What scenario faces the terminologist or the specialist interested in consulting a dictionary, terminology data bank or other terminological resource in a given domain? A very complex one which often ends up discouraging people who need terminological information. This is not because resources are lacking, but because they have a fragmented nature, and also because identifying and locating specific resources is by no means an easy task.

In addition to major data banks such as Termium, BTQ (Banque de Terminologie du Québec) and Eurodicautom, a large number of worthy terminological initiatives have been embarked upon by centres which study special languages or by institutions which carry out economic business or research activity in given domains and produce domain-specific terminology. Moreover, well-established information centres such as Infoterm or networks such as Rint and Nordterm supply lists of terminology data banks, while linguistic and terminological service and documentation centres such as the Office de la langue française, the Chancellery of the Swiss Confederation, Terminology Forum and Termcat, to cite the best known, supply miscellaneous information on collections of terminological material. Translation and information centres generally provide an information service with regard to the contents of archives, which have been built up and arranged according to a variety of conceptual patterns.

The Internet facilitates access to and consultation of these centres. The user is left with an extremely fragmented picture of these resources and, as a result, is rarely able to pinpoint many of the archives that exist for the same domain and to identify their characteristics in terms of language, structure and content.

What is needed is a sort of telescope which could be pointed at this conceptual universe to allow users to focus on star systems and their microcosms, in this case information systems and the conceptual and terminological microsystems to which they refer. Terminologists need to come up with new ideas to encourage cooperation and integration of numerous local resources.

In our opinion, the globalisation of resources can be achieved with the implementation of a two-tier collaboration activity. The first should be designed to define new conceptual and terminological systems in specific domains under the guidance of language and science and technology experts in the different countries; the microsystems formed in this way will thus be of fundamental importance in terms both of level of contents and number of equivalents. The second collaboration should seek to build the telescope and the co-ordinates needed to find terminological microsystems in the conceptual space. In other words, we intend to encourage integrated information and find keys of access common to the various sources.

The final aim of terminology is to identify concepts and to determine their relative positioning in a systematic structure. This is achieved by following an onomasiological process designed to determine concepts through terms [1].

The analysis and recording of the conceptual characteristics of single conceptual units allows us to establish relations between the units themselves and to systematically organise the terms they represent. It is thus possible to generate conceptual and terminological microsystems which represent the ordered knowledge of a specific domain. Take for example Hemodynamics, the subdomain of medical science which deals with the study of the dynamics of blood flow in the heart and vessels. In common parlance, the term refers to the direct probing of the cavities which contain blood using catheters. The technique of cardiac catheterisation involves the development of a terminology which has been enhanced by the introduction of a continuous stream of innovations and clearly shows the influence of English. A project developed by Realiter (the Pan-Latin Network for Terminology) is studying this domain by identifying concepts expressed with Italian terms and their equivalents in the other Romance languages. Bearing in mind the original categories and the conceptual significance of terms, it is possible to establish semantic relations between terms so that each terminological unit acquires a precise position and the domain thus organised is represented by a microsystem.

The above-mentioned microsystems have characteristics and an evolution of their own. They overlap with other domains and systems and are bound to combine with them to form a unique, universal knowledge. It is interesting to note how a definite microsystem can identify the physiognomy of the specific domain, sometimes recording aspects which even subject field experts previously saw from different perspectives.

Analysis and conceptual construction, a natural cognitive process for our minds, represent the phases in the knowledge-ordering procedure necessary for the subsequent diffusion and use of knowledge itself. Though they may appear discrete, microsystems are the pieces which integrate to create the great mosaic of human knowledge. Albeit founded on other specialisations, the encyclopaedia of knowledge must, as Tullio Gregory has pointed out, always conserve 'its characteristic as an encyclopaedia, that is to say of a learning which constitutes an organic whole and grows in the continuous interchange of different specialisations' [2].

Terminological microsystems are normally managed by specialised centres and are an object of research for anyone seeking specific new knowledge or equivalents of a term in other languages. If the centre of terminological information is a member of an on-line information network, network users may be able to achieve their objectives by following the logical processes of their own minds. To do this, it is necessary to plan the architecture of the global information system which overlaps with the local systems of the various centres. The classification paradigm is a fundamental tool for recovering information. However, the heterogeneity of classifications, their specific aims and their different uses, makes it impossible to suggest preferential criteria.

The globalisation of resources harmonises, manages and integrates local resources. It is useful for a process of globalisation to maintain the organisational structure of the individual information centres which adopt different classifications. In this case, it will be necessary to develop an interface to ensure the integrated use of the various classifications.

Previously, we somewhat daringly compared the conceptual and terminological microsystems of an information system to the microcosms which, in the universe, form part of star systems. We can bring these microcosms into focus by gradually lining up special optical instruments according to specific coordinates. In conceptual space, the instruments are represented by classifier structures which may be handled in an integrated way. To formally represent a classification with graphs, we use the nodes and arcs of a plane in space; the nodes indicate the concepts (classes) and the arcs the hierarchical relations between concepts. The same representation may be repeated for other classifications, so that the nodes and arcs of different classifications are identified on more than one plane. But it is possible to establish other types of semantic relations between concepts situated on the different planes of different classifications. These correlations allow us to manage classifications automatically in an integrated way.

If the architecture of the global system takes into account the possibility of using such a procedure, it will allow users to surf in the conceptual space following their own mental processes and using links to move among the nodes of the various systems. Users will thus be able to make suitable associations and choices and to move in the global system until they reach the microsystem that is the object of their search.

The ETIS server should, in our opinion, offer the possibility of managing the various classification systems in an integrated way, thus granting users access to the various information centres that are part of the network and enabling them to locate the relevant microsystem. Like a telescope lined up in space, the server has to contain the search engine to manage the metasystem of terminological resources at a global level. ETIS should represent the guide to the encyclopaedia of knowledge organised for terminological purposes.

[1] Adamo G., Tra lessicologia e terminologia, in: Lexicon philosophicum, 10, Firenze, Olschki ed., 1999.

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[2] Gregory T., Conclusioni, in: Adamo, G. (ed.) "Ricerca e terminologia tecnico scientifica", Giornata di studio, Roma, 27 nov. 1992, Lexicon philosophicum, 7, Firenze, 1994.

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