The concept of plastic word: On the relation between scientific usages and daily language in the framework of language criticism

Since their origins as specialized investigation fields, sciences have progressively come closer, mostly in recent times, to people’s everyday life. This has produced a contact situation between daily language and scientific language, which is manifested in the entry of scientific terminology into everyday use with consequences at the level of meaning and its conditions of application, particularly in a group of words, which due to their lexical characteristics are called plastic words. Methodology: The methodology is framed in the theoretical and methodological principles of modern language criticism and in a semantic lexical exam based on the notion of plastic word. Results: A different functionality acquired by terms of scientific origin can be observed in their entry to speaker’s everyday usage. Discussion: Semantics and conditions of application of words considered in their new usage environment are examined from a linguistic point of view. Conclusions: It is verified that there’s a loss of the semantic specificity in words with scientific origin, now used in daily language.