Termonologi zentru eta bankuak - Tere Barrenetxea

According to the writer different types of Centres of Terminology and data banks exist throughout the world, each type dependant on the problem in which it is involved or which it is trying to solve. Thus, international terminological centres exist in which the objective is to normalize the problems of international terminology in specific fields, especially in industry and industrial research, as well as others whose principal objective is the linguistic normalization of minority languages which, even though spoken by millions of inhabitants, find themselves outside the circuits of modern information technology.

Another distinction can be established between these centres according to the amplitude or restriction of their particular field of activity because while centres with a broad scope of interest may exist, others may be limited, for instance, to international terminology in meteorology or art.

They may also be private or public centres, although they are normally to be found within the confines of the universities.

After describing and showing examples of different centres based in England, France, Canada, Russia, Germany, Israel, Spain and Catalonia the writer analyzes the way in which the data, which is normally used in the data banks of terminology, can be organized. He also considers the conditions which a competent systematization of terminology should meet and the information which it should offer to the user: the meaning of each term, equivalents in other languages, terms whose use is recommended by other entities for the same semantic field, concepts which bear a similarity to the aforementioned, terms which are preferred to express the determined concept, the definition of the concept, synonyms, and interconceptual relationships.

Finally, the author analyzes the conditions, above all of an institutional nature, that the Basque Centre for terminology should satisfy, and gives information about the steps which have been taken in the realization of this objective.