The Language of Science

The Language of Science
Author: Carol Reeves
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2005-11-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1134280173

The communication of scientific principles is becoming increasingly important in a world that relies on technology. Exploring the use of scientific language in the news and examining how important scientific ideas are reported and communicated, this title in the Intertext series takes a look at the use and misuse of scientific language and how it shapes our lives. The Language of Science: explores the goals of, and problems with, scientific language and terminology demonstrates the power and misuse of scientific discourse in the media examines the special qualities of scientific communication explores how science and popular culture interact is illustrated with a wide range of examples from the MMR vaccine to AIDS and the biological weapons debate, and includes a glossary as well as ideas for further reading. This practical book is ideal for post-16 to undergraduate students in English Language, Linguistics, Journalism, Communications Studies or Science Communication.

Scientific Babel

Scientific Babel
Author: Michael D. Gordin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2015-04-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 022600032X

English is the language of science today. No matter which languages you know, if you want your work seen, studied, and cited, you need to publish in English. But that hasn’t always been the case. Though there was a time when Latin dominated the field, for centuries science has been a polyglot enterprise, conducted in a number of languages whose importance waxed and waned over time—until the rise of English in the twentieth century. So how did we get from there to here? How did French, German, Latin, Russian, and even Esperanto give way to English? And what can we reconstruct of the experience of doing science in the polyglot past? With Scientific Babel, Michael D. Gordin resurrects that lost world, in part through an ingenious mechanism: the pages of his highly readable narrative account teem with footnotes—not offering background information, but presenting quoted material in its original language. The result is stunning: as we read about the rise and fall of languages, driven by politics, war, economics, and institutions, we actually see it happen in the ever-changing web of multilingual examples. The history of science, and of English as its dominant language, comes to life, and brings with it a new understanding not only of the frictions generated by a scientific community that spoke in many often mutually unintelligible voices, but also of the possibilities of the polyglot, and the losses that the dominance of English entails. Few historians of science write as well as Gordin, and Scientific Babel reveals his incredible command of the literature, language, and intellectual essence of science past and present. No reader who takes this linguistic journey with him will be disappointed.

Latin as the Language of Science and Learning

Latin as the Language of Science and Learning
Author: Philipp Roelli
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 659
Release: 2021-11-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110745836

This book investigates the role of the Latin language as a vehicle for science and learning from several angles. First, the question what was understood as ‘science’ through time and how it is named in different languages, especially the Classical ones, is approached. Criteria for what did pass as scientific are found that point to ‘science’ as a kind of Greek Denkstil based on pattern-finding and their unbiased checking. In a second part, a brief diachronic panorama introduces schools of thought and authors who wrote in Latin from antiquity to the present. Latin’s heydays in this function are clearly the time between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries. Some niches where it was used longer are examined and reasons sought why Latin finally lost this lead-role. A third part seeks to define the peculiar characteristics of scientific Latin using corpus linguistic approaches. As a result, several types of scientific writing can be identified. The question of how to transfer science from one linguistic medium to another is never far: Latin inherited this role from Greek and is in turn the ancestor of science done in the modern vernaculars. At the end of the study, the importance of Latin science for modern science in English becomes evident.

The Language of Science Education

The Language of Science Education
Author: William F. McComas
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 122
Release: 2013-12-30
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9462094977

The Language of Science Education: An Expanded Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts in Science Teaching and Learning is written expressly for science education professionals and students of science education to provide the foundation for a shared vocabulary of the field of science teaching and learning. Science education is a part of education studies but has developed a unique vocabulary that is occasionally at odds with the ways some terms are commonly used both in the field of education and in general conversation. Therefore, understanding the specific way that terms are used within science education is vital for those who wish to understand the existing literature or make contributions to it. The Language of Science Education provides definitions for 100 unique terms, but when considering the related terms that are also defined as they relate to the targeted words, almost 150 words are represented in the book. For instance, “laboratory instruction” is accompanied by definitions for openness, wet lab, dry lab, virtual lab and cookbook lab. Each key term is defined both with a short entry designed to provide immediate access following by a more extensive discussion, with extensive references and examples where appropriate. Experienced readers will recognize the majority of terms included, but the developing discipline of science education demands the consideration of new words. For example, the term blended science is offered as a better descriptor for interdisciplinary science and make a distinction between project-based and problem-based instruction. Even a definition for science education is included. The Language of Science Education is designed as a reference book but many readers may find it useful and enlightening to read it as if it were a series of very short stories.

Language and Scientific Research

Language and Scientific Research
Author: Wenceslao J. Gonzalez
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 303060537X

This book analyzes the role of language in scientific research and develops the semantics of science from different angles. The philosophical investigation of the volume is divided into four parts, which covers both basic science and applied science: I) The Problem of Reference and Potentialities of the Language in Science; II) Language and Change in Scientific Research: Evolution and Historicity; III) Scientific Language in the Context of Truth and Fiction; and IV) Language in Mathematics and in Empirical Sciences. Language plays a key role in science: our access to the theoretical, practical or evaluative dimensions of scientific activity begins with the mastery of language, continues with a deepening in the use of language and reaches the level of contribution when it creates new terms or changes them in sense and reference. This reveals the compatibility between objectivity in semantic contents and historicity in the progress of science. This volume is a valuable enrichment to students, academics and other professionals interested in science in all its forms, who seek to deepen the role that language plays in its structure and dynamics.

The Language of Science and Faith

The Language of Science and Faith
Author: Karl W. Giberson And Francis S. Collins
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2011-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1459615964

Christians affirm that everything exists because of God--from subatomic quarks to black holes. Science often claims to explain nature without including God at all. And thinking Christians often feel forced to choose between the two. But the good news is that we don't have to make a choice. Science does not overthrow the Bible. Faith does not require rejecting science. World-renowned scientist Francis Collins, author of The Language of God, along with fellow scientist Karl Giberson show how we can embrace both. Their fascinating treatment explains how God cares for and interacts with his creation while science offers a reliable way to understand the world he made. Together they clearly answer dozens of the most common questions people ask about Darwin, evolution, the age of the earth, the Bible, the existence of God and our finely tuned universe. They also consider how their views stack up against the new atheists as well as against creationists and adherents of intelligent design. The authors disentangle the false conclusions of Christians and atheists alike about science and evolution from the actual results of research in astronomy, physics, geology and genetics. In its place they find a story of the grandeur and beauty of a world made by a supremely creative God.

Does Science Need a Global Language?

Does Science Need a Global Language?
Author: Scott L. Montgomery
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2013-05-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0226535037

In early 2012, the global scientific community erupted with news that the elusive Higgs boson had likely been found, providing potent validation for the Standard Model of how the universe works. Scientists from more than one hundred countries contributed to this discovery—proving, beyond any doubt, that a new era in science had arrived, an era of multinationalism and cooperative reach. Globalization, the Internet, and digital technology all play a role in making this new era possible, but something more fundamental is also at work. In all scientific endeavors lies the ancient drive for sharing ideas and knowledge, and now this can be accomplished in a single tongue— English. But is this a good thing? In Does Science Need a Global Language?, Scott L. Montgomery seeks to answer this question by investigating the phenomenon of global English in science, how and why it came about, the forms in which it appears, what advantages and disadvantages it brings, and what its future might be. He also examines the consequences of a global tongue, considering especially emerging and developing nations, where research is still at a relatively early stage and English is not yet firmly established. Throughout the book, he includes important insights from a broad range of perspectives in linguistics, history, education, geopolitics, and more. Each chapter includes striking and revealing anecdotes from the front-line experiences of today’s scientists, some of whom have struggled with the reality of global scientific English. He explores topics such as student mobility, publication trends, world Englishes, language endangerment, and second language learning, among many others. What he uncovers will challenge readers to rethink their assumptions about the direction of contemporary science, as well as its future.

“The” Language of Science

“The” Language of Science
Author: Ilse Nina Bulhof
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 224
Release: 1992
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9789004096448

In modern times science has avoided rhetorical and poetical forms. Its hallmarks were brevity and exactitude, with disdain for "non-functional" ornamentation. This book shows that the language of scientists does remain language and that a skillful use of its rhetorical and poetic aspects often determines the "facts" and the transmission of information. The exceptional literary qualities of Darwin's The Origin of Species are taken as a point in case. The importance of language in science has ontological implications: science can no longer be considered an action performed by a speaking subject on a mute object. Does the creative role of language in science mean that human beings "create" the world? The author emphatically rejects a conclusion which would degrade nature to mere malleable material at the mercy of human beings. A hermeneutical model for the relationship between knower and known is suggested: creative interaction between reader and text. The reader's responses actualise a text's meaning; in like manner, scientists give their responses to reality by actualising one of many possibilities. The hermeneutical ontology proposed in this book steers away from the rocks of realism and anti-realism.

The Dominance of English as a Language of Science

The Dominance of English as a Language of Science
Author: Ulrich Ammon
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 493
Release: 2011-07-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110869489

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

Language and Literacy in Science Education

Language and Literacy in Science Education
Author: Jerry Wellington
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2001-03-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0335233155

Science in secondary schools has tended to be viewed mainly as a 'practical subject', and language and literacy in science education have been neglected. But learning the language of science is a major part of science education: every science lesson is a language lesson, and language is a major barrier to most school students in learning science. This accessible book explores the main difficulties in the language of science and examines practical ways to aid students in retaining, understanding, reading, speaking and writing scientific language. Jerry Wellington and Jonathan Osborne draw together and synthesize current good practice, thinking and research in this field. They use many practical examples, illustrations and tried-and-tested materials to exemplify principles and to provide guidelines in developing language and literacy in the learning of science. They also consider the impact that the growing use of information and communications technology has had, and will have, on writing, reading and information handling in science lessons. The authors argue that paying more attention to language in science classrooms is one of the most important acts in improving the quality of science education. This is a significant and very readable book for all student and practising secondary school science teachers, for science advisers and school mentors.