Department of Modern Languages

Compounding is a frequently used word formation process in many languages, but different languages tend to have slightly different systems. In terminology, there is a strong urge to use corresponding terms in translation. Many terms are compounds. Therefore, when compounding systems diverge, this leads to problems. In this contribution, we consider the nature of this problem in the context of English and Polish terminology in the domain of land surveying. We start by presenting our definition of compounding (section 1). Then we describe how this definition applies to English and Polish (sections 2 and 3). Next, we describe how we collected a set of terms for both languages (section 4). Finally, we analyse the set of terms for each language and compare the use of compounding in them (section 5).