Summaries 2/1996

• Concepts of restoration

• TEPA into Otaniemi database network

• EU terminology work

• Experiences of the term circle of telecommunications

• Pointer: views of terminology work

• Anniversary of ISO/TC 37

• Nordterm days 1995

• Case: design engineering

• Literature

Concepts of restoration

Terminology of restoration has been dealt with in many occasions, and some of the results were presented in Terminfo 4/91. In spring 1996, TSK helped Suomen Rakennuttajaliitto to check dozens of definitions and to compile a vocabulary of around 40 concepts in Finnish. Some of the concepts are presented in this article as term records.

TEPA into Otaniemi database network

TSK's TEPA termbank has been available for subscribers since 1987. The network structure is now being reconsidered, and TEPA will be connected to the common operating system of TRIP databases in Otaniemi during spring 1996. The new database environment will make it easier to connect to TEPA. At present, TEPA has around 100 000 term records. For more information and instructions for connecting to TEPA, please contact TSK.

EU terminology work

TSK terminologists and subject field specialists are currently adding new terms into Eurodicautom, the termbank of the European Commission. In addition to the actual terminology work, TSK co-ordinates the work of other experts.

As a counterbalance to the daily toil, terminologists have been able to enjoy the beauty of the Finnish language as it appears in technical terminology. The aviation terms included in the article give you an idea of the poetic aspect of the work.

Experiences of the term circle of telecommunications

TSK and a number of companies in telecommunications initiated a research project in 1994 to study terminology work via electronic mail (i.e. term circle). The research phase of the project as completed in autumn 1995.

Term circle refers to terminology work where subject field specialists make extensive use of electronic mail in order to discuss current terminological problems. Term circles should not be seen as an alternative to traditional terminology projects, rather, they might be considered as a supplement to them as term circles can be used for handling problems which are not included in the projects' scope.

In this project, the term circle focused on terms which are common to telecommunications and data processing. The main purpose of the term circle was to find out whether a term circle offers an efficient method for handling current terminology. Additionally, a vocabulary of a few hundred concepts was to be compiled.

The basic idea of a term circle i.e. the use of electronic mail worked almost as expected. The experience indicates that a term circle can be applied in terminology work. The work must, however, be controlled, and there must be a suitable number of participants (i.e. dozens but not hundreds). The topic must also be clearly defined.

It is not possible, at least according to one experiment only, to state whether a term circle is better than a traditional terminology project or vice versa.

Pointer: views of terminology work

POINTER (Proposals for an Operational Infrastructure for Terminology in Europe) is a European research project which is partly funded by the EU. The purpose of the project has been to gather information on terminology work and resources in Europe.

Strengths and weaknesses of different countries and linguistic areas in respect to terminology work were analysed and opportunities were sought. TSK's task was to gather information on terminology work in Finland. This was accomplished by sending a questionnaire to around a hundred organisations. The replies were used as a basis for a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats).

The English version of the Pointer report can be seen at TSK.

Anniversary of ISO/TC 37

The ISO technical committee 37 (Terminology – Principles and Coordination) is responsible for standardising principles and methods of terminology work. The committee will celebrate its 60th anniversary in Wien, Austria 19th – 23rd August 1996. In honour of the occasion, we have listed in this article the most important standards and proposals prepared by TC 37. Most of these will be discussed in the meeting in August.

Nordterm days 1995

Nordterm arranges terminology symposiums every two years with the aim of spreading interest and information on terminology work and making it easier to establish contacts within the Nordic countries as well as elsewhere in the world. The 10th Nordterm days were arranged in Hvalfjarðarströnd, Iceland in 10th – 11th June 1995.

Topics were divided into three sections: practise and quality of terminology work and termbank applications, terminological language planning, and methods and basic research.

Case: design engineering

At times, terminology work bears remarkable resemblance to detective work. If you cannot find answers in common sources, you have to rely on clues and deduction or even make a guess. You feel most embarrassed if the question seems to be fairly simple but you just cannot find the answer.

Term design engineering, for example, sounds familiar but finding the Finnish equivalent turned out to be quite difficult. The term consists of familiar parts design and engineering but, naturally, you should not build the equivalent like a jigsaw puzzle. You must try to find out what is behind the expression.

After consulting various sources and following various clues, we came to the conclusion that the closest Finnish equivalent for design engineering is simply suunnittelu ("designing" or "planning"). If you know of more specific terms in any specific subject field, please contact TSK.

Literature

Vocabulary of rehabilitation in working life
TNC 97 Ordlista för arbetslivsinriktad rehabilitering includes about 75 terms with definitions of rehabilitation in working life. The terms relate to the Swedish social security system and working environment, etc., and accordingly the vocabulary is in Swedish.

Vocabulary of basic technical terms
In TNC 98 Tekniska basord, TNC presents a vocabulary of the basic technical terms like function, machine, plan, system, and tool. The vocabulary includes 1462 terms and is based on previous works of TNC.

Lappish vocabulary of mechanics
Mekanihkkársánit was published in late 1995. The vocabulary includes 1200 concepts with terms in Lappish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and English and definitions in Lappish and Norwegian.

Vocabulary of social security terms
Third edition of Sosiaaliturvan sanasto (cf. Terminfo 1/93) was published in April, 1996. There were slight modifications to the contents, and French equivalents were added.

Welding terminology
New edition of SFS handbook 54 Hitsaussanasto includes the various SFS terminology standards of welding as such with indices in Finnish, Swedish, English and German. The vocabularies include more than 1000 term records.