ABSTRACT

The precondition for any endeavour in terminology research and application is a clear definition of “what is terminology?” – especially in the Humanities and Social Sciences. While it seems easy to obtain terminology definitions from textbooks or academic articles, in actuality, a comprehensive and workable definition which proves to be applicable in terminology application is difficult to obtain. Since a definition consists of intension and extension, the answer to this question can also be intensive and extensive. The definition of terminology has three levels: the theoretical level, domain-specific level, and sample level. The theoretical and domain-specific definitions of terminology belong to its intension, and the sample definition falls into the category of extension. At the theoretical level, the definition of terminology should be conducted from an entity-based to an ontology-based approach. Human Rights, for example, as a typical domain in the Humanities and Social Sciences, is characterized by its complexity and interdisciplinarity. A workable domain-specific definition in human rights derives from a top-down induction of the category system from such resources as LSP dictionaries, encyclopedias, and academic articles. The chapter argues for a multilevel definition model, and a multidimensional evaluation model for the extracted terms. It is also hoped that the definition-extraction-evaluation methodology can be extended to other domains, to both deepen our understanding of terminology and facilitate its application.