From “three doors” to “one revolving door”

The Theory of Doors (Cabré 2003) has been well established in the academia of terminology worldwide. Many follow-up terminology studies draw on the analytical framework of this theory, namely the linguistic, cognitive, and communicative dimensions of a terminological unit. This theory provides a comprehensive approach to the observation of terminology, which helps with the better understanding and description of terminology in real use. With this paradigm, a terminological unit can be investigated from any of the three dimensions, or “three doors”. However, the interrelationships among the three dimensions have not been further elaborated, which may fail to account for the complexity of actual terminology use, in cross-lingual settings particularly. The authors of the present study aim for an extension of the theory to cope with the research on cross-lingual and cross-cultural terminology use by focusing on the concept of “domestic violence” in the English and Chinese languages and cultures. To extend the Theory of Doors, the interrelatedness of the three descriptive dimensions is demonstrated based on a new metaphorical image of “a revolving door”, and more precisely a “three-wing revolving door”.