1. What is a term?
A term can be considered the linguistic representation of a concept within a specific field of knowledge.
It can consist of a single word (monolexical terminological unit/simple term), or of several words (polilexical terminological unit/complex term).
Standardized terms are used to avoid or at least reduce possible misunderstandings. In fact, it is clearly defined what concept is represented by which term, and what the definition of that concept is.
A concept is language independent, whereas a term is language dependent. Though Table and tavolo are different terms, they represent the same concept.

2. General language texts vs special language texts
General language texts: words selected meaningfully and combined logically to form everyday language discourse.
Special language texts: terms=words assigned to concepts used in special languages (subject-field or domain-related texts)
Terms extracted from special language texts represent a limited number of parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, phraseological material are combined with general language connective material to produce subject-specific discourse.

3. A concept can be represented by an existing term in one language, but a second language may lack the term for the same concept. For instance, academic degrees are the result of varying academic systems around the world. So the concept can be understood, though a language may have no corresponding term to represent it.

4. Clues to identify a term
The word or combination of words is consistently associated with the same concept, within a given domain.
The word or combination of words is consistently used within a particular subject field.
The combination of words is relatively lexicalized.
The word or combination of words recurs in documentation.
The word or combination of words is set off by typographical devices such as italics, boldface print, or quotation marks.
The word or combination of words is preceded by words like known as, called.

5. Clues to identify a term
Terms are generally nouns, but they may also be adjectives, verbs, adverbs, or derived phrasal compounds.
The word seems to have a specific meaning within the subject field and is not part of the general vocabulary.
The word or combination of words may have synonyms or abbreviations.
The word or combination of words is used in opposition to or in contrast to another term.
The word or combination of words tends to co-occur repeatedly with the same noun, verb, or adjective (collocates).

6. Clues to identify a term
simple terms have a tendency to expand into complex ones in order to designate more and more subordinated concepts:
control →controller → graphics controller → AGP30-compliant graphics controller

7. Clues to identify a term
There is a stable association between a term and a concept, a concept and a term.
This stability may be called “degree of lexicalization”. Its lack leads to cognitive fuzziness, as in polysemy and synonymy.
This stability is preserved in the single-concept principle for recording terminological data (one concept-one record).
The single-concept principle implies that a terminology record should deal with one concept only and that all data relating to a given concept should be consolidated on one record.

8. Phraseology and phraseology extraction
Information about the underlying concepts may be found in the phraseologisms related to the terminological unit.
Verbs may reveal some functions and processes of a given concept;
co-occurring adjectives may reveal subordinated concepts.;
Adverbs associated with a terminological verb phrase may illustrate the specific manner in which an action is performed.

9. Phraseology
Germanic and Slavic languages combine word elements in abstract sequences
Front-wheel-drive/Rear-wheel-drive vehicle
Though each separate words can be defined independently, the multi-word term designates one concept representing more than the sum of its constituent parts.
Romance languages use explicit logical linking elements (prepositions) to form multiword structures.
Veicolo a trazione anteriore/posteriore
Voiture à traction avant/arrière (or véhicule à propulsion)
Vehículo con tracción delantera/trasera (coll. propulsión trasera)
(Ref. Wright-Budin, Handbook of Terminology Management, vol. 1)

10. Phraseology
A noun + verb statement may become a terminological phrase
e.g. the dynamic system organizes itself = self-organizing dynamic system
(sistema dinamico auto-organizzato)
Collecting and recording co-occurrents helps translators recreate authentic usage of specialized terminology in a translated technical text.