Terminological variations on innovative financing platforms. A corpus-based study of crowdfunding terminology

This paper, which places itself within the field of Specialised Terminology, aims to give a general overview of the current state of crowdfunding terminology in the context of the European Union, by focusing on naming dynamics resulting into synchronic variation and short-term lexical change. Specifically, by adopting an onomasiological approach (Geeraerts 2002), the research aims to discuss how terminological choices through which crowdfunding-related concepts are conveyed by platforms to potential end-users at a relatively early stage of crowdfunding development can lead to ambiguity and hinder user engagement. To achieve the objectives of this study, the issue of terminological transparency is introduced by defining the concepts of variation and harmonisation; then, the concept of crowdfunding is outlined and the different models are roughly described; subsequently, crowdfunding-related concepts are identified and mapped in order to find the related terms in the corpus; finally, potential risks related to terminological variation are discussed in a terminological perspective by way of a pragmatic method (Geeraerts 2002). The corpus of analysis is comprised of