“Identification, comparative analysis and presentation of English, German and Arabic terminology on marine tourism”
It is a well known fact that specialized discourse, though not altogether different from general language, has some specific features that can be exploited in different acts and procedures (Penagos 1999) and terminology is one of them. As C. Galinsky states, in the relation between specialized knowledge, specialized languages and terminologies (in the meaning of the concepts and their representations in the different subject fields), terminology is accorded a crucial role, whenever and wherever specialized information and specialized knowledge are being prepared, used, recorded and processed, passed on, transformed and transferred, translated or interpreted (Galinsky 1999).
According to Halliday (1993), the language of science is a linguistic construal of experience and, by its nature, a language in which theories are constructed; its special features are exactly those which make theoretical discourse possible. However, this type of discourse does not remain constant. Due to fast changes in all spheres of life terminology undergoes permanent change as well, often creating a multitude of terms for the same reality.Unfortunately in many cases it takes these terms quite a long time to be documented, translated and presented, thus an obstacle for information transfer and effective communication among researchers and practitioners is being created.
Products of various types lexicographic research, namely dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri, etc., are considered as representations of a link between words and their conceptual units that reflect standardized and specific units. In addition, they are viewed as a way of encoding all relevant information associated with lexical entries in a manner easily accessed by their users (Koren, 1997). Moreover, they are understood as crucial tools for bridging gaps between words and their associated meanings in specific domain as well as powerful reference resources that present objective information about general or specific knowledge areas (Cowie, 2000).
Marine tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the Sultanate (Oman Fact Sheet (http://www.ignitebiz.com/factsheets/oman_factsheet.pdf; http://main.omanobserver.om/node/18182). Country’s unique landscape with 2,092 km of coast line with a variety of beaches, coves, creeks and incredible marine life attract visitors from all over the world who represent different cultures and speak different languages. With the English language playing a pivotal role in the development of marine tourism in Oman, quite interestingly, “German speakers are Oman’s second largest market (after Arabic speakers)” (from the address of Maitha Al Mahrouqi, undersecretary, Ministry of Tourism, to TUI-Swiss/Flex-Travco representatives. “Swiss tourists make a beeline to Sultanate’s sunny beaches.” Times of Oman, September 5, 2012).
To further promote marine tourism in Oman, prepare our students to new developments in the marine tourism market and facilitate communication between the specialists in marine tourism, it is important to remove language barriers. Additionally it is important to provide our students with a vital source for data and information concerning marine tourism discourse and facilitate their communication in the target languages. This can be done through careful study of the lexicon of marine tourism, identification of the terms, which highlight the environmental and marine identity enjoyed by the Sultanate, their similarities and differences in the three key languages, namely Arabic, English and German, specific choices made in matching words between languages (Hartmann, 1987), and providing a platform for multilingual key terminology optimal presentation.
Purpose of the study
This study is aimed at identifying key English, Arabic and German terminology on marine tourism, and examining their similarities and differences.
It is hoped that being supplied with succinct definitions and authentic contexts of terms used in marine tourism as well as audio files and visualizations, students, researchers, teachers, tourism community in Oman will be provided with better communication tools, and many linguistic barriers will be removed.
The proposed project is based on a piloted study conducted in 2009-2010 by a team of researchers from the Language Centre and the College of Arts and Social Sciences (Victoria Tuzlukova, Fathiya Al-Abri, Rahma Al-Mahrooqi, Saleh Al-Busaidi and Fawzia Al-Seyabi) aimed at investigation of the English and Arabic terminology on language learning pedagogy.
The study will be divided into stages and will take one year to complete.
Stage One
Stage One (four months) will relate to the creation of textual multilingual corpora on marine science and identification of the head terms in the respected languages. In Stage One team members will be requested to identify and thoroughly revise the existing materials in English, German and Arabic related to marine tourism; create specialized corpora, namely representative samples of specialized texts illustrating the full repertoire of marine tourism in three languages; classify and analyze the created corpora with the help of existing computational support systems (WordNet, 2010) for deriving and selection of head terms (entries) for further investigation. Corpus based approach suggested for this research will provide objectivity, completeness, accuracy and credibility of the designed glossaries. In Stage One ways to encode all the relevant information associated with the terminological entries will be configured. This will be done on the basis of the review of literature about corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, lexicography, terminology and terminography.
Stage Two
Stage Two (four months) will be aimed providing a range of the linguistic and extra linguistic information about the selected terms in three languages. This information might include semantic evidence for different meanings and nuances of the terminology; grammatical and syntactic collocability, i.e. grammatical combinations of the terms with the other words in specialized contexts and environments; statistical evidence for different terms, meanings or grammatical constructions’ frequency, audio files, photos, pictures.
A database of marine tourism terms in English, Arabic and German will be created in Stage Two. English is taken as a reference language since most of the specialized literature on marine tourism is in this language, but translations of the terms and their definitions into Arabic and German will be provided. These translations will be supported by the corpus of linguistic and extra linguistic resources in similar disciplines to create a reliable description of the terms.
In Stage Two team members and students will be requested to be involved in contribution process, namely in reviewing translations; discussing the quality of translations; translating the English terms into Arabic and German; improving the quality of translations; suggesting new terms; giving new terms definitions. During Stage Two training for students in all aspects related to the research of marine tourism specialized discourse and terminology will be organized.
Stage Three
Stage Three (four months) will relate to dissemination of the research results, designing and on-line publishing of the compiled lexicographic resource on Moodle. Such resource can offer great potential benefits for its users, namely quick and easy access and use; interactive nature (Nesi, 1999; Tuebert, 1996). As explained by Pollar (1999), due to their non-linear structure, electronic web-based lexicographic resources provide their users with opportunities to explore concepts according to their own agendas. This can be done within the framework of the project via embedded hyper-links over the Moodle, allowing promptly retrieval of further information on English, German and Arabic terminology on marine tourism without any temporal or spatial limitations.
Limitations
The success of understanding English, German and Arabic terminology on marine tourism depends on the ability to make up clear conceptual relationships between the terms within one language and across the languages. Being developed in such a framework, multilingual endeavors of such type will be very useful for their future users. Concept models and clear links will also support future construction of an independent and structured knowledge base for specialized disciplines under terminological investigation. However, conceptual modeling and linking terms from various languages is a difficult and time consuming task that will need effort, time and devotion. Much effort should also be put forth to undertake a very complicated task of creation, annotation and analysis of the corpora. This might need assistance.
Importance in general and to Oman
The most important result of the project will be the accessibility of a multilingual lexical resource in an electronic form for marine tourism researchers, students and specialists in Oman and in due course the construction of multilingual resources in other disciplines. This will undoubtedly be the start of a lexicography program for the 21st century at Sultan Qaboos University. Additionally, during this project several students from the College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences and College of Art will be trained, and the results of this project will be used as a support for MASF3100 Marine Tourism and English for Humanities (Tourism) course. Furthermore, the on-line presence and use of the database will function as a marketing tool for promoting Oman’s marine tourism.
According to Halliday (1993), the language of science is a linguistic construal of experience and, by its nature, a language in which theories are constructed; its special features are exactly those which make theoretical discourse possible. However, this type of discourse does not remain constant. Due to fast changes in all spheres of life terminology undergoes permanent change as well, often creating a multitude of terms for the same reality.Unfortunately in many cases it takes these terms quite a long time to be documented, translated and presented, thus an obstacle for information transfer and effective communication among researchers and practitioners is being created.
Products of various types lexicographic research, namely dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri, etc., are considered as representations of a link between words and their conceptual units that reflect standardized and specific units. In addition, they are viewed as a way of encoding all relevant information associated with lexical entries in a manner easily accessed by their users (Koren, 1997). Moreover, they are understood as crucial tools for bridging gaps between words and their associated meanings in specific domain as well as powerful reference resources that present objective information about general or specific knowledge areas (Cowie, 2000).
Marine tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the Sultanate (Oman Fact Sheet (http://www.ignitebiz.com/factsheets/oman_factsheet.pdf; http://main.omanobserver.om/node/18182). Country’s unique landscape with 2,092 km of coast line with a variety of beaches, coves, creeks and incredible marine life attract visitors from all over the world who represent different cultures and speak different languages. With the English language playing a pivotal role in the development of marine tourism in Oman, quite interestingly, “German speakers are Oman’s second largest market (after Arabic speakers)” (from the address of Maitha Al Mahrouqi, undersecretary, Ministry of Tourism, to TUI-Swiss/Flex-Travco representatives. “Swiss tourists make a beeline to Sultanate’s sunny beaches.” Times of Oman, September 5, 2012).
To further promote marine tourism in Oman, prepare our students to new developments in the marine tourism market and facilitate communication between the specialists in marine tourism, it is important to remove language barriers. Additionally it is important to provide our students with a vital source for data and information concerning marine tourism discourse and facilitate their communication in the target languages. This can be done through careful study of the lexicon of marine tourism, identification of the terms, which highlight the environmental and marine identity enjoyed by the Sultanate, their similarities and differences in the three key languages, namely Arabic, English and German, specific choices made in matching words between languages (Hartmann, 1987), and providing a platform for multilingual key terminology optimal presentation.
Purpose of the study
This study is aimed at identifying key English, Arabic and German terminology on marine tourism, and examining their similarities and differences.
It is hoped that being supplied with succinct definitions and authentic contexts of terms used in marine tourism as well as audio files and visualizations, students, researchers, teachers, tourism community in Oman will be provided with better communication tools, and many linguistic barriers will be removed.
The proposed project is based on a piloted study conducted in 2009-2010 by a team of researchers from the Language Centre and the College of Arts and Social Sciences (Victoria Tuzlukova, Fathiya Al-Abri, Rahma Al-Mahrooqi, Saleh Al-Busaidi and Fawzia Al-Seyabi) aimed at investigation of the English and Arabic terminology on language learning pedagogy.
The study will be divided into stages and will take one year to complete.
Stage One
Stage One (four months) will relate to the creation of textual multilingual corpora on marine science and identification of the head terms in the respected languages. In Stage One team members will be requested to identify and thoroughly revise the existing materials in English, German and Arabic related to marine tourism; create specialized corpora, namely representative samples of specialized texts illustrating the full repertoire of marine tourism in three languages; classify and analyze the created corpora with the help of existing computational support systems (WordNet, 2010) for deriving and selection of head terms (entries) for further investigation. Corpus based approach suggested for this research will provide objectivity, completeness, accuracy and credibility of the designed glossaries. In Stage One ways to encode all the relevant information associated with the terminological entries will be configured. This will be done on the basis of the review of literature about corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, lexicography, terminology and terminography.
Stage Two
Stage Two (four months) will be aimed providing a range of the linguistic and extra linguistic information about the selected terms in three languages. This information might include semantic evidence for different meanings and nuances of the terminology; grammatical and syntactic collocability, i.e. grammatical combinations of the terms with the other words in specialized contexts and environments; statistical evidence for different terms, meanings or grammatical constructions’ frequency, audio files, photos, pictures.
A database of marine tourism terms in English, Arabic and German will be created in Stage Two. English is taken as a reference language since most of the specialized literature on marine tourism is in this language, but translations of the terms and their definitions into Arabic and German will be provided. These translations will be supported by the corpus of linguistic and extra linguistic resources in similar disciplines to create a reliable description of the terms.
In Stage Two team members and students will be requested to be involved in contribution process, namely in reviewing translations; discussing the quality of translations; translating the English terms into Arabic and German; improving the quality of translations; suggesting new terms; giving new terms definitions. During Stage Two training for students in all aspects related to the research of marine tourism specialized discourse and terminology will be organized.
Stage Three
Stage Three (four months) will relate to dissemination of the research results, designing and on-line publishing of the compiled lexicographic resource on Moodle. Such resource can offer great potential benefits for its users, namely quick and easy access and use; interactive nature (Nesi, 1999; Tuebert, 1996). As explained by Pollar (1999), due to their non-linear structure, electronic web-based lexicographic resources provide their users with opportunities to explore concepts according to their own agendas. This can be done within the framework of the project via embedded hyper-links over the Moodle, allowing promptly retrieval of further information on English, German and Arabic terminology on marine tourism without any temporal or spatial limitations.
Limitations
The success of understanding English, German and Arabic terminology on marine tourism depends on the ability to make up clear conceptual relationships between the terms within one language and across the languages. Being developed in such a framework, multilingual endeavors of such type will be very useful for their future users. Concept models and clear links will also support future construction of an independent and structured knowledge base for specialized disciplines under terminological investigation. However, conceptual modeling and linking terms from various languages is a difficult and time consuming task that will need effort, time and devotion. Much effort should also be put forth to undertake a very complicated task of creation, annotation and analysis of the corpora. This might need assistance.
Importance in general and to Oman
The most important result of the project will be the accessibility of a multilingual lexical resource in an electronic form for marine tourism researchers, students and specialists in Oman and in due course the construction of multilingual resources in other disciplines. This will undoubtedly be the start of a lexicography program for the 21st century at Sultan Qaboos University. Additionally, during this project several students from the College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences and College of Art will be trained, and the results of this project will be used as a support for MASF3100 Marine Tourism and English for Humanities (Tourism) course. Furthermore, the on-line presence and use of the database will function as a marketing tool for promoting Oman’s marine tourism.