Download Terminology

Terminology
Lesson four
What are the term candidates ?
• What are ferns?
Ferns are a very ancient family of plants: early fern fossils predate the
beginning of the Mesozoic era, 360 million years ago. They are older
than land animals and far older than the dinosaurs. They were
thriving on Earth for two hundred million years before the flowering
plants evolved.
As we know them now, most ferns are leafy plants that grow in moist
areas under forest canopy. They are "vascular plants" with welldeveloped internal vein structures that promote the flow of water and
nutrients. Unlike the other vascular plants, the flowering plants and
conifers, where the adult plant grows immediately from the seed,
ferns reproduce from spores and an intermediate plant stage called
a gametophyte.
http://www.home.aone.net.au/~byzantium/ferns/about.html
Characteristics of a term
• a name
– nouns
– noun phrases
• unit of thought or understanding
• used in a specialized area of knowledge
or activity
Simple terms, complex terms
• fern
• vascular plant
• forest canopy
– How do we distinguish between terms and
other, discursive noun phrases?
Cf. Le Pavel
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Termes simples par dérivation : budgétiser; disquette
Termes simples par composition :télétravail (travail à distance); cybermarchand
(vendeur sur Internet)
Termes simples par télescopage : logithèque (bibliothèque de logiciels)
Termes simples par acronymie : maser (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated
Emission of Radiation)
Termes simples par siglaison : ZLEA (Zone de libre-échange des Amériques);
SRAS (syndrome respiratoire aigu sévère)
Termes complexes par jonction
– zéro-tolérance; e-formation (formation en ligne)
Termes complexes par juxtaposition
– édition électronique; pollution par le bruit, université virtuelle
– http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/didacticiel_tutorial/francais/lecon1/page1_2_5_
f.html
Criteria for distinguishing terms
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semantic : the term refers to a single concept
quantitative : frequency in similar sorts of texts
taxonomic : part of a hierarchical classification
synonymic : synonym of a recognized term
neological: name for a new concept in the field
typographical: use of inverted commas, italics,
etc.
http://hosting.eila.univ-paris-diderot.fr/~juilliar/ - Cours 5 :
Introduction à la terminologie, L’Unité terminologique:
le découpage des termes complexes
Role of the expert
• A term [is a]
– specialised concept
– used in a specialised field
• by experts/specialists
– Experts can define the term/concept
– Experts can relate the term with other terms of the field
– Thus giving insight into the knowledge structure
Some term candidates
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vascular plant
leafy plant
flowering plant
adult plant
fern
conifer
Hyperonyms & hyponyms
vascular plant
fern
conifer
flowering plant
distinguishing feature ?
Essential feature
• What distinguishes ferns, conifers, and
flowering plants?
– Their mode of reproduction
• Spores
• Cones
• Flowers/pollen…
Do all flowering plants have leaves?
Do all ferns have leaves? - non essential feature?
Another term candidate
• Mesozoic
or
• Mesozoic era ?
– Cenozoic era
– Mesozoic era
– Paleozoic era
taxonomies
• closed lists of terms are called
nomenclatures
• arranged hierarchically, they are called
taxonomies
– The Mesozoic era is further divided into the
• Triassic period
• Jurassic period
• Cretacious period
Botanical taxonomy
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Phleum pratense is
– a plant, member of a kingdom (Plantae)
– of a class (Liliopsida)
– of a family (Poaceae)
– of a genus (Phleum)
- of a species (pratense)
Language markers in taxonomies
• Botanical families are characterised by the
–ceae suffix
– in French –cée, as in poacée
- The equivalent for families in zoology is -ideae
– Many taxonomies incorporate features of the
hierarchy into the morphology, as is the case
with the suffixes used in natural history.