Terminology
Acronyms, synonyms and abbreviations can cause frustration for translators, especially when attempting to translate them without a clear understanding of their meaning. Terminology management allows you to achieve effective and accurate translations by organizing these terms with a clear set of rules for their usage; this ensures that the correct term is used within a translation.
What is terminology?
What is a termbase?
Why is it important to manage terminology?
What is SDL MultiTerm 2007 and what are the benefits?
How does a terminology tool differ from a translation memory tool?
How does SDL MultiTerm 2007 differ from using a flat file glossary?
Terminology is the foundation of all communication. At its most basic level it is the study and ultimately usage of words or phrases that have a particular meaning, these words or phrases are referred to as terms. Terminology is growing in importance as terms are becoming increasingly adopted by organizations to describe a company, product, service or even a unique selling point.
A termbase is a central repository, similar to a database, which allows for the systematic management of approved terms. It provides definitions and indicates when a particular term should be used. Use of a termbase alongside your existing translation environment ensures that you produce more accurate and consistent translations.
Why is it important to manage terminology?
If left unmanaged, terminology can become inconsistent leading to translations that contain competing definitions, this lack of consistency means that translations cannot be re-used. The result of not being able to leverage terminology is that your translations become more time and resource intensive. This added to the lack of managed terminology can reduce client satisfaction and affect your ability to accept translation projects.
What is SDL MultiTerm 2007 and what are the benefits?
SDL MultiTerm 2007 has led the market for terminology management since 1990. It is a searchable database which allows you to create a list of multi/mono-lingual terms and rules regarding their usage. Through SDL MultiTerm you can:
- Create a term base that is both multilingual and multidirectional
- Gain insight into your terms and therefore control
- Achieve increased efficiency in managing terminology by storing terms in a central repository
- Increase the consistency of translations through access to approved terminology
- Ensure that you communicate with relevance and consistency in your translations
How does a terminology tool differ from a translation memory tool?
A terminology tool is a searchable database that contains a list of approved terms and rules regarding their usage.
A translation memory tool differs, in that it stores segments of text as translation units (in source and target pairs). A segment can consist of a sentence or paragraph.
Translation memory is typically used in conjunction with terminology.
How does SDL MultiTerm 2007 differ from using a flat file glossary?
Although a flat file can store terms, its ability to offer long-term business value is somewhat limited. This is due to flat files not being scalable, share-able or embeddable. To achieve maximum flexibility with your terminology, your term base needs to be searchable in any direction, allow for limitless terms, users and languages. With SDL MultiTerm 2007 your term base is capable of growing with your business and your terminology requirements.
