“BALANZA” (‘SCALES’) AND ITS LEXICAL NETWORK IN SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL TEXTS OF THE RENAISSANCE
Abstract
Drawing on the Corpus of The Dictionary of Science and Technology in the Renaissance (DICTER), this article analyzes the word «balanza» («scales») and its lexical network. It offers a survey of different spellings, etymological meanings, interpretations and referents. It includes terms that design parts of a whole, synonyms, and various representatives of the morphological family in nominal and verbal categories. As regards the verbs this paper highlights the differences between word formations with and without prefix and registers the different processes of noun formations. The designative field expands from metallurgy, mining, silverwork, mint to artillery and the art of navigation. In the domain of economics we document a loanword of controversial Catalan or Italian origin. This revision of an integrated word in the scientific area of The Golden Age illustrates the expansion and order of specialized meanings as well as mechanisms of creation of derivatives or complex multiverbal unities. Some of these creations can be considered neologisms, formal as well as semantic, since they are not documented in any dictionary. In some cases a considerable chronological advance is recorded.Downloads
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