Terminology V (English)

Terminology
“If we cannot name it, we cannot control
it, practice it, teach it, finance it, or put
it into public policy” (Clark & Lang,
1992, p. 109).
Standardization
WHAT?
WHY?
HOW?
WHO DOES IT?
Case study: standardization of
medical terminology
What is standardized?
What is standardized?
What is standardized?
What is standardized?
 products and processes
 services
 units of measurement
 safety rules of people and goods
 norms and principles in performance
 terminology and the representations of
symbols
 other…
What is standardized?
Extreme cases (European style):
• Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2257/1994 laying down
quality standards for bananas, also known informally as
bendy banana law.
• The main provisions were that green bananas should be green
and unripened, firm and intact, fit for human consumption,
not "affected by rotting", […], free from deformation or
abnormal curvature, free from bruising, […]. The minimum
size (with tolerances and exceptions) is a length of 14 cm and
a thickness (grade) of 2.7 cm.
• EN 15017/2015 a CEN Technical Committee on Funeral
Services (CEN/TC 448) will develop a revised edition of the
European Standard EN 15017, which sets out requirements
for the provision of funeral services.
Why standardize?
Effects on…
regulations and laws
classifications
warehouse management
production…
technical translations
Why standardize?
 synonymy
 polysemous terms
 regional differences in usage
 ambiguity in existing definitions
 confusion with regard to related concepts
 problems of quasi-synonymy
 inappropriateness of terms used
 lack of a designation for a new concept
Why standardize?
 polysemous terms ex. steamer
Why standardize?
Regional differences in usage: cell phone vs mobile phone
Why standardize?
confusion with regard to related concepts
E.g. MMDD nr.1607/2008
 “Obligaţia de a calcula şi plăti ecotaxa de
0,2 lei/bucată revine operatorilor economici
care introduc pe piaţa naţională pungi
având mânere integrate sau aplicate, de tip
sacoşă-banană sau maiou, oricare ar fi
destinaţia şi modul de comercializare /
distribuire a acestora”
Why standardize?
 lack of a designation for a new concept – e.g. steamer:

*aburitor? steamer?

*înăbuşitor? stimăr?

aparat de gătit cu aburi? cooker?

How?
Principles of standardization
 simplification
 consensus
 application
 revision
 economic consequences
How?
Processes involved in standardization:
 unification of concepts and concept systems
 definition of terms
 reduction of homonymy
 elimination of synonymy
 fixing of designations (i.e. symbols,
abbreviations etc.)
 term creation (primary / secondary)
(ap. M.T. Cabre, 1999)
The FDA (US Food and Drug Administation)
Data Standards and Terminology Standards for Information
Submitted to CDRH – examples of how standard forms of terms
are reached:
Principle: An example of an inactive and,
simplification therefore, merged term due to duplicate
Process: meaning:
reduction of The terms ‘blockage’ and ‘occlusion’
synonymy
both existed in the original coding
Competing terms:
system and both have similar
blockage & occlusion
conceptual meaning. There were far
Reason for choice:
more reports that were coded with
frequency
‘occlusion’ than with ‘blockage.’
Result:
Therefore, in the Device Problem Code,
- preferred term
‘occlusion’ was selected as the preferred
occlusion
term for this concept. ‘Blockage’ will no
- repelled term
obstruction
longer be accepted as a valid term.
Who? Standardization institutions
Who? Standardization institutions
Who? Standardization institutions
Who?
DOCUMENTS ISSUED BY ISO
TC 37/SC 1Principles and methods
ISO 704:2000 Terminology work - Principles and methods
ISO 860:1996 Terminology work --Harmonization of concepts and terms
ISO 1087-1:2000 Terminology work --Vocabulary --Part 1: Theory and application
Standards by ISO/TC 37 Terminology and other language and content resources
TC 37/SC 2Terminographicaland lexicographical working methods
ISO 639-1:2002 Codes for the representation of names of languages --Part 1: Alpha-2 code
ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages --Part 2: Alpha-3 code
ISO 1951:1997 Lexicographical symbols and typographical conventions for use in terminography
ISO 10241:1992 International terminology standards --Preparation and layout
ISO 12199:2000 Alphabetical ordering of multilingual terminological and lexicographical data
represented in the Latin alphabet
ISO 12615:2004 Bibliographic references and source identifiers for terminology work
ISO 12616:2002 Translation-oriented terminography
ISO 15188:2001 Project management guidelines for terminology standardization
TC 37/SC 3 Systems to manage terminology, knowledge and content
ISO 1087-2:2000 Terminology work --Vocabulary --Part 2: Computer applications
ISO 12200:1999 Computer applications in terminology -Machine-readable terminology
interchange format (MARTIF) -Negotiated interchange
ISO 12620:1999 Computer applications in terminology -Data categories
ISO 16642:2003 Computer applications in terminology -Terminological markup framework
Who?
National standards organizations:
Asociación Española de Normalización (AENOR)
Canada Standards Council of Canada (SCC)
France Association française de normalisation
(AFNOR)
Germany Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN)
United Kingdom British Standards Institution (BSI)
USA American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
Organismul National de Standardizare din
Romania (ASRO) http://www.asro.ro/
De facto (competing) terminologies
Windows Apple
 Control Panel  System Preferences
 Exit  Quit
 Taskbar  Dock
 My computer  Finder
 Recycle Bin  Trash Can
 Ctrl+Alt+Del  Option+Command+Esc
Standardization in the medical
profession: nursing
Benefits of Standardized Languages
 better communication among nurses and other
health care providers
 improved patient care
 enhanced data collection to evaluate nursing
care outcomes
 greater adherence to standards of care
 facilitated assessment of nursing competency.
(Marjorie A. Rutherford, RN, MA, Standardized Nursing
Language: What Does It Mean for Nursing Practice?, in
The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, January 2008)
Case study: medical terminology
CONCLUSION?
A language community whose
language has not developed
scientific and technical
terminologies is unavoidably forced
to use some other, more developed
foreign language for domain
communication.
Resources and further reading
 Cabré, M. T. (1999). Terminology. Theories, methods and
applications. John Benjamins.
 Crowley, T. (2003). Standard English and the Politics of
Language. Palgrave MacMillan.
 ISO 1087–1 (2000). Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part 1:
Theory and application. Geneva: International Organization for
Standardization.
 Kockaert, H, F. Steurs (2015). Handbook of Terminology, vol 1.
John Benjamins.
 Montero Martinez et al. (2012). Terminologia para traductores e
interpretes. Granada: Ediciones Tragacanto.
 Pavel, S, D. Nolet (2001). Handbook of Terminology. Minister of
Public Works and Government Services Canada 2001.
 Wright, S. E., G. Budin (eds.) (1997). A Handbook of Terminology
Management, vol.1, John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
“Terminology is like snoring –
everybody does it, only some
are aware of the fact, and of
those, even fewer would
admit it.”