ISO/TC 37/SC 2 - Terminology workflow and language coding

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.

ISO 10241-2:2012 addresses the introduction of standardized terminological entries into other cultural and linguistic environments, and in particular the adoption of internationally standardized terminological entries by regional and national standardizing bodies. It establishes principles and guidelines for dealing with the key issues to be considered in this process. It also provides examples of, and solutions to, problems that occur when the adopting standardizing body adopts internationally standardized terminological entries, aligns the concept systems of the adopting standardizing body with internationally standardized concept systems, and prepares standardized terminological entries as additions or supplements to internationally standardized terminological entries.

ISO 10241-1:2011 specifies requirements for the drafting and structuring of terminological entries in standards, exemplified by terminological entries in ISO and IEC documents. Terms and other designations occurring in terminological entries can include letters, numerals, mathematical symbols, typographical signs and syntactic signs (e.g. punctuation marks, hyphens, parentheses, square brackets and other connectors or delimiters), sometimes in character styles (i.e. fonts and bold, italic, bold italic or other style conventions) governed by language-, domain- or subject-specific conventions. Terms can also include standardized symbols (which can be language independent or internationally harmonized, such as symbols for quantities and units as well as graphical symbols) which are under the responsibility of different committees in ISO and IEC. ISO 10241-1:2011 is based on the principles and methods given in ISO 704 and provides rules for both monolingual and multilingual terminological entries in standards and their indexes. ISO 10241-1:2011 is applicable to all standards that contain terminological entries. It does not deal with the administrative procedures nor the technical specifications required by standardizing bodies for the preparation of terminology standards. Since presentation and layout rules by nature are very much tied to the script and to the publishing rules of the standardizing body, they are dealt with only on an abstract level in ISO 10241-1:2011. Examples and rules for a typical layout and presentation in ISO documents are provided for information in Annex A.

ISO 639-4:2010 gives the general principles of language coding using the codes that are specified in the other parts of ISO 639 and their combination with other codes. It also lays down guidelines for the use of any combination of the parts of ISO 639. The terminology and general descriptions of ISO 639-4 are intended to replace corresponding text of other parts of ISO 639 as relevant in future revisions. Relevant metadata for the description of linguistic entities are given, as a framework for databases of linguistic data to support the ISO 639 series.

ISO 23185:2009 describes fundamental concepts related to the effective use of terminological data. It provides general principles for a model applicable to a variety of terminological resources. It clarifies the usability attributes that constitute the model and provides guidelines for the overall assessment of terminological resources by taking the user's objectives into account.

ISO 22128:2008 identifies and describes a wide range of terminology products and services so that suppliers of these products and services and their clients can have a common understanding as well as shared expectations in their delivery. This International Standard outlines some of the generally-accepted terminology practices to be followed in the development and delivery of terminology products and services as well as some of the desired quality features that should characterize the products and services produced. ISO 22128:2008 is intended as guidance for work contracts in the field of terminology. This International Standard focuses on terminology in specialized language as opposed to general language resources.

ISO 639-5:2008 provides a code consisting of language code elements comprising three-letter language identifiers for the representation of names of living and extinct language families and groups. Languages designed exclusively for machine use, such as computer-programming languages, are not included in this code.

ISO 1951:2007 deals with monolingual and multilingual, general and specialized dictionaries. It specifies a formal generic structure independent of the publishing media and it proposes means of presenting entries in print and electronic dictionaries. The relationship between the formal structure and the presentation of entries used by publishers and read by users is explained in examples provided in the informative annexes. The objective of ISO 1951:2007 is to facilitate the production, merging, comparison, extraction, exchange, dissemination and retrieval of lexicographical data in dictionaries. Following a lexicographical lemma-oriented approach, it does not deal with concept-oriented works as defined in ISO 704.

ISO 639-3:2007 provides a code, published by the Registration Authority of ISO 639-3, consisting of language code elements comprising three-letter language identifiers for the representation of languages. The language identifiers according to this ISO 639-3:2007 were devised for use in a wide range of applications, especially in computer systems, where there is potential need to support a large number of the languages that are known to have ever existed. Whereas ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2 are intended to focus on the major languages of the world that are most frequently represented in the total body of the world's literature, ISO 639-3:2007 attempts to provide as complete an enumeration of languages as possible, including living, extinct, ancient and constructed languages, whether major or minor, written or unwritten. As a result, ISO 639-3:2007 deals with a very large number of lesser-known languages. Languages designed exclusively for machine use, such as computer-programming languages and reconstructed languages, are not included in this code.

ISO 12615:2004 applies to the recording, storing and exchange of information on bibliographic sources for terminological work and terminography. It specifies the data elements to be included in bibliographic references for terminology work. These references can be used as data categories in computer applications in terminology or in presenting bibliographies and lists of references accompanying other textual matter, and citations in journal articles. ISO 12615:2004 does not apply to bibliographic descriptions that record and identify documents and are used by librarians, bibliographers and indexers. ISO 12615:2004 also describes source identifiers for different types of bibliographical references and their use. It indicates how the data elements from the bibliographic reference can be reflected in a source identifier, and how its constituent parts can be assembled to provide a unique identifier. ISO 12615:2004 will facilitate the following: identifying, tracing and validating terminological data and other language resources; cross-referencing to documents containing terminological data; data flow management in networking and other cooperative work in terminology documentation and terminography; exchange of terminological data; preparation of technical documents; carrying out of individual projects of terminology and terminography.

This part of ISO 639 provides a code consisting of language code elements comprising two-letter language identifiers for the representation of names of languages. The language identifiers according to this part of ISO 639 were devised originally for use in terminology, lexicography and linguistics, but may be adopted for any application requiring the expression of language in two-letter coded form, especially in computerized systems. The alpha-2 code was devised for practical use for most of the major languages of the world that are not only most frequently represented in the total body of the world's literature, but which also comprise a considerable volume of specialized languages and terminologies. Additional language identifiers are created when it becomes apparent that a significant body of documentation written in specialized languages and terminologies exists. Languages designed exclusively for machine use, such as computer-programming languages, are not included in this code.

This International Standard specifies the sequence of characters to be used in the alphabetical ordering of multilingual terminological and lexicographical data (terms, term elements, or words) represented in the Latin alphabet. Character sets of languages represented in the Latin alphabet are taken into account insofar as terminological or lexicographical data have been recorded. Character sets used in internationally standardized transliteration into Latin script are also taken into account. The sequence of alphabetical characters given is intended for multilingual purposes only and is not intended to affect the alphabetical order of any specific language. The main part of this International Standard specifies letter-by-letter ordering of character strings. Normative annex A treats word-by-word ordering, which is a widely used alternative to this system. Informative annex B gives two additional rules that may be useful for lexicographical and terminological ordering. Informative annex C gives ordering rules for chemical names. Informative annex D lists the character repertoire of the Latin alphabet. Informative annex E lists languages using the Latin alphabet. Informative annex F gives alphabetical sequences derived from the sequence specified in this International Standard for a number of languages that use the Latin alphabet. Normative annex G gives a formal description of the rules laid down in the main part of this International Standard conforming with ISO/IEC 14651.

This International Standard specifies the sequence of characters to be used in the alphabetical ordering of multilingual terminological and lexicographical data (terms, term elements, or words) represented in the Latin alphabet. Character sets of languages represented in the Latin alphabet are taken into account insofar as terminological or lexicographical data have been recorded. Character sets used in internationally standardized transliteration into Latin script are also taken into account. The sequence of alphabetical characters given is intended for multilingual purposes only and is not intended to affect the alphabetical order of any specific language. The main part of this International Standard specifies letter-by-letter ordering of character strings. Normative annex A treats word-by-word ordering, which is a widely used alternative to this system. Informative annex B gives two additional rules that may be useful for lexicographical and terminological ordering. Informative annex C gives ordering rules for chemical names. Informative annex D lists the character repertoire of the Latin alphabet. Informative annex E lists languages using the Latin alphabet. Informative annex F gives alphabetical sequences derived from the sequence specified in this International Standard for a number of languages that use the Latin alphabet. Normative annex G gives a formal description of the rules laid down in the main part of this International Standard conforming with ISO/IEC 14651.

ISO 639-6:2009 specifies a method for establishing four-letter language identifiers (alpha-4) and language reference names for language variants and a hierarchical framework for relating them to languages, language families and language groups. The alpha-4 language identifiers have been developed for use in a wide range of applications, especially in computer systems, where there is a potential need to cover the entire range of languages, language families and language groups as well as language variants within each identified language. Alpha-4 language identifiers can support the quantity of known language variants and accommodate any future expansion. ISO 639-6:2009 provides a hierarchical framework, which facilitates backward compatibility with other ISO 639 codes, based on linguistic and/or geolinguistic relationships, within which a comprehensive enumeration of language variants is possible, including living, extinct, ancient and constructed languages, whether major or minor. As a result, ISO 639-6:2009 caters for a very large number of languages and their variants. ISO 639-6:2009 is not applicable to the registrations for languages designed exclusively for machine use, such as computer-programming languages and reconstructed languages.

This International Standard provides guidelines to enable translators and translation support staff to record, maintain and quickly and easily retrieve terminological information in connection with translation work. The quality of a translation can be measured partly in terms of linguistic elements, such as style and grammar, and partly in terms of the accurate use of the terminology involved. The guidelines in this International Standard provide the necessary elements for quality control of terminological information in translations. The guidelines can also be adapted to provide a basis for the administration of source-language texts, parallel texts, translations, and other information (e.g. bibliographies, references) in the target language. This International Standard is applicable to the work of an individual translator as well as the work of a team or a department. It also lays down guidelines that are essential for the interchange of terminological data.

Establishes rules for the preparation: preliminary work (needs analysis, target group, subject delimitation, sources, number of concepts, choice of languages, schedule) and working procedure (collecting and recording terminological data, establishing the term list, concept fields and concept systems, formulating definitions, coining and selecting terms), as well as for the terminography (structuring of entries, order of entries, indexes, graphic representation, bibliography). Does not deal with changes that may be necessary when an International Standard is adopted as a national standard.