lexicon has been enriched with new borrowings or words formed from foreign-origin elements (sometimes even from two non-independent elements) (technodromas, technogrupė, technoindividas, technokoridorius, technoparkas, technozauras), and hybrid neologisms or calques are also emerging (technoamžius, technoskrudželiukas, technovakarėlis). Besides compound words with the first element techno–, word combinations are used in which this element becomes an independent lexeme. This happens when such a prepositive element becomes very frequent. This use of techno is recorded in Bronislovas Piesarskas’s popular Great English–Lithuanian Dictionary (2002), widely used by learners of English, and in the electronic dictionary Tildė (2004), prepared on its basis, where it is accompanied by the label neologism and defined as “electronic dance music.” Word combinations with the lexeme techno are dominated by vocabulary from the world of music: techno music, rising techno melodies, techno vinyl, techno club, techno festival, techno scene, techno style, techno design, techno culture, even techno ideology, and so on. Often, a word used alongside techno or terms for specific subgenres coined with it (god, guru, legend, pioneer, standard-bearer) poetically denotes a person who commands considerable authority among techno music fans, for example: [...] the first star worth a substantial fee to perform was the Swedish techno g o d Grovs-kopa; Currently based in the German capital, the minimal techno/techno g u r u began his career in Ontario; A US techno l e g e n d is coming to Lithuania; Requiring no introduction, the Irish minimal techno s t a n d a r d - b e a r e r, author of three albums [...] Corpus statistics (Table 2) clearly show that mass media are the main source from which such words formed from non-independent international elements spread—not to mention the uncensored and unedited expanses of the internet. TABLE 2. Use of Techno as an independent lexeme in the Corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian Corpus section Word Number of occurrences periodicals techno 82 fiction (books) techno 7 nonfiction (books) techno 3 total for the sections listed 92 J. MIKELIONIENĖ. Naujų žodžiai su dėmeniu techno- 187 As can be seen, this type of vocabulary predominates in the periodicals collected in the corpus. However, the question of whether techno is normative as an independent lexeme is debatable. The normative handbook Lietuvių kalbos rašyba ir skyryba (1992), prepared by Nijolė Sližienė and Adelė Valeckienė, states that bound international elements, e.g., foto-, moto-, termo-, and others, are not used independently. Although techno- is not mentioned among the listed elements, it should be understood that, for now, the same rules must apply to it in written language. However, recorded examples in which techno, meaning techno music, occurs as a subject or object rather than as an indeclinable modifier (as in the cases cited above), show that this element is becoming increasingly independent, e.g.: Grojo sunkus techno; Mamos irgi klauso techno. In cases such as these, when a word from another language that does not inflect has the meaning of an independent word in Lithuanian (e.g., alfa dalelė, hindi kalba, rondo muzika), it is written separately (LKRS 1992). Most of the new words discussed in this article, or simply those not recorded in dictionaries (and therefore appearing new), should be considered necessary or terminological neologisms, because they name new realities: The Love Parade, which drew at least 800,000 techno music fans to Berlin on Saturday; [...] he did not deny that techno culture is associated with drugs; [...] technosphere – the sphere of scientific and technical creativity of humanity and human society; [...] national and international technobureaucracy, senior government officials. The examples also include more expressive stylistic coinages, most of which occur in periodical journalism, fiction, and philosophical literature. All those techno-ants belonged to him, twitching their little antennae by the fence and popping their silly little eyes; Geo-individuals, techno-individuals – are not subjects: individuality can only be a property of organic nature; Techno-optimists will say that ten years ago nobody believed every child would have a mobile phone. Not all uses of new words with the element techno- meet the requirements of the norm: some are merely grammatically adapted (technohauzas, technofanas), while others are completely unadapted (technoparty), e.g.: Today I’m heading to a technoparty; Yesterday’s technohauzas is still ringing in my ears... In other languages (e.g., German and Russian), the same neologisms are used as in Lithuanian, especially those referring to music. Neologisms of this type 188 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 81 there are considerably more words in the aforementioned languages; the abundance of unadapted English borrowings is particularly striking (Techno-Boys1, Techno-Cluster, Techno-Queen, Techno-Power, Techno-T-Shirts). This is probably because, as if by an unwritten agreement, borrowed names for modern music genres or contemporary cultural phenomena in general are not changed: Techno Trance, Techno Hardcore, Techno Acid, etc. (Girčienė 2005). Through inertia, often in the same or a related context, further unadapted foreign words also arise. For example: German – Techno-Boys, Techno-Queen, Techno-Power, Techno-T-Shirts, Techno-Rave, Techno-Groove; Russian – Техно-парти, Техно-стар, Техно-арт, Техно-Траффик, Техно-триллер. As in Lithuanian, new hybrids are also used alongside these, for example: German – Techno-Abend, Techno-Herz, Techno-Jahre, Techno-Erzählung, Techno-Liebhaber; Russian – техно-волна, техно-новинки, техно-сила; Lithuanian texts attest technoaidas, technoamžius, technoaudinys, technomėgėjas, technovakarėlis, and so on. In Russian, this element is more often used to form company names; there are also more formations than in Lithuanian that are directly associated with specific technologies rather than with music or techno-culture. The element techno also frequently appears as the second component of a word, for example: Каскад-Техно, Драйв-Техно (the only instance found in Lithuanian is eurotechno). Examples from other languages with analogous structures or origins merely confirm that the influence of English is universal, and forecasts for the future predict an increasing number of new borrowings, especially calques and hybrid formations. The longevity of techno-culture is difficult to predict, so it is impossible to foresee how many and what kinds of new words will become, if not universal, then at least dictionary entries. According to Alan Metcalf (2002: 168), president of the American Dialect Society and an authority on slang and neologisms, the trial period during which it becomes clear whether a neologism has long-term prospects or will be rejected is 40 years. He writes that even especially widespread neologisms sometimes fail this test. However, the pace of globalization and the attestation of analogous examples in other languages as well allow us to assume that in the future there should be more formations with the element techno- or some other element reflecting a new cultural manifestation. It is also clear that bound elements can readily be transformed from word-formation formatives into independent lexemes. Since computer technologies will have an increasingly strong influence on future lexicography, determining that a lexeme's inclusion in a dictionary will depend on frequency rather than subjective 1 I thank Aistė Švabytė, a student at KTU, for selecting examples from the corpus of written German texts COSMOS II (http://www.ids-mannheim.de). J. MIKELIONIENĖ. Nauji žodžiai su dėmeniu techno- 189 criteria, it is important that only neologisms that are truly needed and adapted as closely as possible to the Lithuanian language system spread in usage. The current state of the language and its new changes must be taken into account, and a distinction made between incidental usage and what is already the result of language development (Kniūkšta 1996: 37). It is no less important, while the status of this type of language element (such as techno– and similar elements) remains unclear, to adhere to established Lithuanian spelling norms. LITERATŪRA Brennan T. 2002: Technē. – In E. Craig (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, London: Routledge. Retrieved May 15, 2006, from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/A135 Girčienė J. 2005: Naujųjų skolinių atitikmenys: struktūra ir vartosena, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Keinys S. 1999: Bendrinės lietuvių kalbos žodžių daryba, Šiauliai: Šiaulių universitetas. Klimavičius J. 2005: Moto- ir motor-: tarptautiniai skoliniai ir lietuviški dariniai. – Kalbos kultūra 78, 90–110. Kniūkšta P. 1996: Kalbos tvarkybos tikslas – ugdyti kalbą. – Kalbos kultūra 68, 28–39. Kupčinskaitė A. 1997: Nelietuviškų kalbos elementų (dėmenų) vartojimo polinkiai. – Kalbos kultūra 69, 56–61. Metcalf A. 2002: Predicting. New Words: The Secrets of Their Success, Boston, NY. Piesarskas B. 2002: Didysis anglų–lietuvių kalbų žodynas, Vilnius: Alma littera. Ryklienė A. 1999: Euras, euro, euro-. – Kalbos kultūra 72, 47–50. LKRS 1992: Lietuvių kalbos rašyba ir skyryba. Parengė N. Sližienė ir A. Valec- kienė. Vilnius: Mokslas. TŽŽ 2003: Tarptautinių žodžių žodynas, Vilnius: Alma littera. Gauta 2008 07 11 190 KALBOS KULTŪRA | 81 NEW WORDS WITH THE CONSTITUENT TECHNO- S u m m a r y The paper gives an overview of derivatives with the international component techno- and offers their structural and semantic analysis. In Lithuanian usage the number of the above-type of words due to the impact of English and English-speaking countries is on the increase. Some of those words refer to concepts of sub-cultures; others should be treated solely as stylistically marked language innovations. A similar situation might be observed in German and Russian. The spelling of words with the component techno- varies. The most deviant is the usage of techno as an individual lexeme. It is important to observe and register the actual use of the new lexemes and give evaluation to it; however, it is also important to observe the existing spelling rules. JURGITA MIKELIONIENĖ Kauno technologijos universitetas Gedimino g. 43, LT-44240 Kaunas [email protected] J. MIKELIONIENĖ. Naujų žodžiai su dėmeniu techno- 191