El uso de los compuestos clásicos en bioinformática

Abstract

Greek and Latin have been used to coin new terms in Science, especially since the Renaissance. However, many experts think that in the last sixty years the recourse to these languages in Spanish is moving back in benefit of English both for the specialised communication and the information exchange. The present paper sets out a short theoretical approach to Spanish word-formation focused on the neo-classical compounds because most eminent linguists do not agree about their status. Secondly, we will try to analyze the quantitative and qualitative use of neo-classical compound words in the Spanish discourse of a new discipline: Bioinformatics, as well as to confirm or not their gradual fall in new fields of study with less classical tradition than other ones, such as Medicine or Botany.