Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.2778

AUTHOR: Teresa Cabré
TRANSLATED BY: Besharat Fathi
TRANSLATED BY: Steven Norris
TRANSLATED BY: Sheila Queralt
TITLE: Terminology
SUBTITLE: Cognition, language and communication
SERIES TITLE: IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 36
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2023

REVIEWER: Ramona Pistol

SUMMARY
Teresa Cabré’s book “Terminology. Cognition, language and communication” represents the culmination of an extensive scholarly endeavour spanning over a decade, with its central focus on formulating the Communicative Theory of Terminology (CTT). In her comprehensive exploration of existing theories of terminology, the methodologies of terminology and its relation to communication and cognition, Cabré delves into the complex nature of the role played by the notion ‘term’, concurrently establishing the foundational framework for her innovative theory, positioning terminology as a distinct discipline.
The book is divided into two parts, with the first part comprising 12 chapters that reevaluate existing views and definitions of terminology to lay the groundwork for the development of the Communicative Theory of Terminology (CTT). This new theory focuses on the ‘terminological unit’ (TU), rather than terms, conceptualising TU as a polyhedron with three viewpoints: the cognitive (the concept), the linguistic (the term), and the communicative (the situation). Prior to introducing the CTT, several articles in Part 1 critically examine Wüster’s General Theory of Terminology (GTT), showing how the theoretical account is overly reductionist and idealist, unable to accommodate the diversity of real terminological data. The second and third chapters advance the author's multidimensional theory, introducing the Door Model (Cabré 1999, 2003) which emphasises the multiple facets of ‘terminological units’ from the three perspectives — linguistics, cognition, and communication —rather than considering terminology to belong to the linguistic field alone. Chapter 4 further delves into the theoretical underpinnings of terminology, introducing Cabré's Principle of Polyhendricity that refers to the multidisciplinary and multidimensionality of terminological units, in order to explain the relationships between different levels of analysis within terminology. She uses this principle to explain denominative variation and partial synonymy. The Door model and the Principle of Polyhendricity emerge as recurrent themes throughout multiple chapters in the book.
The subsequent chapters in Part 1 highlight the need to recognise terminology as a distinct area of knowledge. One key argument posited is that viewing terminology as an approach to understanding terms needs a foundation in linguistics but extends beyond being a mere subset of it. In Chapter 7, Cabré asks if the proposals developed by Wüster and advocates (e.g. Budin, 2001) are sufficiently extensive and representative of terminological data and their overall functioning, in order to determine the viability of considering a comprehensive theory of terminology. The author cogently analyzes the shifts in terminological methodology and how IT solutions and corpora have enabled more empirical, data-driven approaches centered around specialized language use. In Chapter 8 Cabré directs her attention to translation, asserting that terminological units are not inherently abstract, but rather acquire terminological value through practical application within a specialised field, involving the activation of a specific meaning established by experts in the field. Furthermore, she points out that texts are dynamic, open, and multidimensional structures that interactively help connect cognitive, grammatical, and social aspects. Regarding translator training, Cabré advocates textual analysis to build both topical competence and linguistic knowledge. By representing a text's conceptual structure, she argues that students acquire subject knowledge along with contextualized terminology and phraseology, and she provides evidence that this pedagogical approach proves useful. This linkage of content and form echoes Cabré's communicative theory of terms.
In Chapter 9 Cabré extends her examination to textual and discursive aspects, asserting that because any given phenomenon inherently possesses complexity and polyhedrality, a singular discipline or perspective is not enough to understand such phenomena. Discussing mental representations in Chapter 10, Cabré argues that words and terms should be perceived not as distinct units, but rather as diverse manifestations within discourse of the same unit type. Furthermore, the idea that words in a lexicon are predominantly polysemic while terms are monosemic is challenged, and the author proposes a lexical model that posits a unified approach treating both as lexical units, suggesting that the activation of meaning is contingent upon pragmatic conditions. Chapter 11 argues against Wüster’s stance that a term’s meaning directly correlates with the concept it denotes. Instead, Cabré asserts that concepts are culturally constructed, dynamic, and consensually stabilized within expert communities, with the content of a term extending beyond the cognitive to encompass the linguistic level. The final chapter in Part 1 underscores the importance of the universally applicable Principle of Polyhendricity, alongside parameters such as the topic, the field of use, and the genre, for the classification of specialised texts.
Part 2 has 9 chapters, primarily dedicated to linking terminology as a field of knowledge to other fields that involve terms, such as translation and documentation. The exploration of new contexts, including translation in international organisations and language promotion in Quebec, reveals gaps in standardised methodologies. A reoccurring point in this part is the two main functions that terminology systematically fulfils: representing and transferring specialised knowledge. Chapter 13 introduces a distinction between representational (standardised) terminology, serving purposes like standardisation, documentation and engineering, and communicational (spontaneous) terminology that serves translation and communication. Cabré points out several noteworthy characteristics of terminology as a discipline, as exemplified in Chapter 16, where she posits that “terminology is, simultaneously, a need, a practice and a discipline.” (p.266). In Chapter 17, she emphasises that standardisation seeks a form of unification for a clearly functional objective, rather than achieve unification. She contrasts her approach effectively with the General Theory of Terminology to highlight differences. Chapter 19 advocates for studies on terminological implantation within language planning contexts. Part 2 concludes by highlighting the importance of considering the theoretical foundation of neology, drawing on the works of Guilbert and Rey, and outlining the challenges posed by the multifaceted nature of neologisms.

EVALUATION
All chapters are well-researched, with Cabré drawing on a strong foundation of prior terminology theory and more recent research in communication and cognition. Her critique of Wüster’s General Theory of Terminology (GTT) is excellent in revealing its limitations, such as restricting terminology to concepts by defining terms as linguistic denominations of concepts, and its application only in science and technology. She underscores the GTT’s treatment of terminology as an independent domain, centered exclusively on static concepts, conceived prior and preexisting to denomination. Thus, a major facet of criticism directed at the GTT stems from two main reasons: the idealisation of reality, knowledge, and communication and the theory’s restricted applicability to standardisation. Cabré addresses a notable gap by highlighting Wüster’s oversight of the crucial communicative function. From the beginning of the book, Cabré introduces her metaphorical idea of ‘the model of doors’, to discuss the multidimensional characteristic of her novel theory, contending that terminology, as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge, should encompass cognitive, linguistic, semiotic, and communicative aspects of terminological units, which serve as the doors to interdisciplinary understanding. Furthermore, Cabré lays out their rationale clearly, asserting from the beginning of the book that the ‘term’ object has three aspects: semiotic and linguistic, cognitive, and communicative.
I concur with Cabré’s assertion that the exploration of terminology as a subject necessitates an integration of linguistic theories with consideration of knowledge, cognition, and communication (p. 9). The proposed new theory of terms, encompassing a multidimensional approach, is much needed for advancing the debate in regard to meaning creation and transmission, and communication in general. Additionally, the Principle of Polyhedricity, positing that terms function as interdisciplinary units with distinct facets, aligned to various levels of analysis, is an innovative way to capture the complexity of terminology. Cabré adeptly applies this principle to both terminological units and concepts, emphasizing their multifaceted nature. In Chapter 7, Cabré critically examines how the three main perspectives on communication challenge Wüster’s GTT. She introduces the debate over what constitutes a ‘concept’ and rightly calls into question the Wüsterian conception of ‘objective knowledge’ and of the ‘universal validity’ of concepts within specialised areas, which is greatly challenged by cognitive sciences, including philosophy and psychology of knowledge. The second perspective from social sciences emphasises the cultural factors influencing specialised communication, where specialised terms become identifiers of social groups, distinguishing experts from non-experts. From a language perspective, she points out that most terms can be analysed as lexical units of natural languages because terms form the lexical basis of specialities. Many chapters delve into critiques of the GTT, occasionally exhibiting a sense of repetition. However, later chapters provide more detail on both the extensions of the traditional theory and its applications and offer valuable insights that contribute to advancing the field of terminology theory.
In Chapter 8 Cabré uses translation as an illustrative domain to examine the nature of ‘terms’ concerning their ‘settled’ or constant meaning. She suggests that the use of terms should be controlled by the conceptual consensus established by the expert community, but this assertion can be scrutinised when considering Peirce’s (CB 2.104) view that meaning is never ‘settled’. Emphasizing that ‘terminological units’ are never abstract, Cabré contends that they acquire terminological value in use within a specialised field, wherein this value equates to the activation of a specific meaning pre-established by experts in the field. However, the notion of ‘specific meaning’ raises complexities, as meaning is inherently subject to interpretation, and discerning the author’s intent can be challenging. In Chapter 13, Cabré describes a ‘term’ as a combination of form and content, wherein content matches features in a conceptual structure within a specialised context. Throughout, Cabré provides examples and analysis from Spanish terminology to illustrate concepts. The selection of chapters provides a coherent overview of the author's perspective on key issues in terminology theory.
While Cabré argues for the influence of culture, social dynamics, and psychological factors in shaping concepts as ‘mental constructs’ rather than being direct representations of real objects, a more thorough incorporation of theories related to meaning and cognition could have further enriched her perspective. It is notable that she makes reference to Eleanor Rosch’s Prototype Theory and George Lakoff’s contributions to the view that concepts are conceived as encapsulated within a schema of features. Additionally, she uses Levinson’s ‘situated cognition’ to posit ‘situated meaning’ as the ‘specialised value’ of lexical units or the specialised meaning in a domain, suggesting a reference concept which is the same for all experts in a certain field. However, such a view might be deemed controversial, given alternative perspectives such as enactivism theory that emphasizes dynamic interactions between an organism and its environment (Varela, Thompson, and Rosch 2017; Shapiro, 2019). Although Cabré acknowledges the semiotic nature of ‘terms’ and the indispensable role of pragmatics in activating the terminological value of a lexical unit, her focus primarily revolves around concepts as part of a schema of characteristic features. An in-depth exploration of the connotations and denotations of ‘terminological units’ could have provided a more nuanced understanding of standardised meaning. Nonetheless, Cabré’s final chapter underscores the need for a theoretical foundation in the study of neologisms, because of the perceived inability to explain neologisms through grammar, and the lack of interest from linguistics in the past.
In conclusion, Cabré’s book adds to our understanding of stabilised meaning, particularly through specialised knowledge, making it a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and educators interested in the field. Drawing on principles from linguistics, cognition, and communication theory, she argues for a multidimensional view of terminology that integrates multiple essential facets, including linguistic, cognitive, and social dimensions. She makes a significant contribution to terminology, covering theoretical, methodological, and applied aspects. All chapters showcase Cabré's sophistication as a theorist seeking to strengthen terminology's scientific foundations. Her contextual, multidimensional perspective offers valuable counterbalance to past decontextualized models, and she makes insightful connections between multiple disciplines while maintaining the integrity of terminology as a field.

REFERENCES
Peirce, C. S. (1986) A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Published Works of Charles Sanders Peirce. 2nd ed. Revised by K. L. Ketner and B. Green, OH: Philosophy Documentation Center, Bowling Green State University. [Reference to Peirce’s papers will be designated CB and page number (in original source)].
Shapiro, L. (2019) “Matters of the Flesh: The Role(s) of Body in Cognition,” in Matteo Colombo, Elizabeth Irvine and Mog Stapleton (eds.), Andy Clark and His Critics, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp. 69–80.
Varela, F. J., Thompson, E. and Rosch, E. (2017) The Embodied Mind, Revised Edition: Cognitive Science and Human Experience, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ramona Pistol obtained her PhD in Communication, cognition, and semiotics from Middlesex University. Her main research interest is in the creation of new meaning, metaphorical thinking, imagination, consciousness, and emotions. She is a lecturer in management at the University of Bedfordshire.