Christian Galinski (Christian.Galinski@chello.at)

Terminology and knowledge representation: There is no knowledge without
terminology

Future knowledge processing and management in all environments - here in the meaning of vertical dimensions, such as subject fields, as well as of horizontal dimensions, such as language communities - needs a unified theory of knowledge organisation and knowledge structuring based on science theory and harmonised methods. Terminology science as developed over the years from the first findings of Eugen Wüster via the standardising activities of ISO/TC 37 "Terminology and other language resources" to recent research and development carried out at many research institutions over the world, provides a theoretically sound basis for managing the 'terminologies' (viz. concepts and concept systems represented by symbolic representations, such as terms, graphical symbols, formulae etc., and descriptive representations such as definitions, explanations, complex formulae etc.) as the 'microstructures of specialised knowledge'.
The scientific 'objects' of terminology science are first of all 'concepts' corresponding to (concept) classes of (real - i.e. material and immaterial) objects. They are conceived according to the classificatory and categorising activity of the human intellect, and are represented for communication purposes by means of linguistic and/or non-linguistic concept representations (i.e. symbols). Concepts are the constituting elements of any scientific theory. They are used to formulate propositions and sets of propositions into theories and theory systems. Seen under this perspective concepts are units of scientific-technical thinking (when they are conceived), units of knowledge (if recognised by a certain community of experts) and units of communication (if communicated by means of spoken or written communication). No specialised information and knowledge can do without terminology in this broad meaning. As a consequence of this, knowledge processing and knowledge management cannot function efficiently and effectively without taking modern terminology science and its methodology in a variety of applications as well as the tools developed for these applications into account.
Under the theory of ordering classification schemes and documentation thesauri (originally developed as 'documentation languages' for information indexing and retrieval purposes) are also based on concepts and concepts systems: namely theme concepts and their systems representing the 'macrostructure of specialised knowledge'. On the one hand such documentation - or indexing and retrieval (I&R) languages - languages are needed to subdivide large quantities of data (on all kinds of real objects in the above meaning) into manageable portions under 'pragmatic' considerations - including the scientific objects called concepts. Documentation languages often look very much like terminology data collections, but are different in terms of conceptual structure, relation to SPL communication and first of all function in accessing knowledge.
No terminology database - containing terminological records, which can be considered as and are often called 'documents' - can be efficiently maintained without a classification scheme and/or a thesaurus (or a 'classaurus' as a combination of both). On the other hand virtually information on all kinds of objects can be 'managed' by means of a combination of a concept classification (viz. terminology) and one or more documentation languages.