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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 18
Causes of terminological variation

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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.

Keywords: variation, Terminology, causes of variation, terminological variation, denominative variation, cognitive variation, diachronic variation, diatopic variation, specialised discourse
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
Published online: 14 June 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tlrp.23.18fre
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Benítez Carrasco, Valeria & Pilar León-Araúz
2023. Denominative variation in the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset corpus. Terminology. International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Issues in Specialized Communication 29:2 ► pp. 252 ff. DOI logo
Lu, Huaguo, Xia Hao & Ya Zhang
2024. Popularization and scientization in terminology translation. Terminology. International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Issues in Specialized Communication DOI logo
Piccini, Silvia, Federica Vezzani & Andrea Bellandi
2023. TBX and ‘Lemon’: What perspectives in terminology?. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 38:Supplement_1 ► pp. i61 ff. DOI logo

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