Terminology is an interdisciplinary science that, through the standardization and systematization of specialized vocabulary, provides greater comprehensibility and uniqueness to technical-scientific messages.
It mainly responds to three functions:
Terminology
Development of customized terminological databases:
- Terminological analysis of the type of text subject to translation or editing.
- Analysis of the concepts and conceptual structures used in the thematic field or domain of activity to which the type of text refers.
- Identification of the terms assigned to the concepts and conceptual structures in the thematic field or domain of activity related to the text.
- Extraction and cataloguing of the identified terms in a database.
- Compilation of terminological sheets and creation of special glossaries.
- Updating and extension of the database.
- Creation of Translation Memories (TM) in mono and multilingual formats as required.
- Reconnaissance of combinatorial, semantic, and syncretic neologisms.
- Translation or editing of the text or rewriting of parts of it where necessary.
01the systematic description of terms belonging to well-defined sectors.
02The transmission and dissemination of technical knowledge through the creation of consistent and recognized terminological resources, referred to as “terminological sheets”.
03Terminological standardization, that is, the standardization of the use of terms to facilitate the consistent transmission of specialized messages. Standardization also involves the extrapolation of synsets (sets of synonyms that can be described by a single definition as they express the same meaning), and the rewriting of texts to obtain clear and concise information.
Terms and their usage in concrete and current communicative situations are the subject of terminology.
The lexicon of technique, and in general the lexicon of the thematic fields concerning all domains of human activity, must be mono-referential and stable. Moreover, variation, that is, the foray into thematic fields by linguistic varieties such as regionalisms, idiomatic expressions, accents, registers and styles associated with dialects, must be minimized.
Often in many texts, terms are accompanied by synonymous equivalents, neologisms, loanwords, and slang words that hinder the transmission of the message to users.
The task of terminology is therefore to provide concrete answers to the terminological analysis of the addressed textual typologies, by studying and enhancing their density and terminological richness.
The terminological work is divided into several phases:
- Delimitation and structuring of the research domain.
- Search for materials to create the corpora.
- Extraction of candidate terms.
- Elaboration of conceptual systems.
- Writing up of terminological sheets.
- Presentation of the terminological database.