Abstract:

Semi-technical words, or sub-technical words, are the most widely used words in science and technology, and some scholars believe that the development of scientific thought and technical content mainly relies on semi-technical words. In the field of aviation, the semi-technical vocabulary in English presents pragmatic features such as large volume, high frequency, interdisciplinary, polysemy and low semantic load. Although most of the semi-technical words do not form a strict system, their meanings often depend on the professional content and the interconnection with adjacent words. This kind of dependence or interconnection is considered as the semantic framework in the industry context. For ubiquitous polysemy in the vocabulary of aviation English, it is easy to be described and interpreted by the framework semantics, which provides a cognitive basis for the construction of the translator’s terminology knowledge system, and thus provides effective strategies for the translator in his/her decision-making process of such terminology.

Key words: frame semantics, semi-technical words, polysemy