ТЕРМИНОЛОГИЯ МЕДИАЦИИ КАК ВТОРИЧНАЯ ТЕРМИНОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ ПОДСИСТЕМА

Научная статья
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18454/RULB.9.03
Выпуск: № 1 (9), 2017
PDF

Аннотация

В статье рассматриваются проблемы формирования вторичной терминосистемы юридической медиации. Вторичные терминосистемы – относительно новое явление языка науки, характеризующееся формированием особых подсистем терминов, обладающих особыми лингвистическими характеристиками. В составе вторичных терминосистем можно выявить не только термины базовой науки, но и единицы, привлеченные из других терминосистем, а также термины смешанного типа. Тем не менее, характер проявления указанных трех типов единиц специфичен для каждой вторичной терминосистемы, в том числе для терминологии медиации.

Introduction

In terminological studies, the problem of secondary terminologies’ formation has been one of the most disputable during the last decades [see: 1], though some aspects of the problem have been considered for many years from the point of view of the process of attraction language units from one terminological system to another. In cognitive studies, this aspect of terminological character of language sign was studied in terms of cognitive metaphor and cognitive metonymy [2, 171]. Extra-linguistic background of such terminologies is determined by the fact of differentiation of the existing sciences and their terminological systems on the one hand and by the process of “borrowing” concepts and terms from one terminology into another. As a rule, terminological subsystems emerging because of such differentiation are formed within only one terminological subsystem. E.g. terminological system of biochemistry emerged as a branch of chemistry, terminology of medical law is a subsystem of legal terminology. Legal mediation terminology is also a specific subsystem of legal terminology as a whole.

Extra-linguistic factors of mediation terminology formation

At present mediation is an interdisciplinary field. It worked out not only research and working tools, theoretical assumptions and scientific approaches, but also developed its own terminology. Having gained an interdisciplinary character, it still retains close connections with such disciplines as philosophy, law, diplomacy, conflict management, psychology and political science, etc. Therefore, the extra-linguistic characteristics of mediation sphere and its terminology are very complicated, because within the secondary system of mediation terminology we may single out mediation terminology subsystems referring to separate scientific areas (philosophy, law, psychology, ethics, etc.). Each of the sciences forms its own thematic and conceptual body of knowledge on mediation. Thus, each subsystem may be studied both separately and within the scope of the big system. The subject of this article is the subsystem of mediation referring to law.

Legal theory explores mediation as a legal institution existing within the framework of current legislation. Abstracting from the specific procedures and principles developed by legal practice, theoretical legal disciplines explore mediation as one of the subjective and objective legal phenomenon that serves as collateral of law. Mediation is an important legal sphere, though even legal mediation shows its interdisciplinary essence, which is determined by the fact that mediation may be used instead of court proceeding, or may be carried out on parallel with such a proceeding.

Mediation is a method of dispute resolution between two or more parties managed by an outsider, a person, who is absolutely neutral and impartial. The impartiality of the mediator must be expressed by his/her equidistance from the parties; therefore, empathy and sensitivity are the basics of the mediator’s professional ethics. He is to study and understand the driving motives that led to conflict between the parties. According to article 15 of the Federal Law “On Alternative Dispute Resolution with the Help of Mediator (the Procedure of Mediation)” the activities of the mediator may be exercised both on professional and non-professional basis [3]. In the UK “Mediators come in all shapes and sizes. Some are lawyers; many (including some of the best) are not. Some specialize in certain dispute areas, many are generalists undertaking any type of dispute. There are full time mediators who mediate weekly, and part-time mediators who mediate a few times a year” [4, 48]. However, all mediators must have special training in this sphere.

The scope of mediation involves various disputes and disagreements between community members and neighbors, disputes and conflicts in the housing sphere, problems arising at divorce (determining the future place of residence of children after their parents’ divorce, conflicts and disagreements concerning property division), family disagreements, and conflicts in the sphere of healthcare, education, employment relations, other disagreements and conflict situations.

Types of terminological units in mediation terminology

As far as mediators’ activities produce some legal result, the core of mediation terminology is represented by legal terms used in various legal spheres: law, judge, legal advice, financial costs of legal services, settlement, fighting a matter out in court, courtroom, suit, negotiations, blame, punishment, litigation, mandatory legal rules, legal documents, case, injury, accident, accused, guarantee, penalty, plaintiff, attorney, legal counsel, final settlement, initial meeting, hearing jurisdiction, respondent.

The area of mediation is still limited to certain legal categories of cases. This fact explains the predominance of legal notions used in the mediation sphere depending on the character of disputes: disputes coming from the civil law, which is a complicated system including: consumer disputes (sales, purchases, merchandise), family disputes (divorce, child visitation, child custody, domestic relations disputes, living will, adult sibling conflicts, eldercare issues, discrimination), contract disputes (contract, third party, cases of civil damage, bargaining, creditor, credit, premarital agreement, franchise agreement, commercial agreement, franchisee, franchisor, wrongful termination of contract) and neighborhood disputes (neighbor, landlord, tenant, homeowner), etc.

The formation of the specific mediation sphere led not only to “borrowing” of legal terms from various legal subsystems, but also to the emergence of specific notions and terms denoting: stages of mediation (mediator's opening statement, disputants' opening statements, joint discussion, private caucuses, joint negotiation, closure); aspects of mediator code of conduct (neutral stance, commitment to inform participants, mindfulness of psychological wellbeing of the mediating parties, practice according to spheres of experience, mutually satisfactory resolutions).

The idea of mediation permeates the terminological system, mediation and mediator being the major concepts of the semantic background of the terminological system.

One may notice some specifics in the structure of mediation terms. Thus, the term mediation is used both as the basic component of terminological word-combinations (online mediation, evaluative mediation, facilitative mediation, transformative mediation, family mediation, divorce mediation) and as a dependent element (mediation program, pre-mediation discussion, mediation training).

Mediation terminology, lexicography and language teaching

In the Russian General Terminology, the practice of compiling dictionaries is denoted by the term терминография (terminography). Scholars explain the usage of this term by the fact that the theoretical basis of terminography is not lexicography, but the general theory of terms [5, 40], in which the system of terms is never considered apart from the system of notions denoted by language units.

The complex sphere of mediation determines the necessity of compiling monolingual, bilingual and multilingual dictionaries of ideographic type, i.e. dictionaries in which terms are arranged not in alphabetical order but are grouped according to their meanings with the identification of all scientific spheres the terms may be used in. Only within each semantic category of terms, the units may be arranged in the alphabetical order.

The necessity to compile bilingual and multilingual ideographic mediation dictionaries is stipulated by the fact that mediation is often carried on in conflict situations through the prism of a particular culture or from the point of view of a particular ethnic group. To resolve disputes among representatives of such categories of people successfully it is particularly important to consider their national systems of values, traditions and their relations between the community and the person. Ideographic dictionaries can also become the semantic basis of a content-language integrated course, because it is terminology that permeates all the four stages of the models of such courses stipulated in didactics: introduction into the problem, language training, practice of counseling, and participation in international competitions on mediation [see: 6].

Conclusions

Thus, the study of extra- and intra-linguistic factors of secondary terminology formation, including that of mediation, is important not only from the point of view of the development of the theory of terms proper. Emergency of such terminologies poses another important problem – that of compiling dictionaries of terms, most important of which are ideographic ones [see: 7]. However, the task of compiling dictionaries for new areas of theory and practice is hard to fulfil without finding the limits of the system of notions of the given area and without linguistic classification of its lexical units. Theoretical studies of secondary terminological systems and compilation of ideographic dictionaries of terms must be the essential part of developing content-language integrated course in higher schools.

 

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