Introduction to the Science of Terminology

During the past several decades, the theory of terminology has been a subject of debates in various circles. The views on terminology as a scientific discipline vary considerably. Currently, there are a number of treatments of this field and a number of debatable questions involved. Is terminology a science, or just a practice? does terminology have a status of separate scholarly discipline with its own theory or does it owe its theoretical assumptions to more consolidated disciplines?

Meta: Journal des traducteurs, 2000

2007

In this article we show examples of how the discipline of terminology is evolving and how diversification in methodology and new research questions emerge thanks to the participation of terminology theorists in multidisciplinary applied research projects. The origins of the discipline are revisited, some recent developments are discussed and examples are given of terminological research projects at CVC Brussels.

2011

During the past several decades, the theory of terminology has been a subject of debates in various circles. The views on terminology as a scientific discipline vary considerably. Currently, there are a number of treatments of this field and a number of debatable questions involved. Is terminology a science, or just a practice? Does terminology have a status of separate scholarly discipline with its own theory or does it owe its theoretical assumptions to more consolidated

2020

The present paper offers an account of the two comp eting theories of terminology which have been under debate for the pa st two decades or so. To this end, we start our discussion from Wüster’s first formula tion of a theory of terminology which has been unchallenged for a long time. The an alysis continues by taking a look at the two apparent camps that express criticism co ing either from the traditional viewpoints or from outside and we shall analyze the wo main theories that are currently on the market.

ELETO (Hellenic Society for Terminology), 2006

Terminology has a twofold meaning: 1. it is the discipline concerned with the principles and methods governing the study of concepts and their designations (terms, names, symbols) in any subject field, and the job of collecting, processing, and managing relevant data, and 2. the set of terms belonging to the special language of an individual subject field. In its study of concepts and their representations in special languages, terminology is multidisciplinary, since it borrows its fundamental tools and concepts from a number of disciplines (e.g. logic, ontology, linguistics, information science and other specific fields) and adapts them appropriately in order to cover particularities in its own area. The interdisciplinarity of terminology results from the multifaceted character of terminological units, as linguistic items (linguistics), as conceptual elements (logic, ontology, cognitive sciences) and as vehicles of communication in both scientific and generic language contexts. Accordingly, the theory of terminology can be identified as having three different dimensions: the cognitive, the linguistic, and the communicative dimension (Sager: 1990). The linguistic dimension of the theory of terminology can be detected mainly in the linguistic mechanisms that set the patterns for term formation and term forms.

Terminology, 1997

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2014

This contribution describes the properties and organization of terminologies, i.e. vocabularies used in communication about specialized knowledge. First, it presents some naming principles defined in scientific disciplines to regulate the creation of terms and their use in international communication. Then, it shows how similar principles are applied in terminology with basically the same objective (overcoming difficulties raised by the existence of different names for the same entity). In all specialized fields, naming principles rely on a consensual classification of concepts. Secondly, this contribution discusses some linguistic properties of terms that impede a straightforward application of rigid naming principles. This part also underlines the fact that concepts and classifications vary due to different perspectives on knowledge. Finally, it discusses how these two approaches (applying naming principles and recognizing the linguistic properties of terms) are dealt with in concrete applications of terminology work.

2021

this article is devoted to the study of terminology and its correlation with the terminological system. The definition of the both concepts is carefully reviewed. Furthermore, criteria for creating terminological system are discussed. The author suggests not contradicting the two concepts as they are correlated.