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On 26.07.18 15:17, Maia Ponsonnet wrote:<br>
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dir="ltr">Several people have commented that other disciplines
fare better than linguistics and effectively adopt shared
terminology. Can we have examples?
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For example astronomy, chemistry and biology:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_naming_conventions">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_naming_conventions</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUPAC_nomenclature_of_inorganic_chemistry">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUPAC_nomenclature_of_inorganic_chemistry</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomenclature_codes">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomenclature_codes</a><br>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">the categories/groupings
we create, and the criteria upon which we define them, are
more important than the labels we give to these categories. <br>
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Yes, talking about terminology makes sense only once we know we are
talking about the same denotata, of course. It's true that we often
have different concepts in mind and cannot explain them well, but
there are also many cases where we agree on the concepts but use
different terms (or vague terms that coexpress several clearly
distinct concepts).<br>
<br>
In these cases, outsiders (e.g. students, or interested
nonlinguists) will be confused, and my experience is that very often
I am myself confused. For example, when I read a linguistics paper,
very often I don't understand what the author is saying until I see
an example. So I find our terminology dysfunctional to a significant
extent. Maybe this is unavoidable, but it seems to me that we should
at least give more thought to this issue (and this is what we are
doing right now! also with respect to metaphors... So thanks to
everyone for contributing to the discussion!).<br>
<br>
Martin<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:haspelmath@shh.mpg.de">haspelmath@shh.mpg.de</a>)
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10
D-07745 Jena
&
Leipzig University
IPF 141199
Nikolaistrasse 6-10
D-04109 Leipzig
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