Organizer: the board of European Association for Terminology (EAFT)
In an era when AI is being discussed all over both as a possible helper and a possible replacement for “real” terminologists, it is interesting to discuss the traditional methods and HI (human in telligence) in terminology work, e.g. when a group discusses and reaches consensus about ter minology (concept systems, definitions, terms etc.).
An interest in reaching consensus and methods for doing so are not new (Shaw & Gaines 1989; Costa, Silva & Barros 2012) (e.g. Pierre Lewalle spoke about the Delphi method at the Confer ence for a terminology infrastructure in Europe in 20001), but recently (Byrman & Nord 2025; Tonin 2024; Nilsson 2022) research has been done on how terminology consensus happen and the role of the terminologist in expert meetings in what could be called a sort of “sociology of terminology” (cf. sociology of translation). Existing terminologist profiles have also been up dated with soft skills, e.g. facilitation and elicitation, but this need to be studied and researched more. Therefore, a closer look at the role of the “human in the terminology loop” is motivated.
Conceptsus is the title of a workshop where we discuss these and other related matters, e.g.
- When is consensus needed in terminology work? And how is it achieved?
- How can consensus-making and roles in terminology meetings be studied?
- What are typical terminological conflicts, why do they appear and how can they be solved?
- What soft skills are needed for terminologists in order to handle conflict and achieve consensus in terminology?
- Consensus vs diversity and variation in terminology
The workshop is intended for terminologists and others who work with concept analysis, defini tions and terms in groups of human experts.
References
Byrman, Y., & Nord, A. (2025). Imposing order on a creative chaos: The terminologist as communication manager in a multi-professional setting. Terminology, 31(2), 238–266. John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/term.24016.byr.
Costa, R., Silva, R., Barros, S., & Soares, A. L. (2012). Mediation strategies between terminologists and experts. Pro ceedings of GLAT 2012-Terminologies: textes, discours et accès aux savoirs spécialisés, 297-308. ISBN 2 908849-24-0.
Nilsson, H. (2022). Distansering, elicitering och facilitering – det ”nya” terminologiarbetet? Nordterm 2022: Be greppsarbete och informationshantering, 77–89. Available: http://www.nordterm.net/filer/publikationer/rapporter/Nordterm22.pdf.
Shaw, M. L., & Gaines, B. R. (1989). Comparing conceptual structures: consensus, conflict, correspondence and con trast. Knowledge acquisition, 1(4), 341–363.
Tonin, G. (2024). Metodologija oblikovanja eksplicitnega terminološkega dogovora – delfski terminološki dogo vor (DETERMIND) [Methodology for Developing an Explicit Terminological Consensus – Delphi terminologi cal consensus (DETERMIND)]. Master thesis, the University of Ljubljana. Available: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12556/RUL-161119.
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¹Coherence interne et multidiscplinarité : les mérites du travail en réseau, 2000