ISO/TC 37 is a technical

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

within the

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...

(ISO) that prepares standards and other documents concerning

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for br ...

and principles for

terminology Terminology is a group of specialized words and respective meanings in a particular field, and also the study of such terms and their use; the latter meaning is also known as terminology science. A ''term'' is a word, compound word, or multi-wo ...

and language resources. Title: Terminology and other language and content resources Scope: Standardization of principles, methods and applications relating to

and other

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

and content

resources Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon their av ...

in the contexts of

multilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

and cultural

diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

ISO/TC 37 is a so-called "horizontal committee", providing guidelines for all other technical committees that develop standards on how to manage their terminological problems. However, the standards developed by ISO/TC 37 are not restricted to

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

. Collaboration with

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

is sought to ensure that the requirements and needs from all possible users of standards concerning terminology, language and structured content are duly and timely addressed. Involvement in standards development is open to all stakeholders and requests can be made to the TC through any liaison or member organization (see the list of current members and liaisons of ISO/TC 37:) ISO/TC 37 standards are therefore fundamental and should form the basis for many

localization Localization or localisation may refer to: Biology * Localization of function, locating psychological functions in the brain or nervous system; see Linguistic intelligence * Localization of sensation, ability to tell what part of the body is a ...

translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

, and other

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...

ISO/TC 37 "Terminology and other language and content resources"

International Standards are developed by experts from

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

and business who are delegates of their national standards institution or another

organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is an legal entity, entity—such as ...

in liaison. Involvement, therefore, is principally open to all stakeholders. They are based on consensus among those national standards institutes who collaborate in the respective committee by way of membership. ISO/TC 37 develops

International Standards international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Org ...

concerning: * terminological principles and methods * vocabulary of terminology and language resource management * terminology work * preparation and management of language resources * preparation and layout of terminology standards * computerized terminography and

lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...

* terminology documentation * coding and codes in the field of terminology and other language resources * applications of terminology and other language resources in

language engineering Language engineering involves the creation of natural language processing systems, whose cost and outputs are measurable and predictable. It is a distinct field contrasted to natural language processing and computational linguistics. A recent tre ...

and

content management Content management (CM) is a set of processes and technologies that supports the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. When stored and accessed via computers, this information may be more specifically referre ...

* translation, interpreting and related technology ISO/TC 37 looks upon a long

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

of terminology unification activities. In the past, terminology experts - even more so experts of terminology

theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be ...

and methodology - had to struggle for wide recognition. Today their

expertise An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable s ...

is sought in many application areas, especially in various fields of standardization. The emerging multilingual

information society An information society is a society where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation and integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drivers are information and communication technologies, which have resulted in rapid inf ...

and

knowledge society A knowledge society generates, shares and makes available to all members of the society knowledge that may be used to improve the human condition. A knowledge society differs from an information society in that the former serves to transform informa ...

will depend on reliable digital content.

Terminology Terminology is a group of specialized words and respective meanings in a particular field, and also the study of such terms and their use; the latter meaning is also known as terminology science. A ''term'' is a word, compound word, or multi-wo ...

is indispensable here. This is because terminology plays a crucial role wherever and whenever specialized

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

and

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as Descriptive knowledge, awareness of facts or as Procedural knowledge, practical skills, and may also refer to Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called pro ...

is being prepared (e.g. in research and development), used (e.g. in specialized texts), recorded and processed (e.g. in data banks), passed on (via

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

and

teaching Teaching is the practice implemented by a ''teacher'' aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the context of an educational institution. Teaching is closely ...

), implemented (e.g. in technology and knowledge transfer), or translated and interpreted. In the age of

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...

the need for methodology standards concerning multilingual digital

content Content or contents may refer to: Media * Content (media), information or experience provided to audience or end-users by publishers or media producers ** Content industry, an umbrella term that encompasses companies owning and providing mas ...

is increasing - ISO/TC 37 has developed over the years the

for methodology standards for

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...

Terminology standardization

The beginnings of terminology standardization are closely linked to the standardization efforts of IEC ( International Electrotechnical Commission, founded in 1906) and ISO (

, founded in 1946). A terminology standard according to

IEC The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and r ...

Guide 2 (1996) is defined as "standard that is concerned with terms, usually accompanied by their definitions, and sometimes by explanatory notes, illustrations, examples, etc." ISO 1087-1:2000 defines

as ''"set of designations belonging to one special language" and designations as "representation of a

concept Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by ...

by a sign which denotes it".'' Here, concept representation goes beyond terms (being only linguistic signs), which is also supported by the state-of-the-art of terminology science, according to which terminology has three major functions: # basic elements carrying meaning in domain

, # ordering of scientific-technical

at the level of concepts, # access to other representations of specialized information and knowledge. The above indicates that terminological

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete Value_(semiotics), values that convey information, describing quantity, qualitative property, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of sy ...

(comprising various kinds of knowledge representation) possibly have a much more fundamental role in domain-related information and knowledge than commonly understood. Today, terminology standardization can be subdivided into two distinct activities: * standardization of terminologies, * standardization of terminological principles and methods. The two are mutually

interdependent Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...

, since the standardization of terminologies would not result in high-quality terminological data, if certain common principles, rules and methods are not observed. On the other hand, these standardized terminological principles, rules and methods must reflect the state-of-the-art of theory and methodology development in those domains, in which terminological data have to be standardized in connection with the formulation of subject standards. Terminology gained a special position in the field of standardization at large, which is defined as ''"activity of establishing, with regard to actual or potential problems, provisions for common and repeated use, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context"'' (ISO/IEC 1996). Every technical committee or sub-committee or working group has to standardize subject matters, define and standardize its respective terminology. There is a consensus that terminology standardization precedes subject standardization (or "subject standardization requires terminology standardization").

History of ISO/TC 37

ISO/TC 37 was put into operation in 1952 in order "to find out and formulate general principles of terminology and terminological lexicography" (as terminography was called at that time). The

of terminology standardization proper - if one excludes earlier attempts in the field of metrology - started in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which was founded in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1906 following a recommendation passed at the International Electrical Congress, held in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, United States, on 15 September 1904, to the extent that: ''"...steps should be taken to secure the co-operation of the technical societies of the world, by the appointment of a representative Commission to consider the question of the standardization of the

nomenclature Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal conventions of everyday speech to the internationally ag ...

and ratings of

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

al apparatus and machinery".'' From the very beginning,

considered it its foremost task to standardize the terminology of electrotechnology for the sake of the quality of its subject standards, and soon embarked upon the International Electrotechnical

Vocabulary A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...

(IEV), whose first edition, based on many individual terminology standards, was published in 1938. The IEV is still being continued today, covering 77 chapters as parts of the International Standard series IEC 60050. The IEV

Online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" o ...

Database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases s ...

can be accessed on Electropedia The predecessor to the

(ISO), the International Federation of Standardizing Associations (ISA, founded in 1926), made a similar experience. But it went a step further and - triggered by the publication of Eugen Wüster's book "Internationale Sprachnormung in der Technik" nternational standardization of technical language(Wüster 1931) - established in 1936 the Technical Committee ISA/TC 37 "Terminology" for the sake of formulating general principles and rules for terminology standardization. ISA/TC 37 conceived a scheme of four classes of recommendations for terminology standardization mentioned below, but the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

interrupted its pioneering work. Nominally, ISO/TC 37 was established from the very beginning of ISO in 1946, but it was decided to re-activate it only in 1951 and the Committee started operation in 1952. Since then until 2009 the secretariat of ISO/TC 37 has been held by the International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm), on behalf of the

Austrian Standards International Austrian Standards International (formerly german: Österreichisches Normungsinstitut), abbreviated ASI, is a standards organization and the ISO member body for Austria. History Its predecessor organization, the ''Österreichischer Normenaussc ...

Austria. Infoterm, an

international non-governmental organization An international non-governmental organization (INGO) is an organization which is independent of government involvement and extends the concept of a non-governmental organization (NGO) to an international scope. NGOs are independent of government ...

based in Austria, continues to collaborate as a twinning

secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who is the ninth winner of the Ame ...

. After this the administration went to CNIS (China).

Objective of ISO/TC 37

To prepare standards specifying principles and methods for the preparation and

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a Government agency, government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includ ...

of language resources within the framework of standardization and related activities. Its technical work results in

(and Technical Reports) covering terminological principles and methods as well as various aspects of

computer-assisted Computer-aided or computer-assisted is an adjectival phrase that hints of the use of a computer as an indispensable tool in a certain field, usually derived from more traditional fields of science and engineering. Instead of the phrase computer-ai ...

terminography. ISO/TC 37 is not responsible for the co-ordination of the terminology standardizing activities of other ISO/TCs.

Structure of the committee

* ISO/TC 37/SC 1 (Principles and methods) * ISO/TC 37/SC 2 (Terminographical and lexicographical working methods) * ISO/TC 37/SC 3 (Systems to manage terminology, knowledge and content) * ISO/TC 37/SC 4 (Language resource management) * ISO/TC 37/SC 5 (Translation, interpreting and related technology)

Published Standards

ISO 639 ISO 639 is a set of standards by the International Organization for Standardization that is concerned with representation of names for languages and language groups. It was also the name of the original standard, approved in 1967 (as ''ISO 639/R ...

Codes for the representation of names of languages, with the following parts: *

ISO 639-1 ISO 639-1:2002, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 1: Alpha-2 code'', is the first part of the ISO 639 series of international standards for language codes. Part 1 covers the registration of two-letter codes. There are 1 ...

:2002 Codes for the representation of names of languages —- Part 1: Alpha-2 code (ISO 639-1/RA - Registration Authority for the maintenance of the code: Infoterm *

ISO 639-2 ISO 639- 2:1998, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code'', is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. The three-letter codes given for ea ...

:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages —- Part 2: Alpha-3 code (ISO 639-2/RA - Registration Authority for the maintenance of the code: Library of Congress *

ISO 639-3 ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for ...

:2007 Codes for the representation of names of languages —- Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages (ISO 639-3/RA - Registration Authority for the maintenance of the code: SIL International) *

ISO 639-4 ISO 639 is a set of standards by the International Organization for Standardization that is concerned with representation of names for languages and language groups. It was also the name of the original standard, approved in 1967 (as ''ISO 639/R ...

:2010 Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 4: General principles of coding of the representation of names of languages and related entities *

ISO 639-5 ISO 639-5:2008 "Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups" is a highly incomplete international standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It wa ...

:2008 Codes for the representation of names of languages —- Part 5: Alpha-3 code for language families and groups *

ISO 639-6 ISO 639-6, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 6: Alpha-4 code for comprehensive coverage of language variants'', was a proposed international standard in the ISO 639 series, developed bISO/TC 37/SC 2(International Organiz ...

:2009 Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 6: Alpha-4 code for comprehensive coverage of language variants—Extension of coding for language * ISO 704:2009 Terminology work —- Principles and methods * ISO 860:1996 Terminology work —- Harmonization of concepts and terms * ISO 1087-1:2000 Terminology —- Vocabulary —- Part 1: Theory and application * ISO 1087-2:2000 Terminology work —- Vocabulary —- Part 2: Computer applications * ISO 1951:1997 Lexicographical symbols particularly for use in classified defining vocabularies * ISO 1951:2007 3rd Ed. -- Presentation/Representation of entries in dictionaries – Requirements, recommendations and information * ISO 6156:1987 Magnetic tape exchange format for terminological / lexicographical records (MATER) (withdrawn) * ISO 10241:1992 Preparation and layout of international terminology standards * ISO 10241-1:2011 Terminological entries in standards – General requirements and examples of presentation * ISO 10241-2:2012 Terminological entries in standards – Part 2: Adoption of standardized * ISO 12199:2000 Alphabetical ordering of multilingual terminological and lexicographical data represented in the Latin alphabet * ISO 12200:1999 Computer applications in terminology —- Machine-readable terminology interchange format (MARTIF) —- Negotiated interchange * ISO 12615:2004 Bibliographic references and source identifiers for terminology work * ISO 12616:2002 Translation-oriented terminography *

ISO 12620 Linguistic categories include * Lexical category, a part of speech such as ''noun'', ''preposition'', etc. * Syntactic category, a similar concept which can also include phrasal categories * Grammatical category, a grammatical feature such as ''te ...

:1999 Computer applications in terminology —- Data categories ''obsoleted by'' ISO 12620:2009 *

:2009 Terminology and other language and content resources—Specification of data categories and management of a Data Category Registry for language resources * ISO 15188:2001 Project management guidelines for terminology standardization * ISO 16642:2003 Computer applications in terminology —- Terminology Mark-up Framework (TMF) *

ISO 17100 ISO 17100:2015 Translation Services-Requirements for Translation Services was published on May 1, 2015. It was prepared by the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and cont ...

:2015 Translation Services-Requirements for Translation Services * ISO 22128:2008 Guide to terminology products and services – Overview and Guidance * ISO 23185:2009 Assessment and benchmarking of terminological resources – General concepts, principles and requirements * ISO 24613:2008 Language Resource Management - Lexical Markup-Framework (LMF) * ISO 30042:2008 Systems to manage terminology, knowledge and content—TermBase eXchange (TBX)

Standards and other ISO deliverables in preparation

ISO 639 family: Language coding

Other standards

''Note: Current status is not mentioned here - see ISO Website for most recent status. Many of these are in development.'': * ISO 704 Terminology work - Principles and methods * ISO 860.2 Terminology work - Harmonization of concepts & terms * ISO 1087-1 Terminology work - Vocabulary - Part 1: Theory and application * ISO 12618 Computer applications in terminology - Design, implementation and use of terminology management systems *

Terminology and other content and language resources — Specification of data categories and management of a Data Category Registry for language resources * ISO 21829 Language resource management - Terminology (TLM) * ISO 22130 Additional language coding * ISO 22134 Practical guide for socio-terminology * ISO 22274 Internationalization and concept-related aspects of classification systems * ISO 24156 Guidelines for applying concept modelling in terminology work * ISO 24610-1 Language resource management - Feature structures - Part 1: Feature structure representation * ISO 24610-2 Language resource management - Feature structures - Part 2: Feature systems declaration (FSD) * ISO 24611 Language resource management - Morpho-syntactic annotation framework * ISO 24612 Language resource management - Linguistic Annotation Framework * ISO 24614-1 Language resource management - Word Segmentation of Written Texts for Mono-lingual and Multi-lingual Information Processing - Part 1: General principles and methods * ISO 24614-2 Language resource management - Word Segmentation of Written Texts for Mono-lingual and Multi-lingual Information Processing - Part 2: Word segmentation for Chinese, Japanese and Korean * ISO 24615 Language resource management - Syntactic Annotation Framework (SynAF) * ISO 24617-3 Language resource management - Named entities * ISO 26162 Design, implementation and maintenance of terminology management systems * ISO 29383 Terminology policies - Development and Implementation

References

External links

ISO International Organization for Standardization

ISO Online Browsing Platform

ISO/TC 37/SC4 Language Resources Management

ISO/TC 37 press kit

International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm)

Terminology Policy Section

World Language Documentation Centre

The Terminology Blog (some general articles on terminology, standardization and related issues)

ISO/TC 37 Annual Meetings 2007
Provo, Utah, United States
ISO/TC 37 Annual Meetings 2008

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

* ISO/TC 37 Annual Meetings 2009: Bogotá, Colombia * ISO/TC 37 Annual Meetings 2010:

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, Ireland
ISO/TC 37 Annual Meetings 2016

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:ISO TC 37 Terminology #037 Technical specifications