Accessibility of Multilingual Terminological Resources - Current Problems and Prospects for the Future

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the various problems in making multilingual terminological resources available to users. Different levels of diversity and incongruence among such resources are discussed. Previous standardization efforts are reviewed. As a solution to the lack of co-ordination and compatibility among an increasing number of ‘standard ’ interchange formats, a higher level of integration is proposed for the purpose of terminology-enabled knowledge sharing. The family of formats currently being developed in the SALT project is presented as a contribution to this solution. 1. Current Problems Multilingual Terminological Resources (MTRs) have been created for decades for a variety of purposes. The tradition of specialized lexicography or terminography for creating technical dictionaries has developed concomitantly with the rise of modern science and technology; multilingual terminology databases have been in existence since the