Synonymy of art history terms: synonyms, variants or competitors for a place in the system

Abstract

The relevance of this study is preconditioned by the appeal to the problem of the development of the term semantics on the example of synonymy in the framework of modern terminology of art history. The article is focused on three synonymous units astronomical art, cosmic art, space art. They arouse interest as, on the one hand, these units claim the status of art history terms, and on the other hand, they are in synonymous relations, which contradicts the requirements for the term system. Revealing the features of the semantics and functioning of these units, and thus tracking the semantic processes that accompany their terminologization, the authors aim to establish the features of synonymous lexical units in the phase of their formation as terms. The study was carried out on the basis of the case method with the use of methods of definitional analysis, componential analysis, semasiological analysis, contextual analysis, as well as elements of chain and corpus analysis. The research material consists of specialized thematic dictionaries of art history terminology, as well as articles on art history. The concepts under consideration represent an interesting case of the formation of a term and the assignment of an appropriate semantic volume to it. Despite the fact that initially astronomical art, cosmic art, space art entered professional communication as synonyms, they are already breaking out of the scope of synonymy, as evidenced by their functioning in special texts: the concept of cosmic art is wider in meaning than space art, while, according to some sources, astronomical art and space art are in a hyper-hyponymic relationship.

Keywords

• term
• terminology
• art history terminological system
• variability
• synonymy
• terminological status