The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2021 - 24

marketing terminology geared
toward a Spanish-speaking
audience, but we also need
to be aware that both Mexico
and the U.S. consist of united
states. Once we consider
this, we realize that the label
estadounidenses is not specific
enough. Choosing English as
the only target language for
a project for an " American "
audience is inaccurate.
For starters, Spanish is an
important American dialect
for the U.S., but so are the
hundreds of other languages
spoken in this country. The
important takeaway is that no
matter the language chosen,
individual Americans are more

Figure 4 Terminology Workflow

likely to purchase products
geared specifically to them

When I think of coffee to
go, I think about Starbucks,
and I'm sure I'm not the
only one. For me, the idea
of " coffee to go " is mapped
onto the term " Starbucks, "
where Starbucks may
be shifting in its lexical
function. This shift is also
referred to as a coinage.
" Just like new things are
constantly invented, so are
new words. The process
of inventing a completely
new word is referred to
as coinage, and the same
term is applied to the result
of that process. Coinages
often enter the language as
trade names for commercial
products, and over time
they become general
words referring to any
version or variation of the
original product. Examples
of coinages that are used
as terms: aspirin, nylon,
kleenex, teflon, xerox; to
google, to photoshop. " 4
Although the brand
name Starbucks is not a
coinage yet, it's starting to

24

become easy to see how the

need to be defined. For

(i.e., marketed using familiar

company has, through brand

example, the letters ICE

language they use every day at

recognition, conveniently

stand for very different

work and at home).

made me and many others

things by simply changing

around the world associate

the domain from engineering

the concept of " coffee to

(internal combustion

go " with the designation

engine) to immigration (U.S.

Starbucks. This results in
many Starbucks products in
the hands of customers and
many millions of dollars in
sales. That's powerful.

Establishing
Specifications for
Terminology Workflows
To establish terminology
workflows that drive
results, the key is
customization. Still, certain
aspects of your workflow
will always be the same,
like the need to define the
specifications for your
project. (See Figure 4.) Here
are some steps to help in
this process.

STEP 1 Define the subject
field. The subject field

Immigration and Customs
Enforcement). Associations
with the word impact
perception. Thinking of ice
cubes in a refreshing soda
certainly has a different effect
than if " ice " makes you think
of the polar ice caps melting.

STEP 2 Define the
languages and audience. The
audience and languages also
need to be defined. This may
seem obvious, but if we're
preparing terminology for
a project intended for an
American audience, it will
make a big difference if the
label " American " is used

Different strategies will
be followed depending on
whether the terminology
is being collected for a
specific subject field (e.g.,
technical terminology that
a community of specialists
use to communicate with one
another about their craft)
or a specific company. If the
purpose of the project is not
defined, unhappy results are
more likely.

Build a Representative
Universe of Texts
Once specifications have
been established, corpora
of technical texts within a
specific domain are collected.

to refer to someone from

It's important that these

the Americas or to someone

texts are written by subject

from the U.S.

matter experts (SMEs) who

For example,

(or subject area, domain,

estadounidenses (Americans)

vertical, or whatever you

might seem like a specific

choose to call it) will always

enough label to use in

The ATA Chronicle | May/June 2021

STEP 3 Define the
purpose of the project.

are native speakers of each of
the project languages.
When identifying texts
written by " native " speakers,
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