International Terminology Conference

Terminology of National Languages and Globalization

ALBINA AUKSORIŪTĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

On October 11–13, 2006, an international terminology conference, Terminology of National Languages and Globalization, was held at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. It was organized by the Institute’s Terminology Centre. The conference was supported by the Directorate for the Commemoration of the Millennium of Lithuania at the Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania and the Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation.

At the conference, papers were delivered by 11 scholars from Lithuania and 20 guests from abroad—Latvia, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, and Hungary. The papers were presented in Lithuanian, English, and Russian. The conference lasted two days, and on the third day an excursion was organized to the Lithuanian Open-Air Museum of Rural Life in Rumšiškės.

The conference was opened by Artūras Judžentis, Deputy Director of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Doctor of Humanities. At the plenary session, guests Sergiusz Griniewicz, Vladimir Lei čikas, Ágota Fóris, Valentina Novodranova, and Sergei Shelov delivered theoretical papers providing an overview.

In his paper “Terminology in the Era of Globalization,” Professor and Doctor Habilitated in the Sciences S. Griniewicz of the University of Białystok emphasized that the globalization of industry, the economy, culture, and even everyday life is creating new conditions for the existence and interaction of national languages. One consequence is a decline in the number of actively used languages, while the functional domains and territories of the languages that survive will expand. Therefore, reliable and impartial recommendations must be developed, based on an analysis of natural evolutionary processes and, above all, international language interaction. According to the author, several research areas in terminology appear quite promising; the paper therefore discussed typological and comparative terminology research in greater detail.

V. Lei čikas, Professor and Doctor Habilitated in Philology at the Department of General and Russian Linguistics of the State A. Pushkin Russian Language Institute, delivered a paper entitled “Globalization and Problems of Terminology,” in which he exami-

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[The speakers] reviewed and compared three approaches to contemporary globalization. Supporters of the first approach recognize globalization as an inevitable trend in the modern world. This helps explain international exchanges in the sphere of spiritual culture and the creation of material and spiritual works that are global in content and national in form—or, more precisely, in their language. The second approach is that of anti-globalists, whose aim is to abolish the domination of the United States and certain other developed countries and to proclaim the supremacy of nationalism (even racism and chauvinism). In V. Leièiko’s view, the third approach began to take shape only in recent years; it is a reaction to the first two approaches. Its supporters argue that the natural development of globalization and a shared international material and spiritual culture can be achieved by nurturing culture at the national or at least regional level.

Dr Á. Fóris, a guest from the University of Pécs in Hungary, discussed terminological problems in her presentation “Terminology and Socio-Economic Globalization,” relating them to social and economic globalization. She emphasized that, toward the end of the 20th century, social and economic conditions changed radically: many new concepts and the terms denoting them emerged, and new concepts had to be classified and terms selected very quickly. Without examining the substance and definitions of concepts in depth, terms are chosen at random, which leads to problems both in using the system of concepts and in using the terms. Appropriate systems of concepts and terms can be created only by drawing on more extensive specialist and linguistic knowledge.

Professor and habilitated doctor V. Novodranova of the Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry explained how cognitive scientific schemas are created. According to her, a term and its properties can be revealed only through two principal aspects—the cognitive and the communicative. The cognitive aspect means that the units of terminology reveal the essence of terminological systems, which can be conceptually defined as particular systems of cognition (systems of specialized knowledge).

In the presentation “Nomenclature and Terminology (Three Main Approaches to Nomenclature),” S. Shelov, a guest from Moscow and vice-rector of the Institute of Languages and Cultures, as well as a habilitated doctor of philology, examined the relationship between nomenclature and terminology. He surveyed the most common definitions of nomenclature and compared them with definitions of terminology, since terminology and nomenclature are considered to make up a large part of the vocabulary of a language for special purposes (LSP). S. Shelov defined three concepts of nomenclature: 1) a collection of scientific and folk names of plants and animals; 2) a collection of designations for lower-level natural units;

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3) a collection of conventional signs used to denote particular concepts and objects. The speaker emphasized that the different definitions of nomenclature are not entirely unrelated or independent; they have a great deal in common. Although they are quite difficult to distinguish from one another, their different origins can nevertheless be observed.

The conference’s first session was opened by Professor and Habilitated Doctor János Pusztay, head of the Department of Uralic Philology at Berzsenyi Dániel College. In his presentation “Terminology—A Guarantee of Language Survival,” he emphasized that a language survives only when it is used in every sphere of life. Only languages with official status can be used comprehensively. Languages with official status but few speakers face the following threats: the growing force of globalization, the dominance of English in political and scientific life, and the practical displacement of the national language. Preserving a national language requires strengthening self-awareness and fostering respect for the mother tongue.

Several survey and introductory presentations were delivered on the first day of the conference. Anna Lena Bucher, Director General of the Swedish Centre for Terminology, presented Sweden’s experience in terminology work, gained over more than 60 years. As the speaker explained, the first stage in Sweden’s technical terminology work began in 1936, when a nomenclature committee was established at the Academy of Engineering Sciences; five years later, a permanent centre for technical terminology—the Swedish Centre for Technical Terminology (TNC)—was established in its place, with its statutes set by the government. Since TNC was founded, the world has changed greatly, but the centre’s objectives and basic principles have remained the same. In the speaker’s view, terminology work and terminology are needed today for precisely the same reasons: to improve relations—or, more precisely, to address communication problems that arise for specific user groups—and to facilitate communication.

The presentation “The Norm and Its Codification in Contemporary Ukrainian Terminology” was delivered by Liudmila Bojarova, a guest from Kharkiv National V. Karazin University and professor in the Department of Ukrainian Language. She noted that the linguistic basis for terminological norms is the norm of the standard language, taking into account the word-formation and usage features characteristic of terms and which may be regarded as professional variants of the Ukrainian language norm. Since the last decade of the 20th century, the principal criterion for assessing the norm of any linguistic unit in Ukrainian linguistics has been its conformity with productive models of word formation, morphology, syntax, and other features of the native language. On the basis of this systemic criterion, Ukrain-

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Ukrainian terminologists do not recommend using calques that have entered the national terminology system from Russian and duplicate long-established native-language units. Dictionaries published in Ukraine in recent years show considerable changes in the theoretical assessment of term formation and usage norms in Ukrainian.

Vilmos Voigt, Chair of the Hungarian Terminology Council, professor and habilitated doctor at Eötvös Loránd University, and doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, reported on the Hungarian Terminology Council, established in Szombathely in May 2005, and presented its objectives and work programme. He emphasized that a plan for Hungarian terminology management had first been drawn up, taking into account the fact that Hungarian, whose identity is more than a thousand years old, is spoken not only in Hungary but is also the mother tongue of millions of people living outside Hungary. Another important issue for the council is adapting to globalization, especially within the European Community.

Our Latvian colleagues—Professor and Habilitated Doctor Juris Borzovs and Doctor of Computer Science Ilze Irena Ilzinia of the Riga Institute of Information Technology, Professor and Habilitated Doctor Valentina Skujinia of the Latvian Language Institute, and Andrejs Vasiljevs, a doctoral student at the University of Latvia and member of the Tilde council—spoke about challenges in coordinating an international terminology database. They presented the EUROTERMBANK project, identified the problems encountered in creating an international terminology bank and, drawing on Latvia’s experience, proposed several ways of addressing them.

Vitalija Špokienė, a translator at the Vilnius office of the Lithuanian Language Department of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation and doctor of humanities, introduced the European Union institutions’ and bodies’ common multilingual terminology database, IATE (English: Interactive Terminology for Europe). She discussed its aims, the stages of its organization, and the work of collecting, presenting and managing Lithuanian equivalents, as well as the practical work of terminology management in IATE carried out by terminologists, experts and translators of the Lithuanian Language Department of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation.

The guests from Latvia examined problems in translating terms in their presentations. Valerijs Kruglevskis, an employee of the Translation and Terminology Centre and doctor of physical sciences, analyzed the automation of certain aspects of terminology management in document translation and discussed tools that facilitate transferring terms from text into a database. Gunta Luočmele, associate professor and doctor at the University of Latvia, discussed terminology problems faced by translators working both in the European Union and in Latvia. The Latvian

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University’s professor and habilitated doctor of philology Andrejs Veisbergs emphasized in his presentation “Terminology and Translation, Oral and Written” that the principal linguistic problem faced by Latvian translators is terminology and its standardization. Since the European Union’s interpreting and translation services and the work of Latvia’s terminology institutions are not coordinated, the field of terminology is in disarray. In the speaker’s view, a central, shared database of Latvian terminology should be created, and ways must be found to keep it continually updated.

Marta Małachowicz, a doctoral student in the Department of Special Languages at the University of Warsaw, spoke about the thesaurus as a tool for organizing knowledge in particular fields and illustrated theoretical concepts of thesaurus structure with English and Polish economic terms.

Nijolė Dudlauskienė, Head of the Methodology Division of the Lithuanian Standards Department, concluded the first day of the conference with a presentation entitled “Creating Standardized Terminology and Its Importance for International Relations.” She described how Lithuanian terminology standards are prepared, how many have been developed, and how Lithuanian terms in Lithuanian standards are reviewed by experts.

On the second day of the conference, three presentations were given by guests from abroad—I veta Putele, Anita Ščucka and Elena Pachomova. I. Putele, an assistant at the Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia, emphasized in her presentation “Language Contacts and Their Manifestations in Latvian Terminology” that language contact shapes the development of every language and its terminology, influencing it both positively and negatively. One of the most widespread and readily observable consequences of this influence is borrowing; in word formation, it is international means and models. Language contact leads to literal translations and calques, and its influence can give rise to features that are foreign to the language.

A. Ščucka, an assistant at the Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia, examined the terms used in European Union legal acts from a syntactic perspective in her presentation, while E. Pachomova, an English-language instructor at Kaliningrad State Technical University, discussed the terminology used in online economics forums.

On the second day of the conference, most of the presentations heard were by Lithuanian linguists and specialists. Vincentas Drotvinas, professor at Vilnius Pedagogical University, presented in his talk “From the History of Linguistic Terms” Adomas Stuobrys’s (real surname: Adomas Sketeris) textbook for practical Lithuanian language learning, Kalbamokslis lietuviškos kalbos (1906). The speaker analyzed the textbook’s terms, their formation, sources and origins, and their assessment—

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…the author’s efforts to create his own terms, and reviewed how many of the terms used by A. Stuobrys have survived in present-day linguistic terminology.

The paper by Palmira Zemlevičiūtė, a doctoral student at the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, was also devoted to historical research on Lithuanian terminology; she reviewed sources on Lithuanian medical terminology from the late 19th century. The presenter emphasized that the national revival movement, which grew and strengthened in the late 19th century, contributed greatly to the proliferation of Lithuanian-language print. Despite the press ban, more than 20 different popular medical booklets were published; alongside various scientific information, medical knowledge was also disseminated in the calendars of the time, and nearly 100 articles on various medical and hygiene issues appeared in the sixteen newspapers published then. Thus, medical publications from the late 19th century are valuable material for studying the early period of Lithuanian medical terminology.

Nijolė Čepienė, Senior Researcher and Doctor of Humanities at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language’s Department of Language History and Dialectology, examined loanwords and their variants in old and more recent Lithuanian texts, primarily in East Prussian Lithuanian–German and German–Lithuanian dictionaries.

Irma Zeller, a lecturer at Vytautas Magnus University and doctor of humanities, delivered a presentation entitled “Defining a Concept from a Practical Terminological Perspective.” She noted that in terminology, the content of a concept is established and described by relating it to other concepts in the same set, while the definition of a concept and its precise designation determine the quality of the language used in specialized science and technology. Depending on form and content, many types of definition are distinguished; however, the most important are considered to be the so-called content, scope, and quantity definitions, which the presenter examined in greater detail.

The development of computer terminology was analyzed in a paper by Angelė Kaulakienė, Senior Researcher and Doctor of Humanities at the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. She emphasized that the terminology found in the ten computer terminology dictionaries currently available shows that the 35-year history of computing is a formative period for its terminology, whose main characteristics are justified synonymy and variation. The present state of computer terminology is determined by several linguistic, sociolinguistic and interlinguistic factors.

Gintautas Grigas, Associate Professor and Doctor of Mathematical Sciences at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, continued the discussion of computer terminology. He spoke about abbreviations in computer terminology and considered possible solutions for abbreviations used in English terminology: whether to adopt them from English,

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translate them, use unabbreviated concept names instead, or create abbreviations of our own.

Three more papers were presented by specialists from other fields. Nijolė Bliūdžiuvienė, a doctoral student at the Institute of Book Science and Documentation Studies in the Faculty of Communication at Vilnius University, reviewed the development and changes in library and bibliographic terminology. She noted that the development of current terminology in this field is partly shaped by the use of new technologies in librarianship and by changes in the very concept of the library.

Two papers examined specific concepts and terms: Stasys Zajančkauskas, Lecturer in the Department of Signal Processing, Faculty of Telecommunications and Electronics, Kaunas University of Technology, spoke about pitfalls in expressing polarity and related concepts, while Valerijonas Žalkauskas, Senior Researcher and Doctor of Natural Sciences in the Department of Radio Physics, Faculty of Physics, Vilnius University, discussed the use of the terms veikseną, valdyseną, vaizduoseną.

The conference proceedings were summarized and evaluated by Jonas Klimavičius, Senior Researcher and Doctor of Humanities at the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, and Sergejus Šelovas, Doctor Habilitatus in Philology.

The conference theme, the topics examined in the papers and the questions raised were quite relevant not only to those working in terminology in Lithuania, but also to linguists, terminologists and translators in other countries. Much discussion took place not only among the presenters, but also among the audience.

This international terminology conference, practically the third organized by the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, was attended not only by scholars and terminologists from Latvia, Hungary and Russia, with whom cooperation had been ongoing for several years, but also by guests from countries with which close ties had not yet been established—Sweden, Ukraine and Poland. Thus, learning about the characteristics of terminology work in those countries and meeting the terminologists working there were very important and beneficial.

Received 2006-11-30

Albina Auksoriūtė Lietuvių kalbos institutas P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius E. paštas [email protected]

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