Terminological Problems Research Articles

Russian Urbanonymy in the Spatial and Temporal Dimensions Review of the book: Razumov, R. V. (2022). Russkaia urbanonimiia: polevaia organizatsiia, modeli nominatsii, sotsiolingvisticheskie osobennosti funktsionirovaniia [Russian Urbanonymy: Field Organization, Naming Patterns, Sociolinguistic Peculiarities of Functioning]. Yaroslavl: Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University. 387 p.

The review presents an analysis of Roman Razumov’s monograph which is a comprehensive study of Russian urbanonymy in its synchronic and diachronic aspects. The first chapter of the monograph provides a critical overview of Russian studies on urbanonymy and specifies the onomastic terminology related to the theoretical foundations of this research. In the second chapter, the field approach is applied to a selection of urban names of different types. The structure suggested by the author includes the units of the core (names of streets, squares, and urban districts), near-core (names of buildings and churches), and periphery (names of bridges, parks and green spaces, monuments, fountains). The third chapter describes Russian urbanonymy in synchronic aspect: the author defines the naming patterns typical to Russian urbanonymic system (descriptive, memorial, symbolic, and eusemantic (suggesting positive connotations), and proceeds with comparing their implementation in capital cities, big and small provincial towns, monolingual and polylingual cities. The fourth chapter presents Russian urbanonymy in diachrony. Here, the author explores the tendencies in urban naming in different periods of Russian history: including the naming processes in modern Russian urbanonymy of late 20th — early 21st c. The reviewer’s remarks concern the debatable issues of the use of some terms in the monograph and the typology of the naming patterns. The reviewer also notes a huge impact of this work in generalizing and systematizing such extensive material (urbanonyms of 60 large and small cities of Russia, from the 18th c. to the present), the development of comprehensive methods of analysis of intracity names, both in spatial and temporal aspects, in drawing attention to the problems of urbanonymic terminology and the identification of systemic relationships in urbanonymy.

MAIN PROBLEMS OF TEACHING ENGLISH VETERINARY TERMINOLOGY

MAIN PROBLEMS OF TEACHING ENGLISH VETERINARY TERMINOLOGY

English language in professional training of higher education seekers in specialty 193 "Geodesy and Land Surveying": today's challenges

An overview and application of the English language in the world at the modern stage were conducted. The key importance of the English language for international business and scientific communication was clarified. The prerequisites for the use of the English language in Ukraine and its legislative support at the current stage were considered. The content and scope of the discipline "Professional foreign language" in the training program for specialists in specialty 193 "Geodesy and land surveying" were determined. The cycle "education – science – production" regarding the use of the English language in the specified specialty was analyzed. At the education stage, the need to achieve the B2 level is substantiated both for the possibility of barrier-free implementation of international academic mobility during studies, and for the possibility of its continuation at the following educational and qualification levels of higher education (master's degree, doctor of philosophy). The scientific stage reveals the terminological problems and the importance of working with professional specialized literature for the formation of publishing activity and other criteria related to the knowledge of a foreign language, necessary for obtaining academic degrees. The production moment examines the English language through the prism of working with technical and technological support necessary for carrying out topographic-geodetic, cartographic and land-cadastral works.

РАЗРАБОТКА СТАНДАРТОВ ПО СРЕДСТВАМ ИЗМЕРЕНИЙ И ИЗМЕРИТЕЛЬНЫМ СИСТЕМАМ НА ОСНОВЕ ИСКУССТВЕННОГО ИНТЕЛЛЕКТА

The Russian LongTerm Standardization Program for 2021–2024 includes two projects to launch a set of national standards "Measuring Instruments (MIs) and Measuring Systems (MSs) Based on Artificial Intelligence (AI)". These standards will unify approaches to multiparametric measurement quantities that characterise the unmanned vehicles movement, the robotic equipment state, human health, the level of knowledge and abilities, etc. The article shows the terminology problems in the field of AI and gives relevant suggestions. The main and additional components of the AIbased MIs and MSs are highlighted, and examples of their structure at different levels are given. Particular attention is given to ensuring the metrological health of equipment through metrological self-check procedures. The authors emphasise that AIbased MIs and MSs are subject to verification, calibration, and type approval. The prospect of strong AI highlights the need for relatively regular learning and self-learning of MIs and MSs as well as testing and validation of results.

TERMS OF ENDEARMENT IN GERMAN AND THE ASPECTS OF THEIR LEXICOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE LINGUOCULTUROLOGICAL APPROACH

The article discusses the terms of endearment that function as the affectionate etiquette expressions in German. Some terminological problems related to determining their status as the primary element of intimate discourse are considered. The main ways of building of terms of endearment as well as their semantic and derivational features are revealed. The terms of endearment are considered to be the linguistic universals that have the special cultural potency due to their ability to express typical emotive and evaluative reactions and represent the most significant stereotypes and standards of the linguocultural community. The describing of the terms of endearment requires a synergetic approach, which is not limited only to structural and semantic classification. It is necessary to study and interpret the images in the categories of a particular linguistic culture through the prism of cultural stereotypes, ideas and attitudes. The terms of endearment are created by speakers mainly through the use of metaphorical and metonymic images supplemented by diminutive suffixation and word composition. The most productive is the biomorphic cultural code. In addition, the article presents some conceptual considerations about the structure and content of the dictionary of German terms of endearment with cultural and historical comments. The linguoculturological comment on the inner forms of terms of endearment allows describing the cultural stereotypical vision and perception of partners. The use of linguistic symbols in the terms of endearment is due to archetypal ideas, mythologems, as well as social stereotypes and attitudes in the German linguistic and cultural community.

The Problem of Terminology in Rhetoric (Balagha) Terminology: Its Reasons, Views of the Classical and Modern Era of Rhetoric Scholars

Belâgat ilminde en önemli araştırma konularından biri terimlerin olgunlaşma (gelişim) sürecidir. Fakat belâgat terminolojisi konusunda çalışan bir araştırmacı çeşitli problemlerle karşılaşmaktadır. Bunlardan bir kısmı müstakil bir ilim olarak belâgatın kendi yapısı içerisindeki (iç) problemlerdir. Diğer bir kısmı ise belâgatın sınırlarını aşan ve genel olarak Arap dili hatta İslâmî ilimlere kadar uzanan (dış) problemlerdir. İç problemlerin en önemlilerinden biri ise bir kavramın birçok terimle ifade edilmesidir. Bu problem klasik eserlerde açıkça görüldüğü gibi bazı modern çalışmalarda da görülmektedir. Bu makalede bu problemlerin önemli bir kısmı incelenmiştir. “Belâgat Terminolojisinde Terim Çokluğu Problemi: Sebepleri, Klasik ve Modern Dönem Belâgat Âlimlerinin Konuya Bakışı” isimli çalışmamız bu meseleye eleştirel bir şekilde dikkat çekmekte ve sebeplerini ortaya koymaktadır.

HIGH MOUNTAINS OF THE UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS: STATE AND PROBLEMS OF CONCEPTS AND TERMINOLOGY

The problems of misreading and use of the term "high mountains" in science are considered. Under the conceptual and terminological apparatus is understood the scientific language of a particular field of knowledge. Instead of the term conceptual and terminological apparatus as equivalent use terminology, understanding them as a set of terms of a particular field of science, technology, or art, associated with the relevant system of concepts. The problem of terminology has occupied and continues to occupy an important place in geographical science, in particular in landscape science. Much of the terms and concepts are not always used successfully and expediently in a given context. Landscape science operates with a powerful terminological apparatus, which is constantly improving and evolving. On the example of the Ukrainian Carpathians, possible ways of organizing the conceptual apparatus, its optimal application for the description of high-altitude PTCs are proposed. The high mountains of the Ukrainian Carpathians are mountain PTC (high-altitude areas: peneplenized alpine-subalpine high mountains, ancient glacial-erosive subalpine high mountains) that rise above the natural upper limit of the forest (1240–2061 m; represented by peneplen and forms of Pleistocene glaciation; covered with alpine-subalpine vegetation on mountain-meadow-brown soil and mountain-peat-brown soils. This is a cold climate zone, which is divided into two subzones: colder and less cold. Colder subzone (from 1500 to 2000 m above sea level) is characterized by the sum of active temperatures less than 600° С, hydrothermal coefficient exceeds 5. Less cold subzone is limited by isolines of sums of temperatures 600–1000° С, and also hydrothermal coefficient respectively 5 and 4 (altitude 1250–1500 m asl). Scientific approaches in the study of alpine PTC are considered. The advantages of the landscape approach in the study of high mountains are presented. There is a false statement about the imaginary identity of objects of biogeocenology, ecology and landscape science. Solntsev M. (1967), Isachenko A. (1980) in their works showed the erroneousness of these views. The concept of biocenosis was first introduced by V. Sukachev in 1964. In its classical formulation it is a system of biocenosis and ecotope to which the microclimate in interaction with soil and lithology belongs. Thus, the main feature of the concept of biogeocenosis is that, in addition to the relationship between the biocenter of the system and the elements of the natural environment, there is a relationship between these elements. This allows the biogeocenologist to trace a slightly different path in the study of the high mountains. Changes in microclimatic features in the forest biocenosis can cause deviations in the water regime of the soil, which will weaken the stability of root systems and lead to the formation of windbreaks, windbreaks, dryness and other processes. The landscape approach provides an effective comprehensive assessment of the natural conditions of the territory. The concept of natural territorial complex put forward as a result of formation of landscape science gives the chance to study any natural phenomenon in system of direct and inverse interrelations between equal, though not equivalent components of PTC where the bioelement is taken to level of other elements of systems. In this article we want to address the problems of misreading and use of the term "high mountains" in natural science, on the example of the Ukrainian Carpathians. Keywords: foresttimber – line (TL); polonynas; high mountains; mountain range; Ukrainian Carpathians.

Stone Tools from Prehistoric Mining Sites in North Tyrol, Austria: Typology – Terminology – Material Properties

Mining archaeological field prospections and excavations conducted by the Research Center HiMAT at the University of Innsbruck yielded proof of extensive copper ore mining from the late Middle Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age (1300 - 700 BC) in the mining regions of Kitzbühel-Jochberg and Schwaz-Brixlegg in Northern Tyrol. This paper deals with stone tools collected at prehistoric mining sites and focusses on their typology, material properties and the problem of terminology. Petrographic analyses show a conscious selection of special stone materials for different applications. Typically, hard and tough metamorphic rocks collected from river gravel banks or glacial deposits of alpine valleys were used as raw materials for tool production. In general, well-rounded pebbles and boulders of amphibolite, garnet-amphibolite and eclogite were the preferred rock type used for percussion tools. According to the archaeological evidence, such stone tools were mostly used in the ore beneficiation process (crushing, to some extend also grinding) and have only rarely been found in connection with underground mining activities. For further beneficiation processes (grinding), other properties of the stone material such as abrasive capacity were required. In this context, boulders of orthogneiss/gneiss were the favoured rock material for netherstones (anvil stones and lower grindstones) and upper grindstones. The investigation of hafting modifications visible on stone tools shows that several hafting methods can be discussed, and that cords from plant fibres as well as straps of animal skin/leather could have been used for this purpose. Analysis of traces of wear provide information on the former function of the stone tools as well as on their practical application.

Rendition or Extradition: Terminology Issue

The article addresses the terminological problem regarding the relationship between the terms “rendition” and “extradition”, draws attention to the rather contradictory development of legislation in this area, the ambiguous interpretation of these terms and their understanding in the legal literature. The author examines the history of the emergence of the term “extradition”, draws attention to the fact that in domestic legislative practice and scientific literature both in the pre-revolutionary and at present, the term “extradition” has not taken root, although it is used in some publications. The article criticizes the use in the legal literature of the phrases “extradition of a criminal” and “extradition of a person who has committed a crime” due to their contradiction to the principle of presumption of innocence. Taking into account the fact that in the first form of extradition – the extradition of a person for criminal prosecution, the issue of his guilt is not discussed, this issue is resolved by the law enforcement agencies of the state to which this person is extradited. The “extradition of a person who has committed a crime” can be discussed in a certain sense in the second form of extradition – extradition for the execution of a sentence, because in this case the person was found guilty by a court verdict that entered into legal force. In the theory of criminal proceedings, there were two diametrically opposite approaches to the issue of the concept and relationship of the terms “rendition” and “extradition”, the first consists in their fundamental difference, the second – in their synonymy. The author adheres to the second approach, makes arguments in his defense.

Transdisciplinarity as a Means of Achieving the Unity of Terminology and Regulation Sources (Using the Example of an Accusation Casus Under Article 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

The paper presents a terminological analysis of a court casus when an underage person was accused of a crime under Art. 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (the RF). The analysis established a terminological ambiguity, as well as an absence of theoretical and practical unity in the understanding of the categories «other actions of sexual nature», «helpless state of a person» and «helplessness». The authors present a detailed demonstration of the uncovered terminological ambiguity using references to the current federal legislation, subordinate legal acts of the RF, as well as Decrees of the Constitutional Court of the RF and Decrees of the Plenums of the Supreme Court of the RF containing normative prescriptions and the results of generalized court practice’s assessment. The context of the stated issues is used to define specific features of other debatable and ambiguous categories of jurisprudence (the source of law, the abuse of the right and so on), the authors stress the importance of conducting an interdisciplinary analysis of the contents of the analyzed ambiguous categories and terms of the legal science with the purpose of finding an opportunity for their adequate interpretation, including an interpretation for legal practice. A detailed examination of the abovementioned problem of ambiguous terminology using only a formal-legal (dogmatic) method allowed the authors to conclude that it is necessary to apply not only an interdisciplinary research methodology, but also a transdisciplinary approach in order to achieve a unity in understanding specific legal terminology by the methods of other sciences, including forensic psychology, sexology and forensic psychiatry. This conclusion is made for both the special categories examined in the article (other acts of sexual nature, helpless state of a person, helplessness) and special legal terminology in general. The authors outline the problem implementing such a transdisciplinary approach to create unified sources of normative information, which could ensure consistent and uniform law enforcement practices of public authorities and their officials if cases when doubts arise concerning the contents of multi-purpose and objectively inter-sectorial categories and legal terms. The authors come to the fundamental conclusion that a quality research methodology needed in the conditions of the modern society of the 21st century.

The Etymology of Abbreviations in English and Tajik Diplomatic Terms

The article is devoted to one of the important problems of the linguistics the problem of term and terminology. During the research from the etymology of abbreviations point of view we discovered that the majority of etymology of abbreviations in English and Tajik diplomatic terms has their specific lexical features of lexical units of abbreviations and identification of the main ways and features of their translation.

Environmental Aesthetics and Land Art

In this paper, the author reflects on the relationship between environmental aesthetics and land art. By considering their historical development, the author first addresses the terminology problem which prompted him to understand land art as a hypernym – i.e. a term that semantically encompasses other art practices (e.g. “Earth art”, “Earthworks”, “Site art”, “Arte Povera”, “Environment(al) art”, and “Ecological art”). Moreover, by considering certain features of land art (e.g. integration, interruption, involvement, implementation, and imagining), the author proposes a thesis according to which land art represents not only a contemporary art movement but also a new form of the aesthetic experience of nature. In the further development of this thesis, the author focuses on two aesthetic principles of land art – participation and entropy – which in the history of aesthetic theory have been almost non-existent, pushed to the margins, or completely neglected. Finally, by finding solid theoretical foundations for this thesis in Ronald W. Hepburn’s ground-breaking essay “Contemporary Aesthetics and the Neglect of Natural Beauty” (1984), as well as some land art projects (e.g. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970), the author emphasises the strong theoretical connection between environmental aesthetics and land art.

The right of a person to the secret of correspondence: issues of public law and private law terminology

The article addresses the problems of public law and private law terminology in the field of secret correspondence. There are any differences and conflicts in the application of terms in international legal acts and in the national legislation of Ukraine were revealed. It was found out that the constitutional right of a person to the secrecy of correspondence, phone conversations and correspondence is the only right, which should be called the right to secrecy of correspondence. In the field of public law, a person's right to secrecy of correspondence is protected by establishing prohibitions, forms and measures of responsibility for their violation. In the field of private law, protection of the right to secrecy of correspondence is carried out by defining the positive content of this right and granting a person specific powers to implement it.
 According to the norms of constitutional and criminal legislations, the object of the right to secrecy is the exchange of letters, telephone conversations and correspondence, while in the norms of civil legislation such an object is "correspondence", which covers all types and means of communication used by a person, including telephone conversations, any exchange of letters, etc.
 In the texts of regulatory legal acts, the terms "private life" and "personal life" are used as identical. At the same time, the norms of criminal procedural law establish the «right to communication», which is not found in the norms of civil legislation, nor in the doctrine of private law, where the "right to privacy" is widely used. According to international law, secrecy of correspondence is an element of the right to privacy, but this idea is not embodied in the provisions of the legislation of Ukraine, where the right to secrecy of correspondence is protected as an independent right of a person. The right of a person to secrecy of correspondence in its content is related to the concept of a person's private life and is undoubtedly an element of his private life. Therefore, regardless of the content of the correspondence, the privacy of each person's correspondence must be protected to the same extent as the right to respect for private life is protected.

COLOCATIONS OF TEXTS OF THE CIVIL CODE OF UKRAINE

Modern understanding of legal linguistics has expanded significantly as the relationship between jurisprudence and linguistics in the study of language issues of the legal field has changed The article is devoted to the study of the colocation structure of the texts of the Civil Code of Ukraine. It has been established that collocations are statistically stable compounds that form a certain continuum between free and stable compounds. It is proved that the conclusion of collocations of the texts of the Civil Code of Ukraine provides for a combination of the corpus method with distributive and contextual analysis. In this article, it is claimed that contemporary changes in the humanities justify the expansion of the range of jurisprudence integration to some other approaches, different from formalistic and pragmatic ones. The paper describes the features of legal language as a specialized system of legal concepts, provides communication needs in the field of legal science and practice. The article presents an overview of scientific works devoted to the study of the language of juridical field that covers general theoretical problems of juridical terminology, its history, formation and development issues, precision and normativity of separate terms and also linguistic features of separate juridical terminology Typical of an explicit definition is a simple sentence with a compound noun predicate that can function with zero or lexical verb conjunction. The complexity and specialized nature of legal cases determine the special requirements for the training and experience of a lawyer. To maintain the necessary level of knowledge and skills, a lawyer must constantly engage in his education and training.

There are (almost) no robots in journalism. An attempt at a differentiated classification and terminology of automation in journalism on the base of the concept of distributed and gradualised action

Human-Machine Communication and fields like journalism studies have been discussing new technological developments in journalism, especially automation technologies like automated writing software. However, existing literature has terminological problems: Terms are not distinctly defined and delimited, different aspects can be referred to with the same term, while different, often misleading, terms exist for the same aspect. As a result, it is often unclear which concept is being referred to. To gain a better understanding and modeling of automation in journalism as well as a theoretical foundation, this paper first describes current problems with terms used in scientific literature and argues that existing automation taxonomies are not fully transferrable to journalism, making a new theoretical basis necessary. Subsequently, Rammert and Schulz-Schaeffer’s concept of distributed and gradualised action is described and proposed as such a theoretical basis for the unification of terminology and conceptual foundations, providing the opportunity to empirically and normatively describe automation as well as delivering necessary theoretical underpinnings. Lastly, the concept is applied to automation in journalism, resulting in a proposed automation concept, suggestions for terminology, and further implications for Human-Machine Communication theory.

Victimological Factors in Corruption Offences and Anti-Corruption Victimological Security

The paper investigates victimological factors producing corruption victimization. The research methodology includes a dialectical method of scientific cognition, a systematic approach, analysis and synthesis as general scientific methods for understanding criminological and victimological concepts, private scientific methods: criminal statistical, sociological (survey of convicted respondents — officials), analysis of documents, etc. The empirical base is made up of the results of a criminological study conducted by the author in 2018–2020 as part of an interregional research team (Vladimir, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Syktyvkar), as well as criminal statistics data, materials of judicial practice. To solve the terminological problem, definitions of the concepts «corrupt crime», «corrupt behavior», «corrupt delinquency» are proposed. The author substantiates the application of a systematic methodology for the study of victimological factors as a structural element of corruption offences, their properties, conditions and relationships with other elements. The paper presents the results of a survey involving convicted respondents-officials, and a comparative analysis of judicial statistics data. The author gives a definition of victimological factors of a corruption crime, substantiates their unity with corruption-causing factors, which is manifested in victim-corruption and criminal-corruption behavior, the commission of a corruption crime. It is shown that the corruption crime is based on a corrupt transaction, its concept, characteristics, main elements, content, types are presented. The author shows that any of its subjects can become victims of a corrupt transaction: an official, his counterparty and an intermediary, while victimological factors, levels of victimization and types of victims are presented. It is concluded that anti-corruption victimological security should become a priority area of victimological prevention based on scientific (criminological) support. The expediency of creating (reviving) criminological laboratories on the basis of modern national research universities is argued.

Draft Codification of Administrative and Tort Legislation: Problems of Terminology, Defects of Structure and other Drawbacks

The drafts of substantive and procedural codes on administrative offenses prepared by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and subjected to public discussion in 2020 constitute a step forward in the development of relevant legislation. At the same time, the draft code developers were constrained in many issues by the thinking inertia and legislative practice, as a result of which they transferred a number of shortcomings of the current Administrative Code of the Russian Federation to the drafts. In addition, the drafts contain many serious drawbacks. The refusal of the codes’ drafters to adopt similar constructions from close branches of legislation — criminal and criminal procedure — result in the fundamental failure of the authors of the draft Administrative Code of the Russian Federation and the Procedural Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. As a result, the draft of the substantive Administrative Code lacks categories of administrative offenses, clear and understandable rules for imposing administrative penalties for a combination of offenses; the draft Procedural Administrative Code declares establishing of objective truth (which is not included even in the criminal process!) as its objective; there is no overdue simplified procedure for considering cases. The paper substantiates the suggestion to proceed not to recognize as judicial proceedings consideration of administrative cases by courts. The separate regulation of the procedure for consideration of cases by courts and other bodies of administrative jurisdiction provided for by the draft Procedural Administrative Code of the Russian Federation represents a fundamental mistake and, in addition, it abounds in largely arbitrary differences in the regulation of the same issues and even in the presentation of similar norms. The drafts have a large number of legal and technical shortcomings (unnecessary double numbering of articles, inclusion of an array of procedural norms in the draft of the substantive Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, etc.). There is an obvious need for the most serious revision of the draft laws, and this time revision has to be done as openly as possible and with the involvement of recognized professionals in the field of administrative responsibility and administrative procedure.

Features of the Use of Digital Technologies in the Field of Protection and Turnover of Intellectual Rights

Taking into account the regulatory legal framework that has been formed in recent years, in particular, the Federal Law of March 18, 2019. No. 34-FZ «On Amendments to Parts One, Two and Article 1124 of Part Three of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation”, etc., discusses the problems of using digital technologies, including digital assets, digital platforms in relation to the turnover of intellectual property rights to the results of intellectual activity and equated means of individualization of goods, works, services, enterprises and their protection, in particular, the problems of creating a register of intellectual property objects based on the blockchain system, features of the activities of individual participants in relations in the field of the Internet, as well as the relationship between the right to information in modern conditions and the rights of authors and other copyright holders to protected results of intellectual activity. Particular attention is paid to the problems of terminology in the digital environment, the concept and types of digital rights, including utilitarian digital rights, in relation to the results of intellectual activity, as well as the importance of the blockchain system and artificial intelligence in the creation of intellectual activity results, their turnover and protection, including objects, created at the expense of budgetary funds on the basis of Federal Law No. 456-FZ dated 22.12.2020 “On Amendments to Parts Two and Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Invalidation of Legislative Acts (Certain Provisions of Legislative Acts) of the Russian Federation”. The main problems that the use of digital technologies and the creation of unified registers of intellectual property rights objects are aimed at solving are highlighted. Among them are the problems of determining the rightholder, making accelerated transactions for the disposal of rights to protected objects and some mechanisms for their solution are proposed, in particular, the conclusion that it is necessary to use the blockchain system to form a register of intellectual property objects primarily for the individualization of rightholders, the disposal of exclusive rights and their protection.

Terminological problems of terminology users

Abstract Terminological counselling is ad hoc terminology work that provides the terminology user with a relatively quick and credible answer to a terminological question. In this article, we present the Terminological Counselling Service offered by the Terminology Section of the ZRC SAZU Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language since 2013. Through a web form, users submit a question, which is answered by five terminologists in a joint opinion. For this article, all 75 questions received by the Terminological Counselling Service in 2020 were examined. They were analysed in terms of the subject fields in which the users have terminological problems, the institutions the users are affiliated with, and the content of the questions. We believe that the Terminological Counselling Service plays an important role, as the number of users is increasing year by year.

Analgesia as a Component of General Anesthesia: A Problem of Terminology?

The state of general anesthesia is often presented with its analgesic component included. An example of this can be found in one of the classic definitions of the anesthetic state by Dr. Edmond Eger.1 He describes analgesia as an “unmeasurable component (the anesthetized patients cannot tell an investigator that he/she hurts or does not hurt)”; in addition, he states that “surrogate measures (increases in breathing, blood pressure and heart rate with surgery) suggest that some pain is perceived.” This description reflects two problems that have became obvious with new developments in our understanding of pain and nociception.The first is related to the analgesic properties of general anesthetics. Does the blockade of a nocifensive response produced by an anesthetic increment in an unconscious patient represent analgesic action? If the answer is yes, it contradicts the 2020 definition of pain accepted by the International Association for the Study of Pain, which states: “An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.” A note associated with this definition indicates that “Pain and nociception are different phenomena. Pain cannot be inferred solely from activity in sensory neurons.”2 Pain is described as both a sensory and an emotional experience. To fit the definition of pain, the term “analgesic action,” in conjunction with general anesthetics, should be applied only when consciousness is present. An anesthetized, unarousable subject responding to noxious stimuli with movement or an increase in heart rate does not have “unpleasant sensory and emotional experience.” It is impossible to determine precisely when—during the induction of anesthesia—nocifensive responses are already not indicative of pain. In an anesthetized patient, the presence of pain, at least as it is required by the International Association of the Study of Pain definition, is not certain. Therefore, the suppression of a nociceptive response by general anesthetics beyond the state of any degree of unconsciousness probably should be regarded as an antinociceptive effect, not an analgesic one.The second problem is associated with the previously mentioned indication that some pain may be perceived during the state of general anesthesia. What is the appropriate term for this phenomenon? I believe that such terminology is already in use—for the quantification of nociception in unconscious subjects during anesthesia, such as “nociception monitoring.”3,4 Nociception is not a subjective feeling, but the physiologic encoding and processing of nociceptive stimuli through the sensory system. It is the reaction to nociception that is being used for the purpose of nociception monitoring.3 The most frequently utilized response is an increase in sympathetic activity (increased heart rate, peripheral vasoconstriction, pupillary dilatation, an increase in galvanic skin conduction, among others). Various nociception monitors are already available, and others are being developed. They estimate nociception during anesthesia and can be used to optimize the administration of antinociceptive agents. Although some nociception monitors show promising results, no clear conclusions on anesthesia-related outcome can be drawn. Various categories of drugs are used as antinociceptive agents in general anesthesia.5 Differential antinociceptive effects of drugs used for anesthesia were most clearly illustrated by Prys-Roberts.6 He showed that the depth of anesthesia can be defined by suppression of the clinically relevant responses to noxious stimuli. He divided autonomic responses into four categories—breathing, hemodynamic, sudomotor, and hormonal—and showed that they can be altered differentially by drug and dose. A strategy for choosing a combination of agents that act at different targets in the nociceptive system to control nociception in anesthetized patients was recently presented by Brown et al.5When discussing general anesthetics, the term “analgesic effect” should be used only when consciousness is present; if not, “antinociceptive effect” is the better term to apply.Support was provided solely from institutional and/or departmental sources.The author declares no competing interests.