Is What You Say What You Mean?

Stan Becker, Johns Hopkins University

Scientists need standard and precise terminology so communication is clear and unambiguous. In general this has been the case in demography. For example, demographers have precise definitions for age, live birth, marriage, movers, migrants, parity and gravidity. The purpose of this paper is to raise concerns about inappropriate and ambiguous use of terminology in population studies in recent years. The hope is that this will lead to use of standard definitions in the future. Nine specific cases and one grammar problem are covered.