The General Theory of Terminology: A Basis for the Preparation of Classified Defining Dictionaries

THE GENERAL THEORY OF TERMINOLOGY: A BASIS FOR THE PREPARATION OF CLASSIFIED DEFINING DICTIONARIES Wolfgang Nedobity Specialized languages are the tools for subject communication by which modern society conveys its achievements and experience from generation to generation and from people to people. The specialized languages are characterized by using clearly defined concepts to which preferably unambiguous terms are assigned. The concepts form systems of concepts in the individual subject fields. Together with their assigned terms they constitute the respective terminology, which reflects the state of human knowledge about the subject field in question. Terminologies have an influence on scientific, technical, and economic progress. Deficient terminologies endanger the information flow not only between people but from people to machine and machine to machine as well. Therefore the terminological problem has to be solved at the right time before it causes an impairment of information flow. At the beginning ofthe century, Eugen Wüster realized that unified standards and guidelines are necessary for the solution of the terminological problem. In order to provide a theoretical basis for such guidelines for terminology work, he developed the General Theory of Terminology. A first step in this direction was his thesis with the title International Standardization of Technical Languages (1931). In his later years he also gave a lecture on this subject at the University ofVienna (Wüster 1979). The Essence of the General Theory of Terminology Wüster combined in his theory the findings of logic, epistemology, linguistics, information science and various other subject fields with the aim to create a workable and 69 70The General Theory of Terminology practice-oriented basis for the ordered development and documentation of subject vocabularies (Wüster 1973). He suggested that vocabularies should be presented in a systematic or classified way. This is only possible if a concept-oriented approach is chosen which outlines the relationships between the elements of the vocabulary. Thus research in the field ofconceptology is a prerequisite for work in systematic terminology. Conceptology: The Key to Efficient Terminology Work In special languages meanings are formulated by means of concepts and conveyed to others by means of terms. Concepts refer to objects of the inner or outer world. Individual objects can be as concrete as a stable or as abstract as the pain one perceives. Concepts can refer not only to things and events but also to properties and relations. A concept, however, is only a mental construction derived from objects. In order to communicate that mental construction, a symbol is assigned to the concept that represents it, usually a term in technical communication. What is found to be common in a set of individual objects is summarized or abstracted mentally and expressed by a concept. In this way the concept is an element of thinking which comprises the characteristics common to a number of objects. The aggregate of characteristics of a concept is called its intension. Every concept is a member of a class of concepts and can itself form a class of concepts which are encompassed by it. The aggregate of all subordinate concepts (species) on the same level ofabstraction or of all individual objects which belong to the concept in question is called extension. The aggregate of all individual objects is also called class. The characteristics of concepts help us classify concepts and construct systems of concepts (see Felber 1982:4). Concepts are formed, not simply inductively, that is, Wolfgang Nedobity71 through observation of environmental regularities, nor simply deductively, through the application of alreadyformed cognitive structures to events and objects, but through the reciprocal interaction of cognitive structures and environmental events. We develop concepts through testing them against reality and we develop a knowledge of the world through the elaboration of concepts and conceptual systems (see Bolton 1977:10-14). Classifying Concepts in Subject Vocabularies In order to make subject terminologies accessible to the users, they are published either as terminological standards or simply as dictionaries. In these publications the entries consisting of terms and their definitions are arranged following the meaning ofterms (systematic order) or in alphabetical order ofthe terms. Terminological standards and dictionaries can be systematic or alphabetical. The systematic order is to be preferred. If full classification is not...