Problems of Terminology and Professional Communication in the Post-Soviet Space (Case Study of the Republic of Kazakhstan)

Terminology and professional communication in post-Soviet states are analyzed, as exemplified by the Republic of Kazakhstan. An excursus into the history of linguistic development of Eurasia and Central Asia, achievements of Turkic and Iranian countries in compiling dictionaries, imperial and Soviet periods. The groundbreaking terminological works and dictionaries in the Kazakh SSR are presented. The founders of Kazakh linguistics considered the term as a means of scientific communication, transfer of complex thought, new information, elevation of human reason; the term should be created not from artificial symbols and obscured foreign language morphemes, but from the morphological material of national languages, taking into account the factors of the cultural code and continuity of the memory of the people. The principle of localization of terminology in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods of the Kazakh language was nearly inviolately observed. The methods of borrowing terminology in Kazakh rank as follows: calque (including explication and equivalent); internationalism-semicalque; hybridization of internationalisms with genuine native or deeply assimilated affixes; calque translation of abbreviations and acronyms; full transliteration/transcription. The lexicon of the Kazakh and Russian segments of the bilingual dictionary of military-aviation terminology was analyzed on the subject of original words and borrowings. 3223 (65 %) Russian words and 1751 (35 %) phonographic internationalisms were identified in the Russian segment of the dictionary against 4920 (82 %) Kazakh words and 1032 (17 %) internationalisms in Kazakh. The example comes to prove that the degree of forenization of the Russian terminology is significantly higher than that of the Kazakh one. Problems of the development of Kazakh science and professional communication sub-languages in high-tech areas (aviation) are constated. The main obstacle that calls into question the expediency of the korenization of professional communication is the limitation of the functioning of sub-languages by the borders of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There is also a problem with the selection of national equivalent words denoting new technologies or concepts; code switching in the communication of multilingual specialists; duration of standards development for terminology use and translation, their coordination with practice; high costs when introducing new terms and professional cliches, retraining personnel, changing documentation and information systems, etc.