Should Terminology Principles be re-examined?

Terminology is assigned to play a more and more important role in the Information Society. The need for a computational representation of terminology for IT applications raises new challenges for terminology. Ontology appears to be one of the most suitable solutions for such an issue. But an ontology is not a terminology as well as a terminology is not an ontology. Terminology, especially for technical domains, relies on two different semiotic systems: the linguistic one, which is directly linked to the "Language for Special Purposes" and the conceptual system that describes the domain knowledge. These two systems must be both separated and linked. The new paradigm of ontoterminology, i.e. a terminology whose conceptual system is a formal ontology, emphasizes the difference between the linguistic and conceptual dimensions of terminology while unifying them. A double semantic triangle is introduced in order to link terms (signifiers) to concept names on a first hand and meanings (signified) to concepts on the other hand. Such an approach allows two kinds of definition to be introduced. The definition of terms written in natural language is considered as a linguistic explanation while the definition of concepts written in a formal language is viewed as a formal specification that allows operationalization of terminology.

2015

Terminology is assigned to play a more and more important role in the Information Society. The need for a computational representation of terminology for IT applications raises new challenges for terminology. Ontology appears to be one of the most suitable solutions for such an issue. But an ontology is not a terminology as well as a terminology is not an ontology. Terminology, especially for technical domains, relies on two different semiotic systems: the linguistic one, which is directly linked to the "Language for Special Purposes" and the conceptual system that describes the domain knowledge. These two systems must be both separated and linked. The new paradigm of ontoterminology, i.e. a terminology whose conceptual system is a formal ontology, emphasizes the difference between the linguistic and conceptual dimensions of terminology while unifying them. A double semantic triangle is introduced in order to link terms (signifiers) to concept names on a first hand and meanings (signified) to concepts on the other hand. Such an approach allows two kinds of definition to be introduced. The definition of terms written in natural language is considered as a linguistic explanation while the definition of concepts written in a formal language is viewed as a formal specification that allows operationalization of terminology.

Terminology, 2005

This paper discusses a method for extracting conceptual hierarchies from arbitrary domain-specific collections of text. These hierarchies can form a basis for a concept-oriented terminology collection, and hence may be used as the basis for developing knowledge-based systems via ontology editors. This reference to ontology is explored in the context of collections of terms. The method presented uses both statistical and linguistic techniques. The result of such an extraction may be useful in information retrieval, knowledge management, or in the discipline of terminology science itself.

This paper aims at discussing the main advantages that ontologies bring to the field of terminology and its users, focusing on different aspects and needs. Throughout the paper ontologies are acknowledged as a valuable resource to improve quality of terminological projects as well as the content of terminologies, but it also seems appropriate to define the concept of ontologies more precisely and to outline their benefits and limitations. To do so, we firstly discuss the multidisciplinarity of ontologies and the main recent uses within different disciplines. Secondly, we focus on terminology studies and theories and depict the evolution of this resource in the terminology field during the last decades, which has brought about the appearance of new methodologies and applications. Next, we put forward the advantages that ontologies bring to terminology in general and to several linguistic phenomena in particular (multidimensionality, for example) so as to shed some light on their impo...

In this paper the role of ontology is considered in the context of information systems and conceptual modelling. Firstly we describe information systems and conceptual modelling without using the word “ontology”. Then two senses of ontology are presented: philosophical and knowledge representation views. In this connection both Gruber’s and Guarino’s definitions of “ontology” are scrutinized. It is proposed that the kind of terminological shifts concerning the word “ontology”, and practiced e.g. by Gruber and Guarino, have caused more confusion than clarification in the field of information systems and conceptual modelling. Instead of given a new or a better definition of our own, our view is that the word “ontology” should be used in its traditional philosophical sense only, whereas our aim in the field of information systems and conceptual modelling is to reach conceptual clarity.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development, 2009

Today, collaboration and the exchange of information are increasing steadily and players need to agree on the meaning of words. The first task is therefore to define the domain's terminology. However, terminology building remains a demanding and time-consuming task, even in specialised domains where standards already exist. While reaching a consensus on the definition of terms written in natural language remains difficult, we have observed that in specialised technical domains, experts agree on the domain conceptualisation when it is defined in a formal language. Based on this observation, we have introduced a new paradigm for terminology called ontoterminology. The main idea is to separate the linguistic dimension from the conceptual dimension of terminology and establish relationships between them. The linguistic component consists of terms (both normalised and non-normalised specialised words) linked by linguistic relationships such as hyponymy and synonymy. The term definition, written in natural-language, is considered a linguistic explanation. The conceptual component is a formal ontology whose concepts are linked by conceptual relationships like the is-a (kind of) and part-of relations. The concept definition, written in a formal language, is viewed as logical specification. An ontoterminology enables us to link these two non-isomorphic networks in a global and coherent system.

2004

In this paper the role of ontology is considered in the context of information systems and conceptual modelling. Firstly we describe information systems and conceptual modelling without using the word "ontology". Then two senses of ontology are presented: philosophical and knowledge representation views. In this connection both Gruber's and Guarino's definitions of "ontology" are scrutinized. It is proposed that the kind of terminological shifts concerning the word "ontology", and practiced e.g. by Gruber and Guarino, have caused more confusion than clarification in the field of information systems and conceptual modelling. Instead of given a new or a better definition of our own, our view is that the word "ontology" should be used in its traditional philosophical sense only, whereas our aim in the field of information systems and conceptual modelling is to reach conceptual clarity.

The need to manage, store, share and reuse knowledge has led to the creation of countless tools aiming to capture consensual domain conceptualizations which in turn would allow for a transformation of data into logical propositions understood by humans and systems alike. Terminology as a science and set of procedures intervenes in a decisive way in the informal specification stage of conceptualizations mainly through two methodologies: semasiology and onomasiology. This article presents results on the adoption of linguistic and extra-linguistic terminological approaches in the informal specification stage of ontology construction and, simultaneously, puts forward a mixed methodology proposition.

International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, 2009

Ontologies are useful for many purposes. The use of an ontology is, for example, crucial for writing consistent definitions of concepts within a specific domain. In this paper, we will argue that the principles of rigorous terminology work are useful for building consistent ontologies. In many cases, developers of IT systems encounter severe problems, because they neglect the necessity of developing a proper ontology (concept model) before they develop a conceptual data model as a basis for an IT system. In this paper, we will argue that the development of an ontology is crucial for setting up a conceptual data model, and therefore it should always be added as an initial stage to data modelling. Also we will give some examples of the mapping between ontologies and conceptual data models. Future research will reveal to what extent it will be possible to set up rules for automatic mapping of concepts of an ontology into classes and attributes of a conceptual data model. the development of ontologies as a basis for large IT systems and metadata taxonomies. She is chairman of SC 3, Systems to manage terminology, knowledge and content in ISO TC 37 Terminology and other language resources.