Last modified: Mon 2/10/97 0345 PST
"The early stages of terminological theory in this century were dominated by engineers and scientists who felt a need to regulate the large quantity of new designations that accompanied the rapid evolution of science and technology. ... The formulation of principles of naming technical concepts and similar work was furthermore only oriented towards the industrially advanced countries during the first half of the 20th century and their languages and assumed a target group of engineers and scientists who accepted Greek and Latin word elements as the most suitable means of developing systematic patterns of terminology. ... the purpose of a terminological theory was to justify the idealisation of linguistic facts and the prescription of 'good usage' in what amounted to an artificial language ..." [Sager, 1990, p. 8]