Reforming a field’s terminology can unintentionally rewrite its substantive theory.

Evidence

While I proposed to myself nothing more than to improve the chemical language, my work transformed itself by degrees, without my being able to prevent it, into a treatise on the Elements of Chemistry. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 368

Categorization

• XREF: Lavoisier’s remark parallels Kuhn’s point that paradigm shifts are inseparable from vocabulary change — connects to conceptual-stretching literature already in the knowledge base.
• APHORISMS: A caution about the ambitions of any terminological cleanup: fixing the words drags the whole theory along with it.