Being Theoretical is Being Practical: Multiword Units and Terminological Structure Revitalised

Multiword units (MWUs) are critical in processing and understanding texts and have been extensively studied in relation to their occurrences in texts. MWUs also play an essential role in organising vocabulary, which is most prominently visible in domain-specific terminologies. There has been, however, a limited and mostly theoretical concern with the latter aspect of MWUs; researchers interested in NLP-related applications of terminologies have not paid sufficient attention to this aspect. In this talk I will start by giving the basic framework within which the study of MWUs from the point of view of vocabulary can be carried out, in the process clarifying the relationships between studies of MWUs in texts and those in relation to vocabulary. I will then introduce some of the theoretical studies in terminological structure which I have carried out in recent years. Referring to some of the problems that practically-oriented research in terminology processing is currently facing, I will argue why, how and in what possible ways the understanding of the roles MWUs take in terminological structure constitute a sin qua non condition for making a breakthrough in current text-oriented studies of terminological MWUs.