Multilingual terminology management

A brief overview and best practices

Licia Corbolante

TermITes and CATs Seminar20 June 2011

Overview

Defining terminology

Benefits of terminology management

Basic principles

Working with entries

Terminological quality

Defining terminology

1. Set of designations of a particular subject field

newwords

newterms

existingwords

existingterms

generic vocabulary

specificvocabulary

establishedvocabulary

recent vocabulary

LGP LSP

Defining terminology

1. Set of designations of a particular subject field

2. Theoretical discipline

3. Collection, description, recording, and consistent re-use of concepts and associated terms Terminology management

International Standards:ISO 704:2009 Terminology work – Principles and methodsISO 1087-1:2000 Terminology work – Vocabulary. Part 1: Theory and application

Benefits of terminology mgmt 1

Internal and external communication:

Knowledge sharing and management

Standardization and simplification

Reduced ambiguity

Better user experience

Interdisciplinary cooperation

Benefits of terminology mgmt 2

Efficient data exchange (standards!)

Cost reduction (research, support, translation…)

More accurate translation

better translation memories

Automation opportunities

signflower

/ ˈflaʊə /

concept

object

Concepts, terms, definitions

objects- are perceived or conceived- are abstracted into concepts

concepts- depict objects or set of objects- are organized into concept systems- are represented or expressed by bdesignations

designations(terms, appellations, symbols) representa concept

definitions describe the concept

ISO 704:2009 Terminology work – Principles and methods

Methodological approaches

Semasiological

(descriptive) (prescriptive)

lexicographydictionaries, glossaries

Onomasiological

terminology managementtermbases

border network

boundary network

edge network

perimeter network

Example

Border network A network that faces directly onto the Internet via a router that should provide an initial layer of protection, in the form of basic network traffic filtering.

Boundary network A logical portion of a network that can be accessed by computers that are in the restricted network or the secure network.

Broadband network A transmission medium designed for high-speed data transfers over long distances. Cable modem services and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) are examples of broadband networks.

Broadcast network A network that supports more than two attached routers and has the ability to address a single physical message to all of the attached routers (broadcast).

Complex network A type of operations network in which simultaneous operations take place or in which operations overlap, are contingent on each other, or have other complex relationships.

Edge network A network provides information exchange between the access network and the internal network.

External virtual network A virtual network configured to use a physical network adapter. External virtual networks are used to connect virtual machines to external networks.

Home network Home devices that are connected together. A home network consists of a home computer or home server that controls other (non-computer) devices such as lighting, media services, appliances, etc.

Internal network A network that links internal servers and users.

Local area network A network of computers, printers, and other devices located within a relatively limited area (for example, a building). A LAN enables any connected device to interact with any other on the network.Network A group of computers or other devices, such as printers and scanners, that communicate either wirelessly or by using a physical connection, such as an Ethernet cable or a phone line.

Operations network An organization of operations that synchronizes the dependencies between operations based on starting/ending times, costs, and other criteria.

Peer-to-peer network A group of computers that are connected on a network and share resources, such as printers and files.

Perimeter network One or more computers that have a connection to the Internet through an external screening router and a connection to the internal network through an interior screening router.

Private network A network within an organization that uses Internet technologies and protocols, but is available only to certain people, such as employees of a company.

Semasiological approach

Onomasiological approach

Concept system: set of concepts structured according to the relations among them

Concept systems

Concepts always exist in relation to each other.

Types of relations:

Hierarchical (superordinate, subordinate, coordinate)

Partitive

Associative (cause and effect, producer and product, activity and tool, material and productetc.)

Approaches and users

Onomasiological: active users, e.g. technical writers and terminologists (need to designate unknown concepts)

Semasiological: passive users looking up individual terms

Translators: SL comprehension (passive) and TL production (active) hybrid needs, benefits from both approaches

Benefits to translators

Concept systems are particularly helpful in:

Confirming or excluding synonymy

Targeted, more efficient research

Comparing concept systems in different languages

Systematic understanding of source textmore consistent translations

Concept-oriented termbase entry

Data structure, typically three levels: Concept level (language-independent) Language level Term level

Data categories associated to each level, some mandatory

[ISO 12620:1999 and isocat.org]

Data categories

DC are termbase “field names”, e.g. subject field, degree of equivalence, context, status etc.

Standardized and defined in ISO 12620:1999 and Data Category Registry (ISOcat.org)

The more data, the more information valuebut also increased complexity and mgmt requirements

Problems of concept systems

Monolingual environment:

Relatively fluid entities

Variations in time and space

Different subject fields, different ways of viewing knowledge

Concepts can be classified in different ways

Not all user needs are met

Problems of concept systems

Multilingual environment:

Different conceptualizations in different languages (social and cultural factors)

Different “maturity” of languages

Different degrees of equivalence across languages

Multilingual relations

Total equivalence Intersection

Inclusion No equivalence

concept A concept B

concept A

concept B

concept A concept B

concept A concept B

A = B A ~ B

A > B A ≠ B

Terminological activities

For each language:

1. Identify concepts and relations

2. Analyse and represent concept systems

3. Define concepts

4. Attribute designations to each concept

5. Record terminological data

Terms are not “translated”!

Concept/term identification

Criteria:

Frequency

Distribution

Visibility

Standardization

Specialization

Confusability

Novelty

Terminologization

Concept/term identification

Example of terminologization: in multi-touch devices, pinch describes a gesture equivalent to zooming out and zooming in and represented by two fingers with at least one of them moving towards or apart from the other.

Terminology extraction

Automatic term extraction

Manual term identification

Legacy terminology

Terms identified during translation

Post translation analysis

External sources

Considerable interpretative input neededbefore transferring to the termbase!

Definition

A good definition should:

provide enough characteristics to differentiate the concept from other related concepts

be as concise as possible and as complex as necessary

fulfill the needs of the user of the terminology product

Unhelpful definitions

civil servant Civil servants or persons treated as such under the legislation of one of the countries in the EuropeanEconomic Area and Switzerland

AdministrativeCommission

The composition, operation and tasks of the Administrative Commission on Social Security for Migrant Workers (ACSSMW) are regulated by Articles 80 and 81 of Regulation 1408/71.

Employed and self-employedpersons

Employed and self-employed persons who are or have been insured under the legislation of one of the countries in the EEA and Switzerland

Source: EULISSES glossary

Inadequate definitions

Tautological

Circular

Too narrow / Too broad

Negative

Substitution principle: an intensional definition“is valid if it can replace a designation in discourse without loss or change in meaning”.

ISO 704:2009 Terminology work – Principles and methods

Most common issues - 1

Duplicates! [Doublettes]

Homonyms not recognized

Lexical items (LGP) instead of terms (LSP)

Non-canonical forms

Inadequate definitions

Obsolete / incomplete / incorrect data

Most common issues - 2

Inconsistencies

Descriptions instead of terms

Full form + abbreviation

Poorly researched terminology

Interference across languages

Using unverified translated material as reference

What might help - 1

Familiarity with termbase specifications

Understanding concept-oriented terminology

Uniform working methods (incl. workflow, roles)

Avoiding “semasiological temptations”!

Reliability of sources

What might help - 2

Advanced search techniques

Awareness of terminological developments

Validation scripts

Continuous maintenance

Collaborative efforts

Assessing terminological resources

ISO 23185:2009 – Assessment and benchmarking ofterminological resources.

Usability: “extent to which an entity can be used toachieve goals effectively, efficiently, satisfactorily”

Sets of usability attributes related to:– terminological data– data management– data output– data input

Usability attributes [ISO 23185]

Usability attributes related to terminological data: Data structure specification Data category coverage Subject field coverage Language coverage Compliance with rules of coherence Use of authoritative sources Intellectual property rights ownership indication Symmetry of terminological data collection Size of terminological data collection

Usability attributes [ISO 23185]

Usability attributes related to data management:

Data validation

– completeness

– linguistic correctness

Control of redundancy /concept level duplication

Regular maintenance of data

Regular maintenance of metadata

Usability attributes [ISO 23185]

Usability attributes related to data output:

Readability of output data

– efficient data category distinction

– convenience for technical implementation

Access to data (e.g. query functions)

Customized selection of data

Usability attributes [ISO 23185]

Usability attributes related to data input:

User-friendly format for data input

Data validation

Compatibility with other data structures

Summing it up

Terminology management has huge benefits, not only for translators

Validated, well maintained data can be effectively re-used for current and future automation purposes

Collaborative effort of all stakeholders needed

References

Conference of Translation Services of European States, Recommendations for Terminology Work

M. Teresa Cabré Castellví, Terminology. Theory, methods and applications

Silvia Pavel and Diane Nolet, Handbook of Terminology and The Pavel Terminology Tutorial

Juan C. Sager, A Practical Course in Terminology Processing

Rita Temmerman, Towards New Ways of Terminology Description. The sociocognitive approach

Sue Ellen Wright and Gerhard Budin (edited by), Handbook of Terminology Management: Volume 1, Basic Aspects of Terminology Management, and Volume 2, Application-Oriented Terminology Management

ISO 704:2009 Terminology work – Principles and methods

ISO 1087-1:2000 Terminology work – Vocabulary. Part 1: Theory and application

ISO 12620:1999 Computer applications in terminology – Data categories, subsequently replaced by ISO 12620:2009 Terminology and other language and content resources — Specification of data categories and management of a Data Category Registry for language resources; DCs freely accessible in Data Category Registry (ISOcat.org)

ISO 23185:2009 – Assessment and benchmarking of terminological resources

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