Terminology control
Terminology represents a company’s specialist vocabulary, and is a topic which affects every corporate unit – not merely in respect of the translation process – including translators as well as proofreaders, sales as well as marketing, product development and documentation, and not least senior management as well as secretariats.
Terminology begins with the precise definition of the specialist words and binding definitions of phrases and formulations in the native tongue. Does your company use the term “quick”, “urgent”, “quickly as possible”, “asap”, “express” or simply “fast”? Do you call a successful project “perfect”, “optimum”, “best possible”, “outstanding”, “great” or even “super”? In case of doubt, even having two different terms for one and the same matter can lead to misunderstandings, both within the company as well as amongst end users – and within the framework of the translation process can double translation costs, or even multiply these many times over in the event of translations into further languages.
Company-specific terminology management offers you a uniform corporate language and moreover represents the perfect solution when it comes to overcoming language and cultural barriers: against the backdrop of increasing globalisation, this consequently represents the foundation for the successful development of international sales markets.
In addition to the very substantial reduction of translation costs and the establishment of a uniform corporate language as a key competitive advantage, there are many good reasons for the terminology management offered by SemioticTransfer: agreed definitions as well as their translation are stored in the translation memory. Thereafter, this saves hard cash and slashes the time required for all follow-up translations. It also stops the terminology developing a momentum all of its own: in the absence of controls, terminology has an inherent tendency to grow uninhibitedly, with group-specific interpretations as well as stand-alone solutions. And once a neologism has become established, it is practically impossible to correct. For this reason, it is important to record new specialist words as quickly as possible and to clarify and define their precise meaning.
Terminology management can even prevent costly consequences in the form of corporate image damage or compensation claims brought on the grounds of imperfect product information.
Terminology management workflow with SemioticTransfer is a straightforward process:
If company-specific specialist terminology has not yet been developed, then the terminology is (mechanically) extracted from existing representative documents (e.g. product manuals, catalogues, service instructions, training documents, marketing brochures, press releases, patent texts, standards as well as previous translations), before being manually checked and translated. Once the results have been approved, the information is entered into the database. From then on, this database will guarantee a consistent corporate language, and will save time and money for all follow-up translations.
To ensure that in future texts are written in a translation-compliant manner, using exclusively the formulations already stored in the translation memory, a large number of plug-ins are available. Ongoing crosschecks facilitate easy access to existing formulations during the text composition process. This boosts text quality, while at the same time cutting translation costs.
SemioticTransfer is of course also able to optimise existing terminology by checking and updating terminology databases as well as by standardising their structure and content.
With the SemioticTransfer across language server as a central platform for all language resources, terminology components can now be compiled from the widest possible variety of sources: company-specific specialist terminology is maintained in crossTerm, and if necessary supplemented with explanatory notes or images. At the same time, the definition of so-called neologisms prevents the utilisation of undesired language variants. Furthermore, the research tool crossSearch means terminological sources from the internet can also be used.
To make full use of all terminology sources and to ensure that these are made available to all involved parties for consistent utilisation, SemioticTransfer is able to offer you a wide variety of options: for example, the terminology system crossTerm, the crossDesk editor, as well as the crossConnect interface for translation-compliant text composition.
Our Guided Tour (http://www.across.net/de/across_tour_de_web.html) offers you a concise overview of the interaction between all the components of the across language server.
SemioticTransfer GmbH is an across service provider and training centre. The German company, across Systems GmbH, develops and markets a tool by the same name for Corporate Translation Management (CTM).
In short: the translators and linguists at SemioticTransfer extract, define and systemise your corporate and sector terminology, manage your terminology database and offer you the perfect web solution for worldwide utilisation by your employees. This means SemioticTransfer can provide you with terminology consistency, quality assurance for your entire communications needs, as well as enormous time and cost savings!
Any further questions?
For discreet and non-binding advice and support, phone +
Or simply use our contact form under contact@semiotictransfer.com
A non-binding cost estimate for your requirements can be obtained under angebot@semiotictransfer.com