CHAPTER III - Russian Social Science Terminology

Abstract

This chapter discusses Russian political, economic, and legal terminology. The political and economic systems of the U.S.S.R and Great Britain are reflected in the terminologies that the two societies use. There is a tendency in the Russian society to designate things as black or white and to put less stress on the various greys. An example of this is the failure to distinguish the amoral from immoral. In terms of language, there is a tendency to prefer the abstract to the concrete, and this is a marked difference from the English usage. These divergences of background and linguistic usage sometimes add up to differences in real life. On the economic side, differences in terminology result from planning that puts at least as much stress on physical as on financial results and from a different conceptual framework. Thus, the Russian society distinguishes an industry in the sense of a branch of the economy as a whole, as related industries, and as a particular manufacturing process; however, it excludes the farming industry and transport. The legal terminology contains many words derived from English, French, German and Latin. Some care is needed with the loan words as many of them are used in Russian in a much narrower sense than in their language of origin. Foreign loan words in Russian are normally quickly assimilated and give rise to derivatives as though they were Russian words originally.