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EuroTermBank – A Web-based Electronic Assistance Tool for LSP Translators in the Enlarged Europe Tomasz Borkowski: Information Processing Centre, Warsaw. Reasons for Launching the Project.
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EuroTermBank – A Web-based Electronic Assistance Tool for LSP Translators in the Enlarged EuropeTomasz Borkowski: Information Processing Centre, Warsaw ETB National Seminar
Reasons for Launching the Project • Nowadays the translators’ world faces an absolute necessity to come up to the requirements of increasing globalisation entailing intensive multilingual communication • The success of translators as cross-cultural and cross-linguistic communicators depends largely on the quality of terminology resources they refer to • Unfortunately, especially in the new EU Member States, terminology collections are dispersed and fragmented over a number of institutions,as well as structurally and technically incompatible (different recording formats); they are also often maintained in increasingly obsolete paper form • Such situation creates a severe obstacle for translators, who are often left to their own terminological initiative if unable to find a relevant equivalent term, which can result in a communicational failure ETB National Seminar
EuroTermBank Project • To prevent this gloomy situation from continuing, the project entitled Collection of Pan-European Terminology Resources Through Cooperation of Terminology Institutions, abbreviated name being EuroTermBank (ETB), was launched in January 2005 • Organizational framework of ETB: The project is implemented within the framework of theeContent programme of the European Commission • Major goal of the project:to create a publicly accessible multilingual central on-line terminology bank named EuroTermBank (ETB) through integration of electronic and paper terminology resources provided by 5 partner-countries, in order to ensure any user a one-click access to high-quality terminology; ETB on-line launch date - 1 January, 2007 • EuroTermBank will support five languages of some of the newly-accessed (2004) Member States (HU, LT, LV, ET, PL) and at least English ETB National Seminar
ETB from a Translator’s Perspective • As LSP translators are one of the main target user groups assumed by the project coordinators, the ETB tool is designed as a terminological service offering its users quickly accessible translational terminology used in a number of domains, e.g. law (incl. EU law), economy, health-care, science, technique, etc. • Crucial aspects contributing to efficient use of about 500, 000 terminological entries collected in ETB are: a) quality of resources constituting the database, b)data structure of ETB entries, c) search optionsin ETB user interface ETB National Seminar
Quality of Resources Constituting EuroTermBank • Partners of ETB Consortium (Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland – the Information Processing Centre) have been collecting terminology data in their countries engaging in cooperation with authoritative terminology institutions that are holders of terminology resources and are either statutorily established to develop terminology (e.g. UKIE – Office of the Committee for European Integration in Poland), or are widely recognized as experts in particular domains (e.g. various scientific institutes, publishing houses, etc.) ETB National Seminar
Focus on Data Structure in a Terminological Entry of ETB– General Information • No element contained in a layout of an original database the entry was created in should be lost in an ETB entry • However, given the variety of structures applied in individual databases, clear suggestions for harmonizing data structure within ETB have been laid down in the project documentation based on surveys, IATE database, and ISO 12200 and 12620 Standards ETB National Seminar
Recommended Data Structure Elements in ETB In brief, an ETB entry should include: • a)administrative information[e.g. entry identifier (number) data category] • b)subject information (e.g. subject field and classification system data categories) • c) specification of the concept (definition); • d)termsinformation (e.g. SL term and equivalent, reference) • Besides the examples of obligatory data categories mentioned above, the data structure mentioned in the project materials provides also for optional data categories, such as some grammatical information; broader, subordinate and related concept; explanation; usage note, etc. ETB National Seminar
Search Options in ETBUser Interface • ETB user interface will enable to initiate queries using a relevant keyword, including simple search option and advanced search facility, the latter enabling the use of many filters, e.g.: search in definitions and explanations • Databases integrated into ETB are reversible, so entering an English search term can yield a Polish term from a Polish-English dictionary ETB National Seminar
Conclusions Due to all the advantages discussed above and the plans for updating the EuroTermBank database after its launch on January 1, 2007, the termbank has a potential to become an important assistance tool for every professional translator in need of an advanced and up-to-date electronic terminological solution ETB National Seminar
More Information: www.eurotermbank.com ETB National Seminar