Terminology & Nomenclature: History and Definitions

• These study notes focus on the history, definitions, and processes behind terminology and nomenclature
• This lecture explores terminology vs lexicography

Ancient Origins of Terminology and Nomenclature

• Language can only describe what you can name
• Using specific terms dictates an individuals knowledge

Hippocrates and Early Medical Terminology

• Hippocrates, a Greek physician from 460-370 BC, was the Father of Medicine
• A key contribution was categorizing illnesses like acute, chronic, endemic, and epidemic
• Hippocrates used terms such as exacerbation, relapse, resolution, crisis, paroxysm, peak, and convalescence
• The Hippocratic Corpus involves the systematic organization of health concepts
• Categories of treatment, like cautery and excision, were defined
• Diseases like lung cancer vs. lung emphysema, were also categorized
• Emphasis was on systematic observation, treatment, and recording of patient syndromes
• Hippocratic medicine relies on re-balancing the 4 humours
• The 4 humours include Blood, phlegm, yellow bile, & black bile
• Aristotle considered Hippocrates' work the first organized thinking in healthcare
• All diseases have a natural cause

Plato and the Development of Terminology

• Plato's Cratylus considered the first basic text on terminology
• The dialogue Cratylus involves Socrates questioning whether names are “conventional” or "natural"
• Conventional meaning whether language is a system of arbitrary signs
• Natural meaning whether words have an intrinsic relation to the things they signify

Arbitrariness and Later Precision in Naming

• Naming can be arbitrary at first, but become more precise with language development
• Initially, words such as "cat," "dog," and "apple" are arbitrarily assigned
• Later, naming relies on available language resources such as surnames from occupations

Nomenclature

• Nomenclature is a system of names that has a systematic way of naming things
• Key times in the history of nomenclature are the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment
• During the Middle Ages philosophy became interested in the role of language and its relation to objects in the world
• The Age of Enlightenment saw an increase in focus on a methodology and principles of naming
• At that time, nomenclature became identical to terminology
• Nomenclature involves a Meaning: Glossary, list of names and a Dictionary

Onomastics

• Onomastics studies proper names versus naming methodology for scientific purposes
• Etymology is a branch of onomastics focused on the origins, history, and use of names
• Anthropology: human names (person names, surnames, nicknames)
• Toponymy (or toponomastics) is the study of toponyms names for places of geographical/cosmic features
• Eponymy: places of settlement like villages, towns, cities etc
• Hodonymy / Odonymy: streets & roads travel ways
• Hydronymy: water bodies such as rivers, lakes, etc
• Oronymy: mountains, hills, etc

Chinese Thought on Nomenclature and Terminology

• Laozi believed that correct names are important for the truth of things and success
• Confucius said that if names are not correct, language is off

Mingjia School

• The Mingjia school is also known as the school of names
• Notable Mingjia was Hui Shi
• Notable beliefs things are both “the same” and “different” at the same time
• Gongsun Long proposed concepts such as "a white horse is not a horse"

Xunzi Ideas on Terminology

• Xunzi emphasized the use of names for accurate reference
• His methods differentiating categories and ensuring names match reality
• Xunzi found that using names incorrectly leads to confusion, and criticized the “white horse is not a horse”

Early Lexicography

• Historical lexicographers, tried to create a need for normative descriptions that were accurate
• Furetière's Dictionnaire Universel (1690-1694) aimed to be an encyclopedic dictionary
• Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie (1751) tried to systematically organize knowledge
• Buffon's Histoire Naturelle focused on the critical examination of nomenclature in different languages/times

Modern terminology and Carl Linnaeus

• Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778): A Swedish biologist and father of taxonomy
• Species Plantarum promoted the binomial system
• Binomial System: Standard for naming species
• Assigns one latin name of the genus 属
• Assigns a shorthand of the species 种

Chemical Nomenclature

• Early work carried out by Guyton de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, Fourcroy
• Named can either be a formula code, for examples
• 2H2O is Water
• NaCl table salt
• Chemical composition is read rather than named

Medical Terminology

• Led by William Farr (1807-18839: 19th century British epidemiologist and Father of medical classification. He helped found the International Classification of Diseases
• Farr was credited as the founder of International Classification of Diseases
• ICD used for Cholera, HIV, SARS, Covid-19

Short Genetic Nomenclature Versus Long Naming.

• Caspase, a protein: Examples of long and short names
• 3-letter publishing names like HSA for Homo Sapiens

Naming vs Coding

• Name is colloquial and more simple
• Code is formal and scientific

Ancient Chinese views

• Poem of China used names as terms
• Philosophy and medicine recognized both

BLIS Syntax in Legal Terminology

• BLIS studies legal terms in syntax
• Studies how BLIS names and nouns, verbs and adverbs express action and information as a function of the law

What is a Term

• A term is words representing a general concept in a language that serves a purpose
• Traditional terminology is word as designation or noun, and a phrase to describe an objective
• Conceptualization can be purely imagined to generate terms

Wuster and Terminology

• Eugen Wüster believed terminology to be a designation for professional use
• Wüster had three main features/presuppositions
• Root in the concept
• Focus on the verb
• Sympathetic language
• His idea of good word use, would emphasize objective clear terms

Different Concepts

• Vienna School (Onomasiological versus Semasiological perspective.
• Clear purpose and concept in isolation: Univocity

Criticisms of Terminology

• Not tested as an independent theory nor tested from cognition
• Term concept tests one word and not all, limiting it