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LECTURE 1
TERMINOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

1. 1 The Role of Terminology Science
1. 2 The Origin of Terminology Science
1. 3 The Development of Ukrainian Terminology Science
1. 4 The Definition of Terminology
1. 5 Terminology and Linguistics
1. 6 Subjects Related to Terminology Science
1. 7 Terminology Science and Translation

Key terms: terminology, origin of terminology; four basic
periods, terminology science

1. 1 The Role of Terminology Science
There is an old story on the Internet about users getting
confused by the message “Press any key to continue …” A well-
known computer manufacturer got so many customer inquiries
about a missing “any” key on the keyboard, that they decided to
devote a FAQ-topic to it: “This is not a key. When you are
instructed to press any key, this means you can press any of the
keys on the keyboard (such as the Enter key, the R key, or the
space bar).” This may sound funny, but what if you were the
person running the technical support division? Would it not be
great to get rid of this support question and stop loosing precious
time? Would it not - for example - be great to replace the message
by “Press the space bar to continue …” to avoid confusion? And
would it not also be great if all occurrences in all applications and
manuals, from now on, would contain the correct replacement
sentence? Of course it would. But how would you do this? – Using
accurate terms.
Today a large majority of documents are designed for
professional communication. They are written in special language,
30-80% of which is composed of terms. In other words,

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