Multilingual Glossary Research Articles

CHALLENGES AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN TRANSLATING LEGAL AND TECHNICAL TEXTS IN THE FOOD PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

Translating scientific and technical literature in the field of engineering and technology for the food industry is both challenging and intriguing, much like any translation work in scientific and technical domains. This area has distinct characteristics that set it apart. Practical experience with food product features and their verbal representation through taster's perception of a property involves individual professional experience and knowledge of analysis methodology, alongside unique complex compromise. This compromise stems from terms used in sensory analysis suggests that each combination of mental attitudes shaped by characteristics of the tasters, such as theanatomical structure and condition of each individual's oral cavity. Consequently, a single term may vary in its connotation each time it is used, reflecting different understandings. The practical outcomes of translation work focusing on profile structure analysis are documented in a multilingual glossary of pertinent terms. Examples of translation activities are provided, illustrating the application of professional terms from the meat industry, covering both products and specialized technological equipment. To ensure effective information retrieval from scientific and technical sources in countries with established beet-sugar production, a glossary of terms related to beet-sugar production was compiled. This glossary encompasses 444 terminological phonemes in Ukrainian, with corresponding terms in English, German, French, and three Slavic languages. The glossary includes fundamental terminology and groups terminological phonemes by stages in the beet-sugar production process, with each group covering related processes, equipment, materials, and products. Additionally, the article discusses the organizational and practical aspects of translating regulatory texts as part of harmonizing with European Union standards (EN), specifically those governing safety and hygiene rules for food industry equipment. This section underscores the significance of precise translation to ensure compliance with these standards and maintain industry safety.

Redefining shelter: humanitarian sheltering.

Shelter is one of the most 'intractable problems' in humanitarian aid and yet there is little clarity on an overarching definition. Terminology for shelter and housing is often conflated, and the most prominent definition does not fully reflect recent progress in the Shelter and Settlements Sector. This paper explores the varying terminology utilised in definitions of shelter within humanitarian aid since 1990, reflecting on the concepts of 'shelter' and 'housing', alongside surrounding perceptions of 'house' versus 'home', and related measures of adequacy. The current, most prolific definition is also deconstructed, demonstrating ambiguity in some of terminology such as 'dignity' and 'privacy', and revealing that interpretation of this definition depends on the reader's knowledge. Lastly, a new definition of 'sheltering' is proposed, encompassing five key reflections: the concept of process over object; the inclusion of communities and individuals; the commonality of long-term sheltering; the wider effects of shelter; and the impacts on host communities and environment.

Multilingual parallel corpus: An institutional resource for terminology development at the University of South Africa (Unisa)

The indigenous African languages of South Africa are not fully developed to provide for specialised terminology and were considered unsuitable for use as languages of tuition and research. This was used as a scapegoat for not utilising these languages in the South African education system. Since 1994, however, terminology development has been one of the key priorities of democratic South Africa. The institutions of Higher Learning have been mandated to develop and intellectualise the indigenous languages for teaching, learning and research. In line with this, this article aims to address the problem of unavailability of scientific or technical terms by illustrating how a multilingual corpus ––from which multilingual glossaries as resources for tuition and research–– can be compiled. Adopting a qualitative descriptive approach, suitable source texts in English and their translations in various African indigenous languages, namely, IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, IsiNdebele, SiSwati, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga were selected from the University study material for inclusion in the multilingual parallel corpus. ParaConc, a software that is suitable to query parallel texts, was used to align and extract terms from the corpus. The study demonstrates how parallel texts can be useful in developing scientific and technical terms. The University of South Africa can become the centre of corpus compilation for the intellectualisation of the official indigenous South African languages, since it is the only university in the country that caters for all these languages.

Lost in Translation: A Multilingual Survey of Interlinguistic Variations in Terms Used in Pharmacovigilance.

Although English is the universal language of science, it is nevertheless the first language of only about 6% of the world's population, and 75% of people do not speak English at all. It is therefore important that accurate translations of scientific information should be available, not only for professionals but also for the general public. This applies to pharmacovigilance as much as to any other discipline. The aim of this study was to determine how pharmacovigilance terms are translated into other languages, in order to judge the extent to which differences between languages might impair communication in pharmacovigilance. I surveyed the translation of 26 pharmacovigilance terms into 26 languages via a panel of 83 pharmacovigilance experts. Three types of terms emerged: Type 1-those that are similar in form across all, or almost all, of the languages surveyed (e.g. 'signal' and 'risk'); Type 2-terms that are similar in form across some languages but not all (e.g. 'pharmacovigilance' and 'surveillance'); Type 3-terms for which there are major differences across languages (e.g. 'hazard'). Misconceptions in the communication of pharmacovigilance information may arise through difficulties in translation. Metaphorical expressions are best avoided in serious scientific publications, in order to reduce the difficulties of translation. A multilingual glossary of terms and definitions, which could be used to program a dedicated machine translator, would be of value. Published guidelines offer guidance to methods of translation, but they are complex and time-consuming and are mostly used in translating instruments for eliciting patient-reported outcomes.

“For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought”. Manuscript terminology across languages and scientific disciplines

The complex terminology used in the description of medieval books in manuscript catalogues and other scientific contributions offers a wide range of possible ambiguities and losses across languages and disciplines, losses that become evident most notably on their crossing paths in the Internet. . Sadly enough, true long-term collaboration across countries and disciplines is more the exception than the rule, which is also why the question of terminology and its translation is frequently neglected. The authors of the present contribution, an Italian codicologist and a German art historian – both of whom have provided lexicographical work tools which have seen several translations) – propose an overview of the work tools currently available (theoretical reflections, dictionaries, multilingual glossaries), followed by a small but significant selection of examples of gaps, ambiguities and other problems regarding the building of a shared multilingual language in manuscript studies.

A translanguage pedagogy to promote Biotechnology concept engagement and academic literacy in a linguistically-diverse university context

Following the call for transformation, higher education institutions in South Africa were required to promote and implement indigenous languages in teaching and learning. This has led to various strategies and resources being explored and implemented, multilingual glossaries among them. In science, where English remains the global means of communication, our experience has been that such interventions are often underutilized. A more inclusive, holistic pedagogy is required to adequately prepare students, especially non-English speakers, for international scientific engagement. One such pedagogy is presently proposed and tested. Its purpose is to harness the dominant language - that which is most active in the learners’ minds - to first promote epistemological access to difficult scientific concepts, and after concept acquisition, develop the required English, scientific, and academic literacy. Biotechnology undergraduate students at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) - many of whom are international - reported enhancing their learning experience and recognised the significance of their dominant language in deep learning as a result of this translanguage pedagogy. Such a pedagogy demonstrates that multilingualism, far from being viewed as an impediment to teaching and learning, should be seen as a rich resource that needs to be harnessed to facilitate epistemic access, cognitive development, transformation, social cohesion, and respect for all languages.

Anglicisms in the Field of IT (GitHub and 3D Slicer): Multilingual Evidence from European Languages (French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish)

This paper provides evidence of the noticeable adoption of Anglicisms in the professional field of IT by different European languages (French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish). Two different domains, GitHub and 3D Slicer, have been examined, and a multilingual glossary has been created with the contributions of European and African engineers and technicians cooperating in the European project MACbioIDi. This multilingual glossary is a useful tool for engineers, as it provides equivalent terminology in these five languages. The use of the studied Anglicisms is documented with interviews to different engineers to verify the oral uses, and the written uses are recorded with examples in context taken from different Internet websites and forums. This is an interdisciplinary research that involves people from different areas of knowledge (linguists, engineers and technicians), and from different continents (Africa, America and Europe).

Multilingual glossaries: a solution for epistemological access in higher education

Summary writing is an important skill In this paper, it is argued that although the preferred language of teaching, learning and assessment at the former Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) is English (NMMU Language Policy, 2009), students’ primary languages can be mobilised to facilitate learning. Internal research at NMMU (2008) indicated that black and coloured students’ pass rates were low. To improve this situation, language support in the form of multilingual glossaries (in English, Afrikaans & isiXhosa) was provided. Multilingual glossaries were developed by communities of practice inside and outside the university. These glossaries have contributed towards changing the monolingual academic environment at NMMU to a multilingual one, and improved Black and Coloured students’ pass rates although they are still lower than their White and Indian counterparts (Sheppard, 2013/14). This study led to the conclusion that, understanding disciplinary concepts through the primary language could improve students’ academic performance and pass rates. A group of 28 Tourism Management students in a Communication tutorial participated in a pilot study conducted by the Centre for Teaching, Learning & Media to develop and measure the effectiveness of these multilingual glossaries. The data, in the form of qualitative and quantitative students’ feedback and pre- and post-test scores, will be presented. Keywords: linguistic diversity; multilingual glossaries; multilingualism; language development; academic achievement

Multilingualism and (bi)literacy development for epistemological access: Exploring students experience in the use of multilingual glossaries at a South African university

This paper reports on the findings of a research project that investigated first-year students' experiences in using multilingual glossaries. They were enrolled in an electrical engineering course at a higher education institution in the Western Cape, South Africa. Data were collected by means of questionnaires and focus group interviews with isiXhosa-speaking students to gain an insight into how the glossaries facilitated or constrained their epistemological access to concepts in the field of engineering. Drawing on the concepts of epistemological access, multilingualism, and biliteracy to establish a framework, we argue that the use of multilingual resources (e.g., glossaries) does not necessarily guarantee students' epistemological access to knowledge if their biliteracy skills (reading and writing) are underdeveloped in one of the targeted resource languages. This paper concludes that multilingualism is a necessary transformative approach, but that students' (bi)literacy development in African languages as targeted languages for transformation should also be prioritised and strengthened to facilitate better learning all round.

Which Terminology for Multilingual Communication in Language Pedagogy?

The actual multilingual society, deriving from an augmented personal and professional mobility, and from the migratory growing phenomena of the last decades, requires to its citizens a solid linguistic communicative expertise. Plurilingualism has become an unavoidable need, more than an additional skill. Experts in Language Pedagogy from different linguistic backgrounds are called to develop the theoretical principles for an effective multilingual didactics and teachers, from their side, are called to train themselves on these principles and to apply them in the language classroom. An effective multilingual didactics requires high qualitative standards in Language Pedagogy. Being this latter a relatively recent science (Cambiaghi, 2008), and an interdisciplinary one, it has not yet developed a standard shared terminology. This has led to confusion and disagreement among scholars about the meaning to be attributed to meta-didactic terms, and among practioners that have to apply these concepts.This study aims at filling this requirement of terminological clarity and transparency, developing an original multilingual glossary (Italian, French and German) of Language Pedagogy terminology, thus favouring inter-comprehension and interaction among experts through terminological standardization. Terminology is an essential component of each discipline, since it shapes its contents and outilines its evolution. Then an effort has to be done to develop a common metalanguage of Language Pedagogy. Even if it exists some resources, they are generally monolingual and still too related to their cultural area of origins. The glossary described in the present study constitutes a shared digital platform for experts and students, easily accessible and constantly updated. The 130 terms and expressions included at the moment, are alphabetically disposed and provided with translations, definitions, hyperlinks and examples. Lemmas derive from the comparison of three relevant European documents for Language Pedagogy and have been selected only when appearing in at least two out of three of them.

Prototype Development of Mobile App for Trilingual Islamic Banking and Finance Glossary of Terms via iOS and Android Based Devices

<span>The existing use of mobile technology nowadays can be integrated with various forms of learning materials such as electronic books and digital references in a form of dictionary or encyclopaedia. The expansion of Islamic banking practices through various local financial institutions which received vast attention nowadays by educationists and learners for instance, leads to the need in understanding the terminologies used in the industry. In view of this scenario, the paper shed some light on using a workable model for developing a purposeful mobile Islamic banking terminology glossary application in a more convenient way via mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad or any Android-based smart gadgets. The mobile terminology glossary app was designed by using a developmental research design using via rapid prototype instructional design model. The process begun with a need analysis conducted among 225 respondents in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) It further explored the prototype development and its implementations for mobile accessibility by providing multilingual glossary of Islamic banking and finance terminologies (Malay-Arabic-English). This paper reports the findings design and development prototype based on the need analysis stage, inclusive of mapping users’ device type, Internet accessibility, reasons for owning mobile devices, delivery and user interface, and preferred features to be embedded in the mobile app.</span>

TaxaGloss - A Glossary and Translation Tool for Biodiversity Studies.

BackgroundCorrectly identifying organisms is key to most biological research, and is especially critical in areas of biodiversity and conservation. Yet it remains one of the greatest challenges when studying all but the few well-established model systems. The challenge is in part due to the fact that most species have yet to be described, vanishing taxonomic expertise and the relative inaccessibility of taxonomic information. Furthermore, identification keys and other taxonomic resources are based on complex, taxon-specific vocabularies used to describe important morphological characters. Using these resources is made difficult by the fact that taxonomic documentation of the world's biodiversity is an international endeavour, and keys and field guides are not always available in the practitioner's native language.New informationTo address this challenge, we have developed a publicly available on-line illustrated multilingual glossary and translation tool for technical taxonomic terms using the Symbiota Software Project biodiversity platform. Illustrations, photographs and translations have been sourced from the global community of taxonomists working with marine invertebrates and seaweeds. These can be used as single-language illustrated glossaries or to make customized translation tables. The glossary has been launched with terms and illustrations of seaweeds, tunicates, sponges, hydrozoans, sea anemones, and nemerteans, and already includes translations into seven languages for some groups. Additional translations and development of terms for more taxa are underway, but the ultimate utility of this tool depends on active participation of the international taxonomic community.

Dynamics of terminology translation. The approach of Functional Pragmatics to multilingual terminology

The representation and communication of specialised knowledge both from intra- and inter-lingual perspectives are substantially affected by the complex nature of knowledge units. These result from the interrelation of referential, conceptual, and linguistic knowledge and are characterised by a constant tension between contrasting but complementary forces, namely a need for stability and precision and the concurrent drift towards variation. These inherent features of specialised knowledge units are considered in the framework of translation activity, with special attention paid to the contribution given by domain specialists to their formation into target languages. An analysis of the multilingual Glossary for Functional Pragmatics and, in particular, of the ongoing work on its Italian section contributes to highlighting the peculiarity of the figure of the domain specialist as (self-)translator. The Glossary offers a direct view of the cognitive and linguistic processes and outcomes of domain specialists’ translation and ‘optimisation’ activity on specialised knowledge units. Indeed it exemplifies how terminological variation can be seen not only as a source of possible irregularity but also as a valuable contribution to knowledge domainsin intra- and inter-lingual perspectives. Variation therefore deserves further consideration in Terminology and Translation studies, especially when originates from authors’ deliberate cognitive distinctions within domain knowledge.

Urban Drainage: A Multilingual Glossary

Urban Drainage: A Multilingual Glossary has been written by research engineers and scientists with substantial experience in the urban drainage field. It provides definitive descriptions of urban drainage terms in English, French, Japanese and German, giving guidance on their appropriate usage and context. Containing well over 850 commonly-used terms in urban drainage, all expressed in a user-friendly manner, the book serves as a valuable resource for both practitioner and academic. Topics covered include: •urban hydrology/hydraulics •sewerage•surface water runoff•pollution (groundwater and surface)•receiving waters•ecology•ecotoxicology•best management practices•urban water resource management Urban Drainage: A Multilingual Glossary represents an initiative of the joint IWA/IAHR Committee on Urban Drainage and has arisen out of the long-standing terminological and tautological difficulties of many terms in common usage within international urban drainage practice.

A Multilingual Trilogy: Developing Three Multi-language Lexicographic Datasets

This paper offers a brief overview of three multilingual developments by K Dictionaries and highlights the main editorial procedures involved and technical tools applied. .The first regards an English multilingual dictionary bringing together forty-three language versions of Password semi-bilingual dictionary. The second stems from the first, semiautomatically generating multilingual glossaries for any one of those languages to all others via detailed bilingual L2-English indexes. The third is part of the Global series and consists of monolingual datasets for over twenty languages that serve for creating various bilingual and multilingual versions and multilayered combinations. Further steps are anticipated in order to interlink and unify the resources and processes, such as by associating translations in one lexicographic set to corresponding entries in others, and thereby to more translations in other languages, and to converting the data from XML to RDF format for interoperability with Linked Data and Semantic Web technologies.

Multilingual Specialist Glossaries in a Framework for Intangible Cultural Heritage

This article describes a methodology (and a tool) to associate, in an automatic or semi-automatic way, multilingual specialist glossaries to tags stored in the AESS archive of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The main objective of this research, developed within projects performed with Italian Lombardy Region, is to link AESS tags with corresponding terms in MultiWordNet (MWN), AgroVoc or DBPedia, to help cataloguers to structure terms appropriately and to have proper translations and relevant descriptions to insert them in AESS archive.

Osservazioni su alcune incertezze e incongruenze nella terminologia dendrometrica

Abstract: In the italian forestry literature, the adjective “cormometric” combined with the noun volume or its equivalent, is used with three different meanings which are respectively linked to the stem, to the trunk or large timber. To find the origins and also the reasons for these different meanings of the term, we need to go back in history. The first definition is by Alfonso Di Berenger first director of the Vallombrosa Forest, the first seat of higher Forestry education in Italy between 1869 and 1951. He defined cormometric the volume of the “legname sociale” (industrial timber), or the trunk. Follows the definition of Vittorio Perona that, in the wake of the German concept of Derbholz, considers cormometric volume as including also portions of branches above seven centimeters. Giuseppe Di Tella, Professor of forest mensurations and forest management in Florence between 1916 and 1937 is the author of a large general volume table for fir where the cormometric volume is defined as the “stem including the top”, but also, following the doctrine, as a measure expressing the volume of the part of the stem that can provide wood for building or industry. Subsequently, with the definitions of the Professors Generoso Patrone and Guglielmo Giordano confirming the doctrinal meaning of Di Tella, the sense of the term remains unchanged. In 1986 Hellrigl called cormometric mass, the aboveground woody tree mass limited to trunk and limbs to be determined; however, this definition did not find any application. Alternative definitions by Roberto Del Favero and Orazio La Marca consider cormometric volume including top and cormometric volume excluding top. In the forest literature, instead, there were more changes in 2007, when the Forestry Research Portal published a notation regarding cubing of forest stands, stating “in the cubing of forest stands, woody volume estimated for conifers is, in general, cormometric (i.e., volume of the stem including bark)” which gave rise to the present note. Alongside, and again in connection with the meaning of the term cormometric, certain combinations of terminology reported in two multilingual glossaries of IUFRO are highlighted.

The Compilation of Multilingual Concept Literacy Glossaries at the University of Cape Town: A Lexicographical Function Theoretical Approach

This article proposes a lexicographical approach to the compilation of multilingual concept literacy glossaries which may play a very important role in supporting students at institutions of higher education. In order to support concept literacy, especially for students for whom English is not the native language, a number of universities in South Africa are compiling multilingual glossaries through which the use of languages other than English may be employed as auxiliary media. Terminologies in languages other than English are developed by translating English terms or coining new terms in these languages to exploit the native language competence of most students. The glossary project at the University of Cape Town (UCT) which was conceived under the auspices of the Multilingualism Education Project (MEP) is discussed. It is shown that the UCT glossaries are compiled using methods consistent with those employed in modern lexicography or proffered in lexicographical theory. The lexicographical function theory is specifically used to account for the glossaries and their production. It is suggested that modern lexicography can provide useful guidance for the production of glossaries, given that the earliest glossaries constitute the humble beginnings of lexicography.

Natural science and technology terminology in the sesotho sa leboa monolingual dictionary

The main purpose of this article is to make a comparative analysis of the structural and the lexical differences between coinage and transliteration, as methods for the acquisition of foreign natural science and technology lexical items, which are meant for inclusion in the Sesotho sa Leboa comprehensive monolingual dictionary, Pukuntšutlhaloši ya Sesotho sa Leboa. With the exception of the multilingual glossaries ('dictionaries' as they are called), which are compiled by the National Language Service of the Department of Arts and Culture, the Sesotho sa Leboa National Lexicography Unit does not at present have any monolingual dictionary specializing in specific subjects like natural science and technology. As a start, the Lexicography Unit decided to include this specialized terminology in the second edition of its comprehensive monolingual dictionary. The main purpose for lemmatizing the natural science and technology terminology is to give these lexical items comprehensive definitions in Sesotho sa Leboa, instead of 'a one word translation definition' as is the case in the bilingual and multilingual dictionaries. Keywords: transliteration, coinage, coined lexical item, loan word, adoptive, foreign word, lexicography, sothoized word, indigenous word, natural science, technology, compound word, ambiguity

‘It's easy to learn when you using your home language but with English you need to start learning language before you get to the concept’: bilingual concept development in an English medium university in South Africa

This article describes a multilingual glossary project in the economics department at the University of Cape Town which gave multilingual students learning economics through the medium of English, opportunities to discuss new economic concepts in their home languages in order to broaden and enrich understanding of these new concepts. The findings from this project illustrate how important it is that students use a range of languages and discourses to negotiate meaning of unfamiliar terms. The article responds to Mesthrie's (2008) caution regarding the development of multilingual glossaries, dictionaries and textbooks at higher education level in South Africa. It argues that translation of terminology happens inevitably both inside and outside our university classrooms as multilingual university students, in peer learning groups, codeswitch from English to their primary languages in order to better understand new concepts and this could be used as an important resource for building academic registers in African languages.