Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation hosted by the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL, the professional organisation that I am part of) by Danielle Coleman, a fellow translator and CIOL Chartered Linguist. Her presentation was titled “Top tips for terminology research for translators,” focusing on effective strategies for terminology research to enhance accuracy and consistency in translation.

The Importance of Terminology in Translation

Terminology is the backbone of any translation. “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned” and “Excuse me, Daddy, I have been oh so naughty” mean the same thing but are used in wildly different contexts; the obvious difference is the words used or terms. Danielle emphasised that accurate and consistent terminology is imperative for high-quality translations, enhancing trustworthiness, ensuring client satisfaction, and preventing errors that undermine translators’ credibility.

Terminology refers to specific words or expressions used in specific fields, subjects, or subject areas or by organisations. Many clients have their own approved terminologies, especially those who are following a specific branding or attempting to present a specific image, which translators must use to ensure that language is consistent across projects.

Tools and Resources for Terminology Research

In the course of her presentation, Danielle shared several tools and resources. The list of resource can be found at the bottom of this article:

Glossaries

Glossaries are mono-, bi- or multilingual databases that contain terms and their metadata (e.g. usage and other useful information) and are useful for standardising terms within specific fields. Even more critical are reliable glossaries, which have guaranteed qualities. In finance, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank provide reliable glossaries, the former in monolingual form and the latter in multilingual form. These are usually available at little or no cost, so they are a common and useful resource for translators.

Text Corpora (Bilingual and Multilingual)

Text Corpora, or databases that contain documents and their translations, go one step further than glossaries. They allow translators (and other linguists) to analyse terminology in content, whereas glossaries are more like dictionaries.

The European Union and the United Nations both maintain their text corpora. As part of her presentation, Danielle demonstrated how to use EUR-Lex to search the EU text corpora, which are split by subject (the singular is “text corpus,” although this term is rarely used), searching terms, and comparing usage in the source and target languages.

Other national-level and international organisations, such as the Canadian government (especially for English-French) and NATO, also maintain government documents for language pairs.

Specialist Dictionaries

Specialist dictionaries, like “regular” dictionaries, provide detailed definitions but stick to just the specialist subjects, so it is less likely to choose an incorrect term. However, understanding the definition may require specialist knowledge or training. Danielle used the examples of TechDico and DataPrize for IT-related terms.

CAT Tools and Integrated Terminology Apps

Computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, the most commonly used of which are Trados Studio and MemoQ, have integrated terminology management modules that streamline the process of managing terminology in a “termbase” (terminology database).

As a translator translates, the CAT tool suggests terms if it detects the equivalent in the source language. This can then easily be added to the translation, making the process faster (insertion rather than typing) and more accurate.

Terminology Apps

Standalone terminology apps, such as DuraMe and IATE, also exist and offer real-time terminology lookups within CAT tools, helping to save time and improve accuracy.  For example, DuraMe accesses the EUR-Lex and IATE databases, recognises language pairs automatically, and allows clickable links to parallel documents.

There is a range of free and subscription-based tools available. Some examples are linked at the bottom of the article.

Collaborations: Communities and Online Forums

Translators can also go to places, both in the real world and online, to access specialists in various fields and ask for advice. This includes peers who have had the same issues or need to do the same research previously.

For peers, translation forums like Proz.com have a section where translators go to ask other translators about terminology and usage. Usually, joining a group of specialists works well (e.g. going to an association of IT professionals with your IT term questions).

Alternative Terminology Research Methods

Sometimes the above ways just do not work in all situations. For example, a field may not have a reliable termbase, so sometimes linguists need to get creative. Image searches often work well for terms that refer to physical or observable things; compare the terms used with the images that came up and refine our searches until you get (near) identical results.

Another example is looking at URLs. Sometimes, these have a language code component (e.g. “/en/” for English), which you can edit and find other versions in other languages (most likely translations).

Similar to the collaborative methods listed above, your own network of people you know may also have answers – but it is better if they have professional knowledge of the subject.

New Technologies: AI

While AI is beneficial for many things, its habit of “hallucinating” (creating random, wrong information that seems correct) can devastate terminology research efforts. Danielle specifically brought up reliability and plausibility errors, which may been convenient but incorrect. She cautioned against its use and recommended trusted, traditional terminology sources instead.

Managing Client Feedback

No matter how good your translation is, the client often wants something different. When terminology disputes arise, translators should provide evidence of why they used a specific term instead of another – which is where reliable glossaries come in handy. They are accurate and have the backing of reputable international organisations or governments.

One way to ensure fewer disputes is to be proactive; sharing sources used for terminology when in doubt (e.g., if you had trouble finding or deciding about terms during the translation process) can answer these unasked questions and build trust, using those sources to your advantage.

Terminology Research Recommendations

Finally, Danielle offered some recommendations about how to improve your terminology research skills. The first was continuous learning; linguists and translators should stay up-to-date on tools and resources. Bookmarks in a specific folder or folders in your internet browser can be handy for the latter.

Secondly, she recommended tailoring your search for terms for each language pair and project. Different language combinations have different resources, and no two projects are the same. Therefore, the search for the right term will not always be the same.

Additional resources

Here are some of the resources that were shared during the presentation:

https://iate.europa.eu/home
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/advanced-search-form.html
www.ecb.europa.eu\services\glossary\html\glossa.en.html
www.efsa.europa.eu\en\glossary-taxonomy-terms
https://www.ab.gov.tr/glossary-of-eu-terms_50205_en.html
http://www.fishbase.se/search.php
https://glosbe.com/
https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng
https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/
https://www.techdico.com/
http://www.dataprise.com/it-glossary/
https://www.termify.net/translate/
https://www.juremy.com/about/ – CIOL members get a 25% discount of a subscription
https://www.proz.com/kudoz/

My thoughts

I found this presentation very informative. As someone who specialises in scientific and medical translations, I often cannot use the national or international organisations’ termbases as they frequently do not contain those kinds of terms. Also, scientific and medical associations/professional organisations are unlikely to maintain termbases as terms are typically standard across these fields.

Instead, I usually do text corpora comparisons when I need to do terminology research. Websites like Google Scholar, PubMed and other databases that contain reports, articles and manuscripts are helpful. However, they are not usually published in multiple languages (at least in the original version), especially in the sciences, so I often have to find publications talking about the same topic and then look through them to see if they both use the term I am looking for in their respective languages.

There are nice multilingual text corpora for clinical trial publications. One is the EU Clinical Trials Register, which publishes all documents used in clinical trials in the various EU countries. Since many of these are conducted by companies that operate in English, the English versions are also usually included, which is extremely helpful.