terminology

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American Heritage Dictionary:

ter·mi·nol·o·gy

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(tûr'mə-nŏl'ə-jē) pronunciation
n., pl., -gies.
  1. The vocabulary of technical terms used in a particular field, subject, science, or art; nomenclature.
  2. The study of nomenclature.

[German Terminologie, from Medieval Latin terminus, expression. See term.]

terminological ter'mi·no·log'i·cal (-nə-lŏj'ĭ-kəl) adj.
terminologically ter'mi·no·log'i·cal·ly adv.
terminologist ter'mi·nol'o·gist n.

The terminology used in the computer and telecommunications field adds tremendous confusion not only for the lay person, but for the technicians themselves. What many do not realize is that terms are made up by anybody and everybody in a nonchalant, casual manner without any regard or understanding of their ultimate ramifications. Programmers come up with error messages that make sense to them at the moment and never give a thought that people actually have to read them when something goes wrong. In addition, marketing people turn everything upside down, naming things based on how high-tech and sexy they sound. And, the worst of all is naming specific technologies with generic words. See naming fiascos and technical writer.

Following is an example of two routing protocols that are used to keep routers up-to-date with network information. OSPF and IS-IS do similar things; in fact, OSPF evolved from IS-IS, yet every element associated with these standards has a different name. This constant changing of names, changing of menus, changing of parameters, etc., is what makes this field incomprehensible and discourages a lot of good people from entering it.

 IS-IS              OSPF

 Subdomain          = Area

 Level-1 area       = Non-backbone area

 Level-2 subdomain  = Backbone area

 L1L2 router        = Area Border Router

 Intermediate       = Autonomous System
  System               Boundary Router

 End system         = Host

 Intermediate
  system            = Router

 Link               = Circuit

 Protocol
  data unit         = Packet

 Designated         = Designated
  Intermediate         Router
  System

 Link-State PDU     = Link-State
                       Advertisement

 IIH PDU            = Hello packet

 Complete Sequence  = Database description
  Number PDU

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Roget's Thesaurus:

terminology

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noun

    Specialized expressions indigenous to a particular field, subject, trade, or subculture: argot, cant2, dialect, idiom, jargon, language, lexicon, lingo, patois, vernacular, vocabulary. See words.

1. the vocabulary of an art or science.
2. the science that deals with the investigation, arrangement and construction of terms.

  • accurate t. — essential for proper data storage and retrieval and requires an internationally recognized nomenclature of diseases, pathology, clinical indicants, treatments and surgical operations.
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Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. The discipline Terminology studies among other things how such terms of art come to be and their interrelationships within a culture. Terminology differs from lexicography in studying concepts, conceptual systems, and their labels (terms), whereas lexicography study words and their meanings.

Terminology thus denotes a discipline which systematically studies the labelling or designating of concepts particular to one or more subject fields or domains of human activity, through research and analysis of terms in context, for the purpose of documenting and promoting consistent usage. This study can be limited to one language or can cover more than one language at the same time (multilingual terminology, bilingual terminology, and so forth) or may focus on studies of terms across fields.

Contents

Overview

The discipline of terminology consists primarily of the following aspects:

  • analysing the concepts and concept structures used in a field or domain of activity
  • identifying the terms assigned to the concepts
  • in the case of bilingual or multilingual terminology, establishing correspondences between terms in the various languages
  • compiling the terminology, on paper or in databases
  • managing terminology databases
  • creating new terms, as required

Types of terminology

A distinction is made between two types of terminology:

  • Ad hoc terminology, which deals with a single term or a limited number of terms
  • Systematic terminology, which deals with all the terms in a specific subject field or domain of activity

Ad hoc terminology is prevalent in the translation profession, where a translation for a specific term (or group of terms) is required quickly to solve a particular translation problem.

Terminology as a discipline

As a discipline, terminology is often related to translation, alongside which it is often taught in universities and translation schools. Large translation departments and translation bureaus will often have a terminology section, or will require translators to do terminology research. However, terminology is not necessarily restricted to translation. Terminology as a discipline can also be restricted to one language, for example in many technical industries and standardization institutes where monolingual glossaries are compiled by terminologists in order to ensure the consistent use of terms in specific industries and specialized fields.

Terminological theories

Traditional theory

  • General Theory of Terminology[1]

Social and communicative theories

  • Socioterminology[2]
  • Communicative Theory of Terminology[3]

Cognitive theories

See also

References

  1. ^ Wüster, E. (1979). Einführung in die allgemeine Terminologielehre und terminologische Lexikographie. Teil 1-2. Springer-Verlag. 
  2. ^ Gaudin, F. (1993). "Socioterminologie: propos et propositions épistémologiques". Le langage et l'homme (Intercommunications) 28 (4): 247–257. 
  3. ^ Cabré, M.T. (1999). La terminología: representación y comunicación. Universitat Pompeu Fabra. 
  4. ^ Temmerman, R. (2000). Towards new ways of terminology description: the sociocognitive-approach. John Benjamins publishing company. 
  5. ^ Faber, P.; Montero, S.; Castro, M.R.; Senso, J.; Prieto, J.A.; León, P.; Márquez C.; Vega, M. (2006). "Process-oriented terminology management in the domain of Coastal Engineering". Terminology (John Benjamins Publishing Company) 12 (2): 189–213. doi:10.1075/term.12.2.03fab. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jbp/term/2006/00000012/00000002/art00002. 

Further reading

  • Sonneveld, H, Loenning, K: (1994): Introducing terminology, in Terminology, p. 1-6
  • Wright, S.E.; Budin, G.: (1997): Handbook of Terminology Management, Volume 1, Basic Aspects of Terminology Management, Amsterdam, Philadelphia, John Benjamins 370 pp.

External links


Translations:

Terminology

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - terminologi

Nederlands (Dutch)
terminologie (vaktermen)

Français (French)
n. - terminologie

Deutsch (German)
n. - Terminologie, Systematik eines Fachwortschatzes

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ονοματολογία, (τεχνική) ορολογία

Italiano (Italian)
terminologia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - terminologia (f)

Русский (Russian)
терминология

Español (Spanish)
n. - terminología

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - terminologi

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
用辞, 术语学

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 用辭, 術語學

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 술어학, 용어법, 술어

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 術語学, 用語法, 術語, 専門用語

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) المصطلحات الفنيه ( في علم ما)‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מינוח, טרמינולוגיה‬


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