Terminologija Latvijoje

FOREIGN AFFAIRS Regina KVAŠYTĖ TERMINOLOGY IN LATVIA Latvian terminology in all fields is managed, and the implementation of standardized terms in practice is coordinated, by the Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences (LMA TK). This commission has been active for almost 50 years (since 1946). In 1959 it was transferred to the Institute of Language and Literature of the LMA, and following its reorganization in 1992, the TK has operated at the Institute of Latvian Language. The work of the LMA TK is directed by a plenary session, convened as needed in accordance with the TK regulations, but no less than once a year. The commission’s leadership is approved at a meeting of the LMA Senate for a five-year term. The TK is headed by a chairperson. Since 1976, this position has been held by Aina Blinkena, an academician of the MA and a habilitated doctor. She is assisted by two deputies appointed last year: Juris Ekmanis, an academician of the MA and a habilitated doctor, and Valentina Skujinia, a corresponding member of the MA and a habilitated doctor. The TK’s honorary member is linguist Rūdolfas Grabis, its longtime head. Marika Kirytė, a master of philology, serves as the TK’s scientific secretary. The plenary session has recently included 33 specialists from various fields, as well as linguists and publishing-house representatives. For regular work, an executive group of the TK plenary has been formed, comprising the TK leadership and 5–7 of the most active representatives of individual fields. Incidentally, this executive group has the right to adopt resolutions on the standardization of terms. At the initial stage of consideration, terminology for each field is prepared by the relevant subcommissions, which include specialists in that field and at least one linguist. The subcommissions collect, consolidate, and systematize terms, and consider the first drafts of lists of terms. At the beginning of its work, the Terminology Commission had 10 subcommissions; in its 40th year of activity, there are as many as 22.1 The number of subcommissions changes from time to time— 1 Skujinia V. LPSR ZA Terminologijos komisijos darbības ceturtā desmitga-de un galvenās terminoloģiskā darba problēmas // Valodas aktualitātes. R., 1987., 72.–73. lpp. 70 —because individual commissions cease to be active after completing certain work or preparing and publishing a terminology dictionary. Nevertheless, the opposite process is also evident: when necessary, they may resume their work (perhaps with a renewed membership). Subcommissions for new fields are also being established. They are created in response to practical demand for the standardization of terms in a particular field. The initiative usually comes from specialists in that field. Recently, nine subcommissions have been active: medicine, agricultural engineering, bibliography and librarianship, computer science, energy, plant protection, silicate chemical technology, geology, and museology. The task of the LMA TK is to prepare and approve a scientifically grounded and harmonized Latvian-language terminology for various fields of science and practice; prepare terminology dictionaries and reference works for publication; assess and approve lists of terms prepared by other organizations, as well as individual terms submitted for consultation; resolve specialists’ disputes on terminology matters and adopt a joint decision; and coordinate terminology work in Lithuania. Routine terminology work is carried out by the Terminology Department of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, which currently has six employees. Here, newly submitted lists of terms are compared with previously approved standardized terms, and manuscripts of terminology dictionaries and other publications devoted to terminology are harmonized and edited. The theoretical principles for developing Latvian terminology are reviewed in a monograph by the department’s longtime head, Valentina Skujiņa, “Principles of Latvian Terminology Development” (“Latviešu terminoloģijas izstrādes principi” R.,1993), for which the author was awarded the academic degree of habilitated doctor. The aim of the TK’s work also includes implementing standardized terms in practice and removing incorrect or imprecise terms from the language. For this task to be carried out successfully, the commission’s decisions need to be publicized among the public. The most important decisions are printed in the official newspaper of the Republic of Latvia, “Latvijas Vēstnesis,” and in the LMA newspaper “Zinātnes Vēstnesis.” More extensive collections of terms are published in bulletins or dictionaries. Often, bulletins make up a larger terminology dictionary for one field or another— 71 the basis. So far, 63 bulletins and 15 dictionaries in the scientific terminology series have been published. Recently, the organization of dictionary publishing has changed considerably. Many educational institutions, businesses, and other organizations now collect terms independently and publish collections of terms for their own needs. For these publications to be normative, they must be coordinated with and approved by the LMA TK. Unfortunately, there are not enough such publications. Publishing firms often fail to coordinate their activities, and each, on its own initiative, publishes dictionaries or other works containing uncoordinated terms. With the TK's approval, several substantial collections of terms have recently been published. First, mention should be made of the four-language illustrated “Dictionary of Archaeological Terms” (“Arheoloģijas terminu vārdnīca” R., 1994), compiled by historian Janis Grauduoņis, whose author received the Spīdola Award from the Latvian Cultural Foundation. An explanatory English-Russian-Latvian dictionary, “Data Transmission and Processing Systems” (“Datu pārraides un apstrādes sistēmas” R., 1995), prepared by the informatics subcommittee, has also been published. This dictionary is an excellent example of what enthusiasts can accomplish in their field, even in an area where borrowings from other languages are very widespread. The Latvian equivalents proposed in this dictionary are now successfully used in place of anglicisms, for example: reference – atsauce, converter – pārveidotājs; driver – dzinis, draiveris, port – pieslēgvieta, ports (the first-listed term is recommended). Even the name of the device itself, dators (English computer), is a neologism that has already become established in usage. It is formed from the word dati (“data”), which is common in Latvian, and the suffix -ors, which is often used to form names for devices. This term is successfully used instead of the anglicism kompiūters. In accordance with the TK's requirements and with its support, dictionaries of terms in other fields have also been published. These are often fields in which Russian has until now played a major role and Latvian terminology has been lacking. Specialists and others can now use the following dictionaries: “Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Military Vocabulary” (“Krievu-latviešu militārās leksikas vārdnīca” R.,1993), with 3,500 terms and lexical units; and “Dictionary of Port Terms” (“Ostas terminu vārdnīca” Ventspils, 1995), compiled by Jurijus Oleinikas, head of the oil district of the Ventspils Commercial Port, and an employee of the Latvian Language Institute, Marika Kyrytė. Also published is the “English-Latvian Dictionary of Energy and Electrical Engineering” (“Angļu-latviešu enerģētikas un elektrotehnikas vārdnīca” R., 1995), containing about 12,000 words; a Russian-Latvian dictionary in this field, “Krievu-latviešu enerģētikas terminu vārdnīca” (R., 1992), had appeared earlier. 72 The latest work of the TK is the much-needed “Dictionary of Economics, Records Management and Work Organization Terms” (“Ekonomikas, lietvedības un darba organizavimo terminu vārdnīca” R., 1995), just published, which contains about 11,000 Latvian terms and their equivalents in Russian, English, and German. The dictionary brings together a broad range of terminology: terms and term-like expressions relating to economics in various sectors, records management, commercial activity, work organization, planning, automation of these processes and data processing, banking, as well as statistical terms. We expect the explanatory dictionary in the same field, prepared by Rūta Grevinia, associate professor at the University of Latvia, to appear soon. People still greatly need the “Russian-Latvian Polytechnic Dictionary” (“Krievu-latviešu politehniskā vārdnīca”), published in 1977 and now a bibliographic rarity. A large-scale dictionary of construction terms compiled by Talivaldis Keivas, an enthusiast in this field, is currently being edited. Several collections of maritime terms have also been published: a few years ago, the “Bulletin of Maritime Terms” (“Jūrniecības terminu biļetens”), and this year, “Fundamentals of Maritime Technical Terminology” (“Jūrniecības tehniskās terminoloģijas pamati” R., 1995). The publication of terminology dictionaries is now organized well enough, and although this work requires considerable funding, it is nevertheless possible to find the means to publish them. Another area of TK activity is the development of terminology standards. Unfortunately, for now, there is a shortage of both people and funding to carry out this work. At the beginning of the work to organize terminology, all terms adopted by the TK were recorded on index cards. Now that technical conditions have improved, the card file is being transferred to a computer, but the process is rather slow. This work, incidentally, only began recently. The TK has acquired one computer and hopes to acquire another, more modern one. So far, only 73 the material for the new “Dictionary of Economics, Records Management and Work Organization Terms” and the “Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Polytechnic Terms” has been processed in this way. The program developed allows users to find any term in the database, its equivalents in other languages, and synonyms for terms. Computerization is proceeding slowly for several reasons. One is that the TK cannot allocate enough funds to pay programmers and computer specialists for their work. Specialists in other fields are well paid for their services, so it is difficult to find a good specialist willing to work on compiling the terminology database. Another area of TK activity is promoting the results of its work. This involves not only publishing dictionaries and articles in collections or the press, but also organizing conferences and participating in those organized by other institutions. As ties with foreign colleagues develop, opportunities arise to take part in terminology conferences abroad, where theoretical and practical issues in terminology are discussed. Among the most important scholarly conferences held in Latvia, one can mention the international conference “Terminology Science: Situation and Prospects,” held in Jūrmala in 1992. Terminologists from 14 countries took part. It was dedicated to commemorating the centenary of the distinguished Latvian terminologist E. Drezene. A conference, “National Terminology: History, Present and Prospects,” is being organized for 1996, when the LMA TK will mark its 50th anniversary. This time it will be an event on a Latvian scale, but terminologists from neighboring countries are also expected to be invited to exchange views and share experience. Much work remains to be done in the field of terminology in Latvia. In the future, more attention should be paid to developing standards, dictionary publishing should be expanded, the automation of the terminology database should be accelerated, and theoretical research should be deepened. Little has been done in teaching the fundamentals of terminology. It will be necessary not only to give individual lectures to specialists, but also to teach terminology as a subject to students at higher and specialized educational institutions. 74 Bibliography of the Latest Latvian Dictionaries of Terms (1990–1995) 1. English-Latvian Dictionary of Energy and Electrical Engineering. R.: Pētergailis, 1995.– 143 pp. (English-Latvian dictionary of energy and electrical engineering). 2. English-Latvian-Russian Dictionary for Students of the Faculty of Radio Engineering. Comp. L. Maizīte. R.: RTU, 1991.– 61 pp. (English-Latvian-Russian dictionary for students of the Faculty of Radio Engineering). 3. English-Latvian-Russian Dictionary of Sewing Industry Terms. Comp. I. Blūmfelde. R.: RTU, 1990. Vol. 1 (A–K)– 204 pp., Vol. 2 (K–Z)– 205 pp. (English-Latvian-Russian dictionary of sewing industry terms). 4. English-Latvian-Russian Terminology Dictionary for Students of the Faculty of Civil Engineering. Comp. G. Čākure et al. R.: RTU, 1992. Vol. 1 – 194 pp., Vol. 2 – 162 pp. (English-Latvian-Russian terminology dictionary for students of the Faculty of Civil Engineering). 5. Terms of Supply, Trade and Financial Record-Keeping. LZATK Bulletin No. 61. R.: Zinātne, 1990. – 95 pp. (Terms of supply, trade and financial record-keeping). 6. Names of Plants and Animals: Russian-Latin-Latvian Dictionary. Comp. R. Āva. R.: LU, 1990. – 98 pp. (Names of plants and animals: Russian-Latin-Latvian dictionary). 7. Blūma, D. Minimum Vocabulary of Pedagogical and Methodological Terms in English-Latvian and Latvian-English. R.: LU, 1992. – 83 pp. (Minimum vocabulary of pedagogical and methodological terms in English-Latvian and Latvian-English). 8. Data Processing and Transmission Systems. English-Russian-Latvian Explanatory Dictionary. R.: A/s SWH Informātivās sistēmas, 1995. – 247 pp. (Data processing and transmission systems). 9. Dictionary of Terms in Economics, Record-Keeping and Work Organization. Compiled by a team of authors under the direction of V. Skujiņa. R.: LIC, Vol. 1 (A–D)– 123 pp. (Dictionary of terms in economics, record-keeping and work organization). 10. Terms of Economics, Record-Keeping and Work Organization in Latvian, Russian, English and German. R., 1995. – 911 pp. (Terms of economics, record-keeping and work organization in Latvian, Russian, English, Ge- 75 in the German language). 11. Dictionary of Economic Terms in Latvian, Russian, English, German, French, Lithuanian, and Estonian. Comp. J. Porietis. R.: LU, 1992. – 163 pp. (Dictionary of Economic Terms in Latvian, Russian, English, German, French, Lithuanian, and Estonian). 12. Explanations of basic terms used in energy legislation and regulatory materials. R., 1996. – 31 pp. (Explanation of basic terms used in energy legislation and regulatory documents). 13. Graudonis J. Dictionary of Archaeological Terms: in Latvian, Russian, English, and German. R.: Zinātne, 1994. – 453 pp. (Dictionary of Archaeological Terms). 14. Gravniece S. Dictionary for Women: Cookery. German-Latvian-Russian dictionary. R.: Baltika, 1993. – 75 pp. (Dictionary for Women: Cookery. In German, Latvian, and Russian). 15. Short Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Energy Terms. Comp. by the team of authors. R., 1990. – 248 pp. (Short Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Energy Terms). 16. Short Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Production Terms: Agricultural Machinery. Comp. J. Pommers. R.: Zvaigzne, 1991. – 64 pp. (Short Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Production Terms. Agricultural Machinery). 17. Dictionary of Standard Phrases for Maritime Navigation (team of authors). R., 1995. – 192 pp. (Dictionary of Standardized Phrases for Maritime Navigation). 18. Jurkāne M. Dictionary for Women: Cosmetics and Hygiene. English-Latvian-Russian dictionary. R.: Baltika, 1993. – 37 pp. (Dictionary for Women: Cosmetics and Hygiene. English-Latvian-Russian dictionary.) 19. Fundamentals of Maritime Technical Terminology. Comp. M. Grinšteins, J. Baldunčiks. R.: Elfs, 1995. – 135 pp. (Fundamentals of Maritime Technical Terminology). 20. Kārkliņš L. Music Lexicon. R.: Zvaigzne, 1990. – 336 pp. (Music Dictionary). 21. Dictionary of Cartographic Terms. Comp. J. Štrauhmanis. R.: LU, 1991. – 24 pp. (Dictionary of Cartographic Terms). 76 22. Russian-Latvian railway terminology dictionary. (3 parts). Comp. J.Vanags. R.; 1991. – 241 pp. (Russian-Latvian language railway terminology dictionary). 23. Russian-Latvian dictionary of energy terms. R.: Latvenergo, 1992. – 208 pp. (Russian-Latvian dictionary of energy terms). 24. Russian-Latvian dictionary of accounting terms. R.: firm AFS, 1994. – 47 pp. (Russian-Latvian dictionary of accounting terms). 25. Russian-Latvian dictionary of legal terms. Ed. J.Alfejeva. R.: Alkor, 1993. – 206 pp. (Russian-Latvian dictionary of legal terms). 26. Russian-Latvian dictionary of ceramic technology terms. R.: RTU, 1993. – 95 pp. (Russian-Latvian dictionary of ceramic technology terms). 27. Russian-Latvian dictionary of military vocabulary. Comp. F.Justs. R.: Junda, 1993. – 119 pp. (Russian-Latvian dictionary of military vocabulary). 28. Russian-Latvian dictionary of glass technology terms. R.: RTU, 1993. – 110 pp. (Russian-Latvian dictionary of glass technology terms). 29. Terms of crystallography and mineralogy. LZATK bulletin no. 63. R.: Zinātne, 1993, – 226 pp. (Terms of crystallography and mineralogy). 30. Krūmkalne L., Kukle S., Landsbergs A., Petersons L. English-Latvian-Russian explanatory dictionary of financial accounting. R.: SIA “Mācību grāmata”, 1993. – 100 pp. (English-Latvian-Russian explanatory dictionary of financial accounting). 31. Kupčs, J., Knipše G. Explanatory dictionary of sports terms. R.: LIC, 1992. – 60 pp. (Explanatory dictionary of sports terms). 32. Latvian-English dictionary of legal terms. R.: 1993. – 175 pp. (Latvian-English dictionary of legal terms). 33. Latvian-English-German-Russian dictionary of terms in printing and publishing. R.: Litta, 1995. – 343 pp. (Latvian-English-German-Russian dictionary of printing and publishing terms). 34. Latvian-Russian and Russian-Latvian dictionary of terms for the design of buildings and structures. Booklet 1. Project and estimate documentation 77 termini. Sast. J. Piešiņš. R., 1990. – 18 lpp. (Latvju-rušu ir rušu-latvju kalbų pastatų projektavimo terminų žodynas. 1 sąs. Projektų ir sąmatų dokumentų terminai). 35. Latvian-Russian, Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Legal Terms. Edited by J. Vēbers. R.: Rasma, 1994. – 487 pp. (Latvian-Russian, Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Law Terms). 36. Latvian Bird Names. LZA TK Bulletin No. 60. R.: Zinātne, 1991. – 43 pp. (Names of birds of Latvia). 37. Records Management Terms. LZA TK Bulletin No. 59. R.: Zinātne, 1990. – 83 pp. (Records management terms). 38. Latvian-Russian and Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Furniture Industry Terms. Authors: ZRA “Gauja”, Rīgas mēbeļu kombināts, LLA Kokapstrādes katedra, LZA Valodas un literatūras institūts. R., 1991. – 165 pp. (Latvian-Russian and Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Furniture Industry Terms). 39. Medical Terms. LZA TK Bulletin No. 62. R.: Zinātne, 1991. – 145 pp. (Medical terms). 40. Olejņiks J., Ķirīte M. Practical Russian-Latvian Dictionary of Port Terminology. Dictionary of Port Terms. Ventspils, 1995. – 96 pp. 41. Rikmanis O., Baldunciks J., Bibanajevs A. A Seafaring Primer: Maritime Terms. Stories about the Sea. R.: Sprīdītis, 1993. – 111 pp. (A seafaring primer: maritime terms. Stories about the sea). 42. Russian-Latvian-English Dictionary of Basic Economic Terms. Riga: LIC, 1991 – 49 pp. 43. Skujiņa V., Kvašīte R. Dictionary of Business Expressions. A Guide to Records Management Practice. R.: Zinātne, 1991. – 104 pp.: publ. 1992. 44. Dictionary of Terms in Trade Economics, Organization and Management. R.: Zinātne, 1992. – 254 pp. (Dictionary of terms in trade economics, organization and management). 45. Veciņš E. Money Matters: An Explanatory Dictionary. R.: Zvaigzne, 1993. – 176 pp. (Money matters). 78