Concept - Concepts and terms (internal data type)

An essential point of transferring knowledge is common understanding and referring to proper and well-defined terms.

Transferring knowledge, i.e. communication, is based on sequences of symbols. Asymbol is any kind of signal (visual, acoustical etc.) with an agreed underlying meaning passed between sender(s) and receiver(s). A term (single word or sequence of words) is a symbol based on a sequence of letters and numbers. The meaning of a term is not necessarily unique but it becomes unique in a certain context. TM considers terms only as mean of expressing knowledge. Other symbols as pictures or sounds are not considered in TM.

Different terms may have the same meaning (synonyms). Synonyms might be defined when being used within a subject area, but also, when terminology changes. In the latter case synonyms allow mapping old terms to newer terns.

Terms are used for referring to concepts. [1087} defines a concept as "unit of knowledge created by a unique combination of characteristics". TM needs to generalize this definition slightly. Here, a concept is a unit of knowledge which is referred to by a term and which is defined by textual description. Thus, a concept is a term with a meaning that reflects a part of reality or an idea, but concepts do not necessarily refer to characteristics.

Simply said, any term that has got a definition or explanation is considered as concept in TM. There are no formal criteria to measure the quality of the definition or explanation. Thus, it depends on the TM developer, how good a terminology model finally is.

As mentioned in the previous chapters, concepts applying to objects may appear as individual or general concepts. TM mainly considers general concepts, although the terminology model itself may refer to an individual object (e.g. when defining the terminology model for a specific enterprise).