Terminology and knowledge organization (KO)
Much work in KO is about terminology. Examples are: Controlled vocabularies, thesauri
and other forms of knowledge organization systems (KOS).
KO as a discipline within Library and Information Science (LIS) has been institutionally somewhat separated from the study of terminology, which has mostly taken place at schools of Business and Management for the education of translators within languages for special purposes. However, theoretically is Terminology and KO very much connected.
Terminology work may be more or less normative, descriptive or critical:
Normative or prescriptive work in Terminology may be based on standardization committees who propose definitions and terms. Theoretically such work is related to logical positivism and the ideals of a logical language characterized by univocity.
Descriptive work in Terminology may be based on scholarly documentation of how terms have actually been used. The result may be, for example, historical dictionaries. Begriffsgeschichte is one specific tradition within this approach. Theoretically is descriptive Terminology related to the philosophy of the late Wittgenstein (language-game theory) and to hermeneutics.
Critical studies in Terminology examine the values and consequences of different understandings and may result in prescriptive proposals. Critical Terminology is theoretically related to pragmatic, feminist, critical and materialist epistemologies.
Literature:
Temmerman, R. (1997). Questioning the univocity ideal. Hermes. Journal of Linguistics, 18, 51-90. Available at: http://hermes2.asb.dk/archive/FreeH/H18_04.pdf
Click for notes to Temmerman_1997 (about theory of Terminology).
See also: Languages for special purposes (LSP) (Epistemological Lifeboat); Standardization in KO; Terminology (Core Concepts in LIS); Terminology (Epistemological Lifeboat);
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 06-03-2007
Questions:
Does it make sense to "Questioning the univocity ideal"?
Outline the difference between the classical way of understanding concepts (attributed to Aristotle) and the theory of prototypical concepts (attributed to the philosopher Wittgenstein and the psychologist Rosch).