Rodica Albu, Terminology 1. INTRODUCTION : WHAT IS TERMINOLOGY?

1. Rodica Albu, Terminology   1. INTRODUCTION:  WHAT IS TERMINOLOGY? 1a

2. Terminology is . . . 1. (initial meaning) the set of technical terms and expressions used in an art, science or specialised subject. This meaning is still very much alive in English today.

3. Terms vs words: • “The items which are characterised by special reference within a discipline are the terms of that discipline and collectively they form its terminology; those which function in general reference over a variety of codes we call simply words and their totality is the vocabulary.” (J.C.Sager et al, English Special Languages. Principles and Practice in Science and Technology, p.75)

4. Terminology is . . . • 2. (present-day, broader meaning): the systematic research and identification of the terms specific to a subject field and the concepts they represent, i.e., the investigation of such special or technical terms. (Subject field = topic or field of knowledge which forms the subject of a terminological investigation)

5. Practical terminology (terminography) vs.theoretical terminology (metaterminology) • Practical terminology is to theoretical (academic or “meta”) terminology what lexicography is to lexicology

6. Terminology and Lexicography • The terminologist’s question is: “What’s the name of the thing that …?” • The lexicographer’s question is: “What does word X mean?”

7. Terminology and Lexicography Terminology encodes concepts, i.e. identifies their name. Lexicography decodes words, i.e., explains their meaning. • Note on the relationship between target users of dictionaries and encoding (active) vs. decoding (passive) orientation.

8. => Definition of terminology = discipline aimed at • systematically identifying specialised terms in the context in which they are used, • analysing the concepts they represent in that context, and • creating and standardising terms if need be, to meet the user’s need for means of expression.

9. Conclusion TERMINOLOGY: • Nature Linguistic discipline • Methods Identifying, analysing, creating and standardising • Subject Specialised terms • Purpose To meet the user’s need for means of expression • Media Terminology records, glossaries and terminology databases

10. Post Scriptum:Who needs terminology? • subject-field specialists involved in terminology standardization • communication specialists in the private and public sectors interested in achieving effective communication with their clients • technical writers • freelance translators and documentation services involved in comparative terminology research • new terminologists assigned to managing and delivering terminological content via network-centred organizational databases

11. 1bHistory of Terminology  “Prehistory”: Plato’s Cratylus – first basic text on terminology From Plato to the 16th c.: the Stoics, St Augustin, Indian thinkers, Arabic philosophers, grammarians & lexicographers – deep reflections on the subject of language and its relation to objects and thought.

12.  The idea of a separate discipline devoted to the problems associated with naming and a methodology for solving them, however, only emerged slowly after the Renaissance. Nomenclature (Lat. nomen calare) – appeared in Fr. and Eng. in the 16th c. with the meaning of ‘glossary’ or ‘list of names’ – barely distinguishable from dictionary (dictio = the spoken word)

13. 1615 – Eng technology – first used to designate ‘a discourse or treatise on an art of arts’ (Lat ars, artis.; Gk tekhne < IE tekht- = to weave, build, join, whence Gk tekhton -= carpenter); mid 17th c. changed meaning to ‘terminology of a particular art or subject’ • 1750- abbé Prevost’s Manuel-lexique ou dictionnaire portatif des mots francais dont la signification n’est pas familière à tout le monde – the word technology was replaced by langue des arts = ‘the specialised discourse on traditional working methods’ and ‘the vocabulary necessary for this discourse’.

14. 1690 the Dictionnaire Universel by Antoine Furetière – Furetière was already dealing with terminology and not just lexicography because the focus of his dictionary was encyclopaedic.

15. Awareness of terminology – stronger among 18th c. scientists – reflected in: Diderot & d’Alembert’s Encyclopedie In England parallel development  • Chambers’ Encyclopaedia or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Science (1728) and • Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the E. Language (1755)

16. 1735 Swedish biologist Linneaus’s work on the classification of plants – published in Leyden; found immediate and wide acceptance – v. imp. for terminology because he recognised the need for a separate language and he created a complex system of names and descriptive feature labels derived from Latin. – followed by a long tradition of classification of plants. • From 1780 Guyton de Morveau reformed the chemical nomenclature and was soon joined in his efforts by Lavoisier, Berthollet and Fourcroy.

17.   The nomenclature of Linneaus and the entire natural history of the 18th c. were based on the complete unity of knowledge and the language used for its classification, a topic which was identified and discussed by Michel Foucault in his Les mots et les choses (1966). (Eng transl: The order of things, 1970). By contrast, the chemical nomenclatue of Morveau and Lavoisier is based on a modern functionalist methodology. Their differentiating descriptive systems and their organisation of relevant characteristics are based on knowledge of processes and functions and no longer on characteristics which can be described in terms of space and appearance according to their place in a table.

18. The Austrian E. Wüster (1889-1950) – considered the founder of modern terminology and the main representative of the “Vienna School” • The Russian D. S. Lotte (1889-1950) – founder of the Soviet School of Terminology • Missouri 1904 – the first international association of standardisation was founded: The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) In 1938, it published a multilingual international vocabulary to unify electrical terminology. This effort continues, and the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary remains an important work in the electrical and electronic industries.

19. The evolution of modern terminology(according to Auger 1988): • The origins (1930-1960) (Wüster and Lotte) • The structuring of the field (1960-1975) (computers and documentation techniques) • The boom (1975-1985) (language planning and terminology projects) • The expansion (1985-present) + THE THEORY OF TERMINOLOGY

20. See you next week!