Lietuvos Respublikos terminų bankas: 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo

Alvydas Umbrasas142 Lithuanian Republic Term Bank: 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo doi.org/10.35321/term30-7 Terms Bank of the Republic of Lithuania: 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania: 20 Years After Passing the Law ALVYDAS UMBRASAS Institute of Lithuanian Language ORCID id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5184-0056 ANNOTATION The Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania is established in accordance with the Law on the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania adopted 20 years ago. On the occasion of the anniversary, the article examines the history and development of the Terms Bank, paying attention to both the legal regulations and the content of the database. The contribution of state institutions to the Terms Bank, the characteristics of approved legislative terms articles are examined. KEY WORDS: Terms Bank of the Republic of Lithuania, term management, term base, legislative acts terms, timeliness. ABSTRACT The Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania was established in accordance with the Law on the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania adopted twenty years ago. On the occasion of the anniversary, the article examines the history and development of the Term Bank, focusing on both the legal regulation and the content of the database. The contribution of public institutions to the Term Bank and the characteristics of the legal term entries are examined. KEYWORDS: Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania, terminology ordering, term database, terms of legal acts, termness. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS On December 23, 2003, the Law on the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania was adopted, so at the end of 2023 it will be 20 years since the term management of legislative acts in Lithuania was regulated by a separate law. This occasion is worth 143Terminology | 2023 | 30 to look both into the past and into the present to evaluate the work done. The concept, structure, content and legal basis of the Lithuanian term bank established by law have already been examined (see Umbrasas 2013). This article, using the descriptive-analytical method, aims to supplement previous studies with historical, factual and terminological data on the development and implementation of the Term Bank, changes in the menimis. Straipsnio tikslas – parodyti Terminų banko įstatymo kūrimo Term Bank, especially in the last 10 years, the dynamics of the activities of institutions working with the Term Bank and terminology. The material is šio duomenyno turinio savitumą. Daugiausia dėmesio skiriama teisės aktų based on the Legislation Information System, the Terms Bank data, the annual reports of the activities of the State Lithuanian Language Commission, the protocols of the Terms Bank draft law preparation working group and their annexes, as well as the referenced literature. GENESIS OF THE LEGAL BASIS At the initiative of the Language Commission, the idea of a state term bank was discussed when the 2002–2007 term of the State Lithuanian Language Commission, headed by Dr. Irena Smetonienė, began its work. As early as 2002, meetings of the Language Commission representatives with IT and other specialists (from the Seimas Chancellery, the Lithuanian Standardization Department, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, etc.) were organized, in which the possibility of creating a completely new term base was discussed, its concept and structure, the relationship with the existing duomenų bazėmis, taip pat terminų aprėpties (pvz., neteiktinų terminų ones were discussed. In November 2002, the Language Commission sent about 30 inquiries to the institutions in order to assess the situation and find out about the terminology databases already in their possession. Since the Seimas at the time was just managing the database of the European terminology dictionary Eurovoc, the IT specialists proposed its structure as a basis for the future term bank, while having in mind the possible subsequent integration. The Seimas Committee on European Affairs, developing the discussions, proposed to implement the language commission’s idea of creating a state term bank by law. For this purpose, in mid-2003, a working group was formed by decision of the Seimas Board to prepare a draft law on the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania. It was led by Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, then Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and Chairman of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs. The working group includes a total of 14 persons not only from the Seimas, but also from other interested parties Alvydas Umbrasas144 Lithuanian term bank: institutions1. The draft was to be prepared by 15 September of 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo that year, i.e. essentially during the summer. It was urgent because Lithuania’s accession to the European Union was approaching (it took place on 1 May 2004), and the Terms Bank was associated with the challenges of terminology management of legislation, especially the European Union acquis translated into Lithuanian, that had been resolved and were being resolved at the time. As can be seen from the draft of the Terms Bank Act, the working group met at least 6 times in three months, including other specialists (from the Information Technology Department of the Seimas, etc.) in the meetings. During the first meetings, the discussions protokolų, darbo grupė į pirmąjį posėdį susirinko 2003 m. birželio 27 d. ir focused on issues of institutional cooperation in organizing the activities of the Terms Bank, the possibilities of both centralized and decentralized systems, aspects of data acquisition, integration, consideration, approval and publication. Their concepts were proposed by the Language Commission, the Lithuanian Language Institute and the Lithuanian Standardization Department, as well as the Information Technology Department of the Seimas. Most support was given to the concept proposed by the Language Commission, according to which terminological data from various entities are submitted for evaluation to the Language Commission (primarily its Terminology Subcommittee) and entered into a single database, and the preparation of these data is taken care of by working groups formed in various institutions. A survey carried out by the Language Commission at the end of 2002 showed that 16 of the 21 state institutions have or are preparing some kind of data (term) databases, people responsible for this work have been appointed2, so the basis for possible working groups is already there. The initial draft of the Term Bank Act was prepared and discussed in August 2003. Among others, during the first reading of the draft 1 In addition to the aforementioned head of the working group, it also included Irena Smetonienė (Chairperson of the State Lithuanian Language Commission), Loreta Raulinaitytė (Senior Adviser of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs), Aušra Bodin (Head of the Division of Systematization of Legislative Acts of the Seimas Department of Information Technology), Justinas Žilinskas (Senior Adviser on European Union and International Law of the Seimas Department of Law), Kęstutis Kaminskas (Adviser of the Seimas Committee on Education, Science and Culture), Regina Narutienė (Senior Specialist of the Seimas Documents Section), Kristina Kačkuvienė (Translator of the Translation Group of the Seimas Chancellor), Jūratė Drevinskienė (Deputy Director of the Centre for Translation, Documentation and Information of the European Committee of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania), Živilė Liekytė (Director of the Department of Legislation and Public Law of the Ministry of Justice), Valentina Karazinienė (Head of the Classifications Sub-Division of the Statistics Department of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania), Nijolė Dudlauskienė (Head of the Classifications Sub-Division of the Statistics Development Unit of the Lithuanian Standardization Department of the Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Lithuania). I Head of the Standardization Department), Rimantas Miknys (Deputy Director of the Lithuanian History Institute), Jolanta Zabarskaitė (Director of the Lithuanian Language Institute) (Decision of the Seimas Board of the Republic of Lithuania of 18 June 2003 No. 1576 “On the establishment of a working group to prepare a draft law on the Terms Bank of the Republic of Lithuania”). 2 Data taken from the explanatory note of the draft law of the Republic of Lithuania on the term bank. 145Terminology | 2023 | 30 was discussed about the word bank in the Consumer Law and the name of the database bank in the legislative context is not usual. However, it is nime. Būta siūlymų vadinti registru (gretinta su teisės aktų registrais), nes agreed that the bank is used in international terminology standards, this is not a new thing. In mid-September (12) the second draft version was discussed, the revised draft was submitted for consideration to the Terminology Subcommittee of the Language Commission (the meeting took place on 23 September) and was adjusted according to its comments. After evaluating and improving the third draft at the end of September (26), the working group concluded that it had considered all the proposals and completed the draft. After the explanatory letter was prepared, the draft law was registered in the Seimas database at the very beginning of November (3). In view of the comments of the Seimas committees, some minor corrections were made and in December the final version was already available. Looking at all the variants and development of the Terms Bank Bill, it is clear that both the formal aspects of expression and some provisions and their scope have changed – gradually moving towards more laconic, more generalised formulations. At the same time, some terms and their concepts were changed. For example, from deadlines mandatory deadline, recommended deadline moved to approved deadline, submitted deadline. The term term article appeared, and initially it was called terminological record, the set of terminological data was replaced by a set of term articles, expert assessment – expertise, special knowledge – competence of a terminologus, etc. The definitions of terms have also been changed, refined and reformulated on several occasions. Here is the evolution of the definition of the term bank of the Republic of Lithuania (abbreviated as the Term Bank) in different project versions (from the first to the final): “a system for managing (systematizing, accumulating, storing and using) terms and related information; a set of thematic collections of Lithuanian language terms organized in the established order and presented on the Internet”; „a set of Lithuanian language term articles, organized in the prescribed order and available on the Internet“; “a set of approved Lithuanian language term articles and non-term articles that have been organized in accordance with the established procedure and are available on the Internet”; “a state information system consisting of a set of approved Lithuanian language term articles and non-term articles that have been organized in accordance with the established procedure and are available on the Internet”. As it can be seen, from a mere information management system to a state information system, and at the same time the coverage of the included terms was gradually clarified. Alvydas Umbrasas146 Terms Bank of the Republic of Lithuania: 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo It is also possible to draw attention to the term definition (it is not defined in the law). The minutes of the working group that prepared the draft law and their annexes show that in the initial technical specifications of the system prepared minėta definicija, vietoj šio termino siūlyta vartoti apibrėžimas (aprašuose taip by IT specialists, the pair was changed), but in the first versions of the draft law this was not mentioned. Only in the third version of the draft law the definition of the term article and the term of the definition specified in it were clarified. It can be said that the Terms Bank Act contributed to the spread of the term definitions not only in the administrative context, but also in Lithuanian terminology science, it essentially broke the previous tradition of the use of the term definition. Alongside the initial draft of the law, the specification of the Term Bank information system was prepared (by the Information Technology Department of the Seimas), and it was agreed that the methodology of the Term Bank was also necessary. The latter was approved by a resolution of the Language Commission a couple of months after the adoption of the Terms Bank Act (February 2, 2004). As is typical for such legislation, the law has laconically established the most general matters – the creation, management, use and financing of the Term Bank, as well as the duties, rights and responsibilities of legal and natural persons who manage the Term Bank, provide data to it and use them. The methodology discusses in more detail the structure of the Term Bank, the structure of the term article, the requirements of the information system, the functions of the entities managing and managing the Term Bank, as well as the unregistered and registered users, their obligations, etc. During the past 20 years, the Term Bank Act has been amended only once – on 4 July 2017 the Act amending Article 4 of the Term Bank Act No. IX-1950 of the Republic of Lithuania was adopted (entered into force on 1 January 2018), according to which the State Lithuanian Language Commission became the sole manager and administrator of the Term Bank. Until then, the Language Commission was only responsible for the content of the Terms Bank, while the Seimas Chancellery provided and supervised the necessary hardware and software for the bank’s operation. Taking into account the amendment of the law and the obligations contained therein to prepare the implementing legislation of the law, the State Lithuanian Language Commission approved (updated) the methodology of the term bank of the Republic of Lithuania by Decision No. N-3 (162) of 5 October 2017. Soon after, two more documents were approved by Order No. V-21 of the Chairman of the State Lithuanian Language Commission dated 11 April 2018 – the Provisions of the Information System of the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania and the Information System of the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania. 147Terminology | 2023 | 30 further defined Terms Bank operation sistemos duomenų saugos nuostatai. Metodikos ir nuostatų vsuma dar mechanism, information system purpose, tasks, organizational, information and functional structure tūra ir kt., kartu daug dėmesio skiriant duomenų saugai. DATA BASE The first Terms Bank information system was created by the Information Technology Department of the Seimas Chancellery in 2004 (the data was started to be kept and published in January 2005). The database was created using Oracle software, the internal system for registered users (see Figure 1) was accessible only after installing the required software package on the computer. At the beginning of the existence of the term bank this was a technologically quite common solution, but over time the programs became obsolete, it became more difficult to ensure their compatibility. After the Language Commission took over the management of the Terms Bank information system in 2018, a new Terms Bank information system based on PostgreSQL was created on its behalf and started operating in November 2019. It is available to registered users online without installing any additional programs (Figure 2). At the same time, the public term search module was updated. For convenience and simplicity, a single-field simplified search window with a minimalist design was introduced, and a refined search window (Figure 4) was created on the basis of the previous search window (Figure 3) with additional functions (e.g., the possibility of searching in the definitions of terms). The website of the Terms Bank has been created according to the principle of adaptive design, so it is now more convenient to use on mobile devices (the address has not changed – http://terminai.vlkk.lt). The term bank was created primarily as a common information system of state institutions for managing the terms of legislative acts (for the concept see also Ivanauskienė 2005, 2008), but at the same time it aims at the dissemination of various reliable terms, while the terminology of legislative acts constitutes only a relatively small part (about 7%) of the entire database. In November 2023, about 278 thousand term articles were published in the Term Bank, of which the majority (about 225 thousand (about 81%)) were term dictionaries articles – in total, 53 term dictionaries data have been added to the Term Bank. Over the past couple of years, considerable volumes of dictionaries of psychology, geography, mechanics terms have been added, and over the previous two years – smaller dictionaries of terms of public relations, project management, catering companies (objective dictionaries of 1000 terms). Alvydas Umbrasas148 The term bank of the Republic of Lithuania: with bibliographical data can be found on 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo the website of the Language Commission3). In cooperation with the Lithuanian Department of Standardization 3 Online access: 2015 m. Terminų banke pradėti skelbti Kalbos komisijos teigiamai įvertintų https://www.vlkk.lt/aktualiausios-temos/terminija/terminu-banke-skelbiamu-terminuzodynu-sarasas. Figure 2. Window of the Terms Bank Information System (internal) in operation since 2019 Fig. 1 Window of the Terms Bank Information System (internal) in operation from 2005 to 2019 149Terminology | 2023 | 30 Lithuanian terms standards data – a total of about 8.7 thousand terms articles are published from 66 standards4 (including International Valuation Standards terms provided by the Ministry of Finance) (about 3% of the database). A considerable part of the Terms Bank (about 24 thousand terms 4 Includes approximately the terminology standards assessed by the Language Commission since 2005, but there are some exclusions. Figure 3. Term Bank public term search window (2005–2019) Figure 4. Term Bank public term search window (from 2019) Alvydas Umbrasas150 The term bank of the Republic of Lithuania: articles 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo (about 9 percent)) consists of data prepared according to the recommendations of the Language Commission (includes about 80 recommendations approved by protocol decisions of the Language Commission over the last two decades). This is the nomenclature of biology and zoology and related names – the names of plants, their fruits, some products made from plants, algae, lichens, fungi and similar organisms, the names of diseases caused by them, beetles, amphibians, molluscs, crabs and other names. In order to increase the variety of terms published in the Terms Bank, in 2019 it began publishing terms selected from higher education textbooks (terms and definitions reviewed and clarified by the authors of those textbooks, considered by the Language Commission and its Terminology Subcommission). In total, about 1,300 terms are published from 13 textbooks in a wide range of fields: accounting, auditing, financial markets, international economics, microeconomics, macroeconomics, karjeros kūrimas, statybinė medžiagotyra, keraminių medžiagų cheminė European Union internal market law, non-governmental organizations, technology, computer architecture. Although the number is not high (less than half a percent of the entire database; an average of 100 terms from a textbook), it is still significant data, especially considering the lack of dictionaries of terms in some fields. It must be said that the trends in the publication of terminological dictionaries are not encouraging. After the restoration of independence, the publication of term dictionaries of various quality, as well as dybos proveržis, paskatintas tiek praktinių reikmių ir natūralios paklauthe financial support (especially under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania Decree No. 1525 of 4 December 1995 approved by the State Language Use and Education Programme of the Republic of Lithuania 1996-2005, coordinated by the Language Commission, as well as under subsequent support measures), has obviously weakened over the last decade – the different dictionaries published per year can no longer be counted in dozens, but only in units – a return to the extent of the publication of term dictionaries at the end of the Soviet era (see Figure 5.5). 5 The graph shows the change in the number of glossaries published over the year. The figures for 1980–2005 are based on bibliographical data published in a publication dedicated to terminology (see Gaivenytė-Butler, Keinys, Noreikatė 2008: 70–228), later data are taken from the annotations of the latest term dictionaries published in the Journal of Terminology, prepared by Jolanta Gaivenytė-Butler (some of the publications included in the lists are not true term dictionaries, but are conditionally assigned to them). As we can see, the first leap in the publication of terminological dictionaries occurs in the year of the restoration of independence (22 terminological dictionaries and glossaries were published in 1990; of course, at least the larger ones were started to be prepared at the end of the Soviet era) and the peak is reached in 2008, when 29 publications of a terminographic nature are published. There is an obvious contraction in quantity. This graph does not show qualitative changes, a very large part of the dictionaries were not submitted to the Language Commission for evaluation (cf. Gaivenytė-Butler 2009: 254), and also generally do not correspond to the concept of a term dictionary and such 157Terminology | 2023 | 30 ‘the person or persons applying for registration of a trade mark’; ‘a person who duly applies for a licence, authorisation or certificate’; ‘a natural person who has applied to participate in the certification process of energy personnel’; “a public or private legal entity, branch or agency of a legal entity, submitting a project implementation plan and seeking to obtain funds from the European Union and/or the State budget to achieve the objectives set out in the project implementation plan”; “the municipality, administrative unit of the Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Lithuania or agency subordinate to the Ministry or other entity submitting the application for project funding”; “a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania not younger than 16 years of age, a foreigner permanently residing in the Republic of Lithuania or a group of such persons, having submitted a petition in accordance with the procedure established by the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Lithuania”; ‘a parent with whom the child’s place of residence has been established by a court decision or by agreement between the parents, or a guardian (caregiver) who applies to the payment administrator for payment of benefits’; „viešasis geriamojo vandens tiekėjas ir nuotekų tvarkytojas, teikiantis paraišką to obtain a subsidy for the implementation of the investment project of connecting residential dwellings to existing centralised sewage treatment systems”; “a member of the Lithuanian Rural Network operating at national level, which has submitted an application for support for the implementation of a communication project of the Lithuanian Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 and is responsible for the proper implementation of this project”; ‘an operator or a group of such operators who have submitted an application to the European Commission for the simple programme for information and promotion of agricultural products on the internal market and in third countries and who meet the requirements laid down in Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) 2014/1144’; “A natural or legal person of the Republic of Lithuania, Member States of the European Union, States of the European Economic Area, an entity without legal personality, its branch and representative office”. As can be seen, although the concepts have a common characteristic of addressing a particular application, request (in the general glossary it can be defined in general terms), but in the legislation there are differences both in the subject referred to and the purpose of its application (only the last example is an enumeration without characteristics). In similar cases, the accuracy of the term is usually raised. There is also one other approved revised term (e.g. : The project of the Economic Recovery and Resilience Increasing Plan “New Generation Lithuania” p a re i š k ė j a s, Alvydas Umbrasas158 Terms Bank of the Republic of Lithuania: 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo Communication project applicant of Lithuanian Rural Development Programme 2014-2020), but often it is not very possible to specify the term patikslintas jis pasidaro pernelyg nepatogus, todėl paliekamas universalus or the term, showing the specificity of the definition. The term bank also records the data of different drafts of the same legislative act. For example, during the last decade, at different times, the following definitions of the State Treasury fixed in various draft amendments to the State Treasury Act were visible in it (chronologically10): “A system managed by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, which includes its general account in the Bank of Lithuania and other systems through which the functions of this system are implemented”*; “a State resource fund, the funds of which consist of State budget revenues, funds received or borrowed by the State, funds received for the temporary investment of the funds of this fund and other acquired funds”; “System managed by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, which includes the general account of the State Treasury in the Bank of Lithuania managed by this Ministry and systems enabling the implementation of the following functions: accumulating state monetary resources in the general account of the State Treasury and issuing them, maintaining accounting for these actions, carrying out control, preparing and reporting on these actions, managing commitments undertaken on behalf of the State by issuing securities of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, signing loan agreements and other binding debt instruments, forecasting the flows of state monetary resources, investing or otherwise repayable use of temporarily free state monetary resources”*; “A system managed by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, which includes organizational and technical measures enabling the implementation of the functions specified in Article 7 of the Law on the State Treasury of the Republic of Lithuania”. Recording different definitions of the same legislative act may complicate the use of the Terms Bank (which is why new definitions are often placed not next to the old ones, but instead of them), but at the same time it can be useful, because it is possible to see different concepts, changes in concepts. Furthermore, when the deadlines for approved draft legislation are provided, it is not yet possible to say with certainty that the draft will be adopted. This is particularly true of legislative change initiatives, which sometimes take the form of parallel projects developed over several years. The development of definitions and concepts sometimes leads to changes in terms, for example, approximately over a decade of the State Information Resources Management Act and its amendment drafts were approved (chronologically): 10 Žvaigždutėmis pažymėtos apibrėžtys buvo pakeistos, dabar Terminų banke neberodomos. 159Terminologija | 2023 | 30 State information system operator – the ministry or other state institution that manages the information system; register or state information tucija ar valstybės įstaiga, kuri nustato valstybės informacinės sistemos tikslus ir system administrator – a state authority whose manager is responsible for the management or activities of the register or state information system and who determines the objectives of the activity of the register or state information system and coordinates the functioning of the register or state information system; information system operator – a state or municipal institution or body, another public administration entity, public body or state-controlled enterprise, which determines the objectives and means of the operation of the information system. The increase of data in the Terms Bank encourages the user to evaluate and choose. There are a number of terms that have entered this database from various sources. Here, for example, the term waste is presented in 15 terms articles. It was approved from the Waste Management Act, included from 4 terms standards (two environmental protection (one of them in the military context), fuel and graphite, catering enterprises, mechanics, wood, thermal and nuclear technology). In some cases, the definition is general (e.g., “a pakuočių) ir iš net 9 žodynų (aprangos, chemijos, ekologijos, fizikos, geosubstance or object that the holder disposes of, wants to dispose of or is obliged to dispose of”), in others, it includes more specific attributes by field (e.g., “residues of raw materials or semi-finished products not used in the processing of the raw material into an article”; “residues of products produced in the production of food”). Different definitions in the sources do not necessarily indicate the difference of concepts, the formulation of the definition can be determined by the dictionary compiler's attitude and competence, his literature used. What else are polysemantic terms, for example, the program includes 20 term articles (dictionary terms are separated and presented as separate articles) from various legislations, standards and dictionaries. Data shows that this term in finance, war, computing, communications, sports, education, technology and other fields can be understood completely differently. The aim of this study is to examine the possibilities of drawing attention to the differences between legislation and terms used in traditional terminology. For example, traditionally, when naming a species, the user is not considered suitable to form terms; instead of grease for shoes, goods Iš skirtingų šaltinių į Terminų banką patekusių terminų įvairovė sudaro for tourism, shoe grease, tourism goods, etc. are used (Syntaksė 2003: 47–48). It is interesting that in pharmacy even the order of the words of the term can lead to a difference of concepts, e.g.: suspension and sparkling powder for oral suspension – suspension and sparkling powder for the preparation of oral suspension by dissolving or dispersing the sparkling powder in the suspension or by dissolving or dispersing the Alvydas Umbrasas160 Lithuanian term bank: a number of terms with a 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo purpose-user, because the constructions of this verb and noun are needed to name different concepts, e.g.: powder for fabric glues – a loose sterile preparation consisting of one or more kinds of powders, including freeze-dried powders, which are dissolved in a certain liquid to obtain fabric glues; ‘tissue adhesive powder’ means a loose sterile preparation, a powder or a mixture of powders, applied directly to a target site (e.g. a wound) to interact with a specific fluid (e.g. blood) to form a bleeding-stop agent and/or tissue adhesive. sparkling powder in a specified liquid and mixing with the suspension. The suspension is containing the active substance(s) and the sippy powder is without the active substance(s). Where the active substance(s) is(are) present in the form of effervescent powder and suspension, the term ‘effervescent powder and suspension for oral suspension’ shall be used. Where the active substance(s) is(are) present only in the effervescent powder, the term ‘effervescent powder and solvent for oral suspension’ shall be used; ‘effervescent powder and suspension for oral suspension’ means effervescent powder and suspension containing the active substance(s) intended for the preparation of an oral suspension by dissolving or dispersing the effervescent powder in a suspension or by dissolving or dispersing the effervescent powder in a specified liquid and mixing it with the suspension. The terminology of legislation and other sources can be compared in terms of terminology. The term terminality is rare in Lithuanian terminology works, as if not precisely defined, usually used to name the degree of being a term, the qualitative value. The termality is relevant in the automatic recognition of terms studies, where the termality assessment is drawn into formulas “the assessment is determined by certain calculation methods, which assesses the assignment of a word to terms” (Bielinskienė et al. 2015: 171). In some works, the termality is associated with the definition, it is considered that it determines the termality, the more information is needed to reveal the concept, the greater the termality of that unit (Shelov 2005: 123). The termality can be discussed in a functional-semantic aspect, for example, the discussion of nimų terminiškumas (Zemlevičiūtė 2020: 306–307), kitur bandoma nuperson names to determine whether the unit is the real term or the accent is added to the term 161Terminology | 2023 | 30 together named the concept or only indicates a temporary denotate feature (Zemlevičiūtė 2021: 248–250). The terminology should also be assessed in terms of expression, for example, it is obvious that the termality of nouns is greater than that of other parts of the language (in the dictionaries of terms, only nouns and their combinations are often presented). Even adjectives and participles with a conjunctive are described as having a mark of non-termality (Zemlevičiūtė 2020: 315). The thermal stability of different compounds is also uneven. It is argued that the length of a term is inversely proportional to the frequency of its use, and it is assumed that the length of the term should indicate its novelty or insufficient standardization. Thus, the result of standardization should be a shortening of deadlines (Kaulakienė, Makariūnienė 2014 [1999]: 36), and shortness is a sign of greater timeliness. However, it has already been pointed out earlier that the terms in the dictionaries of terms are considerably shorter than the terms in the legal acts approved by the Terms Bank, and it is precisely the standardization in the form of correction that probably contributed to the lengthening of the terms (Umbrasas 2013: 113–117). Of course, many of those deadlines were not short in the initial drafts. Furthermore, the long-term structures are uneven and their degree of thermality is probably also uneven. For example, if we compare the approved long compounds submitted as terms to the legislation with the mandatory form of government securities, bills of lading, passenger transport tickets, official marking marks, document blanks and elements of drinking water supply and wastewater treatment infrastructure dangerous to human health and/or the environment, we could say that the latter compound has a higher termality, at least because the compound describes one object, there is no enumeration. If we compare the approved terms person responsible for the physical security of radioactive sources and person responsible for the protection of classified information, we could also say that the termality of the latter is greater, because there is no punctuation, the mark is given to the terms in a more usual preposition. It is true that the postpositional expression may sometimes also be more convenient, for example, suspected of a criminal offence person, approved person, suspected of a criminal offence is generally not used. What else are such as terms approved combinations, e.g.: a person who, due to his state of health, cannot be considered capable of reasonably assessing his interests – an adult person, recognized by the court as incapable in the field of health care or limited factor in the field of health care, or an adult whose state of health does not allow him to assess his interests muo ar teismo pripažintas visiškai veiksniu (emancipuotu) nepilnametis asmuo, or prevents them from assessing them reasonably; Alvydas Umbrasas162 Lietuvos Respublikos terminų bankas: Application for partial 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo settlement of the debts of a legal person or natural person in bankruptcy proceedings to agricultural enterprises – a document completed by an agricultural enterprise, according to which funds are allocated for the provision of insignificant (de minimis) aid in the production of agricultural products, by partially settling the debts of a legal person or natural person in bankruptcy proceedings to agricultural enterprises; foreigners who have been granted subsidiary protection or temporary protection in the Republic of Lithuania – foreigners who have been granted subsidiary protection or temporary protection in the Republic of Lithuania on the basis and in accordance with the procedure of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Legal Status of Aliens; a life insurance contract under which occupational pensions are accumulated – a life insurance contract concluded by a life insurance undertaking having the right to carry out occupational pension accumulation activities and a financing entity (insurer), under which the financing entity (insurer) undertakes to pay the occupational pension contribution established therein, and the employees of the financing entity (or a self-employed person, when he himself pays occupational pension contributions) acquire the right to occupational pension benefits in accordance with the procedure and conditions established by the insurance contract and the Occupational Pension Accumulation Act of the Republic of Lithuania; ‘loss on the provision of the service of the delivery of periodicals to subscribers in rural settlements and towns falling within sparsely and moderately populated settlements’ means the negative difference between the revenue from the provision of the service of the delivery of periodicals to subscribers in rural settlements and towns falling within sparsely and moderately populated settlements and the costs of the provision of that service incurred during the same period; index and unit-linked insurance where the insurance risk is insignificant: life insurance where the insurance undertaking or branch assumes an insignificant insurance risk and where the policyholder bears the investment risk or part of the investment risk of funds accumulated during the term of the insurance contract and the accumulation of these funds is linked to a change in the value of investment funds or a particular index. The materiality of the insurance risk shall be determined in accordance with the accounting policies of the insurance undertaking and the branch; specialized treatment of acute myocardial infarction with ST segment elevation – treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction with ST segment elevation using percutaneous myocardial revascularization and/or fibrinolytic therapy. Due to the presence of the side sentence, the thermality of compounds is absolutely low. Such expression is characteristic of definitions. These are basically descriptive terms used in the absence of a real term. Creating more comfortable terms for specialists is not always successful, then the descriptive construction is justified. Perhaps in the future more convenient means of expression will be found. For example, instead of as 163Terminology | 2023 | 30 The fat has been approved as a spreadable fat mixture. A termino siūlyto junginio riebalai, į kurių sudėtį įeina augaliniai ir (arba) gyvūcouple of decades ago, the legislation used the term land plots that cannot be converted into a separate amateur garden plot, later it was replaced by the term muoti atskirais individualiais mėgėjiško sodo sklypais buvo pakeistas terminu interposed state land area, and even later – interposed state land plot. The inclusion of commentary information in the term also significantly reduces terminology, for example, constructions with except (constructions with including not fixed): personal health care practice, except medical practice, dentistry practice, oral care practice, nursing practice and midwifery practice, error – the act of a personal health care professional, other than a doctor, dentist, oral care specialist, nurse and midwife, which by his own fault caused a risk or damage to the health of the patient, but did not cause the patient’s disability or death; personal health care specialist, except a doctor, dentist, oral care specialist, nurse and midwife – occupational therapist, physiotherapist, masseur, medical psychologist, medical geneticist, medical biologist, biomedical technologist, radiology technologist, dietician, optometrist, paramedic, emergency medical paramedic, advanced practice pharmacist; branch of a legal person or other organisation established in a party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, other than the Republic of Lithuania – a branch, agency or other division of a legal person or other organisation established in a party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, other than the Republic of Lithuania, which does not have such legal form; ‘tendering for the exploitation of mineral resources other than hydrocarbons and subterranean cavities’ means the part of the procedure for granting a permit for the exploitation of mineral resources other than hydrocarbons or subterranean cavities in which the winner of the tender is selected; permission to transport radioactive waste, except radioactive waste generated during the nuclear fuel cycle – a document granting the right to import into the Republic of Lithuania, export from it, transport in transit or transport in the Republic of Lithuania radioactive waste, except radioactive waste generated during the nuclear fuel cycle, in compliance with the conditions laid down in this Act. Descriptive terms of this and similar nature in the traditional termrequire more extensive research, in principle it can be said that the legal terms nografijoje paprastai neteikiami arba teikiami gerokai rečiau. Nors tam Alvydas Umbrasas164 The term bank of the Republic of Lithuania: the terminology 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo is less than the terms we are used to seeing in the term dictionaries. The Lithuanian standard LST ISO 612:2008 Road vehicles. Dimensions of cars and tractors with trailers. Terms and definitions can be found as terms given for structures of the chassis without a cab, but with a hood that gives the vehicle an external shape, the length; the length of a passenger car and chassis without cab and without any engine or other parts covers which give the vehicle its external shape. Such constructions must be considered as complete exceptions in the context of terminology standardisation11. Using descriptive terms is, of course, inconvenient. As can be seen from the legislation, this inconvenience is usually avoided by introducing short versions, referred to as abbreviations in the drafting guidelines (Umbras 2022: 124–125, 135). However, in the practice of standardization, the requirement of accuracy of terms has greater weight than the requirement of brevitytwo requirements. Convenience in terms of vimas, vartojimo patogumo kriterijus turėtų padėti rasti balansą tarp tų compliance with the requirements can also be considered as the degree of compliance with the deadlines. CONCLUSIONS The Law on the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania, adopted on 23 December 2003, is a special source in the history of Lithuanian legislation and terminology management. Twenty years ago, the terminology of legislative acts was regulated by a separate top-level legislative act, which created a centralised system not only for the standardisation of the terminology of legislative acts, but also for the dissemination of reliable terminological sources. The legislators initiated processes that were later detailed and expanded by the implementing legislation of the law, which in essence already established a tradition of terminology management of legislative acts and at the same time made it possible for various interested groups of the public to have access to terminologically evaluated terminographic and other term resources. Most of the glossaries created on the basis of the law are based on dictionaries of terms. The variety of data is increasing, since the very beginning of the bank’s establishment, it has been filled in Languages 11 Standardization of terms alongside terminology was previously generally considered a separate way of managing terms (Gaivenis 2002: 63), but now there are justified proposals dantis Terminų bankas aprėpia jau apie 278 tūkstančius terminų straipsnių, to consider terminology standardization as part of terminology (Gaivenytė-Butler 2018: 36). In general, by its nature, terminology standardization occupies an intermediate position between the terminology of legislative acts and the preparation of terminology dictionaries, even though standards sometimes tvirtinami teisės aktais. 165Terminology | 2023 | 30 Commission recommendations, mainly covering the nomenclature of biology, during the last decade it has begun to publish standards of terms, as well as terms selected and evaluated from higher education textbooks. Legislative terminology, the management of which is a particularly important function of the Terms Bank, constitutes a relatively small part of the entire database – about 19 thousand approved term articles are published (10 years ago there were about 9 thousand), but dozens of institutions and several times more individuals have contributed to the creation of these data. Although the activity of these institutions is uneven and volatile, the operational benefits are not only measured by the number of terms. The consideration of these terms at hundreds of meetings of the Terminology Subcommittee of the Language Commission, the discussions on them are at the same time a contribution to the whole legislative process, the language of legislative acts, as well as the development of terminological thinking, aiming at the accuracy and logical harmony of terms and definitions, clarity and fluidity of expression. A single large database covering different types of sources allows users to see the differences in terms and definitions. The increase in diversity makes it more difficult to use, because you have to choose, but it creates opportunities to better understand the current situation in different areas, to assess the terminology settlement or non-settlement. The terminology of legislative acts in the general context of terminology reveals itself as a distinct, constantly changing material with distinct means of expression, definitions formulated in different ways according to the needs of specific legislation. Some of the concepts in the legislation are temporary, apply only for a certain period of time, some of them are referred to either as a very general term, which without context and definition is not informative, or as a very detailed descriptive compound lacking terminology. It is likely that the terminology of legal acts is less terminological than the terminology of science. The provision one concept = one term = one definition is basically not implemented even in the dictionary of terms of one field, and in a multidisciplinary database encompassing many sources from different periods this is not possible at all, the diversity in the Terms Bank will only increase. Considering the deteriorating quantitative indicators of terminology, it is worth looking for other forms of terminology work that could contribute to the development of the Terms Bank. Alvydas Umbrasas166 Terms Bank of the Republic of Lithuania: 20 metų po įstatymo priėmimo LITERATŪRA Bielinskienė Agnė, Boizou Loïc, Grigonytė Gintarė, Kovalevskaitė Jolanta, Rimkutė Erika, Utka Andrius 2015: Lietuvių kalbos terminų automatinis atpažinimas ir apibrėžimas: monografija, Kaunas: Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas. Gaivenis Kazimieras 2002: Lietuvių terminologija: teorijos ir tvarkybos metmenys, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos instituto leidykla. Gaivenytė-Butler Jolanta 2009: Lietuviškų terminų žodynų leidyba 1998–2008 metais. – Terminologija 16, 252–265. Prieiga internete: https://journals.lki.lt/terminologija/article/view/560. Gaivenytė-Butler Jolanta 2018: Apie terminografiją ir terminų standartizaciją. – Terminologija 25, 23–38. Prieiga internete: https://journals.lki.lt/terminologija/article/view/475. Gaivenytė-Butler Jolanta, Keinys Stasys, Noreikatė Adelė 2008: Lietuvių kalbos terminų žodynai: anotuota 1900–2005 m. bibliografijos rodyklė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Ivanauskienė Audra 2005: Lietuvos Respublikos terminų bankas. – Gimtoji kalba 3, 3–6. Ivanauskienė Audra 2008: Lietuvos Respublikos terminų bankas: terminijos tvarkybos galimybės ir problemos. – Specialybės kalba: terminija ir studijos: mokslinių straipsnių rinkinys, Vilnius: Mykolo Romerio universiteto Leidybos centras, 45–49. Kaulakienė Angelė, Makariūnienė Eglė 2014 [1999]: Statistinis terminų trumpumo vertinimas. – Angelė Kaulakienė. Terminologija. Terminografija. Terminija: straipsnių rinkinys, Vilnius: Technika, 36–38. Klimavičius Jonas 2003: Lietuvių terminografija: praeities bruožai, dabarties sunkumai ir uždaviniai. – Terminologija 10, 9–32. Prieiga internete: https://journals.lki.lt/terminologija/article/view/663. Shelov Sergey D. 2005: Terms, Termness and Term Definitions (Seven Steps Towards Terminological Theory). – Pabaltijo tautų terminologijos problemos ir Europos Sąjunga: [straipsnių rinkinys], atsak. red., sud. A. Auksoriūtė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos instituto leidykla, 122–153. Sintaksė 2003: Kalbos patarimai 2: Sintaksė 1: Linksnių vartojimas, sud. R. Miliūnaitė, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas. Umbrasas Alvydas 2008: Atnaujinti Terminų žodynų rengimo bendrieji reikalavimai. – Terminologija 15, 216– 225). Prieiga internete: https://journals.lki.lt/terminologija/article/view/602. Umbrasas Alvydas 2013: Lietuvos Respublikos terminų bankas: 10 metų po įstatymo priėmimo. – Terminologija 20, 96–122. Prieiga internete: https://journals.lki.lt/terminologija/article/view/475. Umbrasas Alvydas 2022: Teisės aktų terminų ir jų apibrėžčių reikalavimų klausimu. – Terminologija 29, 120–138. Prieiga internete: https://journals.lki.lt/terminologija/article/view/2180. Zemlevičiūtė Palmira 2020: Medicinos asmenų pavadinimai 1920 metų nepriklausomos Lietuvos pirmajame Medicinos žurnale. – Lituanistica 66(4), 302–322. Prieiga internete: https://www.lmaleidykla. lt/ojs/index.php/lituanistica/article/view/4364. Zemlevičiūtė Palmira 2021: XIX a. pab. – XX a. pr. dvižodžiai sudėtiniai pavadinimai su pagrindiniu dėmeniu liga ir dalyviu reiškiamais priklausomaisiais dėmenimis. – Terminologija 28, 239–255. Prieiga internete: https://journals.lki.lt/terminologija/article/view/2071. TERM BANK OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA: 20 YEARS AFTER PASSING THE LAW Summary On 23 December 2003, the Law on the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania was adopted, so at the end of 2023 it will be twenty years since the management of legal terminology in Lithuania has been regulated by a separate law. This article aims to add historical, factual, and terminological data to previous research. The aim of the article is to show the development and implementation of the Law on the Term Bank, the changes in the Term Bank, especially over the last ten years, the dynamics of the activities of the state institutions contributing to the creation of the Term Bank, and the specificity of the content of this database.