Proposition as knowledge structure and understanding of professional discourse and terminological nomination

Abstract

One of the ways of cognitive modelling of professional discourse and terminological nomination is revealed in this article — it includes the construal of the propositional structure representing knowledge. At first, the history of the notion appearance of proposition is traced back to the period of Antiquity. After that, we can find the contribution of some scholars to the evolution of this notion becoming a three-partial formula suitable for the study in different spheres of knowledge, especially in reflecting the surrounding reality in logics, psychology and linguistics. The central element of the propositional structure is the verb uniting two arguments. 

The aim of this article is to show how the proposition as a structure of knowledge is able to uncover text semantics and the semantics of a nominative unit. The most important aspect of this analysis comprises propositional analysis within the framework of the cognitive-communicative paradigm of linguistic knowledge, particularly the study of special discourse and terminological nomination. The propositional analysis is capable of revealing the conceptual underpinning of the propositional structure based on a special text and terminological nomination. 

Initially, proposition was used to analyze some text stretches, then as the main element of frame analysis revealing not only the subject knowledge, but also emotional and temporal pragmatic characteristics influencing the text development, later associating it with the construal of semantic sets and at last becoming part and parcel of cognitive-onomasiological modelling. 

English texts referring to scientific speech and complex units like compound words and word combinations are becoming the research material in the article. The author concludes that the propositional structure representing knowledge is one of the major constituents of cognitive modelling in the semantic sphere of nominative units in terminological domains of knowledge. Besides that this analysis has great potential in the search of basic concepts of professional discourse. All these spheres of application of propositional analysis are proved very useful in cognitive-communicative terminological science.