Terminology

1. Terminology Janina, Marius, Mareen, Ina and Romina

2. Concept

3. What is a concept? • A concept is represented by a symbol that we use to name any object e.g. plant green tree wood concept symbol

4. How do we identify concepts? • The process of concept formation is used to identify concepts • Observation and identifying objects as having certain properties • Abstraction of properties to name the concept • Building groups of abstract types of objects into broader classes

5. Why do we need characteristics? • The necessary or “essential” characteristics are important to separate one concept from the other • e.g. Concept of water vs. concept of lemonade The identifying or “essential” characteristic may be the sweetness of lemonade in this case

6. Tree structure of concept “liquids” • Intension = the sum of all characteristics • Extension = the range of objects

7. Characteristics can be expressed as: • properties of the specific concept or • relations to other concepts • Next to those characteristics we also need specific classes that concepts belong to

8. Types of concepts • Many different types of concepts need to be structured carefully • Three main methods to structure concepts: • class concepts • property concepts • relation concepts

9. 1. Class concepts • Concepts can be attributed to a class to identify the type of concept • e.g. “Venus” is attributed to the class of planets

10. 2. Property concepts • Concepts can be grouped according to common properties and the distinctive features of a class • e.g. quadrupeds = animals having four legs • The common property = “quadrupeds” It can be divided by the distinctive of “being tamed for human use” into domestic and wild animals

11. 3. Relation concepts • Concepts can be differentiated by the relationships between categories • e.g. tables, chairs, cupboards = furniture • It can be further differentiated into “household furniture” and “office furniture”

12. Relationships • Important way to structure concepts because any type of conceptual relationship can be relevant • e.g. an object can be related to its geographical origin, its material substance, its method of production, etc. • To structure relationships and to differentiate between them, they are divided up into • the following main subgroups: • Generic relationship • Partitive relationship

13. 1. Generic relationship • Divides concepts up according to a hierarchy: • Broader (generic) concept is superordinate to • Narrower (specific) concept • This most common type of relationship can be expressed by the formula: • X is a type of A Or X, Y, Z are types of A Or A has the specific concepts X, Y, Z Or A has the subtype X

14. The following example presents a horizontal relationship with several layers At each lower level the degree of specifity becomes higher, the intention becomes narrower

15. 2. Partitive relationship • Also called “whole-part-relationship” • Needed to indicate the connection between concepts consisting of more than one part and their constituent parts • Can be expressed in the following formula: • X is a constituent part of Y Or X, Y, Z are constituent parts of A Or A consists of X Or A consists of X, Y, Z,

17. Subject classification • Needed to classify larger groups of concepts next to the relationship • Groups can be found in traditional dictionaries and glossaries as a hierarchical or alphabetical order. • Limited by the fact that they cannot reflect relationships

18. The thesaurus is a compromise solution between classification and conceptual relationships. • It has a deep hierarchical structure with (sometimes) seven or more sublevels • e.g. In a Root-Thesaurus the “mechanical engineering” is subdivided into • “Heat engineering” • “Fluid engineering” • “Vacuum engineering” • “Prime movers” • “Mechanical systems”

19. At the end we are left with categories of topics or subject areas and not with concepts of separate entities, activities, properties or relations  Subject classification helpful in structuring and selection of entities for a specialised dictionary  But beyond this we need a broad structure as well as a complex set of relationships

20. Definitions

21. What is a Definition in Terminology? “The explanation of the accepted specialised meanings of lexical items the occurrence of which can be documented in a variety of sources“

22. Methods of Definition • There are various methods of definition • Choice of method according to: • the nature of the concept which has to be defined • the particular purpose of the definition

23. Definition by Analysis • pneumonia = an inflammation of the lung tissue • stomatitis = an inflammation of the mouth • dog = a domesticated carnivorous mammal

24. Definition by Synonyms • software = logiciel • daisy = bellis perennis • dog = canis lupus forma familiaris

25. Definition by Paraphrase • whiteness = the state of being white • flotation = the act of making something float • lengthen = the process of making something longer

26. Definition by Synthesis • metatarsalgia = a painful neuralgic condition of the foot, felt in the ball of the foot and often spreading thence up the leg • dog = a domesticated carnivorous mammal related to the foxes and wolves and raised in a large variety of breeds

27. Definition by Implication • dial = a clock or watch has a dial divided into segments for hours and minutes over which the hands move • diagnosis = we make a diagnosis when we identify certain symptoms as characteristic of specific conditions

28. Definition by Denotation • dog = dogs are spaniels, poodles, Pekinese, alsatians and similar animals • ocean = oceans are the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean

29. Definition by Demonstration • Definition by showing drawings, photographs or pointing to an object

30. A Theory of Terms

31. The Onomasiological Approach • Lexicographer: collects ‘all’ words of a language, sorts them in various ways • Terminologist: interest in subsets of the lexicon, which constitute the vocabulary of special language  needs to structure knowledge orders terms he has discovered by reference to a conceptual system • Rarely involved in the process of naming an original concept • !!! A word can belong to more than one area of knowledge  terminologist has to distinguish meaning before he distinguishes words

32. The Traditional Terminological Theory • A ‘naming’ approach • It starts from concepts and looks for the names of these concepts • Avoids occurrence of homonyms • Terminological dictionary: words are ordered in single entries with each separate sense of a word

33. The Lexicographical Approach • A ‘meaning’ approach • It starts from words and looks for their meaning

34. Terms and Their Forms • Terms are the linguistic representation of concepts • Special language: strive to systematize principles of designation and name concepts according to pre-specified rules • Process of scientific observation and description includes designation of concepts  manipulating lexical forms

35. English Terminology Synthetic and analytic means of term formation • Synthetic methods: modify lexical items by means of affixes • Analytic methods: combine independent and lexical units into larger units (e.g. compounding)

36. Modern Terminological Theory • Accepts the occurrence of synonymic expressions and variants of terms • Terminology adopts a corpus-based approach to lexical data collection  a term is no longer seen as a separate item

37. Terms in Dictionaries • Concepts represented in terminological dictionaries are predominantly expressed by the linguistic form of nouns • Only selected verbs and adjectives • Dictionary entries are relatively uniform: • Semantic and pragmatic information • Graphic information • Acronyms / other abbreviated forms • Contextual variations • Multiple compound nouns

38. Homonyms, Synonyms and Variations • No concept of only one designation • Need to establish criteria for identifying the one regular and proper name for a concept to which the other are variants

39. Status of Terms • Terms can have a variable pragmatic status • It is associated with their age, acceptability, exclusiveness of existence and spread of use • TERM-DEFINITION-CONCEPT (e.g. ‘sitt’ (German)) • Translation theory  ‘quality label’

40. Processes of Terminologisation • Terminologist: • Recorder of new terms • Advisor on designation • Administrator of gradual evolution of terms

41. Terminologisation: evolution of concepts is accompanied by stages of naming • In the development of knowledge the concepts undergo changes • Innovation in science is dependent upon our ability to question the validity of certain concepts while keeping others fixed

42. The Question of Terminologisation is Fundamental to the Description of Special Language • Special communication: particular grouping of lexical items must be clearly assigned to either free collocations or compounds • Idioms used by specialists are terminologised • Problem for lexicographers: must distinguish between inherent and the collocational meaning of the lexical item

43. Difficulties for terminologists: recognition of terminological units in running texts •  lexicalization solves the problem by form of external characteristic like graphemic signs •  terminologisation is less dependent on such devices, because special language users are expected to know the appropriate concepts

44. A Model of Communication

45. A Model of Communication • Two specialists in the same discipline • Sender is motivated to transmit a message • Sender expects recipient message to receive

46. Message is the totality of • Intention • Assumed expectations • Knowledge content • Language selected by sender • Specialist communication is highly conventional and stylised

47. Intention transmitted by non- linguistical means through • text forms of instructions • manuals • income tax returns,.....

48. Compositional signals to signify intention • Includes devices as • lay- out • capitalisation • underlining • paragraph numbering • subtitling • Footnotes and bibliographic references fulfil an additional intention • Communication is not successful, if sender’s intention is misinterpreted!!!

49. How do you achieve a successful communication? • Choice of intention • The selection of Knowledge • Choice of language

50. The Functional Efficacy of Terms