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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Veronika Moulisová Using Electronic Tools in Translation into English Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová 2009 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová for her patience, support and guidance in the process of writing this thesis. I would also like to thank my boyfriend, friends and family for their support and encouragement. Table of Contents Introduction 5 1. Terminology 7 1.1. Terminological Theory 8 1.2. Term 9 1.2.1. Defining a Term 9 1.2.1.1. Traditional Definitions 10 1.2.1.2. Pragmatic Definitions 12 1.3. Terminography 14 1.4. Basics of Terminology Work 15 1.5. Terminological Databanks 16 1.6. Summary 18 2. Electronic Tools 18 2.1. Search Engines 18 2.1.1. Indexing 19 2.1.2. Query Processing 20 2.1.2.1. Boolean Search 20 2.1.2.2. Ranked Retrieval 22 2.1.2.3. Probabilistic Retrieval 23 2.1.3. Machine Translation Systems 23 2.2. Electronic Dictionaries 24 2.2.1. Online Dictionaries 27 2.2.2. CD-ROM Dictionaries 28 2.3. Encyclopaedias 29 2.4. Specialized Websites 31 2.5. Summary 31 3. Glossary 31 3.1. Methodology of Bi-Lingual Glossary Compilation 33 3.2. Summary 35 4. Creation of a Personal Glossary 35 4.1. Subject Field 36 4.1.1. Translation in Czech Motorsport 36 4.2. Using Electronic Tools for Term Translation 36 4.3. Data Storing 40 4.3.1. Ways to Improve the Process of Translation 40 4.4. Summary 41 Conclusion 42 Bibliography 43 Appendix 53 Introduction The topic of this bachelor thesis, Using Electronic Tools in Translation into English, reflects the recent trend among the translators of technical texts. With the advent of information technology new translation tools were established. Due to the never-ending process of technological development, new terminologies arise every day. The purpose of this paper is to create a bilingual glossary of motorsport terminology using electronic tools. The electronic tools described in this paper are Web-based tools that are used directly during the process of translation. They include search engines, electronic dictionaries, machine translation systems, online encyclopaedias and specialized websites. Although many other electronic tools exist, such as corpora, CAT tools, word processors etc., they are not subject of this study. The opening chapter of the thesis provides a theoretical overview of terminology. Definitions and concepts of various scholars are offered. Terminology and terminography are distinguished and also differences between terminology and lexicology, and terminography and lexicography are explained. Furthermore, the basic terminographic methodology for the production of a terminological product is provided. Chapter two gives a description of the individual electronic tools. A brief history of each of the tools is given and various functions of the tools are described. The glossary compilation is described in the last two chapters. Chapter three provides a theoretical overview of the glossary compilation, while chapter four includes practical description of the personal glossary creation. In this 5 chapter, the motivation for the choice of the subject field and the usage of the electronic tools in practice are described. The actual glossary is presented within the appendix. The texts used to retrieve the Czech terms are press releases and a rally guide of Barum Rally Zlín 2008, all are included in the Primary Sources (pp 43-7). 6 1. Terminology Terminology is an intersectional and multidisciplinary science and co-operates with a significant number of linguistic sub-disciplines. There are many approaches to the theory and practice but according to Cabré, all of them share a series of basic assumptions. They can be identified on basis of following points of view: a. For linguists, terminology is a part of the lexicon defined by subject matter and pragmatic usage. b. For subject specialists, terminology is the formal reflection of the conceptual organization of a special subject and a necessary medium of expression and professional communication. c. For end-users (either direct or intermediary) terminology is a set of useful, practical communication units which are assessed according to criteria of economy, precision and suitability. d. For language planners, terminology is an area of a language requiring intervention in order to reaffirm its usefulness and survival and to ensure its continuity as a means of expression through modernization (Cabré 11). With respect to these points of view, two major user groups of terminology can be identified – “users of terminology for direct communication … and terminologists who write glossaries … or mediate in some other way” (Cabré 11). Both user groups or rather approaches to terminology apply for the purpose of this thesis. The former group includes translators, technical writers and interpreters who need glossaries and specialized dictionaries, the latter includes terminologists, terminographers and information scientists who compile, describe, process and create terms (Cabré 12). Translators become 7 terminologists at certain points of the process of translation, as they need to create their own glossaries and term banks. Terminology differs from general language significantly. Osimo summarizes the differences in his “Translation Course”: 1) formation of lexicon – terms have artificial origins and their purpose is to describe objects 2) kind of society – terminology guarantees specifity of information 3) relation to the object – a two-way matching of term and object 4) time factor – terminology is synchronic 5) space factor – terms do not change within any homogeneous linguistic area 6) sector factor – it happens that the same terms exist in different disciplines, referring to completely different objects 7) culture factor – not an issue in terminology 8) connotation factor – terms have only denotative value, connotation is abolished (Osimo). 1.1. Terminological Theory Terminology is a subject of the 20th and 21st centuries interest. There was certain knowledge of terms in the 18th and 19th centuries but according to Cabré, “the scholars were not concerned with the nature of concepts nor the foundations for creating new terms” (Cabré 7). In the 1930s three classical schools of terminology – the Austrian, the Soviet and the Czech schools – were established. Each of the schools had a different approach to terminology which were not mutually exclusive. The approach which mostly applies to translators 8 is the one that “considers terminology to be an interdisciplinary but autonomous subject at the service of scientific and technical disciplines” (Cabré 7). 1.2. Term 1.2.1. Defining a Term There are various ways of defining a term. According to Machová, a term is a basic unit of a scientific and / or technical text. It is a designation of a strictly allotted conception which is repeatedly used in technical texts. Other linguists define a term as a lexical unit with a clearly defined conceptional meaning which is repeatedly used in technical texts, i.e. in interpersonal communication of a certain social group (Machová 138-9). Other linguists go deeper in defining a term. Osimo gives seven factors which distinguish terms from polysemic words. These factors are: 1) formation of lexicon – terms are decided to become terms in an artificial way, 2) kind of society – terms are used in written culture and education, 3) relation to the object – ideally, “a term is matched by one and only one object, and one object is matched by one and only one term”, 4) time – time factor is not considered, although terminology is also a subject of change, 5) space – terms do not change within homogeneous linguistic area, 6) sector – same terms can exist in different disciplines and refer to different objects and 7) connotations – terms have only single interpretation. Scholars in the Scientific document offer ways of creating new terms. They should be either borrowed from ordinary language or from a living foreign language, or a name of the discoverer or inventor should be adopted. The scholars even suggest to pick a word arbitrarily or create a new word from parts 9 of a classical language. The proposed criteria which should be followed when creating (and so defining a term) are clarity, uniqueness of meaning, uniformity, economy, continuity in time, coherence, brevity, beauty and expressiveness (Scientific 212-13). Terms are created and established by terminologists, experts in the field, who give the terms their meaning and a place within a set of related terms. The terms are then gathered either in terminological data banks or in dictionaries. 1.2.1.1. Traditional Definitions Traditional terminologists define term as either a label or linguistic symbol for a concept, or an equivalent of combination of de Saussure’s significant and signifier (Pearson 15). Pearson provides four sources of these definitions. The first one, Guy Rondeau, defines a term as a “linguistic sign in the Saussurian sense; it has a signifiant and a signifié” (Pearson 12). According to him, the terminologist must start with a concept and then decide the label. Rondeau also claims that there is a difference between words and terms but does not offer any such distinctions (Pearson 12). Juan Sager asserts that “the lexicon of a special language tends to provide as many lexical units as there are concepts conventionally established in the subspace” (Pearson 13). He also adds that the lexicon of a special language includes items with special reference (terms) and general reference (words). According to Sager, the words are not specific to any field and their referential properties are generalized. However, he does not give any examples. He is using words as a category of all lexical terms which do not fit into his definition of terms (Pearson 13-14).

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