Terminology
The technical terms, "termini technici" of a
domain are typically
listed in special dictionaries and
thesauri.
Terminology is often subject to
standardization (and thus related to
controlled vocabularies).
Terms in a domain may be derived from natural language or they may be
artificially established. Their meaning is more or less unambiguously determined
within the domain. (The concept of "work", for example, is defined very
different in physics and economics).
Library and Information Science (LIS) is much engaged in terminology research in several ways. Bates, Wilde & Siegfried (1993) is an example of the study of users search terminology in a domain. Dahlberg (1992) provides a link between knowledge organization and terminology, while
Marshakova-Shaikevich (2001) provides scientometric perspectives on terminology. Many more examples could be given.
Much research in terminology is, however, done within linguistics (including computational linguistics) and unfortunately is there a tendency to a separation between terminology studies in LIS and in linguistics (with separate journals, conferences etc). This is unfortunate because the basic theoretical problems are identical, why both fields would benefit by a closer contact. The journal Knowledge Organization (formerly International Classification) is an example of a LIS journal that has been very open to the field of terminology.
| ". . . the
nature and role of vocabulary is central to any credible conception
of Library and Information Science" (Buckland, 1999). |
Literature:
Bates, M. J.; Wilde, D. N. & Siegfried, S. (1993). An analysis of search terminology used by humanities scholars: The Getty online searching project report one. Library Quarterly, 63(1), 1-39.
Buckland, Michael (1999).
Vocabulary as a central concept in library and information science. Preprint of
paper published in: Digital Libraries: Interdisciplinary Concepts,
Challenges, and Opportunities. Proceedings of the Third International Conference
on Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS3, Dubrovnik,
Croatia, 23-26 May 1999. Ed. by T.
Arpanac et al. Zagreb: Lokve, pp 3-12. ISBN 953-6003-37-6.
http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~buckland/colisvoc.htm (Hentet
2007-08-30).
Dahlberg, I.: (1992). Knowledge Organization and
Terminology: Philosophical and Linguistic Bases, International
Classification, 19(2), 65-71.
ISO87. International Organization for Standardization:
Principles and methods of terminology. ISO
704. ISO, 1987.
Kageura, K. (2002): The Dynamics of Terminology. A Descriptive Theory of Term Formation and Terminological Growth. John Benjamins Publishing Company. (Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice 5). (Review: http://linguistlist.org/issues/14/14-276.html ).
Marshakova-Shaikevich, I. (2001). Scientometric perspectives of the analysis of chemical terminology. Scientometrics, 52(2), 323-336.
McCulloch,
E.; Shiri, A. & Nicholson, D. (2005). Challenges and issues in terminology
mapping: a digital library perspective. Electronic Library, 23(6),
671-677.
Patrick, T. B.; Reid, J. C.; Rice, F. E.; Gigantelli, J. W.; Schiffman, J. S. & Shelton, M. E. (2003). A text corpus approach to an analysis of the shared use of core terminology ASIST 2003: Proceedings of the 66th ASIST Annual Meeting, Vol. 40, 200-205.
Riggs, F. W
(1979). New Paradigm for social science terminology.
International Classification,
6(3), 150-158.
Thomas, S. (2005). The role of terminology management in creating ontologies. 8th Intl. Protégé Conference - July 18-21, 2005 - Madrid, Spain. Based on a paper published in BTW2005: "The importance of being earnest about definitions". Available at: http://protege.stanford.edu/conference/2005/submissions/abstracts/accepted-abstract-thomas.pdf
Wright, S. E. & Budin, G. (Eds.). (1997). Handbook of Terminology Management Volume 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Wright, S. E. & Budin, G. (Eds.). (2001). Handbook of
Terminology Management. Volume 2: Applications Oriented Terminology Management.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
See also: Controlled vocabulary; Language for special purposes (Epistemological Lifeboat); Lexicology; Terminology (Epistemological Lifeboat); Terminology and knowledge organization.
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 01-09-2007