Ontoterminology meets Lexicography: the Multimodal Online Dictionary of Endometriosis (MODE)

With the advent of the Semantic Web and, more recently, of the Linked Data initiative, the need to operationalise exicographic resources, i.e. to represent them in a computer-readable format, has become increasingly important, as it contributes to pave the way to the ultimate goal of interoperability. Moreover, the collaborative work involving Terminology and ontologies has led to the emergence of new theoretical perspectives, namely to the notion of Ontoterminology, which aims to reconcile Terminology’s linguistic and conceptual dimension whilst preserving their core identities. This can be particularly relevant in subject fields such as Medicine, where conceptoriented and ontology-based approaches have become the cornerstone of the most recent (bio)medical terminological resources, and where non-verbal concept representations play a key role. Due to the lack of specialised lexicographic resources in the field of endometriosis, this paper aims to present the MODE project, i.e. the Multimodal Online Dictionary of Endometriosis, a multilingual resource comprising several types of data, namely video articles, a new type of scholarly communication inMedicine. It is believed that introducing a medical lexicographic resource supported byontoterminological principles and encompassing scientific video articles may constitute a relevant window of opportunity in the research field of Lexicography.