Atnaujinti „Terminų žodynų rengimo bendrieji reikalavimai“

216 Refresh General requirements for the preparation of glossaries ALVYDAS UMBRASAS Institute of Lithuanian Language The expiry of the provisions on the use and funding of the state language of to update the General Requirements for the Preparation of Term Dictionary, the Republic of Lithuania prompted the State Lithuanian Language Commission approved by the State Lithuanian Language Commission (then still – at the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania) by the resolution of the meeting of the State Lithuanian Language Commission on 9 December 1999. On December 20, 2007, the State Lithuanian Language Commission adopted Recommendation No. R-4 on the General Requirements for the Preparation of Term Dictionary (Information Report, 2007, No. 100), which recommends compliance with the General Requirements for the Preparation of Term Dictionary approved by the resolution of the meeting of the same day (in addition to the legislative base of the Seimas, they can also be found on the website of the State Lithuanian Language Commission http://www.vlkk.lt/programos/ zodynu-reikalavimai.html). Compared to the previous Requirements, the new Requirements are more detailed, more structured – they consist of 35 articles, combined into 8 sections. After the restoration of independence, quite a number of dictionaries of translation terms in various fields were published, but the lack of explanatory dictionaries is very felt, so the State Lithuanian Language Commission now encourages the preparation of explanatory translation dictionaries of terms whose first language is Lithuanian. The requirements have been drawn up with this in mind. The article reviews the provisions taken from the old Requirements and newly formulated provisions, provides their comments, gives examples of dictionaries' shortcomings. General provisions (I). The general requirements for the preparation of dictionaries of terms are recommended for all dictionaries of terms editors to follow, but the requirements are still more oriented to dictionaries commissioned by the State Lithuanian Language Commission, prepared according to the State Language Standardization, Use, Education and Dissemination Programme Alvydas Umbrasas | AtnaujintiTerminųžodynųrengimo... Terminologija | 2008 | 15 217 syk les, approved by the Decision No. N-8 (97) of the State Lithuanian Language Commission of 3 June 2004 on the Approval of the Rules for the Evaluation of Term Dictionary (Journal of Laws, 2004, 92-3395). 2006-2015 approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania by Decree No. 1177 of 15 September 2004 (Journal of Laws, 2004, 140-5125) and evaluated according to the Terms Dictionary Evaluation Rules. It is encouraged that in addition to specialists in the subject area, a linguist, a terminologist or another Lithuanian language specialist with knowledge of terminology principles be included in the dictionary preparation group. The dictionary can be prepared by one person who is not only properly prepared in terms of subject matter, but also linguistically. Provisions for the composition of the dictionary preparation group remain essentially unchanged, and it is proposed to include foreign language specialists in it, if necessary. Experience in terminology editing is desirable. In its absence, more experienced persons shall be invited to cooperate. Practice shows that the quality of terminology dictionaries often suffers due to insufficient knowledge of terminology and terminography principles. Ter minų kūrimas ir nor minimas (III). Compared to the previous Requirements, this section is much more detailed. Most importantly, terms are created and standardized according to general terminology principles and standardization criteria: regularity, accuracy, systematicity, consistency, convenience of use, purity, brevity, stylistic neutrality, etc. It is particularly important for dictionaries editors to understand that they not only inventory terms, but also contribute to their standardization and systematisation. This requires at least a minimum of theoretical preparation (see, for example, K. Gaivenis’ monograph Lithuanian Terminology: Theory and Management Outlines (Vilnius, 2002)). When preparing the dictionary, it is also very important to use reliable sources, especially the dictionaries of terms assessed by the State Lithuanian Language Commission (a large number of the latest dictionaries are published in the term bank of the Republic of Lithuania http://terminai.vlkk.lt). Of course, this does not mean that the terms of previously published dictionaries cannot be changed, but it is important to avoid unjustified terminology interchange. When preparing explanatory dictionaries and formulating definitions of terms, it may become apparent that some terms appearing in translation dictionaries incorrectly identify the concept. When adjusting the deadlines, however, we must not forget that the stability of the deadlines is also important. According to the Requirements, it is also important to comply with the decisions and recommendations of the State Lithuanian Commission (e.g. on the use of personal names, divorce, etc.). When selecting foreign language equivalents, the most reliable sources should be those published abroad in the respective languages. Unfortunately, practice shows that in dictionaries published in Lithuania, there are sometimes equivalents created artificially by analogy of Lithuanian or other language terms. That should not be 218 the case. The creation of equivalents in other languages can be justified at least in the case where it is necessary to identify specific concepts used in Lithuania (e.g. legislation). In general, the equivalents are not translated literally atitikmens, negu kurti terminus nebuvėlius. Valstybinės lietuvių kalbos or the like. Sometimes it is better not to submit any other languages. The experts of the committee usually evaluate only Lithuanian dictionaries, so the responsibility for the reliability of other language equivalents is left to the editors. As an example of irresponsible attitude to the equivalents of other languages, one could mention the Explanatory Dictionary of Terms of Thermal and Nuclear Technology (Kaunas: Technologija, 2004), published by the authors’ collective at Kaunas University of Technology (head and scientific editor P. Švenčianas), which is full of errors in the equivalents, especially in German. The requirements also briefly describe the characteristics of the definitions. The definition must be in fluent, regular language, as concise as possible, but precisely specify the essence of the concept and indicate its distinctive features. In non-encyclopedic dictionaries, non-essential things should be avoided. The definitions of the concepts covered by the single basis should follow the same model. When defining terms, one should not overly rely on general dictionaries (e.g., the Dictionary of Modern Lithuanian Language), because they provide an interpretation of the lexical meaning and do not necessarily indicate all terminologically important features. Vocabulary planning (IV). The dictionary should not be prepared chaotically, but according to a pre-established plan, providing for stages of preparation. It is important to define in advance the scope of the vocabulary, to provide criteria for the selection of terms (not only what to select, but also what not to select), not losing sight of the standardization strategy (after all, when selecting terms, there will undoubtedly be found incorrect or inaccurate terms, synonyms). It all depends on the purpose of the dictionary – you have to have the recipient in mind in advance. In order to avoid distraction and to ensure that all members of the working group work in the same way, it is necessary to predict the structure of the term article (here it is not so important the arrangement of the parts as their choice, especially if a database is being created), which will depend on the type of dictionary. It is advisable to make a preliminary description of the structure of the dictionary in advance. Collection of material, writing of the dictionary text (V). This and the previous (IV) sections (which were not included in the old Requirements) propose a working model, i.e. recommend certain preparatory works for writing the dictionary and further stages (of course, depending on the situation, they can be combined according to needs). At the beginning of the thesis it is advisable to make a list of sources of terms in the dictionary field in Lithuanian and foreign languages. It is very important to Alvydas Umbrasas | AtnaujintiTerminųžodynųrengimo... There are more than 200 dictionaries or online accessible term databases (sometimes this is abused and dictionaries are published that provide almost nothing new to terminology), but particular attention must be paid to the latest and most relevant publications of the theory and practice of the field, manuals, etc., because they will undoubtedly contain terms not fixed in terminology. It is important not to forget the field terminology standards. In order to collect terms from sources in the most detailed and systematic way (according to the intended volume), it is recommended to divide the field into sub-fields and to collect terms in thematic groups (the members of the working group should not share the letters of the alphabet, but specifically the sub-fields). This way, the material collected makes it easier to see possible inconsistencies in the expression of related terms, it is more convenient to write definitions of terms of one concept system. Possible stages of work are proposed: a) preliminary lists of Lithuanian terms are created for each sub-field (respecting the system and microsystems); (b) formulate definitions; (c) the collection of equivalents in other languages; (d) the terms are supplemented by other elements provided for, references are made. If necessary, the work of some stages can be carried out simultaneously. The final stage, which determines the terminographic quality, is when the prepared articles of terms of individual fields are combined into a whole, sorted, checked, uniformized, edited, references are checked, indexes are made and other printed preparation works are carried out. collect terms not only in advanceVocabulary composition (VI). A glossary is not just a list of terms in alphabetical or other order (dictionary text). In addition, there must be a preface and/or an introduction (often only a preface is written, in which the authors briefly introduce the dictionary, its purpose, history, difficulties encountered during writing, achieved and unattainable goals, editors and persons who contributed to the preparation, main sources used, acknowledgements, etc. ; If necessary, especially in capital dictionaries, a broader introduction may be provided, which analyzes the history of terms and terminology in the field, discusses various terminological problems, etc.). A particularly important part is the description of the structure of the dictionary (see section VII). Where used in the text, abbreviations and/or acronyms, signs and symbols shall be explained and the sources used shall be cited. In translation dictionaries, indexes are desirable (most often they are alphabetical or alphabetical clusters, but they can also be systematic). Although they expand the volume of the vocabulary (which is inconvenient), they make it much easier to use the dictionary, making it more universal. It is true that arrows are sometimes called in dictionaries simply reverse dictionaries (real arrows take up less space – only page or article numbers are indicated). 220 The alphabets of the languages used in the dictionary are also included. There have been published dictionaries in which not only one or another part is missing (e.g., there is no list of sources), but also those in which, apart from the dictionary text, there are no parts at all (e.g., R. Rakucevičiaus teisėsterminųžodynas (Vilnius, 2001)). Tai didelis terminografijos principų Lithuanian-German Business and Business-English Dictionary). If the dictionary has been prepared under the State Language Standardization, Use, Education and Dissemination Programme 2006–2015 and/or has been evaluated by the State Lithuanian Language Commission, certain standard entries are provided for in the Requirements. It should be noted that the linguist, the terminologist and the reviewers must be mentioned separately. The structure of the dictionary (VII). This is the largest and perhaps most important section of the Requirements, which discusses the issues of the dictionaries text composition (they must be explained in the dictionaries structure description). In the glossary, terms are presented in articles, which can be grouped by nests. Articles or nests are usually sorted in alphabetical order (within a nest, generic and subspecies terms can be sorted according to a hierarchy; when sorting by computer, it is important to set the appropriate language parameters). In terminology, there is a tradition of forming a nest not according to a system of species concepts (although this is not very different), but according to formal indicators – the heading word of the nest is the grammatically main word1 (noun) of the compounds included in the nest. Words of other parts of the language (e.g., adjectives) are usually highlighted in general translation dictionaries, while this is not typical of term dictionaries and is not encouraged (partly justifiable at least in educational term dictionaries), although such cases exist (e.g., this is done in V. Bitinaitė’s Educational English-Lithuanian Legal Terms Dictionary (Vilnius, 19972) evaluated by the State Lithuanian Language Commission). Also, terms not related to the genus and species relationship should not be drawn into one nest – the heading noun in the nest should not be the dependent point of the compound (as is provided, for example, in the Legal Terms Dictionary compiled by A. Žiurlis (Vilnius, 1954)). The order of the terms in less frequently prepared systematic dictionaries is determined by the systematics of the field or the order is determined 1 The system of concepts is revealed in systematic dictionaries (sometimes encyclopedic ones). If we were to respect it in nest dictionaries, we would sometimes have to include in the nest terms that designate species concepts, but are represented by different nouns. This would cause difficulties in searching for terms. 2 The corrected and substantially supplemented dictionary was republished in 2002 and 2008, but these releases were not submitted to the consideration of the State Lithuanian Language Commission, although the approval, without coordination with the commission, was entered in all of them. Alvydas Umbrasas | AtnaujintiTerminųžodynųrengimo... Terminology | 2008 | 15,221 authors themselves. The entire dictionary must adhere to a single system of presentation of term articles and their parts (exceptional deviations from this rule must be clearly justified in the description of the structure). The most important parts that can make up a term article are the term itself, its definition and its equivalents in other languages. The requirements list the most common parts of term articles in dictionaries, which editors can choose according to their needs, the type of dictionaries, etc. It is important that in the text of the dictionary the terms and their parts are presented clearly, so that they cannot be confused (e.g. abbreviations and symbols should be distinguished; There must be a clear boundary between the parts of the article of the term – it is not good when it is not possible to understand where the term is and where – its explanatory words, even though the latter are sometimes unnecessarily interspersed in dictionaries, for example, in the Medical Terms Dictionary prepared by V. Astrauskas and others (Vilnius, 1980) it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the term, its synonym and its interpretation). The layout of the articles and the distinctive features of the font must be explained in the description of the dictionary structure. Synonyms and their selection are sometimes confusing for the editors of dictionaries of terms. In the dictionaries submitted to the State Commission of Lithuanian Language for review, it can be seen that sometimes the effort is exaggerated and a large number of synonyms are written without a clear system, even morphological or spelling variants are included, and sometimes different definitions are written for synonyms. In the dictionary, one term must have one definition. If a term is referred to by several synonymous terms in usage, it is the responsibility of the dictionary editor to choose (and sometimes create) the most appropriate term in accordance with the principles of terminology and to give it priority in the dictionary. All information about the concept and the key term (definition, equivalents, etc.) is presented in one article. Synonyms are presented in separate reference articles, i.e. references are made to the main article or to one of the meanings of the term in the main article (when a more representative synonym has the meaning of the term, the reference may be part of the article). Synonyms are differentiated: if the synonym is not būti vartojama tik kaip norminamoji, t. y. nukreipti į teiktinesnį sinonimą. considered a mistake, the reference is used in the redirect, if the synonym is strictly corrected, it is marked as not to be provided and the term to be used is indicated after the equal sign (e.g. =). In dictionaries, especially encyclopedic ones, the reference see is sometimes used with more than one meaning – it is 222 not only directed to the dominant of synonyms, but also to the article or nest, where it is possible to find more information, where the term is explained, etc. (often this is done when the terms are presented in nests and in alphabetical order, for example, this is the case in A. Smetona’s Military Dictionary (Vilnius, 1995)). Such practice should be eliminated – references must be unambiguous, if necessary, as a reference in such cases can be used an arrow (↗) etc. In general, it is better not to make many references with different meanings (unless it is absolutely necessary). All references and the system of their use must be explained in the description of the glossary structure. In the main article, synonyms are recommended to be listed next to the title term (separated by a comma) or, if the synonym has a term meaning, after the explanation of the meaning (with the note sin.). In addition, the main article tends to not mention all of the other synonyms, but only the best, most common ones (the remaining are given as reference articles). Inconsistent meanings of terms and homonymous terms. In terminology, the meanings are usually numbered and presented in one article, homonyms – in separate articles. It is not recommended to provide values separated by semicolon or otherwise. Each meaning of the term is defined as an independent unit – its definition must be clearly taken separately from the other meanings. It is not good when, for example, the second meaning is formulated by using substitutive pronouns, i.e. written as if it were a continuation of the things said in the first meaning (such interpretations exist, for example, in the Textile Terms Dictionary3 (Kaunas, 2001) prepared by R. Čiukas and others). The computerization of dictionaries and their inclusion in term databases encourages the independent definition of each meaning. In order to better indicate the relationships of concepts and the elements of the terms articles that identify them, the meanings in the databases tend to be presented in separate articles (this is done, for example, in the oldest term base of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics http://www.terminynas.lt and the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania), therefore the definitions of the term dictionaries must be suitable to distinguish one from another, structured and uploaded to the database. When the foreign language equivalents of a term’s meaning do not coincide, they must also be distinguished – presented separately for each meaning. If the values match, they can be presented in one place (generally for the entire article). The current practice of writing dictionaries shows that there is too little attention paid to the breakdown of equivalents by meaning – equivalents of terms with different meanings are sometimes presented together in dictionaries, which can mislead the readers of the dictionary. 3 Example: pneumatic transport – 1. transportation of materials by air flow in pipelines. 2 the equipment for such transportation;. ‘hollow fiber’ means 1. a tube-shaped filament or hair. 2. a multitude of such hairs. Alvydas Umbrasas | AtnaujintiTerminųžodynųrengimo... Terminology | 2008 | 15 223 If the singular and plural of a word are separate terms, the Requirements suggest that they be presented in separate articles and in separate slots in the nested dictionary. In other cases, where general terms have singular and plural forms, they are presented in the same nest4. It is known that synonymous equivalents of one language are sorted by importance – the one that is given preference is written first (it is not recommended to give too many of them). The equivalents may be accompanied by notes indicating the differences in use. As in the previous Requirements, it is recommended to provide the corresponding languages with gender and number categories with grammatical gender (m, f, n) and plural (pl) markings, if necessary. The requirements also aim to standardize the language certification of dictionaries’ equivalents. It is recommended to use bicycles according to the international standard LST ISO 639-1: 2003 Language Names Codes. Part 1. Bicycle codes: de (German), en (English), fr (French), ru (Russian), etc. It happens that dictionaries abuse brackets, they contain various information, sometimes terms that designate different concepts are included in one article, synonymous or optional elements of terms (not only Lithuanian terms, but also equivalents) are placed in brackets. There should be no such confusion. It is desirable that the use of parentheses, if necessary, is unambiguous and explained in the description of the structure of the dictionary. Items for which the Requirements recommend a different order of presentation (e.g. synonyms) should not be included in parentheses. Brackets [ ] are used where necessary, and may abbreviate references to sources (e.g. definitions). Unlike translation dictionaries, explanatory dictionaries should not contain explanatory words in parentheses next to the term – after all, there is a definition for this (such cases exist, for example, in the Explanatory Dictionary of Railway Transport Terms by N. Juškaitė, St. Keinis, K. Sakalauskas (Vilnius, 2006)). As usual, Lithuanian terms in dictionaries must be spelled. It is not necessary to pronounce only the non-presentable and indicative terms of the reference articles, as well as the service words that go through the term elements. The spelling of the arrows is separated, so K. Daukšo, J. Barkausko, V. Daukšo and others. In the 4 Pvz., cukrus, kaip įprastinis sacharozės pavadinimas, ir cukrūs, kaip bendras sacharidų pavadinimas, yra Explanatory Dictionary of Chemistry Terms (V., 2003) the terms wave and waves are presented separately, and the species terms differing in number are presented in one nest. In the Dictionary of Physics Terms: Lithuanian, English, French, German and Russian (V., 2007) the terms wave and waves are presented in one nest. The presentation is corrected because in the first edition of the Physics Terms Dictionary (ed. P. Brazdžiūnas, V., 1979) separate nests were made. 224 optional. Among other sources, the pronunciation is guided by the recommendations of the State Lithuanian Language Commission (they are given preference) and the Contemporary Lithuanian Language Dictionary (the latest edition!). If there are several possible pronunciations, the first one is used. Uncertain or controversial cases may be proposed for consideration to the Subcommittee on Council and Pronunciation of the State Lithuanian Language Commission. As in the scientific language, the Requirements recommend to give preference to the original forms of proper names in terms (except in traditional cases). Terms with adapted forms are presented in reference articles according to the general order of terminology. Thus, the description of the structure of the glossary must explain: sorting and/or grouping of terms; the structure of the term article, its elements indications, graphic distinguishing marks and distinctive characters; presentation of meanings and homonyms; the provision of synonyms; a reference system; presentation of terms with real names, etc. Computerized management (VIII). Since the possibilities of processing the term glossary data in text files are limited, it is recommended to use computer databases or at least electronic spreadsheets. This makes it easier to sort, group, or filter data in various ways, and makes it easier to find and remove inconsistencies. As in previous Requirements, attention is drawn to the fact that all characters used in the dictionary have the correct electronic code (this is especially important when data from different dictionaries are transferred to one electronic database). For possible more convenient data exchange, it is recommended to use the Palemon font. The provided fonts must be respected. It is not possible to use unmotivatedly different fonts in the same word, as well as unmistakable visually coinciding Latin and Cyrillic letters, because they have different codes. It is reminded that correct spelling and punctuation must be used in the text (unfortunately, the writing of quotes, hyphens and hyphens still creates difficulties for some people). Before submitting the dictionary to the experts of the State Lithuanian Language Commission for evaluation and consideration by the Subcommittee on Terminology, it is not advisable to prepare a publishing layout, because after correcting the dictionary according to the comments received, the layout may have to be reworked. Alvydas Umbrasas | AtnaujintiTerminųžodynųrengimo...