## Introduction to Thematic Section

The original purpose of this thematic section of Hermes was to open or reopen the discussion on the similarities and differences existing or not existing between specialised lexicography and terminology. During the years I've been working in the field of specialised lexicography, I've been caught by a feeling of growing frustation because of what seemed to me to be artificial contradictions or even »cold war« between these two traditions which, after all, deal with the same subject field, i.e. the socalled Language of Special Purpose, or to be more accurate, the preparation and elaboration of reference »books« or tools to facilitate the production, reception and translation of LSP-texts or to provide knowledge of special subjects.

When professor Henning Bergenholtz and I, three years ago, edited the  Danish  version  of  our Manual on Specialised  Lexicography ,  we were strongly criticized, especially by Humbley 1995, for not dealing with this complicated and sentimental question. When, two years ago, we prepared the English version of the Manual , we therefore decided to include  a  special  chapter  to  compensate  for  this  evident  deficiency. Here we argued that a number of important arguments put forward to postulate an alleged abyss between LSP-lexicography and terminology were  founded  more  on  unacquaintedness  than  on  a  meticulous  and scientifically  based  comparison  between  the  two  traditions.  To  our great surprise, we were criticized once more, not for our argumentation, but  for  the  presentation  of  the  whole  complex  of  problems.  Terminology cannot only be considered to be the Wiener School, we were told. The criticism was correct. Our eyes, indeed, had been somewhat blinded  by  the  fact  that  this  school  has  been  almost  completely dominant  in  Denmark  and  Germany  where  we  have  our  main  lexicographical  roots.  As  can  be  clearly  seen  from  the  following  pages, terminology, just as lexicography, includes a number of different and competing trends or »schools«, some of which have even, to a certain point, integrated with the lexicographical tradition.

This  » discovery«   was  very  much  welcomed  by  the  editor  of  this thematic section and has influenced and to some degree even changed the original plan, although the discussion on the similarities and differences between specialised lexicography and terminology remains as the basic issue.

In this light, LSP-lexicography and terminology can be understood as two interrelated and up to a certain point integrated traditions with  the  same  subject  field  as  mentioned  above.  This  conclusion, however, leads to another conclusion, namely that it would be possible and even beneficial if they were mutually reconstructed and put on the same theoretical platform. And as both terminology and LSP-lexicography -  independent on their differences in terms of concepts, criteria, methodology, presentation etc. are traditions which in the final analysis are aimed at the elaboration of different kinds of reference » books« or other tools to help certain groups (or types) of users to resolve certain problems which arise in certain situations (production, reception and translation of LSP-texts or acquisition of special knowledge), i.e. the making of articles or products satisfying certain needs, this theoretical platform  can  be  nothing  else  but  the  socalled  lexicographical,  or dictionary,  functions  deriving  from  the  needs  and  necessities  of  the corresponding  group  of  users  in  concrete  user  situations  (see  Tarp 1994).

But dictionary functions do not only determine, or ought to determine, the way concrete dictionaries are made. They also have major consequences for the whole proces, including methodology, from the very beginning of the lexicographical or terminological work which in the end leads to the production of the above mentioned articles of use. On the  basis  of  the  system  or  typology  of  the  different  functions  it should be possible to develop an improved theory (and praxis) integrating the strong points of the various trends of the two traditions.

This, however, takes time. The contributions in this thematic section of Hermes will hopefully inspire the future discussion on how or if or up to which point it will be possible to integrate specialised lexicography and terminology for the benefit  of  a  society  which  increasingly demands quality and requires the practical results of the lexicographical and terminological work.

## Literature:

- John  Humbley:  [Recension  de]  Henning  Bergenholtz,  Sven  Tarp  (red.)  :  Manual  i fagleksikografi.  In:  Cahier  de  lexicologie. Revue internationale de lexicologie et lexicographie 58 , 1995, 186-194.
- Tarp,  Sven:  Funktionen  in  Fachwörterbüchern.  In:  Burkhard  Schaeder/Henning Bergenholtz (Hrsg.): Das Fachwörterbuch. Fachwissen und seine Repräsentation in Wörterbüchern . Tübingen: Narr 1994, 229-246.