Generally speaking, a terminology product should have a set of information per entry and per term that qualifies it as a reliable reference or it may even have mandatory wording. The information includes the source, creation date and author, as well the modification information, a definition, validation and usage status, just to mention a few important fields.
However, quite often we get simple and plain lists of keywords as terminology resources. They sometimes just have terms in a source language and in one or several target languages, with hardly any extra information like validation status. Furthermore, sometimes due to local data exchanges, they don’t have any reliable creation or modification dates or author information, because the systems where they are hosted overwrite that information with the last import date and user.
Are those term bases really terminology? And, even more importantly, are they safe?
Let’s recap a little. Terminology is about languages for special purposes (LSP) and that has a lot to do with contexts and specific usages. That means that a word or a multiword expression becomes a term when it is used in a certain semantic context. In the case of corporate terminology particularly, where the collected designations may not look like proper terms in comparison with a scientific paper, it is crucial to keep that in mind. In any case, terminological meanings are often only triggered when terms are used in a specific context and in a specific way. And the fields in a terminological entry describe that context and usages.
Therefore, I would say that the answer to the question about whether or not a plain term list is terminology, I would say no, it isn’t. And regarding the second question, my answer would be that they are not safe. Imagine a translation company receiving such a list and giving it to the translator with the instructions to use the wording the client has provided. That brings back memories of when I was a child and my friends and I used to play Chinese whispers (we called it the broken telephone, el teléfono escacharrado): just a part of the information gets through, and it is also isolated from outside. The end result can be quite hilarious…
I wouldn’t recommend playing children’s games with your corporate content. It’s far better to let professionals create and manage your terminology.
Photo by: Maarten van den Heuvel