Úvod do odborné terminologie
Distanční studijní text
René Kron
Opava 2020
Obor: 0232 Literatura a lingvistika, Class P – Language and Literature.
Klíčová slova: Terminology, Term, Terminologization, Determinologization Reterminologization,
Professional English, Word formation, Lexical
relations, Specialized dictionaries Terminology databases, Terminology
management, Terms and translation software, Term extraction.
Anotace: Kurz Odborná terminologie 1 je koncipován tak, aby účastníky
seznámil s charakteristickými rysy anglického odborného jazyka,
s konkrétním zaměřením na odborné termíny – tj. výrazy používané
v rámci různých oborových názvosloví a profesní mluvy.
Stručně budou vysvětleny základní pojmy a koncepty a bude nastíněno
jazykovědné pozadí anglické terminologie (zejména její morfologická
charakteristika a různé slovotvorné procesy, jimiž termíny vznikají
nebo do angličtiny pronikají). Studenti se dále seznámí s užitečnými
slovníky a databázemi různých oborových terminologií (tištěnými
i elektronickými) v jejich aktuálních verzích. V neposlední řadě bude
pozornost věnována terminologii v překladatelské praxi, zejména
problematice správy terminologie s využitím současných technologií
pro podporu překladu (Computer-Aided Translation).
Autor: PhDr. René Kron Ph.D.
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
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Obsah
ÚVODEM............................................................................................................................6
RYCHLÝ NÁHLED STUDIJNÍ OPORY...........................................................................7
1 MAIN CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS..................................................................8
1.1 Terminology..........................................................................................................9
1.1.1 Terminology and lexicology..........................................................................9
1.1.2 Terminography and lexicography................................................................10
1.2 Notions of terminology .......................................................................................11
1.2.1 Concept ........................................................................................................11
1.2.2 Definition.....................................................................................................12
1.2.3 Term.............................................................................................................12
1.3 Where do we find and use terms? .......................................................................13
1.4 Terminology dynamics........................................................................................14
1.4.1 Terminologization........................................................................................14
1.4.2 Determinologization ....................................................................................14
1.4.3 Re-terminologization ...................................................................................15
2 THE LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF TERMINOLOGY..............................................22
2.1 Professional English and its properties ...............................................................23
2.2 Terms and morphology .......................................................................................25
2.2.1 What does a term look like?.........................................................................25
2.2.2 Terms and their morphological components................................................25
2.3 Terms and word formation..................................................................................32
2.3.1 Derivation ....................................................................................................32
2.3.2 Compounding...............................................................................................33
2.3.3 Blending.......................................................................................................34
2.3.4 Clipping........................................................................................................35
2.3.5 Conversion...................................................................................................36
2.3.6 Backformation..............................................................................................37
2.3.7 Coinage ........................................................................................................38
2.3.8 Borrowing ....................................................................................................39
2.3.9 Acronymy ....................................................................................................41
2.3.10 Combined processes.....................................................................................42
2.4 Lexical relations in terminology .........................................................................43
2.4.1 Synonymy between terms............................................................................43
2.4.2 Terminological homonymy and polysemy ..................................................44
3 TERMINOLOGY RESOURCES..............................................................................59
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3.1 Specialized dictionaries.......................................................................................61
3.1.1 Print dictionaries..........................................................................................62
3.1.2 Electronic dictionaries .................................................................................66
3.2 Terminology databases........................................................................................69
3.2.1 TechTerms ...................................................................................................70
3.2.2 Microsoft Language Portal ..........................................................................71
3.2.3 MediLexicon................................................................................................74
3.2.4 IATE (InterActive Terminology for Europe) ..............................................75
3.2.5 ECHA-term..................................................................................................77
3.2.6 Abbreviations.com.......................................................................................79
4 TERMINOLOGY MANAGEMENT ........................................................................84
4.1 What is terminology management?.....................................................................85
4.2 Terms and translation software ...........................................................................86
4.2.1 Termbase......................................................................................................87
4.2.2 The TBX file format ....................................................................................88
4.3 Terminology management tools..........................................................................90
4.3.1 SDL MultiTerm ...........................................................................................91
4.3.1 TermStar ......................................................................................................93
4.3.2 Online solutions ...........................................................................................95
4.4 Term extraction .................................................................................................105
4.4.1 Term extraction tools.................................................................................107
General parameters ...............................................................................................110
Filtering...................................................................................................................110
LITERATURA ................................................................................................................120
SHRNUTÍ STUDIJNÍ OPORY.......................................................................................121
PŘEHLED DOSTUPNÝCH IKON.................................................................................122
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ÚVODEM
Vážení studenti,
Vítejte v kurzu Úvod do odborné terminologie:
• Studijní opora je zde pro Vás, aby Vás seznámila s charakteristickými rysy
anglického odborného jazyka s konkrétním zaměřením na výrazy používané
v rámci oborových názvosloví a profesní mluvy.
• Pro kurz nejsou specifikována žádná prerekvizita.
• Seznámíte se s užitečnými slovníky a databázemi oborových terminologií
(tištěnými i elektronickými) a vyzkoušíte si práci s nimi.
• Pozornost bude věnována též terminologii v překladu, a to zejména ve
vazbě na současné technologie CAT (Computer-Aided Translation).
Distanční studijní text rovněž stručně nastínění jazykovědné pozadí anglické
terminologie a různé procesy, jimiž termíny vznikají nebo do angličtiny pronikají.
Vzhledem k obtížnosti samostudia obsahuje každá kapitola části na kontrolu
porozumění a vybrané úkoly.
Přeji Vám hodně úspěchů při studiu!
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RYCHLÝ NÁHLED STUDIJNÍ OPORY
Studijní opora k předmětu Úvod do terminologie poskytuje teoretický základ
k lepšímu chápání problematiky tvorby odborného názvosloví a procesu na pozadí.
Rovněž bude návaznost na tištěné a elektronické slovníky a databáze. Studenti se seznámí
s překladatelskou problematikou s důrazem na technologie CAT (Computer
Aided/Assisted Translation).
Studijní opora je rozdělena do 4 kapitol. Každá kapitola obsahuje několik podkapitol,
které odpovídají jednotlivým položkám sylabu.
Cílem kurzu je poskytnout studentům dobré základní znalosti v dynamicky se
rozvíjejících odvětvích moderní jazykovědy opírající se o současné technologie.
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1 MAIN CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
QUICK OVERVIEW
The first chapter explains the main concepts and notions related to terms and
terminology, provides the necessary definitions, and places terminology within the wider
context of linguistic study. It also deals with the general processes that underline
terminology development and contribute to what we refer to as ‘terminology dynamics’.
AIMS
This chapter will
• Discuss role and function of terminology
• Define key notions of terminology
• Present where to find and use terms
• Introduce terminology dynamics
KEYWORDS
Terminology, Terminology and lexicology, Terminology and lexicography, Concept,
Definition, Term, Terminologization, Determinologization, Re-terminologization.
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1.1 Terminology
It may not be immediately obvious but the word terminology refers to two different
concepts, and as such it carries two different meanings:
DEFINITION – TERMINOLOGY
• According to the definition provided by the Oxford Dictionary, terminology is
“the body of terms used with a particular technical application in a subject of study,
profession, etc.” To put it in another way, the word ‘terminology’ collectively refers to a
class of words or phrases (called terms) used in particular, usually professional contexts
to convey specific meanings. We often add an adjective to specify the context of use, and
thus we speak of ‘legal terminology’, ‘medical terminology’, ‘economic terminology’,
‘administrative terminology’, etc.
• ‘Terminology’ is also the name of the field of study or discipline that
systematically deals with terms, their properties and use. It has close ties to other areas of
applied linguistics.
1.1.1 TERMINOLOGY AND LEXICOLOGY
From the perspective of linguistics, terminology as a discipline is a part of lexicology.
Both lexicology and terminology deal with the study of words.
However, the difference is that lexicology studies the entire inventory of words in a
language, whereas terminology is only interested in terms, i.e. lexical units connected
with a specialized field or professional activity.
A scholar whose work deals with the lexical component of language is called a
lexicologist. A person who is involved in the study of terms is a terminologist.
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1.1.2 TERMINOGRAPHY AND LEXICOGRAPHY
There is an analogous relation between terminography and lexicography. The latter
refers to the practice of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries or other lexical
resources (these activities are performed by or under the supervision of lexicographers),
whereas terminography – also ‘applied terminology’ or ‘terminological lexicography’ – is
a subfield that deals with the production (i.e. collection, processing and presentation) of
terminology resources; a person involved in doing this is a terminographer.
A very specific area of lexicography is metalexicography, which is concerned with
the description and/or scholarly criticism of existing dictionaries and dictionary-making
practices.
The modern-day practice of both lexicography and terminography is highly reliant on
the use of computer technology. Also, in line with the global rise in the use of the
Internet, more and more products of lexicography and terminography take the form of
digital resources and/or online services.
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1.2 Notions of terminology
There are three key notions associated with terminology: concept, definition and
term (refer to the diagram below to see how they are related).
Fig. 1 – The key notions of terminology.
1.2.1 CONCEPT
Concepts are units of thought through which we organise our knowledge. They are
abstract representations of the entities that make up the world around us. Concepts play
an important role in all aspects of cognition.
We tend to understand concepts in relation to other concepts, rather than in isolation;
in fact, human thought, knowledge and belief are based on a structured system of
concepts.
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1.2.2 DEFINITION
Existing concepts need to be defined. As the diagram above shows (see Fig. 1), the
relation between a concept and a term is indirect; it is the definition that provides the link
between them.
A terminological definition must be as detailed as is necessary in order to differentiate
a concept (and its associated term) from other concepts and terms, and therefore to avoid
ambiguity.
1.2.3 TERM
Terms are the linguistic designations assigned to concepts. Because terminology deals
with specialised domains of knowledge, terms refer to the entities, properties, activities or
relations that exist in a particular domain or field.
Behind each term there should be a clearly defined, unambiguous concept, and the
choice of the term ought to reflect this concept effectively.
Also, as is the case with any other word, the form of the term should be in line with
the lexical and morphological rules of the particular language – otherwise it may sound
‘strange’ or unnatural, and might be difficult to adopt.
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1.3 Where do we find and use terms?
Words, the focus of lexicology, can typically be found in dictionaries, lexical
databases, language corpora, wordlists and wordnets, where they are presented in a way
that facilitates their practical use. An obvious area of use is translation but there are
others: literature and creative writing (dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms),
songwriting (rhyming dictionaries), study of language (corpora), spell-checking
(wordlists), natural language processing (wordnets), etc.
On the other hand, terms are chiefly used in translation practice (in fact, the
translation business is an important driving force behind many developments in
terminography) and, of course, in field-specific communication, both spoken and written.
Terms are collected and presented in specialized dictionaries or dedicated terminology
databases. Apart from these resources we can come across terms in:
• field-specific texts (legal terms in a contract, technical terms in a manual, etc.);
• professional jargon (also referred to as “shop talk“);
• in-house terminology banks;
• termbases (also called “glossaries“) used by translation software.
Sometimes terms are not found outside of a particular, very narrow context. Certain
companies or communities cherish and develop their own terms that will probably be
unintelligible to most people – in some cases almost working as a “secret language” of
sorts. The use of such terms has a strong social motivation in that they become part of the
identity of the respective company or community. For example, in multi-level marketing
(a form of direct selling in which existing distributors are encouraged to find new
distributors, and are paid a percentage of their recruits‘ sales) they use terms like sponsor,
downline, upline, leg or volume, with very particular meanings. Such terms not only refer
to company-specific concepts and serve in-house communication: they also represent an
important part of the corporate culture.
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1.4 Terminology dynamics
The world around us keeps changing and evolving. As it is the property of language to
reflect reality, we tend to look for a ‘name’ or a ‘label’ for each new thing that is invented
or otherwise comes into existence. Some specific fields, branches or professions develop
very dynamically, and new terms need to be introduced continually to reflect the new
concepts. At the same time, terms are dropped from use as once-specialized concepts
become commonplace and lose their “technicality sense”.
The overall dynamics of terminology is influenced by three lexical processes:
terminologization, determinologization, and re-terminologization.
1.4.1 TERMINOLOGIZATION
Terminologization is the process of creating specialist terms by taking generalmeaning
words already in existence (cloud: “a grey or white mass made of tiny drops of
water that floats in the sky”) and giving them specialized meanings (cloud: “a network of
computer servers on which data and software can be stored”). One particular field in
which terminologization takes place very frequently is information technology (IT).
Terminologization is rarely a completely random process. Often there is a traceable
relation between the original (general) word and the newly created term. The relation
tends to be based on:
• a similarity in shape or form: mouse, crane, window
• an analogy of function: desktop, folder, recycle bin, dialog
1.4.2 DETERMINOLOGIZATION
The opposite process is called determinologization: a term leaves the boundaries of
expert language, the “special meaning” is drained out of it, and the term is incorporated
into general language as a widely known word.
Good examples are certain medical terms, which people commonly use without the
complex clinical meanings ascribed to them by medical professionals. The example
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sentence provided by the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, “There was a feeling of
gloom and depression in the office when the news of the job cuts was announced,” clearly
demonstrates that the word depression is now used in a much more general sense.
Similarly, many people complain of insomnia without being officially diagnosed with this
condition: they merely want to say they find it hard to sleep.
As information technology becomes more and more available and widespread,
original technical terms such as laptop, tablet or monitor have, too, been deprived of their
specialist meanings and have become common words that everybody understands.
1.4.3 RE-TERMINOLOGIZATION
Re-terminologization is the transition of a term from one specific area of use to
another. In other words, the respective lexical unit remains a term but is now used in a
different context with a different meaning.
One notorious example is the term virus (”an infective agent, too small to be seen
without a microscope”), which originally comes from biology and is now also used as
a term in IT (“a computer program designed to cause faults or destroy data”).
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SUMMARY
This chapter deals with the area of terminology, its main concepts, definitions and key
notions of terminology: concept, definition as well as term. It further provides guidance
as to where to find and use terms. The terminology dynamics subchapter introduces and
clarifies terminologization, determinologization and re-terminologization.
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COMPREHENSION CHECK
1. What is the relation between lexicology and terminology?
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2. Explain the fundamental notions associated with terminology: concept, definition
and term.
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3. Explain how the processes of terminologization, determinologization and reterminologization
influence the dynamics of terminology. Give specific examples.
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ASSIGNMENT
Using a dictionary, compare the general vs. specific meaning of the following words:
• folder, driver, widget (IT)
• bill, hearing, motion (law)
• casting, lock, spring (tech.)
¨
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TAKE A BREAK
Now it is time to take a break, you have finished the first chapter.
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2 THE LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF TERMINOLOGY
QUICK OVERVIEW
This relatively extensive chapter deals with the linguistic properties of terms. We will
present the key characteristics of “professional English” – a specific expert language or
code used by English speakers in various professional contexts. We will also describe
terms from the viewpoint of their morphological properties; focusing on various formal
components and the meanings they contribute to the term they are part of. Further in the
chapter we will discuss the main word-formation processes through which terms are
created or otherwise enter the English language. Last but not least, we will cover various
lexical relations that exist between terms.
AIMS
This chapter will
• Introduce professional English and its properties
• Revise word formation processes
• Discuss lexical relations in terminology
KEYWORDS
Professional English, Derivation, Compounding, Blending, Clipping, Conversion,
Backformation, Coinage, Borrowing, Acronymy, Combined processes, Synonymy,
Homonymy, Polysemy.
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2.1 Professional English and its properties
In this study material we use “professional English” as an umbrella term referring to
the specific expert language used by English speakers in various professional contexts.
Therefore, this general term covers and subsumes what textbooks and dictionaries call
“business English”, “technical English”, “medical English”, “academic English”,
“English for IT”, etc.
As terminology plays an important role in professional or expert language and
communication, we consider it quite logical to start this chapter with a brief overview of
the linguistic properties of professional English. Its main characteristic features are the
following:
• The actual choice of linguistic devices is strongly influenced by the general need
for an exact, concise and mainly impersonal way of expression.
• The requirement to be highly exact leads to relatively long sentences. It is
estimated that sentences in expert texts and communication tend to be 70% longer
compared to general English.
• The sentence structure is often complex and varied in form.
• The predominantly impersonal nature of professional English underlies the fact
that it has adopted grammatical means which suit this particular way of expression.
Impersonal structures include, above all, nominal forms of verbs (the infinitive, the
gerund, the present and past participles) and the passive.
• Words and phrases tend to have literal meanings. There is little room for
figurative language.
• Terms and term-like expressions constitute a significant part of professional
vocabulary. They carry a high degree of information.
• Relations between terms and other semantic parts of the sentence are described by
functional expressions such as prepositions and conjunctions (for example: upon, after,
besides, moreover, furthermore, aside from, in addition to, together with, in conformity
with, as a result, providing) or adverbs (again, however, nevertheless, thus, therefore,
alternatively, etc.).
• Professional English also employs its own ‘phraseology’ in the form of various set
phrases (on no account, give account of, take into account, come into existence, come to
a conclusion, come to light, etc.).
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• Frequent are phrases expressing the opinion or attitude of the author of the text
towards the argument(s) he/she is making (beyond any doubt, of course, to be sure, there
is every indication that, we strongly believe that, it is safe to assume that, etc.).
• Also very common are words and phrases expressing the degree of probability
(possibly, probably, presumably, in all probability, perhaps, apparently, unlikely, it is
assumed that, it is widely believed that, etc.).
• There is a relative lack of personal pronouns, and especially of the first-person
singular “I”.
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2.2 Terms and morphology
In this section we will discuss terms from the viewpoint of morphology. We will have
a look at the formal properties of terms, and see how morphemes – minimal units that
carry meaning in language – work and contribute to the construction of terminological
meaning.
Especially for translators, being able to see the individual components that make up
terms can facilitate the interpretation and understanding of the highly specific meanings
found in professional English texts.
2.2.1 WHAT DOES A TERM LOOK LIKE?
In the English language, a term typically takes the form of:
• a noun, which is either:
a simple noun: contract (law), bronchitis (med.)
a compound: backbencher (polit.), boric acid (chem.)
a derivation: antivirus (IT), revocation (law)
a blend: Unicode, codec (both IT)
• a nominal phrase: Doppler shift (phys.), word processor (IT), safety valve (tech.)
• an adjectival phrase: Official Journal (EU admin.), relative clause (ling.),
protective layer (tech.)
• a complex phrase: selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (med.)
• a verb: to log in (IT), to unfriend (social media), to countersign (law, admin.)
• an acronym: AIDS (med.), BOM (tech.)
• an initialism: EU (polit.), MRI (med.)
2.2.2 TERMS AND THEIR MORPHOLOGICAL COMPONENTS
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Many terms are – or contain – derived words, i.e. words that have been formed using
a root or a stem (a “base word” consisting of at least one lexical morpheme) in
combination with an affix (a derivational morpheme). The most common affix types in
English are prefixes (added before the base word) and suffixes (added after the base
word).
The core meaning of the term is usually carried by its lexical morpheme(s), while
derivational morphemes (i.e. prefixes and suffixes) provide additional semantic features
to further specify or modify the meaning. Take the following adjective as an example:
BI-POL-AR
Here, the lexical morpheme pol (representing the root of the word) indicates that the
word incorporates “a pole” as its core semantic notion. The derivational morpheme -ar
(the suffix) adds the meaning “having or related to”, and turns the word into an adjective.
Finally, the derivational morpheme bi- (the prefix) adds the meaning “two”, thus arriving
at the final meaning of the word: “having or related to two poles”.
Prefixes
The table below lists a few common prefixes that often appear as morphological
components in English terms:
Prefix Meaning Example term(s)
a(n)- “without”, “non-“ anorganic, amorphous
anti- “against” antifreeze, anticlockwise
astro- “star”, “space” astronaut, astronomy,
astronavigation
bi- “two”, “twice” bipolar, bilateral
cent(i)- “hundred” centipede, centigrade
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counter-
contra“back”,
“against” counterbalance, counteraction
contraception, contraflow
de- “to lower”, “to deteriorate” decomposition, degradation
deca- “ten” decathlon, decalitre
demi-
hemi-
semi“half”
demigod, demi-pension
hemisphere, hemistich
semicircular, semiconductor
dia- “through”, “between”, “across” diagonal, diameter
endo- “inside” endocrinology, endogenous
equi- “the same” equivalence, equidistant
exo- “outside” exogamy, exogenous
geo- “earth” geography, geodesic
gyro- /
gyra“rotation”,
“circle” gyrocompass, gyration
hecto- “hundred” hectolitre, hectogram
hetero- “different” heterogeneous, heteromorphic
hyper- “over”, “too many” hypercharge, hypersensitive
hypo- “less”, “under” hypodermic, hypoplasia
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inter- “between”, “mutually” interplanetary, Internet
iso-
homo“the
same”, “identical” isochromatic, isogonal
homogeneous, homophone
macro- “big” macroeconomic, macrostructure
mal- “bad” malfunction, malignant
mono- “one”, “only” monochromatic, monorail
neo- “new” neologism, neonatal
octa- /
octo“eight”
octagon, octosyllabic
omni- “all”, “everywhere” omnipresence, omnidirectional
over- “too” overload, oversaturation
peri- “around” perimeter, peripheral
poly- “many” polygon, polycarbonate
proto- “first” protozoa, prototype
re- “again” reaction, recycle
super- “above” supersonic, superstructure
tele- “distance” telemetry, telescope
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thermo- “temperature” thermometer, thermoplastic
trans- “across” transverse, transfer
uni- “one” unicycle, unicameral
vice- “in place of” vice-president, vice-governor
Suffixes
The table below lists a few common suffixes that often appear as morphological
components in English terms:
Suffix Meaning / function Example term(s)
-able / -ible possibility, feasibility machinable, collapsible
-age process, activity montage, assemblage
-al forms nouns and adjectives removal, mechanical
-ance /
-ancy
-ence /
-ency
form nouns that express property
or state
conductance, constancy
presence, valency
-ant forms nouns and adjectives lubricant, resistant
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-ary / -ery
-ory
place connected with a particular
job or activity
library, infirmary, winery, refinery
observatory, factory
-ation forms nouns that express activity
or state
refrigeration, formation
-ce / -cy forms nouns valence, sequence
accuracy, supremacy
-(c)ule “small” minuscule, molecule, capsule
-ectomy “chirurgical removal” colectomy, vasectomy
-er / -or
-ian, -ist
-ier / -yer
form names of professions welder, director
librarian, machinist
cashier, lawyer
-esce forms verbs that express change
of state
incandesce, effervesce
-gram “record” oscillogram, diagram
-graph “recording or diagnostic device” barograph, cardiograph
-ic /
-ical
-ial
form adjectives expressing
properties
magnetic, surgical
spatial, commercial
-icle adds the meaning “small” to particle, cubicle
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nouns
-ics
-logy
form names of sciences physics, economics
biology, metrology
-ing forms nouns tubing, bolting, lining
-ity / -ility
-ivity
form nouns expressing properties reactivity, capability
conductivity
-less “without” wireless, contactless
-let adds the meaning “small” to
nouns
droplet, applet
-meter “measuring device” thermometer, altimeter
-oid “similar or resembling” hyperboloid, planetoid
-proof “resistant” waterproof, laserproof
-scope “optical indicator” oscilloscope, spectroscope
-sion forms names expressing property
or activity
torsion, conversion
-y forms nouns and adjectives symmetry, rusty
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2.3 Terms and word formation
There are many different ways in which words can enter a language. The constant
evolution of word stock (i.e. the introduction of new words, and the re-use of old words
with new meanings) is a sign of vitality and creativity as languages are shaped by the
changing world and by the needs of their users.
We have already mentioned in the previous text that we need to create new terms in
order to be able to name the new inventions people come up with. Therefore, in this
section we will discuss terms from the viewpoint of word formation.
DEFINITION – WORD FORMATION
Word formation is a collective term given to the various processes by which new
words are created. Many languages employ similar kinds of word-formation processes,
but they differ in the degree to which these processes are typical of the particular
language. For example, inflected languages such as Czech or Polish tend to form most
new words through derivation (i.e. adding prefixes and suffixes to word stems), whereas
non-inflected languages (Japanese, Turkish etc.) prefer compounding, conversion or other
processes.
We will now have a look at the individual word-formation processes that are typical
of the English language, with a specific focus on the formation of terms:
2.3.1 DERIVATION
We have seen in chapter 2.2 above that the morphological structure of English lends
itself quite well to the use of derivation – the adding of prefixes and suffixes – in the
formation of terms. In fact, derivation is (together with compounding) the most common
word formation process in English.
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
33
Numerous examples of derived terms have been presented in section 2.2.2.
2.3.2 COMPOUNDING
DEFINITION - COMPOUNDING
Compounding is the joining of two or more separate lexical units (base words) to
produce a new word form. This word-formation process is very common in English.
As far as the form is concerned, we traditionally distinguish three types of compound
in English:
• Closed compounds are expressions in which the individual components are
written together, with no space between them. Closed compounds are typically made up
of two words (fingerprint, laserdisc, textbook, archway, motherboard, joystick,
hatchback, trolleybus) but certain term-like adverbs and prepositions used in formal
situations – for example, in legal or administrative texts – consist of three base words
(hereinafter, heretofore, notwithstanding).
• Hyphenated compounds use a hyphen as a dividing character between two or
more base words. Examples of terms that are hyphenated compounds include: singersongwriter,
plug-in, right-of-centre, left-handedness, four-by-four, editor-in-chief, etc.
• Open compounds are by far the most common. In these expressions all the base
words are written separately: expansion card, boarding pass, deputy chairman, nuclear
power plant, coefficient of friction, right of way, emergency core cooling system, etc.
Many complex terms that are open compounds actually consist of a combination of
the three BledCtypes above. Examples include: decision-making process, computer-aided
translation, do-it-yourself kit, self-powered motherboard, etc.
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34
2.3.3 BLENDING
DEFINITION – BLENDING
This word-formation process involves combining two lexical forms by taking a part of
one word (usually the beginning) and joining it to a part of another word. Due to this, the
meaning of blends is less obvious at first sight compared to compounds. Well-known
blend examples include smog (smoke + fog), brunch (breakfast + lunch), motel (motor +
hotel) and cyborg (cybernetic + organism).
One terminology area in which blends are common is information technology:
Original words Resulting term
binary + digit
modulator + demodulator
coder + decoder
emotion + icon
Internet + etiquette
spamming + robot
web + log
video + blog
Bit
Modem
codec
emoticon
netiquette
spambot
blog
vlog
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35
wireless + fidelity Wi-Fi
2.3.4 CLIPPING
DEFINITION – CLIPPING
Clipping is a process in which a word consisting of more than one syllable is reduced
to a shorter form. Usually, it is relatively long words – that is, words consisting of at least
two or three syllables – that are clipped. This is not done out of laziness: users generally
tend to express themselves as economically as possible, and because languages employ a
certain degree of redundancy, users can omit parts of long compounds or multi-word
terms without diminishing their meanings.
As clipped words in general tend to indicate informal use of language (although many
such words are now perceived as neutral), clippings are often found in professional slang
rather than as regular terms.
Examples of clippings used in professional English:
ad advertisement
lab laboratory
fridge refrigerator
condo condominium
app software application
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36
rep representative
specs specifications
vet veterinary surgeon
memo memorandum
temp temporary employee
gas gasoline
maths mathematics
2.3.5 CONVERSION
DEFINITION – CONVERSION
Conversion is a type of word formation that does not involve any morphological
means. The process of conversion is based on the change in the function of a word, rather
than in the form. Typically, lexical units created through conversion have changed their
part of speech while retaining the same (or minimally changed) word form. In other
words, during conversion verbs turn into nouns or adjectives, nouns turn into verbs, and
so on.
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
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Examples of English terms formed via conversion:
Part-of-speech
change
Original word Resulting term
noun to verb
a bottle
a chair
a lecture
a position
to bottle a product
to chair a meeting
to lecture at a university
to position a product in the market
verb to noun
to print out
to take over
to spy
a printout
a takeover
a spy
verb to adjective
to stand up
to see through
stand-up comedy
a see-through fabric
2.3.6 BACKFORMATION
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DEFINITION – BACKFORMATION
This word-formation process, too, involves a change in the part of speech but
compared to conversion (see above), a reduction of the word form takes place (typically,
a suffix is removed from the original word). Backformation usually produces verbs that
are formed from nouns.
Examples of English terms that are the result of backformation:
Original word Resulting term
television
euthanasia
liaison
bulldozer
electrocution
donation
to televise
to euthanise / euthanize
to liaise
to bulldoze
to electrocute
to donate
2.3.7 COINAGE
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DEFINITION – COINAGE
Just like new things are constantly invented, so are new words. The process of
inventing a completely new word is referred to as coinage, and the same term is applied
to the result of that process. Coinages often enter the language as trade names for
commercial products, and over time they become general words referring to any version
or variation of the original product. (They also usually drop the initial capital letter in the
process.)
Coinages tend to be nouns but we also have examples of newly coined verbs.
Examples of coinages that are used as terms: aspirin, nylon, vaseline, kleenex, teflon,
xerox, sellotape, quark; to google, to photoshop.
Coinages based on proper names (i.e. names of people or places) are called eponyms.
Example English terms that are eponyms include: hoover, fahrenheit, diesel, Marxist,
platonic, Petri dish, Alzheimer’s Disease, etc.
2.3.8 BORROWING
In order to extend the word stock of a language we can turn to other languages and
simply incorporate words already existing there. This practice is referred to as
“borrowing”; a word taken over from another language is called a loanword or a
borrowing.
Today, English is a very influential language, so many modern terms that come from
English-speaking countries end up as loanwords in other languages. Sometimes they even
become preferred over existing “native” terms; for example, the suggested Czech term
magnetoskop (“a video player or recorder”) never really caught on in language practice
and was soon replaced by a borrowing from English, video.
On the other hand, English has, too, been quite keen on lexical borrowings. It is
estimated that nearly 30% of the entire English word stock is of French origin, and
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
40
roughly the same proportion of vocabulary comes from Latin. As far as terminology is
concerned, the major sources of term borrowings are Latin, French and Greek but other
languages have contributed, too. The table below gives some examples:
Language of
origin
Borrowed terms
Arabic alcohol, atlas, fakir, fatwa
Czech robot, howitzer (from houfnice via the German Haubitze)
Dutch buoy, commodore, iceberg, narwhal, trigger
French automobile, calorie, district, fabric, juxtaposition, oxygen
German flugelhorn, glockenspiel, lithography, snorkel, umlaut, zeitgeist
Greek aorta, colophon, diabetes, chaos, pneumonia, stigma, trauma
Italian a cappella, cantata, gabion, loggia, motto, novella, opera, zebra
Japanese anime, emoji, futon, ikebana, karate, tofu, tsunami
Latin accumulation, condominium, denture, fungus, mutation,
phonetic
Sanskrit avatar, guru, nirvana, yoga
Spanish armadillo, Chicano, hurricane, mulatto, oregano, tobacco
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
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2.3.9 ACRONYMY
DEFINITION – ACRONYMY
The last word-formation process we will cover is acronymy – the creation of new
words formed from the initial letters of other words. Acronymy is a type of abbreviation.
Linguists typically distinguish two kinds of words that are the result of this process:
acronyms (which are pronounced as single words: UNESCO [juneskǝu]) and initialisms
(pronounced as individual letters: DVD [di: vi: di:]). However, there is apparently some
overlap between the two categories, as there are words that people pronounce in both
ways: UFO ([ju:fǝu] or [ju: ef ǝu]), VAT ([vi: ei ti:] or [væt]), etc.
In terminology, acronyms and initialisms are very common because many specialist
terms are long open compounds (see 2.3.2 above). Acronymy provides a practical way to
facilitate their use in both written and spoken communication.
Certain terms formed through acronymy have become so common that we no longer
feel their acronymic origin: laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of
radiation), scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), etc.
Examples of common English terms that are acronyms or initialisms are given in the table
below:
Acronyms
NASA
NATO
Radar
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
radio detection and ranging
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OPEC
UNPROFOR
AIDS
AWOL
GIF
PIN
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
United Nations Protection Force
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
absent without official leave
graphics interchange format
personal identification number
Initialisms
FBI
CIA
MRI
HIV
HTML
BBC
CNN
OEM
RSI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Central Intelligence Agency
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
hyper-text markup language
British Broadcasting Corporation
Cable News Network
original equipment manufacturer
Repetitive Strain Injury
2.3.10 COMBINED PROCESSES
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More than one process can often be involved in the formation of a new word. From
a synchronic viewpoint we can identify a combination of word-formation processes in
terms like the following:
robotic: borrowing + derivation
HIV-positive: acronymy + compounding
cellphone: clipping + compounding
2.4 Lexical relations in terminology
Words do not exist as mere “containers of meaning”: they can also have relationships
with each other. The meaning of a word can be described not only in terms of its
component semantic features but also in terms of its relationship to other words.
Early on in this study material (see chapter 1.2) we mentioned that terms should be
unambiguous and that, ideally, one term should refer to one clearly defined concept.
However, this requirement is difficult to meet in actual language practice. Just like other
words, terms become involved in various lexical relations such as synonymy, homonymy
and polysemy. This complicates their use to a certain degree, but such is the nature and
reality of language.
2.4.1 SYNONYMY BETWEEN TERMS
In various fields of terminology we come across different words and expressions with
apparently the same or a very similar meaning. These work as synonymous terms (or
terminological synonyms), thus effectively breaching the requirement that one concept
should be referred to by one (and only one) term.
Synonymy – the existence of different word forms sharing the same underlying
concept – occurs in terminologies for various reasons:
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
44
• Geographical: the same entity is called differently in various countries where the
same language is spoken; for instance, lift and bonnet in British English, which have their
corresponding American English counterparts, elevator and hood.
• Social: the same concept has acquired a new name due to changes in the society.
For example, the terms air hostess, chairman and policewoman now co-exist with their
respective gender-neutral synonyms flight attendant, chairperson and police officer.
• Ideological: the same concept has acquired two (or more) different names due to
political or ideological reasons. One famous example is the word cosmonaut (used in the
former Eastern Bloc), which is in reality no different from an astronaut (a term used in the
Western world). The reason for the existence of two different terms is purely political
here. The recent addition of taikonaut (“an astronaut in the Chinese space programme”)
has a similar motivation.
• Preferential: the same concept is called differently among different professional
user groups because they prefer or have devised their own term. Examples include ITrelated
terms used across different computer platforms and operating systems: dialog box
vs. message window, control vs. widget (“a user interface element”), checkbox vs.
tickbox, context menu vs. pop-up menu, etc.
• Marketing: the same concept has acquired another name because there is a
marketing and/or media “push” behind it. Indeed, new synonyms often originate from
product names and trademarks. Examples: sticky tape vs. Sellotape, exercise bike vs.
Exercycle, sticky note vs. Post-it, etc.
2.4.2 TERMINOLOGICAL HOMONYMY AND POLYSEMY
Terms are standards set to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding in a specific
profession or field of activity. However, practice has shown that quite often, one and the
same term can have different meanings, depending on the context. While in general
language this is a positive sign (indicating that the language is alive and rich),
terminological homonymy and polysemy – the existence of terms with multiple
meanings – can lead to confusion.
The distinction between polysemy and homonymy is often quite vague, but the
generally accepted definition is that polysemous words carry meanings that are related in
origin, whereas the individual meanings of homonyms are not related to each other. In
dictionaries, polysemous words tend to be treated within a single entry while homonyms
form separate dictionary entries.
As an example we will take a look at the term “lock”. As the table below shows, the
term acquires different meanings in different fields of use (and has different
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
45
corresponding translations in Czech). However, the meanings are mutually related – they
all involve holding something in place and blocking it there. They share the same origin,
so “lock” is a polysemous term (not a homonym):
Field of use Definition Czech
translation
sport “A hold that prevents an opponent from
Moving (in wrestling or martial arts).”
zámek
water
transport
“A short section of a canal or river with
gates at each end which can be opened or
closed to change the water level, used for
raising and lowering boats.”
zdymadlo,
plavební komora
car
technology
“The maximum extent to which the
front wheels of a vehicle can be turned
left or right.”
rejd
Another example is the verb “to clear”. As the definitions below indicate, the
meanings assigned to the verb in various specialist contexts are not related to each other.
Therefore, “to clear” is a homonymous term:
Field of use Definition Czech
translation
international
transport
“To give or receive official permission
to transport goods across the border.”
proclít,
celně odbavit
sport “To kick or hit a ball or a puck away from
the area near your own goal.”
dostat míč/
puk z obranného
pásma
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46
business “To make net profit.” vydělat,
získat
(čistý zisk)
business “To sell cheaply to get rid of stock.”
levně rozprodat,
zbavit se,
dát do výprodeje
SUMMARY
This chapter deals with professional English and its properties. Substantial amount of
time is devoted to terms and morphology with stress on the following word formation
processes: derivation, compounding, blending, clipping, conversion, backformation,
coinage, borrowing, acronymy and their combinations. Lexical relations in terminology
are described in the final subchapter.
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47
COMPREHENSION CHECK
1. What is professional English, in what contexts is it used, and what are its typical
linguistic properties?
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
48
2. Which morphological components take part in forming English terms? Give
specific examples.
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
49
3. Which word-formation processes contribute to extending the repertoire of English
terms? Give specific examples.
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50
4. Explain the possible reasons for the existence of terminological synonymy. Give
specific examples.
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51
5. Explain the difference between homonymous and polysemous terms. Give specific
examples.
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52
ASSIGNMENT
Using the information presented in section 2.2.2 in the study material, analyse the
morphological structure of the following five terms. Identify prefixes and suffixes,
explain their meaning and/or function, and translate the term into Czech. (The particular
field in which the term is used is given in brackets.)
contractor (business)
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homogamy (botany)
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54
geologist (science)
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55
monosyllabic (linguistics)
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56
managerial (business)
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57
TAKE A BREAK
Now you can take a well-deserved break!
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58
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59
3 TERMINOLOGY RESOURCES
QUICK OVERVIEW
The third chapter leaves the realm of theory and looks at the practical side of things.
We will give an overview of various terminology resources that a translator may find
useful in his/her daily work. We will recommend a number of specialized dictionaries,
both print and electronic, that cover terminology in various subject domains (economics
and finance, law, politics, etc.). We will also mention a number of publicly available
online terminology databases that can serve as resources complementary to dictionaries.
AIMS
This chapter will
• Discuss specialized dictionaries
• Introduce terminology databases
KEYWORDS
Print dictionaries, Electronic dictionaries, Terminology databases, Distributed
collaboration, TechTerms, Microsoft Language Portal, MediLexicon, IATE, ECHA-term,
Abbreviations.com.
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When translating specialist texts, terminological accuracy is an important aspect of
the quality of translation. The knowledge of terminology used in a particular field, and the
ability to find, verify and correctly use terms to fit the needs of specialist communication,
are important prerequisites that a professional translator has to meet.
In reality, very few translators are trained experts in the field in which they specialize:
for instance, a person translating chemistry-related texts is not required to have studied
chemistry at university level. But they have to be able to effectively find the correct terms
for the particular context. This is where various terminology resources enter the scene
and become indispensable tools.
We mentioned in section 1.3 above that for practical purposes, terms are often
collected in specialized dictionaries and terminology databases. In this chapter we will
have a look at some of these resources.
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61
3.1 Specialized dictionaries
These dictionaries contain the terminology related to a particular subject field or
discipline, often trying to cover as much of the relevant terminology as possible.
Specialized dictionaries tend to cover one subject field, although multi-field dictionaries
do exist as well.
Print dictionaries come in traditional book form, whereas electronic dictionaries
take the form of software applications, e-books (in formats such as PDF or ePub) or
online services. Electronic dictionaries allow faster searching, and they also tend to be
more up-to-date: it is much easier (as well as cheaper) for publishers to update and extend
them because the additional cost of printing and binding does not apply.
Another possible classification is based on the language(s) used:
• Monolingual dictionaries present terms through their definitions in a single
language. They can be useful when the translator wants to actually understand the term
he/she is translating, rather than just find the corresponding equivalent in a target
language.
• Translating dictionaries (bilingual or multi-lingual) contain terms and their
corresponding translations in one or more target languages.
Some dictionaries combine both approaches; typically, the dictionary is designed as
a translating dictionary but definitions or explanations of terms are also provided for
reference.
The table below presents a non-exhaustive list of existing specialized translating
dictionaries (both print and electronic) that cover Czech and English terminology used in
various fields and professions:
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62
3.1.1 PRINT DICTIONARIES
Subject
domain
Title Author(s)
Publisher
and
date
economics
and
finance
Velký ekonomický slovník
anglicko-český /
česko-anglický
various
authors
Fraus, 2007
Anglicko-český
ekonomický slovník J. H. Adam Leda, 2003
Anglicko-český
+ Česko-anglický odborný
slovník z oblasti ekonomické,
obchodní a finanční
(two volumes)
Milena
Bočánková
et al.
Linde,
2008
(4th ed.)
Anglicko-český
ekonomický výkladový
slovník¨
Jiří Elman Sobotáles,
2004
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63
Ekonomický slovník
s odborným výkladem
česky a anglicky
Helena Fialová,
Jan Fiala
Aplus, 2009
Česko-anglický
slovník pojišťovnictví
various
authors
Grada, 2007
law
Anglicko-český
právnický slovník
Jana Oherová
et al.
Linde, 2010
Anglicko-český
právnický slovník Marta Chromá
Leda,
2010
(3rd ed.)
Česko-anglický
právnický slovník
s vysvětlivkami
Marta Chromá
Leda,
2010
(3rd ed.)
politics
and
adminis-
tration
Anglicko-český
a
česko-anglický slovník
Evropské unie
Milena
Bočánková,
Miroslav
Kalina
Ekopress,
2005
Velký slovník zkratek Jiří Elman East West
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64
Evropské unie Publ., 2000
science
and
techno-
logy
Anglicko-český
+
Česko-anglický
technický slovník
(two volumes)
Jiří Elman,
Václav
Michalíček
Sobotáles,
2003
(2nd ed.)
Praktický
technický slovník
anglicko-český /
česko-anglický
various authors Fraus, 2007
Anglický frazeologický
slovník pro techniky
Josef Nevrlý Computer
Press,
2008
Česko-anglický
slovník stavební
Jiří Vedral JTP, 2006
Velký chemický slovník
anglicko-český a
česko-anglický
(two volumes)
Jaromír
Mindl,
Josef
Panchartek
VŠCHT,
2012
(3rd ed.)
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65
Anglicko-český /
česko-anglický
multioborový slovník
z oblasti vědy,
techniky a ekonomiky
various
authors
Computer
Press,
2011
Anglicko-český
slovník. Automobily,
silniční vozidla, výroba,
prodej, sevis, opravárenství.
Ivo Machačka,
Filip Machačka
Systemconsult,
2009
Gumárenský anglicko-český
slovník a český
výkladový slovník
s anglickými ekvivalenty
Vratislav
Ducháček,
Anežka
Lengálová
ČSPCH,
2004
Anglicko-český
a česko-anglický
slovník životního prostředí
a udržitelného rozvoje
Jarmila
Hájková,
Ivan
Rynda et al.
SFŽP, 2010
medicine
Tematický česko-anglický
a anglicko-český
soudnělékařský slovník
/ Thematic Czech-English
and English-Czech
Dictionary of Forensic
Medicine
Michal
Beran,
Petra
Dohnalová,
Klára
Neureutterová
Karolinum,
2018
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66
Česko-anglická
rostlinolékařská
terminologie
Václav
Kůdela
et al.
Academia,
2008
sport
Anglicko-český /
německo-český /
česko-německo-anglický
slovník sportovního tréninku
Eva Pokorná,
Róbert Kandráč
Grada,
2011
3.1.2 ELECTRONIC DICTIONARIES
Subject
domain
Title Author(s)
Publisher
and date
economics
and
finance
Lexicon 7
Ekonomický slovník
various
authors
Lingea,
2019
Anglicko-český
ekonomický slovník
Jiří Elman Leda,
2005
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67
law
Lexicon 5
Anglický právnický slovník
various
authors
Lingea,
2008
politics
and
administr-
ation
Euro angličtina.
Elektronický anglicko-český
a česko-anglický
slovník pro pracovníky
státní správy.
Jana
Dyčková
NOK
+ Lingea,
2011
Výkladový slovník
migrační terminologie /
Glossary on Migration
various
authors
IOM,
2014
(e-book / PDF)
science
and
technology
Lexicon 7
Anglický technický slovník
various
authors
Lingea,
2019
Lexicon 7
Anglický zemědělský
a přírodovědný slovník
Josef R.
Beneš
Lingea,
2019
Anglicko-český /
česko-anglický
technický slovník
various
authors
TZ-one,
2013
(e-book / PDF)
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Slovník analytické chemie
anglicko-český
a česko-anglický
Pavel
Matějka
et al.
VŠCHT,
2005
(online)
Angličtina na internetu:
anglicko-český slovník
Jozef
Petro
Halloenglish.cz,
2015
(e-book / PDF)
various
fields
Nový odborný slovník
Millennium 8
anglicko-český,
francouzsko-český,
německo-český,
rusko-český
various
authors
Commercial
Service
K+K,
2014
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69
3.2 Terminology databases
With the more widespread use of the Internet in the past two decades, a lot of
lexicographic activity has moved towards web-based technologies. These technologies
have enabled the emergence of new lexicographic tools that would be difficult to
implement in the traditional book form. In many ways, online terminology databases
provide a better answer to the dynamic development in specialist fields; above all:
• They are easier to maintain, extend and review.
• They are based on distributed collaboration, which means that many people can
work on them at the same time and regardless of their location (whereas traditional
dictionaries usually only have small, locally-based teams behind them).
• They make use of state-of-the-art database technologies, allowing sophisticated
ways to look up terms including query-based searching, fulltext searching and in-context
searching.
• It is easy to design them as multi-lingual (i.e. one term is provided in parallel
translation into several languages), whereas in traditional dictionary-making the bilingual
approach is still prevalent.
• They are accessed through a standard web browser, which is an environment most
people of today are familiar with.
Compared to an electronic dictionary, the structure of an entry in a terminology
database tends to be simpler, and contains less linguistic information.
Below is an overview of several useful online terminology databases that are freely
available for public use:
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3.2.1 TECHTERMS
A monolingual online database of computer and Internet terms. Launched in 2005, the
database currently contains about 1500 technical terms with easy-to-understand
definitions. Term can be looked up via the web interface as well as from mobile apps for
the iOS and Android operating systems.
The goal of TechTerms is simple — they want to make technical terms easy to
understand. Instead of using high-level terminology, TechTerms definitions are written in
simple everyday language. They also believe that while definitions of computer terms are
helpful, simple explanations of terms with examples are even better. Therefore, most
definitions on TechTerms.com include real-life examples of how the term is used.
Some terms in the TechTerms Computer Dictionary are commonly used and require
little technical knowledge to understand. Others are less common and may have
definitions that contain more advanced terminology. For this reason, each definition
includes a "Tech Factor" rating from 1 to 10. Terms with low tech factors are basic terms
that are well known, while terms with high tech factors are more advanced and are not
used as often.
The database is accessible from www.techterms.com
Fig.2 – Techterms
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3.2.2 MICROSOFT LANGUAGE PORTAL
A multilingual online database of standard computer technology terms used across
Microsoft products. Due to the significant role of Microsoft in the world of computing,
the database can also serve as a general IT terminology bank. The terms are available in
almost 100 languages.
The database is accessible from www.microsoft.com/Language.
Fig.3 – Microsoft Language Portal
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It has several sections.
Terminology - can be used to develop localized versions of applications that integrate
with Microsoft products. It can also be used to integrate Microsoft terminology into other
terminology collections or serve as a base IT glossary for language development in the
nearly 100 languages available. Terminology is provided in .tbx format, an industry
standard for terminology exchange.
UI Translations - Translations of the user interface text (UI strings) for Microsoft
products and services are available free from Visual Studio Dev Essentials. Each
language is provided as a .zip fie containing multiple individual products in .csv format.
Style Guide – is further divided into Localization Style Guides and English Style
Guides.
Localization Style Guides: Microsoft Style Guides are collections of rules that
define language and style conventions for specific languages. These rules usually include
general localization guidelines, information on language style and usage in technical
publications, and information on market - specific data formats.
English Style Guide: The English Style Guide (Microsoft Writing Style Guide)
provides essential guidance for developers and content creators who design Englishlanguage
apps, documentation, marketing, and reference material for and about Microsoft
products.
API - The Microsoft Terminology Service API allows a user to programmatically
access the terminology, definitions and user interface (UI) strings available on the
Language Portal through a web service. This enables users to write apps that call the data
from the portal and display it on their website or translate their Windows Store or
Windows Phone apps.
One can also use the Terminology Service API for:
• Dictionary-style terminology, definition, and translation lookups on your site or
from within your app.
• Integration with your localization or content authoring system for dynamic
translation and localization.
• Combining with Microsoft Translator to translate your content using lookups to
get the right Microsoft terminology and machine translation for the content.
• Suggestions for Microsoft Terminology in community translation of content and
wikis.
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This content accessed by the Terminology Service API is the same as one will find on
the Language Portal search page and includes terminology and English definitions, in
addition to the actual product user interface translations, such as "Save to phone", "Pin to
Start","Log on", and other common UI terms in major Microsoft products.
Supported Languages
The languages supported include all the languages you will find on the Language
Portal and currently enable translation from US English to any of the supported languages
and/or any of the supported language to US English.
Locales and Languages
Note that language codes currently include both the language and the country/region,
for example “en-us.” Neutral locales, such as “en” only, are not currently offered.
However, some of the language and locale combinations reflect terminology and UI
strings from products that are distributed in multiple countries where a language is spoken
and can be regarded as “neutral” flavors of the language, in particular:
English (en-us)
French (fr-fr)
Arabic (ar-sa)
German (de-de)
Dutch (nl-nl)
Spanish (es-es)
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3.2.3 MEDILEXICON
A monolingual online database of terms and abbreviations from the fields of medicine,
pharmacy, biotechnology, agrochemicals, healthcare and more. Currently it contains more
than 100,000 terms as well as over 230,000 acronyms and initialisms.
MediLexicon also provides a comprehensive medical dictionary service for visitors,
allowing them to quickly look up meanings for medical words and phrases.
The database is accessible from www.medilexicon.com.
Fig.4 – Medilexicon
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3.2.4 IATE (INTERACTIVE TERMINOLOGY FOR EUROPE)
European Union’s multilingual terminology database maintained by the Translation
Centre for the Bodies of the European Union / Centre de traduction des organes de
l'Union européenne. The project was launched in 1999 with the aim of providing a webbased
infrastructure for all EU terminology resources, enhancing the availability and
standardization of the information. IATE has incorporated several terminology databases
that European institutions and agencies used in the past. Terms in IATE are available in
25 languages.
The database is accessible from iate.europa.eu.
Fig. 5 – IATE
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IATE (‘Interactive Terminology for Europe’) is the EU's terminology database. It has
been used in the EU institutions and agencies since summer 2004 for the collection,
dissemination and management of EU-specific terminology. The project partners are:
• European Parliament (IATE data labelled as EP),
• Council of the European Union (IATE data labelled as Council),
• European Commission (IATE data labelled as COM),
• European Court of Justice (IATE data labelled as CJUE),
• European Central Bank (IATE data labelled as ECB),
• European Court of Auditors (IATE data labelled as ECA),
• European Economic and Social Committee (IATE data labelled as EESC/CoR),
• European Committee of the Regions (IATE data labelled as EESC/CoR),
• European Investment Bank (IATE data labelled as EIB), and
• Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (IATE data labelled as
CdT)
The project was launched in 1999 with the objective of providing a web-based
infrastructure for all EU terminology resources, enhancing the availability and
standardisation of the information. The following legacy databases were imported into
IATE:
• Eurodicautom (Commission),
• TIS (Council),
• Euterpe (EP),
• Euroterms (Translation Centre),
• CDCTERM (Court of Auditors)
The current new version of IATE was released on 7 November 2018 following a full
rebuild of the system with state-of-the-art technologies, the latest software development
standards, best practices on usability and accessibility, and a new look and feel.
Numerous improvements and new functionalities are now available to internal and public
users, and the EU interinstitutional terminology database will continue to evolve in the
coming months and years to meet the needs and wishes of EU linguists and IATE users in
general.
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3.2.5 ECHA-TERM
European Union’s multilingual database of terms from the field of chemistry, and
especially chemical substances. The terms are available in 23 languages.
The database is accessible from echa-term.echa.europa.eu.
Fig. 6 – ECHA
ECHA is the driving force among regulatory authorities in implementing the
EU's groundbreaking chemicals legislation for the benefit of human health and
the environment as well as for innovation and competitiveness. ECHA helps
companies to comply with the legislation, advances the safe use of chemicals,
provides information on chemicals and addresses chemicals of concern.
The ECHA-term terminology database was conceived as a dynamic
database to be updated constantly by experts in the field and linguists. Feedback
from users will also be taken into account as an additional validation
mechanism.
ECHA-term contains terminology from:
• REACH Regulation
• CLP Regulation (terms, hazard and precautionary statements)
• ECHA Guidance documents (terms and descriptors)
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• GHS hazard pictograms
• Substances of Very High Concern
• Biocidal Products Regulation
A total of 1,200 multilingual entries are now available in 22 EU languages,
plus the main REACH terms in Croatian. The terminology will be enlarged and
updated continuously during the coming years.
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3.2.6 ABBREVIATIONS.COM
A multilingual online database of acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms.
The database contains hundreds of thousands of entries across 22 languages,
organized by a large variety of categories from computing and the Internet to
governmental, medicine and business.
The database is accessible from www.abbreviations.com.
Fig.8 – Abbreviations.com
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An extensive collection of hundreds of thousands of acronyms,
abbreviations, and initialisms, Abbriviations.com is neatly arranged by broad
areas (e.g. Medical, Internet, International, Community). Each area is further
broken down into more specific, browsable categories such as Veterinary,
Emoticons, or Non-Profit. The "International" area is multilingual, featuring
hundreds of entries in Spanish, German, French, and other languages. Users can
contribute abbreviations as well as look them up. In addition to browsing,
search options are also available: word to abbreviation, abbreviation to word,
word in definition, There is also a metasearch option that seems deliver term
use in Amazon and Google.
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SUMMARY
This chapter was dealing with terminology from a more practical view. We
introduced a variety of printed and electronic dictionaries and also examined a number of
online sources for terminology. As of this writing, there is a buzz going around about
closing down Medilexicon.
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ASSIGNMENT
Visit the university library, and use the library catalogue to find out which of these
resources are available to you.
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TAKE A BREAK
Now you can take a well-deserved break!
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4 TERMINOLOGY MANAGEMENT
QUICK OVERVIEW
The closing chapter deals with the theory and practice of terminology management,
focusing specifically on Computer-Aided Translation tools and technologies. We will see
how terminology is handled by translation software and how collections of terms can be
exchanged between various programs. We will also present a number of tools for efficient
terminology management, and introduce term extraction as a way to streamline the
creation of term collections.
AIMS
This chapter will
• Discuss terminology management and its tools
• Introduce terms and translation software
KEYWORDS
Computer – Aided Translation, Termbases, TBX file format, SDL MultiTerm,
TermStar, Cloud computing, Distributed access, Term extraction, TermoStat, Synchro
Term, Vocab Grabber
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4.1 What is terminology management?
As terminology collections grow bigger, and especially when more people work on
them, the need for some kind of organization or system arises as a prerequisite for further
development. If left unmanaged, terminology can easily become inconsistent or
confusing. This may have very serious consequences in certain high-risk fields such as
medicine, military or law.
DEFINITION – TERMINOLOGY MANAGEMENT
Terminology management is a set of activities that ensure systematic collection,
development, storage, reviewing, updating and distribution of terminology data.
Nowadays, terminology is best managed with the help of dedicated software.
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4.2 Terms and translation software
We mentioned at the beginning of the previous chapter that terminological accuracy is
an important aspect of the quality of translation. We also suggested that the translator is
not required to know a particular term, but that he/she needs to be able to find the correct
term and verify its usability in a particular context. How can computer technology help
tackle this task?
The field of Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) has brought various types of
technology and software that make the translation process faster and easier. Because
terminology is at the core of translation work, tools have naturally been devised for
terminology management and referencing. In fact, one of the central concepts of CAT
software is a module that caters for terminology needs. Regardless of the actual
implementation, such a module will:
• help you manage electronic term collections (referred to as termbases or
glossaries);
• monitor the currently translated text and compare it against a selected termbase in
real time;
• automatically suggest and/or insert the respective translation if the source text
contains a term that is stored in the termbase;
• support using several termbases simultaneously for reference;
• allow the online sharing of termbases among a team of translators;
• allow adding new terms on an as-you-go basis;
• provide features for basic terminology organisation and management (adding,
modifying and deleting terms);
• cooperate with dedicated terminology management software if more sophisticated
features are needed.
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4.2.1 TERMBASE
A termbase is a bilingual or multilingual electronic database of terms used by CAT
software. It contains specific pairings of source and target terms, and optionally also
associated metadata (such as comments, context notes or usage examples).
Freelance translators tend to use termbases as their personal databases of terminology.
These usually take the form of bilingual glossaries which the translator builds up by
manually entering source and target term pairings as he/she proceeds from one translation
job to another. This process often takes many years, so termbases become a valued
resource that is part of the translator’s know-how. Therefore, termbases are rarely shared
with other freelancers (who represent competition in the market), unless they cooperate as
part of a small team.
Personal termbases are rarely reviewed by a trained terminologist, so the translator
himself/herself is fully responsible for what comes in. Terms are not added according to
a rigorous system imposed from above, which can potentially lead to problems such as
term duplication or competing translations. Also, personal termbases are seldom
annotated with metadata (apart from occasional notes on term usage) because the time
spent on comprehensive annotation rarely pays off, considering the nature of freelance
translation work.
As today’s computer technology is very fast even on consumer level, freelancers now
often prefer to collect all terms in a single, “catch-all” termbase, rather than keep separate
termbases for individual fields or clients. (This used to be common practice in previous
decades when searching through large data collections represented a bottleneck.)
On the other hand, termbases used by big corporations and institutions are managed
quite differently. First of all, they tend to have large teams behind them, which means that
the term collections grow faster and bigger. To keep them focused, organised and
consistent, they undergo regular review and maintenance. Typically, terms need to be
approved by a person in charge before (or soon after) they enter the database, which
minimizes the risk of error and inconsistency. This is really important: as corporate
termbases are meant to be shared by the company’s many departments and branch offices,
errors can have much greater consequences compared to freelancer use.
Large corporations and institutions often operate on an international scale, so it makes
every sense to design their termbases as multilingual. This means that the company or
institution can store its entire stock of terminology across all supported languages in one
place.
Corporations and institutions also tend to maintain several dedicated termbases
organised by field, industry or product range because keeping one large termbase for
everything would be too impractical, considering the amount of data involved.
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4.2.2 THE TBX FILE FORMAT
Over the years, various CAT solution providers have introduced their own file
formats to store termbase data. In order to simplify exchange of terms between CAT
programs and ensure a certain level of compatibility, the TBX file format (short for
TermBase eXchange) was published in 2008 as an international standard.
TBX is an open format based on the widely-used XML markup language. It was
devised as a standard for representing and exchanging information about terms, words
and other lexical data. The main purpose of TBX is to ensure that your data can be used
in different software applications. All modern CAT programs, free or commercial,
support TBX along with their own formats.
TBX is a plain-text, human-readable format that can be viewed in any text editor. The
listing below shows one termbase entry taken from a TBX file. We will now have a look
at the structure of the entry:
<termEntry id="10234_34">
<langSet xml:lang="en-US">
<descripGrp>
<descrip type="definition">An absolute (machine) address
specifying a physical location in memory.</descrip>
</descripGrp>
<ntig>
<termGrp>
<term id="34">absolute address</term>
<termNote type="partOfSpeech">Noun</termNote>
</termGrp>
</ntig>
</langSet>
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<langSet xml:lang="fr-fr">
<ntig>
<termGrp>
<term id="39">adresse absolue</term>
<termNote type="partOfSpeech">Noun</termNote>
</termGrp>
</ntig>
</langSet>
</termEntry>
Confusing as it may look at the first sight, it is actually very easy to read. The
termEntry element introduces a new termbase entry. The id attribute that goes with this
element carries a numeric identifier under which the entry is stored in the termbase. The
languages in which the term is provided (in our particular example, English and French)
are set in the langSet elements.
The term itself is stored in the term element; we can see that our entry stores the
English term “absolute address” together with its French equivalent, “adresse absolue”.
Any descriptions that go with the term must be enclosed within a descripGrp (description
group) element. Note that our term has been accompanied with its English definition, “An
absolute (machine) address specifying a physical location in memory”, while the French
definition is not provided.
Because they are stored as plain text, TBX files can be edited manually in a text editor
such as NotePad. However, this is rarely done because large termbase listings can be
quite intimidating to work with. Instead, dedicated software tools are preferred for
termbase management.
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4.3 Terminology management tools
In today’s globalised world, properly managed terminology can represent an
invaluable asset and a competitive advantage for companies that operate on an
international level. Therefore, most terminology management solutions are provided as
commercial products.
From the viewpoint of technology, current terminology management tools come in
one of the following three forms:
• standalone software applications: they are installed and run from your
computer’s hard-drive like any other programs;
• integrated tools: they are installed as components of a comprehensive translation
solution (a “CAT suite”);
• web-based services: they are provided as online applications that run inside a web
browser.
Certain tools are offered in more than one form simultaneously, in order to match user
preference and to ensure the widest possible installed base. Typically, integrated
terminology management tools are also sold as standalone programs so that they can be
used by people who only need a terminology management solution and do not want to
pay for a full-fledged CAT suite.
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4.3.1 SDL MULTITERM
Launched in 1990 and now published by the company SDL, MultiTerm represents an
industry standard in terminology management. The program can be used by translators
and terminologists as a standalone application, or it can be integrated with the company’s
flagship SDL Trados Studio translation suite. Both MultiTerm and Trados Studio run on
Microsoft Windows, which is the only operating system officially supported by SDL.
Fig. 9 – SDL MultiTerm
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The image above displays the main program window of SDL MultiTerm in which
a bilingual termbase is being edited. The termbase contains terms in Portuguese and
English that relate to real estate (as the “Domain” field shows).
More information on SDL MultiTerm can be found on the product website:
https://www.sdltrados.com/products/multiterm-desktop :
Fig.10 – SDL MultiTerm website
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4.3.1 TERMSTAR
TermStar (published by the company STAR AG) is another well-established
terminology management solution that comes both as a standalone application and as an
integral part of a complete CAT suite, Transit. With the help of another product sold by
the company, WebTerm, it is possible to access, manage and share TermStar databases
online.
More information on TermStar can be found on the product website:
https://www.star-group.net/en/products/terminology-management.html:
Fig. 11 – TermStar website
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TermStar offers the following:
• Clear global communication thanks to consistent company wording
• Company-wide terminology pool
• Numerous interfaces for terminology extraction, transfer, and use
• Flexible adaptation to company-specific terminology processes
• Support of ontologies (RDF Triples) for machine translation and AI applications
(e.g. voice assistance, NLG, NLU)
• Flexible licensing models (on-site, floating, time-limited, IaaS, SaaS)
• Worldwide support organization (first-, second- and third-level)
• Individually configurable user interface, views, and dictionary layouts
• Comprehensive data model with freely configurable values lists, entry
verifications, and filter functions
• Simple integration of multimedia files
• Secure consolidation and merging of terminology databases thanks to complex
import and synchronization functions
• Term suggestions on the fly
• Dynamic highlighting of disallowed terms
• Morphological support for over 80 languages and language variants
• Dynamic usage examples through dynamic linking
• Ability to add and update terminology quickly and use it immediately
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4.3.2 ONLINE SOLUTIONS
With the wider availability of broadband Internet connection and online database
services, an increasing number of web-based terminology management solutions have
cropped up in the past decade. They follow the current trend of cloud computing, where
classic computer programs are being replaced by applications running inside a web
browser, and data is stored in secured data centres rather than saved locally.
This brings the undisputable advantages of distributed access (termbanks can be
used and managed from any place that has Internet connection) and automatic data backup
(all termbase data is regularly backed up by the provider of the service, and can easily
be retrieved in case of hardware failure).
Below is a brief list of web-based terminology management solutions. Most of these
are commercial; in fact, their price and licensing scheme often make them suitable for
global corporate users rather than individual freelance translators. However, some of
these solutions provide a scaled-down free version for personal use:
a) TermWeb:
https://interverbumtech.com/products-services/termweb
Fig. 12 – TermWeb website
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You are in complete control of your termbase without sacrificing productivity or user
experience. Robust administrative options let you design an experience that fits your
users perfectly.
• TermWeb’s search function offers tab-viewing—just like most modern web browsers—
for a more familiar, intuitive experience
• Edit large quantities of data quickly through a grid structure that functions exactly like a
spreadsheet
• Design, assign and edit user-specific interfaces, search filters, workflows and read/write
permissions
• Preview entries before adding new terms to dictionary, view a term’s entire edit history
and trace dictionary changes by user—and even recover and revert to earlier versions of
your database
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b) evoTerm:
http://www.evoterm.net
Fig. 13 – evoTerm website
Centrally-stored terminology:
• Terminology is stored on an Internet server that is optimally set up for secure
storage and fast data retrieval.
• Terminology available via Internet
Everyone who is allowed to access the terminology requires exclusively Internet
access and a standard browser. The terminology can hence be retrieved
worldwide.
• Automatic data backup; import and export functions
The data is backed up automatically on a daily basis, taking into account high
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security criteria. Naturally additional functions for manual data backup and restore
are available to the administrator. You can import or export your data in different
formats.
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c) TermBases.eu:
https://www.termbases.eu
Fig. 14 – TermBases website
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Fig. 15 – TermBases free offer
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d) TermWikiPro:
https://pro.termwiki.com
Fig. 16 – TermWikiPro website
TermWiki Pro (TWP) is an online platform providing a suite of enterprise
terminology management solutions for global businesses. As a cloud-based service, there
is no 3rd party software installation or service interruptions due to maintenance and
support. All you need to do is sign up for a TWP account to get started immediately with
your terminology management practice.
Populate Terms
There are several ways to create terms in TWP. You can add terms manually or
import them from Excel or TBX files. If you prefer, our terminologists can help you
create the initial termbase by automatically extracting terms from your content and then
defining them for your review and approval. You can also add attributes such as usage
status, screenshots, and other references.
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Translate Terms
TWP has a built-in translation workbench so you can invite linguists to translate your
terms directly in your TWP account. Translating in TermWiki Pro will allow all content
edits to be automatically saved so you can track change history at all times. If you lack
translation resources, our experienced linguists can help you translate your terms.
Look-up Terms
Once your terms have been reviewed and approved in TWP, you can use them in your
authoring and translation work to ensure terminology accuracy and consistency in both
source and translated content. You can use our API to connect your authoring tools and
TMS (translation management system) as well as export content into an exchange file like
Excel.
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e) qTerm:
https://www.memoq.com/en/qterm-professional-terminology-management
Fig. 17 – memoq website for qTerm
Key features in QTerm
• Flexible term base structure: in QTerm, every term base can have a different
structure specific to your organization and goals with custom-defined fields on the
concept, index and term levels. A user-defined term field can contain text, a
number, true/false, date, media, single-value picklist or multiple-value picklist.
• Discussions: this feature provides an easy way for users to comment on
terminology, address terminologists with questions, or request new terms to be
added to the term base. Dashboards and integrated email notifications help you
keep focus. Discussion gives QTerm a collaborative dimension unparalleled by
other terminology solutions.
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• Search in multiple term bases: users can search through all QTerm term bases
for a term with just one search.
• Custom filters: Filters can help you see only terms that comply with your
filtering criteria. You can easily filter for old entries, entries that are missing one
or more target terms, expressions relevant to certain products, terms that have not
yet been approved, and more. These filters can be saved and shared with others.
• Graphics, video, audio or other media in descriptive fields: You can upload
media files or reference documents to each entry. These are then shown or played
in the default viewer.
• Fully integrated with memoQ: Translators using memoQ can connect to a
QTerm term base from within the memoQ desktop client and receive matches
when a term is found in the source text. memoQ’s automatic quality assurance
functions also work with QTerm term bases.
• Integration with memoQ WebTrans: QTerm integrates with memoQ’s browserbased
translation interface, memoQ WebTrans, offering terminology lookup
results and allowing users to store new terms on the fly.
• Guest access: You can define a guest user that can access designated term bases
without the need to enter a user name and password for login. This is a great way
of sharing terminology with customers.
• Permissions management: You can define which users and groups have lookup,
update or administrator privilege for individual term bases.
• Intuitive user interface: QTerm’s user interface supports hotkeys, dynamically
updates the screen if the content changes, and gives a desktop-like editing
experience.
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4.4 Term extraction
The most useful termbases are those that contain the highest number of entries,
especially when they are properly managed. The more verified terms are in a termbase,
the higher the chance that the termbase will be able to provide a solution during the
process of translation.
However, building a sufficiently large termbase can take a long time because entering
terms manually is time-consuming. One way to create term collections in a more
streamlined fashion is term extraction: a data-mining method through which termbases
can be populated with the help of computer technology.
The idea behind term extraction is based on the fact that in all specialist fields and
professions there are vast amounts of text available electronically; these are literally
loaded with terms. If a computer program – a term extractor – was taught to analyse
text, identify terms and put them on a list, the process of building terminology banks
could be automated.
This is a challenging task, to say the least. In fact, software tools for recognizing
terms (which can be quite complex and often carry grammatical and morphological
inflections) are still not reliable enough to allow full automation.
There are three main term extraction approaches that term extractors apply in order to
tackle the task:
• Linguistic: the term extractor attempts to identify word combinations that match
certain morphological or syntactic patterns (“adjective + noun”, “noun + noun”, etc.).
This will of course detect many combinations that are actually not terms, so the
candidates are filtered using various pattern-matching techniques. The linguistic approach
is heavily language-dependent because term-formation patterns differ from language to
language. Therefore, term extraction tools using a linguistic approach are generally
designed to work in a single language (or closely related languages), and cannot easily be
extended to work with other languages.
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• Statistical: the term extractor looks for repeated sequences of lexical items; this is
because terms are key words that often reoccur in the text. The frequency threshold
(which refers to the number of times that a word or a sequence of words must be repeated
to be considered a candidate term) can typically be specified by the user. The major
strength of the statistical approach is that it is language-independent.
• Hybrid: this represents a combination of the two methods above, and is the most
common approach used in term extraction today. The term extractor is primarily
statistical but rules and filters are incorporated to allow picking candidate terms that have
certain linguistic features.
Term extraction can be approached with two different goals in mind. In monolingual
extraction the program analyses a text in a particular language, identifies potential terms,
and produces a word list that can serve as a basis for a termbase (translations of the terms
in the list will have to be provided). In bilingual term extraction the program analyses
a source text together with its translation, identifies candidate terms in the source text, and
tries to match them with their equivalents found in the translation. The result is a ready
termbase containing terms in two languages.
However, as term extractors are still not sophisticated enough to perform either of the
tasks with 100% reliability and consistency, the results of both monolingual and bilingual
term extraction must always be verified by a human terminologist or translator.
Therefore, we can speak of term extraction as a computer-aided rather than a fully
automated process.
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4.4.1 TERM EXTRACTION TOOLS
The table below lists a few term extractors that are available either as free or
commercial software:
Program name Type Comments
TermoStat Web free Web-based;
free but requires registration.
Supports monolingual extraction only.
SDL MultiTerm Extract commercial Comes as an auxiliary tool
to complement SDL MultiTerm
(see 4.3.1 above).
Supports both monolingual
and bilingual extraction.
FiveFilters free Web-based;
supports monolingual extraction only.
SynchroTerm commercial Supports both monolingual
and bilingual extraction.
VocabGrabber free Web-based;
free but exporting the extracted
wordlist requires registration.
Supports monolingual extraction only.
a) TermoStat Web
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Fig. 18 - TermoStat Web
The drawback seems to be the help page that is only in French
Fig. 19 - TermoStat help page in French
b) SDL MultiTerm Extract
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Fig. 20 - SDL MultiTerm Extract page
Multi Term Extract is a powerful tool from the SDL family. It requires seminars taught by
their resellers or signing up for their tutorials. Not very cost effective.
c) FiveFilters
Fig. 21 - FiveFilters web page
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Term Extraction from FiveFilters.org is a free software project to help you extract terms
(e.g. for use as tags) through a web service. Given some text it will return a list of terms
with (hopefully) the most relevant first.
Here are a few details the author finds interesting. This also helps you to get an idea what
is involved in the process:
General parameters
When making HTTP requests, you can pass the following parameters (either in a GET
request or POST request).
Parameter Value Description
text string
The text to extract terms from (UTF-8 encoded). English is
the only supported language.
output
json, xml, txt,
php, html
The format to return the terms.
terms_only 1 or 0 (default)
Set this to 1 if you're only interested in the terms (not the
occurrence and term word count). Only applies to JSON
output.
max
number (default
50)
The maximum number of terms to return.
lowercase 1 or 0 (default)
Set this to 1 to have all extracted terms converted to
lowercase
callback string
For JSONP: name of your Javascript function to receive the
JSON response. If JSON has not been requested, this has no
effect The following characters are allowed: A-Z a-z 0-9 . []
and _.
url string
This can be used instead of 'text' or 'text_or_url', to point to
a web article.
text_or_url string
For convenience, this parameter can be used instead of the
'text' or 'url' parameters to accept either a URL (on its own)
or some text.
key string
Access key. If you've set one up in custom_config.php,
otherwise not required.
Required parameters: either text, url, or text_or_url must be supplied.
Filtering
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The parameters below can be used to filter out certain terms
Parameter Value Description
min_occurrence
number
(default 1)
The minimum number of times a single-word (unigram)
term must appear for it be included in the output.
max_strength
number
(default 3)
Strength is the number of words in the term, so to reduce
results to terms with a maximum of 2 words, set this to 2.
keep_if_strength
number
(default 2)
Keep a term if the term's word count is equal to or greater
than this, regardless of occurrence.
exc[] string
Check terms for this string, and exclude term if there's a
match or partial match. This can appear multiple times.
filter
1 (default) or
0
Set this to 0 to disable filtering (overriding the four
parameters above).
d) Synchro Term
Fig. 22 - Synchro Term web page
SynchroTerm accelerates the process of extracting terminology and creating term
records by employing statistical algorithms to automatically identify equivalent terms. It
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automatically extracts source terms, their equivalents and their contexts from file pairs in
any format, LogiTerm bitexts, SDLXLIFF, XLIFF or TMX files.
A number of extraction and record creation settings are available to optimize results:
minimum number of words per term, maximum number of words per term, number of
occurrences, substantive-only extraction option, LogiTerm term base cross-referencing
function and much more.
SynchroTerm is compatible with 30 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese, Polish, Haitian Creole, Slovak, Czech, German, Swedish, Russian, Greek,
Dutch, Hungarian, Norwegian, Turkish, Danish, Bulgarian, Finnish, Romanian,
Lithuanian, Slovene, Arabic, Chinese, Latvian, Croatian, Estonian, Gaelic and Maltese.
You can export your records in one of eight available formats, then import them into
your chosen terminology software tool.
When creating records, you can automatically pre-fill up to 11 fields with predefined
values, rather than re-entering the same information in each record.
The software’s Restrictive Terminology option allows you to upload a list of source
terms so that SynchroTerm extracts only these terms from your document corpus.
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Fig. 23 - Synchro Term extraction interface
Fig. 24 - Synchro Term terminology records
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e) Vocab Grabber
Figure 25. – Vocab Grabber web site
VocabGrabber analyzes any text you're interested in, generating lists of the most
useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context. Just copy
text from a document and paste it into the box, and then click on the "Grab Vocabulary!"
button. VocabGrabber will automatically create a list of vocabulary from your text, which
you can then sort, filter, and save.
Select any word on the list and you'll see a snapshot of the Visual Thesaurus map and
definitions for that word, along with examples of the word in your text. Click on the word
map or the highlighted word in the example to see the Visual Thesaurus in action.
After you grab the vocabulary from a text, you will see a list of words and phrases in
"tag cloud" view. In the default view, words in the vocab list are arranged by relevance
(more on that below!). In the tag cloud, words that appear most frequently in the text are
displayed in a larger font size. The color of the words is based on whether they match one
of our seven subject areas (Arts & Literature, Geography, Math, People, Science, Social
Studies, Vocabulary).
You can also choose "list" view, which will give you the vocab list in a table, with
columns displaying each word's subject areas, relevance score, and number of
occurrences in the text. Or you can select "gallery" view, displaying a thumbnail image of
each word's map in the Visual Thesaurus.
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SUMMARY
This chapter dealt with terminology management. It described processes needed to
create collections of terms that lead to creating databases. It also dealt with practical
applications of this process. Several tools for efficient terminology management were
introduced, described and term extraction as a way to streamline the creation was
discussed.
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COMPREHENSION CHECK
1. What benefits does terminology management bring to translation practice?
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2. What functions does translation software provide with regard to terminology and the
use of termbases?
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3. Explain how term extraction works, and why a translator might want to use a term
extractor.
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ASSIGNMENT
Use the link to locate the FiveFilters term extraction tool. Once there, click on the
“show options” link and change the Output value to TEXT.
Find a text on the Internet that potentially contains terms. Copy and paste it into the
text field on the term extractor page, and click on the “Get Terms” button. The extractor
will produce and display a plain-text list of candidate terms.
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LITERATURA
CABRÉ, T. M. Terminology: Theory, Methods and Application. Amsterdam and
Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999.
JANATA, P. Překládáme do angličtiny: Příručka pro překladatele odborných textů.
Plzeň: Fraus, 1999.
OLOHAN, M. Scientific and Technical Translation. New York: Routledge, 2016.
WALKER, A. SDL Trados Studio – A Practical Guide (kap. 8, „Managing
Terminology“). Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2014.
WRIGHT, S. E. – BUDIN, G. (eds.) Handbook of Terminology Management.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1997.
YULE, G. The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
René Kron - Úvod do odborné terminologie
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SHRNUTÍ STUDIJNÍ OPORY
Studijní opora Úvod do odborné terminologie předkládá studentům základy práce
s odbornou terminologií, učí je způsobům vytváření databází odborných termínů a
v neposlední řadě seznamuje studenty s nejčastěji používaným software na trhu a
analyzuje jejich používání v praxi.
Věřím, že absolventi kurzu si distanční formou osvojí jednak terminologii, jakožto i
způsoby a nástroje pro práci s odbornou terminologií.
Hodně zdaru přeje autor.
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PŘEHLED DOSTUPNÝCH IKON
Čas potřebný ke studiu Cíle kapitoly
Klíčová slova Nezapomeňte na odpočinek
Průvodce studiem Průvodce textem
Rychlý náhled Shrnutí
Tutoriály Definice
K zapamatování Případová studie
Řešená úloha Věta
Kontrolní otázka Korespondenční úkol
Odpovědi Otázky
Samostatný úkol Další zdroje
Pro zájemce Úkol k zamyšlení
Pozn. Tuto část dokumentu nedoporučujeme upravovat, aby byla zachována správná
funkčnost vložených maker. Tento poslední oddíl může být zamknut v MS Word 2010
prostřednictvím menu Revize/Omezit úpravy.
Takto je rovněž omezena možnost měnit například styly v dokumentu. Pro jejich
úpravu nebo přidávání či odebírání je opět nutné omezení úprav zrušit. Zámek není
chráněn heslem.
Název: Úvod do odborné terminologie
Autor: PhDr. René Kron PhD.
Vydavatel: Slezská univerzita v Opavě
Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě
Určeno: studentům SU FPF Opava
Počet stran: 12324
Tato publikace neprošla jazykovou úpravou.