Use and creation of glossaries

Use and creation of glossaries
Use and creation of glossaries

 

MSurreau Tuesday, 08/01/2017

Existing material

Existing material

Existing dictionaries, general or specific glossaries, shared databases, Internet sites, etc. can obviously be useful for the translation teams. However, one should always wonder if the selected material is reliable and contains enough context to make sure the translation will fit the subject as well as the client requirements. Moreover, some terms might not be found in the existing resources, whether because, as mentioned earlier, they are brand new terms on the market or because they are internal terminology to the requestor. In some cases, it will therefore be necessary to create glossaries or at least to do maintenance tasks on existing materials.

MSurreau Tuesday, 08/01/2017

References from the clients

References from the clients

Clients will sometimes provide the translation teams with their own glossaries. These might have been developed by experts on the client side or could be the result of an order to external translators or specialists. In the latter case, it is quite important to know if the client has approved the glossaries. Indeed, glossary translation by a professional team does not guarantee the perfect match to the client needs.

Knowing when the entries were translated might also be interesting. As a matter of fact, terminology evolves and with time some terms might need to be updated or added to an existing glossary. Terminology management is not only about creating new glossaries but also about updating existing material.

MSurreau Tuesday, 08/01/2017

New glossaries created by Translation teams

New glossaries created by Translation teams

When creating a brand new glossary for a specific client order or as a personal decision, translators should make sure to use the right reference material. Glossary creation should not be limited to simply listing source terms and trying to guess what could be the best translation in the target language. On the contrary, it is essential to know the context for each term, to fully understand the meaning without any ambiguity and to search for the exact corresponding translation.

In some cases, the client will already provide the list of English terms (with or without context) to the translators. In others, the request will simply be "to create a glossary". In both cases, the material that can be used will be, among others, various kinds of dictionaries; explanatory glossaries for finding definition of the source and/or target terms; bilingual material such as translated texts about the specific subject; documents that can help understanding and translating some terms; and so on. Remaining cautious about the validity of the reference material is of course essential as part of it might be outdated or not valid at all.

As always, the best option will be to make sure the client will revise and approve the final glossary.

MSurreau Tuesday, 08/01/2017