TERMINOLOGY AND THE MULTILINGUAL INFORMATION SOCIETY

This wide range of applications and products is all the more important given the
current technological and political developments in Europe. The last few decades
have been characterised by the exponential spread and implementation of the concept
of "globalisation". Although international activities and multinational trade existed
well before this date, a new quality has recently emerged. Not only are raw materials
sourced, and products sold, on a supranational scale, they are now increasingly
developed, manufactured, marketed and sold for a global audience. Global
competition and global co-operation - both of which presuppose global
communication - are now common concepts. In the cultural arena, too, we can trace
the development of what is often called the "global village", with greatly increased
social and cultural contact, both active and passive(3).
At the same time, rapid technological development in general, and the rise of whole
new fields and industries in particular, has led to shorter and shorter innovation cycles
and to an exponential growth in knowledge and the need for its rapid and effective
communication. Thus the total amount of specialist knowledge is currently thought to
be doubling every five to fifteen years, depending on the area concerned(4).
This explosion in communication has been facilitated and driven by the computing
and telecommunications revolutions, which have provided cheap processing power
and new technologies for document processing. Vast databases can now be processed
efficiently, and their contents transported effortlessly across national and
geographical boundaries. Information is now commonly regarded as a fourth
production factor alongside property, labour and capital. The number of intangible
products is increasing rapidly, in contrast to the number of tangible ones. The
practical effects of this can be seen, among other things, in the vast increase in the
creation, capture, processing, storage, archiving, retrieval and subsequent evaluation
of documents. For example, the Danzin Report [Danz 92] estimated that the
European economies (calculated before the latest enlargement of the European Union
in January 1995) would spend 650 million ECU on this in 1994. Equally, the number

of major different subject fields (or "domains") for which terminology exists is
estimated at several hundred or many thousand, depending on the degree of detail of
the classification system used(5). In turn, each of these domains contains between
several hundred and over ten million (e.g. chemistry) terms, again depending on the
granularity of the system. The number of terms in each of the highly developed
languages is commonly estimated at 50 million, excluding product names, which
account for roughly another 100 million terms.
A point to be remembered here is that specialist (and indeed general) communication
is normally an iterative and multilinear process, since knowledge is generally created
in an evolutionary process and in several different places at once. Thus potential
sources of uncertainty and misunderstanding arise in the form of homonyms (i.e.
words that are used to denote more than one concept) and synonyms (i.e. more than
one word for the same concept). This problem is becoming particularly acute with the
strong tendency to interdisciplinarity in important modern scientific disciplines such
as biotechnology, environmental science and materials science (it is a paradox that in
this age of increasing specialisation science is becoming more and more
interdisciplinary). At the same time, the risks involved in failing to communicate
unambiguously and in a timely manner have often increased dramatically (two classic
examples of this are the aerospace and environmental industries).
For all these reasons, contents-based information management is a prerequisite for
improving the efficiency of communication. In addition, it should be borne in mind
that communication is not solely monolingual, especially not within Europe. In fact,
there is a clear trend at the moment towards an increased awareness of multilingual
issues, despite the predominance or at least lead function of English in the technical,
business, economic, political and - to a lesser extent - cultural fields.
One factor influencing this trend is the concern of a number of national and regional
governments to ensure the long-term viability of their official languages in the face of
competition from English and to ensure equal access for all citizens and social and
economic groupings to new ideas and other information. Other significant factors are
product liability and similar consumer protection legislation, as well as a more
general wish among enterprises in particular to increase efficiency by improving
internal and external communication and information flows. In addition, consumer
goods manufacturers in particular are discovering the competitive advantage which
products can achieve (especially in saturated or highly competitive markets) when
localised into the languages spoken by their target groups.

The importance of these developments for a multilingual political federation such as

Europe with its eleven official working languages and countless lesser-used
ones(6) cannot be overemphasised. In fact, the European Commission sees itself as
living in what it calls the Multilingual Information Society(7). Europe's dual position
as a world player (and the original home of three world languages) and a multilingual
collection of states means that effective multilingual communication on a vast scale is
a prerequisite for both internal and external success. To quote only one statistic: the
European Commission alone already has more than one million pages of text
translated per year. Add to this the appropriate national figures for both the private
and public sectors, and it soon becomes apparent that multilingual communication is
already big business(8). However, it is equally clear that new, automatic methods and
tools for multilingual information management (i.e. ones that go beyond current
language-neutral ideas such as workflow, imaging and electronic document
management) are urgently required if communication across linguistic, sector,
regional and domain boundaries is to be optimised.
Since a great deal of this - specialist - communication relies on the vocabulary of a
vast number of subject fields to convey its content, readily-accessible, up-to-date
terminology will play an increasingly important role in (multilingual) information
management in the 21st century.

Figure 2 : Terminology : A Key Discipline for the Information Society

I. Uvod v terminoloko vedo

Terminoloka veda se ukvarja z izrazjem strokovnih podroij; s
termini in pojmi, z razmerji med njimi in z metodami terminolokega
dela.

1. sploni jezik strokovni jezik

Strokovni jezik se od splonega loi na ve ravneh. Ugotavljamo
lahko skladenjske, stilne, oblikovne, besedilne, pragmatine in
leksikalne posebnosti, terminologija se e posebej ukvarja z
zadnjimi, se pravi z leksikalnim inventarjem strokovnega besedila.
Razen na uveljavljenih strokovnih, znanstvenih in tehninih
podrojih se strokovno izrazje rabi in razvija na vseh specializiranih
podrojih lovekovega udejstvovanja in znanja (npr. portna
terminologija, kulinarina terminologija itd.).
2. Pomeni terminologije
terminologija

-> izrazje doloenega strokovnega podroja

-> veda o pojmih in njihovih poimenovanjih

v okviru strokovnih jezikov
terminology: Set of terms representing the system of concepts of a particular
subject field.
terminology science: The scientific study of the concepts and terms found in
special languages.
terminography: The recording, processing and presentation of terminological
data acquired by terminological research.
(ISO 1087)

3.

4. Terminologija <-> leksikologija

Jezikoslovna veda, ki se ukvarja z besedami, se
imenuja leksikologija. Terminologija je sorodna veja, saj se
ukvarja z besedami v strokovni komunikaciji, a jo od leksikologije
loi nekaj bistvenih lastnosti.
Medtem ko je osnovna enota preuevanja v
leksikologiji leksem (beseda ali besedna zveza), je v sodobni
terminologiji osnovna enota pojem. Pojem pa ni jezikovna ampak
miselna enota, ki ele s poimenovanjem preide na jezikovno raven.
Leksikologija opisuje besede in besedne zveze, kar je sicer tudi
naloga terminologije, vendar ta tudi dejavno posega v oblikovanje
jezikovne norme. Naloga terminologije je namre tudi, da udejanja
naelo enoznanosti, po katerem termin znotraj strokovnega
podroja ne sme imeti ve pomenov. Tako se ob morebitnem
obstoju vzporednih poimenovanj za isti pojem terminologija opredeli
za eno izmed njih (izbere prednostni termin). Poleg tega je naloga
terminologije, da v primeru neobstoja poimenovanja za doloeni
pojem predlaga poimenovanje, bodisi novotvorjenko ali prevzeto
besedo. Terminologija je zato deskriptivna in preskriptivna veda.
5. Nekaj definicij
Pojem (angl. concept , nem. Begriff , fran. notion )
= abstraktna miselna enota, ki se oblikuje skozi posploevanje
skupnih lastnosti materialnih in nematerialnih predmetov
Pojmi niso omejeni na posamezni jezik, lahko pa na njihovo
oblikovanje vpliva drubeno in kulturno okolje.
Termin (/strokovni/ izraz)
= jezikovno poimenovanje doloenega pojma v okviru strokovnega
podroja
Glede na raven standardizacije loimo: standardizirani termin /
strokovni argonizem.

Primeri:
tiskalnik, prestavna ro?ica, serumski gonadotropin (G03GA03),
Dopplerjev pojav
glava, krma
H2SO4, x

GATT, sistem ABS

...
predmet = del "resninosti" (materialni in nematerialni predmeti)
pojem = miselna posploitev predmetov s podobnimi lastnostmi
reprezentacija = jezikovni ali nejezikovni prikaz pojma

6. Vrste reprezentacije
Pojem lahko predstavimo na ve nainov:
poimenovanje: termin (eno- ali vebesedni, okrajava),
alfanumerini simbol, grafini simbol
opis: definicija, umestitev v razmerje del-celota
razlaga
"opisna" nejezikovna reprezentacija (npr. kompleksna formula
ali graf)
7. O terminoloki problematiki
Hiter razvoj tehnologij povzroa naglo nastajanje in
spreminjanje izrazja. Posledica tega je, da terminologi in
terminografi ne uspejo dovolj hitro spremljati jezikovnega
razvoja, zato so terminoloki slovarji za tevilna podroja
nepopolni in zastareli.
Novi pojmi praviloma nastanejo znotraj doloenega podroja
in doloene kulture, zato se pri prevajanju pojavijo tudi teave
z njihovim prenaanjem v ciljno kulturo.

Neko je veljalo: termin = beseda / besedna zveza. Danes se

v strokovnih jezikih uporablja vse ve simbolov, kratic, kod itd.
Sprio razvoja informacijskih in komunikacijskih tehnologij se
strokovna in znanstvena podro?ja med seboj vse bolj
povezujejo in postajajo vse bolj interdisciplinarna. Posledica je,
da je v terminologiji vse tee ustrei zahtevam po enozna?
nosti.
Kdo je odgovoren za terminoloke odlo?itve? Strokovnjaki,
terminologi, prevajalci, standardizacijski organi? Zaradi
nejasne razdelitve pristojnosti se pojavljajo teave pri
standardizaciji in terminografiji, e posebej pa pri prevajanju.
II. Pojmi in pojmovni sistemi

1. Razmerja med pojmi

nadrejeni pojmi / nadpomenskost (angl. superordinate

concept)
podrejeni pojmi / podpomenskost (angl. subordinate concept)
pojmi istega reda / istorednost (angl. co-ordinate concept)
_______________________
posledi?no razmerje (npr. vzrok uinek, proizvajalec
proizvod ipd.)
pragmatsko / tematsko razmerje (npr. pravna podlaga za
loitev iz medicinskih razlogov: spolna bolezen neozdravljiva
duevna bolezen)
_______________________
Razmerja med pojmi niso razmerja med termini. Ker so pojmi
abstraktne miselne enote, na ravni pojmovnega sistema
sopomenskost (sinonimija) ne obstaja; to je razmerje, ki se lahko
pojavi na ravni poimenovanj oz. Terminov.
III. Termini
1. Poimenovanje

Izhajajo? iz prej predstavljenega razmerja med pojmom in terminom

je poimenovanje proces, pri katerem pojmu priredimo jezikovno
poimenovanje termin.
Na?ela za oblikovanje terminov standard ISO povzema takole:
A term should
- be linguistically correct;
- be accurate;
- be concise;
- easily permit the formation of derivatives;
- be monosemous.
ISO 704
(1985:12)

Do poimenovanja lahko pride na razline naine, spodaj jih

navajamo le nekaj:
terminologizacija beseda iz splonega jezika dobi v okviru

stroke poseben pomen (npr. korenina v zobozdravstvu)

sestavljeni in vebesedni termini do novih terminov pride s
sestavljanjem besed splonega jezika in enobesednih terminov
besedotvorna izpeljava (tiskalnik) iz obstojeega termina
(npr. tiskar, tiskati) izpeljemo poimenovanje za nov tehnini
pojem
konverzija nov termin nastane s prehajanjem besed iz ene v
drugo besedno vrsto
prevzemanje iz drugih jezikov
2. Vrste terminov
Termine lahko klasificiramo glede na razline kriterije:
2.1. Oblika

enobesedni
enostavni: celica, klon
sestavljeni: podstava + obrazila: aciklien, polisemija,
nadzvoni
podstava + podstava (+ obrazila): avtocesta,
ogljikovodik, fotosinteza
vebesedni

razlini skladenjski vzorci:

prid. + sam.: medcelina tekoina, Turingov stroj
sam. + sam.: drava lanica
sam. + predlona zveza: Ministrstvo za ekonomske odnose in
razvoj
sam. + sam. v rodilniku: osemenjevanje goveda

tevilo besed (2 - ...)

krajave
kratice
zaetnice: SAZU, MZT, ZDA, UNESCO, HTML
krnjene besede: meter > m, liter > l
akronimi: bit (binary digit), Tosama, Amex
(American Stock Exchange)
simboli, formule: NaCl, 5a + 3b
okrajave: d. d., ekspr., pribl.
Besedno berljive kratice, ki se pogosto uporabljajo, lahko v pisavi in
sklanjanju preidejo v lastna imena (Unesco, Unesca). Okrajave v
slovenini piemo s piko, v vezanem besedilu jih, e je le mogoe,
razveemo.
2.2. Funkcija
besedne vrste: samostalnik, pridevnik, glagol, prislov

Pri vebesednih terminih besedno vrsto doloa jedrna beseda.

Besednovrstno med termini prevladujejo samostalniki.
2.3. Pomen
predmeti ali abstraktni pojmi
postopki, dejanja, operacije
lastnosti, stanja, zna?ilnosti
razmerja
Pri vebesednih terminih:
pomenska razmerja med besedami:

atributivno (doloevalno):operacijski sistem

konjunktivno (hkratno):drava lanica
integrativno (zdruevalno): NUK
2.4. Izvor
- domai
tvorjeni v celoti iz slovenskega morfolokega gradiva
mejni primeri?
- prevzeti
prevzemanje iz grine, latinine
prevzemanje iz drugih jezikov
2.5. Vrste terminov nekaj mejnih primerov
Termini, pri katerih opaamo kombiniranje domaih in tujih
morfemskih sestavin:
cojzit (geologija)
metajezik (jezikoslovje)
sortiranje (tehnika)
poltrivialno ime (kemija)

Problematika gnezdenja:
intraruminalna naprava s pulzirajoim

sproanjem (veterinarska farmacija)

Dolina terminov:
... podzakonski akti so usklajeni in sledijo priporoilom

Komisije in tudi smernicam Amsterdamske pogodbe (pravo;

EU)
(7951; Svetovalni odbor za delovni program Skupnosti za
prepreevanje pokodb v okviru dejavnosti v splonem
zdravstvenem varstvu (1999-2000) (pravo; EU)
Terminotvorni mehanizmi:
tableta tabletirka tabletiranje
drae drairka - drairanje
Vkljuevanje simbolov in kod v termine:
standard ISO 8402 (ni enoten termin)
ISO 704: Principles and methods of terminology (je termin, ker
gre za naziv standarda)
antigonadotropin G03XA (kemija) (koda je del termina)
Poseben primer kulturno specifini izrazi, ki se ne prevajajo:
Christmas pudding
prevod CIAA: Food categorization system as a tool for the allocation of food additives
SL Christmas pudding
Note: se ne prevaja
TermRef MKGP
EN Christmas pudding (kmetijstvo, zakonodaja, EU)

3. Prevzemanje terminov
Zakaj prevzemanje?
potreba po poimenovanju novih pojmov, predmetov itd.
potreba po stilni druganosti

3.1. Znotrajjezikovno prevzemanje

Znani termin se zaradi sorodnosti v pomenskem polju - prenese na novo
podroje (naelo metafore/metonimije): vesoljska ladja, deskanje,
podatkovna avtocesta
3.2. Medjezikovno prevzemanje
= jezikovni proces ob stiku dveh ali ve kultur, ki se razlikujejo v civilizacijski,
politini ali gospodarski moi
Bolj konkretno do medjezikovnega prevzemanja prihaja vselej, kadar
doloena deela (in njena jezikovna kultura) v tehnolokem razvoju prednjai
pred drugimi, zaradi esar se nove tehnologije skupaj z izrazjem irijo preko
njenih meja.
Loimo ve nainov prevzemanja:
citatno prevzemanje
dobesedni prevod / kalk
svobodno prevzemanje

prevzemanje iz klasinih jezikov (grina, latinina)

prevzemanje iz sodobnih jezikov
3.3. Podroja prevzemanja
sodobna informacijska sredstva, nove tehnologije,
prosti as, pop kultura, port,
predmetne pridobitve,
hrana ipd.
Izrazi, ki so pomensko izrazito zaznamovani z izhodino kulturo, navadno ne
dobijo slovenske ustreznice. (pizza, tiramisu, tofu, citroen, jazz ...)

3.4. Stopnje prevzemanja novih besed iz sodobnih jezikov:

a.pojav prevzete nove besede v slovenskem jeziku,
b.govorno prilagajanje / naglas,
c.pisno prilagajanje
d.oblikovanje besedne druine s slovenskimi obrazili

e.morebiten pojav slovenske sopomenke (hardver, strojna oprema)

f.opustitev prevzetega izraza (kompjuter)

3.5. Pogoji za uspeno vlenjevanje v jezikovni sistem

prevzeta beseda je potrebna, zapolnjuje leksikalno praznino
je v skladu s pravili jezikovnega sistema
se pogosto uporablja
vzpostavlja odnos do drugih enot v pojmovnem sistemu
je besedotvorno razvejana in daje podlago za razli?ne pomenske in
skladenjske monosti,
je primerno dolga
je lahko izgovorljiva
3.6. Primeri iz splonega jezika in tevilo pojavitev v
korpusu FIDA
zgoenka (1307) cedejka (171) cede (201) kompaktna ploa
(134) - CD (3834)
fitness (207) fitnes (411) fitnis (18) ilost (34/8)
kroie (33) rondo (77/17)

Based on this, and according to Cabr (ibid), the lexical unit could neither be
considered general nor terminological. It is basically general by default but
through both pragmatic characteristics and discourse it adopts either a special or a
terminological meaning. In the theory of language again Cabr (ibid) argues that
units of special meaning refer to terminological units and therefore any lexical
unit would be in the position of being considered a terminological unit.
Ultimately, such an overview shows the inter-related nature of terminology
and lexicology and even though they are different disciplines, still in linguistics
they are complementary to each other. And that is why most, if not all,
terminological works rely heavily on the lexical approach and could hardly do

without it. In this sense, Steffens (1993:73) says that terminology can benefit
from being viewed and treated in the context of pragmatics, corpus linguistics and
other paradigms in linguistics and in philosophy dedicated to the study of text for
investigating problems related to knowledge of language and knowledge of
matters scientific and technological.

Sources:
, , Terminology,,
Steffens, P 1993, Machine Translation and the Lexicon, Springer, Berlin. pp 65-73.

Managing your terminology

Acronyms, synonyms and abbreviations can cause frustration for translators, especially when
attempting to translate them without a clear understanding of their meaning. Terminology
management allows you to achieve effective and accurate translations by organizing these
terms with a clear set of rules for their usage; this ensures that the correct term is used within
a translation.
What is terminology?
Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and phrases which describe
products, services or industry jargon. They frequently drive competitive differentiation. Most
companies use an increasing number of industry or organization specific words which need to
be accurately stored, shared and translated. Terms could be anything from a product name to a
marketing tag line.
What is a termbase?
A termbase is a central repository, similar to a database, which allows for the systematic
management of approved terms in both source and target languages. Use of a termbase
alongside your existing translation environment ensures that you produce more accurate and
consistent translations, and helps you become more productive when translating.
Why is it important to manage terminology?
If left unmanaged, terminology can become inconsistent leading to translations that contain
competing definitions, this lack of consistency means that translations cannot be re-used. The
result of not being able to leverage terminology is that your translations become more time
and resource intensive. This added to the lack of managed terminology can reduce client
satisfaction and affect your ability to accept translation projects.
There are a lot of questions still left up in the air in relation to how something should be
translated, especially when it comes to translating into English. "Should it be in US English or
UK English (or International English)?" is a question I constantly have to ask my clients. With
the help of the following graphs and tables I hope to shed some light on the darker, less
accessible areas of English grammar. Let's hope it comes in handy.
Before we start though, I'd like to mention: Lynne Truss' best-selling, yet reasonably vague,
grammar compendium, Eats, Shoots and Leaves,has itself been accused of linguistic Stalinism
(See Ian Sansom's article in Sunday edition [Feb 11, 2006] of The Guardian) for its attempts
at setting down rules on how things should be written and that these rules must be adhered

to. According to David Crystal, whose book is reviewed in Sansom's article) it is this boxing-in
of the English language and non-embracing of the fact that languages are constantly changing
that are the main flaws: "Language change is inevitable, continuous, universal and
multidirectional. Languages do not get better or worse when they change. They just - change."
Personally, I don't deny that languages are changing, but surely, as a translator, it's a good
thing to have a set of rules to tell you how to write correctly (although Truss' chapter on
commas doesn't really make it much clearer).
With that in mind, the following topics will hopefully clear up any problem areas that you may
have been unsure about when translating (they may, however, become obsolete in a few years,
who knows?)
Abbreviations and Acronyms - What are the standards?
US
Use full stops with abbreviations
Do not use full stops in abbreviations, or spaces between initials:
US, 10 am, No 1, EJ Hoover
Exceptions: e.g./ etc. / i.e. / col. / p. / pp. / no.
UK
Use full stops between initials:
U.S, 10 a.m., E.J Hoover
Exceptions: Do not use full stops if e.g., the company you are referring to does not
- 'BBC' remains 'BBC'.
Capitalisation - When and when not to capitalise
After Colons
If introducing a list with a colon, it is followed by a lower case character:
He had to buy the following: milk, bread, cheese.
If introducing a sentence, an upper case character follows:
We have already touched on this point: Electricity is not something you want to mess with.
North...south
North, South, East and West are capitalised if they make up part of a title of an area or
political division but not if they are used in a descriptive sense:
East Germany, South-east Asia, Northern Ireland, but not: northern Germany, eastern France
Peoples' titles
When a title appears as part of a person's name, it is capitalised:
US Secretary of State Colin Powell

Captions and Headings

Captions: You should not use a full stop at the end of a caption unless the text is a full
sentence.
Headings:
US
Use a capital only for the initial character of the heading and proper nouns:
Understand and be understood by everyone
UK
Capitalise the first, last, and important words in a title:
Understand and be Understood by Everyone
Currencies - What are the standards?
Currencies should be written in lower case when the whole word is used:
euro, pound, dollar etc.
Dollars are abbreviated like this:
US dollars: US$50
Australian dollars: A$50
Hong Kong dollars: HK$50
For writing euro currencies:
Singular
cent, euro
Plural
cents, euro

4.50 (preferred), EUR 4.50 (if the font does not support the symbol)
Italics - When to use them
Should be avoided, but are acceptable for:
Non-English
The titles of books, periodicals, newspapers, films, plays and television
programmes etc.
The names of vessels and aeroplanes (but not the names and numbers of
types of aircraft such as Boeing 707 or Hercules carriers)

Italics should not be used for the following:

Non-English names of organisations, institutions, firms, ministries etc.
Emphasis
Numbers
Numbers expressed in words
Spell out numbers to ten inclusive; thereafter use numerals (the exceptions being with units,
e.g., 2 kg, 5 oz).
Numbers expressed in figures
Numbers between 10 and 999,999 should normally be expressed in figures.
The following are always expressed in figures:

ratios

times of day

numbers with decimal

statistics

degrees

dimensions

weights and measures

Millions
Numbers in millions should be written as follows: 1 million, 3.4 million
Exception: 3,432,000 (if there is more than one digit to the right of the decimal
point).
Billions and trillions
In strict British English usage 'billion' is equivalent to a million million;
in American usage, it is equivalent to a thousand million.
Time of day
UK
9 am, 3:15 pm
US
9 a.m., 3:15 p.m.
Dates
To avoid international confusion, it is preferable to write the date in
full:
Friday, 15 January 2004

Decades
Reference to decades should be expressed in figures
the 1990s, the mid-1990s
(not the nineteen-nineties, the 90s or the 1990's).
Fractions
Fractions should be spelled out:
three quarters of the amount
However, numbers with fractions should be written in figures:
1 3/4 km
Fractions should only be hyphenated when used as an adjective
three quarters of the amount
three-quarters full
Place Names and Addresses - Do I add the country?
When translating you should bear in mind that your target audience may not be familiar with
the places. When referring to somewhere for the first time you should always give its country,
even if the original text does not. For example:
Source Text: Der in KFln regierende BLrgermeister...
Translation: The mayor of Cologne (Germany)...
Punctuation
Apostrophes
Some plural nouns take an apostrophe before the 's':
children's games, gentlemen's outfitter, old folk's home.
Apostrophes should be used in phrases such as 12 years' imprisonment and 200
hours' community service.
A common mistake is often made with it's and its. The difference: 'Its' is the third
person possessive form of 'it'. 'It's' is the contracted form of 'it is' and should only
be used in speech:
The car is blue. Its wheels are black.
"It's very sunny today".
Colons

You should not overuse the colon. This is very popular in German texts, where a
simple full point and new sentence would suffice in English.
Commas
UK
In a series of three or more items with a conjunction, use a comma after each item
except the one preceding the conjunction and the last item:
This machine offers a number of advantages: ease-of-use, economy, speed and
flexibility
US
Use the commas after each item, including the one preceding the conjunction and
the last item:
This machine offers a number of advantages: ease-of-use, economy, speed, and
flexibility
Types of English
Clients can ask for three kinds of English:
1.

US English
2.
UK English
3.
International English

The third category is a little vague, but generally it means the client wants a text that will be
understood by all kinds of English speakers. The text should therefore be easy to read and not
be 'obviously' British or American in style. It is up to the client to decide whether 'international
English' uses UK or US spelling, so you should probably check this before beginning.

The importance of terminology in

translation studies
Nowadays, there is a lot of specialized literature that considers terminology as an
indisputable subject. Nobody even flinches anymore when they hear technicalities
in medicine, jurisdiction or other fields of similar importance and honour in todays
world. Understanding this type of specialized language is another thing but with
the appropriate procedures, we are capable of familiarizing ourselves with this kind
of unique language. Hence, technical sciences such as translation and translation
studies or traductology (among the myriad of names that Spanish gives them as
discussed below) are nurtured by and co-exist with terminology. It is all, therefore,
a matter of logic and symbiosis to create new concepts through the same
terminology.
Sometimes, it is true that, it is not about creating new formulas but giving them an
additional associated meaning thanks to the terminology that characterizes this
term in a particular or specific field. As Maria Teresa Cabr, terminology and
linguistics professor and my former lecturer at the Univeritat Pompeu Fabra points
out: Terminology shares with logic a basic interest in concepts. As opposed to
semantics, which is interested in the name-meaning relationship, terminology is
primarily concerned with the relationship between objects in the real world and the
concept that represents them (Cabr, 1992: 27). Thus, we again come to realise
the importance of terminology in regards to translation studies in this specific case
where some examples will be explained.

What are translation studies?

This topic has already been addressed in the article Translation studies and
translation, similar yet not the same where it is explained that the first term is
based on the study and analysis of the theory, description and implementation of
the translation and interpretation process itself according to Amparo Hurtado, my
teacher and professor of translation studies at the Autonomous University of
Barcelona. Currently, the methods of traductology or translation studies in
Spanish have been adapted, as it is believed that these terms more accurately
define the idea of the same discipline. Hereinafter we will discover the
terminological variety that translation studies have been designated with.

And what terminology do we find ourselves with in

translation studies?
As is already the case in several disciplines, translation studies do not escape the
relationship that unites them with other areas such as philosophy, hermeneutics,

anthropology, linguistics, psychology, teaching and many more. It is for this

reason, that some authors see translation studies as a multidimensional interdiscipline. Since terminology is the creator of typical terms in this science, it plays
a fundamental role in traductology, (as has been indicated previously, this is a
frequent case in specialized fields which do not necessarily have anything to do
with translation except that they can be classed as sciences such as medicine,
engineering or others. Our focus is on traductology). This way, several examples
can be found (if we draw on the Spanish language) where a diverse terminology
for a phrase such as translation studies is found and presented by Amparo Hurtado
2011: 133-135) where we speak of:

1.Ciencia de la traduccin (ES) The Science of Translation (EN)

2.Teora de la traduccin (ES) Translation theory (EN)
3.Estudios de traduccin (ES) Translation studies (EN)
4.Traductologa (ES) Traductology (EN)
5.Translatologa (ES) Translatology (EN)
6.Translmica (ES) Translemics (EN)
7.Lingstica aplicada a la traduccin (ES) Applied linguistics in translation (EN)
8.Estudios sobre la traduccin (ES) Studies in translation (EN)
This diversity is the result of different approaches already founded by Holmes in
1972 in The Name and Nature of Translation Studies. In English, traductology
(from the French term traductologie which seems to have been adapted to the
French language) is known as translation studies and this is also how it is known in
other languages such as Italian or Polish among several others.
As already explained above, technical terminology of translation studies is
characterized by the creation of new terms that frequently originate from the use
of suffixes, prefixes or simply by adding another meaning to already existing
terms. Those who study and have close contact with translation studies find that
we end up with many new and alternative concepts adapted for this science.
Therefore, we find ourselves with words such as:
Reformulation, recreation, restate where the Latin suffix re can be seen
(meaning:do again, do something again, one more time).

The Latin prefix trans (which means: from one side to another) with results such
as transmutation, translatology or transgender (the latter term used by Esther
Monz).
Words that acquire an additional meaning such as identity, target language,
communicative dimension (the latter term is by Hatim and Mason).As usual, the
most adapted terminology originates from English where we stumble upon cases
such as mapping, shifts or unique terms amongst many others. We can see how
this type of Anglo-Saxon terminology is used with different techniques that are
emphasized in literal translation, borrowed words and even phonetic adaptations.
It mustnt be forgotten that in many cases we find ourselves with already existing
concepts that gain a complementary meaning in reference to translation studies.
All of us have heard of concepts such as target language or source language. It is
when we encounter authors such as Nida who speaks about translation patterns
and more specifically about the translation process where terms should be used
according to their practical usefulness and their explanatory power (Nida 1969:
489). However, we must keep in mind that terminology originating from languages
such as French and German is also found in translation studies. Therefore, we
mustnt limit ourselves to only consider new vocabulary and concepts with English
origins. At this stage, the importance of terminology is emphasized, not only in
regards to translation studies but in any science and field. As language evolves
and is alive, so is terminology therefore we must take into account these new
horizons for analysis and use them correctly.