The words of each language are far from identical in terms of whether all native speakers use them or only certain groups. Some tokens can only be understood by representatives of a certain profession, they are called “professional words”, examples: in the speech of polygraphists it is “panton” (finished paint of a certain shade), “full color” (printing of the publication with all the colors that are needed to fully transmit a color image) . Of course, in the first place, we mean the terms, but no less, and perhaps more often, in the professional environment ordinary words are transformed.
Scientific terminology
So, the most characteristic examples of professional words are terms. They form the core and basis of this group of vocabulary. Terms are words whose meaning seeks rigor. The work to ensure that these words are understood by the professional community is carried out equally, unequivocally by those who are engaged in scientific work. Often, a debate about the meaning of a term is the essence of a voluminous scientific discussion. As a rule, these are the most general terms, the understanding of which determines the understanding of the problem as a whole and sets the meaning of narrower terms.
An example of a scientific dispute about the meaning of a professional word
For example, among linguists, such an example of professional words is “bilingualism”. It seems that the meaning of this term is transparent, literally it means “bilingualism,” that is, the person’s ability to speak two languages. However, some scholars and practitioners call bilingualism exclusively natural and complete knowledge of two languages ​​when a person lives in a country where both languages ​​are in demand (for example, in Canada or Australia), while others believe that one who studies a foreign language can be called bilingual language at school and can speak or at least read at a minimum level. From the outside it may seem that this is only a dispute about the word, but behind it is the problem of understanding the essence of language skills, mastering speech, and this dispute itself is very productive from the point of view of the development of the science of language.
Narrow-Meaning Examples
Most of the terms have a strict meaning, and they are familiar to an ordinary native speaker insofar as he has to deal with the very scope of their use. For example, a person who brings a dog to a veterinary clinic immediately plunges into an unusual topic for his daily life and involuntarily perceives and uses medical professional words (examples of words: puncture, hepatoprotector, plasma, dehydration, vaccine, symptom, syndrome). The same applies to any person ordering, say, an album printing service, business cards, books or brochures. He will have to deal with professional printing words, examples of which are familiar to many: bookend, binding, offset, risography, layout, etc.
Professional slang
As already mentioned, professionalism includes not only terms, but also widespread words, in which a new meaning is understood that is understandable only to specialists, these are also professional words (examples and their meaning: it works (broken link - leading to a non-existent page); ambulance doctors call magnesium sulfate “magnet”; by “pajamas” designers understand the name of the program “Page Maker”).
In addition, the speech of specialists can be filled with words formed from names, terms and names, foreign words, abbreviations. They also refer to professional words (examples of words: take photoshop (“Let me take photoshot after all”) - process the image in the Photoshop program, quark (“Have you been quarking for a long time?”) - work in the Quark Express program) .
The appearance of such and similar words in the speeches of specialists can be explained by the fact that the language as a whole tends to expressiveness and at the same time to capacity, the unambiguity and “dryness” of the terms is, in principle, not characteristic of the words of a natural language, therefore the rigor of the terminology in ordinary, everyday speech is met with resistance, and terms are transformed or replaced.
Thus, professional words are that part of vocabulary that is mainly in demand and understandable for representatives of certain professions. First of all, this is scientific and professional terminology, and in the second is its transformation, or the words of an ordinary language, used in a narrow special meaning.