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In this article we are questioning the univocity ideal of traditional Terminology. We show how traditional Terminology in line with Saussurian structuralism ignores part of the interplay between the elements of the semantic triangle. Cognitive semantics and functional linguistics have offered an alternative for the Saussurian structuralist approach. Several of their findings can be of use for the development of socio-cognitive Terminology.In the LSP of the life sciences, the structure of concepts reflects their epistemological function. This could have consequences for the principles and methods of terminological description. While some concepts (like intron ) are clear-cut and can therefore be submitted to the principle of univocity, others (like blotting and biotechnology) have prototype structure. For prototypically structured categories univocity can not be the aim as polysemy, synonymy and figurative language are part of their naming history.The semantic triangle which was introduced by Gomperz (1908) (Felber, 1984:100) has been referred to by Wüster in 1956 1 (Dreiteiliges Wortmodell (Wüster, 1991:165; in English translation: Felber, 1984:100)), the founder of the Vienna school of Terminology. What is basically explored in this triangular model is the relationship between some kind of reality (the world), a means to communicate about and to create this reality (language), and the centre of reasoning about and of understanding both the world and language (the human mind).

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On the basis of an empirical study of categorisation and lexicalisation processes in a corpus of English language scientific publications in the domain of the life sciences, we claim that traditional terminology theory (the Vienna school) has five principles which impede a realistic description of many categories and terms. We propose an alternative socio-cognitive terminology theory inspired by cognitive semantics.

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