# Elements of terminology/Lecture

"[T]he main goal of terminology is not to represent concepts in order to manipulate them (as in artificial intelligence) but to define a common vocabulary we hope is consensual." Bold added.

## Theory of terms

"[A] theory of terms or terminology should deal with the terminology of a domain in its totality, because it is only with respect to individual domains that the very concept of “term” is consolidated. ... [A] theoretical study of a terminology should be accompanied by the descriptive study of a terminology, for proper descriptive studies are theories of terms."
Def. a "word [or phrase], especially one from a specialised area of knowledge" is called a term.

## Orismology

"Orismology is the defining or explaining of technical terminology. Many examples of orismology can be found on Wikipedia."
"Orismology is a subject that involves the defining or explaining of technical terminology."
"Many examples of orismology can be found in encyclopedias such as Wikipedia."
"Orismology which looks also at the history of the word and its origins, should not be confused with Terminology, which is more focused on the current and immediate interpretation of the word."
"In the terminology, or what, to avoid the barbarism of a word compounded of Latin and Greek, [Kirby and Spence] would beg to call orismology of the science, they have endeavoured to introduce throughout a greater degree of precision and concinnity" in the terms used to talk about insects.
"This approach to naming is particularly applied to disciplines in natural sciences like Kirby and Spence's entomology that depend upon classificatory schemes, such as taxonomies and ontologies, to organize, name, and address their subject matter."
"The definition of terms, especially in the sciences, often is “adjusted” as new knowledge and insights are gained. Such alterations frequently focus attention on slight differences in the desired denotation of words, which, until that new perspective, had previously been absolutely synonymous. The metonymic misusage of words in chemistry and mathematics can have deleterious effects versus the usually inconsequential effect of a similar misusage in common parlance. Two important termsterminology and orismologyare examined, assigning the currently accepted definition of a term in a specific discipline to terminology and the evolutionary history of that term to orismology."
"For example, the drug name penicillin was coined by Alexander Fleming from the Latin for paintbrush which is penicillus. Methicillin, a type of penicillin, gained its name by attaching the stem -cillin from the United States Adopted Names Council's list of stems to a prefix "meth" which has no inherent meaning. The study of penicillin and methicillin individually would be an etymological study of terminology. However, the study of methicillin as its name derived from penicillin historically might best be described as orismologic."
Orismology is the study of the process and the products of definition, in practice, in praxis, and in theory. Orismology is particularly applicable to the analysis and the writing of stipulative, normative definitions that explain and delimit the use of technical terms.
Def. "the explanation of technical terms" is called orismology.

## Onomasiology

Def. a "branch of lexicology concerned with the names of concepts" is called onomasiology.

## Ontoterminology

“Although in the General Theory of Terminology the meaning of a term is a concept, the main goal of terminology is not to represent concepts in order to manipulate them (as in artificial intelligence) but to define a common vocabulary we hope is consensual.”