Linguistic aspects of standardization - need for joint actions of academia and business

Abstract

The problem of understanding and proper interpretation of standards in different languages is becoming increasingly obvious. English is the dominant language of formal standardization - standards are written in English and then translated into the official and national languages. In translation of technical texts, a translation standard has not yet been given the deserved attention. The current standardization community poses the question of whether international standards should be translated into national languages. Almost every European transition country can encounter technical problems related to translation standards. Technical committees in the framework of the national standardization organizations often do not have sufficient capacity to adequately translate technical terms and standards. Therefore, the inclusion of the academic community and state institutions is necessary. Terminology infrastructure is the basis for scientific, educational and interactive communication of business factors in order to have fuller and more effective communication. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the initiative for establishing The Centre for Terminology Management and Research in Organization in which would be located the terminology database of Serbian expert terms with the aim of collecting and managing them. This center would significantly contribute, in addition to other benefits for the Serbian economy, to the quality of standards' Serbian translation. It would also be the place where national standardization organizations could find a solution to a number of problems in translation of international standards.