Terms And Terminology

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CHAPTER I. Theoretical Approach on Terms and Terminology

1.1 A Diachronic Overview of Term and Terminology
The motivation for the study of terminology was both spontaneous and theoretical. During the simultaneous expansion of knowledge and the growth of technology and communications in the 18th century, terminology was seen as a necessary tool for overcoming some of the difficulties associated with these multiple developments. Only in the 20th century has terminology acquired a scientific orientation while at the same time being recognized as a social important activity.
Terminology, the discipline concerned with the study and compilation of specialized terms is not a new field of study but only in recent decades has it been systematically developed, with full consideration of its principles, bases and methodology. Its social and political importance has now also been recognized on both the national and the international scale. Terminology, as we understand it today, first began to take shape in the 1930s and has only recently moved from amateurism to a truly scientific approach.
Due to the growing internationalization of science in the 19th century the need for scientists to have at their disposal a set of rules for formulating terms for their respective disciplines became apparent. In the 18th and 19th centuries scientists were the leaders in terminology; in the 20th century engineers and technicians have become involved. The rapid progress and development of technology required not only the naming of new concepts, but also agreement on the terms used.
During the first half of the 20th century neither linguistics nor social scientists paid special attention to terminology; only from the 1950s onwards...

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...actors, such as the country’s political, socio-economic and linguistic situation.
Not all experts agree that terminology constitutes a separate discipline, nor do all consider it a theoretical subject. For some, terminology is a practice dealing with social needs that are often related to political and/or commercial ends. In the opinion of others, terminology is a true scientific discipline that owes much to the other subject fields from which it borrows fundamental concepts; but it is, nevertheless, considered a separate discipline in the sense that it has reformulated and synthesized the original foundations so that it could build its own field.
There are many intermediate positions which, although recognizing that terminology contains some original theoretical aspects, only conceive of it within the framework of other, more consolidated disciplines.

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