In:Theoretical Perspectives on Terminology: Explaining terms, concepts and specialized knowledge
Edited by Pamela Faber and Marie-Claude L'Homme
[Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice 23] 2022
► pp. 399–420
Chapter 18Causes of terminological variation
Published online: 14 June 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/tlrp.23.18fre
https://doi.org/10.1075/tlrp.23.18fre
Abstract
The aim of studying terminological variation is to understand the reasons for the existence of several denominations for the same concept in specialised texts. Based on Freixa (2006), this article resumes the study of the causes of terminological variation and updates the proposal with a literature review of the research on this topic in recent years. We first situate terminological variation as a natural and necessary feature of terminological units. We then give an overview of the advances in studying and representing variation and its causes. This leads to the main part of the article, which reviews the different causes of variation and provides new nuances and examples in light of the literature reviewed.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Terminological variation: Natural and necessary
- 3.The study of the representation of variation and its causes
- 4.Classification of the causes of denominative variation
- 4.1Discursive causes: Specialists and their texts
- 4.2Dialectal causes: Diatopic, diastratic and diachronic variation
- 4.2.1Diatopic variation
- 4.2.2Diastratic variation
- 4.2.3Diachronic variation
- 4.3Functional causes
- 4.4Sociolinguistic causes: Contact between languages
- 4.5Cognitive causes
- 5.Conclusions
Notes
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