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Shaping architectural nomenclatures through contrasting ideologies

The role of subjectivity in naming the periods of English medieval architecture

 | University of Bologna
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Abstract
This article analyses a debate published in the journal The Builder in 1851, in which subject field experts discussed nomenclatures for English medieval architecture. The debate illustrates how the principles of multidimensionality and terminologisation are instantiated in term formation, and describes the role played by the subjective motivations of experts in this process. Among these motivations were the authors’ personal aspirations to be recognised within their scientific community, the economic interests of publishers, and the authors’ idiosyncratic positions against possible updates to traditional terms. On a methodological level, the article highlights the importance of studying term formation as an evolving process in a diachronic perspective, focusing not just on terms as final products, as traditionally done in terminology theory, but on the dynamics which shaped them. Among the factors involved in this process, this study places particular emphasis on human agency, which played a decisive role in shaping its outcomes.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1The multidimensionality of concepts and the subjective nature of terms in discourse
    • 2.2Terminologisation as a motivated, diachronic process
    • 2.3The agency of experts in term formation
  • 3.Study aims and methodology
  • 4.Historical reconstruction of the debate
  • 5.Analysis of the historical sources
    • 5.1Undefined concepts and arbitrary terms: Sharpe’s views on the necessity for a new architectural nomenclature
    • 5.2The publishers’ perspective: Evidence from multiple journals
    • 5.3The value of tradition as a criterion for term selection
    • 5.4The international character of terms and communication as ideological positions
    • 5.5The “convenience of names”: Experts’ personal motivations and the advancement of knowledge
  • 6.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • Bibliography
References (72)
Bibliography
Historical sources
Links refer to the original source available online:
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