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Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are word
Word

A word is a unit of language that represents a concept which can be expressively communication with Meaning . A word consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetic value....
s and compound words that are used in specific contexts. Not to be confused with "terms" in colloquial usages, the shortened form of technical terms (or terms of art) which are defined within a discipline or speciality field. The discipline Terminology studies among other things how such terms of art come to be and their interrelationships within a culture.

Terminology therefore denotes a more formal discipline which systematically studies the labelling or designating of concept
Concept

A concept is a cognition unit of meaning— an abstraction idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics....
s 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 correct usage.






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Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are word
Word

A word is a unit of language that represents a concept which can be expressively communication with Meaning . A word consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetic value....
s and compound words that are used in specific contexts. Not to be confused with "terms" in colloquial usages, the shortened form of technical terms (or terms of art) which are defined within a discipline or speciality field. The discipline Terminology studies among other things how such terms of art come to be and their interrelationships within a culture.

Terminology therefore denotes a more formal discipline which systematically studies the labelling or designating of concept
Concept

A concept is a cognition unit of meaning— an abstraction idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics....
s 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 correct 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
Interdisciplinarity

In academia, pedagogy, physical sciences, earth sciences, human sciences and social sciences in general, an 'interdisciplinary field' is a term of art in the teaching professions, whereas the terms 'multidisciplinary field' or have become the hallmark of many modern technical professions which must cross traditional academic boun...
.

Terminology is not connected to information retrieval
Information retrieval

Information retrieval is the science of searching for documents, for information within documents and for Metadata about documents, as well as that of searching relational databases and the World Wide Web....
 in any way but focused on the meaning and conveyance of concepts. "Terms" (i.e. index terms) used in an information retrieval context are not the same as "terms" used in the context of terminology, as they are not always technical terms of art.

Overview

The discipline of terminology is based on its own theoretical principles and 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
    Terminology (artifact)

    A terminology can be defined as a set of designations in a subject field.A simple example could be a list of words describing a category, such as "types of trees", "body parts"....
    , on paper or in database
    Database

    A database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. The structure is achieved by organizing the data according to a database model....
    s
  • 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
Translation

Translation is the hermeneutics of the Meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an Dynamic and formal equivalence text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language....
 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 related to translation
Translation

Translation is the hermeneutics of the Meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an Dynamic and formal equivalence text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language....
, 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.

Typology

Terminology is also defined by context, the study of terms primarily concerned with organizing them by the context in which they are used. These contexts may include:
  • Military terminology
    Military terminology

    Military terminology refers to the terminology and language of military organizations and personnel as belonging to a discrete category, as distinguishable by their usage in military doctrine, as they serve to depoliticise, dehumanise, or otherwise abstract discussion about its operations from an actual description thereof....
  • Political terminology
  • Religious terminology
    Religious terminology

    Religious terminology are the specialized terminology used within the context of a particular religion as largely self-contained language system....
  • Scientific terminology
    Scientific terminology

    While studying nature, scientists often encounter or create new material or immaterial objects and concepts and are compelled to name them. Most of those names are known only to professionals....
  • Technical terminology
    Technical terminology

    Technical terminology is the specialized vocabulary of a field, the nomenclature. These terms have specific definitions within the field, which is not necessarily the same as their meaning in common use....
  • Rail terminology
    Rail terminology

    Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term railroad and the British term railway is the most obvious trans-Atlantic difference in rail terminology ....


See also

  • Applied linguistics
    Applied linguistics

    Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems....
  • Concept
    Concept

    A concept is a cognition unit of meaning— an abstraction idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics....
  • Critical vocabulary
    Critical vocabulary

    Critical VocabularyA critical vocabulary is a formal terminology related to one or more branches of critical theory. Although it may be considered a type of jargon, it is predominantly used by academic and is not slang....
  • Glossary
    Glossary

    A glossary is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Traditionally, a glossary appears at the end of a book and includes terms within that book which are either newly introduced or at least uncommon....
  • Interpreting
    Interpreting

    Language interpreting or interpretation is the intellectual activity of facilitating oral and sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between two or more users of different languages....
  • Jargon
    Jargon

    Jargon is terminology which has been especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, or group. In other words, the term covers the language used by people who work in a particular area or who have a common interest....
  • Translation
    Translation

    Translation is the hermeneutics of the Meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an Dynamic and formal equivalence text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language....
  • Technical terminology
    Technical terminology

    Technical terminology is the specialized vocabulary of a field, the nomenclature. These terms have specific definitions within the field, which is not necessarily the same as their meaning in common use....
 
  • Lexicography
    Dictionary

    A dictionary is a book of Alphabetical order listed words in a specific language, with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of alphabetically listed words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon....
  • Specialised lexicography
    Specialised lexicography

    Specialised lexicography is an academic discipline that is concerned with the design, compilation, use and evaluation of specialized dictionaries....
  • Taxonomy
    Taxonomy

    Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greek language ', taxis and ', nomos .Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa , or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure....
  • Terminology planning policy
    Terminology planning policy

    Terminology planning is a planning activity for developing domain communication largely according to the needs and requirements of knowledge representation....
  • Terminology extraction
    Terminology extraction

    Terminology extraction, term extraction, or glossary extraction, is a subtask of information extraction. The goal of terminology extraction is to automatically extract relevant terms from a given Text corpus....
  • Ontology (computer science)
    Ontology (computer science)

    In computer science and information science, an ontology is a formal representation of a set of concepts within a Domain of discourse and the relationships between those concepts....
  • Ontology (philosophy)
    Ontology

    Ontology in philosophy is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic category of being and their relations....
  • Controlled vocabulary
    Controlled vocabulary

    Controlled vocabularies provide a way to organize knowledge for subsequent retrieval. They are used in subject indexing schemes, subject headings, thesauri and taxonomies....


    • External links

    • from the Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec
      Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec

      The Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interpr?tes agr??s du Qu?bec is a professional order representing translation, terminology and interpreting in Quebec....
       website


    • from the FAO TERMINOLOGY website