Terminology Management In The Translation Project Of Urban Transit Systems And Technology

This paper introduced the translation project of a textbook Urban Transit Systemsand Technology, which was provided by teachers from School of Transportation andLogistics of Southwestern Jiaotong University and translated by28MTI studentsfrom Chengdu University of Technology (CDUT), and also described the terminologymanagement (TM) in the project. Since this was the first translation project forstudents in CDUT, there were many problems in the project translation and projectmanagement. This paper discussed TM problems in different stages of the project andproposed a TM solution based on concept system.Few attention was given to TM due to two reasons. First, the value of TM has notbeen recognized yet. Second, a common stereotype about TM is that TM is nothingbut using TM tools to store terms, and the often-used overseas TM softwares areexpensive. However, TM is very important to translators, and TM is not just aone-step work but a collection of activities permeating every step of a translationproject. TM is a) before translation, exploring the key information in the original textto facilitate the understanding of the original text and terms in it; b) during translation,making sure that the understanding, translation, and written format of terms are allcorrect and proper; c) after the translation is finished, organizing the terms.Concept system is a collection of relations between concepts. So the TM solutionfeatured concept system in the textbook translation project is a) before translation,translators should try to find the concept system in the textbook based on the book’sfeatures; b) during translation, concept system can be utilized to facilitate thecommunication between translators and experts, indirectly improving the quality oftranslation; c) after the translation is finished, concept system can be applied toimprove the Excel-based termbases and with Autofilter function in Excel, terms aredisplayed in categories of concept system, further strengthening the understanding andmemory of terms and providing convenience for future translation work. It is hopedthat this paper can be helpful to TM education and practices.