Terminology localization guidelines for the national scenario

Abstract

This paper presents a set of principles and practical guidelines for terminology work in the national scenario to ensure a harmonized approach in term localization. These linguistic principles and guidelines are elaborated by the Terminology Commission in Latvia in the domain of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). We also present a novel approach in a corpus-based selection and an evaluation of the most frequently used terms. Analysis of the terms proves that, in general, in the normative terminology work in Latvia localized terms are coined according to these guidelines. We further evaluate how terms included in the database of official terminology are adopted in the general use such as newspaper articles, blogs, forums, websites etc. Our evaluation shows that in a non-normative context the official terminology faces a strong competition from other variations of localized terms. Conclusions and recommendations from lexical analysis of localized terms are provided. We hope that presented guidelines and approach in evaluation will be useful to terminology institutions, regulative authorities and researchers in different countries that are involved in the national terminology work.