TERMINOLOGY at ERA Anna Patacchini Interagency Terminology Workshop Luxembourg, 09/12/2011

TERMINOLOGY at ERAAnna Patacchini

Interagency Terminology WorkshopLuxembourg, 09/12/2011

Content of presentation

1. ERA role and main tasks

2. ERA needs with terminology

3. ERA « Glossary » project

4. Conclusions

09/12/2011 Interagency Terminology Workshop 2

Part 1 – ERA role and main tasks

What is the Agency and what does it do?

• European Railway Agency (ERA), Valenciennes (F)• established 2004/2005• approx. 150 staff, core tasks: Interoperability and Safety

•approx. 150 staffServices/products delivered

Technical specifications

Reporting (regular/specific)

Dissemination (e. g. training)

Interagency Terminology Workshop09/12/2011 4

The Agency contributes to European transport policy* objectives

Effective enforcement of EU-legislation across all Member StatesMS to implement existing directives andremove inconsistent tools!

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* White Book: a vision for rail transport 2050

**Technical Specification for Interoperability

• “the only place where all the actors meet”• EU harmonised technical rules and procedures• Full Set of TSIs** for the Trans European Network

is in force• Extend the scope of the TSIs

Objective ERA contribution

• Driver for transparency, cross acceptance• Driver for common understanding• Driver for application through dissemination

Options (e. g., under discussion):•Delivering EU certifications, authorisations•Facilitating « commercial interoperability »

Creation of theSingle European Railway Area

Stronger role for the ERA


Double location of the Agency

Offices in Valenciennes Conference centre in Lille


Organisation chart


Part 2 - ERA terminology needs

ERA terminology needs

Translations:• Recommendations to EC for consultation (FR/DE)• Draft legal texts for consultation (FR/DE)• Guidance documents (eventually - all EU + candidate

countries)• Other type of documents (e.g.: national legislation)

Use of harmonised definitions• IATE as feasible solution


ERA terminology needs – a case/1

“Application guide for the design and implementation of railway safety management system” (published December 2010)•Translated in EU + candidate countries language•Pretty all translations were reviewed by native speakers•Some little problems with terms related mainly to organisational engineering and management systems:

• System based approach• Implementation• Management control• Leading indicator / lagging indicator• Monitoring• Report


ERA terminology needs – a case/2

The Economic Evaluation (EE) Unit was seeking for translation of terms related to business and economics.

•They contacted the Safety Unit that had led the Glossary study (next part of the presentation) to ask if the terms they needed was contained in the selected list;

•The Safety Unit explained that the Glossary study was based on terms related to railway safety and interoperability and redirected EE to IATE;

•EE found all the terms they needed and were very much satisfied about using IATE.


ERA terminology needs

Use of harmonised definitions

• Initially the need was indentified during the preparation of legal texts concerning the adoption of Common Safety Methods

• The main aim was to support National Safety Authorities in harmonising decision making criteria using appropriate terms and relevant translations

(effectiveness of documents is related not only to grammatically correct translation, but also on appropriateness and usage of making sense terms)


Part 3 – ERA “glossary” project

Timing

Study to examine existing glossary of terms related to railway safety and interoperability and preparation of a draft Agency’s Glossary

ERA/2007/SAF/OP/03

Summary timetable date

LAUNCH DATE 24 January 2008

COMMENCEMENT OF ACTIVITIES 5 June 2008

INTERMEDIATE WORKSHOPS September/November 2008

COMPLETION OF ACTIVITIES 2 March 2009


Glossary study – Project Goal

Collection of railway terms focusing specifically on safety and interoperability terminology, to be used by ERA in its day-to-day activities and in workshops that it seeks to organise in future.

Based on definitions contained in European legislation and other publicly available, relevant documents as well as on terms identified in workshops/interviews with stakeholders in English, French and German speaking countries.

The Glossary was intended to be prepared in a format that can be updated and possibly shared with other parties outside the Agency.


Outlines of the study

The work was organised in two stages and four activities:

Stage 1Activity 1: Documentation Research on existing termsActivity 2: Stakeholder workshops

Stage 2Activity 3: Proposal of missing terms and (possibly) unique

definitionsActivity 4: Preparation of the Glossary (access data base)


Result of activity 1: Research

• Interoperability • Safety • Operations • Management/Organisational

• Technical • EU legal documents

• Guidance documents• National specific legal texts (no

transpositions) • Company glossaries • Standards


Result of activity 2: Stakeholders’ comments

• Difficulties in transposing EU legislation into national law;

• Problems specifically related to interoperability and safety terminology;

• Legal/regulatory issues arisen from ambiguities and misinterpretation;

• Concerns arising from misinterpretations, etc.;• Role of UIC RaiLexic• Extension of glossary to other languages • Availability of glossary


Activity 3 - identification / categorisation / filtering

A case: over 30 entries for “railway undertaking” as a result of the terms referenced in a number of separate Directives. A systematic analysis which reduced this to 23:•Taking out superseded definitions (example: the definition in 91/440/EC for railway undertaking has been replaced by the definition in 2001/14/EC - a reference in the entry shows that the 2001/14/EC definition supersedes the 91/440/EC one);•Taking out those definitions that are exactly the same as other definitions of the same term;•Taking out those definitions that are exactly the same as other definitions of the same term except for the fact that they are the plural version of the term

The remaining 23 definitions sources are distributed:•11 are taken from national legislation;•7 are taken from European legislation•3 are taken from national network statements;•2 are taken from other Glossaries


Activity 4: Preparation of the Glossary

Assembly of the Draft Final Agency GlossaryApprox. 2300 entries were listed in homogenous categories where possible, and, within each

category, in alphabetical order. Each term was accompanied by all definitions allocated to it during the iteration process on an interactive browser (access) based tool.

Accompanying report• Description of the resources & sources used to perform the activities; • Description of the methodology;• Summary of all interview partners and the form of structured interviews;• Presentation of the results of the information gathering activities; and• Analysis of the results and conclusions.

Final WorkshopDiscussion on the contents of the Final Glossary /changes that need to be made to draft.


After the study

• It was proven important to have an open IT tool for searching terminology

• It was proven important to manage terms on a continuous basis:

• Many texts referenced in the glossary study were replaced by new versions (i.e. TSIs and relevant application guides)

• New / amended definitions are bound to be created

• Meeting


Objectives for ERA

To deliver results ERA needs an effective and harmonised use of terminology

• for preparation of good documents (on the other hand translators can benefit of these terms)

• for dissemination of harmonised terms (in all EU languages)Expectations:•Re-use of existing glossaries (ERA Glossary study, UIC RailLexic)•Open access to all stakeholders•Easy to use / easy to maintain tool


Actions that might be taken

A feasible proposal, to achieve the afore mentioned objectives, would be:

“Terminology management” as part of ERA quality initiatives;

one person for Unit is given the task of terminologist, with one of them coordinating the group, in order to keep contacts with CdT/IATE.

this group of persons should:

o be trained at Centre de Traduction

o check the latest version of terms contained in the glossary study

o prepare a procedure for a co-ordinated work

o gather and manage the needs of the relevant Unit

o feed-in terms in IATE and validate.09/12/2011 Interagency Terminology Workshop 23

Part 4 – Conclusions

Conclusions

IATE already proved to be an important tool• A stable interaction (management processes and

procedure) has to be created;• Improvement can be made indexing railway related

terms;• IATE may incorporare UIC RaiLexic.


Many thanks for your [email protected]

Documents

TERMINOLOGY at ERA Anna Patacchini Interagency Terminology Workshop Luxembourg, 09/12/2011