Summaries 3/1996

• Varnish vocabulary

• ISO/TC 37 meetings in 1996

• Terminology on the Internet

• Sweetener vocabulary

• European Association for Terminologists

Varnish vocabulary

Summer trainees at TSK usually compile vocabularies of a given subject field. This summer was no exception as Mari Rajamaa, who studies at the University of Tampere, compiled a vocabulary of varnish types. She was advised by Olli Nykänen, the head of TSK.

The distinction between varnishes and paints is not very clear. In many languages, for example, the equivalent for Finnish lakka (lacquer, varnish) may be used to refer to both paints and varnishes (c.f. German Lack).

You are welcome to send your comments to TSK.

ISO/TC 37 meetings in 1996

The ISO technical committee 37 (Terminology – Principles and Co-ordination), which is responsible for standardising principles and methods of terminology work, met in Vienna on 19 – 23 August 1996. The meeting was hosted by Infoterm and Österreichisches Normungsinstitut.

Up until now, standards have been compiled mainly for user groups with the knowledge of applied terminology work. The committee has, however, become more active in contacting groups with no terminological background. Accordingly, it was decided to set up a working group to study the needs of various user groups. The working group should also define in which way TC 37 and its members could help technical committees of ISO in their vocabulary work.

In honour of the 60th anniversary of TC 37, a seminar was arranged in Budapest. One of the most important presentations in the seminar was given by J. Soler from the European Commission. The European Commission is planning to arrange a Terminology Summit and to build a network of European terminology organisations. The network would be co-ordinated and administered by the Terminology Information Centre, which will be founded within the Commission.

Terminology on the Internet

World Wide Web service on the Internet at present offers lots of information and tools for those working in the field of terminology. TSK's Web pages should also be available by the end of this year. While we are still preparing our pages, you may take a look at a few addresses which we consider valuable for terminologists and vocabulary users. We do not, however, provide any evaluation of the contents of these pages; besides, most of them are constantly under construction. You should, therefore, take a look at them from time to time to see how they suit your purposes.

Some of the links mentioned in the article:

• Terminology Forum
• Tekniska Nomenklaturcentralen
• Suomen Standardisoimisliitto SFS
• Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus
• Eurodicautom
• LOGOS Dictionary

Sweetener vocabulary

Another vocabulary prepared by a trainee at TSK handles sweeteners. Liisa Manninen, a student at the University of Vaasa, was advised by Lena Jolkkonen, TSK terminologist.

There are various sweet tasting substances which can be classified in various ways resulting in various concept systems. Sometimes the chosen terminology seems to be a matter of taste. In compiling this vocabulary, effort was made to take into account the viewpoints of food legislation, the sugar industry and food science as well as chemistry.

The most common term in this vocabulary is probably sugar. We have decided to present two concepts for sugar: sokeri (1) for refined products and sokeri (2) for carbohydrate consisting of one or more monosaccharides

The concept systems for makeute (sweetener), makeutusaine (sugar substitute), and keinotekoinen makeutusaine (sweetener agent), may be different in different languages and therefore the foreign terms should be regarded as close equivalents.

Although tastes may differ, you are welcome to send your comments on the vocabulary to TSK.

European Association for Terminologists

In Terminfo 2/96 we wrote about the European POINTER project. As a result of this project, the European Association for Terminology (EAFT) was founded in Kolding, Denmark on 3 October 1996. The purpose of the association is to promote and co-ordinate terminological activities in Europe and to add general awareness of vocabulary work and terminology as a profession. EAFT does not aim to replace existing organisations, but rather improve the co-operation between these and supplement the services provided.