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Munkhtsetseg Namsrai, PhD

Institute of Language and Literature,

Mongolian Academy of Sciences

European Parliament

Schuman Chamber, Luxembourg

03.Dec.2015

Today’s situation of Mongolian terminology standardization

Directorate-General for Translation Terminology Coordination Unit

Content

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1

2

5

Conclusion

Introduction

3

4

Short history of State Commission of

Terminology

Discussion

Today’s situation of Mongolian terminology

work and standardization

Introduction

Only the use of systematic terminology permits an

unambiguous, non-contradictory understanding of the

requirements and recommendations specified by the

standardization process.

Terminology standardization is the base of systematic

development of a country.

For this reason, terminology standardization is one of the most

important issues to solve urgently for Mongolia, in order to

develop science and technology and knowledge-based economy.

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Terminology studies in Mongolia

The tradition of Mongolian terminology studies has ancient

origins because Mongolia has had multilateral relations with not

only neighboring countries but also third countries in political,

economical, cultural, literary and religious aspects since ancient

time.

As a result of the wide range of foreign relations in all fields,

Mongolian language has enriched with new terms denoting new

concepts, phenomena and things.

Thus, Mongolian scholars and translators of all generations

have studied terminology and published many dictionaries

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Modern Mongolian terminology studies

1924-1961

Establishment of Terminology organization

1961-1991

Development of Terminology organization

Since 1991

New tendency of Terminology studies

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Resource: Historical outline of Mongolian terminology, UB.2014

Period 1924-1960

The State Commission for Terminology was founded in 1924.

Cooperation with Academy of Sciences of Soviet Union (USSR)

Started to translate and form terms of textbooks of secondary schools and

created Russian-Mongolian dictionaries of subject field terms (political,

medical, botanical and chemical terms)

In 1942 the SCT which consisted of 24 members including linguists and

subject field specialists was under the control of Council of Ministers in

Mongolian People’s Republic (until 1990)

From 1950s the SCT started to publish seasonal series “The report of State

Commission for Terminology” that included newly approved terms.

Basically, work of SCT focused on formulating social and national

economical terms.

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Period 1961-1990

In 1961 Mongolian Academy of Sciences was established. As the result of it,

terminology work was expanded.

In 1664 the regulation of SCT was approved under the resolution by the

Council of Ministers of Mongolian People’s Republic. According to this

regulation, SCT was the terminology authority that has right and responsibility

regarding to terminology.

During this period, SCT had published more than 20 terminology dictionaries,

10 series of terminology books and 147 periodicals “The report of State

Commission for Terminology” including various subject field terms.

Terms were standardized only after approval by the SCT and whole country

used those approved and standardized terms in daily and subject field

communication.

This period was the most active time for terminology work in Mongolia.

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Let’s see some documents that shows how the SCT works

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Official request from Ministry of Geology and

Mining Industry to SCT for approval of

Geology and mining terminological dictionary

SCT’s document that approved Russian and Mongolian

dictionary of Erdenet mining terminology

Mongolian Agency for Standardization and Terminology (MASM)

State Commission

for Terminology

Subject field

translators or

specialists

Linguists and terminologists

Terminology work system until 1990s

Well-filtered terms

were standardized

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Since 1990 till now

One of the organizations that had stopped their activities after the democratic

revolution was the SCT.

Since Mongolia started to adhere the open foreign policy, Mongolian language

has enriched with large amount of foreign words and terms in all social and

scientific fields (from English, Japanese, Korean and so on).

In 1997, SCT was reorganized and subdivided into 3 sections: Commission for

social science terminology, Commission for technical science terminology and

Commission for natural science terminology. Also 2001, members of three

sections of the SCT were reappointed.

Commission for social science terminology has 12 members

Commission for natural science terminology has 9 members

Commission for technical science terminology has 12 members

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Since 1990 till now

But the SCT hasn’t worked and coordinated terminology until

today. Due to this, terminology work of all subject fields has

been a mess until today.

Consequences: Terminology problems

In all fields, there are many dictionaries including non-

standardized various terms which refer the same concepts

Various companies and sections use different terms for the same

concept

Increase the number of linguistically incorrect terms

Ambiguity in social communication

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Since 1990 till now

Mongolian Agency for

Standardization and Metrology

Private companies

State organizations

Individuals

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Non-filtered terms have been

standardized

Reasons

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Before 1990s

• Centrally-planned economy

• Usually from Russian

• Easy to control usage of new terms because of SCT’s regular work

Since 1990s

• Market economy

• Different languages such as English

• More difficult to control usage of new terms in all fields due to non-systematic work of different entities.

Situation of terminology standardization

Mongolian Agency for Standardization and Metrology (MASM)

The national standard code is MNS.

Technical sub-committee for terminology of MASM has

48members including various subject specialists, linguists,

translators and terminologists. But this committee is also not

active.

According to the information by Mongolian Agency for

Standardization and Metrology 3% or more than 90 standards of

total national standards is the terminological standard.

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Situation of terminology standardization

The most of them are terms of electricity, energy, technique,

environment and agriculture and industry.

According to the standardization program, international

terminology standards of environment, food, information

technology, health and mechanics have been formulated to

national standards.

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Example of terminology standard

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Situation of terminology standardization

Due to no coordination, different terms for one concept

by different entities are standardized

Some terms are standardized at the same time when

products and services are standardized without any

supervision of SCT.

Terminology is standardized without being based on

standardized principles and methods.

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Institute of Language and Literature

According to the law of Mongolian language, the National Board for

Language Policy is responsible for adopting terminology standard and

providing professional advisory in concern with terminology.

The Sector of Applied Linguistics in the Institute of Language and

Literature of Mongolian Academy of Sciences is implementing the main

role in terminology studies under the National Board for Language

Policy.

Our sector (the Sector of Applied Linguistics) has been in charge of

creating, translating, appropriating, dissemination of new terminology

and providing governmental and non-governmental organizations with

professional advise in concern with terminology.

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Problems

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No cooperation between

MASM and Terminology

organizations

No terminology

planning, policy Linguistically

incorrect terms

Not enough

experience

ambiguous communication

No tradition and Innovation No terminology

technology

No specialized

terminologists

Correct and consistent

terminology

To manage

terminology

To prepare

proffesional

terminologists

To

reorganize

SCT

To improve the

quality of

terminology

standardization

To make systematic

terminological policy

How to solve the problems?

To cooperate

with

international

organizations

I put forward the claim that

in order to solve those

terminology problems in

Mongolia, we urgently need

to organize sequential works

to develop terminology

science. What should we do

for it? I think first of all we

have to do the following

things:

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To make systematized and unified terminological policy

STRUCTURE AND

SYSTEM OF

TERMINOLOGY FIELD

MONITORING TERM

APPLICATION

HUMAN

RESOURCE

TERM

STANDARDIZATION

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To reorganize SCT

To reestablish the SCT upgrading its structure and activities in

accordance with current social needs under the Parliament.

This Committee must be the central organization of terminology

work and responsible for term coordination.

To assist policy makers to develop and implement terminology

policy

To facilitate terminology research and terminology

management.

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To learn how to use translation software for collecting, processing, and presenting terminology

terminology technology

To make national terminology database

To harmonize it to the international database

TermWiki

To manage terminology

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To cooperate with international organizations

Membership of international terminology

organizations

Preparation of terminology specialists

Joint project International

conferences and workshops

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To prepare proffesional terminologists

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•To include subject of terminology

studies in curriculum of

universities

•To prepare terminologists in

domestic universities

•To send terminologists to master’s

and doctorate degree training in

universities of terminology

developed countries

To improve the quality of terminology standardization

As developing country, a priori terminology standardization is rather needed in

the form of terminology planning. Such approach, when it is based on

successful linguistic planning can provide the preconditions for an accelerated

transfer of knowledge, information and technology.

Remember that since the terms are not documented in a systematic format (e.g.

database), they cannot be standardised

In recent years, the focus of ISO/TC 37's activities has shifted towards applied

methods, especially computer-assisted ones, and to their application within

standardization and similar activities.

To have national terminology standard based on international

terminology standard

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Conclusion

Mongolian government has been paying a special attention to the

terminological issue within the framework of language policy.

To sum up, correct and consistent terms can help Mongolian development

in all spheres. For this reason, terminology standardization can be viewed

from a number of perspectives, which not only demonstrate dependencies

with each other, but also with standardization in general.

In order to standardize correct and consistent terms we need to take

appropriate measures in complex. In other words, we need to pay

attention on whole process of terminology work from creating to

standardizing.

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Thank you for your attention.

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