How specialized (or popularized)? Terminological density as a clue to text specialization in the domain of food safety

Terminological density is often mentioned as one of the main lexical features that distinguish specialized forms of communication and their popularized counterpart, i.e. discourse conveying specialized knowledge to an audience of non-specialist readers. The underlying idea is that texts addressed to experts feature a high number of terms that are expected to be understood within the target discourse community, while in popularized texts, vocabulary is chiefly drawn from the general language, and hence density of terms is lower. Though intuitively appealing, the idea that terminological density can provide quantitative evidence as to the degree of specialization or popularization of texts has seldom been investigated empirically. Taking the domain of food safety as a case in point, the aim of this article is twofold. First, it aims to assess the extent to which terminological density reflects the distinction between more specialized and more popularized texts. To do so, it describes a method to operationalize and measure terminological density building on replicable corpus-based procedures and freely available tools for vocabulary profiling. Second, in a more descriptive perspective, it aims to relate quantitative findings to qualitative observations on the discursive strategies adopted in the popularized genres under consideration to target different audiences. The texts analyzed consist of scientific opinions addressed to experts published by the European Food Safety Authority, as well as their popularized versions (factsheets, Frequently Asked Questions and news), also produced by the Authority to disseminate knowledge to the wider public. Results provide evidence that terminological density as operationalized here not only reflects the difference between specialized and popularized texts, but can also point to more subtle differences related to popularized texts' varied audiences and discursive strategies.

术语密度（terminological density）常被视为区分专业传播形式与其通俗化变体——即面向非专业受众传递专业知识的话语——的核心词汇特征之一。其核心逻辑在于，面向专家的文本包含大量目标话语共同体内部可被理解的专业术语；而通俗化文本的词汇主要取自通用语言，因此术语密度相对更低。尽管该观点直觉上颇具说服力，但"术语密度可为文本的专业化或通俗化程度提供量化依据"这一主张，却鲜有实证研究加以验证。本文以食品安全领域为研究案例，旨在达成双重研究目标：其一，评估术语密度在多大程度上能够反映专业文本与通俗化文本之间的差异。为此，本文将描述一种依托可复制的语料库研究流程与免费可用的词汇描记工具，对术语密度进行操作化定义与测量的方法。其二，从更具描述性的研究视角出发，将量化研究发现与本次考察的通俗化体裁中针对不同受众所采用的话语策略的质性观察相结合。本次分析的文本包括欧洲食品安全局（European Food Safety Authority）发布的面向专家的科学意见，以及该局为向更广泛公众传播专业知识而制作的对应通俗化版本，具体涵盖情况说明书、常见问题解答（Frequently Asked Questions）与新闻资讯。研究结果表明，本文所操作化定义的术语密度不仅能够有效区分专业文本与通俗化文本，还可揭示与通俗化文本针对不同受众及话语策略相关的更为细微的差异。