Lemma-oriented dictionaries, concept-oriented terminology and translation memories

Market surveys have pointed out translators’ demand for integrated specialist dictionaries in translation memory tools which they could use in addition to their own compiled dictionaries or stored translated parts of text. For this purpose the German specialist dictionary publisher, Langenscheidt Fachverlag in Munich has developed a method and tools together with experts from the University Rennes 2 in France and well known Translation Memory Providers. The conversion-tools of dictionary entries ("lemma-oriented") in terminological entries ("concept-oriented") are based on lexicographical and terminological ISO standards: ISO 1951 for dictionaries and ISO 16642 for terminology. The method relies on the analysis of polysemic structures into a set of data categories that can be recombined into monosemic entries compatible with most of the terminology management engines on the market. The whole process is based on the TermBridge semantic repository (http://www.genetrix.org ) for terminology and machine readable dictionaries and on a XML model “LexTerm” which is a subset of Geneter (ISO 16642 Annex C). It illustrates the interest for linguistic applications to define data elements in semantic repositories so that they are reusable in various contexts. This operation is fully integrated in the editorial XML workflow and applies to a series of specialist dictionaries which are now available. 1. Specialist dictionaries for the actual professional translators The specialised translation volumes are steadily increasing (about 14% per year) especially in the technical, economical and juridical fields. In the same time, companies and institutions which are the main order-givers have to cut down costs and in many cases the budget for language communication undergoes a very strict control. As a consequence, a lot of easy and repetitive translation tasks are achieved by nonprofessionals or translation software and professional translators are given the most difficult texts to translate for which they have to charge at a reasonable rate in order to keep getting orders. In this context, they have to optimize their work-flow at a maximum and are looking for time-sparing tools and strategies. In the past decade, dictionary publishers who have been for years the main tool providers for professional translators have digitalized their dictionary data and published several generations of electronic dictionaries, regularly adding new features in order to provide updated bilingual specialist terms. On the other hand, terminology management and translation memory providers (TMS) have equipped the professional translators with most valuable translation management tools which enable them to compile their own dictionaries and to store their validated translated text-segments for reuse in future translations. These tools are regularly improved in new versions which offer users a better comfort. In order to meet the growing demand for an efficient global solution in matter of translation tools, TMS providers and bilingual specialist dictionary publishers have decided to propose a unique tool which will ensure translators the reuse of their stored data together with an easy and quick access to the specialist terminology they never had translated before and therefore need. This unique tool: translation memory with “à la carte” integrated specialist dictionaries will save time-consuming internet researches and browsing in print or electronic dictionaries. This ambitious project is a joint challenge for TMS providers and specialist dictionary publishers. They have the same target group but completely different approaches in data management and product marketing. For both of them it means cooperation with other partners and hence a profound need for standardisation in matter of data-modelling and presentation. 2. From lemma-oriented dictionaries to concept oriented terminological dictionaries The integration of bilingual specialist data in a translator’s workbench requires concept-oriented data. For a bilingual specialist dictionary publisher this requirement means an entirely new procedure as lemma-oriented XML-data are mainly used as a unique source for print and electronic dictionaries. Compared to the terminological specialist dictionary funds, the lexicographical bilingual specialist one is huge. In our case, more than a million of lemmaoriented data had to be converted to ensure that the main subject fields could be taken into account. The development of a method, concrete XML-models, encoding and finally a converter – described in 3 could not be carried out in house as lexicographers have very little experience with terminology. This is the reason why the publisher entrusted data-modelling experts from the University of Rennes 2 in France with this project. As TMS providers wish to licence data from different specialist dictionary publishers and specialist