Concept systems and frames in terminology

Terminology is often seen as the domain-specific vocabulary of a particular field of specialization.In this perception, the terminology of a domain can be represented adequately by means of a glossary, i.e. a list of expressions with information about their meaning.However, for domain specialists, a terminology in which the set of terms does not have any kind of inner logic is not satisfactory.To specialists, terms listed in a glossary are connected with each other in different ways.These ways often remain implicit, because specialists agree on them without needing to specify them.In any case, a glossary can only be a partial representation of the terminology of a particular domain.In several fields, the need to make the system behind the terms in the glossary explicit has arisen at some point in their history.Two well-known examples are the taxonomy proposed by Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) and the nomenclature proposed by Antoine de Lavoisier (1743-1794).It is worth considering how and to what extent these examples reflect more general properties of terminology.Linnaeus developed his taxonomy to classify plants and animals.Here, we will only focus on the latter.By his systematic use of the binomial nomenclature on the basis of his taxonomy, Linnaeus made it possible to designate each species in a way that reflects its position in the taxonomy systematically.Taxonomies represent the most basic ontological system.A taxonomy is based on a partitioning at each level, which makes it rigorously systematic.As names of species and taxa are terms in zoology, Linnaeus contributed to the terminology of zoology.Since the emergence of the theory of evolution, genetic relations have been invoked to motivate the individual partitionings.However, a taxonomy is not a full ontology.A taxonomy of zoology does not include all terms of the field.It includes names of species and of higher taxonomic ranks, but not, for instance, the terms that describe the organs of animals.Lavoisier's nomenclature, originally published in 1787 in collaboration with three colleagues, constituted a significant step in the development of chemistry as a scientific field out of alchemy.Whereas in traditional alchemy, the alchemist would gain insights and pass them on to apprentices, chemistry is based on a much more public mode of communication.An alchemist would write down notes for his own recollection, not as an account intended to be read by others.The nomenclature was necessary in order to make experiments reproducible.Currently, the nomenclature is managed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).It is based on a system that relates the composition of a chemical substance to its name, leading to such systematic oppositions as sulfite, sulfate, nitrite and nitrate.This system, described for anorganic chemistry by Connelly & Damhus (2005), covers a much larger portion of the ontology of chemistry than the taxonomy does of zoology, but it is dependent on properties of chemistry not found in other fields, so that it cannot be generalized.The first general theory of terminology was developed by Eugen Wüster .Wüster's (1931) PhD is a study of the terminology of electrical engineering, but he used the field only as an example, not using its particular properties in the solutions he proposed.In subsequent years, Wüster was active in the