What it is
A terminological definition is not an explanation of a word. It delimits one concept against its neighbours in a system, and it is written out of that system rather than out of a sense of what the term means.
The standard form is the intensional definition, and it has two parts: the concept immediately above in the generic hierarchy, then the delimiting characteristics separating it from the others at the same level. Suonuuti puts trees among plants and paper machines among apparatuses to make the point that the superordinate is not decoration. It places the concept, and everything after it tells the concept apart from its coordinates. The extensional alternative enumerates what falls under the concept instead of stating what constitutes it.
What makes the form worth the discipline is that it can be tested. Terms and definitions are interchangeable in running text, so substituting the definition for its term in a real sentence should leave the meaning intact.
Where the authorities stand
Definitions are clause 6 in both recent editions of ISO 704, and almost nothing below that level survives the move between them. The 2022 edition adds a subclause for extensional definitions, gives the substitution principle one of its own, and numbers deficient definitions as circular, inaccurate and negative.
One of those changes is load-bearing. In 2009 extensional definitions sit outside the normative text, in an informative annex; in 2022 they have a normative subclause. Any sentence beginning "ISO requires" has to name its edition, because the requirement differs.
Genus proximum and differentia specifica are the classical logic tradition's labels. ISO does not use them: it says immediate superordinate concept and delimiting characteristics.
The failure catalogue is where this earns its keep, and Suonuuti's version is free and worked through with examples. A definition is circular when it uses the term inside itself, as tree height defined as the height of a tree, or when two definitions across a system lean on each other. It is negative when it says what the concept is not, though Suonuuti allows the cases where negation is the concept. It is too broad when a delimiting characteristic is missing, so that a tree defined as a tall long-lived plant admits the banana and the vine, and too narrow when a non-essential one has been smuggled in, so that a coniferous tree defined as evergreen excludes the larch.
The dissent is real. Temmerman's argument, from a corpus of life-sciences publications, is that traditional terminology theory rests on principles that prevent a realistic description of many categories, and that those categories should be given templates rather than intensional definitions. Frame-based terminology reaches the same conclusion from another direction, replacing the single genus with a template whose slots are semantic relations. Neither denies that the classical form works where concepts are well behaved, as in legal terminology.
Consequences for translation
Definition faults are diagnosed by listing, which makes them a reviser's business.
- A definition that admits too much is missing a delimiting characteristic; one that admits too little has promoted a non-essential one.
- Run the substitution test on the target definition, not only the source. One that will not go back into a target-language sentence has usually acquired a hedge in translation.
- Where an instrument defines a term, that definition governs inside it and overrides ordinary usage, including the same word in national law. This is the commonest source of confident mistranslation in regulatory text.
- A circular or negative source definition is reproduced as it stands, not repaired: improving it changes the instrument.
Examples
EN>DE
- Source: theft
- Target: Diebstahl
- Comment: A dictionary equivalence the definitions refuse. Cao sets the two statutory concepts side by side: the English turns on dishonest appropriation of property with intent to keep it permanently, the German on taking away movable property with intent to appropriate it unlawfully. The divergence runs through act, object and intent at once.
EN>FR
- Source: waste
- Target: déchets
- Comment: The defining article decides the case, and decides it against ordinary usage. In the waste framework directive the concept turns on the holder: a substance is waste if the holder discards it, intends to or is required to, so a valuable and reusable substance is legally waste. The same instrument defines disposal negatively, as any operation that is not recovery, which a terminologist would flag and a legislator needs.
DE>EN
- Source: Rechtsstaatlichkeit
- Target: the rule of law
- Comment: A single German compound against an English phrase, neither a rendering of the other's form. The conditionality regulation secures the equivalence by stipulating the concept: legality, legal certainty, the prohibition of arbitrary exercise of public power, effective judicial protection, separation of powers, equality before the law. Where a concept means different things across the legal cultures applying it, the definition is what holds the language versions together.
References
- ISO 704:2009. Terminology work: Principles and methods, 3rd edition. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization, clause 6, in particular 6.2 and 6.3.4, and Annex A.
- ISO 704:2022. Terminology work: Principles and methods, 4th edition. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization, clause 6, in particular 6.2, 6.3, 6.4.4 and 6.5.2 to 6.5.4.
- ISO 1087:2019. Terminology work and terminology science: Vocabulary. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization, entries 3.3.1 and 3.3.2.
- Suonuuti, H. (2001). Guide to Terminology, 2nd edition. Nordterm 8. Helsinki: Tekniikan Sanastokeskus, section 2, pp. 19 to 30.
- Temmerman, R. (1998). "Why traditional terminology theory impedes a realistic description of categories and terms in the life sciences." Terminology 5(1), 77 to 92.
- Temmerman, R. (2000). Towards New Ways of Terminology Description: The Sociocognitive Approach. Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice 3. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Faber, P. et al. (2022). "Cultural Context and Multimodal Knowledge Representation: Seeing the Forest for the Trees." Frontiers in Psychology 13, 824932.
- Kroeger, P. R. Analyzing Meaning: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics, section 6.3. Berlin: Language Science Press.
- Cao, D. (2007). "Legal Terminological Issues in Translation." Ch. 4 of Translating Law, 53 to 73. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, at pp. 53 to 54.
- Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste, Article 3, English and French language versions.
- Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020, Article 2(a), English and German language versions.