Legal Terminology and Lesser Used Languages: The Case of Mòcheno

Since 2003 the Institute for Specialised Communication and Multilingualism of the European Academy of Bolzano (EURAC) offers education courses in legal terminology work, coupled with introductions in related/complementary disciplines, e.g. documentation, specialised translation and technical writing. Next to professional trainings, the Institute held also ad-hoc courses, such as a two-day course organised in 2008 for the Mòcheni, a Germanic minority living in the Italian Province of Trento. Since the passing of provincial law no. 6/2008, which foresees specific measures for the protection and promotion of local language minorities, the Mòcheno-speaking community has the right to use their language in all situations of social, economic and administrative life in both oral and written communications. Notwithstanding the recent compilation of a standard grammar, the Mòcheno language is not yet developed for the use in technical and specialised contexts. Indeed, the most urgent needs seem to exist in the translation of administrative terminology

COMUNICAZIONE ISTITUZIONALE INCLUSIVA IN ALTO ADIGE: ESPERIENZE E QUESTIONI APERTE

La Provincia autonoma di Bolzano ha un’esperienza ultradecennale nella redazione inclusiva di testi normativi e amministrativi nelle tre lingue ufficiali italiano, tedesco e ladino. Il contributo ripercorre la nascita nel 2010 di una legge volta alla parificazione di uomo e donna anche a livello linguistico e la creazione di direttive per il linguaggio di genere nei testi dell’Amministrazione provinciale. Affronta inoltre le questioni aperte a livello redazionale, traduttivo e terminologico. L’equivalenza delle diverse versioni linguistiche di una norma può essere messa in dubbio dall’impiego di diverse strategie di visibilizzazione o neutralizzazione del genere. A livello terminologico è necessario un supporto per chi scrive e traduce testi, ma diversi fattori pongono sfide teoriche e pratiche di non facile risoluzione, tra cui l’astrattezza dei termini giuridici, la mancanza di attestazione e di consuetudine nell’uso di alcuni agentivi femminili e i dubbi sulla loro corretta gestione metodologica in una risorsa terminologica.   Inclusive institutional communication in South Tyrol: experiences and open questions The Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano has over a decade of experience in drafting inclusive legislation and administrative texts in its three official languages Italian, German and Ladin. The paper reports on a law from 2010 aiming at achieving equality among men and women also at the linguistic level and on the ensuing guidelines for inclusive language. The paper also deals with open questions concerning text drafting, translation and terminology. The equivalence of the different language versions of a law can be questioned if different strategies for inclusive writing (viz. binary vs non-binary terms) are used. At the level of terminology, writers and translators need support, but several factors pose theoretical and practical challenges that are not easy to overcome. These include the abstract nature of legal terms, the lack of examples of use and the scarce diffusion of certain female agentives as well as doubts about their correct processing from within a terminological resource.

Chapter Piccola guida per sviluppare strumenti terminologici

Developing terminology products as tools for organizing and transferring specialized knowledge requires careful considerations already during the planning stage. The main content of this paper is a checklist, which is the result of reflections gathered during the reprogramming and restyling of the Information System for Legal Terminology bistro (http://bistro.eurac.edu). bistro is an application used to publish the data contained in a multilingual terminological data base. The checklist is designed as a starting point and reference for the conception and structuring of terminology tools, e. g. online terminology reference tools. Its aim is to help identify needs and, at the same time, to guide developers in the basic choices to be made already in the planning stage

BUDUJĄC MOSTY MIĘDZY TEORIĄ I PRAKTYKĄ: ROZWÓJ TERMINOLOGII W RAMACH PRAWA I ADMINISTRACJI

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the workflow for the elaboration of multilingual terminology in the legal and administrative domain. Next to giving a short overview over each single step in the workflow, we focus on two important aspects that make multilingual terminology work in the legal domain so challenging and partly different from multilingual terminology work in other domains: the micro-comparative approach and the strong involvement of domain experts. Finally, we discuss a series of practical aspects that distinguish work in the legal domain from terminology work in other domains and partly even clash against some of the requirements set by general terminology theory and practice.Celem artykułu jest zilustrowanie rozwoju terminologii multilingwalnej w ramachdziedziny prawa i administracji. Przedstawione są kolejne kroki tego procesu ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem tych aspektów, które powodują, że praca z terminami multilingwalnymi stanowi poważne wyzwanie i różni się od multilingwalnej terminologii stosowanej w innych dziedzinach. Ponadto omówione są praktyczne aspekty wynikające z tych różnic

Let\u2019s do it together: Instances of cooperation in terminology work: Roles, tools, needs and difficulties

High quality multilingual terminology work is essentially a cooperative activity, as different roles (e.g. terminologists, domain experts, IT experts) interact to achieve the intended results. Furthermore, in the last decade the world of terminology has seen various efforts in fostering data sharing, exchange and mergers as well as the publication of previously in-house terminological data collections. The times when terminology was kept for internal purposes only and every organisation strived to meet internal demands by starting separate \u2013 albeit often similar \u2013 terminology projects are coming to an end: the era of cooperation in terminology has begun. However, several issues hampering cooperation and communication in terminology remain to be faced. Smooth collaboration between different professionals, challenges in work coordination, limited support from dedicated tools and a complex legal framework are some of the relevant aspects addressed in the paper

Chapter Piccola guida per sviluppare strumenti terminologici

Developing terminology products as tools for organizing and transferring specialized knowledge requires careful considerations already during the planning stage. The main content of this paper is a checklist, which is the result of reflections gathered during the reprogramming and restyling of the Information System for Legal Terminology bistro (http://bistro.eurac.edu). bistro is an application used to publish the data contained in a multilingual terminological data base. The checklist is designed as a starting point and reference for the conception and structuring of terminology tools, e. g. online terminology reference tools. Its aim is to help identify needs and, at the same time, to guide developers in the basic choices to be made already in the planning stage

Terminology workflows in theory and practice

This contribution intends to illustrate the processes and roles involved in terminology work in real life scenarios. It is mainly based on 17 interviews with terminologists and terminology managers employed in the most important terminology centres in Europe and beyond, which were carried out between 2011 and 2012 within the LISE (Legal Language Interoperability Services) project. Next to providing tools aimed at improving the quality of terminological resources in legal and administrative domains, the project partners developed a set of Guidelines for legal and administrative terminology work, which give a detailed and wider picture of the issues treated in this article. In this paper particular attention is given to those aspects of practical terminology work that contradict common convictions, differ from terminology work in domains other than law and administration or partly clash against general terminology theory

Ko jezik postane pravo: metodologija in kriteriji južnotirolske komisije za standardizacijo nemških in italijanskih ekvivalentov

South Tyrol is a part of Northern Italy where a large German-speaking minority lives. In 1972 the local population was granted the right to use the minority language with the public administration, in court and in all realms of public life (DPR 672/1972). An urgent need for a clear and consistent German legal language that faithfully reflected the Italian legal system ensued. The task of responding to such terminological emergency was assigned to a commission of six legal experts and translators (DPR574/1988), who were to officially validate (i.e. standardise) the German language equivalents to the existing legal and administrative Italian terms. The use of the newly standardised terminology is mandatory for all public bodies. After about 20 years of activity, the proposed paper aims at analysing the results obtained and difficulties faced by the Commission during their daunting task of creating a German language terminology to express the concepts of Italian law with a constant view to the neighbouring well-established German speaking legal systems. The paper will illustrate the decision-making process, term selection criteria and strategies of neologyas well as discuss the procedural problems and terminological inconsistencies on the basis of real examples.Na Južnem Tirolskem, ki je del severne Italije, živi velika nemško govoreča manjšina. Leta 1972 je bila tej populaciji zagotovljena pravica do rabe maternega jezika v javni upravi, na sodišču in na vseh področjih javnega življenja (DPR 672/1972). Temu je sledila nujna potreba po jasnem in doslednem nemškem pravnem jeziku, ki bi skladno zrcalil značilnosti italijanskega pravnega sistema. Naloga reševanja nastale terminološke nujnosti je bila zaupana šestčlanski komisiji, sestavljeni iz pravnih strokovnjakov in prevajalcev (DPR 574/1988). Komisija je morala obstoječim pravnim in upravnim italijanskim terminom določiti nemške ekvivalente in jih tako standardizirati. Raba te novo standardizirane terminologije pa je postala zavezujoča za vse javne organe. Avtorice želijo v svojem prispevku analizirati rezultate dela komisije in težave, s katerimi se ta že več kot dvajset let sooča pri oblikovanju take nemške terminologije, ki bi ustrezala pojmom italijanskega pravnega sistema, pri tem pa ima vseskozi pred očmi tudi uveljavljene pravne rede sosednjih nemško govorečih držav. Avtorice skušajo ponazoriti, kako potekajo odločitve komisije, kakšne kriterije ta uporablja za izbiro terminov in kakšne strategije pri oblikovanju neologizmov, ob tem pa s pomočjo konkretnih zgledov opozarjajo na proceduralne težave in terminološke nedoslednosti

When Language becomes law: The methodology and criteria adopted by the South Tyrolean terminology commission for the standardization of German and Italian translation equivalents

South Tyrol is a part of Northern Italy where a large German-speaking minority lives. In 1972 the local population was granted the right to use the minority language with the public administration, in court and in all realms of public life (DPR 672/1972). An urgent need for a clear and consistent German legal language that faithfully reflected the Italian legal system ensued. The task of responding to such \u201cterminological emergency\u201d was assigned to a commission of six legal experts and translators (DPR 574/1988), who were to officially validate (i.e. standardise) the German language equivalents to the existing legal and administrative Italian terms. The use of the newly standardised terminology is mandatory for all public bodies. After about 20 years of activity, the proposed paper aims at analysing the results obtained and difficulties faced by the Commission during their daunting task of creating a German language terminology to express the concepts of Italian law with a constant view to the neighbouring well-established German speaking legal systems. The paper will illustrate the decision-making process, term selection criteria and strategies of neology as well as discuss the procedural problems and terminological inconsistencies on the basis of real examples