Functioning of Terms and Nomensof Standardized Language Teaching Testing

The article analyses functional characteristics of terms and nomens in the German standardized language testing. The paper shows that the special knowledge is verbalized by means of both terms correlating with general concepts and nomens denoting single concepts. A functional approach to the identification of terms and nomens based on their study in special texts is presented. Two groups of terms are singled out: those from the field of testing theory (criteria for assessing test quality, characteristics of language tests development) which do not fulfil the function of nomens, and terms which can act as nomens in contexts connected with types of speech activities and assessment of the communicative competence. The study describes the binary structure of nomens consisting in a core term and a nomenclature marker. It is revealed that the nomenclature marker may not be presented in texts, which leads to the formal identity of terms and nomens. The ability of nomens to formally coincide with terms is recognized as a feature of knowledge verbalization in the standardized language testing.