Computer language (linguistics)

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In linguistics the term computer language is used (e.g. Wichter 1991: 2) to denote the technical language used by computer experts and interested laypeople. The most striking feature of computer language is an extreme increase in technical vocabulary after the Second World War , with Anglicisms making up a very high proportion of the total vocabulary . Schulze's lexicon (1989) already contains around 26,100 headwords. Since the 1970s, a very small part of the technical vocabulary has only been included very gradually in common-language dictionaries. So contained Duden. German Universal Dictionary (2nd edition 1989) only 218 relevant terms.

Vocabulary examples

Common technical jargon are

  • Bug: program error
  • Bugfix: Error correction
  • Build: Designation for a software version , a software version number (or its component), a software creation process or the end product of a software creation process.
  • Default: Presetting or standard value. What is meant is a setting that is selected if the user or programmer does not make any personal entries.
  • A hack is problem solving or troubleshooting that is programmed on the fly, but it can often be problematic in terms of design. (see Quick and dirty and workaround)
  • A patch is a correction delivery for software or individual files.
  • Quick-and-dirty programming refers to the rapid implementation of a new requirement for a program that is problematic in terms of design, since instead of a necessary change to the overall concept, only a selective change is made, which is very likely to lead to problems in the subsequent program maintenance. (see Hack)
  • A snippet is a small program fragment in the source code that solves a partial problem in programming.
  • Spaghetti code is a pictorial expression for a program in which unconditional jumps (e.g. numerous nested jump instructions ) make the program sequence difficult to understand, like a mountain of spaghetti where it is very difficult to find out which noodle ends belong together.
  • A workaround is a programmatic construct to circumvent or avoid an error in another program or program part or a library without eliminating the error or the cause of the error itself.

literature

  • Karl-Heinz Best: On the computer vocabulary in German . In: Naukovyj Visnyk Černivec'koho Universytetu: Hermans'ka filolohija . Vypusk 289, 2006, pp. 10-24.
  • Albert Busch: Computer Discourse and Vocabulary: Corpus Analyzes and Selected Bibliography. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. a. 2000. ISBN 3-631-35836-9 .
  • Albert Busch: Discourse Lexicology and Linguistic History of Computer Technology. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2004. ( Habilschrift , Göttingen 2003) ISBN 3-484-31252-1 .
  • Hans Herbert Schulze: Computer Encyclopedia. Lexicon and specialist dictionary for data processing and telecommunications. Vol. 1-6. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 1989. (New edition 1996, ISBN 3-499-19828-2 ).
  • Sigurd Wichter: On the expansion of computer vocabulary into the common language. Elements of the vertical language history of a thing. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. / Bern / New York / Paris 1991. ISBN 3-631-43621-1 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Computer language  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations