La néologie terminologique en français dans le domaine des fibres chimiques

This article examines the main features of the formation of French terms designating chemical fibers, from the birth of the subsector at the end of the 19th century to the present day. It draws on an analysis of terms that were extracted from a text corpus containing these sources: trade fair catalogues, a technical manual, an institutional document and a book for the public. The analysis is divided into two parts: generic names and brand names. The generic names are analysed via the word formation processes presented by Sablayrolles (2000). The analysis shows that generic names are mostly formed by composition, while other processes, such as derivation or metaphorical formation, are much less frequently represented. Apart from traditional word formation processes, two typical processes for this specialised language are identified: the juxtaposition of a noun and one or more numerals and the combination of elements that are not lexicalised. Regarding brand names, certain features characterising their creation are analysed. The results include the following: from a semantic perspective, the recurrence of lexical elements reflecting the chemical composition of the fibre, the producer’s name and the place of production, and from a morphological perspective, the use of the word-forming element -on.