1.1.

A Theoretical Perspective on Terminology

The first meaning of the word terminology is “the set of special words belonging to a
science, an art, an author, or a social entity,” for example, the terminology of medicine or the
terminology of computer specialists. The same term, in a more restrictive sense, means “the
language discipline dedicated to the scientific study of the concepts and terms used in
specialized languages.” [33, p. xvii]. General language is the one used in the daily life, while
a specialized language is used to facilitate unambiguous communication in a particular area
of knowledge, based on a vocabulary and language usage specific to that area.
The terminologist is a specialist in this discipline, just as a lexicographer is a specialist
in lexicography, the “discipline dedicated to the collection and study of the forms and
meanings of the words of a given language.” [33, p. xvii]. Incidentally, the resemblance of
these two disciplines is reflected in the recent use of the term “specialized lexicography” as a
synonym of terminology. Terminology is part of applied linguistics, a science that includes
work in specialized lexicography, specialized translation, technical writing, and language
teaching. In fact, these four professional applications of linguistics are closely related:
specialized translation requires mastery of specialized bilingual or multilingual
terminologies; technical writing consists of using these terminologies in monolingual
discourse; the teaching of specialized languages focuses on their acquisition by the student;
and the institutional practice of comparative terminology and of its phraseological component
takes place in a translation environment, as illustrated by the Translation Bureau over the past
thirty years [40, p.18].
This intertwining of disciplines explains why terminologists who have studied
linguistics, acquired experience in translation or technical writing, or specialized in a
particular subject area, are considered especially valuable. Their knowledge of the concepts
specific to a given area of specialization and of the terminology used is very advantageous.
Basic Terminological Activities. Terminology work requires a number of abilities,
such as:
 the ability to identify the terms that designate the concepts that belong to a subject
field;
 the ability to confirm the usage of the terms in pertinent reference documents;
 the ability to describe concepts concisely;
 the ability to distinguish correct usage from improper usage;
  the ability to recommend or to discourage certain usages with a view to facilitating
unambiguous communication.
When specialized knowledge is transferred between language communities, the
delimitation of concepts is not always identical in a given pair of languages. In comparative
terminology, the process of term identification reveals any discrepancies, as proper
designations may not be found in one of the languages. In such cases, the terminologist’s role
is to describe the gaps and propose designations to fill them. In order for the proposed term to
be acceptable and valid, it must be based on sound knowledge of the target language’s rules
of lexical formation, must be harmoniously integrated into the existing set of terminology,
and must be clearly presented as the terminologist’s proposal. In monolingual terminology,
the appearance of a new concept, whether it is borrowed from another area of specialization
or created as a completely new entity, may lead to a proliferation of synonymous terms [41,
p.56]
In such cases, the terminologist’s role is to identify these terms and prepare single-
concept terminology case files with a view to standardizing usage. Parallel or conflicting
usage is often studied by terminology standardization boards or terminology approval boards
which issue official language notices that inform the user community of the preferred terms.
These boards generally work within a company or a professional association at the national or
international level, and are almost always composed of terminologists and subject-field
specialists. [33, p. xviii-xix]
All information required to understand the concept and to use the related terminology
properly (preferred terms, synonyms, spelling variants, syntactic variants, and abbreviations)
is organized in the form of a terminology standardization file, which includes excerpts called
textual supports. A definition gives the semantic characteristics that distinguish one concept
from all others; a context is a quoted text that illustrates the definition; usage samples and
phraseologisms show how the terms are used; notes or observations provide further
information regarding usage of the terms in discourse; and references indicate the sources of
the textual supports. [33, p. xix]
All of the collected information is analyzed, filtered, structured, and condensed into a
terminology record. The main components of the record include the subject field to which the
concept belongs, the languages dealt with, the terms, their usage labels and their textual
supports. The development of data banks and the internet has facilitated the collection of
terminology records into electronic files that are accessible on-line or off-line for consultation
by users or for content management by authorized terminologists [40, p.18].
 Moreover, the management of terminological content by subject field of activity takes
into account user needs and, on an ongoing basis, reflects the evolution of the specialized
concepts and language usage within the field. The goal of content management is to ensure
that the coherence and freshness of the information stored is maintained by adding, deleting
and modifying data. Management facilities allow the delivery of terminological products such
as bilingual glossaries, vocabularies, monolingual or multilingual phraseological dictionaries,
and terminology standards.
A term or terminology unit in a specialized language is distinguished from a word
in general language by its single meaning relationship with the specialized concept that it
designates (called monosemy) and by the stability of the relationship between form and
content in texts dealing with this concept (called lexicalization) [3, p.19]. The status of the
term is revealed by its frequency of use and its relatively fixed contextual surroundings (its
co-occurrents), and by typographical enhancements (italics, boldface print, quotation marks,
etc.). Aa a final indicator can serve its rather limited set of morphological and lexical
structures: noun (simple, derived, or compound), verb, adjective, noun phrase, verb phrase, or
adjective phrase.
A sound understanding of these structures helps the terminologist identify
terminology units during term extraction. In addition, the terminologist requires such
knowledge in order to create or propose new terms, or neologisms, to name new concepts
when necessary, and to ensure correct and consistent usage of the terms identified.
Neologisms may be new words or new meanings assigned to existing words [33, p.67].
In either case, certain principles should be respected to improve their chances of
acceptance, or success. Sense neologisms (or semantic neologisms) do not involve any
change to the form of the term. Instead, they result from:
 expansion (that is, extending the meaning of a term by giving it a new meaning, as in
a shift from the concrete to the abstract or from the abstract to the concrete);
 metaphor;
 conversion of grammatical category (e.g. preliminary, from adjective to noun) —
adoption from another subject field.
Morphological neologisms are new word forms created through a variety of
processes, including: derivation, composition, compounding, blending, and acronymy.
 According to Eugen Wüster, a term consists of one or several word elements
(morphemes). Word elements are not determined by their meaning, but by their origin. Eugen
Wüster states four different kinds of word elements:
• Hereditary words;
• Foreign words / loan words;
• Transferred designations. [31, p.31]
The general theory of terminology is significantly influenced by general linguistic
semantics. In semantics, the role of meaning and word is of equal significance as the role of
concept and term in terminology. While in semantics the relationship between meaning and
word is clearly defined, the traditional theory of terminology provides no explanation of the
formal relationship between concept and term. In this way, the concept-term relationship may
appear essentially different from the relationship between meaning and word in semantics.
A term is regarded as a word that contains linguistic characters and systems [3,
p.1034]. Moreover, the ‘systematic terminology’ is based on an idea of science because of
being a well formed language [30, p.195]. The dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics
defines it: “A unit of expression which has universal intuitive recognition by native-speakers,
in both spoken and written language”. Then the dictionary points out to the problems that
cannot be solved by regular definitions like “units of meaning” or “idea” due to the
vagueness. It can be orthographic for writing and the phonological for speech [11, p.180].
Jennifer Pearson defines the term in accordance with the traditional terminologists as “labels
for concepts which are abstract entities isolated from text. The term which is agreed upon
may be a single word or a multiword unit.” [3, p.1034]
The linguistic theory includes the structural components of a language, morphology
(properties of words and word-building rules), phonetics and phonemic transcription
(physiology involved in the production of speech sounds as well as phonemic and phonetic
transcription systems that are used to represent sounds), phonology (organisational principles
that determine the patterns the speech sounds are subject to), syntax (presents a study of the
structure of sentences and phrases), semantics (properties of linguistic meaning), language
variation (ways speakers and groups of speakers can differ from each other in terms of the
various forms of language that they use) and language change (how languages change over
time and how languages can be historically related).
Theoretical linguistics builds the foundation for all branches of linguistics. Its core is
a highly abstract study which attempts to develop a formal grammatical model applicable to
all languages and at all stages of language development without regard to any practical
applications that the investigation of language and languages might have. Applied linguistics
on the contrary, has as its concerns the application of the concepts and findings of linguistics
to a variety of practical tasks.
As in practice there is little difference made between the terms ‘theoretical linguistics’
and ‘general linguistics’, it is taken for granted by most of those who use the term ‘theoretical
linguistics’ that the goal of theoretical linguistic is the formulation of a satisfactory theory of
the structure of language in general. As far as applied linguistics is concerned, it is clear that
it draws on both the general and the descriptive branches of the subject [25, p.14].
What links most linguistic sub-disciplines together is that they all start from
theoretical linguistics, some closer and some further away, but all recognising the guiding
ideas of linguistic theory and accepting that they all share a common purpose, which is to
further that theory. Many linguists argue that applied linguistics is just another area, another
part of linguistics.
Other experts deny this assumption. It is true that in the case of applied linguistics the
overall goal is not the furthering of linguistic theory. However, also applied linguistics starts
from theoretical linguistics and applies the concepts and principles established by this theory.
Accordingly, applied linguistics has as its concern the application of the concepts and
findings of linguistics to a variety of practical tasks. Its scope is extremely broad, as it
comprises an open-ended number of activities, amongst them [17, p.109]:
• Language learning (rules, use, context, automaticity, attitudes, expertise);
• Language teaching (resources, training, practice, interaction, understanding, use,
contexts, inequalities, motivations, outcome);
• Language contact (language and culture);
• Language policy and planning (planning and ecology of language);
• Language assessment (validity, reliability, usability, responsibility);
• Language use (dialects, registers);
• Language and technology (learning, assessment, access and use);
• Translation and interpretation;
• Lexicography;
• Terminology.
Concerning the “basic unit” Maria T. Cabré points out that a word is a unit described
by a set of systematic linguistic characteristics that has the property of refering to an element
in reality. A term, on the other hand, “is a unit with similar linguistic characteristics used in a
special domain”. [8, p.35] From a linguistic point of view, a word is a unit characterised by
having a phonetic form, a simple or complex morphological structure, grammatical features,
and a meaning that describes the class to which a specific object belongs. [8, p.35]
A term is also a unit presenting the same characteristics. If a term presents the same
linguistic characteristics as a word, the consequence is that the rules of phonetics,
morphology and grammar are relevant to terms and consequently to terminology as well, and
that they must form a part of the terminology theory as terms are the basic unit of
terminology.
In trying to differentiate terminology from lexicology, Maria T. Cabré again uses the
argument of the onomasiological versus the semasiological approach. “Lexicology is based
on words and does not conceive of meaning unless it is related to the word; terminology, in
contrast, considers that the concept, which is its main focus, is prior to the name and can be
conceived of independently from the name or term that represents it. [8, p.33]
As long as the terminology theory continues to separate terms from grammar as
practised so far, this objective cannot be achieved. To give scientists, experts and workers of
a specific subject field the best possible linguistic equipment at hand, terminology work has
to link terms to grammar and the terminology theory has to be expanded by the rules of
syntax.
Even Maria T. Cabré found that terminology prepared for translators must contain
contexts that provide information on how to use the term, and, ideally, provide information
about the concept in order to ensure translators use the precise form to refer to a specific
content.