Abstract
Knowledge is communicated through the so-called semiotic systems: written text, images, mathematical and chemical symbols, and so on. The knowledge of emergent domains is yet to standardize its symbol systems which simply adds to the (creative) chaos inherent in such emergent systems. The analysis of change in written text, amongst the most changeable semiotic system at the lexical level at least, may reveal a consensus in the use of terms. Terms denote concepts and textually help us to understand how knowledge evolves in an emergent domain. The emergent domain of semi-conductor physics, specifically nano-structured tunnel diodes, is studied as an exemplar. This is our attempt to establish a method, which covers a broad range of texts, journal articles, patent documents and state-of-the-art review papers, to observe the emergence of a new domain. In each of the four knowledge conversion phases a domain community appears to prefer certain lexical items and uses an appropriate text type.