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Procedural Manual On Terminology Final Version
Procedural Manual On Terminology Final Version
TERMINOLOGY
Translation-Oriented Terminology Work
Vesna Lušicky
Tanja Wissik
1 Procedural Manual on Terminology
This publication has been prepared in cooperation with the Sector for Preparation
of the National Version of Acquis Communautaire, Secretariat for European Affairs,
and has been supported by the German International Cooperation (Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH).
Contents
1 Introduction................................................................................................................................................................6
3 Roles............................................................................................................................................................................ 31
3.4 Revisers............................................................................................................................................................ 34
4.2 Definition......................................................................................................................................................... 39
5.6.1 Derivation.............................................................................................................................................. 48
5.6.2 Compounding....................................................................................................................................... 49
5.6.3 Abbreviation......................................................................................................................................... 49
6 Description of the terminology workflow process in relation to MultiTerm and SDL Trados
Studio ................................................................................................................................................................................... 54
6.1.1 Entries..................................................................................................................................................... 54
7.3 Persons............................................................................................................................................................. 65
7.3.2 Translator.............................................................................................................................................. 66
5 Procedural Manual on Terminology
7.5 Products........................................................................................................................................................... 69
8 References ................................................................................................................................................................ 72
ANNEXES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…74
6 Procedural Manual on Terminology
1 Introduction
translation of the legislation of the Republic of Macedonia into one of the European
Union official languages;
pursuing the development of language-related issues in terms of meeting the criteria for
EU integration of the Republic of Macedonia in the field of language.
Unit for Translation and Translation Coordination - responsible for drafting translation
plans, documents preparation, submission of the same to translation agencies and/or to
in-house translators, technical committees responsible for expert and legal revision of
translated EU legal acts, databases update, as well as drafting of the Technical Guidelines
for all participants in the translation process;
Unit for Revision and Terminology - responsible for terminology unification, monitoring
the quality of translation of EU legal acts and legal acts of the Republic of Macedonia,
drafting manuals, as well as maintenance of terminology database.
The workload of the Sector has grown substantially in the past few years and there is a growing
need for stream-lined, time and cost efficient, and high-quality translation and terminology
work. Translators dealing with specialized texts face an increasing need to record and retrieve
terminological information, as it saves time and allows them to work more efficiently.
Experience has shown that terminology work facilitates translation by enabling translators:
This Manual aims at alleviating the practical and methodological difficulties faced when doing
translation-oriented terminology work, improving the quality of terminological processes and
7 Procedural Manual on Terminology
The Manual consists of eight chapters and six annexes. After a summary of needs analysis based
on the on-site visit at the Sector, the Manual gives an overview of the translation-oriented
terminology work. First, the basic terminology principles are introduced, followed by a detailed
description of the workflow and activities. Chapter 4 focuses on the roles of the key participants
and their obligations in the translation-oriented terminology work. Data categories and the
optimal features for the information contained in a terminological entry are presented in
Chapter 5. Additionally, the guidelines for drafting definitions are contained in this Chapter.
Important strategies for translators, namely strategies to be applied in the case of no
equivalence, are described in the next Chapter. Chapter 7 deals with the practical aspects of
terminology management in SDL MultiTerm, and with the relation between SDL Trados, SDL
MultiTerm, and SDL MultiTerm Convert. Finally, the issues regarding quality assurance and
quality control are discussed and some mechanism for quality assurance and control are
described.
The Annexes consist of: a workflow chart on monolingual specialized terminology methodology,
a workflow chart on monolingual specialized terminology methodology, a workflow chart on
multilingual specialized terminology methodology described, a workflow chart on the “phase of
initial filling of the termbase, a workflow chart “phase of maintaining the termbase”, a list of
terminology standards, and a glossary of the translation-oriented terminology work.
8 Procedural Manual on Terminology
Terminology is a multidisciplinary field of applied linguistics. It deals with the study of concepts
and their representations in special language. Terminology aims at describing, structuring and
transferring specialised knowledge.
The goal of terminology is to record and organize the meaning and usage of specialised terms
and to make those available in various terminological resources like (online) termbases,
dictionaries, glossaries, and terminology standards, in order to use them in texts, translation,
and specialised discourse.
A set of designations belonging to one special language in a specific subject field, e.g.
terminology of fishery, terminology of railway engineering.
In this Manual we use the term terminology when referring to a set of designation belonging to
one special language in a specific subject field. For the other aspects, we use terminology science,
terminology work and terminology management.
Ad-hoc terminology work is text based terminology work concerned with the case-by case
collection, description, processing and presentation of concepts and their designations during
the translation process2.
Proactive terminology work is text based terminology work concerned with the collection,
description, procession and presentation of concepts and their designations before the
translation process3.
An object is anything perceived or conceived. An object can be concrete or material e.g. �ish,
mountain, laptop or an object can be immaterial or abstract e.g. �inancial planning, legal capacity
or density. Objects are identi�ied in the real world by their properties.
Characteristics are quali�iers of concepts and narrow the meaning of a superordinate concept.
is abstracted into
Objects Concepts
is abstracted by
Properties Characteristics
In Figure 1 you can see the relation between objects and concepts that can be described as
follows:
A concept system is a set of concepts structured according to the relations among them.
one-word designation: a general language word used in a specialized way or a new word
created to represent a concept in a specialized field (e.g. treaty),
initialism: abbreviated form made up of the first letters of the elements of the
terminological unit (e.g. EU (European Union)),
acronym: abbreviated form created by combining initial letters or syllables from each or
some of the elements of the terminological unit e.g. surfactant (surface active agent),
A phraseological unit or collocation is technically speaking not a term, but can also be
included in a termbase since it is essential for translation purposes. In absence of specific data
6
ISO 704:2009, p 5.
11 Procedural Manual on Terminology
categories like phrase or collocation, phraseological units or collocations can be inserted in the
term field of a specific language.
! A term or terminological unit may be composed of one word, two or more words, an
abbreviation, or an appellation.
Concept orientation
Every entry in a terminological source should deal with one concept or a single appellation only.
Elementary nature7
In one data category field only one type of information should be included. This means that for
example in the data category “term” only a terminological unit should be inserted, and not also
the source information. The source information should be included in the data category “source”.
After having defined the data categories, the same type of information should always be
contained in the same data category, e.g. in the definition field always the definition, and in the
source field always the source, etc. (see also section 4).
Needs assessment,
Collecting resources,
Terminological research,
- Research for concept and term description in source language and documentation,
- Research for concept and term description in target language, contrastive analysis
and documentation,
Revision,
Quality assurance,
Maintenance,
Dissemination.
Some steps listed in this section might be considered more or less relevant, and may coincide, be
repeated, or even skipped altogether. They may be performed with the help of dedicated
software or manually9.
In the following �igure the translation-oriented terminology process is shown in relation to the
translation process as described in the document Working instructions. Process of translation,
coordination of the process of translation and linguistic revision10.
Needs assessment
Collecting resources
Elaboration of the
terminological entry
Expert / legal
revision
Terminological research
and documentation
Dissemination
Maintenance
Needs assessment is the process of identifying and evaluating needs in a defined community. A
need can be defined as a gap between the current situation and the desired situation. The
following four steps are essential assessing the needs in translation-oriented terminology work:
In the current situation needs assessment may be implemented to evaluate what kind of
terminology work is required, or what kind of specific activity within the terminology process is
necessary to resolve a certain problem.
In the following section different scenarios are described, in which the translation-oriented
terminology work is required either in its entirety, or only certain specific activities. The
description of the scenarios and their solutions in this section is by no means exhaustive and
may be adapted to new scenarios and upcoming problems. It may be also necessary to combine
different scenarios to achieve the desired result.
Scenario 1
Scenario 2
Scenario 3
Scenario 4
Scenario 5
Scenario 6
As stated in the beginning of this section, different scenarios can be combined, for example
Scenario 1 and Scenario 4 can be combined and applied for the same project. In this case, you
may combine the proactive and the ad-hoc terminology work within the same project.
! Scenarios can be combined, for example proactive and ad-hoc terminology work may be
applied within the same project, although at different stages.
There are different types of resources that can be used by terminology coordinators (this is a
task specific role, for further details see section 3), translator-terminologists, terminologists,
revisers and subject-matter experts to perform terminology work or revision of terminology
work.
There are different types of resources for translation oriented terminology work:
textual resources (e.g. legal documents, standards, textbooks, reports, electronic corpora,
websites),
experts12.
12 Cf. Hohnhold:1990.
17 Procedural Manual on Terminology
The relevance of the type of source depends on a series of factors: e.g. the aim, type and content
of terminology work and the problem to be solved.
When collecting resources, different criteria for assessing the relevance of the resource have to
be taken into account:
the criteria for evaluating a source, such as reliability, pertinence, objectivity and general
acceptance of the source in a specific domain,
the date of production and the author or the publishing house can also influence the
evaluation of a source.
Subject field experts can help to suggest and select relevant resources in a certain subject field.
Scenario 1 - unknown terminology in the source text that is not yet recorded in the
termbase: It is more useful to search in text resources of the source language to understand the
meaning and the concept of the unknown terminology than to look up straight away in a
bilingual or multilingual dictionary or glossary. This is because essential information to
understand the terminology, such as definitions, explanation, etc., is often not included in the
multilingual resources. If the search in all of the available resources was not successful, it might
be useful to ask an expert and use his expert knowledge in order to explain a concept.
Scenario 2 – unknown translation equivalence in the target language: If the meaning of the
terminology in the source text is clear but the translation equivalence is unknown, it is useful to
start searching in terminological resources, such as glossaries, termbases and dictionaries. If the
search is not successful, you may continue searching in text resources of the target language of
the relevant subject field.
The resources for the terminological research that are available in digital format should be
stored centrally in order to be easily accessible. There are different possibilities to organize
these resources. One possibility would be to create electronic folders on a shared drive
according to the subject fields already used in the termbase in MultiTerm. This means that each
folder would be named after a subject fields e.g. agriculture and rural development. Each folder –
in different sub-folders – would contain links to specialised glossaries or the glossaries
themselves, lists of abbreviations, previous texts on the same subject, articles containing similar
terminology, relevant national legislation texts, figures, maps and pictures for more technical
descriptions and any other useful information regarding the subject field in question.
A best practice example for the central storing and sharing of resources for the terminological
research are the so called “Termfolders” of the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European
Parliament. They are theme-based files (‘proactive terminology’) containing links to specialised
glossaries, previous texts on the same subject, any articles containing similar terminology, and
the relevant national legislation texts already in force in the Member States. These files are
18 Procedural Manual on Terminology
incorporated in the internal website of the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European
Parliament and made available to the translation units13.
Another possibility would be to collect links to useful monolingual, bilingual and multilingual
online dictionaries, termbases, glossaries and thesauri for the relevant subject fields, and make
them available on the intranet or on a shared drive.
A best practice example for collecting and sharing links of glossaries can be seen on the website
of Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament14.
! The resources for the terminological research that are available in digital format should be
stored centrally in order to be easily accessible.
Currently the recording of sources is applied in form 1. However, in the way the sources are
currently cited in the form, it is sometimes impossible to trace back the sources e.g. Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English. Without indicating the publishing year, edition and page
number, it is impossible to trace back the information. If the source is an online dictionary, the
link and the access date should be indicated.
For the recording of sources (e.g. laws, handbooks, dictionaries, websites, experts consulted) it is
essential to establish common citation criteria and rules.
For this reason, the most commonly used resources citation rules should be elaborated (see
examples below).
increase efficiency and facilitate the organization of terminology work and translation
process over time,
For laws, for example, you can use the official abbreviations, and for legal documents of
the EU you can use the CELEX number.
For handbooks, for example, you can use the following form:
Example
Example
For internet pages, for example, you can use the following form:
Example
! In order to trace back and identify the sources even at a later time, it is essential to establish
common citation criteria and rules.
20 Procedural Manual on Terminology
! The resources for the terminological research available in digital format, citation rules etc.,
should be collected and stored centrally in order to be easily accessible.
For the first method, term extraction and term selection coincide. An extra step of validating
potential terms is necessary only for the (semi-)automatic extracted terms.
There are different types of term extraction tools, using different methods (statistic based,
linguistically based and stop-word list based, or mixed methods) to extract terms from texts
(semi-)automatically. There are freely available open source products (e.g. AntConc17,
AntPConc18) or commercial products (e.g. MultiTerm Extract19)
Since the term extraction in the Sector is done manually, we focus only on the manual extraction
in this Manual.
In the case of ad-hoc terminology work, the term extraction is done during the translation
process by a single translator.
24.01.2015).
19 http://www.translationzone.com/de/products/sdl-multiterm/extract/ (accessed 24.01.2015).
21 Procedural Manual on Terminology
research of concept and term description in the source language in the relevant
resources,
In the proactive terminology work the terminological research and documentation is done
before the translation process by terminology groups. In the ad-hoc terminology work the
terminological research and documentation is done during the translation process by a single
translator.
2.2.4.1 Concept and term description in the source language and documentation
The terminological research starts at different points, depending on the needs of the translator.
If the translator does not know the target term, the terminological research starts with the
(re)search for the concept and term description (such as definition or explanation) in the
relevant resources. All the information gathered during this search is documented. This can be
carried out either directly in MultiTerm by elaborating a new entry or editing an existing entry,
or by documenting the research results as an intermediate step in another way, for example in
an Excel spreadsheet.
Translator-terminologists in the Sector do not work directly in MultiTerm, which means that
their research is documented in other ways. For the documentation of the research results we
recommend to use standardized spreadsheets. In these standardized spreadsheets the header
field of each column should correspond to the label of the data category fields in the MultiTerm
database. For example for the source information of the term the header field should be
TermRef. This procedure allows an easier and less time-consuming batch import of the terms
and related information at later stages. With this approach the time consuming work of
collecting and importing the information from Word forms into an Excel spreadsheet can be
omitted.
It is recommended that the compiled spreadsheet is shared among the translators working on
the same project. It can also be shared with the other translators.
This approach allows for easier change of terminology in all documents, which was changed or
corrected by revisers, terminologists or experts, because the terminology was already used
consistently.
2.2.4.2 Researching the term, concept and term description in the target language,
contrastive analysis and documentation
After having researched the target term, the translator-terminologist searches for terms and
term descriptions (e.g. definitions, explanations, context) in the target language. Then the
22 Procedural Manual on Terminology
At the end of the research, all the information should be documented in the standardized
spreadsheet.
As stated above the terminological research starts at different points, according to the needs of
the translator-terminologist. If the source term is already known to the translator-terminologist,
the terminological research can also start with the search for the concept and term in the target
language.
During their work, translator-terminologist, revisers and terminologists have to deal on the one
hand with terminology from different subject fields, and on the other hand also with legal
terminology. Due to the nature of law, legal terminology has some peculiarities that differentiate
it, for example, from railway engineering terminology. In the following section, we will describe
shortly some peculiarities of legal terminology and what kind of consequences they might have
on the translation-oriented terminology work.
Legal concepts, as concepts in general, are formed by abstraction of the general features from a
large number of objects. The peculiarity is the fact that the objects are often already an
abstraction, e.g. legal capacity, theft, warranty. Legal concepts are often the result of long
discussions between the general public, politicians, law consultants, legislative bodies etc. on
real-life situations with the aim of regulating these situations by law.20
are system-bound, i.e. they originate from a system of social, cultural and moral values,
As a consequence of the fact that legal concepts are system-bound and culture-specific, legal
terminology is also system-bound and culture-specific. Legal terminology is the expression of a
specific culture. It is deeply connected to the legal system it belongs to and is strongly influenced
by cultural, social and economic factors. Legal terms evolve together with these factors, which
vary from time to time as they keep up with prevailing values. Legal terminology is also the
20 Sandrini:1996.
21 Sandrini:1996.
23 Procedural Manual on Terminology
instrument within legal discourse that gives rise to legal effects.22 For this reason legal
terminology needs to be as precise, correct and clear as possible, especially in multilingual
environments (e.g. the EU), to ensure the possibility of expressing exactly the same legal
concepts, contexts and rules in more than one language.
Due to the peculiarities of legal concepts and legal terminology, i.e. that they are system-bound
and culture-specific, it is nearly impossible that there an absolute equivalence between different
legal frameworks could exist. Therefore translators, translator-terminologists and
terminologists, working with legal terminology are mostly confronted with partial equivalence
or with functional equivalence. In order to find or to establish a functional equivalence, it is
important that translators, translator-terminologists and terminologists posses or acquire the
knowledge on the legal context of the source and the target legal system in addition to the
linguistic and culture knowledge about the source and target languages.23
For the purpose of better understanding legal terms, terminologists and translator-
terminologists usually apply the method of micro-comparison used in comparative law. Micro-
comparison allows to place and thus to better understand a concept within its own legal reality
as well as to assess its transferability from a source to a target legal system. For the macro-
comparison the terminologist or translator-terminologist uses reference material that native
legal experts would use (legislation, legal theory, case law, etc.) in order to find out any
similarities and differences between the source and target languages and legal systems. This
allows them to establish a functional equivalent and to convey the meaning of a term in an
efficient and correct way from a linguistic and legal point of view, taking into account also the
communicative effect.24 Sometimes it might be better to create a new term to avoid wrong
associations with concepts from the target language legal system. According to the Guideline
5.3.2 of the Joint Practical Guide (2013)25 “[…] the use of expressions and phrases – in particular
legal terms – that are too specific to a particular language or national legal system, will increase
the risk of translation problems” and therefore “legal terminology, terms which are too closely
linked to a particular national legal system should be avoided.” (See also section 5.3)
! Legal concepts and legal terminology are system-bound and culture-specific and therefore
when comparing different legal systems and languages it is nearly impossible to find absolute
equivalents. Partial and functional equivalents are the rule.
2.2.5 Revision
When the translation-oriented terminology work is performed directly in the termbase, without
an intermediate step in a spreadsheet format, the revision process only succeeds the elaboration
of terminological entries, as before this task there are no records to be revised.
In the specific situation in the Sector, the terminological research and documentation is not
performed in the termbase, but is documented in Excel spreadsheets. As a consequence, the
revision process starts immediately after the terminological research and documentation
process, and before the elaboration of the terminological entries in the Sector’s termbase.
language revision,
content revision,
expert/legal revision26.
In the workflow in the Sector, the first three revisions are usually performed before the
elaboration of the terminological entries, even though they could be performed also at other
points in the workflow, such as in the maintenance phase as a part of the quality assurance.
The expert/legal revision is usually done after the elaboration of the terminological entries.
In the scope of the language revision (also called linguistic revision) the reviser performs the
following checks:
The reviser
checks if the source and target terms fit in the given context,
checks if conventions set out in the style guide have been applied.
checks if the source and the target language terms can be considered equivalents,
checks if the provided information is complete (source term, target term, sources,
definition, etc.),
checks the language attribution, i.e. the terms contained are filed under the right
language,
checks if the definition is formulated according the formal criteria for writing definitions
(see section 4),
checks the elementary nature of data categories, i.e. if only one type of information is
contained in on data category field (for example, the term field should only contain one
term and not also its synonyms. For each synonym a separate, single data category field
has to be filled in.),
checks if the information is under the correct data category field, i.e. if the source
information of the target term is in the data category field TermRef and not in the data
category field Definition, for example.
In this Manual the expert revision is understood as the revision by a subject-field expert in a
specific domain other than legal domain, e.g. an expert in chemistry. In the scope of this Manual,
the legal revision is the revision by a legal expert.
The expert:
checks if the source and the target language terms can be considered equivalents,
Since the expert/legal revision takes place after the elaboration of the terminological entries, the
experts should receive an export of the relevant terminological entries in addition to the original
texts and translation. This will allow them concentrating on the revision of the terminological
content.
With this method an entry is manually created for each entry in the data base (see also section
6.1) and manually filled with the relevant information. This means that each data category field
is edited manually and the information is typed into the relevant data category field, or the
relevant information is selected from a pick list. At the end the entry is saved manually.
With this method information is manually changed or added in an already existing entry (see
also section 6.1)
For the further details on what kind of information can be contained in a terminological entry,
see section 4.
! A terminological entry has to fulfil some minimal criteria that have to be established. It is
recommended that at least source language term, term source, target language term, term
source and subject field are contained in a terminological entry.
Please refer to the section 7, Quality and quality assurance in terminology work.
2.2.8 Maintenance
Managing a database requires regular data maintenance and updating. In these Guidelines,
maintenance is a set of proactive activities, which are designed to keep a termbase serving its
purpose31. There are several tasks that can be performed in order to maintain terminological
resources, such as:
batch changes,
data backup32.
doublettes
frequency daily
manner manually
(semi-)automatically
to manually update existing entries to keep the data current (update definition, update
context, update terms, add new terms, synonyms, variants),
to merge entries
in batches.
This can be done either by adding manually single entries or by batch import. For details see
section 2.2.6.
For the purpose of this Manual a backup is a copy of terminological data that is archived in
order to be used when restoring the original after a data loss event or to recover data from an
earlier time.
to recover data from an earlier time, for specific purposes (e.g. comparison between old
and new data etc.).
! Terminological data backup should be done on a regular basis (e.g. daily, weekly), or at least
after changes have been made in the termbase.
! The maintenance of the termbase should be performed regularly. Dedicated tools may speed
up or perform some of the processes (semi-)automatically.
30 Procedural Manual on Terminology
2.2.9 Dissemination
The results of terminology work can be made available via different types of publication
channels. Typically, terminology is published in:
the online TermBase accessible through an internet terminology portal available under
http://tcu.sep.gov.mk/eutc/faces/eutc/search/corpusSimple.jsp,
An aspect that might become relevant after the accession to the EU is the importing of the
elaborated Macedonian terminology into IATE, the EU's inter-institutional terminology database.
The responsible unit for IATE should be contacted for the data import and an import procedure
should be established. It will be necessary to analyse and check the interoperability of the data
model of the Macedonian termbase prepared by the Sector, and the IATE’s data model. Since
IATE is an evolving termbase, it is also subject to changes. The data models have to be checked
and compared shortly before the intended import date. After that the data has to be prepared for
the export, followed by the actual the data export.
! Publication and dissemination of terminological data is a crucial step in ensuring that the
product reaches the intended end-users. In order to attract the intended users and to ensure
that the resources are used by them, the published terminology has to be regularly updated,
especially via the online TermBase.
3 Roles
This section outlines the roles represented in the terminology process of translation-oriented
terminology work. The roles illustrated in this section are task specific. As the terminology work
in the Sector is translation-oriented, it is an inherent part of the translation process.
The description of task-specific roles and may be adapted according to the availability of human
resources, and posts described in the Act of Systematization of Posts. One role is not necessarily
bound to one singular post or person only, but can be shared among more people in the team
(e.g. the tasks of the role ‘translator-terminologist’ would be ideally carried out by all
translators). Likewise, one person does not carry out only one role, but can be involved in the
terminology work in different roles (e.g. one person carries out the role of the terminologist and
the reviser; the coordinator who manages the translation work also carries out the tasks of the
role ‘terminology coordinator’ as terminology work underlies the translation work.). Any
changes in the translation processes and translation work procedures will also affect the
terminology work. If this is the case, there may be a need for an adaptation and re-evaluation of
roles.
3.1 Terminologists
Terminologists are familiar with practical terminology work and terminology theory. They are
responsible for the research and documentation of designations used in one or more specific
domains. This is done in one or more languages.
The products of their work are terminological resources containing terms and other concept-
related or term-related information.
Terminologists may:
consult written sources (laws, text corpora, handbooks, etc.) or subject-matter, to collect
information on a specific domain/term,
find equivalents in the target language,
make terminological resources available in one or more languages,
clean and update terminological resources,
use specific software such as terminology management systems (e.g. SDL MultiTerm),
cooperate in the planning, data modelling and evaluation of termbases,
edit or proofread texts from a terminological point of view,
exchange information with all roles involved in the terminology workflow (translators,
subject-matter experts, terminology coordinators, IT staff, users, etc.),
regularly assess the quality of terminological data collected by other roles and give
feedback,
cooperate in collecting expressions of need from all types of users,
train new staff members in terminology-related matters.
The terminologist may also carry out the role of terminology manager.
input: insertion of data into the terminology management system (e.g. SDL MultiTerm),
data manipulation: consolidate and prepare Excel-file for a seamless import into the
terminology management system (e.g. SDL MultiTerm),
import batches: incorporation of data from a suitably prepared Excel-file,
access: retrieval of data from the system for various purposes.
export: copying of data into an external file, with or without prior modification, for the
purposes of use in another program (e.g. the Sectors’s online TermBase),
modification: any changes made to data; modification may be further divided into
addition, deletion, substitution, merging, etc.,
backup: making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to restore the
original after a data loss event.
33 Procedural Manual on Terminology
3.2 Translator-terminologists
In the case of the Sector, the scope of translators’ role is two-fold. On the one hand they are
translators proper, who act as users of terminological products, and on the other hand they are
translator-terminologists, who conduct terminological research, form new terms, document
terminology, etc. Apart from the translation, the product of their work is an extraction of terms
with a documented terminological research in a form and format that allows traceable and
streamlined processing by the reviser and terminologist.
Translator-terminologists may:
Staff with management-related expertise who are familiar with terminology work, and have
specific project management skills (e. g. acquisition, planning, managing processes, roles, and
activities), or in the case of the Sector, the Head of the Unit for Revision and Terminology or
Deputy Head of the Sector.
In the case of translation-oriented terminology work, they are ideally also involved in
coordinating translation activities.
34 Procedural Manual on Terminology
3.4 Revisers
Revisers are usually experienced translators, with a solid knowledge and skills in terminology
work. They also act as quality controllers. Revision is not just a simple technical verification, nor
is it a proofreading exercise. The revisers are not only in charge of the revision of translations,
but also of the revision of the terminology. Revision involves reviewing both the form and the
content of each record (accuracy of the equivalence, presence of a textual match in the source
and target texts, accuracy of subject fields, sources, etc.).
Revisers may:
revise linguistically,
revise according to the formal requirements in terminology work for the Sector (act as a
quality controller; see section 7.3.3),
ensure terminological consistency of the translated text,
ensure terminological consistency of the translated text and the terminological records,
35 Procedural Manual on Terminology
consult written sources (laws, text corpora, handbooks, etc.) or subject-matter experts,
to collect information on a specific domain/term in source and target language,
find equivalents in the target language, if needed,
propose and form new terms in target language, if needed,
propose definitions, if needed,
document the results of the revision of the terminology, and any terminological research
in the form and format designated for this purpose,
give feedback to translators,
give feedback on the quality of terminology products.
Subject-field experts are experts in one or more specific subject fields that are being treated.
They act mainly as consultants and revisers. They should be guided by lists of items to be
checked, previously prepared by the terminologists. They should be introduced on the objective
and target users of terminology work.
help finding or select source material for terminology extraction and terminology work,
offer information when consulted by terminologists on specific matters,
create definitions, if needed, especially in their native language,
revise terms, definitions, synonyms/variants, notes or fully fledged terminological
entries,
create, review or validate terminological proposals.
Legal experts work together with subject-field experts and are indispensable in legal translation
and legal terminology work. Legal experts are familiar with the principles of legal language and
legal drafting. They should be instructed on the objective and target users of terminology work.
help finding or select source material for terminology extraction and terminology work
related to legal terms,
offer information when consulted by terminologists on specific matters,
create definitions, if needed, especially in their native language,
revise terms, definitions, synonyms/variants, notes or fully fledged terminological
entries,
create, review or validate terminological proposals,
compare the source document and translation, and revise the translation from the
viewpoint pertinent to legal language,
advice on issues going beyond terminology work, such as phraseology, syntax, etc. in
legal language.
! All experts should be instructed on the objective and target users of terminology work, and
should receive clear instructions what is expected from them in order to ensure a streamlined
and time-efficient process with clear and useful results.
3.7 IT experts
Staff with expertise in information technology, who are in charge of taking care of administering,
maintaining and developing tools for terminology work and related tasks.
help finding, evaluating, installing, fine-tuning, training and adapting existing tools and
tools that might be implemented in the future, e. g. for term extraction, text corpus
management, terminology management tools, tools for terminology dissemination,
workflow-assisting tools, etc.
Users are people who consult terminological products for their own purposes. Typical users can
be translators, domain experts or legal drafters.
As a subset of data is available via the online interface, the users of this terminology data and
their background can be very diverse. In addition to translators, domain experts or legal
drafters, they can range from the general public interested in EU-related matters, to journalists,
students, etc.
4 Data categories
Data categories are groupings of data with common characteristics or features. A data category
is the result of the specification of a given data field in a termbase35, e.g. definition, source,
context.
Data categories are standardised according to ISO 12620: 1999 and ISO 12620: 2009. The data
categories can also be found in the ISOcat Data Category Registry36.
In the following section, some general aspects concerning data categories are discussed and
commonly used data categories in termbases are described according to ISOcat.
Only one type of information should be included in one data category field, e.g. in the data
category “term” only a terminological unit should be inserted, but not also the source
information. The source information should be included in the data category “source”. This
principle is also called elementary of nature.
After having defined the data categories, the same type of information should be always
contained in the same data category, e.g. the definition always in the definition field, the source
always in the source field, etc.
4.1 Term
The data category Term is assigned to data that represent a verbal designation of a concept in a
specific subject field. In the term field terms or terminological units (one word designations,
multi-word designations, or abbreviations etc. see section 2.1) or the relevant language are
contained37,
In absence of a specific data category like phrase or collocations also phraseological units and
collocations are contained in the term field.
! A term or terminological unit may be composed of one word, two or more words, an
abbreviation, or an appellation.
4.2 Definition
The data category Definition is assigned to data that represent a concept by a descriptive
statement that serves to differentiate it from related concepts38.
EN
Term: bicycle
Definition: land-vehicle used for transportation, having two wheels, a frame and a seat,
which is pedal-driven and human-powered
EN
Subject field: transportation
Term: wheel
Definition: The wheel of a bicycle consists of hub, spokes, rim and tyre.
Source: COTSOES:2003, p. 28
! Intensional definitions shall include the superordinate concept immediately above, followed
by the delimiting characteristics. In practice, intentional definitions should be used whenever
possible as they most clearly reveal the characteristics of a concept within a concept system.41
Reference to a system: the definition inserts the concept into a concept system.
Example
bicycle: land-vehicle used for transportation, having two wheels, a frame and a seat,
which is pedal-driven and human-powered43
Conciseness: the definition is concise, clear, and brief but still containing all the essential
distinguishing characteristics.
Example
original definition44:
Term: ageing
Definition: Gradual rise in strength due to physical change in metals and alloys, in which
there is breakdown from supersaturated solid solution and lattice precipitation over a
period of days at atmospheric temperature.
Term: ageing
Definition: Gradual rise in strength due to physical change in metals and alloys.
Term: ageing
Definition: Rise in strength in metals and alloys in which there is a breakdown from
super-saturated solid solution.”
Affirmativeness: the definition states what the concept is, rather than what it is not.
Example45
Term: trailer
Noncircularity: the definition does not use words whose definitions refer back to the
concept in question, nor does it begin with the term itself.
Example46
Term: textiles
Absence of tautology - the definition is not a paraphrase of the term, but rather a
description of the semantic features of the concept. Avoid the following:
Example
Term: textiles
Substitutability-Use of term of the same part of speech that - the definition begins with
a term of the same part of speech as the term being defined so that the term can be
replaced by the definition within text without changing the sentence.
Start with a term that refers to the class the concept belongs to, usually a generic or
superordinate term.
Use a generic or superordinate term of the same part of speech as the term that has to be
defined.
Write as brief and clear as possible but still include all the main distinguishing
characteristics.
According to ISOCat, the data category Subject Field is assigned to data that represent a field of
special knowledge. This data category is also known under Domain or Subject48. Usually the
Subject Field data category field is designed as a picklist.
4.4 Note
According to ISOCat, the data category Note contains a statement that provides further
information on any part of a language resource entry49.. This data category is also known under
comment or remark50
The following data categories are actually used in the Sector’s termbase:
Term
The data category Term is assigned to data that represents a verbal designation of a concept in a
specific subject field. In the term field terms or terminological units (one word designations,
multi-word designations, or abbreviations etc. see 2.1) in the relevant language are contained. In
absence of a specific data category, like phrase or collocation, phraseological units and
collocations are also contained in the term field.
TermRef
The data category TermRef is assigned to data that contain the source information of the source
language term or the target language term.
Subject
The data category Subject is reserved for data that contain the information on what kind of
subject field the term belongs to or under what kind of subject field the term can be filed. In the
Sector’s MultiTerm termbase the data category field Subject is designed as a picklist
corresponding to the chapters of the Acquis.
Definition
The data category Definition is assigned to data that represent a concept by a descriptive
statement which serves to differentiate it from related concepts.
So far this data category was mostly used to define the concept in the source language, i.e.
English.
DefinitionRef
The data category DefinitionRef is assigned to data that represent the source information of the
definition.
Context
The data category Context is assigned to text (e.g. a sentence) that illustrates a concept or the
use of a designation.
Gender
The data category Gender, corresponding to the ISOCat data category Grammatical Gender, is
a grammatical category that indicates grammatical relationships between words in sentences.
! The concept of gender varies from language to language and is not a universal feature of all
languages 51
Reliability
The data category Reliability represents a code assigned to a data category or record indicating
adjudged accuracy and completeness52. In ISOCat the data category is called Reliablity Code. In
the Sector, the reliability depends on the workflow steps in the translation process (from MK 1
to MK 4).
! When importing data into IATE, it has to be taken into account that the data category
! IATE is not a static termbase, which means that it is permanently improved and updated. At
the time of the import an analysis and a check of the interoperability of the data models of the
Sector’s termbase and IATE should be performed.
! The minimum criteria for an entry should be source language term, target language term,
domain/subject field and term source for source and target language.
This section outlines the strategies and techniques, which may be implemented in cases of
terms, for which no equivalent can be found in the target language.
5.1 Equivalence
Complete equivalence exists if two terms, A and B are identical in each and every characteristic
of the concept.
[A = B]
5.1.2 Inclusion
[A+B’]
This degree of conceptual equivalence exists if two terms are identical in some, but not all,
characteristics of the concept.
[A≈B]
54 ISO 1087-1:2000, p. 9.
55 Arntz/Picht/Mayer:2002.
45 Procedural Manual on Terminology
[A ≠ B]
If searching for an equivalent in the target language renders no results, the translator-
terminologist may use one of the following strategies56:
1. No translation of the term, or only a transliteration from the source language (borrowing).
2. Description of the term in the target language.
3. Neologism, e.g. term formation.
Term formation is of major interest to terminologists and translators, but also to subject �ield
specialists. It is of particular signi�icance to translators who work with languages of lesser
distribution, such as Macedonian, where the lack of adequately developed reference tools such as
specialized dictionaries and glossaries often compels them to become neologists.
56 De Groot:1999, p. 27.
46 Procedural Manual on Terminology
Depending on the motivation for term formation, it can be distinguished between primary and
secondary term formation, which are exposed to different influences. Primary term formation
occurs when a newly created concept has to be named. Primary creation accompanies the
formation of a concept and is monolingual.
Primary term formation results from the appearance of concepts in various disciplines and is
influenced by existing patterns of term formation in the relevant discipline. In primary term
formation, there is no linguistic precedent, although rules for forming terms usually exist in the
given language.
Secondary formation occurs when a new term is created for an existing concept in the following
three cases:
In secondary term formation, there is always a precedent of an existing term in another language.
! Special attention should be paid to term formation with translation as the main motivation:
The same term creation patterns in different languages can result in different meanings. A term
created with the same term creation technique in two languages might describe a narrower or
broader concept in the target language as in the source language.
The following term formation techniques are applied in English, and are apt to be applied in
other languages as well:
Existing forms can be used to create new terms by techniques such as conversion,
terminologization, semantic transfer and transdisciplinary borrowing.
Using existing forms might lead to homonymy, and as a result lead to confusion and ambiguity.
However, the use of existing terms in new combinations (e.g. compounding, derivation) can be
useful in creating new forms.
5.5.1 Conversion
New terms can be created by changing the syntactic category of existing forms.
Examples
5.5.2 Terminologization
Examples
circuit
[electrotechnical field]: an arrangement of devices through which electric current can flow
Semantic transfer is the process whereby an existing term within a special language is used to
designate another concept by analogous extension. The following techniques of semantic transfer
can be used:
Simile: Designation of a concept by analogy with a different, better known or familiar concept.
Examples
track-type bulldozer
Synecdoche: This is a very productive technique of utilizing existing forms. In synecdoche, the
whole is used for the part, and vice versa, the material for the object, and vice versa, the building
for the people who are in it, etc.
48 Procedural Manual on Terminology
Example
Screen
In transdisciplinary borrowing, a term from one subject field is borrowed and attributed to a new
concept in another subject field within the same language.
The characteristics of the concepts in the two fields are usually comparable by analogy.
Example
Virus
[computer science]: virus (computer program which replicates itself, and causes
malfunction)
A new form is the creation of a new lexical entity that has not existed before. Formation
processes such as derivation, compounding or abbreviation can be used to create new forms for
terms or appellations.
5.6.1 Derivation
The derivation process involves forming a new term by adding one or more morphological
elements, or affixes, to a root or a word.
Examples
A derivational suffix usually applies to words of one syntactic category (e.g. grammatical
function) and changes them into words of another syntactic category.
Examples
Derivational affixes don’t necessarily modify the syntactic category, but they can modify the
meaning of the base. In many cases, derivational affixes change both the syntactic category and
the meaning.
Example
5.6.2 Compounding
Compounding involves combining existing words, or word elements, to create a new form that
contains two or more roots, but designates a single concept.
complex terms,
phrases,
or blends.
The elements of the complex term or phrase may be joined by a hyphen or by fusing, or may not
be joined at all.
Examples
Blends result from fusing two or more words, after one or more of them have been clipped. The
formation of blends uses a combination of two processes, compounding after clipping.
Examples
When the combining of words involves an essential characteristic from the intension of the
concept, the compound is considered a transparent term. A term is considered transparent when
the concept it designates can be inferred, at least partially, without a definition. This means that
the meaning is visible in its morphology. To make a term transparent, a key characteristic, usually
a delimiting characteristic is used in the creation of the term itself.
5.6.3 Abbreviation
Shortening the word or words designating a concept can create new abbreviated forms. The
original long term is called the full or expanded form.
50 Procedural Manual on Terminology
Good writing practice dictates that both the full form of a term and the abbreviated form be
indicated the first time a potentially unfamiliar abbreviated form is used in a text. In general, an
abbreviated form should be easy to pronounce.
short forms,
clipped terms,
abbreviations,
initialisms, and
acronyms.
A very long complex term or appellation can be reduced. The short form uses fewer words to
designate the same concept.
Example
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy High
Representative
Truncating the front, middle or back portion of a simple term forms a clipped term. Both ends
may also be truncated.
Example
influenza flu
Abbreviations are created by omitting words and/or parts of a word making up a term. In some
cases, the first letter of a word can suffice. In others, the first letters of short phrases are grouped
together. Abbreviations usually end with a full stop.
Example
et cetera etc.
Initialisms are abbreviations created by using the first letter (or sound) of each or some of the
elements of a complex term or appellation. Initialisms are always pronounced letter by letter.
Example
Acronyms are abbreviations created by combining initial letters or syllables from each or some of
the elements of the full form. The new designation is pronounced syllabically like a word.
Example
Example
51 Procedural Manual on Terminology
Existing terms or concepts in one language can be introduced into another language by
borrowing, either by direct loan or loan translation.
Existing terms are frequently adopted from one language to another if there is no current term
for the concept in the second language. The borrowed term usually follows the linguistic rules
(pronunciation, spelling, inflection) in the borrowing language.
Examples
Loan translation is the process whereby the morphological elements of a foreign term are
translated, then arranged in the target language in an order similar or nearly similar to that of the
morphological components of the source term in order to form a new term.
Example
In general it can be said that when a geographical name does not serve the reader to give precise
indication how to get to the site, but only for benchmarking, the translator should transliterate
the geographical name into Cyrillic. The size or the reputation of the geographical object is not
relevant in this case.
The main question that the translators should ask is: "Is there any reason to expect that the
reader will try to identify place only or mainly with the translated document?” If this is the case, it
is recommended that the names remain in the original spelling.
Example
This legislative document lists the names of the zones, i.e. geographical entities (e.g.
Øster Å, Valle della Sorna, etc.), which have been approved by the European
Commission in regard to certain fish diseases. Translators can expect that an
employee, who receives a load confirmation sheet, or a similar document, will
compare the geographical names in this document and in the legislative act on
which it is based, and will need to correctly identify the approved zones.
In general it can be said that when a personal name does not serve the reader to easily and
unmistakably identify the person in question, but only for benchmarking, the translator should
transliterate the personal name into Cyrillic.
However, if the document lists a personal name and translators can expect that the document will
be used to identify the person, e.g. at the border control, application for visa, or in similar
situation, it is recommended that the names remain in the original spelling. There may be certain
standard procedures for specific types of documents, and if this is the case translators should
adhere to the rules stated in those procedures.
Example
The instructions for the European Arrest Warrant are stated in the European
handbook on how to issue a European Arrest Warrant and foresee the following for
personal names:
53 Procedural Manual on Terminology
„Name: Comment: obligatory field. Include previous official name, if known, and
write the name as it is in national language, name should not be translated.“57
57Revised version of the European handbook on how to issue a European Arrest Warrant, 17195/1/10
REV 1 COPEN 275 EJN 72 EUROJUST 139, p. 57.
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=en&f=ST%2017195%202010%20REV%201 (accessed
01.12.2014).
54 Procedural Manual on Terminology
The following tools are used for translation process and terminology work in the Sector: SDL
MultiTerm 2014 and SDL Trados Studio Version 2014. MultiTerm is a terminology management
software and allows to collect, to edit, to store, to manage terminological data, to search for
terminological data, and to publish terminological data. SDL Trados Studio is a translation
memory software, a translation environment for computer aided translation.
Within the scope of the SDL products in general, a function in the SDL Trados Studio allows to
add terms directly into the MultiTerm termbase. There are also the “Add New Term” option and
the “Quick Add New Term” option, which might be worth considering. A new “Quick Add New
Term” option automatically adds and saves the term(s) you highlight (in source and target
segments) to the default termbase. However, these functions are currently not use in the Sector
and the full potential of the tool is not adopted, mostly due to the infrastructure limitations.
In the following section, different activities and tasks in the translation oriented terminology
work are described in relation to the SDL Multiterm58, SDL Multiterm Convert59, and SDL Trados
Studio60 .
6.1 MultiTerm61
6.1.1 Entries
The information recorded in a terminological entry is subdivided into data categories (see
section 4).
Creating an entry feature is used for adding ad-hoc terminology during the elaboration of
terminological entries or maintenance. While batch import allows importing more terms/entries
in one go, by creating an entry only one entry at a time is manually created and filled with the
relevant content.
This feature is useful, when it is necessary to urgently insert a new term and you cannot wait
until you have collected more terms (e.g. in a spread sheet) and do a batch import.
To create a termbase entry62, you will need to have the appropriate access rights. At the moment
the terminologist/terminology manager has the appropriate access rights to create a termbase
entry.
to choose a layout that displays the fields the entry needs to include,
Then
Add content to the chosen data categories e.g. TermRef (see section 4).
! The minimum criteria for an entry should be source term, target term, domain and term
During different steps of terminology work it may be necessary to edit an entry. It may happen
that an entry is incomplete and you have to add new information. It may also happen that an
entry contains incorrect information or information in the wrong data category fields, thus the
entry has to be edited. It may also be that a term becomes obsolete and as a consequence the
entry has to be changed, e.g. labelling the obsolete term and adding the new established term.
Editing an entry may happen during the review phase, during quality assurance or during
maintenance.
When working with the SDL MultiTerm you have to follow the following steps63:
Add data categories by clicking on the down arrow next to a data category label. This
displays a list of the data categories which can be added below the data category.
Click the data category label and press delete on the keyboard to delete the data category
in this entry.
! Deleting a data category also deletes any subordinate data category that is under that data
category.
6.1.3 Filters
A filter is a method to select a subset of entries for display. For example, a filter can select
predefined data categories from the whole existing data categories in this entry, i.e. a filter
contains one or more rules. A filter rule compares the entries against a reference value. When
you apply a filter, the application program displays or processes only those entries that match
the rules.
Filters can be used in the review and maintenance phase as well as for the quality assurance
routines.
Select the termbase for which you want to define the filter.
Click Next.
Advanced filter containing multiple rules combining them together using AND and OR.
Click Next.
o For advanced filters: To add a rule to the list, click on the green + button.
Check the Or box to add OR before the rule. If you do not check it, AND is added.
To remove a rule, select the rule and click the red x button.
Highlight a termbase.
Select the filter using the drop-down in the search tool bar.
An input model provides you with a template for creating and editing termbase entries. Since the
Sector’s termbase contains a lot of data categories that are actually not used, it is easier to create
and edit termbase entries when only the commonly used data categories are visible and editable.
In order to work with the input-models in the SDL Multiterm, first an input-model has to be
created.
Select the termbase for which you want to define the input model.
Select Input Models in the navigation tree under the termbase name.
Right-click on Input Models > Create (Input Model Wizard will be opened)
Click Next.
Click Next.
Identify the data category fields that you want to include in your input model. When this
input model is active, these will be the visible and editable data category fields when
creating or editing entries.
Start selecting data categories. By selecting any language you specify data category field
for all language by choosing a specific language you specify data categories for that
specific language. The data category “Term” is added automatically.
Continue adding data category fields by right-clicking. Preview. This button is to see how
the structure of the input model will look like.Click Next.Click Finish. Using an Input
Model67
Go to Home tab and select an input model from the drop-down list in the Input Model
box.
Click the Full form input model button, below the drop down list, to choose between full
form and shot form input models.
! In the case that not all the data category fields selected in the input model are shown, check if
any filters are applied. The filters overrule the input models in SDL MultiTerm.
6.1.5 Import68
With this function you can do a batch import of spreadsheet that had already been converted
with the SDL MultiTerm Convert.
In the Sector this function is very important, because most of the terminology work is done
outside of the SDL MultiTerm on spreadsheets, which means that the data has to be imported
into the MultiTerm termbase at a later stage.
You have set an appropriate filter for the data. This will allow you to restrict the entries you
import.
The import definition is used to specify the import settings you want to use for the import. These
settings can be saved in the import definition and reused.
Select Save import settings when closing the wizard box. If you do not select, your chosen
settings will not be saved.
If you want the import to take place before the wizard closes, select Run import before
closing the wizard. To just create the import definition and not import, de-select this box.
Proceed to Importing.
6.1.5.2 Importing
If you have not yet created an import definition, right-click on Import and select Create.
If you already have one, select it from the list in the right-hand window. Then select
Home > Process... (the Import Wizard will be opened).
Select Fast Import (import file is fully compliant with the MultiTerm XML) if you do not
want validation checks to be performed on the entries in the import file.
Select Perform full reorganisation after import if, for example, you are updating an
existing termbase with new/changed data and are experiencing problems. It may be that
you are getting errors after the import such as unwanted duplicates or the fuzzy search
is not working correctly. Selecting this option rebuilds the indexes from scratch directly
in the import wizard and prevents the need for a full manual reorganization after import.
If you want to apply a filter to the entries in the import file, select Apply Filter and choose
a filter from the drop down list.
Click Next.
If you selected Fast Import, the Advanced Options - Synchronize on Entry Number page
is displayed.
If you did not select Fast Import, the Validation Settings page is displayed.
This tool is used for batch imports. The tools converts terminogy data contained in different file
formats into a format that is readable by a MultiTerm database i.e. MultiTerm XML format
(MTF.XML). SDL MultiTerm Convert supports the following file formats:
MultiTerm 5 ( MTW files), OLIF XML (Open Lexicon Interchange Format), SDL Termbase
Desktop (TDB files), SDL Termbase Online (MDB files), CSV files, XLS files, TBX files (Termbase
eXchange format).
70http://producthelp.sdl.com/SDL_Multiterm_2014/client_en/SDL_Multiterm.htm?s=null (accessed
02.12.2014).
61 Procedural Manual on Terminology
! When importing an Excel file make sure that the header field of each column has the same
label as the corresponding field in the SDL MultiTerm termbase.
Click the Start button in Windows, and select All Programs > SDL > SDL MultiTerm 2014
> SDL MultiTerm 2014 Convert.
Choose the files to convert. The output files will be automatically generated.
Once the conversion is complete, you have to Import the data into SDL MultiTerm.
It is possible for the translator to directly add terms from the original and the translated term to
a MultiTerm termbase from the translation suite SDL Trados Studio. These functions are
currently not used in the Sector, mostly due to the issues relating to the infrastructure, the roles
and their responsibilities, and the role management in MultiTerm.
In the following section, we describe how to add new terms to the MultiTerm termbase in SDL
Trados Studio from your active translation project in the Editor view74.
There are two options of adding a new term to the active termbase:
With this function you can add not only new terms and their translations but also fill in
information in other data categories. Afterwards you have to save the new entry manually via
the Save this Entry button.
If you have already created a translation for the term, then select the term translation in
the target segment in the Editor window.
Click on the term translation and select Home tab > Add New Term.
A new entry is created and displayed, containing the source term and the target term.
For editing other data categories click on the data category label or double-click inside
the data category field. This opens the field for editing.
Make the required changes and click outside the field or press Enter to close the data
category field.
For editing of not already displayed data categories, click each down arrow to display a
list of data category fields which are subordinated.
When you have finished editing the entry, click Save this Entry. The new entry is saved
to the termbase and displayed in the entry window.
This function adds new source and target terms to the active termbase by one click without
entering the Term Edit mode or manually saving the entry.
With this function only a new source and target term can be added. Other data categories, such
as Definition, Source etc., cannot be reviewed and filled with information.
If you already have a target language term, select the target term in the target segment in
the Editor.
Click on the target language term and select Home tab > Quick Add New Term.
If you don’t yet have a target language terms, click on the source language term and
select Home tab > Quick Add New Term.
If the selected term already exists in the termbase, a prompt is displayed asking you if you want
to edit the existing termbase entry:
Click Yes to open the existing entry in Term Edit mode in the Termbase Viewer window.
Click Cancel to not create a new entry or open the existing entry.
Terminology-oriented work is an integral mechanism for ensuring and controlling the quality of
translation products. This also implicates that the quality and control of terminology work itself
has to be monitored and controlled. That is why the quality assurance and control of
terminology work has to entail planned procedures, which have to be performed and re-
evaluated on a regular basis, and documented accordingly.
Quality is an elusive concept. In the absence of some universal all-embracing view, quality can be
generally assessed from three different but complementary perspectives:
For the purpose of defining quality and quality assurance, definitions from ISO 8402:1994, an
international standard on quality management and quality assurance, are adopted in this
Manual. The standard defines quality as the
For the stated and implied needs of terminology work in the Sector, see the
supplementary document Needs Analysis.
The ISO standard stresses the relative and dynamic character of quality. It also highlights the fact
that the degree of quality is ultimately determined by the users and applications of the product
or service in question.
It is hardly possible to cover all elements of quality assurance in a single guide, as requirements
for quality assurance are project-specific. However, the ISO 9001 principle can be adopted for all
projects in four simple steps:
In order to ensure the highest possible quality of the terminology work, the following three
cornerstones of terminology assurance and control have to be taken into consideration:
persons,
processes,
products.
7.3 Persons
The persons who are involved in terminology work and occupy roles represented in the
terminology processes, such as terminologists, translator-terminologists, IT staff, et al. (see
section 3) have to be qualified for their respective position and role. Depending on the human
resources available, the persons should hold degrees in relevant fields.
In translation-oriented terminology work in the Sector, the qualification and skills of four roles
are of particular importance in regard to ensuring the quality of the product:
terminologist,
translator-terminologist,
revisers, and
subject-matter experts.
7.3.1 Terminologist
79The skill set is based on the skill card for the ECQA Certified Terminology Manager – Basic
(http://www.ecqa.org/index.php?id=52, accessed 27.11.2014).
66 Procedural Manual on Terminology
7.3.2 Translator
In translation-oriented terminology work in the Sector, translators take over the role of
translator-terminologists. The role and scope of translators’ work are described in section 3.2. In
addition to translators being qualified to perform their role as translators in the translation
process80, they have to be qualified to perform as translator-terminologists. The qualifications
and skills for both roles are deeply interconnected.
The skill set of a translator-terminologist covering only the skills pertinent to terminology
work81 may cover the following:
She/he is able to conduct research in the domain in the source and target languages.
She/he is able to use tools and search engines effectively (e.g. terminology software,
electronic corpora, electronic dictionaries).
She/he knows how to look for relevant online information for terminology work.
She/he is able to differentiate between reliable and non-reliable sources in the source
and target languages.
She/he is able to develop strategies for terminological research (including approaching
experts) in the source and target languages.
She/he is able to extract and process relevant information for a given task (documentary,
terminological, phraseological information).
She/he understands the basic principles of terminology theory.
She/he understands the basic concepts of terminology theory.
She/he understands the mechanisms of term-concept assignment.
She/he has gained thorough understanding of term formation and is able to form terms.
She/he knows how to define concepts.
She/he is familiar with the basic principles of mono- and multilingual terminology work.
She/he is able to identify a terminological gap.
She/he is familiar with the basic strategies for term formation.
She/he is familiar with the linguistic and formal criteria for quality assurance of a given
terminological product.
7.3.3 Reviser
The role and scope of revisers’ work are described in section 3.4.
The skill set of a reviser covers all the skills of a translator-terminologist, and may in addition
cover the following skills:
Other roles (coordinator, IT staff) cover skills that are out of scope of terminology work proper
and rather address needs of organizational, communicative, managerial, and technical nature. It
is nevertheless recommended to re-evaluate the skill sets of these roles from the perspective of
terminology work in the organization.
68 Procedural Manual on Terminology
7.4 Processes
The processes in terminology work should be planned, executed, checked and observed, and
followed by taking required measures.
PLAN
ACT DO
CHECK
documented procedures in place for handling and analyzing enquiries, and for
determining project feasibility,
documented procedures in place for determining whether all human and technical
resources are available,
82 Cf. EN 15038:2006.
69 Procedural Manual on Terminology
needs assessment,
collecting resources,
term extraction and term selection,
terminological research and documentation,
language, content and formal revision,
elaboration of the terminological entry,
expert/legal revision,
dissemination
maintenance.
! It is recommended to develop and collect procedures for terminology work (e.g. the
present Manual, etc.), and to make the whole collection centrally accessible to all roles in
the terminology processes.
7.5 Products
The criteria that influence the quality of a terminology product can be grouped in the following
categories:
• linguistic criteria,
• content criteria,
• formal criteria, and
• other criteria.
70 Procedural Manual on Terminology
In this category, the quality criteria are based on the linguistic rules of each single language used
as a working language in the Sector. The terminological product has to conform to the
grammatical and orthographical rules of these languages.
• transparency (i.e. the concept that the term designates can be inferred, at least partially,
without a definition, because its meaning is visible from the morphology),
• consistency (i.e. term is not arbitrary, but must integrate into and be consistent with the
concept system),
• appropriateness (i.e. term adheres to familiar, established patterns of meaning within a
language community),
• linguistic economy (i.e. term is as concise as possible),
• derivability (i.e. term formation allow linguistic derivates)84.
In this category, the quality criteria are based on content of terminological record in source and
target language.
• correctness of the relation (equivalence) between the terms in the source and target
language,
• correctness of subject-field attribution,
• correctness of the term designating the concept in question,
• correctness of the definition,
• correctness of the attribution of synonymy,
• adherence to legal provisions or further legal criteria.
In this category, the quality criteria are based on formal requirements towards terminological
records, especially terminological records in a termbase.
• completeness of term records (source term, target term, sources, definition, etc.),
• correctness of data field attribution,
• correctness of language attribution,
• correctness of subject-field attribution,
• correctness of the formulation of the definition (see section 4),
• completeness of the context data category, if available (i.e. the exact term in question is
used in context),
• correctness of cross-references,
• correctness of source quotations,
• elementary nature of data categories (i.e. only one type of information is contained in
one data category field).
The organization may decide to include other criteria that do not fall into any of the above
categories, e.g. that the terminological product fulfils its intended purpose, or any other external
criteria.
72 Procedural Manual on Terminology
8 References
Cabré, M. Teresa (1999): Terminology: Theory, Methods, and Applications. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
Engberg, Jan (2013): Comparative law for translation: The key to successful mediation between
legal systems. In Borja Albi, Anabel / Prieto Ramos, Fernando (eds) (2013): Legal
Translation in Context Professional Issues and Prospects, Peter Lang: New York (New
Trends in Translation Studies – Band 4), 9-15.
Herwartz, Rachel (2010): Five Principles in Terminology Management. tc world magazine for
international information management 12/2010. Available at
http://www.tcworld.info/e-magazine/technical-communication/article/five-principles-
of-terminology-management/ (retrieved 25 November 2014).
ISO 1087 -2:2000 “Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 1: Theory and application”
73 Procedural Manual on Terminology
Revised version of the European handbook on how to issue a European Arrest Warrant,
17195/1/10 REV 1 COPEN 275 EJN 72 EUROJUST 139, p. 57. Available at
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=en&f=ST 17195 2010 REV 1 (retrieved 1
December 2014).
Šarčević, Susan (1997): New approach to legal translation, The Hague: Kluwer Law
International.
Terminology needs
assessment
Collecting resources:
Identifying relevant
resources
MONOLINGUAL
TERMINOLOGY WORK
Term extraction
TERMINOLOGICAL
RESEARCH
Formulate de�inition
according to criteria for
terminological de�inition
Formulate de�inition
according to criteria for
terminological de�inition
REVIEW
75 Procedural Manual on Terminology
MONOLINGUAL
TERMINOLOGY WORK
REVISION PROCESS
LANGUAGE REVISION
CONTENT REVISION
FORMAL REVISION
Check if the
Check
Check Check Check information
Check Check Check elementary
TERMINOLOGIST completness language de�inition context source cross- nature of data
is in the
attribution quotation references correct data
category �ield
category �ield
ELABORATING ENTRIES
EXPERT REVIEW
76 Procedural Manual on Terminology
ELABORATION OF
TERMINOLOGICAL
ENTRIES
DISSEMINATION
77 Procedural Manual on Terminology
Needs assessment
Collecting resources
Elaboration of the
terminological entry
Expert / legal
revision
Terminological research
and documentation
Dissemination
Maintenance
Translation order
Collecting resources:
Identifying relevant resources
TRANSLATION PROCESS
Start translating
The translator does not know the Term is missing in the target Unknown term in the source text
translation equivalent. language
REVIEW
79 Procedural Manual on Terminology
TRANSLATION
REVISION PROCESS
LANGUAGE REVISION
CONTENT REVISION
Check if the source and the target Check if the term belongs to the Check if the term designates the
REVIEWER terms can be considerer equivalent relevant subject �ield concept treated
FORMAL REVISION
Check if the
Check
Check Check information
Check Check Check Check cross- elementary
TERMINOLOGIST completness language de�inition context source references nature of data
is in the
attribution quotation correct data
category �ield
category �ield
ELABORATING ENTRIES
ELABORATION OF
TERMINOLOGICAL
ENTRIES
Check if the
source and the Check if the term Check if the term Check if the Check if all
target terms can belongs to the designates the de�inition is synonyms Check the legal
be considered relevant subject concept treated correct designate the correctness
equivalents �ield same concept
DISSEMINATION
81 Procedural Manual on Terminology
MAINTENANCE
Needs assessment of maintenance
Data backup
DISSEMINATION
www.sep.gov.mk
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www.giz.de