‘Say what we may of the inadequacy of translation, yet the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and worthiest undertakings in the general concerns of the world.’

Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Terminology Management

Terminology management enables that terminology is collected, structured and built up systematically and consistently.

Mistakes in the terminology automatically lead to translations with contradictory definitions and slow the whole translation process. Those are precisely the sources of error that should be avoided.

The aim is to build up consistent terms that can be used for correct and consistent translations.

For translators, maintaining and managing terminology is essential. Since language is dynamic, terminology databases in which the terminology is stored, must be maintained and updated permanently. This ensures quality assurance for translations.

Translation Memory (TM)

How do you guarantee this consistency as a translator?

This is achieved with the aid of a translation memory. During the translation process, all sentence pairs in the source and target languages are stored. However, this has nothing to do with machine translation. In case of recurring texts, the translation memory will display the stored translation. Here, I can either accept the translation or adapt it to changes. In this way, it is possible to assure the consistency of the translation.

Terminology Management

In my own work, I use the translation software SDL Trados Studio.

Other technical aids

  • Microsoft Office
  • Electronic specialist dictionaries