Professional Development Courses

Current Issues in Contemporary Terminology

JOLANTA GAIVENYTĖ-BUTLER

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

On 16–17 October 2007, the Terminology Centre held professional development courses entitled Developing the Capabilities of Lithuanian Researchers as Lithuania Integrates into the European Union Infrastructure, Current Issues in Contemporary Terminology, at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language as part of the project. The courses were intended for linguists, terminologists, and translators, and featured lectures by lecturers from Lithuania and Poland.

Professor Habilitated Doctor Sergiejus Griniovas-Griniewiczius of the Białystok University of Finance and Management began his first lecture, Theoretical and Practical Terminography, with the history of lexicography. The professor noted that an entire language can be described in dictionary form, which provides phonetic, morphological, and grammatical information. He pointed out that textbooks on lexicology and general linguistics hardly discuss the principles of lexicography, focusing instead mainly on explaining types of dictionaries. In discussing the principles of lexicography and terminography, S. Griniovas-Griniewiczius drew on his many years of experience in terminology work and gave examples from Russian and English dictionaries. He devoted most of the lecture to discussing lexicographic parameters. Up to 200 parameters are distinguished, and therefore, in the lecturer’s view, it would be useful to collect them in a database. S. Griniovas-Griniewiczius emphasized that some lexicographic parameters determine others quite clearly, so the compilation of any dictionary should begin with the selection of lexicographic parameters. The professor identified three groups of parameters: the author’s objectives (the dictionary’s subject area and scope, purpose, intended users, descriptive or prescriptive function, and criteria for collecting the required lexical units); macrostructural parameters (the way dictionary entries are presented, the main parts of the dictionary, and the presentation of word combinations and homonyms); and microstructural parameters (the constituent parts of an entry). The dictionary modeling process should be based on the consistent selection of initial parameters, which determines the optimal implementation of the other parameters. It is possible to de-

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termine and implement the optimal presentation of lexical information in dictionaries of various types. S. Griniovas-Griniewiczius observed that the existence of terminology dictionaries often accelerates the development of scientific disciplines, while some fields stagnate because of a lack of appropriate terminology.

The second lecture by Professor S. Griniovas-Griniewiczius was European Schools of Terminology. The emergence of schools of terminology was influenced by positivism, which developed into neopositivism in the early twentieth century. The professor distinguished three schools of terminology: the Austrian (which developed into the Austrian-German), Czech, and Russian (Soviet) schools; he discussed their features and mentioned their most prominent representatives. In his lecture, the lecturer devoted particular attention to the views and works of Eugen Wüster, founder of the Austrian, or Vienna, school. The ideas of the Vienna school were further developed by H. Felber, G. Budin, Ch. Galinski, K.-D. Schmitz, I. Dahlberg, H. Picht, and others. H. Felber’s book Terminology manual (1984) is worth mentioning. In the professor’s opinion, the best textbook on terminology published in English is H. Picht and J. Draskau’s Terminology: An introduction (1986). The most prominent feature of the Vienna school is its focus on concepts and its orientation of terminology work toward the standardization of terms and concepts. Most Western and Northern European countries work in this direction. The Czech school of terminology grew out of the Prague School of Functional Linguistics. Its representatives focused primarily on the practical work of codifying terms. The best-known representatives of this school are L. Droz­das and J. Horeckis. S. Griniovas-Griniewiczius considers R. Kocourek, who continued his terminology work in Canada, to be the last representative of this school. Speaking about the Russian school of terminology, the professor distinguished three stages in its development and described several terminology centers—the Moscow, Leningrad, Gorky, and Voronezh schools—mentioning prominent Russian terminologists and their works. He discussed the work of D. Lotte, founder of Russian terminology, as well as that of E. Drezen, A. Reformatsky, B. Golovin, R. Kobrin, V. Leychik, and others.

In her lecture Localizing Computer Software into Lithuanian, Professor Habilitated Doctor Valentina Dagienė introduced the fundamentals of computer software localization, reviewed the work being done in Lithuania to localize computer software into Lithuanian, demonstrated and discussed several localized computer programs designed to help children learn mathematics, and drew attention to the specific features of localization. The professor explained the terms localization, Lithuanianization, internationalization, open-source software, locale and pointed out to the audience that localization is not simply translation. A well-localized program should fit naturally into the Lithuanian environment in both form and content. The lecturer discussed

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the localized parts of computer programs (the installation program, the program interface, the program help system) and noted that many programs contain locale elements that do not conform to Lithuanian standards, so the original program texts need to be adjusted during localization. The elements of the Lithuanian locale were presented, and attention was drawn to the testing of localized programs. V. Dagienė noted that testing costs are considerably higher than the cost of translation itself, but testing is an essential stage of localization. The most important efforts to Lithuanize programs were recalled, along with the institutions carrying them out—UAB Tildės biuras and the Informatics Methodology Department of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. In concluding her lecture, the professor proposed following these principles for Lithuanizing programs: frequently used computer programs, especially those used in schools, should be Lithuanized; programs being Lithuanized should be edited and tested, and reviewed by linguists; informatics specialists and linguists should learn to work together; the dictionary of native-language technologies should be continually improved, and equivalents should be created for new terms emerging around the world. A clear strategy for Lithuanizing computer programs would help implement these principles; scientific work in the fields of computer program localization and internationalization is also important. In response to the question of whether programs for children need to be translated or could instead be developed in Lithuania, V. Dagienė mentioned several Lithuanian-language programs for children prepared by the Šviesos publishing house, but regretted that there was a shortage of staff and ideas for this work. In the professor’s view, one could begin with localized programs.

The topic of computing and terminology was continued in Associate Professor Dr. Gintautas Grigas’s lecture Computing Terminology and Lexicon. Describing computer-related vocabulary, G. Grigas stressed that English predominates in computing terminology, but English terminology is not standardized, varies, and lacks systematicity. The situation is somewhat better with programs created by large companies, such as Microsoft, whereas open-source programs abound in jargon. Creators of Lithuanian terminology face various difficulties arising from English synonymy (login, screen name, user name, Skype name – registravimosi vardas), and from different or related concepts denoted by the same word (tab – tabuliavimo ženklas, skirtukas, kortelė; account – sąskaita, paskyra; accented letter – kirčiuota raidė, diakritinis ženklas). In the speaker’s view, some Lithuanian computing terms are more informative than their English equivalents (little endian – didėjantys baitai, big endian – mažėjantys baitai, recordable compact disk, CD-R – vienkartinio rašymo diskas, blog – tinklaraštis, spam – brukalas). He noted that some Lithuanian terms, like their English counterparts, have abbreviations—

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(operating system, OS – operacinė sistema, OS); other Lithuanian terms may have no abbreviations (floppy disk, FD – diskelis); sometimes only the abbreviation is used (POP (Post Office Protocol) – POP protokolas (pašto skyriaus protokolas)). The associate professor reminded listeners that abbreviations should be read letter by letter, in sequence, using the Lithuanian names of the letters; for example, the abbreviation DB is read [dė-bė], the abbreviation DBVS – [dė-bė-vė-es]; some abbreviations are read syllabically (MIME protokolas – mime protokolas). The dictionaries most often used by software localizers were mentioned: Lithuanian–English–Russian–German Dictionary of Terms. Informatics, edited by R. Valatkaitė and Z. Kudirka (1995); V. Žalkauskas’s Dictionary of Modern Computer Programs and Networks (2003); and V. Dagienė, G. Grigas, and T. Jevsikova’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of Computing (2005) (www.likit.lt). Also noted were the institutions that devote the most attention to Lithuanian computing terminology: the Commission on Informatics and Information Technology Terms (ims.mii.lt/terminai/) and the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language (www.vlkk.lt).

The lecture Lithuanian Characters in Email Messages concluded the course program. It was delivered by Viktoras Dagys of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. First, the lecturer introduced the website of the Lithuanian Computer Society, playfully raised the serious question kodėl sveplai? (“why write without diacritics?”), and sought to explain what distorts Lithuanian letters, how we choose email programs, and how we ought to choose them. He noted that Lithuanian is written correctly on computers and that all the letters of the Lithuanian alphabet can also be seen on websites, yet email messages are typed in a strange naujakalbe (“new language”). In the lecturer’s view, the causes of such distortion are twofold—technical and psychological. To use any program properly, including an email program, it needs to be set up: configured for a particular country and language, and adapted to personal needs. V. Dagys proposed a very clear and concrete solution: choose a program suitable for Lithuanian and, once installed, configure it for use. The lecturer reviewed the criteria that users most often rely on when choosing email programs and suggested criteria to help select a program suitable for Lithuanian. Email programs and webmail services best suited to Lithuanian were also recommended. Linguists and teachers have a leading role in fostering the desire and need not only to speak correctly but also to write in Lithuanian. Conclusions and very concrete recommendations were presented. In V. Dagys’s view, there are no technical obstacles to using Lithuanian writing characters in email. Writing in a non-Lithuanian manner is more a psychological than a technical problem. He recommended not using or distributing email programs,

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designed only for Western European languages, and configuring installed programs for use by setting appropriate language (encoding) and font options for both incoming and outgoing messages. It is advisable to choose a program that does not require configuration. Instructions for configuring all the most popular email programs can be found at http://www.liks.lt/elpaliet/

Received 2007-12-12

Jolanta Gaivenytė-Butler, Institute of the Lithuanian Language, P. Vileišio St. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius, Email: [email protected]

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