Semantic analysis of compound terms in metrology. Part 1: Types and methods of measurement

The article considers compound metrological terms which are so deeply embedded in the mentality and practice of metrologists that the inadequacy of these terms is revealed only when some important problem cannot be solved. Under the moment-based approach to accuracy assessment, such a problem is the estimation of definitional uncertainty, while the term “direct measurement” evokes several paradigmatic associations: indirect, in a closed series, joint, and, other pseudomorphic measurements, similar in name form and different in definition. However, the errors in these measurements can no longer be estimated in the same way as the errors of measuring instruments are estimated. The semantics of compound terms containing the word “measurement” are analyzed. The author shows the role of the direct and figurative meanings of the word “measurement” in the problem related to the inadequacy of models, whose solution under the composition-based approach to accuracy assessment is indicated by the word “method” in the specified terms. Harmonizing the term “measurement problem” with the semantics of the word “problem” was the easiest way to correct this terminological misunderstanding. The inconsistency between the related terms “measurement method” and “method for solving a measurement problem” was also eliminated.