Terminology Work in the Swiss Federal Administration
Franco Fomasi
Swiss Federal Administration, Terminology Section, Termdat Gurtengasse 2-4, CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
franco.fomasi@bk.admin.ch
Abstract
The Swiss Federal Administration employs about 200 translators and specialist linguists. Their work is assisted by the Terminology Section, which places a —>terminology database, +TERM- DAT, at their disposal. TERMDAT is a copy of EURODICAUTOM (the database of the European Commission’s Translation Service). One of its goals is to provide equivalents in the official languages of the Confederation of legal and administrative —>terminology as well as scientific and technical —>terms used in government services.
To ensure the quality of the records to be stored in TERMDAT, the Terminology Section follows the standard stages of the —>terminographic process. Moreover, it has adopted a particular deposit policy to reduce redundancy in the database to a minimum.
Since the aims of TERMDAT exceed the resources of the Terminology Section, collaboration is needed at all levels and the idea of networked co-operation, i.e. common projects or data exchange, is constantly gaining ground within and beyond national and linguistic borders.
Keywords: Swiss Federal Administration, terminology work, terminology management, terminol- ogy database, TERMDAT, EURODICAUTOM, co-operation, terminology networks
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
The Swiss Federal Administration communicates in three official languages (German, French and Italian). The fourth language, Romansh is only “partially official” which means it is used (by the Administration) only with Romansh citizens and for the most important legal texts.
Seven independent Departments employ about 200 translators and specialist linguists in various federal offices in Berne and in other parts of the country. It is their task to make available the legal and official texts of the Confederation simultaneously to the different linguistic communities. They are assisted by the Terminology Sectionl , which belongs to the Central Language Services of the Swiss Federal Chancellery (the central staff office of the Federal Council). The Terminology Section is in charge of collecting and ensuring the quality of the terminological data drafted by the “decentralised” officials, setting down uniform working procedures and common practices, acting as a clearing house for internal and external terminological activities, as well as updating the central database TERMDAT. It also carries out its own terminological projects.
1 “The terminology Section co-ordinates and organizes the terminology work in the Federal Administration. It is responsible for the functioning of TERMDAT, the terminology database of the Federal Administration.” Ordinance on Translation in the General Administration of the Confederation of June 19, 1995, art. 13.
246 Franco Fomasi
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1.2 Terminology Management and Dissemination in the Federal Administration
TERMDAT is a copy of EURODICAUTOM (the read-only database of the European Commission’s Translation Service). Berne decided to buy and install its programmes and content in 1988 for various reasons. Firstly, developing our own database would have been too expensive. Secondly, the huge bulk of terminological data contained in EURODICAUTOM ensures a high and always increasing response ratio. EURODICAUTOM is easy to use (and will be increasingly so thanks to its new accessibility on the World Wide Web). In spite of its huge content its search functions are very quick. It is a multilingual database (with all the advantages and disadvantages) where the Swiss official languages are well represented. And finally, the European Commission is a public body whose areas of work coincide approximate- ly with those of the Swiss Federal Administration.EURODICAUTOM and TERMDAT co-operate actively and exchange data regularly so that their records are always identical. TERMDAT/EURODICAUTOM contains more than 1,150,000 entries (80,000 of which are Swiss) in 11 European languages (DA, DE, EN, ES, FI, FR, GR, IT, NL, PT, SV plus Latin and Romansh) from administrative, technical and scientific fields including forestry2.
Z IUFRO’s Vocabulary of Forest Management [SCHMID-HAAS 1990; IUF90, 1,278 records FrDeItEnEs]; Fonn-Ronenrsou (1983) and Mérno (1975) [WAL95, 5,260 records FrDeItEnNlDaEsPtHeFi]; selected entries from CONEDERA and GIUDICI (1993), from FILL- BRANDT er al. (1993) and from STEINMANN (1991) [FOR94, 2,780 records DeFrIt].
Any employee of a Swiss public body (including universities and research institutes) has
free access to TERMDAT. At present, it has 950 users: 250 are linguists, the biggest and the
most active group. The agreement signed with the European Union stipulates that private citizens who wish to consult the Swiss —>terminology database must access EURODICAU- TOM via ECHO (the European Commission Host Organisation) in Luxembourg. This was perhaps a problem some years ago but no longer, thanks to the increasing popularity of the Internet, improved data transmission speed, the reliability of the networks, and the graphical interface of the database.2 TERMDAT 2.1 Goals
The goals of TERMDAT are:
— to include all Swiss legal and administrative —->terminology as well as scientific and technical —>terms used in government services in the official languages of the Confedera- tion (if necessary plus English and Spanish), and to make them available to the largest possible number of users;
— to help manage the increasing volume of translations, and to reduce the time spent on terminological research by providing single centralised access to the federal —>terminology database;
- to help new staff become rapidly acquainted with federal legal -—>terminology and so, to enable them to work more efficiently and independently;
— to reduce duplicate entries by re-using data prepared by specialised services;
— to help enhance the authenticity of the law through greater consistency of translated legal
—>concepts;
- to increase co-operation between public bodies in the field of —>terminology.
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248 Franco Fomasi
Daily statistics indicate that some of these aims have been practically achieved. The number of queries in the database is increasing proportionally faster than the number of users: the average number of questions per day has climbed from 400 in 1993 (410 users) to 1,900 in 1998 (950 users). Junior officials are the most regular and active “customers”, very likely because they have not yet mastered the eterminology of their field of work and, also, they are more accustomed to using computers. As will be shown below, co-operative efforts are starting to bear fruit. The overlapping of —->terminology work at the Federal Administration has been considerably reduced thanks to centralised access to the database and to regular communi- cation on current terminological activities (but, unfortunately, it has not yet been eliminat- ed).
Of course other sources of information are available to most federal employees battling with terminological problems. They can consult personal files, start a full-text search of the whole collection of laws, decrees and judgements of the Federal Supreme Court, have a synchronised multilingual display of legal texts (see Figure 2: Federal Law on Forestry) or use local translation memories. These resources have also accelerated the work of terminologists.
2.2 Working Method and Deposit Policy
Usually, terminological research is done after a legal or official text has been drafted and translated. Of course, it would be better to do it at an earlier stage so as to facilitate translation and avoid terminological divergence. Unfortunately, staff numbers do not permit this. In the
ten years of its existence, the Terminology Section has only very recently been involved in law drafting (the Federal Law on the Promotion of Minority Languages).
To ensure the quality of terminological work, the Terminology Section consider it essential to comply with the following standard stages of the -eterminographic process as set below:
1. selecting the subject field or subfield and the degree of coverage;
2. gathering a group of experts (usually from different government offices) representing the working languages;
3. defining the information to be recorded;
4. selecting the reference sources;
5. collecting —->terms and researching additional terminological information in reference sources;
6. recording other relevant information;
7. reviewing;
8. distributing the final product via the database and eventually printing out.
The results of ad hoc research are also stored in the database if they include reliable sources, a subject code and equivalents in at least one other language. In fact, it is not always possible for translators (or terminologists), who usually work under pressure, to find a —>definition or a valid context within a reasonable amount of time. In the case of names of departments, offices, titles, etc., a —>definition is not always of great importance. These records are usually completed when thematic work is carried out in their field.
The Terminology Section has adopted the following deposit policy (see Fig. 3):
- all entries undergo a formal check before inclusion in the database (those that fail are sent back or discussed with the author);
— all double entries are automatically identified and non-legal —>terms are only included as new entries (or merged with existing Swiss ones) if they have different equivalents in other languages or complementary data categories;
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— legal -->terms are included as new records if they do not yet exist in the Swiss data subset.
Otherwise, they are merged with Swiss entries if they have different equivalents in other languages or complementary data categories.
Because TERMDAT is a read-only database, new entries are drafted using various software programmes, ranging from word processing to the latest free-format text —>terminology
database. The Terminology Section intends to install a centralised temporary writing module that should be accessible via any World Wide Web browser and should not require any local software installation. Its content would be regularly exported to TERMDAT.2.3 Search Strategies
One of the major criticisms of large central databases is their redundancy in some subject fields.
TERMDAT is no exception. It is not always possible for more than thirty —>terminology bureaux working in different countries to avoid inserting the same —>terms. Except for typing mistakes, these bureaux have indeed agreed never to carry out major interventions (that is add or change ——>synonyms, —>definitions, notes and equivalents) in foreign records without the explicit consent of the service responsible for their storage. Besides, the result of merged entries would in some cases be almost unreadable.
To help solve the problem of iteration and in view of the inclusion in EURODICAUTOM of other European institutions’ databases (EUTERPE => European Parliament, TIS =>
Council of Ministers), the search algorithms have been improved.
Entries belonging to a particular database (TIS, EUTERPE, etc.), to a particular —>termi- nology bureau (ACH, CHB, BTL, etc.), to a collection (SYL95, WAL75, etc.), to a subject field (AG8, AGD, etc.) or to an author can now be displayed first or last. Boolean Operators (NOT, OR, AND) can also be used in queries and the function “exclusive match” allows users
250 Franco Fomasi
to display only data which exactly meet the specified criterion. If “exclusive match” is not activated, those entries that meet the search criterion are simply given priority and listed first.
3 Co-operation
The aims of TERMDAT exceed the resources of both the Terminology Section and of the Federal Administration. Therefore, from the very beginning this project was intended to be carried out through co-operation.
Co-operation by itself will not fulfil all the terminological needs of our institution. But the task of collecting, processing and disseminating the existing —>terminology within a reason- able amount of time and at a reasonable cost can only be done through teamwork. No
—>terminology database, not even the largest or the fastest~growing one, can be self-sufficient.
Collaboration is needed at all levels:
— between the departments of the administration (inter-institutional);
- between administrations at national level;
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between administrations and organisations at international level (i.e. Swiss Confederation and European Union);
between the public and private sectors.
The Terminology Section is trying of course to put this commitment into practice.
For example, as a result of a collaboration with the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL the above-mentioned forest evocabularies and, in the near future, Mrs Kaennel’s / Pro- fessor Schweingruber’s Multilingual Glossary of Dendrochronology will be included in TERMDAT.
The Confederation and Canton Berne signed a co~operation agreement on —>terminology (and will soon be followed by Cantons Fribourg, Valais and Grisons). Under this agree- ment, 36 Bernese translators have access to TERMDAT, where they can also find — regularly updated — the entries of LINGUA-PC, the terminology database of the Canton of Berne (some 10,000 ~+term records).
the Confederation, represented by the Terminology Section, is a founding member of the following —>terminology networks: RINT (Réseau francophone de néologie et de terminolo- gie3), RaDT (Rat fur Deutschsprachige Terminologie / Council for German Language Terminology4) and COTSOES (Conference of Translation Services of European States5 ). A few examples of the practical achievements of this international co-operation are listed below:
the Recommendations for Terminology Work (COTSOES) which at present have been translated into six languages (DE, EN, ES, FR, IT, NL) and whose aim is to foster common terminological practice in different working environments;
the completion of the existing and published WTO Agreement —>terminology in German, Italian, and Dutch (COTSOES);
the creation of the BALNEO network, whose aim is to collect and distribute new words (—>neologisms) in French using the Internet (RINT);
the training of young terminologists from developing countries in —->terminographic meth-
odology and software tools (RINT);NOMINO, a very promising search programme for the terminological analysis of French texts (RINT);
the exchange of terminological collections on different topics (COTSOES); and finally the Terminology Section does not hesitate to exchange data with the private sector as is shown by two data swaps: the first with a major private distributor, COOP, in order to receive a collection of legal —->terminology relating to food; and the second with a leading electronics company, ASCOM, in order to receive a collection of legal -—>terminology relating to telecommunications.
3
4
5
General objectives of this network are: to adapt the French language to the expression of modern scientific and technical terms, to establish consultation over the formation of terms among French-speaking countries and communities, to foster simultaneously both French and the development of national languages in French-speaking Southern countries.
A forum of experts representing organisations, associations, government bodies and the economic sector as Well as institutions of higher education involved in terminological issues, applications and curricula in the German-speaking area. Its goals are: to raise awareness of terminology in the German-speaking area, to foster collaboration in the field of terminology, to co-ordinate and support terminological activities, and to prepare guidelines for terminology policies and strategies.
Goal of this network is: to foster international co-operation in terminology through harmonisation rather than standardisation of the different terminological methodologies of its member services.
252 Franco Fomasi
4 Conclusion
After ten years of existence, TERMDAT has become the reference point for -—>terminology work in the Federal Administration. This was possible thanks to the strong information and training efforts of the Terminology Section, the achievement of a difficult balance between the quality and quantity of the Swiss records in the database, the financial support and data collections received from various federal offices and, most importantly, the co-operation agreement signed with the European Commission in 1988.
National and international collaboration will continue to play a key role in the Terminology Section. Networking will help to increase the number of entries, to improve their quality, to update the contents of the database and to produce convincing results, thereby dispelling the scepticism and doubts of some of those currently involved with —>terminology work.
5 References
Swiss Federal Chancellery, 1998: The Swiss Confederation: a Brief Guide 1998. Berne, Swiss Federal Chancellery. 65 pp.
RINT (Réseau International de Néologie et Terminologie), 1994: Le réseau international de néologie et de terminologie. Québec, Rint. 46 pp.
CONEDERA, M.; GIUDICI, F., 1993: Termini forestali. Tedesco-Italiano. Bellinzona, Istituto Federale di Ricerca per la Foresta, la Neve e il Paesaggio, FNP, Sottostazione Sud delle Alpi. 121 pp.
COTSOES (Conference des services de traduction des Etats de l’Europe occidentale, Groupe de travail terminologie et documentation) (ed) 1990: Recominandations for Terminology Work.
Berne, Swiss Federal Chancellery. [mult. pag.]
DE BEssE, B.; PULITANO D., 1996: Which terms should firms or organisations include in their terminology banks? The case of the Canton of Berne. Terminology, LSP and Translation: studies in language engineering in honour of Juan C. Sager. Amsterdam, Harold Somers ed., Benjamins translations library. xi + 250 pp.
FILLBRANDT, T.; MORATYEL, D.; PIVIDORI, M.; LUTHY, D., 1993: Worterbuch fur Forsteinrichtung, Waldwachstum und Dendrometrie. Deutsch — Franzosisch - Italienisch. Zurich, Departement Wald- und Holzforschung, ETHZ. 114 pp.
HUCHTKER, 1., 1998: Denn Sie Wissen, wovon sie reden. Der Rat fur Deutschsprachige Terminologie.
Unesco heute, Deutsche Nationale UNESCO-Kommission, Nr. 1/1998. 77-78.
KAENNEL, M.; SCI-IWEINGRUBER, F.H., 1995: Multilingual Glossary of Dendrochronology. Terms and Definitions in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Russian. Birmensdorf, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL; Berne, Paul Haupt Publishers. 467 pp.
PARC, F.; Moss, R., 1997: Collaboration en terminologie. Trois exemples: le Rint, le CoTG et la CST.
Zusammenarbeit in der Terminologie. Drei Beispiele: Das Rint, der RaDT und die KUDES.
Hieronymus 3/1997. Bern, ASTTI. 48 pp.
POZZI, M., 1996: Quality assurance of terminology available on the international computer networks.
In: SOMERS, H. (ed) Terminology, LSP and Translation: studies in language engineering in honour of Juan C. Sager. Amsterdam, Benjamins translations library, xi + 250 pp.
SCHMID-HAAS, P. (ed) 1990: Vocabulary of Forest Management. IUFRO World Series Vol. 1. Vienna;
Birmensdorf, IUFRO; Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL. 316 pp.
STEINMANN, P., 1991: Guide de traduction des termes techniques des métiers du bois. Berne, Office fédéral des questions conjoncturelles. 125 pp.
6 Related Web Pages
— EURODICAUTOM: the multilingual online dictionary of the Translation Services of the EC
<http: //eurodic.ip.1u/
