oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021

Terminology work in support of multilingual communication - Part 1: Fundamentals of translation-oriented terminography

Travail terminologique appuyant la communication multilingue - Partie 1: Principes fondamentaux de la terminographie axée sur la traduction

Terminološko delo v podporo večjezičnemu komuniciranju - 1. del: Osnove prevodno usmerjene terminografije

Standards Content (sample)

FINAL
INTERNATIONAL ISO/FDIS
DRAFT
STANDARD 12616-1
ISO/TC 37/SC 2
Terminology work in support of
Secretariat: SCC
multilingual communication —
Voting begins on:
2021-05-19
Part 1:
Voting terminates on:
Fundamentals of translation-oriented
2021-07-14
terminography
Travail terminologique appuyant la communication multilingue —
Partie 1: Principes fondamentaux de la terminographie axée sur la
traduction
RECIPIENTS OF THIS DRAFT ARE INVITED TO
SUBMIT, WITH THEIR COMMENTS, NOTIFICATION
OF ANY RELEVANT PATENT RIGHTS OF WHICH
THEY ARE AWARE AND TO PROVIDE SUPPOR TING
DOCUMENTATION.
IN ADDITION TO THEIR EVALUATION AS
Reference number
BEING ACCEPTABLE FOR INDUSTRIAL, TECHNO-
ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)
LOGICAL, COMMERCIAL AND USER PURPOSES,
DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS MAY ON
OCCASION HAVE TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE
LIGHT OF THEIR POTENTIAL TO BECOME STAN-
DARDS TO WHICH REFERENCE MAY BE MADE IN
NATIONAL REGULATIONS. ISO 2021
---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2021

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may

be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting

on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address

below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2021 – All rights reserved
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ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)
Contents Page

Foreword ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................v

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................vi

1 Scope ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1

2 Normative references ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

3 Terms and definitions ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

4 Fundamentals of terminology management ........................................................................................................................... 6

4.1 Goals ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

4.2 Work environments ............................................................................................................................................................................ 6

4.3 Translation vs. terminology work .......................................................................................................................................... 8

4.4 Working methods ................................................................................................................................................................................. 8

4.4.1 Conceptual analysis ....................................................................................................................................................... 8

4.4.2 Systematic vs. ad hoc terminology work ..................................................................................................... 9

4.4.3 Prescriptive vs. descriptive terminology work ...................................................................................... 9

4.4.4 Text corpora ......................................................................................................................................................................10

5 Process steps and activities ....................................................................................................................................................................11

5.1 Setting goals ...........................................................................................................................................................................................11

5.2 Basic workflow.....................................................................................................................................................................................11

5.3 Setting up a terminology database .....................................................................................................................................11

5.4 Collecting terminological data and initial assessment ......................................................................................12

5.5 Researching .............................................................................................................................................................................................12

5.6 Processing and documenting terminological data ................................................................................................13

5.7 Using and exchanging terminological data ..................................................................................................................13

5.8 Maintenance ...........................................................................................................................................................................................13

6 Terminography ....................................................................................................................................................................................................14

6.1 Best practices for open data categories ..........................................................................................................................14

6.2 Term ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................14

6.3 Definition ..................................................................................................................................................................................................14

6.4 Concept description .........................................................................................................................................................................15

6.5 Context ........................................................................................................................................................................................................15

6.6 Note ................................................................................................................................................................................................................15

6.7 References and source identification ...............................................................................................................................15

6.8 Abbreviations for names of languages and countries ........................................................................................16

7 Text elements for the Term field .......................................................................................................................................................17

7.1 General ........................................................................................................................................................................................................17

7.2 Designations ...........................................................................................................................................................................................18

7.2.1 Terms ......................................................................................................................................................................................18

7.2.2 Proper names ...................................................................................................................................................................18

7.2.3 Symbols .................................................................................................................................................................................19

7.2.4 Name-like designations...........................................................................................................................................19

7.3 Other text elements ..........................................................................................................................................................................20

7.3.1 Phrases ..................................................................................................................................................................................20

7.3.2 Standard texts..................................................................................................................................................................20

8 Data management ............................................................................................................................................................................................20

8.1 Data categories for terminological data collections ............................................................................................20

8.2 Principles of modelling concept entries .........................................................................................................................21

8.2.1 Guidance on designing terminological data collections .............................................................21

8.2.2 Concept orientation ........................................................................................................................................... .........21

8.2.3 Term autonomy ..............................................................................................................................................................22

8.2.4 Data elementarity ........................................................................................................................................................22

8.2.5 Data granularity .............................................................................................................................................................22

8.2.6 Repeatability ....................................................................................................................................................................22

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ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)

8.3 Open and closed data categories ..........................................................................................................................................23

8.4 Mandatory and optional data categories .......................................................................................................................23

8.5 Exchange and interoperability of terminological data ......................................................................................24

9 Tools ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................24

10 Skills and competences ...............................................................................................................................................................................25

10.1 Terminology tasks and the required skills ...................................................................................................................25

10.2 Basic terminology skills ...............................................................................................................................................................25

10.3 Information technology skills and competences ....................................................................................................26

10.4 Skills and competences related to term extraction ..............................................................................................26

10.5 Language skills .....................................................................................................................................................................................27

10.6 Subject matter expertise ..............................................................................................................................................................27

10.7 Research competence.....................................................................................................................................................................27

10.8 Social and cultural competences ..........................................................................................................................................27

Annex A (informative) Data categories for translation-oriented terminological data collections...29

Annex B (informative) Spreadsheet examples ........................................................................................................................................32

Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................34

iv © ISO 2021 – All rights reserved
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ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)
Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards

bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out

through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical

committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International

organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.

ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of

electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are

described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the

different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the

editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of

patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of

any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or

on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents).

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not

constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and

expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the

World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www .iso .org/

iso/ foreword .html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and terminology,

Subcommittee SC 2, Terminology workflow and language coding.

This document cancels and replaces the ISO 12616:2002, which has been technically revised.

The main changes compared to the previous edition are as follows:

— updates to focus on the broader environment in which terminology workers operate;

— deepening of the aspect of terminological data management and addition of processes, tools and

skills necessary for terminology tasks;

— updates to align with the technical state-of-art and the evolution of the profession.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A

complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html.
© ISO 2021 – All rights reserved v
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ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)
Introduction

Terminology work is conducted by people with different backgrounds and for different purposes. This

document focuses on the fundamentals necessary to perform basic terminology work in translation

contexts. While some details are occasionally given, the document provides the minimum information

necessary to set up and work in the simplest form of a terminological data collection (TDC). The more

complex tasks and processes performed by terminologists with more sophisticated technologies and in

larger production environments will be covered in a future ISO 12616-2.

For clear communication, the title “terminology worker” has been chosen to represent anyone doing

terminology work as an ancillary function of their professional activities. A terminology worker might be

a translator, project manager or technical communicator, and might work as a single-person enterprise,

for a language service provider, or in-house at a company or other organization. Terminologists and

terminology workers share the same basic skill set covered in this document; however, terminologists

have broader knowledge and competences, which will be discussed further in a future ISO 12616-2.

One of the most common scenarios for a terminology worker in translation contexts is the following: a

client produces documentation in a particular subject field in a source language and asks a translator

to translate a variety of interrelated documents. Since no terminology was provided, the translator

recognises that it would be beneficial to document the terminology found during translation

work to maintain consistency across documents in the target language. This document provides

terminographical best practices and data modelling principles to this end.

In this document’s examples, designations and other text elements are indicated by double quotation

marks, whereas objects, concepts, properties, characteristics, and types of characteristics are indicated

by single quotation marks. When referring to fields in a terminology database, the first letter of the field

name is capitalized and the field name is followed by the word “field” (e.g. Term field, Transfer comment

field). Data categories are indicated by slashes preceding and following the data category’s name (e.g. /

term/, /transfer comment/). This markup is intended to facilitate the distinction between references to

the three terminological levels and other text throughout this document.
vi © ISO 2021 – All rights reserved
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FINAL DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)
Terminology work in support of multilingual
communication —
Part 1:
Fundamentals of translation-oriented terminography
1 Scope

This document specifies requirements and recommendations related to fundamentals of translation-

oriented terminography for producing sound bilingual or multilingual terminology collections. It

deals with the main tasks, skills, processes and technologies for translation-oriented terminography

practiced by terminology workers who do terminology work in low-complexity settings as part of non-

terminological activities. It does not cover terminology management involving sophisticated workflows,

a multitude of roles, or advanced terminological skills and competences.
2 Normative references

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content

constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For

undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

ISO 704, Terminology work — Principles and methods

ISO 16642, Computer applications in terminology — Terminological markup framework

ISO 26162-1, Management of terminology resources — Terminology databases — Part 1: Design

ISO 30042, Management of terminology resources — TermBase eXchange (TBX)
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
terminology

set of designations (3.7) and concepts (3.4) belonging to one subject field (3.2) or subject

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.1.11, modified — “domain” replaced with “subject field”, which is the

preferred term in this document.]
3.2
subject field
domain
field of special knowledge

Note 1 to entry: The borderlines and the granularity of a subject field are determined from a purpose-related

point of view. If a subject field is subdivided, the result is again a subject field.

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ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.1.4, modified — The preferred term in this document is “subject field”,

instead of “domain”.]
3.3
object
anything perceivable or conceivable

Note 1 to entry: Objects can be material (e.g. ‘engine’, ‘sheet of paper’, ‘diamond’), immaterial (e.g. ‘conversion

ratio’, ‘project plan’) or imagined (e.g. ‘unicorn’, ‘scientific hypothesis’).
[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.1.1]
3.4
concept
unit of knowledge created by a unique combination of characteristics

Note 1 to entry: Concepts are not necessarily bound to particular natural languages. They are, however,

influenced by the social or cultural background which often leads to different categorizations.

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.2.1 modified — Removed Note 2 to entry.]
3.5
individual concept
concept (3.4) that corresponds to a unique object (3.3)

EXAMPLE ‘Saturn’, ‘Eiffel Tower’, ‘Moon’, ‘serial number FRHR603928’, ‘2016 Nobel Prize in Physics’.

Note 1 to entry: Individual concepts are represented by proper names (3.10).
[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.2.8]
3.6
general concept

concept (3.4) that corresponds to a potentially unlimited number of objects (3.3) which form a group by

reason of shared properties
EXAMPLE ‘planet’, ‘tower’, ‘moon’, ‘Nobel Prize in Physics’.

Note 1 to entry: For a general concept, it is essential that a number of corresponding objects greater than 1 can

be perceived or conceived of. For example, ‘spaceship’ has been a general concept before such a material object

existed, at the time when there existed only 1 such object, and later, when there existed several such objects.

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.2.9]
3.7
designation

representation of a concept (3.4) by a sign which denotes it in a domain (3.2) or subject

Note 1 to entry: A designation can be linguistic or non-linguistic. It can consist of various types of characters, but

also punctuation marks such as hyphens and parentheses, governed by domain-, subject-, or language-specific

conventions.

Note 2 to entry: A designation can be a term (3.8) including appellations (3.9), a proper name (3.10), or a symbol

(3.11).
[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.4.1; modified — Removed “designator” as a synonym.]
3.8
term
designation (3.7) that represents a general concept (3.6) by linguistic means

EXAMPLE “laser printer”, “planet”, “pacemaker”, “chemical compound”, “¾ time”, “Influenza A virus”, “oil

painting”.
2 © ISO 2021 – All rights reserved
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ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)
Note 1 to entry: Terms may be partly or wholly verbal.
[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.4.2]
3.9
appellation

term (3.8) that is applied to a group of objects (3.3) whose relevant properties are identical

EXAMPLE “Nokia 7 Plus®” (mobile phone), “Adobe® Acrobat® X Pro” (software), “Road King®”

(motorcycle) .
[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.4.3]
3.10
proper name
designation (3.7) that represents an individual concept (3.5)

EXAMPLE “International Organization for Standardization”, “IBM®” , “British Isles”, “United Nations”.

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.4.4]
3.11
symbol
designation (3.7) that represents a concept (3.4) by non-linguistic means

Note 1 to entry: There are several types of symbols such as graphical symbols [ISO 3864 (all parts)] and letter

symbols [ISO 80000 (all parts)].
[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.4.5]
3.12
terminology work
terminology management

work concerned with the collection, description, processing and presentation of concepts (3.4) and their

designations (3.7)

Note 1 to entry: Terminology work often aims at creating and maintaining terminology resources (3.21).

Note 2 to entry: Terminology work often aims at terminology planning and can involve all of concept

harmonization, term harmonization, and term formation.

Note 3 to entry: Terminology work can be carried out in a systematic or an ad hoc fashion.

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.5.1, modified — Removed “systematic” in the definition, and added Note 3

to entry.]
3.13
prescriptive terminology work

terminology work (3.12) that aims at deciding on preferred usage of designations (3.7)

3.14
descriptive terminology work

terminology work (3.12) that aims at documenting designations (3.7) as they are used in contexts

without favouring preferred usage

1) Nokia 7 Plus® is a trademark of Nokia Corporation, Adobe® Acrobat® X Pro is a trademark of Adobe Systems,

Road King® is a trademark of Harley-Davidson. This information is given for the convenience of users of this

document and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO of the products named.

2) IBM® is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. This information is given for the

convenience of users of this document and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO of the product named.

© ISO 2021 – All rights reserved 3
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ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)
3.15
terminography

terminology work (3.12) aimed at creating and maintaining terminology resources (3.21)

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.5.2]
3.16
term extraction

terminology work (3.12) that involves the identification and excerption of terminological data (3.19) by

searching through a text corpus (3.17)

Note 1 to entry: Terminological data (3.19) of primary interest are typically designations (3.7), definitions and

contexts.
Note 2 to entry: Term extraction is often supported by dedicated software tools.
[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.5.6]
3.17
text corpus
corpus
collection of natural language data

Note 1 to entry: Text corpora can be used for various activities such as text analysis or terminology work (3.12).

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.6.4]
3.18
candidate term

string of characters that has been collected by means of term extraction (3.16) but has not yet been

selected as a text element to be documented in the terminological data collection (3.21)

3.19
terminological data
data related to concepts (3.4) and their designations (3.7)

Note 1 to entry: Common terminological data include designations (3.7), definitions, contexts, notes to entry,

grammatical labels, subject labels, language identifiers, country identifiers, and source identifiers.

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.6.1]
3.20
terminological entry
concept entry
collection of terminological data (3.19) related to only one concept (3.4)

[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.6.2, modified — Added “concept entry” and “CE” as preferred and admitted

terms, respectively.]
3.21
terminological data collection
TDC
terminology resource

resource consisting of concept entries (3.20) with associated metadata and documentary information

[SOURCE: ISO 26162:2019, 3.2.4, modified — Added “terminology resource” from ISO 1087:2019, 3.7.1.]

3.22
data category

class of data items that are closely related from a formal or semantic point of view

EXAMPLE /part of speech/, /subject field/, /definition/.
4 © ISO 2021 – All rights reserved
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ISO/FDIS 12616-1:2021(E)

Note 1 to entry: A data category can be viewed as a generalization of the notion of a field in a database.

Note 2 to entry: In running text, such as in this document, data category names are enclosed in forward slashes

(e.g. /part of speech/).
[SOURCE: ISO 26162:2019, 3.2.11]
3.23
terminology management system
TMS

software tool specifically designed with a metadata structure for collecting, maintaining, and accessing

terminological data (3.19)
[SOURCE: ISO 1087:2019, 3.6.13]
3.24
concept orientation
principle whereby a concept entry (3.20) describes a single concept (3.4)

Note 1 to entry: When two or more different concepts (3.4) are represented by the same designation (3.7) (in the

same language), this designation is considered a homograp
...

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021
01-marec-2021
Terminološko delo v podporo večjezičnemu komuniciranju - 1. del: Osnove
prevodno usmerjene terminografije

Terminology work in support of multilingual communication - Part 1: Fundamentals of

translation-oriented terminography

Travail terminologique appuyant la communication multilingue - Partie 1: Principes

fondamentaux de la terminographie axée sur la traduction
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ISO/DIS 12616-1
ICS:
01.020 Terminologija (načela in Terminology (principles and
koordinacija) coordination)
oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021 en,fr

2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021
---------------------- Page: 2 ----------------------
oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021
DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD
ISO/DIS 12616-1
ISO/TC 37/SC 2 Secretariat: SCC
Voting begins on: Voting terminates on:
2020-02-18 2020-05-12
Terminology work in support of multilingual
communication —
Part 1:
Fundamentals of translation-oriented terminography
Travail terminologique appuyant la communication multilingue —
Partie 1: Principes fondamentaux de la terminographie axée sur la traduction
ICS: 01.120
THIS DOCUMENT IS A DRAFT CIRCULATED
FOR COMMENT AND APPROVAL. IT IS
THEREFORE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AND MAY
NOT BE REFERRED TO AS AN INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD UNTIL PUBLISHED AS SUCH.
IN ADDITION TO THEIR EVALUATION AS
BEING ACCEPTABLE FOR INDUSTRIAL,
This document is circulated as received from the committee secretariat.
TECHNOLOGICAL, COMMERCIAL AND
USER PURPOSES, DRAFT INTERNATIONAL
STANDARDS MAY ON OCCASION HAVE TO
BE CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR
POTENTIAL TO BECOME STANDARDS TO
WHICH REFERENCE MAY BE MADE IN
Reference number
NATIONAL REGULATIONS.
ISO/DIS 12616-1:2020(E)
RECIPIENTS OF THIS DRAFT ARE INVITED
TO SUBMIT, WITH THEIR COMMENTS,
NOTIFICATION OF ANY RELEVANT PATENT
RIGHTS OF WHICH THEY ARE AWARE AND TO
PROVIDE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION. ISO 2020
---------------------- Page: 3 ----------------------
oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021
ISO/DIS 12616-1:2020(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2020

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may

be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting

on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address

below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved
---------------------- Page: 4 ----------------------
oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021
ISO/DIS 12616-1:2020(E)
Contents Page

Foreword ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................v

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................vi

1 Scope ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1

2 Normative references ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

3 Terms and definitions ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

4 Fundamentals of terminology management ........................................................................................................................... 5

4.1 Goals ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 5

4.2 Work environments ............................................................................................................................................................................ 5

4.3 Translation vs. terminology work .......................................................................................................................................... 6

4.4 Working methods ................................................................................................................................................................................. 7

4.4.1 Terminological analysis ............................................................................................................................................. 7

4.4.2 Systematic vs. ad-hoc terminology work .................................................................................................... 7

4.4.3 Prescriptive vs. descriptive terminology work ...................................................................................... 8

4.4.4 Use of text corpora ......................................................................................................................................................... 9

5 Terminography ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

5.1 Best practices in terminography.............................................................................................................................................. 9

5.2 Term ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 9

5.3 Definition ..................................................................................................................................................................................................10

5.4 Context ........................................................................................................................................................................................................10

5.5 Note ................................................................................................................................................................................................................10

5.6 References and source identification ...............................................................................................................................10

6 Skills and competences ...............................................................................................................................................................................12

6.1 Terminology tasks and the required skills ...................................................................................................................12

6.2 Basic terminology skills ...............................................................................................................................................................12

6.3 Skills and competences related to term extraction ..............................................................................................13

6.4 Language skills .....................................................................................................................................................................................13

6.5 Subject matter expertise ..............................................................................................................................................................14

6.6 Research competence.....................................................................................................................................................................14

6.7 Social and cultural competences ..........................................................................................................................................14

7 Process steps and activities ....................................................................................................................................................................15

7.1 Setting goals ...........................................................................................................................................................................................15

7.2 Overall workflow ................................................................................................................................................................................15

7.3 Setting up a terminological data collection .................................................................................................................16

7.4 Collecting designations .................................................................................................................................................................16

7.5 Researching designations and their concepts ...........................................................................................................16

7.6 Processing and documenting terminological data ................................................................................................16

7.7 Using and exchanging terminological data ..................................................................................................................16

7.8 Maintenance ...........................................................................................................................................................................................17

8 Information types for the /term/ field .......................................................................................................................................17

8.1 General ........................................................................................................................................................................................................17

8.2 Terminological units .......................................................................................................................................................................18

8.2.1 Terms ......................................................................................................................................................................................18

8.2.2 Proper names ...................................................................................................................................................................18

8.2.3 Symbols .................................................................................................................................................................................18

8.2.4 Name-like designations...........................................................................................................................................19

8.3 Other units of information .........................................................................................................................................................20

8.3.1 Phrases ..................................................................................................................................................................................20

8.3.2 Standard texts..................................................................................................................................................................20

9 Data management ............................................................................................................................................................................................20

9.1 Data categories for terminological data collections ............................................................................................20

9.2 Principles of modelling concept entries .........................................................................................................................21

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oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021
ISO/DIS 12616-1:2020(E)

9.2.1 Concept orientation ........................................................................................................................................... .........21

9.2.2 Term autonomy ..............................................................................................................................................................22

9.2.3 Data elementarity ........................................................................................................................................................22

9.2.4 Data granularity .............................................................................................................................................................22

9.2.5 Repeatability ....................................................................................................................................................................22

9.3 Open and closed data categories ..........................................................................................................................................23

9.4 Mandatory and optional data categories .......................................................................................................................23

9.5 Exchange and interoperability of terminological data ......................................................................................23

10 Tools ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................23

Annex A (informative) Data categories for translation-oriented terminology resources .........................25

Annex B (informative) Spreadsheet examples ........................................................................................................................................27

Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................28

iv © ISO 2020 – All rights reserved
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oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021
ISO/DIS 12616-1:2020(E)
Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards

bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out

through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical

committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International

organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.

ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of

electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are

described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the

different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the

editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of

patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of

any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or

on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents).

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not

constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and

expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the

World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www .iso .org/

iso/ foreword .html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and terminology,

Subcommittee SC 2, Terminology workflow and language coding.

This document cancels and replaces the ISO 12616:2002, which has been technically revised.

The main changes compared to the previous edition are as follows:
— Focus on the broader environment in which terminology workers operate

— Deepening of the aspect of terminological data management and addition of processes, tools and

skills necessary for terminology tasks

— Updates aligned with the technical state-of-art and the evolution of the profession

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A

complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html.
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Introduction

Terminology work is conducted by people with different backgrounds and for different purposes. This

document focuses on the fundamentals necessary to perform basic terminology work in translation

contexts. While occasionally more details are given, the document provides the minimum information

necessary to set up and work in the simplest form of a terminology data collection (TDC).

For clear communication, the title “terminology worker” was chosen to represent anyone doing

terminology work as an ancillary function of their professional activities. A terminology worker might be

a translator, project manager or technical communicator and might work as a single-person enterprise,

at language service providers, or in-house at companies or other organisations. Terminologists and

terminology workers share the same basic skill set covered in this document; however, terminologists

have knowledge and competences beyond what is described here and will be discussed further in the

future ISO 12616-2.

One of the most common scenarios for a terminology worker is the following: a client produces

documentation in a particular domain in a source language and asks a translator to translate a variety

of interrelated documents. Since no terminology was provided, the translator recognises that it would

be beneficial to document the terminology found during translation work to maintain consistency

across documents in the target language. The translator carries out the necessary tasks and follows

terminographical best practices and data modelling principles as described in this document.

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oSIST ISO/DIS 12616-1:2021
DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/DIS 12616-1:2020(E)
Terminology work in support of multilingual
communication —
Part 1:
Fundamentals of translation-oriented terminography
1 Scope

This document specifies fundamentals of translation-oriented terminography to provide guidance

for producing sound bilingual or multilingual terminology collections. This part of ISO 12616 deals

with the main tasks, skills, processes and technologies for translation-oriented terminography

practiced by terminology workers in simple settings. Terminology workers are translators, project

managers or technical communicators who do terminology work as part of their job, but are not full-

fledged terminologists. The more complex tasks and processes performed by terminologists and more

sophisticated technologies generally used in larger production environments will be covered in the

future ISO 12616-2.
2 Normative references

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content

constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For

undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

ISO 704:2009, Terminology work — Principles and methods
ISO 1087:2019, Terminology work and terminology science — Vocabulary
ISO 639, Codes for the representation of names of languages

ISO 16642:2017, Computer applications in terminology — Terminological markup framework

ISO 17100:2015, Translation services — Requirements for translation services

ISO/DIS 26162-1, Management of terminology resources — Terminology databases —Part 1: Design

ISO 15188:2001, Project management guidelines for terminology standardization
ISO 30042:2019, Management of terminology resources — TermBase eXchange (TBX)
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
terminology worker

person whose role is to perform terminology work (3.8) as an ancillary function of other professional

activities
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3.2
terminologist

expert who performs terminology work (3.8) as a main function of a professional activity

3.3
technical communicator

expert who defines, creates and delivers information products for the safe, efficient and effective use of

products (technical systems, software, services).
3.4
data category

class of data items that are closely related from a formal or semantic point of view

EXAMPLE /part of speech/, /subject field/, /definition/.

Note 1 to entry: A data category can be viewed as a generalisation of the notion of a field in a database.

Note 2 to entry: In running text, such as in this document, data category names are enclosed in forward slashes

(e.g. /part of speech/).
[SOURCE: ISO 30042:2019]
3.5
terminological data collection
TDC
text or data resource consisting of concept entries (3.7)
3.6
terminological data
data related to concepts (3.16) or their designations (3.17)
3.7
concept entry
terminological entry
entry
collection of terminological data (3.6) related to only one concept (3.16)
[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 26162-1:2019(E)]
3.8
terminology work
terminology management

work concerned with the collection, description, processing and presentation of concepts (3.16) and

their designations (3.17)

Note 1 to entry: Terminology work can be carried out in a systematic or an ad-hoc fashion.

3.9
terminography

part of terminology work (3.8) concerned with the recording and presentation of terminological data (3.6)

3.10
term extraction

terminology work (3.8) that involves the identification and excerption of terminological data (3.6) by

searching through a text corpus (3.12)

Note 1 to entry: Terminological data (3.6) of primary interest are typically designations (3.17), definitions and

contexts.
Note 2 to entry: Term extraction is often supported by dedicated software tools.
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[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 1087:2019(E)]
3.11
term identification

part of term extraction (3.10) involving recognition and selection of designations (3.17)

3.12
text corpus
corpus
collection of natural language data brought together for terminology work (3.8)
[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 1087:2019(E)]
3.13
candidate term

designation (3.17) that has been collected by means of term extraction (3.10) but has not been reviewed

by means of term assessment (3.14)
3.14
term assessment
process of rating designations (3.17) based on agreed criteria
Note 1 to entry: Criteria commonly include acceptability, usability and clarity.
3.15
object
anything perceivable or conceivable

Note 1 to entry: Objects can be material (e.g. ‘engine’, ‘sheet of paper’, ‘diamond’), immaterial (e.g. ‘conversion

ratio’, ‘project plan’) or imagined (e.g. ‘unicorn’, ‘scientific hypothesis’).
[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 1087:2019(E)]
3.16
concept
unit of knowledge created by a unique combination of characteristics

Note 1 to entry: Concepts are not necessarily bound to particular natural languages. They are, however, influenced

by the social or cultural background which often leads to different categorisations.

[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 1087:2019(E)]
3.17
designation
terminological unit

representation of a concept (3.16) by a sign which denotes it in a domain or subject

Note 1 to entry: In this standard, terminological unit is used for the content of the /term/ field in a database.

[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 1087:2019(E)]
3.18
term
designation (3.17) that represents a general concept (3.16) by linguistic means
[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 1087:2019(E)]
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3.19
proper name
name
designation (3.17) that represents an individual concept (3.16)

EXAMPLE “International Organization for Standardization”, “IBM®” ), “British Isles”, “United Nations”.

[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 1087:2019(E)]
3.20
appellation

term (3.18) that is applied to a group of objects (3.15) whose relevant properties are identical

EXAMPLE “Nokia 7 Plus®” (mobile phone), “Adobe® Acrobat® X Pro” (software), “Road King®”

(motorcycle) ).
[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 1087:2019(E)]
3.21
symbol
designation (3.17) that represents a concept (3.16) by non-linguistic means

Note 1 to entry: There are several types of symbols such as graphical symbols (ISO 3864 all parts) and letter

symbols (ISO 80000 all parts).
[SOURCE: ISO/FDIS 1087:2019(E)]
3.22
data granularity
degree of precision of data

Note 1 to entry: For example, the set of individual data categories /part of speech/, /grammatical gender/, and /

grammatical number/ provides for greater data granularity than does the single data category /grammar/.

[SOURCE: ISO/DIS 26162-1]
3.23
data elementarity
principle whereby a data field contains only one data element
[SOURCE: ISO/DIS 26162-1]
3.24
term autonomy

principle whereby all terms (3.18) in a concept entry (3.7) are considered independent sub-units and

can be described using the same set of data categories (3.4)
[SOURCE: ISO/DIS 26162-1]
3.25
concept orientation
principle whereby a concept entry (3.7) describes a single concept (3.16)

Note 1 to entry: A concept entry can contain multiple terms, which are therefore considered semantically

equivalent.
[SOURCE: ISO/DIS 26162-1]

1) IBM® is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. This information is given for

theconvenience of users of this document and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO of the product named.

2) Nokia 7 Plus® is a trademark of Nokia Corporation, Adobe® Acrobat® X Pro is a trademark of Adobe

Systems,Road King® is a trademark of Harley-Davidson. This information is given for the convenience of users of

thisdocument and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO of the products named.

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3.26
repeatability

principle whereby a data category (3.4) can be repeated within a concept entry (3.7) and whereby it can

also be combined with other data categories (3.4)
3.27
prescriptive terminology work
approach for managing terminology that indicates preferred usage
3.28
descriptive terminology work

approach for managing terminology that documents the way designations (3.17) are used in contexts

without indicating preferred usage
3.29
source language
language of the content to be translated
[SOURCE: ISO 18587:2017, 3.2.2]
3.30
target language
language into which source language (3.29) content is translated
[SOURCE: ISO 18587:2017, 3.2.4]
4 Fundamentals of terminology management
4.1 Goals

Terminology management has different goals. A basic goal is that users of a terminology data collection

are able to retrieve terminological information that answers their question. The collection must thus

cover the pertinent subject areas and terminologies. Concept entries in the collection must be correct

and complete and not exhibit any data integrity issues with other entries in the collection.

An extension of the basic goal above for translation support is that data is optimised for use in computer-

aided translation systems. Such systems have a terminology component. During the translation

process, the content of the translation segment is matched against the terminology data collection

(TDC). Matches are displayed in the terminology component or made available for easy integration into

the translation in the target-language segment.
4.2 Work environments

Work in pursuit of this goal is performed in many different work environments with one person or

several doing terminology work, supported by tools, following working methods along a particular

workflow, etc. They document the result of their
...