The Role of Epistemology and Ontology in Terminology

Abstract

Terminology is essential for scientific research. Depending on its purpose, it may be diagnostic, expressing judgments made by researchers, or descriptive, refering to empirical observations. Recent discussions about the popular colexification term have revealed that scholars use two interpretations, one narrow one, in which colexification is seen as a cover term for polysemy and vagueness, and one broad one, in which colexification is seen as a cover term for polysemy, vagueness, and homonymy. By discussing the role that the epistemological and the ontological perspective play in the context of scientific constructs and scientific terminology, I argue that colexification is a diagnostic term in the narrow definition, while it is a descriptive term in the broad notion. From an ontological perspective, the narrow definition can be seen as important, as it distinguishes processes of semantic change from processes of sound change. From an epistemological perspective, however, the narrow definition has difficulties to be applied in practice. I conclude that both kinds of terminology and both perspectives are useful for scientific research.