TERMIUM Plus

TERMIUM Plus is an electronic linguistic and terminological database operated and maintained by the Translation Bureau of Public Services and Procurement Canada, a department of the federal government. The database offers millions of terms in English and French from various specialized fields, as well as some in Spanish and Portuguese.[1]

TERMIUM Plus
Type of site
terminology and linguistic database
Founded1976
Predecessor(s)Banque de Terminologie de l’Université de Montréal
OwnerTranslation Bureau, Public Services and Procurement Canada
URLwww.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca
CommercialNo

History

TERMIUM Plus was initially developed by the Université de Montréal in October 1970, under the name Banque de Terminologie de l’Université de Montréal (BTUM).[2]: 509  The database was under the direction of Marcel Paré, with a vision to produce the most flexible bilingual language file that would be available to all.[3] BTUM was initially funded by private donors and government subsidies, subsequently growing with the help of professionals in the field of translation over the following years.[4]

At the end of 1974, however, the Translation Bureau under the Secretary of State for Canada's department showed interest in the operation of BTUM.[5]: 594  The goal of the Bureau at the time was to standardize terminology throughout the public service, as well as the federal public administration.[6][7]: 235 

In 1975, the BTUM was able to obtain data and user responses in collaboration with the language services of Bell Canada.[2]: 509 [8]

In January 1976, the Secretary of State officially acquired BTUM, and renamed the database TERMIUM (TERMInologie Université de Montréal).[2]: 509  The system was then transferred to the central computer of the federal government in Ottawa, and began to integrate approximately 175,000 files that the BTUM initially compiled with the files that the Translation Bureau had been working on.[2]: 509  In the years to follow, the Bureau began the sorting process, along with the input process onto the computer. The database grew to 900,000 records by 1987.[2]: 509 

Development

As terminological records grew in the TERMIUM database, the Canadian government received a proposal in 1985 from a Toronto-based company to launch TERMIUM in a CD-ROM format, in order to make the database more accessible to users.[5]: 595  By fall of 1987, a pilot project for CD-ROM was launched to investigate the responses from its users, which included services under the Translation Bureau and other private Canadian companies.[5]: 595  After some data compilation and investigation, the Bureau incorporated an indexing system to improve the speed and accuracy of term extraction.

By 1990, TERMIUM on CD-ROM was commercially available through subscription (with an annual fee of $1,100 to $1,500). Updates were released every three to four months.[2]: 512  In 1996, TERMIUM on CD-ROM received an award from ATIO (the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario).

In October 2009, TERMIUM Plus and an array of language tools under the Language Portal of Canada[9] were launched with free online access.[10]

Features

TERMIUM was initially developed to contain terminological records in both of Canada’s official languages (English and French).[2]: 510  As the system upgraded to its third-generation version in 1985, it contained records in other languages such as Spanish, in order to accommodate its growing range of users.[11]: 111  It is worth noting, however, that in these “multilingual” records, the term in the source language would be in English or French, with its equivalent in a non-official language.[7]: 237 

Currently, there is a vast collection of specialized domains and fields covered by TERMIUM Plus, ranging from administration (including appellations), arts, sciences to law and justice.

Aside from the millions of entries recorded by TERMIUM Plus, the database also contains writing tools for both the English and French language (such as The Canadian Style, a writing style guide; and Dictionnaire des cooccurrences, a guide to French collocations), archived glossaries, as well as a link to the Language Portal of Canada (containing various French and English writing resources).

See also

References
  1. Government of Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada (2018-06-01). "Translation Bureau – Public Services and Procurement Canada – Canada.ca". www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  2. Gagnon, René (1994). "Les grandes banques de terminologie". Meta: Journal des Traducteurs (in French). 39 (3): 498–520. doi:10.7202/002783ar.
  3. Dubuc, Robert (December 1972). "Termium: System Description". Meta: Journal des Traducteurs. 17 (4): 203–219. doi:10.7202/002642ar.
  4. Gagnon 1994, p. 509
  5. Dupont, Sylvie (1989). "La mise sur DOC d'une banque de données linguistiques : l'exemple de TERMIUM". Meta: Journal des Traducteurs (in French). 34 (3): 594–596. doi:10.7202/002678ar.
  6. Landry, Alain (1983). "Termium au service de la traduction". Équivalences (in French). 14 (2): 57–60. doi:10.3406/equiv.1983.1081.
  7. Adshead, Mariam (October 1986). "Termium – The Canadian government linguistic data bank". Computers and Translation. 1 (4): 235–238. doi:10.1007/bf00936423.
  8. Dubuc, Robert; Paré, Marcel; Grégoire, Jean-François (1978). "Description du système Termium". Lebende Sprachen (in French). 23 (1): 3–8. doi:10.1515/les.1978.23.1.3.
  9. Language Portal of Canada
  10. Public Works and Government Services Canada (8 October 2009). "Government of Canada announces launch of its Language Portal and free access to TERMIUM Plus® for all Canadians - Canada.ca". Government of Canada. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  11. Andersen, Aldean; Bergeron, Marie; Dupuis, Gilbert; Leonhardt, Christine; Marrotte, Jean-François; Moritz, Rita (1987). "La création d'une banque de terminologie et perspectives d'avenir en terminotique". Meta: Journal des Traducteurs (in French). 32 (2): 111–123. doi:10.7202/004465ar.

Bibliography
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