Raquel Silva, Rute Costa & Sara Carvalho on “Terminology, a pivotal element in knowledge sharing in the digital age”

As a scientific area, Terminology has been consolidating its place in Language Sciences over the last few decades, playing a key role in the current digital research landscape. The advent of the Semantic Web and, more recently, of Linguistic Linked (Open) Data, has led the terminologist to new challenges and breakthroughs.

This talk aims to describe, on the one hand, the theoretical and methodological reflections underpinning our research work at CLUNL and, on the other hand, some of the resulting applications, namely as regards: (i) knowledge organization, particularly the synergies resulting from the interconnection of Terminology and ontologies; (ii) the use of the right terms to designate the fundamental concepts in each one of the domains under study; (iii) the dissemination of (multilingual) specialized information to both expert and non-expert audiences; (iv) information sharing, especially in a format which can be reused by other communities, thereby fostering collaboration and avoiding the unnecessary duplication of efforts.

All these questions influence the choice of the most suitable terms and/or vocabulary for the social, political and economic situation underlying a given application. Terminology’s double dimension, i.e. both linguistic and conceptual, which we regard as the foundation of terminology work, will also be addressed, as well as the way standards (ISO 704:2009; ISO 1087:2019; ISO LMF:2008) help support the application of the FAIR principles (findability, accessibility, interoperability, reusability) (Wilkinson et al. 2016) in a research area that has become increasingly interdisciplinary.