Mona Baker & Gabriela Saldanha. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2nd edition)

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Terminology

Terminologyisconcernedwiththenamingofconceptsinspecializeddomainsof

knowledge.Thisfieldhasdevelopedrapidlysincethemiddleofthetwentieth

century,buttherehasbeenanongoingdebateastowhetherterminologycan

trulybeconsideredadiscipline.Whilesomecommentators(e.g.Jaekel2000;

Sprung2000a)considerterminologytobeadisciplineinitsownright,others,

suchasSager(1990),arguethatitstillhassomewaytogoinordertoachieve

thisstatus.AlthoughSageraffirmsthevalueofterminologyasasubjectworthy

ofstudy,herejectstheclaimthatitisanindependentdiscipline,viewingit

insteadasanumberofpractices,basedonmethodologies,thatdealwiththe

creation,collection,explicationandpresentationofterms.AccordingtoSager,

disciplinesestablishknowledgeaboutthings,whereasmethodologies,which

focusonhowtodothings,areonlyameanstoanend.ScholarssuchasSager

arguethateverythingofimportancethatcanbesaidaboutterminologyismore

appropriatelysaidinthecontextofotherdisciplines,suchaslinguistics,

informationscienceorcomputationallinguistics.Whetherornotitisconsidered

anindependentdiscipline,terminologyclearlyhasveryclosetiestootherareas

ofappliedlinguistics,includingspecializedtranslation,andwhileterminological

investigationscancertainlybecarriedoutinamonolingualsetting,oneofits

mostwidelypractisedapplicationsisinthedomainoftranslation.

Fundamentalnotions

Therearethreekeynotionsassociatedwithterminology,namelyconcept,

definitionandterm.Essentially,conceptsareunitsofthoughtthatareusedto

organizeourknowledgeandperceptionsoftheworldaroundus.Moreover,we

tendtounderstandconceptsnotinisolationbutratherinrelationtoother

concepts,inastructuredsystem(Wright1997).

Onceithasbeenidentified,itisnecessarytodefineaconcept.Thisdefinitionis

whatprovidesabridgebetweentheconceptandthetermthatisusedto

designateit(deBessé1997).Aterminologicaldefinitionmustbeasdetailedas

isnecessarytodifferentiateaconceptanditsassociatedtermfromother

concepttermunits.

Termsarethelinguisticdesignationsassignedtoconcepts.Becauseterminology

dealswithspecializeddomainsofknowledge,termsrefertothediscrete

conceptualentities,properties,activitiesorrelationsthatconstituteknowledgein

aparticulardomain.Ideally,then,behindeachtermthereshouldbeaclearly

definedconceptwhichissystematicallyrelatedtotheotherconceptsthatmake

uptheknowledgestructureofthedomain.Moreover,thechoiceoftheterm

shouldreflectthisconcepteffectivelyandtheformofthetermshouldbe

generallyacceptablewithinthelanguageinquestion(Sager1997).

Theoriesofterminology

Concepts,definitionsandtermsprovidethefoundationforatheoryof

terminology.Knowledgeoftheoriesofterminologyisimportantfortranslators

becausetheywillneedtoapplyitinordertocarryouttaskssuchasdetermining

relationshipsbetweenconcepts,dealingwithinstanceswhereconceptsare

similarratherthanidentical,creatingtargetlanguagetermsfornewconceptsand

findingtermsthatcorrespondtothesameconceptintwolanguages,which

sometimesinvolves

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selectingonetermfromamonganumberofpossiblealternativeexpressions.

Therearevariousdifferenttheoreticalapproachestoterminology.Theclassical

approach,knownastheGeneralTheoryofTerminology(GTT),grewoutofthe

workofEugenWüster(1968,1976),anAustrianengineer.Wüsterwas

particularlyconcernedwithfacilitatingcommunicationinspecializedfieldsand

soughttoeliminateambiguityfromscientificandtechnicalcommunicationby

usingpreciselydefinedconcepttermunits.Themainprinciplesembodiedinthis

theoryincludethoseofonomasiology(i.e.beginningwiththeconceptand

workingtowardstheterm),theclearcutnatureofconcepts(i.e.conceptshave

preciselimitsandafixedplacewithinasystemofconcepts),univocity(i.e.a

onetoonerelationshipbetweenconceptandterm),andsynchrony(i.e.

focusingoncurrentuseofconceptsandtermsratherthanontheirevolution).

EachoftheseprincipleshelpstoachievetheprimaryobjectiveoftheGTT,

whichisstandardization.Thisisnormallyatwostepprocess:first,theconcept

isfixed;thenitsdesignationisstandardized.Thisprocessisanalogoustothat

usedinindustrytostandardizemanufacturedgoodsandprocesses;oncethe

goodsandprocesseshavebeenstandardized,theyarelabelledwith

appropriatelystandardizedterms,andthesetermsarethenfirmlyassociated

withtheclearlydefinedpropertiesoftheentitiestheylabel.Standardization

ofteninvolvesselectingonetermfromamongarangeofcompetingterms.

Pragmaticcriteriaforselectingonetermratherthananotheraregenerallybased

onconsiderationssuchaseconomy(onetermmaybeshorterandeasierto

writeorremembercorrectlythananother),transparency(onetermmaybe

morepreciseandlessambiguousthananother),andappropriateness(oneterm

maybemorewidelyusedthananother)(ISO7042000).Thetaskof

standardizingtermsisusuallycarriedoutbynationalandinternationalstandards

institutes,suchastheInternationalOrganizationforStandardization(ISO)and

itsmemberbodies.

Theprocessofstandardizationhasalsobeenappliedtothelanguageusedin

electronicinformationcollections(e.g.databasesandontologies)toincreasethe

effectivenessofinformationretrieval.Thisworkhasbothamonoand

multilingualdimensionandmayusethesauruslikedevicestocreatelinks

betweenthenaturallanguageofthesearcherandtheartificiallanguageofthe

querysystem.Regularusersofsuchsystemsreadilyadoptstandardized

expressionstomaximizesuccesswhenconsultingthecollection.

WhiletheGTThasbeensuccessfullyappliedincontextssuchasterminological

standardizationandontologybasedinformationretrieval,ithasbeencriticized

foritsinabilitytofunctionasanallembracingtheoryofterminology.Thishas,in

turn,spurredthedevelopmentofanumberofnewtheories,suchassociotermi

nology,sociocognitiveterminologyandtheCommunicativeTheoryof

Terminology(CTT).

Socioterminologyadoptsamoredescriptiveapproachtoterminology(see,for

example,Gambier1991;Gaudin1993;Boulanger1995),focusingon

performanceorreallanguageuseratherthanonprescriptivestandardization.It

incorporatesthestudyofsynonymyandpolysemyandcallsintoquestionthe

existenceofclearlydelineatedconceptsanddomains.Italsoencouragesthe

diachronicstudyoftheprocessesofconceptualizationandnaming.

WhiletheGTTisanobjectivisttheory,sociocognitiveterminologyisan

experientialisttheory.Thebasicpremiseofexperientialismisthatrealitydoes

notexistindependentlyofthesubjectperceivingit;rather,allknowledgecomes

fromexperienceandisperceivedandexpressedthroughaninescapablefilter

(i.e.language).Therefore,thesociocognitivetheoryofterminology(see,for

example,Temmerman2000)arguesthattermsaremorelikelytorepresent

fuzzyanddynamiccategories,whosemembersmayexhibitdifferingdegreesof

prototypicality,ratherthanclearcutconcepts.

Sager(1990)wasperhapsthefirstscholartoactivelycallfortheadditionofa

communicativedimensiontoterminology,withtheconsequencethattermsare

nowstudiedintextsratherthanbeingconsideredascontextindependentlabels.

ResearcherssuchasCabréCastellv’(2003)havetakenupthiscallandargue

forthedevelopmentofaCommunicativeTheoryofTerminology(CTT)in

whichthelinguistic,cognitiveandcommunicativedimensionsaretakeninto

account.