Page 97 - 4806

stated that its purpose was not to prepare terminology but rather to
unify principles and coordinate terminological work.
TC 37 of ISO has provided guidelines that attempt to unify
certain aspects of new terminology, regardless of the language.
ISO Standard R704, approved in 1968 as Principles for Naming,
sets forth principles that new units should adhere to and
recommends favouring term formation processes that unify
terminology in different languages. Although this
recommendation may now seem obsolete, it is useful to list some
of the principles and recommendations it establishes because they
are still important and valid today:
The literal sense of a term should reflect the characteristics
of the concept it names.
Complex terms can be considered to be abbreviated
definitions.
The phonetic and written forms of terms should be suitable
in the language they are to form a part of.
Terms should be as concise as possible without
compromising comprehension.
New terms can be formed by abbreviating a simple word, the
elements of a compound word, or phrase.
The abbreviated term can be either syllables or individual
letters (particularly initials, e.g. PET, positron electronic
tomography) of the words that form the base.
A new term should allow derivation.
The formation of complex terms in which the modified
element does not correspond to the type of concept expressed by
the complex term as a whole should be avoided.
New terms can be formed by altering the meaning of a term
of the general language or of another special language, as long as
the two special fields are quite different from one another in order
to avoid ambiguity.
Many terms will inevitably have more than one meaning.
Multiple meanings, however, only lead to confusion if: a) the

96