Bodil Nistrup Madsen & Hanne Erdman Thomsen

Concept clarification is vital for the successful development of IT systems and yet this stage is often neglected. Developing a terminological ontology as a basis for the development of a data model gives a solid foundation for the data modelling phases. This paper shows how we at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) integrate terminological concept modelling as a first step in data modelling. First, we introduce terminological concept modelling with terminological ontologies, i.e. concept systems enriched with characteristics modelled as feature specifications. This enables a formal account of the inheritance of characteristics and allows us to introduce a number of principles and constraints which render terminological concept modelling more coherent than earlier approaches.

Úna Bhreathnach

Term planning is the way in which terms develop or are developed, are made available and are put into use in a language community. When, in 2005, I became editorial manager of a new project to develop a National Terminology Database for Irish, Focal.ie¹ (www.focal.ie), I developed a practical interest in the way terminology work is planned (or, often, just allowed to develop) for a language. The importance of addressing all aspects of terminology planning – and not just the provision of lists of terms, in the hope that they will be accepted and used – became especially clear to me. It cannot be assumed that, without strategic thought and planning, terminology will be developed and accepted into use in a way which is beneficial and which contributes strategically to the development of a language.

Marta Małachowicz

My interest in terminology developed while I was a student at the Department of Applied Linguistics at Warsaw University, Poland. After discovering that there are places called national terminology centres in the Nordic Countries, I wished to visit such a centre one day to get acquainted with its activities, projects and certain aspects of in-house work. My wish came true last year when I had the possibility to visit the Swedish Centre for Terminology (TNC) in Stockholm. This visit broadened my perspective on terminology work in many aspects, especially in practical dimension. I considered it a very valuable experience and wanted to continue discovering the principles of practical terminology work in the Nordic Countries, this time in Finland – the country that has a different language situation than Sweden because it has two official languages.