Terminology of winter sports as a system

The relevance of this study is due to the growing interest in special nominations and their combinations, conveying basic information in various fields of science and professional practice and the lack of descriptions of terminological systems of sports terms. The aim of the study is the semantisation of the «system» concept in linguistics and establishment of the basic characteristics of winter sports terminologies: figure skating, bobsleigh, curling, biathlon. The total number of the considered corps of special nominations - 952 units. The work has been conducted using descriptive, comparative definitional, systemic, categorical-indicative research methods. The study found that the combinations under consideration of special units provided essential functions, inherent in terminology: nominative, cognitive, communicative, reflect the categorical apparatus of sports science and practice, meet the requirements of consistency, intercon-nectedness of elements, wholeness. The analysis of essential features of the studied terminological systems of winter sports classifies these combinations as such types as natural, material, deterministic, open, holistic, structured, imperfect, non-exhaustive, manageable objects.