The theory of terminology has evolved considerably in recent years, responding on the one hand to new challenges in specialised communication and profiting on the other from new trends in general linguistics. The general theory of terminology, which used to be concerned largely with matters of standardisation, has given way to a more open approach, firmly set in the sphere of linguistics which is better equipped to account for the various scenarios used in scientific and technical communication. The communicative theory of terminology is a linguistic approach which studies terms simultaneously as units of language, of cognition and of social function. The article discusses the theoretical basis of this approach, and its suitability for describing terms and its empirical value in accounting for the diversity of the data but without foregoing the possibility of treating terms from other points of view.

The aim of this paper is to focus on the necessity of a double marking-out when doing the semantic analysis of the data of a corpus. The first mark lies in the situation in which texts are produced and the second one lies in the interpretation of the texts. In both cases, the author suggests to use the notion of 'genre' (textual 'genre' and interpretative 'genre') in order to classify and categorize situations. The issue is exemplified by the problem of the building of terminologies according to a particular interpretative 'genre'. The paper shows how textual 'genre' influences the functioning of conceptual relations patterns (e.g. the preposition avec is used to spot a meronymic relation). It demonstrates that this kind of analysis may help to refine the descriptions initially made by introspection.

Since its creation in 1867, Canada is founded on a political compromise between two founding nations that gave an equal status to distinct legal traditions both expressed in two official languages. In order to fulfill these ideals, however, Canadian jurists must assimilate two legal cultures and languages, an expertise far from reach for everyday citizens, and probably even from a majority of jurists themselves! This paper aims to present in a critical manner the legal discourse surrounding the implementation of bilingualism and bijuridism in Canadian law. In our opinion, the Canadian example highlights the methodological and terminological challenges related to the recognition of two languages and legal traditions within the same legal order.

Terminology has conventionally been biased in favour of synchrony and most studies carried out in the field have remained fixed on specialised language at a point in time. After having listed the possible reasons for the lack in the production of diachronic accounts of specialised languages, we shall discuss new developments, in the theory as well as in the methodology, of what may be called “modern” terminology. We will then show that the use of corpus linguistics and computer science has undoubtedly helped “modern” terminology to focus more on corpus provision and study in diachrony. We will finally show that a lot remains to be done for diachrony to join synchrony as a major interest of study in terminology, making it an area ripe for growth.

Since September 11 2001 the world has been faced with challenges to the defence of nations and the security of their citizens, leading to hitherto unused laws, policies and strategies to counter the terrorist threat. This is a major challenge: to reconcile security needs with the demands of law, and respecting citizens' liberty, their language, their culture and their legitimate aspirations. In this paper, antiterrorist discourse will first be studied, its terms and definitions examined, as well as the types of texts used and the way they are formulated in language. Then the cross-disciplinary approach is used to produce practical methods to ascertain the state of terrorist threat in its international dimension, to achieve a fine grained but global understanding of the phenomenon for the future.

In the framework of humanitarian mediation, multilingual communication has a strong cultural component. This article begins by situating the Other in a global fashion, and then goes on to view ways in which a balance of perception can be established between those involved by working out a precise, rigorous diagnosis to shed light on the conceptions, feelings and intentions of all concerned, illustrated by several examples. Amongst the tools used, mention should be made of distancing, decentring, intercultural competence and Natural Semantic Metalanguage.

Online tourist guides are information tools communicating destination image and specialised knowledge at the same time. They feature a large variety of lexicographic structures including word lists, articles, conceptual schemes, indexes and registers, search options on keywords, internal and external cross references etc. This is by no means surprising in so far as what is needed is effective data access in order to extract information – precisely in the same way as in lexicography. The functional thesis we defend in this article is that lexicographisation in a user perspective can improve the access process. Taking œnotouristic online guides as a case in point, we will examine different user situations leading to consultation, in particular the need for experiential information, in which users simply wish to improve the conditions of their œnotouristic experience. We will then formulate theoretical proposals aimed at ensuring better interaction of lexicographic functions, data presentation and access possibilities.

Relational adjectives are a key component of specialized language in French as well as many other languages. The use of relational adjectives as a substitute for a prepositional phrase follows the principle of economy in language, but it is also a characteristic of specialized discourse: French physicians will use expressions like “cancer mammaire” or “infarctus myocardique” where the layman uses “cancer du sein” or “infarctus du myocarde”. After studying morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects of relational adjectives, we attempt to identify some of the factors that seem to induce the use of relational adjectives instead of prepositional phrase complements, based on examples drawn from an eight-million-word corpus of medical research articles; variation in the use of the adjectives coronaire and coronarien is also studied.

This paper presents concepts and systems for multilingual terminological and textual knowledge codification, representation, validation, management and sharing structured around the notion of genre. These systems operationalize the different stages of the ‘virtuous knowledge cycle’ within a dynamic, multilingual specialized web-dictionary and a multilingual, genre-based corpus of medical texts genre hierarchies or systems. The knowledge cycle approach mirrors ‘real life’ working processes and allows for repeated conversions of knowledge between its tacit and explicit forms, allowing knowledge to codify and spiral up from the individual to the collective level at corporate, ‘community of practice’. The paper reports on the results of the implementation of these concepts and systems in general and the web-dictionary in particular within the Danish health care, pharmaceutical, medical device and translation sectors which technologically have been fused into one collective ‘knowledge cluster’ and it discusses the opportunities for research and business that spring from fusion of language and health technologies.

The harmonisation of the laws of Member States in various areas of private law constitutes an important element of the European Union integration process. The principal legislative mechanism used to achieve this harmonisation is the directive. Effective harmonisation of national laws can only be achieved if the Community legislation is applied in the same way in the different national legal systems. Many of the challenges in ensuring a harmonised application of community legislation are connected to issues of legal language. Amongst other examples, this paper will use the European directive on product liability (la responsabilité du fait des produits défectueux) as an illustration of the various language issues raised and the solutions available to ensure an effective level of harmonisation. This will be done through a study of the English and French versions of the directive, and by considering the experience of the implementation of the provisions of the directive in French and English law.