REVIEWS, SURVEYS, INFORMATION, BIBLIOGRAPHY

E. WÜSTER AND E. DREZENAS – PIONEERS OF TERMINOLOGY AND ESPERANTOLOGISTS

Abstract

Pioneers of terminology and its most prominent representatives E. Wüster, E. Drezen, W. Ostwald, and A. Warncis were also famous Esperantists, as well as Esperantologists and interlinguists. It is no coincidence that an excellent understanding of the linguistic foundations of Esperanto and other artificial languages, together with the ability to compare them with national languages, certain features and elements of which are linked to artificial languages, provided considerable impetus to the highly specific and most formalized area of language: terminology, the creation, classification, and naming of concepts, and their regulation and/or standardization. This field requires exceptional precision, clarity, and unambiguity, while equivalence to corresponding terms in other languages is desirable (but not obligatory).

K. Gaivenio knygos Lietuvių terminologija: teorijos ir tvarkybos metmenys (2002) pabaigoje pristatomos kelios terminologijos teorijos ir jų autoriai. Šiek tiek vietos skirta ir E. Wüsteriui (Gaivenis 2002: 116, 121, 131). 1992 m. Jūrmaloje vyko konferencija, skirta E. Drez eno 100-osioms gimimo metinėms, 2002 m. Rygoje – 110-osioms gimimo metinėms. Pastarojoje V. Skujiną skaitė pranešimą „Ernstas Drezenas ir dabartinė terminologijos teorija ir praktika“ (Auksoriūtė, Labanauskienė 2002: 123–124). Tačiau tai beveik ir viskas, ką apie juos pavyko rasti lietuviškai.

After reviewing the catalogue of the library of the Lithuanian Esperanto Association, a great deal of material about E. Wüster and E. Drezen was found. It was therefore decided to prepare an introductory article that may be of interest to those interested in terminology.

Aim and objectives: to discuss the terminological work of E. Wüster and E. Drezen and to reveal traces of the Esperanto language in it.

Subject: E. Wüster and E. Drezen’s collaboration in the field of terminology and their Esperanto-related connections.

* Terminologija, a fairly significant publication, has commemorated the centenary of E. Wüster – see J. Gaivenytė. One hundred years since the birth of Eugen Wüster, a pioneer of terminology theory. – Terminologija 5, 1998, 126–129.

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Methods: analytical, descriptive.

Research data: monographs and articles written in Esperanto that examine the work of E. Wüster and E. Drezen.

Results: The application of the principles of grammar and logic from Esperanto and other artificial languages in language standardization influenced the standardization of technical language and the creation of its terms. This is demonstrated by the work and collaboration of two pioneers of terminology and Esperantologists—E. Wüster and E. Drezen.

There are quite a number of connections between Esperantology and terminology, which studies the principles of managing, standardizing, and planning specialized vocabulary, but these connections are not well known to either side. Outside the Esperanto movement, scholars often cannot even imagine that a relatively new but important discipline, significant for the rational development of the global economy and commerce, could have anything in common with a “frivolous hobby”—artificial languages. Even within the Esperanto community, these connections are not widely known. Perhaps this is because several pioneers, having seemingly—or perhaps actually—taken artificial language as their starting point, later devoted more attention to scholarly work than to the artificial language itself. It seems time to draw attention to facts that are not merely interesting historical details, but may also be useful for the rational use of language. Perhaps it is no coincidence that many people who played a particularly significant role in the development of terminology had previously taken a serious interest in artificial languages. Two of the most prominent and distinguished among them are Eugen Wüster and Ernest Drezen.

E. Wüsteris (1898–1977)

Eugen Wüster was born on October 3, 1898, in Wiesel (Austria, near Vienna), into the family of a manufacturer of German origin, which owned a sawmill and metal-rolling factory with its own power station. When he was 15, the schoolboy happened upon an Esperanto textbook. He quickly learned the language, began teaching it to his friends, translated fiction, and wrote poems and articles. At the age of 19, he received an offer from an “insignificant publisher” to prepare an Esperanto dictionary; the “project soon expanded into an encyclopedic dictionary, which drastically exceeded the capabilities of a small printing house” (Wüster 1974: 435). Fortunately, the publishing house Hirt & Sohn (Leipzig) invested 100,000 marks in the forthcoming work and “the contractual

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honorarium.” The first fascicle (about 200 pages) appeared in 1923. The introductory section, divided into four fascicles, discussed the principles of Esperantology (=terminology).

In 1927, after qualifying as an engineer, E. Wüster decided “to use the knowledge and documents I had collected while working on the encyclopedic project for a doctoral dissertation” (Wüster 1974: 27). The German standardization commission supported the project as much as it could. Two years later, a manuscript in 20 binders was completed, but the academic supervisors did not accept it as unpublishable. However, through matters relating to his Encyclopedic Dictionary, the author was already acquainted with the rector of the Stuttgart Technical University and two professors there, and the dissertation defense proceeded without difficulty. Another success in publishing: E. Wüster received support from the Prussian Academy of Architecture and found a publisher, VDI (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure – Association of German Engineers), capable of printing and binding the very complex 446-page work in the record time of four weeks. Thus, in 1931, The International Standardization of Technical Language, Especially Electrical Engineering was published and was immediately recognized by specialists in technology and language. To this day, it remains the principal document in terminology.

Because of the work’s uniqueness, engineer E. Wüster was invited to the international congress of linguists in Geneva in the year of its publication. From 1932, he participated in preparing the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary and collaborated with the International Federation of National Standardizing Associations (ISA – International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations). In 1934, he proposed establishing a terminology committee, whose work he later led himself.

A few more highlights of his wide-ranging work should be noted:

In 1950, ECE (Economic Commission for Europe) appointed him to lead the development of the international concept dictionary The Machine Tool. This exemplary terminological work appeared in 1968.

In 1971, he founded INFOTERMA (International Information Centre for Terminology – International Centre for Terminological Information).

In 1972, he received the title of honorary professor at the University of Vienna, which entitled him to teach lexicology, lexicography, and especially terminology and language standardization.

E. Wüster is internationally recognized as a pioneer of general terminology.

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E. Drezenas (1892–1937)

Ernest Wilhelm Drezen was born on November 14, 1892, in Liepāja (Latvia). The boy’s first native language was Latvian, and his second was German. He learned Russian at the age of seven. At seventeen, he learned Ido (one of the projects for improving Esperanto), Esperanto, French, and English. He was an engineer, an officer, and a civil servant.

In 1921, E. Drezen was one of the initiators of the establishment of the Union of Esperantists of the Soviet Republics (SEU – Sovetsupublika Esperantista Unuiĝo); he became its executive secretary and remained in that post until the end of his life. E. Drezen is considered a pioneer of Soviet interlinguistics. From 1921 to 1932, he published numerous articles and 15 monographs on the theory of communication in an international language and on the history of artificial languages (especially Esperanto). From 1924 to 1933, he published 13 books and pamphlets on the scientific organization of work. Between 1934 and 1936, four publications appeared on the internationalization and standardization of scientific and technical terms in national languages, including a Russian version of E. Wüster’s dissertation, published in Moscow in 1935.

By that time, E. Drezen was already a member of the Commission on Technology and Terminology of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (Kuznecov 1991: 27). In 1934, he was entrusted with the task of establishing and heading a commission on the standardization of scientific and technical terms and tales within the State Committee for Standardization. On April 14, 1937, E. Drezen was arrested together with a group of associates SEU at the central committee. On October 27 of the same year, he was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. Twenty years later (on May 11, 1957), he was rehabilitated “for lack of any corpus delicti” (Stepanov 1992: 9).

Their collaboration

The first meeting of the two engineers, interlinguists, and terminologists took place in Berlin in 1928, when the young E. Wüster had just received the printed instructions to collaborate with Alfred Schlomann, “a pioneer in the field of technical vocabulary” (Wüster 1974: 434). In his memoirs, E. Wüster writes of this meeting: “At that time I was sometimes visited by a rather young, nimble Russian wearing a peaked cap, a former Tsarist officer, of Baltic origin, as I later learned. This was Ernest Drezen, who later became involved in the international standardization of terminology” (ibid., 436).

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In 1931, shortly after E. Wüster’s International Standardization of Technical Language appeared, E. Drezen arranged for the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union to review the work. On the basis of its highly favorable assessment, a five-person group led by E. Drezen was tasked with revising and translating the work. A slightly abridged Russian-language edition of International Standardization of Technical Language was published at the end of 1935. By early 1936, all 3,000 copies had been sold.

E. Wüster and E. Drezen remained in contact until E. Drezen’s arrest. This is attested by their letters, studied by D. Blanke, one of the most prominent contemporary interlinguists and a colleague and friend of E. Wüster.

ISA was a federation founded in 1928 by 17 national standardization organizations. It worked to harmonize all kinds of global units of measurement and technical parameters until the Second World War brought its activities to an end.

Specialists from various fields addressed their problems in Technical Committees numbered from 1 to 36. These committees increasingly focused on terminology issues in specific fields, guided by the understanding that standardization of technical objects entails their precise designation. Since individual branches of science are never strictly separate, it was necessary to formulate fundamental principles that would be as broadly intelligible as possible and to seek linguistic means usable across all fields, so as to facilitate mutual understanding and international cooperation.

In 1934, while preparing for its conference in Stockholm, which was to take place in 1936, ISA received a Report from the Soviet delegation, signed by E. Drezen (Дрезен 1936). As early as 1935, an Esperanto translation of the Report by A. Samojlenko, a collaborator of E. Wüster, was published in Moscow and Amsterdam (Drezen 1935). It was later reprinted in 1983 with an afterword by A. Warner, in which the book is called a “classic of terminology” (Warner 1983: 84). The Report concludes with two proposals: to establish a Terminology Committee and to create an international terminology code. Both proposals were unanimously adopted (by 19 national standardization organizations). The Soviet Union (in the name of E. Drezen) was tasked with creating this code. A concrete proposal reached ISA in Basel on June 7, 1935. The list consisted mostly of Esperanto morphemes. In late summer 1936, the first conference of the new Terminology Committee ISA 37 took place in Budapest, and was to decide on the proposed code. An international preparatory meeting was held in Vienna in late June. Occidentals participated in large numbers and sent many letters (one of the

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representatives of artificial languages, Edgar de Wahl’s 1922 creation) were among them. They argued against Esperanto and favored naturalistic forms of code, that is, forms adapted from languages currently in use for international communication. This caused confusion. Despite considerable effort (including E. Wüster’s), E. Drezen could not take part in the debates in either Vienna or Budapest. There, representatives of Occidental also argued strongly in favor of their naturalistic artificial language.

It was not possible to reach a decision on the code. In 1937, the matter was once again postponed in Paris. Only in 1938, in Berlin, did specialists from various fields adopt a resolution: “It is considered necessary to establish consistent rules for the formation of code words. <--> These rules would form part of the terminology key for existing international terms. They must neither forcibly mix languages nor deform words whose forms are already almost international” (Wüster 1974: 425). Thus, the first concrete code proposed was not adopted. Although the idea of a terminology code proposed by E. Drezen was not accepted by the ISA committee in 1938, E. Wüster never abandoned it. On the contrary, the possibility of creating identical terms in various languages on the basis of international word roots (especially those of Latin origin), and thereby facilitating scientific and technical mutual understanding, continued to fascinate him. E. Wüster left a prepared, extensive manuscript, Radicarium+Affixarium, which is still available from INFOTERMo as a microfilm.

Trejus metus (1936–1939) ISA 37 rengė pagrindinius kuo didesniam kalbų skaičiui tinkamų terminologijos principus, taikytinus įvairiose mokslo ir technikos srityse. Komitetas parengė (Felber 1994: 44) ISA žodynų rengimo nurodymus, jų rengimo perspektyvas, tarptautines tarptautinių terminų taisykles, bibliografines šakinių žodynų rodykles. Atskirai minėtini tarptautiniai įvardijimo, sąvokų ir terminų vienodinimo principai.

After the war, the matter was not taken up again in the Terminology Committee of the newly established ISO (International Organization for Standardization – International Organization for Standardization), called ISO/TC 37 (terminology-principles and co-ordination).

The World Congress of Electrical Engineering was held in Paris in 1932. E. Wüster, whose book on language standardization “especially in electrical engineering” had just been very favorably received, delivered a paper. A heated discussion followed. Esperanto was proposed for adoption in preparing the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary. This was one of the most important IEC (Interna, whose work had been lacking for more than 20 years.

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tional Electrotechnical Commission – International Electrotechnical Commission) work. E. Wüster was Austria’s permanent representative and provided German-language consultation. However, there were many disputes before he was elected to deal with the terms for artificial languages. To support Esperanto, 30 electrical engineering specialists (not only from Western Europe) wrote a joint letter, while from the Soviet Union came an official letter from nomenclature staff of two organizations with the same orientation. One of them was E. Drezen. When the first IEV (Internacia Elektroteknika Vortaro – International Electrotechnical Vocabulary) appeared in 1938, French and English were the principal languages, but Esperanto, alongside German, Italian, and Spanish, also had equal status.

Reflections today

In retrospect, all the earlier research and organizational efforts may seem merely preparatory attempts at one ripe fruit of the terminology tree—the basic machine-tool terminology database.

In 1950, the ECE (Economic Commission for Europe – United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) decided to prepare a dictionary as a test project in preparation for the use of multilingual terminologies. The field chosen was machine tools and their general basic concepts. The main objectives were stated as follows:

1) practical benefit to industry and trade,

2) exemplary application of the principles developed to terminological and lexicographic work.

After a long period of careful study, 11 governments formed a working group. The terminologist and machine-tool specialist E. Wüster was appointed to establish the main directives.

The main volume appeared in 1968 (one year before the German version, among the planned volumes in German, Spanish, Russian, and other languages). It covers 1,401 concepts with definitions in English and French. According to the final ISO/TC 37 report, its structure is as follows:

1) it corresponds to a classical dictionary (organized by subject areas, with a detailed UDC number assigned to each concept),

2) concepts are “distributed onto cards” [the division of multilingual dictionaries into subject areas by cutting entries out of a book and pasting them onto cards, and then sorting them according to various criteria, was first used by A. Achlomann in his illustrated

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in technical dictionaries (ITW), and since 1906 it has been very popular among terminologists—standardizers (ISO/DIN, etc.)—up to the final electronic version,

3) the languages are arranged vertically,

4) the greatest possible terminological precision is sought:

– through standardized definitions wherever possible,

– by organizing the dictionary's structure,

– through references to related concepts, comparing different systems of concepts in national languages, and references to national standardization institutes (for standardized concepts),

– through systems of illustrations (illustrations are also often desirable, but they cannot convey abstract concepts; therefore, references to possible concepts are provided for concepts that cannot be illustrated. For example, the concept “threading” cannot be illustrated, so drawings of various threads are provided),

– through a semantic structure of arrows.

The precise description of the working methods makes the work seem like a textbook on terminology among the classics in this field. It is not known whether it was a coincidence that, as early as 1923, the young E. Wüster published, as though as a separate part of the Encyclopedic Dictionary, a modest but compact little dictionary of terms, Ma–infaka Esperanto-Vortaro prielementa <…> esperanto-germana kaj germana-esperanta kun nombroreferencoj, which even today gives the impression of a prestigious international project.

Conclusions

The events and publications of 1998 marking the centenary of E. Wüster drew attention to the legacy of the founder of terminology, a legacy worthy of preservation and further study, without overlooking his interlinguistic works. E. Wüster’s extensive archive, now held at INFOTERMe and maintained by the University of Vienna, calls for detailed study; publication of newly discovered manuscripts would also be desirable. E. Drezen’s pioneering work, carried out under the direction of Soviet terminology specialists, came to an end in 1937 as a result of repression and, despite some efforts, remains insufficiently known and appreciated. The idea of a terminology code is still alive. The urgency of this task was emphasized at the conference held in Riga to mark the centenary of E. Drezen, since it is the key to “particularly important research into terminology and its application” (Felber 1994: 46). To

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this essential aspiration, which must be sustained, one may add: it is likely that the important role played by Esperanto and other artificial languages in the origins of terminology will come to be understood.

LITERATŪRA

A u k s o r i ū t ė A., L a b a n a u s k i e n ė S. 2002: Terminologija ir vertimų technologija daugiakalbėje informacinėje visuomenėje. – Terminologija 9, 122–128.

D r e z e n E. 1935: Pri problemo de internaciigo de science-teknika terminara. (El la rusa trad. A. Samojlenko), Moskvo–Amsterdam (= represo Drezen 1983).

D r e z e n E. 1983: = represo de Drezen 1935. Kun postparolo de Alfred Warner, Saarbrücken.

D r e z e n E. K. 1991: Historio de la mondolingvo 4. Pilar-igita eld., reviziita kaj komentita de S. Kuznecov, Moskva.

D r e z e n E. K. 1992: Historiaj Studoj, Jekaterinburg.

F e l b e r H. 1994: East-West Cooperation in International Terminology Work in the 1930s: Drezen and Wüster. – TermNet News. Eds. J. Draskau, H. Picht.

G a i v e n i s K. 2002: Lietuvių terminologija: teorijos ir tvarkybos metmenys, Vilnius.

K u z n e c o v S. N. 1991: Drezen, lia verko, lia epoko. – Drezen E. 1991, 3–40.

S t e p a n o v N. 1992: Ernest Drezen – historiisto de Esperanto. – Drezen E. 1992, 5–9.

W a r n e r A. 1983: La internacia asimilado de science-teknika terminologio. – Drezen E. 1983, 82–90.

W ü s t e r E. 1974: The Road to Infoterm. Two reports prepared behalf of UNESCO. Inventory of Sources of Scientific and Technical Terminology. A Plan for Establishing and International Information Centre (Clearinghouse) for Terminology, München.

Д р е з е н Е. К. 1936: Интернационализация научно-технической терминологии. История, современное положение и перспективы, Москва–Ленинград.

Aida ČIŽIKAITĖ Vilniaus universiteto Kauno humanitarinis fakultetas Muitinės g. 8, LT-44280 Kaunas E. paštas [email protected]

Gauta 2004-10-04

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