Conference on Language Culture and Terminology in Tallinn

ALBINA AUKSORIŪTĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

An international conference on language culture and terminology, Üld- ja oskuskeelekorralduse konverents 2006., was held in Tallinn on 9–10 November 2006. It was organized by the Institute of the Estonian Language (website address www.eki.ee), the Estonian Terminology Society, and the Estonian Ministry of Defence (website address www.mod.gov.ee). Linguists and specialists from various fields from Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden delivered papers in Estonian, English, and Russian.

The conference was opened and a welcoming address was given by Urmas Sutrop, director of the Institute of the Estonian Language. The first day of the conference was devoted to examining problems of language culture; discussions covered language policy and planning, codified language norms, and the recently published prescriptive dictionary of Estonian.

Inkalisa Vihonen, a staff member of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland, spoke about the difficulties and problems faced by the Finnish language after Finland joined the European Union, of which it has now been a member for more than a decade. Finland has a long tradition of administrative language planning, so when it joined the European Union there were concerns about the future of Finnish. Many people were worried about whether work on Finnish administrative language would continue. In the speaker’s view, it can be concluded that after ten years of membership Finnish has made progress. She emphasized the great importance of making European Union texts understandable to people; at the same time, they help the European Union gain greater trust from its citizens.

Rita Miliūnaitė, senior researcher in the Language Culture Department of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, examined the problem of changing codified norms from two perspectives—linguistic and sociolinguistic—in her paper “Changing a Codified Norm: For and Against.” According to her, the linguistic aspect of changes in codification is chiefly connected with variation in linguistic phenomena and the functioning of variant norms. The speaker drew attention to the particular features of changes in codification, the stages of competition between variants, and the mechanism of codification, explaining in detail how it works in Lithuania.

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On the first day of the conference, no fewer than four papers by staff members of the Institute of the Estonian Language were devoted to a new edition of the prescriptive Estonian Language Dictionary. Tiiu Erelt, one of the dictionary’s principal editors, spoke about the rights and responsibilities of dictionary editors. Another researcher at the Institute of the Estonian Language, Tiina Leemets, examined the stylistic labels in the dictionary and their changes, while Argo Mund and Tuuli Rehemaa discussed the new words included in it. Their paper mentioned that the dictionary had been supplemented with as many as 5,000 new word forms. Sirje Mäearu compared the new 2006 edition of the Estonian Language Dictionary with the 1999 edition and discussed the abbreviations used in the dictionary.

Silva Tomingas and Ruth Mägi, staff members of the Publishers’ Language Centre (website address www.tea.ee), presented an English–Estonian dictionary for schools. In their view, the dictionary is not only a modern learning resource for pupils but also an excellent aid for teachers. A CD-ROM version of the dictionary has been published.

Two Estonian speakers discussed language planning: Peeter Päll, head of the Grammar Department at the Institute of the Estonian Language, and Peep Nemvalts of Tallinn University.

Rasuolė Vladarskienė, senior researcher in the Language Culture Department of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, examined the development and prospects of Lithuanian administrative language. She noted that the history and development of Lithuanian administrative language are closely connected with the history of Lithuania, and briefly reviewed all the stages of its formation. The paper identified new trends in administrative language following Lithuania’s accession to the European Union. It was noted that English has a major influence, and the poor quality of translations of European Union documents is also damaging administrative language. As a result, new features are emerging in Lithuanian administrative language: the number of new terms and names, international and borrowed words is increasing; English syntactic constructions are translated literally; the formerly clear and precise written language is becoming multilingual, and sentences are becoming very long and complex.

Three papers dealt with terminology. Margus Kolga examined the development of military terminology in Estonia. He presented a terminology database containing about 4,000 military terms and terms related to the field (website address http://mt.legaltext.ee/militerm). A paper on the standardization of Estonian terminology was given by Jüri Valge.

Aušra Rimkutė and Albina Auksoriūtė, staff members of the Terminology Centre at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, presented a paper entitled “Terminology Work in Lithuania.” This paper briefly surveyed Lithuanian terminology and

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stages in the development of terminography. The work on terminology at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language was presented in somewhat greater detail, and an overview was given of the activities of the Terminology Centre and other Lithuanian institutions engaged in terminology work.

On the second day of the conference, papers on terminology were presented. Lena Jolkkonen, Director of the Finnish Centre for Terminology, and terminologist Sirpa Suhonen, in their paper “Terminology work at the Finnish Centre for Terminology,” described how terminology work is organized at their centre and in Finland in general. The Finnish Centre for Terminology was established in 1974. It is an association that now has about 80 members—organizations and private individuals. Five terminologists work at the Centre, mostly linguists with master’s degrees. As speaker Lena Jolkkonen emphasized, the Finnish Centre for Terminology’s main objectives are to compile high-quality dictionaries, develop methods for terminology work, and disseminate good practice in terminology work. The Centre provides information and expert services related to terminology work, participates in and organizes various terminology projects, maintains the TEPA database, publishes a quarterly information bulletin Terminfo, organizes terminology training and provides consultation, develops international cooperation, and so on. The Centre’s terminology projects usually last two years; glossaries of terms in various fields are compiled through collaboration between terminologists and specialists in those fields. The multilingual TEPA database has been freely available online since 1997 (website address www.tsk.fi/tepa) and contains about 100,000 term records. Lena Jolkkonen also presented the NORDTERM organization (website address www.nordterm.net). It is a Northern European association, active since 1976, that brings together terminology organizations and societies. Its aim is to serve as a forum and network for terminology work in Northern Europe. NORDTERM assemblies are held every other year. Terminologist Sirpa Suhonen spoke about one specific project of their Centre—an electronic television dictionary. She explained in detail how the dictionary is compiled and discussed all the stages of its preparation.

Anna-Lena Bucher and Åsa Holmer from the Swedish Centre for Terminology (website address www.tnc.se) spoke about cooperation between the Swedish Centre for Terminology and other language organizations in Sweden. The Centre’s director, Anna-Lena Bucher, briefly reviewed the history of the Centre’s establishment and outlined its activities. The founding date of the Swedish Centre for Technical Terminology is considered to be 1936, when a nomenclature committee was established at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences; in 1941, a permanent centre for technical terminology—the Swedish Centre for Technical Terminology—was established in its place, and in 2000 it was renamed the Swedish Centre for Terminology (TNC). The Centre currently has 13 employees. Anna-

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Lena Bucher reviewed important new areas of terminology work: quality assurance; clarification of concepts associated with content management; the systematization and processing of knowledge; the systematization of information; automated processing of large quantities of information; the reuse of electronically processed information, and so on. The speaker introduced the particular features of terminology training in Sweden. Terminology is included in the training programmes for translators and linguists, and close cooperation is maintained with the Institute for Interpretation and Translation. Separate terminology courses were held in 2002 and 2003, and online terminology courses in 2005; customized terminology courses are also offered to different user groups. Åsa Holmer introduced other organizations and groups engaged in terminology work, for example, the Swedish Joint Group for Computer Terminology; the Language Development and Planning Network, and others.

Aime Vettik examined the development of the language of law in Estonia, while Elvine Uverskaja of Tallinn University discussed the development of librarianship and informatics, as well as the terminology of these fields.

Other papers addressed issues of language culture and language planning. Salli Kankaanpää, an employee of the Institute for the Languages of Finland, examined the language of administrative press releases and how it has changed over the past decades.

Tiiu Erelt, a research fellow at the Institute of the Estonian Language, analyzed aspects of Estonian word formation and discussed hybrid derivatives in detail.

Anastassia Zabrodskaja of Tallinn University presented the results of a study into which language—Estonian or English—was used in writing dissertations and publishing various publications. The speaker conducted the study in different university faculties and found that publications are most often printed and lectures delivered in Estonian, while English is more frequently used for publications in the Faculties of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

The conference held in Tallinn not only addressed current issues and problems in language culture, language planning, and terminology, but also provided an opportunity to learn about the state of language planning and terminology in neighboring countries and to share experience in these fields.

Received 2006-12-11

Albina Auksoriūtė Institute of the Lithuanian Language P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius E-mail: [email protected]

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