CONTENTS

1.  Introduction

2.  Dictionaries in general

 2.1.  Defining basic terms

 2.2.  Types of dictionaries

3.  The Dictionary of Physics

 3.1.  Why the dictionary of physics

 3.2.  Establishment of word list

 3.3.  Spelling

 3.4.  Pronunciation

 3.5.  Grammatical information

 3.6.  Sense division and definition

4.  Word-formation and words connected with physics

 4.1.  Abbreviations

 4.2.  Acronyms and blends

 4.3.  Prefixes

 4.4.  Shortening – clipping

 4.5.  Compounds

 4.6.  Other word-formation processes

5.  Some problems during the compiling of the dictionary

 5.1.  Old terms

 5.2.  Some general concepts

 5.3.  Gas laws

6.  Conclusion

7.  Resumé

8.  Bibliography

1.  INTRODUCTION

            The original idea was to write an English-Slovak and Slovak-English dictionary of physics that would not only explain or define each word, but it also would contain indications of word class, pronunciation, and pictures (where applicable), whilst the whole dictionary would be hyper-textual, i.e. some words in the definitions would point out directly to those words entries. Unfortunately, because of the time constraint, pronunciation and pictures are completely taken out from the whole dictionary, at least for the time being. The main aim was to provide Slovak equivalents for terms from the field of physics with hyper-textual explanations, and that was achieved.

            The need for specialised English-Slovak and Slovak-English dictionaries is evident as general-purpose dictionaries cannot provide words from all different scientific and other fields. Dictionaries, such as The Dictionary of Physics, are undoubtedly welcomed by scientists and university lecturers working in the field of physics or related scientific areas. Students who study English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and, in particular, English for Science and Technology (EST), can find such dictionary very useful. Finally, specialised dictionaries, such as The Dictionary of Physics, are valuable help also for translators who may not be skilled in the field, since general-purpose dictionaries do not provide special vocabulary concerned with the particular filed of science, or give translations in non-specific senses, for instance: ‘shell’ (noun) is usually translated as ‘lastúra‘, ‘mušľa’, ‘ulita’, ‘náboj’, ‘granát’, etc., but not as ‘elektrónová vrstva, sféra’, which is the only translation in The Dictionary of Physics. (‘náboj’ in physical sense is ‘charge’.) The Dictionary of Physics provides only specific meanings and translations of the words concerned with physics, which cannot be usually found in general-purpose or specialised linguistic bilingual dictionaries.

            The dictionary that I created (The Dictionary of Physics) can be found on CD-ROM, which comes as an accompanying part of this diploma work. The Slovak-English part of this dictionary, slightly modified for printing purposes, is included at the end of this book as an appendix.

2.  DICTIONARIES IN GENERAL

2.1.  Defining basic terms

The word ‘dictionary’ comes from the Latin dictio, i.e. “the act of speaking,” and dictionaries, i.e. “a collection of words.” Encyclopaedia Britannica (1990:532) defines ‘dictionary’ as “reference book that lists words in order and gives their meanings.” The words are usually given in alphabetical order, i.e. from A to Z (concerning the English language), but they can also be assembled into groups related by some principle. In addition to its basic function of defining words, a dictionary may provide information about their pronunciation, grammatical forms and functions, etymologies, syntactic peculiarities, variant spellings, and antonyms. A dictionary may also provide quotations illustrating a word's use, and these may be dated to show the earliest known uses of the word in specified senses.

Dictionaries are organised into entries. Each entry has to contain the headword and at least one additional feature, usually the meaning - explanation or translation. Additional parts of an entry are information about pronunciation, grammar, stylistic and geographical labels, examples of usage, etymology, etc. Headword can contain only one word (e.g. ‘atom’) or more words (e.g. ‘absolute zero’), and is usually printed in bold type.

The following table shows what an entry can contain.

ENTRY:

The example of an entry is given below:

The order of information and labels can be different in different dictionaries and they can be omitted. I can thus define the entry using the following formula:

entry = headword + {meaning, linguistic information, labels, additional information}

The double brackets {} in my formula mean that components inside (i.e. meaning, different labels and information} can be given in any order, and some or all of the labels and information do not have to be present. Because some headwords may have more than one sense, the summation sign (∑) must be added in front of the double brackets to indicate all senses of a particular headword, i.e.

ENTRY = headword + ∑ {meaning, labels, linguistic information, additional features}.

Before I can classify dictionaries into types, a clear distinction has to be made between two terms: explanation and translation. From now on, by ‘explanations’ I mean the explanation proper, i.e. the explaining or defining a word using simpler terms, or words that are generally understood, or words that are explained in the dictionary. By ‘translation’ I mean only the translation of the word into one or, in case of a polyglot, more languages without explaining or defining the word. The example of explanation and translation in my sense is given below, assuming that the source language is English and the target language is Slovak.

Explanations can be in the source language or in the target language. Usually, a dictionary has at least one of two features, i.e. explanation or translation.

2.2.  Types of dictionaries

Dictionaries can be classified into the following kinds, depending on the particular criterion.

(1) According to the number of languages into which the source language is translated:

none – monolingual dictionary

one – bilingual dictionary

two or more – multilingual dictionary (also called polyglot)

(2) According to whether the entries are explained (definitions given):

explanatory

non-explanatory

Monolingual dictionaries are, therefore, always explanatory since there is no translation (no target language). Concerning all other types of dictionaries, the features can combine - for example, a bilingual dictionary can be with or without explanations, and if it is explanatory, the explanations could be in the source language or the target one (or, theoretically, both).

(3) According to the size, dictionaries can be divided to:

small dictionary

medium-sized dictionary

large dictionary

As an example of small dictionary we can use Oxford Word Power Dictionary with 30,000 references, of medium-sized dictionary Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary with 93,000 references, and as an example of large dictionary we can use The Random House Dictionary of the English Language with 260,000 headwords. This division seems to be tricky as one word, e.g. work, can be presented as one entry with two senses (work as a noun and as a verb) or as two entries (one noun, the other verb).

(4) According to the scope of the vocabulary, i.e. the set of users:

general-purpose

scholarly

specialised        (with further subdivision)

General-purpose dictionaries are intended for general public and provide a wide range of general linguistic information about words. Although intended for general public, it must be realised that every dictionary is compiled with a particular set of users in mind. In turn, as the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1990:713) points out, “the public has come to expect certain conventional features,” and it might not be wise for a publisher when he departs from the conventions.

Scholarly dictionaries go beyond the dictionaries intended for practical use. They must be complete (i.e. having all the words) and done in a strict, thorough way in their chosen area. Because of their completeness and rigour, compiling such a dictionary can take several decades and is often done by more than one linguist or expert in the area. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica (1990:713), probably the most scholarly dictionary in the world is the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, being edited in Germany and Austria. Among scholarly dictionaries also belong “national dictionaries” that some countries have or are working on them, for example the Grimm dictionary for German (a revised and expanded edition begun in 1965) and the Littré for French (reedited 1956-58). Of outstanding scholarship are An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Sanskrit on Historical Principles being prepared at Pune (Poona), India (1976-), and The Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language, in progress in Jerusalem. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the most ambitious project of all is the Trésor de la langue française. In the decade following 1960, over 250,000,000 word examples were collected, the latest techniques of computerization being used. Publication began in 1971, but after two volumes the scope of the work was reduced to enable its completion in about 15 volumes rather than the originally planned 60.

Specialised dictionaries are overwhelming in their variety and their diversity. They can be divided into linguistic specialised dictionaries and specialised dictionaries dealing with special areas of vocabulary. Linguistic specialised dictionaries are interested only in one area of lexical study, such as etymology, pronunciation, synonyms, geographical varieties, slang, etc. Among specialised dictionaries dealing with special areas of vocabulary belong dictionaries of law, business, technical terms, etc. In English, the earliest was a glossary of law terms published in 1527 by John Rastell. As Encyclopaedia Britannica points out, “the dictionaries of technical terms in many fields often have the purpose of standardizing the terminology; this normative aim is especially important in newly developing countries where the language has not yet become accommodated to modern technological needs.” The dictionary that is presented as the practical part of my work belongs to this category.

            Finally, one other term must be mentioned connected with dictionaries: encyclopaedia. Encyclopaedia can be defined as “reference work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or that treats a particular branch of knowledge in a comprehensive manner.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990:792). An encyclopaedia is, therefore, a self-contained reference work with two main aims: to include up-to-date knowledge about a particular discipline or group of disciplines and to make this knowledge conveniently accessible. An encyclopaedia differs from a dictionary in that it can explain subjects in detail, rather than merely supplying definitions of words and phrases. To ensure comprehensiveness and depth of coverage, an encyclopaedia is generally written in the form of many separate articles, often by experts in the field. These articles include background and historical information as well as current material, which consists of varying combinations of text, tables, charts, illustrations, and, in the case of electronic encyclopaedias, audio and video recordings. As Encyclopaedia Britannica (1990:713) concludes, “the distinction between a dictionary and an encyclopaedia is easy to state but difficult to carry out in a practical way: a dictionary explains words, whereas an encyclopaedia explains things. Because words achieve their usefulness by reference to things, however, it is difficult to construct a dictionary without considerable attention to the objects and abstractions designated.”

            So far, I have discussed the types of dictionaries, which can be summarised in the following table:

The types are arranged in the table deliberately in this manner to show that monolingual dictionaries must be explanatory, and that scholarly dictionaries are usually large. However, because of the modern technological advantages, I shall add another criterion for dividing dictionaries. It is connected with the medium and features it can provide. Therefore,

(5) we can divide dictionaries into:

            non-multimedia (or classical)

            multimedia (or interactive)

The simple division between printed on paper and CD-ROMs would not be very suitable since the whole text of a printed dictionary could be merely transferred onto CD-ROM without adding any interactive or multimedia features. Therefore, by non-multimedia (non-interactive) dictionaries I mean all classical dictionaries printed on paper, and also those in text-files of computers that have no additional features. The only difference is that, in the former, we read the words from the book (paper), and in the latter, from a computer screen. Multimedia (interactive) dictionaries, on the other hand, have additional features not available to the classic paper format. They could include animations, sounds (including actual pronunciation of the word), search facilities, filtering, hyper-texts (words in explanations are themselves the inter-linked headwords), cross-references to synonyms, antonyms, and so on.

3.  THE DICTIONARY OF PHYSICS

3.1.  Why the dictionary of physics

            The main reason for making this dictionary was the absence of Slovak-English and English-Slovak explanatory dictionary devoted truly to physics. The following table, based on the brief survey I conducted in autumn 1999, shows some specialised bilingual dictionaries available in Slovakia.

Sample of specialised Slovak-English or English-Slovak dictionaries available:

The table demonstrates that there is not a bilingual dictionary (neither Slovak-English, nor English-Slovak) of words concerning physics exclusively. The closest are the technical dictionaries and scientific-technical dictionary, although only Slovak-English. I was not satisfied with them mainly because of the two reasons. Firstly, their scope is not only physics but many areas like architecture, biology, economics, geography, chemistry, mathematics, agriculture, etc. (at least 30 fields). One headword often has five translations without any information on the area, usage, context, or examples. Secondly, there are no explanations, no definitions or formulas. My aim was to give also some kind of explanation, whether in the form of a definition, or stating the value of some constant, or giving a formula. The explanations can definitely make it clear for a user about the particular headword.

            As there was no English-Slovak and Slovak-English dictionary of physics, I decided to make one. The question now was why not in the classical way, on paper, but on CD-ROM. I must clarify that CD-ROM is not so important as this could be done on a diskette, hard drive, or any other computer storage medium. The important point is that it is done for the use on a computer, thus allowing it to have the multimedia features that I described in chapter 2.2 (point 5). As computer files, the dictionary can be easily expanded concerning entries, pictures, animations, and sounds. Alternatively, it can, of course, be printed on paper and serve as a classical dictionary (book).

            There was also one other reason why I decided to create this dictionary: physics has always been my hobby. Thus, I was able to do the whole dictionary alone, without the need to ask anyone for help.

3.2.  Establishment of word list

I decided to include words that a grammar school graduate who is interested in the science of physics would likely to come across. The words from specific technical fields (mechanical engineering, metallurgical engineering, etc.) were not included; not only was it not my intention, but it also would take much more time. Furthermore, words from specialised technical fields are covered by the Slovak-English Scientific-Technical dictionary (although without explanations). The idea, originally, was to include also words from the fields of mathematics and chemistry that are used in physics. However, as the work on the dictionary progressed, it was evident that there would be more than enough words concerned directly with physics, and there would be no need to fill the dictionary with such words. Therefore, words from mathematics and chemistry, like ‘right angle’ or ‘circle’, were taken out. The explanations of the words in this dictionary were taken from five main sources (plus my own) as shown in the following table (numbers indicate percentages of headword explanations).

Sources of the explanations:

I went through the books mentioned above (see also bibliography) and if there was a word directly related to physics, I typed it into the computer together with the explanation and the English translation. If there was the English explanation that was equivalent with the Slovak one, I put it into the computer. In case of discrepancies, I studied the context in which it appeared from several sources (including the Internet) and then I made the final decision. There were entries in which simple literal translation was easy and meaningful, from the point of view of physics, however, this would be incorrect. Therefore, sometimes the knowledge of the context, i.e. physical relationships, was decisive (see also chapter 5).

3.3.  Spelling

Throughout the dictionary, the standard British spelling was used concerning both the headwords and the explanations. Practically, there were two main choices: either to use the British spelling or the American. It was my decision to use the former since I have used the British standard in all my works. If the words in the dictionary were taken from articles from Newsweek magazine or from the Internet, they were spelled using the British standard, e.g. ‘color’ was changed to ‘colour’. As majority of sites on the Internet come from the United States of America (USA), usually there is American spelling used. No explanations were directly taken from the Internet without any modifications and, therefore, need not have been re-spelled.

3.4.  Pronunciation

            Because of the time constraint, I did not put the pronunciation of the headwords. However, if I ever choose to expand the dictionary in the future, the pronunciation will be added using the British Received Pronunciation (RP) using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols.

3.5.  Grammatical information

            Most of the headwords in the dictionary are nouns or noun phrases. There are, however, several instances of other word classes, i.e. adjectives and verbs. All verbs were given letter ‘v.’ after them, e.g. expand (v.), and all adjectives letters ‘adj.’, e.g. transparent (adj.). Nouns have such indication (n.) only if there is also a verb with exactly the same spelling. If a word is a noun with irregular plural, this is given in brackets after the abbreviation pl., for example nucleus (pl. nuclei).

3.6.  Sense division and definition

Since this dictionary concerns only physics, the entries should usually have only one sense. There are, however, still some headwords that need to be split into two or more senses based on the particular sub-field of physics (e.g. quantum mechanics, optics, mechanics, etc). The senses are marked by numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) and each sense division has its own definition or explanation.

4.  WORD FORMATION AND WORDS CONCERNED

WITH PHYSICS

            English word-formation processes can be classified into the following categories (e.g. Bauer, 1993:201-240), ordered alphabetically in the table below.

Main English word-formation processes:

More detailed information, including definitions and examples of word-formation, as well as basic terminology of lexicology (morpheme, lexeme, affix, etc.) can be found, for instance, in Bauer (1993). I am going to make only brief comments concerning some of the word-formation processes on the words used in physics and present in this dictionary.

4.1.  Abbreviations

            The abbreviations used in the dictionary can be divided into two groups: those connected with physics and those which are not. The latter category includes grammatical abbreviation like n. (noun), v. (verb), adj. (adjective), pl. (plural), normal lexical abbreviations like e.g. (exampla gratia), i.e. (it est), etc. (et cetera).

            There are quite a large number of abbreviations used in physics. They are used as symbols for units, e.g. ‘kg’ for kilogram, and for physical quantities, e.g. ‘F’ for force. These can be regarded as symbols rather than abbreviations. There are, however, many abbreviations proper, which are not symbols of physical quantities and units. The following table shows all such abbreviations concerned with physics that can be seen in the dictionary:

List of physical abbreviations used in the dictionary of physics:

It is interesting to note that some abbreviations are in capital letters, some in small letters, and there are abbreviations with dots between the letters. It can be observed that capitalised abbreviations do not have dots while small-letter abbreviations have, although this is not an absolute rule.

4.2.  Acronyms and blends

            Some words concerning physics, especially those used in electronics, are acronyms. An acronym is a word that is created by taking the initial letters of the words in a title or phrase and using them as a new word, for example Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation gives laser. It must be remembered, as Bauer (1983:237) points out, that not all abbreviations (created from initial letters of a word) are acronyms: to be an acronym, the new word must not be pronounced as a series of letters, but as a word. Thus if relative atomic mass is called /Œ:^r eö em/, that is an abbreviation, but if it is called /r¾m/, it has become an acronym.

Another kind of word-formation that can be found in words concerning physics is blending. A blend is a new word formed from parts of two (or possibly more) other words. An example of a blend is transistor fused from words transfer resistor.

Sometimes it may be unclear whether the new word is an acronym or a blend.  Bauer (1983:238), quite incidentally, considers the word linac (linear accelerator) and points out that it is certainly unusual for blends to use the beginnings of the two words, but not impossible; and while it is normal for acronyms to use the beginnings of words, the clearest cases use only the initial letters.

The following table shows acronyms and blends that are used in the dictionary.

Concerning the last acronym (WIMP), it is not entirely certain whether it is an abbreviation or an acronym.  

4.3.  Prefixes

Prefixes used with words of physics can be divided into two groups: (1) those used with units (they appear almost exclusively in physics and related fields), and (2) prefixes used with other words (they appear also in other areas). Prefixes of the first group represent decimal mathematical submultiples or multiples, and they all have symbols, as shown in the following table.

Prefixes used in physics with SI units:

These prefixes are used with units to form their multiples, e.g. kilo + metre = kilometre, i.e. thousand metres.

            To the second group belong a large number of prefixes which are used also outside the scope of physics. Because of their abundance, the following table shows only prefixes actually used in the dictionary of physics with some examples given:

4.4.  Shortening - clipping

            Clipping refers to the process whereby a word is shortened by cutting off one or more syllables, while still retaining the same meaning and the same word class, for example photography is clipped to photo (back clipping), or telephone is shortened to phone (initial clipping). The following table shows the words from the dictionary of physics that were created by clipping.

4.5.  Compounds

Compounding is the process of creating new words by placing two (or more) words, already available in the language, one after the other. The compound word represents one object or notion, and is characterised by its inseparability, i.e. it cannot be interrupted by another word. The constituents in the compound can be joined together directly, e.g. arm + chair → armchair, by some linking element, e.g. anglo-saxon, or they can be separated by a space, e.g. dining room. Since all headwords in the dictionary of physics that have two or more words (constituents) can be regarded as compounds belonging to the latter category, it would be meaningless to list them here. There are, however, some compounds in the dictionary of physics that belong to the first two categories, i.e. whose constituents are placed directly one after another and those joined with a hyphen. The following table shows such words:

Two-constituent compounds directly joined or joined by hyphen:

There are also many three-word compounds, first two constituents of which are joined by hyphen and the third one is separated by a space, for example zero-point energy. Many such compounds have the first two constituents names of scientists, e.g. Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.

4.6.  Other word-formation processes

            There are several units of physical quantities that were given their names after some physicists or scientists connected with the area of that unit. The words for the units were created by changing the first capital letter into a small one, e.g. ampere (after A. M. Ampere, French physicist), and tesla (after N. Tesla, Serbian-born American physicist.). Some physical constants were also given their names after scientists, e.g. Planck constant (after M. K. E. L. Planck, German physicist). There are also laws (e.g. Newton’s laws of motion), theorems (e.g. Goldstone’s theorem), and other physical concepts and phenomena (e.g. Hawking radiation) that were named after physicists. Decapitalising and direct use of surnames is, therefore, another very productive word-formation process in physics.

            Suffixation, another word-formation process, is present in physics as well. Although other suffixes are also used, the most interesting seems to be the suffix ‘on’, which is going to be discussed briefly. The suffix ‘on’ has been used mostly with particles. Since among the first known particles belonged electron, proton, and neutron (all ending in ‘on’), there has been a tendency to give the suffix ‘on’ to newly discovered or predicted particles as well. Roots of such particles were rather strange, taken from scientists’ surnames, Greek words, or even (most recent particles) letters from the Greek alphabet, as shown in the following table.

Origin of roots of some particles ending in ‘on’:

Finally, there are names associated with the word ‘quark’ (elementary particle from which all hadrons are made). The word ‘quark’ itself came into physics probably from a line in Finnegans Wake by James Joyce: “Three quarks for Mister Marks.” (Webster, 1984:962). Because quarks come in six varieties, they had to be distinguished. This time, they were not given exotic names from foreign words, but more simplistic approach was chosen: they were named ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘strange’, ‘charm’, ‘top’, and ‘bottom’, and the varieties were called ‘flavours’. Thus we have quarks in six flavours and the new branch of quantum physics was called flavourdynamics. In order to avoid conflict with Pauli exclusion principle it has, however, proved necessary to add something to each flavour of quark. Again, scientists did not look for foreign words or letters from the Greek alphabet, but called it ‘colour’ so that each flavour of quark occurs in the three primary colours: red, green, and blue. It must be remembered that these colours are just names; no one has ever directly seen a quark, not alone its colour.

            As has been illustrated, new discoveries can be named in many different ways, whether using new, rather exotic, words derived from all sources possible, or using simple words that already exist in the language and giving them another meaning. The following diagram shows portions of the mentioned word-formation processes used with words of the dictionary of physics.  

Percentages of selected word-formation processes of words in physics:

In this chart, only selected compounds were taken into consideration, i.e. those with two constituents directly joined together (e.g. bandwidth) and those with two constituents joined together with the hyphen (e.g. space-time). If all of the compounds were included, they would fill above 90% of the diagram. Words not created by one of the above-mentioned processes were not counted.

5.  SOME PROBLEMS DURING THE COMPILING

OF THE DICTIONARY

5.1.  Old terms

            There are several words in English that are now considered obsolete and were replaced by new terms. Reasons are either new scientific developments - words were replaced with names that reflect the true nature of a particular phenomena, based on new terms associated with new discoveries (‘condenser’ is now called ‘capacitor’ as it rather has the capacity for storing an electric charge than ability to condense something or itself). Another reason is just lexicological ending, as in ‘absorptivity’ is now called ‘absorptance’. Although the terms changed in English, Slovak terms have not changed, and we have ‘kondenzátor’ and ‘absorptivita’ for both the old (obsolete) and the new term.

Another reason is connected with systems of unit. England and USA have traditionally had different units of measurement compared with continental Europe. As now all measurements for scientific purposes should be done in the Système d’International (SI) units, there are many old units that are not used in Slovakia, for example angstrom and currie (still used in English-speaking countries), and they are usually replaced with their SI equivalents (nanometers and becquerel). Some units, although not SI, are understandable here, e.g. ‘mile’ - ‘míľa’, but in Slovakia, miles are hardly ever used in scientific context.

5.2.  Some general concepts

            Problematic is also the concept of matter and energy. Matter is the collective terms for all atoms, i.e. it is any substance with mass which is not antimatter. Matter can be seen, or touched. Energy could be defined as a measure of a system’s ability to do work, it is connected with fields, it is not visible. The concept of matter and energy can be expressed by Slovak ‘látka a pole’. But there is, in Slovak, one common term for these two: ‘hmota’. Thus, there can be problems in translation, since ‘hmota’ could be ‘mass’ or ‘matter’, ‘látka’ could be ‘matter’ or ‘substance’. The Slovak word ‘pole’ is ‘field’ in English, but in the concept ‘látka a pole’ it is translated as ‘energy’. As can be seen, the terms overlap and there is not one straight-forward equivalent for either of these.

5.3.  Gas laws

Probably the most time-consuming problem concerning the translation that I had was with the laws characterising ideal gases.

As can be seen, the names for the gas laws are not the same in English and in Slovak, and mere translation would not be correct from the physical point of view, e.g. ‘Charlsov zákon’ can be translated as ‘Charles’ law’, but this expresses a different physical phenomenon. The discrepancies in naming the laws can be explained by the look at the historical development.

The “pV = constant” law (Boyle’s law) was discovered in 1662 by the Irish physicist Robert Boyle. But independently it was also discovered by E.Mariotte in 1676. Because Robert Boyle had discovered it first, English call it only the Boyle’s law, whereas in continental Europe, especially in France, they call it also Mariotte’s law.

The “V/T = constant” law (Charles’ law) resulted from experiments begun around 1787 by the French scientist J.A.C. Charles but was properly established only by the more accurate results published in 1802 by the French scientist Joseph Gay-Lussac. Thus the law is also known as Gay-Lussac’s law.

The “p/T = constant” law (pressure law) was discovered mostly by the abovementioned J. A. C. Charles and because there already was a Charle’s law, they called it Charles’ law of pressure. By 1802 the situation looked liked this:

After 1802, when Gay-Lussac made more accurate results concerning the Charles’ law, in continental Europe (especially France) they changed the names of the gas laws:

6.  CONCLUSION

            The main aim of this diploma work was to compile a Slovak-English and English-Slovak dictionary of physics. Such dictionary belongs to the category of specialised bilingual dictionaries, which are much needed in the present because of the specialised vocabulary used in the particular field. The dictionary of physics, which is the inseparable part of this work, has more than 1600 entries for each side (Slovak-English and English-Slovak) with translations and professionally-written English explanations, including symbols, values, and formulas where applicable, exclusively from the field of physics. This dictionary is, undoubtedly, a valuable help for students and lecturers of physics, who require the knowledge of particular words without being fluent in English, for translators (as there is not a specialised bilingual dictionary devoted truly to physics), for students and teachers of English who want to enlarge their scope of vocabulary, and for everyone who is interested in English and physics.

Large part of this diploma work was devoted to examples of word-formation processes applied on the words concerned with physics that appear in the dictionary. Besides the most common word-formation processes like compounding, prefixation, and blending, some unusual ways of naming new objects and phenomena were illustrated. With new discoveries and never-ending technological advancement, there may appear other ways of creating new words, not only in physics.

Finally, I would like to point out that the dictionary of physics, full version of which is on CD-ROM, should not be regarded as the absolute end-product that cannot be changed. Entries can be expanded with pictures, animations, and sounds, making the dictionary truly multimedia. Although great effort was put into including as many words of physics as possible, there may be still many that can be added to the dictionary. The solid basis needed for such additions was established - the dictionary of physics has more than 1600 headwords truly devoted to physics. I am sure it will serve well to many people who need it.

7.  RESUMÉ

            Jedným z hlavných cieľov tejto diplomovej práce bolo vytvoriť slovensko-anglický a anglicko-slovenský slovník fyziky. Tento typ slovníka patrí do kategórie špecializovaných dvojjazyčných slovníkov, ktorých je momentálne na slovenskom trhu nedostatok. Slovník fyziky, ktorý je neoddeliteľnou súčasťou tejto práce, má vyše 1600 hesiel, ako pre slovensko-anglickú časť, tak aj pre anglicko-slovenskú, s výkladmi a odbornými definíciami, vrátane symbolov, hodnôt a vzorcov, kde je to potrebné, a to výhradne z oblasti fyziky. Tento slovník je nepochybne prínosom pre študentov a učiteľov fyziky, ktorí potrebujú vedieť určité slová, hoci nemusia byť v angličtine fluentní, pre prekladateľov, keďže doteraz absentoval špecializovaný dvojjazyčný slovník výhradne pre oblasť fyziky, pre študentov a učiteľov anglického jazyka, ktorí si chcú obohatiť slovnú zásobu, ako aj pre každého, kto sa zaujíma o angličtinu a fyziku.

Veľká časť tejto diplomovej práce sa zaoberala príkladmi slovotvorných procesov aplikovanými na slová z oblasti fyziky, ktoré sú zahrnuté v tomto slovníku. Okrem najproduktívnejších typov slovotvorných procesov ako sú “compounding”, “prefixation” a “blending”, sa vo fyzike vyskytujú aj iné zaujímavé spôsoby pomenovania nových objektov a javov. S novými objavmi a nezastaviteľným vedecko-technickým rozvojov sa môžu objaviť ďalšie spôsoby tvorenia slov, nielen v obasti fyziky.

Na záver by som chcel podotknúť, že tento slovník fyziky, plná verzia ktorého je na CD-ROM, nie je úplne konečný produkt, ktorý sa už nemôže meniť. Naopak, jednotlivé slová môžu byť doplnené a obohatené obrázkami, animáciami a zvukmi, čím dajú slovníku plne multimediálny charakter. Hoci bolo vynaložené značné úsilie na zahrnutie čím väčšieho počtu slov z oblasti fyziky do tohoto slovníka, stále sa môžu vyskytnúť slová, ktoré by sa mohli pridať. Vytvoril som však solídny základ, ku ktorému je možné slová pridávať – tento slovník fyziky má viac než 1600 hesiel naozaj z oblasti fyziky. Som presvedčený, že poslúži mnohým používateľom.

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  © 2000, František Fecko