Theolinguistics: justification of the term

Abstract

The article aims to substantiate the expediency of using the term Theolinguistics for the nomination of a new linguistic discipline aimed at studying the interaction of language and religion. Critical analysis of theoretical literature has shown great terminological differences in linguistic works devoted to the study of language and religion such as: religious language, sacred language, the faith language, liturgical language, religious-preaching style, religious style, church-religious style, biblical style, ; confessional style, spiritual speech, religious communication, orthodox linguistics, religiolect, and Theolinguistics. This is conditioned by the following reasons: 1) the complex and multidimensional character of research, which should take into account the data of two spheres of knowledge: linguistics and theology; 2) blurring boundaries between object and subject of language units under study within the discipline investigating the problems language and religion interaction; 3) the uncertainty of the status and nomination of the discipline, aimed to study the relationships between language and religion; 4) inconsistency in the terminological apparatus and metalanguage of the discipline aimed to study the correlations between language and religion.
 The scientific novelty of the study is conditioned by critical analysis of a number of linguistic terms used in the theoretical research and scientific literature done in the framework of studying the relationships between language and religion. The results of the analysis of the linguistic literature on this issue show that in linguistic science the followings can be observed: 1) the usage of diverse terms in the researches aimed at studying the interaction of language and religion; 2) the ambiguity in the interpretation of a particular linguistic term used to indicate scientific problem related to language and religion interaction; 3) the need to develop a unified terminology in the field of research aimed to investigate the relationships between language and religion.