Terminological Phenomenology and/or Philosophical Conversion of Terms. Translating Henri Van Lier

Abstract

The increasingly relevant importance of terminology is nowadays dictated by the development of science and technology, the upsurge of internationalization and globalization of the world economy, by political challenges and the construction of geo-linguistic solidarity, by language-culture proficiency, translation flow and language adaptation to (post)globalization. Philosophical terminology, developed in parallel with philosophy, has the purpose of universality and designative transparency of words, represented by terms i.e. related to the domain of meaning, the relationship of language with reality and thinking. Reflecting a "nodal network", constituting the ideational matrix for philosophy and philosophers, philosophical terminology poses epistemological, gnoseological challenges in relation to other disciplines: natural sciences, lexicology, lexicography, terminography, translation studies, etc. By designating concepts/ideas/notions, philosophical terminology, in addition to the “spontaneous” onomasiological evolution (direct/indirect borrowing, transposition, terminologization, applicative restriction) and symbiotic/synergistic production (action and feedback between languages) also achieve the so-called “conversion”, (re)semantization of terms, either philosophical or from other fields, a fact observable in some current philosophers (Edgar Morin, Jacques Demorgon, Henri Van Lier, etc.). This study is devoted to such a phenomenon of terminological conversion and "translational terminologization".