Navigation through terminological databases

Abstract

Translating technical texts may cause many problems concerning terminology, even for the professional technical translator. For this reason, tools such as terminological databases or termbanks have been introduced to support the user in finding the most suitable translation. Termbanks are a type of machine-readable dictionary and contain extensive information on technical terms. But a termbank offers more possibilities than providing users with the electronic version of a printed dictionary. This paper describes a multilingual termbank, which was developed within the ESPRIT project Translator's Workbench. The termbank allows the user to create, maintain, and retrieve specialised vocabulary. In addition, it offers the user the possibility to look up definitions, foreign language equivalents, and background knowledge. In this paper, an introduction to the database underlying the termbank and the user interface is given with the emphasis lying on those functions which initiate the user into a new subject by allowing him or her to navigate through a terminology field. It will be shown how, by clustering the term explanation texts and by linking them to a type of semantic network, such functions can be implemented.