Onomastics, Nomenclature and Terminology. Relations and Differences

Abstract

Onomastics, Nomenclature and Terminology. Relations and Differences

Onomastics, nomenclature and terminology are partially interrelated disciplines as they explore similar, sometimes the same linguistic items, while adopting different perspectives and methodologies. Their differing purposes separate these three fields of science. Proper names, scientific names and terms display several common and unique characteristics. Shared features include the relevance of identification; the primacy of denotation, motivation and information at the expense of etymological sense, connotation and affective shade in their semantics; and the importance of finding their target-language equivalents in translation. Scientific names and terms classify, systematize, store and transfer knowledge elements. They have a fixed relationship to conceptual categories and explicitly defined meanings. Designed for international professional use, professionals aim to minimise their discrepancies across languages in harmonization processes. Scientific names identify entities of the tangible world. They are formed consciously with the help of predetermined linguistic elements and rules. Terms usually identify abstract concepts, and they are mostly formed spontaneously based on general elements and rules. Proper names identify psychosocially salient real or fictive entities; they are formed spontaneously or consciously from restricted sets of elements of natural languages, and are partly based on genre-specific rules. They are strongly culture-dependent linguistic units, but as universals, they are present in all natural languages. Scientific names are nouns; proper names are nominal expressions (words, phrases, clauses, sentences); terms (if linguistic units) can be nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or nominal, verbal, adjectival and adverbial expressions as well.