The Success of Low-Salience Terms
451infection. The respective analytical names would have to account for
these relationships.
Similar cases are also seen with the names of certain diseases of the
central nervous system. Those neurodegenerative diseases, while possessing
analytical labels, are often referred to with less informative terms. The
disease ß-glucocerebrosidase deficiency, whose name defines its cause
precisely as the inadequate production of a particular substance (enzyme)
by the body, is more commonly known as Gaucher disease, and its three
subtypes are now identified by Roman numerals even though they used to
have more transparent components: type I GD (formerly adult GD), type II
GD (formerly infantile GD), and type III GD (formerly juvenile GD).
In summary of the above, terms incorporating alphanumeric symbols:
generally replace older, more transparent names;
always form a system of classification;
reflect increasing complexity of underlying knowledge requiring
less informative names.One might expect that once a microfield of terms with alphanumeric
symbols becomes a set of established designations, it is bound to retain its
status for decades. Actually, not all such classifications have survived. In
the late 19th century, a Russian doctor called Filatov proposed a
classification of common childhood diseases accompanied by a rash. It has
gone into oblivion since, the only active remnant of it being the name fifth
disease, a synonym of erythema infectiosum.
Higher-salience symbols
It should not be assumed, however, that alphanumeric symbols in terms
exclusively have an identifying/differentiating function. Certain letters
appear in terms because of a physical similarity of shape between the
grapheme and the object signified by the term, as in T-beam (its Polish
counterpart teownik also begins with the name of the letter T, here bolded).
The English term represents compression (Górnicz 2015) of the more
transparent T-shaped beam.
Similar examples can be found easily. A form of scoliosis with one
abnormal curve can be called C-shaped scoliosis in English (along with
the more analytical single arch scoliosis), and if there are two curves, the
corresponding term is S-shaped scoliosis (along with double arch
scoliosis). Types of malaria with paroxysms occurring every three/four
days are termed in English tertian fever resp. quartan fever. Curiously,