ბლოგი

1. Thank you for accepting our invitation to serve as a keynote speaker at the Fourth International Conference – Terminology – Heritage and Modernity. Since this is your first time visiting Georgia, we’re interested to know what you know about our country.

This is indeed the first opportunity I have to visit Georgia and Tbilisi. I am afraid I know very little about Georgia, except perhaps historical facts that are already well-known. But I am intrigued by its unique geographical position, i.e. in Asia, but near Europe and near the Middle East, and how this can contribute to various cultural influences. As a Canadian, I am always intrigued by the different historical phases countries on this side of the world have gone through and how this can shape the identity of their people.

As someone how enjoys hiking, one of the things I looked into were the various trails one can hike in Georgia. I added a few days to my stay to be able to do one or two.

As a linguist, I also want to learn more about the Georgian language and its unique writing system.

2. Could you please clarify the primary policy regarding terminology management coordination in Canada? Additionally, I’m curious about the specific organization responsible for establishing terminological standards, normalization procedures, and conducting terminological research within Canada.

Canada has a small population but a long and strong tradition in terminology. I can only give a few examples of the kind of terminology work in Canada in a short answer.

There are different language policies and Canada and this of course has an impact on the way terminology work is carried out. First the country as a whole has two official languages, i.e. English in French. However, some provinces and territories have their specific language policies: in New Brunswick, English and French are official; in Quebec, French has been the only official language since the middle of the 1970s; in the Northwestern territories and Nunavut, indigenous language (inuktitut and inuinnaqtun in Nunavut and 11 languages in the Northwestern territories) are official along with English and French[1].

There is an organization that is responsible for conducting terminology work at the Canadian level, i.e. the Translation Bureau. Terminology is a small part of its mandate to support the Canadian Government that must offer services in English and French, but also in indigenous languages and sign languages. The Bureau manages the Termium Plus® termbank, develops various terminological and linguistic resources, in addition to being active in terms of standardization activities. The Bureau collaborates with various national and international organizations that work on terminology and terminology standards.

Another important organization that is quite active in terminology is the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF). The OQLF is responsible for applying the dispositions of the Quebec language policy and for ensuring that French is the language used at work, in communications, commerce, businesses and companies. The OQLF manages the Vitrine linguistique (a portal that allows users to look up the Grand dictionnaire terminologique, GDT, and the Vitrine linguistique). It also develops various terminological resources that are available in its website. One of the mandates of the OQLF is to contribute to the enrichment of the French language used in Quebec; it is thus quite active in the creation of neologisms. The OQLF produced guidelines such as the Politique de l’officialisation linguistique (Policy for linguistic officialization) that explains the different levels of intervention of the organization regarding terms.

[1] Compendium of language management in Canada (https://www.uottawa.ca/about-us/official-languages-bilingualism-institute/clmc).

Linda Giorgadze
Research fellow at TSU Arnold Chikobava Institute of translating dictionaries and scientific terminology.

1. Thank you for accepting our invitation to serve as a keynote speaker at the Fourth International Conference – Terminology – Heritage and Modernity. Since this is your first time visiting Georgia, we’re interested to know what you know about our country.

I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude for your kind and unexpected invitation to serve as a keynote speaker. I am also grateful for the opportunity to visit your beautiful country and to see you and your colleagues in person.

As for Georgia, I know that it’s blessed with spectacular mountains and warm sea, beautiful landscapes, friendly, kind and very hospitable people, delicious food (like khachapuri and chinkali) and fine wine, rich history and interesting customs. I believe that during this visit I will be able to get a taste of your charming country and feel its spirit.

I know that Lithuanians are very fond and respectful of Georgians, and Georgians of Lithuanians. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is a square in Tbilisi named after Lithuania’s capital.

And recently I found out that the Georgian team is taking part in the European Football Championship (UEFA Euro 2024) for the first time. I wish your team all the best!

2. As far as I know, Lithuania was the only one of the Baltic countries to maintain its language research institute after leaving the Soviet Union. Today, there might be opportunities for analyzing this further. What advantages do you see in having a language research institute in the country?

The Institute of the Lithuanian Language (LKI) is the leading institution for research on the Lithuanian language not only in Lithuania, but also worldwide. I would like to emphasize that it is also the centre of the most important Lithuanian language resources.

The Institute is the only institution that conducts comprehensive research on all levels of the Lithuanian language and linguistic heritage. This is its strength and its greatest advantage. Certainly, research on the Lithuanian language is also carried out at universities, but there it is usually more fragmented or more often confined to specific projects of limited duration.  Some areas of Lithuanian language research (terminology, lexicography, neology, geolinguistics, onomastics, etc.) are consistently developed only at the Institute.

The Institute also acts as an expert institution on language policy issues, advises on problematic language matters.

3. Is there any challenge in terminological work in Lithuania, considering the existence of a terminological policy, coordinated terminological efforts, normative terminology development, the Lithuanian term bank, and terminological research?

Lithuanian terminology is quite well managed at the state level. We can boast a national term bank (https://terminai.vlkk.lt/) – the main terminological data bank for the Lithuanian language (since 2004) with a legal framework (the Law on the term bank and Methodology, not to mention other related legislation).

Thus, the existing system of terminology management at national level needs to be maintained and strengthened. And that requires both financial and human resources. Despite the advantages of managing terms through the Term Bank system, there are also challenges in the national terminology workflow. More participants should be involved in the terminology workflow – domain experts (researchers and practitioners), translators, linguists. Corpus-based terminology management could be used to some extent. Although the Term Bank is a reliable terminology database, the increase of terminological data is slow in terms of quantity and domain coverage. Some of the terminology collections included in the Term Bank (e.g. data from dictionaries) are already somewhat outdated.

It is a regret that research policy in Lithuania does not support the creation, maintenance and usage of Lithuanian terminology. Publication of research results in foreign journals and publishing houses is encouraged, resulting in publications (and terminology) in languages other than Lithuanian (especially English). Lithuanian higher education institutions are moving more and more towards teaching in English. The compilation of terminological dictionaries or other terminology collections is poorly valued as an R&D activity. It is not surprising that the number of dictionaries produced has declined significantly in recent years (cf. 2 dictionaries in 2022, 11 in 2012, 19 in 2002).

As far as terminology research is concerned, it is difficult to attract young people to study terminology. And few researchers regularly conduct Lithuanian terminology research. It is challenging to get funding for larger terminology research projects that would bring together domain experts, language technologists and linguists. There is a lack of available language technologies, language analysis tools suitable for the investigation of Lithuanian terminology. For example, the well-known and widely used “Sketch Engine” has not yet offered POS tagging, lemmatisation, term extraction, word sketch tools for the Lithuanian language.

Another challenge is the need for terminology education. There is still a perception in Lithuanian society that linguists are solely responsible for terminology in all fields.

4. What is your approach to the nature of terminology: do you prefer to accept English neologisms untranslated, or do you favor terms derived from Lithuanian roots?

Lithuanian terminology has always been guided by the principle of preference for native language. However, applying this principle does not mean rejecting international terms or replacing all borrowings with Lithuanian equivalents. As K. Gaivenis, a renowned Lithuanian terminologist, said, “It is difficult to avoid borrowings in terminology. On the other hand, it is not necessary to avoid them too much”. In accordance with the principle of preference for native language, Lithuanian equivalents are proposed in place of a borrowing, and whether these equivalents are accepted and come into usage depends on various factors: linguistic, pragmatic, socio-psychological, aesthetic. For example, a number of Lithuanian equivalents were proposed for English file, and for some time these equivalents were used (byla, rinkmena), but eventually the borrowing failas (orthographically and morphologically adapted form) prevailed. When it is difficult to find a proper Lithuanian equivalent, the borrowing is not avoided, e.g. the borrowing botnetas has become a term. It is more difficult for a Lithuanian term to become established when the Lithuanian equivalent of a single-word English term is an attributive phrase (especially a longer one).

Lithuanian is a morphologically rich language, and its morphological derivation is highly developed. Therefore, Lithuanian single-word terms are not only more transparent than anglicisms, but the means of derivation help to meet the requirement of linguistic systematicity of terms. For example, the names of computer programs are formed with the suffix –yklė: naršyklė (browser), braižyklė (drawing program), piešyklė (paint program), vertyklė (translator), etc.

5. What contribution does your institution make to the development of artificial intelligence?

The Institute of the Lithuanian Language contributes to the development of artificial intelligence indirectly by developing large-scale digital resources that can be used to train AI models. As is well known, high-quality language resources are of great importance for AI.

Linda Giorgadze
Research fellow at TSU Arnold Chikobava Institute of translating dictionaries and scientific terminology.

1. Dear Mavina, thank you for accepting our invitation to serve as a keynote speaker at the Fourth International Conference – Terminology – Heritage and Modernity. Since this is your first-time visiting Georgia, we’re interested to know what you know about our country.

I am particularly honoured by your invitation and delighted by the opportunity to visit your beautiful country! I know, of course, about the historical and cultural bonds between our countries. It’s amazing to know that my hometown, Volos, is the ancient Iolkos, from which, according to Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts set sail for Colchis in the Black Sea! This connection brings a sense of historical continuity and shared heritage that I deeply appreciate. However, I certainly want to learn more about the rich history and culture of your country, located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. I would be eager to explore the beautiful landscapes and mountains, especially the Caucasus. As a linguist, I am very interested in your language and alphabet, which hold a special place in the world’s linguistic heritage. I am also keen to experience Georgian cuisine and hospitality, which I have heard so much about. I am really looking forward to meeting you and am excited to spend some extra days exploring Tbilisi and its main sites after the conference.

2. Could you please tell us more about your organization Eleto?

The Hellenic Society for Terminology (ELETO), established in 1992, is the only Greek Association devoted exclusively to terminology, providing terminological assistance to various organizations in Greece.

ELETO develops fruitful cooperation with bodies in Greece and the EU such as universities, research centers, public authorities and professional associations. Since 1997, ELETO has been organizing the biennial conference Hellenic Language and Terminology with a particular focus on Greek terminology. Besides this conference, supported by a large number of terminology scholars and co-organisers, ELETO members regularly hold various seminars and training workshops on terminology.

ELETO also cooperates with several international terminology organizations, including the International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm), the European Association for Terminology (EAFT), the International Network for Terminology (TermNet), and, formerly, the now inactive International Institute for Terminology Research (IITF).

ELETO strongly advocates for open access to terminological resources and relevant publications. Today, the ELETO website (www.eleto.gr) offers free online access to: (a) all the papers presented in the conference Hellenic Language and Terminology (14 conferences, i.e. 439 papers), (b) more than 180,000 terminological entries by means of 13 termbases, (c) more than 30 glossaries and subject dictionaries, and (d) all issues of Orogramma, the bimonthly newsletter reporting all ELETO’s terminological works and activities since 1993.

3. It would be interesting to know about Greece’s terminological policy, along with its procedures for coordination and normalization.

Standardization requires the development of common special language and commonly accepted terminology in all domains. An important landmark in the history of Terminology in Greece is 1976 when the Hellenic Organization for Standardization (ELOT) was established, thereby institutionalizing the national standardization of terminology. Among ELOT’s several Technical Committees (TC), each one dealing with the special language and terminology of its subject field, the TC21, of which I am happy to be the chairperson since 2019, deals with “Terminology – Language resources”. As a mirror committee of ISO/TC37, its role is to participate in the international standardization on language and terminology, transpose relevant International Standards by preparing Greek ones (ELOT Hellenic Standards), and cooperate with academics, scholars, and professionals on relevant matters.

It is important to point out that ELETO, often in cooperation with ELOT, has participated in several initiatives towards the direction of terminology coordination and normalization over the years; however, the results have been rather disappointing so far. Here are some examples. In 1990, at the initiative of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT), a Working Group was established in order to study the state of terminology in Greece and plan a coordinated research programme on terminology rendering. The WG completed its work and submitted its final report; however, no progress has been recorded since then. In 2000, ELETO actively participated, among other institutions, in the Coordination Committee of the National Programme for Terminological Coordination (EPOS); however, the programme was eventually rejected. In 2006, ELETO organized a conference in Athens to examine the method adopted in France by the Commission d’enrichissement de la langue française and investigate the possibility of establishing a similar system in Greece. After the conference, ELETO and the Ministry of Education jointly drafted a bill to establish a terminology coordinating body in Greece, to be called the National Body of Terminology; however, the bill was never submitted to Parliament. All this indicates that Greece still lacks a national terminological policy and pertinent procedures, making ELETO’s role and mission not only critical but also more challenging due to the lack of sufficient framework and support.

4. What is your attitude towards the nature of terminology? As far as I know, Greeks tend to favour terms derived from Greek roots, and they are less tending to adopt English neologisms directly. For instance, terms that are considered international in Georgia, such as “university” or “computer,” often have Greek equivalents. Is this approach acceptable to everyone in Greece, or are there also individuals who support the acceptance of international words without translation?

Any language constantly needs new terms to designate new concepts produced within each subject field. The main terminological work carried out by ELETO’s working groups is in primary and mostly secondary naming, according to term formation principles set by ISO in ISO 704:2000 (transposed into Greek by ELOT/TC21 in ELOT 402:2010) and proper term formation mechanisms of Modern Greek. In their everyday term formation practice, ELETO’s terminologists frequently use formative elements from Ancient Greek, to designate modern concepts. Ancient (classical) Greek, besides Latin, is a traditional and well-established source of neoclassical terms and term elements used in most European and other languages to designate concepts of science. Almost all new Greek terms suggested by ELETO are of “non-foreign” origin; although most new scientific concepts are primarily named in English, the terms selected and/or adopted by ELETO mainly consist of Greek words or term elements, a significant number of which are neologisms. This approach helps maintain semantic transparency and linguistic continuity with the historical and cultural roots of the Greek language.

In everyday use, however, the English equivalents are also frequently used in some settings, especially in specific domains such as computer science and telecommunications. For example, terms like “computer”, “internet” or “online” are commonly used. We recognize that in the era of globalization and rapid technological advancement, English terms often become widespread due to their immediate accessibility and the global dominance of English in scientific and technological discourse, and we know that term formation principles alone (transparency, derivablility, etc.) cannot always guarantee the generalization of a new term among the language users…

5. Do you encounter challenges in terminological work, and if so, how do you handle them?

The major challenges in terminological work in Greece to address are how to achieve terminology harmonisation and coordination, how to draw larger participation of interested parties in terminology procedures, and how to increase the visibility of available resources and best practices in terminology.

Cultivating awareness of the necessity of terminology involves not only creating and standardizing terminology but also integrating it into educational and professional training programs. ELETO advocates for the inclusion of terminology studies in university curricula and offers, whenever possible, specialized training for professionals. We believe that a well-informed community of practitioners is essential for sustaining effective terminology work. The ELETO Conferences, for example, provide a platform where terminological papers from all subject fields are presented, fostering an inclusive environment where different perspectives are shared and discussed. Through these conferences, we aim to build a network of terminologists, scholars, experts, and professionals who can collaborate on terminology projects and share best practices. Additionally, we strive to make our resources more accessible through online platforms and open-access publications, ensuring that anyone interested can easily find and use our terminological resources. Our website serves as a central hub for accessing a wealth of terminological data, including termbases, glossaries, and conference papers. We also use social media and other communication channels to reach a broader audience and highlight the importance of terminology in various subject fields.

By raising awareness, increasing participation, and promoting best practices, we strive to ensure that Greek terminology continues to evolve and meet the needs of all its users.

Linda Giorgadze
Research fellow at TSU Arnold Chikobava Institute of translating dictionaries and scientific terminology.

As we know, modern technology allows all nations to communicate with the peoples of the world in their own language by reasonably arranging language data, creating national terminological databases, having translation dictionaries etc. Many European countries already have national terminology databases, term banks, some also searchable through joint European databases. A national term bank can spread and unify use of terminology within a country but also facilitate international communication. Therefore, in order to put Georgian language next to European languages, it is important to create a well-established, coordinated Georgian terminology database. The creation of the Georgian Term Bank in Georgia started only in 2015 and it is being done by Arn. Chikobava Institute of Linguistics with co-operation from several other state institutions. However, the material has not been published on the Internet yet.

We talked to the President of the European Association for Terminology (EAFT) – Henrik Nilsson, who visited Georgia in 2018 and participated in the International Conference on Terminology and there got acquainted with the work of Georgian terminologists. In 2021, he presented an online paper at a second conference.

1. What do you think is needed for developing national terminology?

As we get more and more global, we also tend to realize the importance of the national. Relating this to terminology would mean an openness towards the development of new terms in various domains, but also recognizing the need to sometimes adapt and handle this inflow of terms on the national, regional and local level. The raised awareness of the importance of terminology in important domains of society, e.g. healthcare and social services, has also underlined that constant work needs to be done and terminologists trained to work alongside other professions involved in information management and digitalization of society’s various domains. Terminology is not always being taught as a subject in its own right at universities while, more and more, there is a need for competency in terminology in various situations. This is contradictory, and the profession of terminologist needs to be more recognized and prioritized. Terminological resources are being collected and made more accessible, but still more and smarter tools are needed.

2. What can you tell us about the proper conduct of terminological work in general?

Since its beginnings, terminology as a discipline has developed a great deal as has its various practices. The GTT, General Theory of Terminology, and the various other directions, e.g., socioterminology, communicative theory of terminology, frame-based terminology, have all helped to shape and develop the discipline. Still, more work on the practice of terminology work is needed, especially in the private sector. The international standards – and their constant development – are very important, but more work is needed to adapt the standards to various settings and situations. So, saying what is the “proper” way to conduct terminology work is difficult, and looking at the European terminological landscape, there is a great variation in practice and tools.

3. How important is it for a country and for a language to create a term bank?

More and more, society is becoming digital and technical, which could mean we are seeing a less clear-cut demarcation of language for general purposes (LGP) and special purposes (LSP). Considering this – and that terminological resources still are not as commonplace as collections (glossaries, corpora, language banks) of general language – it is, and will be, all the more important that a repository of terminologies is part of a country’s language repertoire. The implications of such a term bank are manifold and especially useful to conquer domain loss and promote the use of national terminology in higher education and in society overall. The amount of special language present in other types of language resources could also be raised.

4. What would you say about terminological work in Georgia?

I have learnt that a lot of work has been done during many years, and especially in recent years, work has been accelerating with the translation of important terminology standards, the adherence to European associations, e.g., EAFT and Infoterm, co-operations in various terminological areas, the establishment of national and international conferences on terminology as well as a journal, and the development of a national term bank and of terminology as an academic discipline. These are all important and necessary steps. When I visited Georgia, I was thoroughly impressed – and I was even invited to talk about it on morning television, which is quite something in the terminology world!

Lia Karosanidze

TSU Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics

Mr. Christian, the world has already moved into a completely different, digital age, people and nations are gradually realizing this. The new era is gradually changing everything, technologies, approaches and, to some extent, the lifestyle of the modern world. What different demands has the digital age placed on terminology in particular?

First, we need more generic and harmonized approaches in terminology theory and methods, and their applications in policies (if possible complementary to other crucial policies of a country or language community); this also applies to the respective standards top-down from international standards (IS) to regional and national standards where IS should be adopted and adapted as necessary. Second and complementary to the above, it needs generic and harmonized approaches in major applications of terminology theory and methods, such as in

• The field of translation and interpreting and other language services; this also applies to the respective standards top-down from international standards (IS) to regional and national standards where IS may have to be adapted as necessary.
• The field of education comprising each level of schooling, studying and training, where microlearning objects (microLO) corresponding to high-quality terminological entries could support teachers/trainers and learners/trainees
  • to acquire the basic conceptual knowledge of any subject (whether domain-related special languages or language-related teaching/training and learning)
  • to keep on assisting them in all kinds of communicational tasks as look-up data (e.g., implemented in spelling checkers, etc.) in rest of their professional life.
  • This also applies to the respective standards top-down from generic harmonized international standards (IS) to regional and national standards where IS must be adapted as necessary. The development of the respective data/content resources must largely be a bottom-up process driven by the respective teacher/trainer and learner/trainees’ communities.
• Computational terminography, where generic and harmonized standards (as a technical prerequisite of comprehensive data/content interoperability) must be adopted at other levels, while specialized technical applications may largely be language or domain/subject specific (such as letter symbols or graphical symbols)
• Data/content creation, where the development of generic and harmonized standards are still in their infancy. Crowd sourcing and other ICT-supported approaches should be adapted in such a way that not only high-quality data are produced in wide-spread cooperation, but also a comprehensive content interoperability of data/content is guaranteed within domain or applications as well as between languages.
• The above is already taking place in eApplications such as eBusiness/eCommerce/eTrade, eHealth, eBanking, etc. and will be absolutely necessary in future Internet of Things (IoT) with its applications in smart cities, smart transport, etc.
• The global ecosystem of standardization is an example where the above is gradually taking shape.

To sum up, it will need an ecosystem of terminology standardization – similar to the emerging standardization ecosystem – to back up terminological activities and make them more efficient and effective. This all also needs political and societal as well as industry support. So far terminologist only in few countries/regions succeeded to enjoy such support. We have to continue to strive for it at all levels: international, regional and national.

Georgia became a member of Infoterm, and for that we thank, first of all, former head of the center, Ms. Albina Auksoriute, during which Georgia was accepted into Infoterm and you personally, because you support Georgian terminologists so much. What would you say about Georgian terminological work?

Georgian terminologists – similar to terminologists in many other countries – are highly committed and doing tremendous efforts. I am not yet familiar enough about terminology activities in Georgia to know details. On the one hand, there is the “late development effect” which allows late-comers to learn from the experiences (including wrong approaches) of forerunners and leapfrog other communities. On the other hand, it needs the highly committed experts striving for their case to convince decision makers in policies and administration, industry and society, the mass media etc. In the 1990s, Infoterm organized a workshop on “argumentation strategies” for terminology. I am pleased to inform you that after several years of conferences, seminars and workshops this initial endeavor materialized in the form of the DTT publication “Terminology Work. Best practices 2.0” which is a great work to practically inform terminologists very concisely about the basics of terminology work and how to “market” the value of it in various circumstances. DTT Handbook “Best Practices 2.0” in English – Deutscher Terminologie-Tag e.V. (dttev.org)

Our main difficulty is non-agreed work, i.e. absence of terminological policy, that is why we were advised to translate the GUIDELINES FOR TERMINOLOGY POLICIES Thanks to you, the Georgian translation of this important guide is already on the website http://www.infoterm.info/publications/ and everyone can read it. What do you think is the most important thing to stop parallel and chaotic terminological work?

In all aspects which I mentioned in reply to your question 1 it needs cooperation, cooperation, cooperation! While industry has largely understood that after a good idea or the invention of one person or a small group of people, implementation in practice up to large scale production needs an increasing degree of cooperation, academia in many fields is still concentrating on individual efforts. One of the results – sorry to say – is the emergence of lots of data graveyards most of them not maintained nor even maintainable due to the lack of generic approaches. It looks as if you are on a good track to open perspectives looking also to cooperation within Georgia as well as at international level. I am involved in an Austria-Mongolia project for establishing a terminology infrastructure in Mongolia, the results of which will be made available to the public world-wide. You and your colleagues as well as Georgian terminologists are invited to participate in forthcoming conferences or other activities.

Georgia is not yet a member of the European Union, but your help, advice, participation in conferences, to some extent, allows us to work according to European terminology standards. Thank you so much for this friendship and support. A terminology policy guide with your foreword is published already. 

Lia Karosanidze

Head of Dept. of Translating Dictionaries and Scientific Terminology  at TSU Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics

Head of Vukol Beridze Association for Terminology of Georgia

  Ms. Albina, you are attending our conference Terminology – Heritage and Modernity for the third time, for which I would like to thank you first of all. Georgians and Lithuanians always had a special bond with each other. I was convinced of this once again in Vilnius. As I know, you also like Georgia.

I like Georgia very much, and not only the country’s landscape, Tbilisi’s architecture, but Georgia’s cultural heritage, its culture, songs and dances have been impressed. Georgia is deeply fascinated by the hospitality and sincerity of its people.

The Lithuanian Language Institute made a great impression on me, on the one hand, it is the museum created with special respect for old scientists, and on the other hand, the work of your institute adjusted to European standards. Not all countries, as we know, have been able to maintain research institutes. What do you think, maybe the time will come when the language research institute will lose its function in Lithuania.

The Institute of the Lithuanian Language is a governmental scientific institute. It‘s mission: to develop new fundamental and applied knowledge of the Lithuanian language and writings, compile, structure, digitalize and disseminate intangible linguistic heritage, address issues of the development and functioning of the language that are relevant to the state and the public, support Lithuanian studies around the world, develop digital resources.

I believe that such a scientific institute must not lose its functions and must operate and study the Lithuanian language on an ongoing basis, as language changes, faces many challenges of globalization. It is necessary to analyze the old sources that have not yet been studied, to study language changes, and to envisage ways of preserving and developing it in this age of digital and artificial intelligence. It is important to bear in mind that language is the basis not only of the Nation but also of the State. I hope that Lithuanian will remain the state language in Lithuania while the State of Lithuania is alive, so language research will also be important.

I often speak and write about the problems of Georgian terminology, which, first of all, was caused by the reduction of the function of the Institute of Linguistics and the absence of a terminological policy. In Georgia, parallel, uncoordinated work in terminology is common, which leads to the wrong use of human and financial resources. What is the situation in Lithuania? How do you manage terminological work?

The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language has been carrying out organizational work of terminology management since 1993, planning terminology and shaping terminology policy in Lithuania.  It evaluates dictionaries, terminology standards and approves term sets for legal acts and draft laws, it supports the compilation and publishing of dictionaries and announces tenders for the compilation of various specific dictionaries and finances their compilation.

At the end of 2003, the Law on the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania was adopted to regulate the creation, management and funding of term bank. Thus, for twenty years terminology management in Lithuania has been regulated by the law and on this basis the Term Bank was created and is administered by the Language Commission. This bank is created as a common information system of state institutions administered by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language. The address of this term bank is http://terminai.vlkk.lt/.

Most terminological research is carried out at the Centre of Terminology of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, whereas at Lithuanian universities terminological research is carried out by individual scholars only. At the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, the Centre of Terminology operates with the aim of researching Lithuanian terminology and terminography and analyzing the functioning of Lithuanian terms of different fields.

Every year, the Centre of Terminology prepares and publishes the international research journal Terminologija (Terminology). The first journal appeared in 1994 and the 28^nd issue has been issued last year.

    Researchers of the Centre of Terminology also engage in quite a substantial amount of practical terminological work as they cooperate with the Language Commission as experts, participate in the activity of its Terminology Subcommittee, provide expertise and deliberate on Lithuanian terms included into Term bank. Most employees of the Centre of Terminology assist terminological dictionary compilers as linguists-terminologists and provide consultations.

     In most areas, Lithuanian language terms are managed considerably well, the principles of term creation and ways of their management, directions of organization of terminological work and activities have settled, terminological work is carried out in cooperation with specialists and terminologists working at different Lithuanian and European Union institutions.

Georgia has fallen behind the digital age, and this scares us a lot, because it could be late to include the Georgian language and Georgian normative terminology in the European databases. In your opinion, what is needed to properly manage terminological work in Georgia or another country?

I think it is very important that the terminology is managed in an organized manner and with the concern of the state. Individual enthusiasts can do a lot, but in this digital age, it is essential that qualified terminology teams do this. In addition to having its own term bank, each country needs to explore ways of integrating it into European databases through Euro Term Bank, European Language Grid.

Vukol Beridze Association for Terminology of Georgia is a member of two European terminological societies (EAFT, Infoterm). Membership of Infoterm is thanks to you, for which we thank you once again. Mr. Christian Galinsky, the current  chairman of Infoterm, continues to collaborate with us. It was with his advice that we translated the terminological management policy manual, which, we think, will also help us to properly manage terminological work in Georgia. Once again, I would like to thank you very much for your friendship and support. We are waiting for you in Tbilisi, at the third international conference.

Lia Karosanidze

Head of Translating Dictionaries and Scientific terminology at Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics

Head of Vukol Beridze Association for Terminology of Georgia

Mr. Rodolfo, as I know you have never traveled to Georgia. Once in Greece, at a terminology conference, a Finnish terminologist told me jokingly that you were from the country of a very dangerous woman. Do you feel the same way about Medea’s country? What do you know about Georgia?

Georgia has been since a long time a country that I wanted to visit, because of its history and beauties that many Georgian friends of Greek origin have described to me. Some years ago, I was invited to give a lecture on Greek terminology by professors of a department of Greek language, which I could give only remotely, but I had the opportunity to interact with the professors and students and I was impressed by the high level of their interests, knowledge and academic skills. I was also impressed by the fact that in every city I had visited in the past in Russia or other countries of Eastern Europe, we were very often invited to restaurants with Georgian kitchen. I am excited to visit for the first time your country by the occasion of the Terminology Conference that I am much honored to address as a keynote speaker at the end of October. I am sure that Georgia is full of dangerous women but more in the sense of dynamic and high skilled ones. I don’t know if it is a coincidence that all professors and stakeholders of the excellent work done in terminology with whom we are working, are women.

I often observe and read the blogs of IATE (IATE Term of the Week) to get acquainted with interesting examples from other languages. It is very interesting to get familiar with a country through its lexis, its words. This excellent project enabled people of the world to know each other better.  What can you tell us about the construction and management of this base?

We are very proud of IATE, the database of all EU legislation. The legal acts issued by the EU Institutions, directives and regulations, after having been voted by the Parliaments of the 27 Member States in their respective language, become national law that covers up to 80% of their legislation. This means that every year some 2,5 millions of pages covering more than 110 fields of the daily life of the EU citizens have to be translated in the 24 official languages and have the same meaning. This can be made possible only with the use of a common terminology that ensures the conceptual equivalence and linguistic consistency. Therefore, as from the beginning, the EU created printed glossaries with all languages starting from 4 and becoming gradually 24, especially with the enlargement of the EU in 2004, when 10 new languages were added. At the end of the 80’s, we started creating digital databases in each Institution, like Eurodicautom by the Commission and Euterpe by the European Parliament. In the beginning of this century we merged them in the common database IATE standing for Interactive Terminology for Europe. Interactive because every one of the some 5000 translators of the 10 EU Institutions can insert terms in their language. This way, IATE has become the biggest most multilingual terminology database in the world with 8.5 million terms in 24 languages that are offered for free in a very modern responsive tool accessible from any device and receiving millions of queries by translators and interpreters all over the world. I am very happy to hear that you follow our weekly publications of the series “IATE Term of the Week” on our website https://termcoord.eu, the unique website of the EU Institutions dedicated to terminology.

History shows that statehood and terminological work are closely related, in a country with political or economic problems, the terminology is faulty. Do you think that all countries will be able to develop their language under equal conditions in the modern digital age? Isn’t this too late for Georgia, which started working on the Georgian Term bank only in 2014, while most of the terminological dictionaries are still undigitized and standardization issues are unresolved?

I very extensively focus in my lectures in universities on this topic. As linguist but being also active in cultural activities, I strongly believe that every language is a culture per se and that the culture of a people is reflected in the evolution of its language. Therefore, I very much admire the efforts in several countries to make their language survive during oppressive occupations that tried to deny to the people the right to communicate in their native language. In my country, in Greece, Greek was taught secretly in the basement of churches for more than 400 years of Ottoman occupation and this is how our very ancient and rich language could survive. The efforts of all your countries recently freed of the soviet occupation to promote and to protect your languages is very important and terminology plays in this effort a substantial role. I was frequently quoting in my lectures the example of Lithuania and its “Committee of the Lithuanian Language” checking the terminology and closely cooperating with the Lithuanian EU colleague’s translators and interpreters. As from now on, I will also quote the very impressive work you are doing on terminology in Georgia on an academic but also on State level. It is never too late to work and to cooperate for the quality of our language, our thinking and communication tool.

As we can see, today there are two ways to transfer one’s own language and terminology to international bases: one, through standardization, with one’s own national terminological base, you join the common European terminological bases with the Term Bank, and the second way depends more on enthusiasm and chance, because in a country where they do not have a new normative terminological base Dictionaries, of course, create English matches at will. About this, a young Georgian researcher Nino Skhirtladze  wrote an article (“Trados – the Electronic Terminological Database, Terminological Issues, 2018 http://termbank.ge/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/krebuli_III.pdf  ). Of course, we do not want and we are doing everything to ensure that those chaotic, parallel, faulty forms are transferred by anyone without question and our language is established in the world bases in such a faulty way. Is there any mechanism to protect this? Are the terminology bases of the different countries included in IATE just standardized, or do you have no control over that?

This is indeed a very interesting article about the ways entire glossaries can be imported in terminological databases. It is very logical that the new terminology produced for the Georgian language in the framework of the very intensive work you are doing in your universities and institutions for some years now, present some problems of quality control and consistency. To tackle this problem, that by the way is encountered in all languages were several entities work on terminology, you can now use the very advanced programs of automatic term extraction and quality control tools in combination with the consultation of experts in the different fields, which, I am sure, you already practice.  Concerning IATE, we avoid the import of big batches, exactly in order to avoid quality problems and anyhow the insertion of any term has as precondition the so-called validation by an EU terminologist in their native language. We indeed cooperate with the national entities opting for descriptive instead of prescriptive terminology, but the insertion of their terms is undergoing the same procedures of validation. This validation process is also necessary for the collections created by academic cooperation projects like the one your universities started this year with the European Parliament in the framework of “Terminology without Borders” (https://yourterm.eu)

Georgian terminology had its difficulties in every century. The 21st century digital world has presented us with different tasks. Hopefully, we will get over this difficulty too, even late, but at least we will create a proper Georgian term bank, through which the rest of the world will get to know one ancient and important language. Thank you for your support and cooperation. Hopefully, Georgia and the Georgian Terminological Conference will leave a good impression on you and we will be able to plan future cooperation.

Opening our project “Terminology without Borders” to all languages, some of them being also future official EU languages, like Georgian, gave to me the possibility to widen my knowledge about the terminology work in languages and nations like e.g. Mongolia, where I recently participated at a very important conference. It is fascinating to learn about the history of Georgian Terminology that starts already in the 10th century and to find out the direct connection to Greek in Eprem Mtsire’s statement saying that “he chose the Greeks own child”, creating the most significant Georgian grammatical terminology directly related to the Greek language, instead of Europe’s practice taking it only through the Latinised forms.  Then it is astonishing how the work could continue in the Soviet power period, produce the high quality trilingual glossaries of the Institute of Linguistics in the past century and end up with the creation of the Georgian Terminological Association in 2017, which became also member of the European Association for Terminology. I have been very impressed by the volume and quality of terminology work in the several meetings we had with all of you in launching our cooperation.  We were very happy to enrich with the Georgian glossaries the resources we make public to the users of our official EU websites. You should not think that only Georgia is still trying to create and impose the normative terminology needed especially for the new automation in translation and interpreting. It is a common effort of all of us working in terminology and our cooperation will be of mutual help to improve our practices and to prepare in the best way the accession of Georgian to the family of EU official languages when Georgia will become a member of the European Union.

Lia Karosanidze
Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics at Tbilisi State University;
Head of Association for Terminology of Georgia