Managing Terminology for Translation Using Translation Environment Tools: Towards a Definition of Best Practices

Managing Terminology for Translation Using Translation Environment Tools: Towards a Definition of Best Practices by Marta Gómez Palou Allard Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Translation Studies Under the supervision of Dr. Lynne Bowker and Dr. Elizabeth Marshman School of Translation and Interpretation Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Marta Gómez Palou Allard, Ottawa, Canada, 2012 Abstract Translation Environment Tools (TEnTs) became popular in the early 1990s as a partial solution for coping with ever-increasing translation demands and the decreasing number of translators available. TEnTs allow the creation of repositories of legacy translations (translation memories) and terminology (integrated termbases) used to identify repetition in new source texts and provide alternate translations, thereby reducing the need to translate the same information twice. While awareness of the important role of terminology in translation and documentation management has been on the rise, little research is available on best practices for building and using integrated termbases. The present research is a first step toward filling this gap and provides a set of guidelines on how best to optimize the design and use of integrated termbases. Based on existing translation technology and terminology management literature, as well as our own experience, we propose that traditional terminology and terminography principles designed for stand-alone termbases should be adapted when an integrated termbase is created in order to take into account its unique characteristics: active term recognition, one-click insertion of equivalents into the target text and document pretranslation. The proposed modifications to traditional principles cover a wide range of issues, including using record structures with fewer fields, adopting the TBX-Basic’s record structure, classifying records by project or client, creating records based on equivalent pairs rather concepts in cases where synonyms exist, recording non-term units and multiple forms of a unit, and using translated documents as sources. The overarching hypothesis and its associated concrete strategies were evaluated first against a survey of current practices in terminology management within TEnTs and later through a second survey that tested user acceptance of the strategies. The result is a set of guidelines that describe best practices relating to design, content selection and information recording within integrated termbases that will be used for translation purposes. These guidelines will serve as a point of reference for new users of TEnTs, as an academic resource for translation technology educators, as a map of challenges in terminology management within TEnTs that translation software developers seek to resolve and, finally, as a springboard for further research on the optimization of integrated termbases for translation. Résumé Les environnements de traduction (ETs) se sont popularisés au début des années 1990 en réponse à l’augmentation de la demande pour les traductions et à la progressive diminution de traducteurs sur le marché du travail. Les ETs utilisent des collections de traductions antérieures (mémoires de traduction) et de terminologie (bases de terminologie intégrées) pour identifier des passages répétitifs dans les nouveaux textes source et proposer des options de traduction afin d’éviter la retraduction de textes. Quoique la reconnaissance de l’importance du rôle de la terminologie en traduction et gestion de la documentation soit à la hausse, il y a un manque évident de recherche sur les meilleures pratiques de création et d’utilisation des bases de terminologie intégrées. Ce projet de recherche se veut un premier pas pour combler ce manque en proposant une série de stratégies définies par l’utilisateur qui visent à optimiser la conception et l’utilisation des bases de terminologie intégrées. À partir d’études sur les outils d’aide à la traduction et à la gestion de la terminologie, et de nos expériences personnelles, nous avons conçu une hypothèse d’ensemble qui soutient que l’on devrait adapter les principes terminologiques et terminographiques traditionnels aux caractéristiques uniques des bases de terminologie intégrées : la détection automatique de termes et l’insertion conviviale des équivalents dans le texte cible. Les modifications aux principes traditionnels comprennent l’utilisation d’un moindre nombre de champs dans la fiche terminologique, l’implantation de la structure de fiche proposée dans TBX-Basic, la classification des fiches par projet ou client, la création de fiches par paires d’équivalents et non par concept en cas de synonymie, la collection d’unités autres que les termes et de formes d’unités autres que la forme de base, ainsi que l’utilisation de textes traduits comme sources d’équivalents. L’hypothèse d’ensemble et les stratégies pour l’exécuter ont été évaluées d’abord en sondant les pratiques actuelles de gestion de la terminologie avec les ETs et ensuite à l’aide d’un deuxième sondage qui demandait aux participants de juger l’utilité de chaque stratégie. Le résultat final est une série de conseils qui décrivent les meilleures pratiques de conception, sélection de contenu et saisie d’information dans des bases de terminologie intégrées destinées à être utilisées à des fins de traduction. Ces conseils serviront comme référence aux nouveaux utilisateurs d’ETs, ressource aux éducateurs des technologies de la traduction, indicateur des défis de la gestion terminologique au sein des ETs que les développeurs d’outils d’aide à la traduction pourraient se proposer de résoudre, et, enfin, tremplin pour des recherches futures sur l’optimisation des bases de terminologie intégrées destinées à la traduction. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I want to thank my thesis directors, Lynne Bowker and Elizabeth Marshman, for their guidance and support throughout this project. They have been an invaluable point of reference, both academically and personally. I have deeply appreciated their company along the sinuous path of writing a doctoral thesis. In spite of their demanding academic schedules and their own personal lives, they have always been there– with a constant smile and words of encouragement – to act as expert advisors, testers, sounding boards, editors, life counsellors, and, ultimately, friends. I gratefully acknowledge the funding sources that alleviated the financial burden of embarking on a Ph.D. program. I was honoured to receive a University of Ottawa Bourse de la francophonie for the first four years of my program, as well as ATIO’s Excellence scholarship in my first year. This research is based in part on two on-line surveys that were distributed in 2009 and 2011. A total of 327 members of the translation community participated in the surveys. Without this vibrant response from my fellow translators, terminologists, project managers and CAT-tool specialists, this thesis would not have been possible. Apart from all my colleagues and acquaintances who were kind enough to help me distribute these surveys, two industry experts broadcasted the existence of the surveys and had a significant impact on participation: Jost Zetzsche reported on each of the surveys in his biweekly translation technology newsletter, The Tool Kit, and Barbara Inge Karsch joined him for the second survey on her on- line blog, BIK Terminology. I hope to be able to repay the community’s generosity with the contribution this research brings to our field. Special thanks must go also to the colleagues who participated in each survey’s pilot testing and provided comments on the formulation of questions, skip logic and the overall flow of each survey. Their feedback helped to improve the surveys and contributed to their success. The Translation Bureau kindly shared with me and my thesis directors two unpublished research studies undertaken by Guy Champagne in 2004: Portrait of Terminology in Canada and The Economic Value of Terminology: An Exploratory Study. The findings in both studies enriched this project’s literature review. The University of Ottawa not only provided me with the academic resources to further my education but also introduced me to the friends who supported me (in all the senses of the verb) during these past years. Our coffees, suppers, trips, peeps’ nights, board games, house moves, life celebrations and, especially, our laughs infused these years with fun and made them so much more enjoyable. I cannot name all of them, but I would especially like to recognize Kim, Julian and María Sierra, who walked by my side from the first steps of this thesis. The passionate discussions on terminology with Kim managed to revive my interest in the project even through the driest of the sections and, after her inspiring conversations and delicious meals, I was always ready to give it another push. Julian was always there to give me a nice kick in the butt when it was needed and, especially, she kept me sane through this process by reminding me that life must be also lived (free of guilt!), not only worked and researched. María Sierra is a soul mate who shared with me not only the experience of being a graduate student but also of moving abroad and building a new life while staying true to oneself. I am also deeply grateful to my parents and sister, for engraving in me hard work ethics and the value of knowledge, for always being there – even from a distance – and, most importantly, for teaching me never to quit. Their strength, and the family stubbornness, brought me here. My Canadian family was also always a source of encouragement. I appreciate their passion for life and their dedication to each other. Thanks to – and forced by – proximity, matante Charlotte played a special role: her suppers and regular progress enquiries kept the research engine going. Last but not least, I want to thank the person that was there every day and every night, who shared laughs, tears, glasses of wine, and late nights on the computer; the person who sacrificed countless evenings and weekends: my caring, loving, wittingly annoying and delightful husband, Stéphane.

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