On the Trail of the Vocabulary of Mathematical Science in Early Modern English

The aim of this study is twofold: to offer an overview of Robert Recorde's contribution to the creation of the scientific vocabulary of arithmetic and algebra in the light of the 16th century English dilemma of the vocabulary of mathematical science and the setting of learning in the vernacular and to integrate this investigtion into a functional perspective on the motivations and mechanisms for language change that a modern reader would look out for. Within both a synchronic and diachronic perspective the study integrates the semasiological and onomasiological approach to lexcal-semantic change into a more comprehensive theory of lanuage change.