Curs 8 - 20.11.

2013

Transmitting knowledge requires representing knowledge.

Specialized knowledge differs from general knowledge mainly by the nature of reference.
Human knowledge is represented by concepts.

words vs. terms - a major topic

Concepts are mental constructs (abstract notions). By ISO, they are defined as
thought units. Concepts are more exactly the categories into which we structure our world.
Concepts are analysed according to intension and extension.
intension - the set of characteristics that make up the concept
extension - set of actual objects

narrow and broad intensions

A concept that has many characteristics, the intension is said to be broad and the
extension narrow. If the intension is narrow, then the extension is broad.
e.g. table - broader intension than furniture
coffee table - broader intension than table
Concepts are always related, they are not individual entities. The knowledge of all
the special fields involve a larger no. of concepts than common sense (concepts - fuzzier and
fewer). As an extreme, special language is the phenomenon of names which identify unique
entities.
All our knowledge involves concepts and language as large is constructed by concepts.
Term - a linguistic sign that allows the expression of specialized knowledge in a
natural language.

TERM = NAME/CONCEPT

Def. - International Standards' Organization

"A term is a designation made up of one or several lexemes (words) which represent a
concept part of a specialized language. A term must be accepted and used by the specialists of
the respected domain."
General language words are analysed and described by lexicology (the branch of
linguistics that studies words). Terms are studied by terminology.
Terms must describe the concept and the approach to defining terms is form the concept to the
term. With words, the approach is from the word to its meaning. Question: What does the
word mean?
The formation of terms is different from that of ordinary words. Terminologists work
on a basic terminological principles: principle of concept prioritising name.
1. Terms are mono referential ( mono referential is the main feature of terms- in a
given context only one meaning is allowed). Terms only have denotation, unlike
ordinary words which have denotations and connotations. Terms are transparent, the
form identifies the concept.
2. Monosemy (one concept at a time) - the opposite of polisemy (with ordinary words).
Any lexicographical entry in dictionary involves series of senses, each reflecting a
different concept.
3. Conciseness
How terms are created - there are a no. of ways
1. reinterpretation of existing words - terminologization (e.g. "mean" in maths,
"mass" in physics, "gravity", "mouse" in computer science)
2. borrowing from other languages - e.g. Japanese words in economics, German words
in mountain climbing, in music (classical), a lot of words from Italian.
Many terms borrowed from classical languages (Latin, Greek and Arabic).
e.g. altitude (Latin)
algebra (Arabic)
alcohol (Arabic)
diagonal (Greek)
hypotenuse (Greek)
Modern formations with classical elements
e.g. gastromyotomy
Those terms (that are borrowed from the classical languages) tend to be similar across
European languages - internationalism.

3. Loan translation
e.g. skyscraper
from cleaner - vacuum cleaner
compounding - revolving door
water purification system
derivation - heat -->heater
transfer --> transferable
abbreviations - sync --> synchronism
eponyms - Newton
ampere
barium
Invention of new words is much rarer than those from the above.

4. Metaphors are also very productive and often generate new technical terms.
"virus" (IT) - metaphorical use
"bull market" (economics) - prices go up
"mouse" (IT)
"force" (physics) - physical human effort
"energy" (physics) - human vigour

In terminology, terms are analysed in 2, 3 or more languages.

"nuclear magnetic resonance" (medical technology) - can be used as an acronym - NMR
"translation" (biology) - refers to protein synthesis
English uses compounds (e.g. animal waist , building waist etc.)
Many terms are nouns and terms always begin as nouns. Entities, things are
linguistically represented as nouns. Processes, actions are linguistically represented as
verbs.
Any discussion of nouns in special language is related to nominalization.

Nominalization involves the loss of certain semantic elements (tense,

modalities, agents)

e.g. tense - destroy --> destruction

Nominalization is used to generalize, to abstract, it is an important resource in
science writing.
The noun phrase is a powerful resource for creating meaning - it can be expanded to
a more or less infinite extend.
 e.g. of noun phrase: "One of the last few viable subtropical rain forests in Australia.

The nominal group expands lexically by modification( this also involves down
ranking, subordinate phrases or clauses); the verb phrase "to" gets expanded
grammatically; processes get elaborated on the temporal dimension.
e.g. A four-legged animal ---an animal with four legs
|
--- an animal having four legs
|
--- an animal which has four legs

The noun phrase has the potential of organizing a large quantity of information.
This is why the special languages rely to a great extend to noun, noun phrases and
nominalizations. Nouns also allow taxonomising (constructing clauses of objects).
A taxonimic relationship may or may not be made explicit in the word structure.
e.g. swift owl - not explicit
blackbird - explicit
The potential for taxonomising is fully put to use in the noun group through repeated
modification.
e.g. toucan
mountain toucan
grey- breasted mountain toucan
Consequently, once the place and value in the taxonomy are recognized, the word
becomes a term. There is a difference between the terminology of technology and the
scientific technology. The technical terms are called sometimes primary (they have direct
references in reality) whereas scientific terms are sometimes called removed terms (their
reference cannot be indentified in reality).

Language and knowledge make contact in several ways:

1. Linguistic items are concepts - categories with which we analyse our experience.
e.g. every word is a combination of phonological, syntactic and semantic properties.
the concept "fruit" is a combination of properties.

2. Meanings are concepts

The notion of meaning is controversial in linguistic - it is not clear what "meaning" is.
There is wide-spread agreement that a meaning of a word is its sense - what is
permanent about its relation to the world. It is also agreed that the sense is the concept
to which it is related in the speaker's memory.
e.g. the sense of the word "cat" is the concept "cat" which may have existed in the
person's memory even before that person had learnt the word for it.

3. Sentence meanings are propositions

In the case of speaking, the meaning of a spoken sentence is arrived in by
inference. Even sentence meanings can be memorised.
e.g. 2 and 2 make 4