Current State of Terminology in Lithuania: Scientific Research, Management and Education

The article discusses the current state of terminology in Lithuania, presents terminological research carried out in the last five years, analyses ways of Lithuanian terminology manage­ ment, and briefly overviews terminological education and teaching in Lithuania. Lithuanian terminological research is mostly carried out at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and at universities and other research institutes. The larg­ est part of terminological research is carried out at the Centre of Terminology of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, which researches Lithuanian terminology and terminography, analyses the use of Lithuanian terminology in different fields. Three ways of terminology management are discussed: terminography, creation of term banks and databases and standardisation of terms. The number of term dictionaries published in Lithuania is rather considerable – over 600. The most productive period for publishing term dictionaries is from 1990 Albina Auksoriūtė Current State of Terminology in Lithuania... 339 up to date. Between 1990–2013 more than 420 term dictionaries and special ency­ clopaedias were published. The main and most important terminology database in Lithuania is the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania (lt Lietuvos Respublikos terminų bankas, further – LTB), initi­ ated in 2004. This bank is created as a common information system of state institutions administered by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language (further – Language Commission). There are more than 237,000 term entries in LTB. The article discusses two more terminology databases containing Lithuanian terminology sources – IATE and EUROTERMBANK. The Lithuanian Standards Board, in addition to other work, prepares Lithuanian standards of terms and offers these terms to the Language Com­ mission for evaluation. Since 2000, the Lithuanian Standards Board has been creating a database of standardised terms which currently contains about 64,000 terms. In Lithuania, terminology also exists as an academic discipline; at many universi­ ties, philologists are offered a course in terminology. At many universities, students of other non­philological disciplines are taught a course in language for specific purposes, which covers matters of terminology and terms.


Introduction
The present article discusses the current situation of terminology in Lithuania, intro duces terminological research carried out over the last five years, analyses ways of regulating Lithuanian terms (terminography, creation of term banks and databases, standardisation of terms) and briefly overviews education and teaching of terminol ogy in Lithuania.
The history of written Lithuanian terminology starts in 1547 in Königsberg, which was one of the centres of Lithuanian culture at the time, when the first Lithu anian book was printed.The book was a Lutheran catechism with a short ABC book, some hymns and various other things, prepared by Martynas Mažvydas.The first book is not only a very valuable source of Lithuanian Christian terminology but it also includes terms of linguistics, pedagogy and other fields (Keinys, Auksoriūtė, & Labanauskienė, 2003, p. 59).
Over more than 465 years, Lithuanian terminology has gradually developed in direct relationship to changes of the educational, cultural, economical and political situation of the region.The road towards the contemporary terminology of diverse fields was uneven, with ups and downs as well as stagnation periods.Current terminology formation was started by the national rebirth movement in the second half of the 19th

I. Research
Terminology management is based on theoretical and scientific research into termi nology; thus, currently, the development of terminology as a scientific discipline is of special relevance.Heribert Picht, one of the most prominent theorists of terminology, gives a clear definition of the importance of terminology in the modern world: Science of terminology has metastatus among all other sciences since terminology is a pre condition for all kinds of creation of knowledge and its communication, knowledge ordering, knowledge exchange and knowledge proliferation.Science of terminology is not limited to one particular science or group of sciences but it serves all sciences, although some theoreti cal approaches have to be adapted to the nature of the different sciences (Picht, 2011, p. 24).
Every year, the Centre of Terminology prepares and publishes the research jour nal Terminologija (Terminology).The first issue of the journal appeared in 1994 and the 22 nd issue last year.From the 13 th volume onwards, it has been an international journal of Lithuanian and general linguistic terminology with an international board of editors; articles are printed in Lithuanian, English, and Russian.Terminologija is concerned both with the theory and practice of terminology.It deals with theoreti cal issues, principles and perspectives of terminology, introduces good practice of the development and dissemination of terminology in other countries and presents language and terminology resources.Efforts are made to cover all areas of Lithuanian terminology and to analyse various terminological issues in the European Union documents; education of the academic language is discussed as well as standardisa tion of terms.The sources of modern Lithuanian terminology and its requirements, mistakes in standardisation and inaccuracies in usage are discussed.The publication contains not only research articles but also reviews, summaries of events held and activities undertaken, annotated bibliographies of the latest editions of terminology dictionaries, foreign terminology news.The journal is aimed not only at those man aging terminology but also at users of terminology.
The Centre of Terminology organises scientific conferences on terminology, semi nars for specialists, where researches of the Centre give presentations.In 2010-2015, 6 events were held.
The Institute of the Lithuanian Language maintains close relations with termi nologists from many countries (Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, etc.) and is a member of leading international terminology organisations -International Information Centre for Terminology (INFOTERM) and European Association for Terminology (EAFT).
Researchers of the Centre of Terminology also engage in quite a substantial amount of practical terminological work as they cooperate with the Language Commission as experts, participate in the activity of its Terminology Subcommittee, provide expertise and debate on Lithuanian terms included into LTB.Most employees of the Centre of Terminology assist terminological dictionary compilers as linguiststerminologists and provide consultations.They have prepared the explanatory dictionary of terms Skolinti terminai ir jų atitikmenys (Borrowed terms and their equivalents), available on the Internet at http://sta.lki.lt.The web site of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language is available at www.lki.lt.
Lithuanian terminological research is carried out not only at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language but also at universities and other research institutions; how ever, only individual scholars of those institutions engage in terminological research1.

II. Ways of Terminology Management
There are four distinctive ways of terminology management: terminography, i.e. preparation and publication of term dictionaries; standardisation of terms; creation of term banks and databases; and terminology management through preparation and publishing of academic and other literature, especially textbooks for institutions of higher education (Gaivenis, 2002, p. 63).Three of these ways are discussed in this article: terminography, creation of term banks and databases, and standardisation of terms.

Terminography
The first half of the 19 th century should be considered the beginning of Lithuanian terminography, when the monk Jurgis Ambraziejus Pabrėža (1771-1849) wrote the first manuscript term dictionaries (Dictionarium Botanicum Latino Samogiticum, 1821;Sryje Balsenyyny, 1834;Tayslós augumyynis, 1843).The year 1900 could be regarded as the begin ning of printed Lithuanian term dictionaries, when part of J. A. Pabrėža's manuscript Taislius Augyminis (The System of Plants) titled Botanika arba Taislius auguminis (Botany, or the System of Plants) was issued in America.In Lithuania, the first dictionary was pub lished in 1907 -Žolynas.Lietuvos augalų žodynas ir augalų taislas (Herbs.The Dictionary of Lithuanian Plants and the System of Plants) by Povilas Matulionis (1860Matulionis ( -1932)).Between 1900Between -1940, 13 , 13 term dictionaries of different fields were published in Lithuania -mostly smallscale Russian-Lithuanian and Lithuanian-Russian sets of terms.
Between 1941-1989 not only term dictionaries but also fundamental scientific works were prepared and published, such as Lietuvos TSR fizinė geografija (Physical geography of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic) (1958-1965, 2 vol.), Lietuvos TSR flora (Flora of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic) (1958-1980, 6 vol.), Lietuvių kalbos gramatika (Lithuanian grammar) (1965-1976, 3 vol.),encyclopaedias, monographs, collected scientific works.Over this nearly fiftyyear period, more than 170 dictionaries of different fields were compiled and published, among them term dictionaries with other language equivalents predominated.It is characteristic of Lithuanian terminography of the period 1941-1989 that both explanatory and translation term dictionaries usually provided equivalents in Russian, equivalents from other languages were scarce (see Klimavičius, 2003, pp. 9-32).
In terms of publishing, the most productive period of Lithuanian terminogra phy is from 1990 up to date.In total, more than 420 term dictionaries and special encyclopaedias of different fields were published between 1990-2013.Almost half of term dictionaries are explanatory or translationexplanatory dictionaries.The recent growth of terminographical work has been helped by state support.Before 1996, the Department of Terminology of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language used to approbate term dictionaries and standards; since 1996, approbation and organisation of compilation of term dictionaries was taken over by the Language Commission.
It should be emphasized that the number of term dictionaries published in Lithu ania is quite substantial -over 600; term dictionaries of some fields have even been published several times.However, properly prepared good quality explanatory term dictionaries are not available across all subject areas (explanatory term dictionaries of law, economics, construction, mathematics, medicine, history and other disciplines are lacking).The Language Commission has attempted to improve this situation by inviting tenders for preparation of specific dictionaries and by funding their preparation.It should be noted that lately the number of term dictionaries being compiled has decreasedthe average number of term dictionaries published yearly in the period 2004-2007 was about 20, in 2009-2012 this number stood at around 10, in 2015 -15 dictionaries2.

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The analysis of terminology management in Lithuania should acknowledge the state institution important for standardisation, management and dissemination of Lithuanian terms -the Language Commission which is entitled to evaluate and approve the most important works of language standardising.The Language Com mission on a collegial basis decides on issues pertaining to the implementation of the Law on the State Language, language policy, management and standardisation of the Lithuanian language, etc.The Language Commission evaluates term diction aries, term standards and approbates sets of terms of legal acts and drafts thereof, supports preparation of term dictionaries.
There are 8 subcommittees of the Language Commission; one of them is the Ter minology Subcommittee that deliberates on term dictionaries, term standards, legal acts, the Language Commission recommendations, terminological enquiries of the European Union institutions received via the "onestopshop" system, and other terms.As pointed out in the Language Commission report, in 2014, 50 meetings of the Terminology Subcommittee of the Language Commission were held; it discussed 1,336 term entries furnished by state institutions to LTB, 4 manuscripts of term dictionaries, 1 revised and supplemented edition of a dictionary, 2 draft Lithuanian term standards, 1 revised standard, terminological enquiries of the European Union Institutions received via the "onestopshop" system, names of Lithuanian botanical and zoological nomenclature, other issues on terminology and replacement of foreign words with Lithuanian equivalents (see Valstybinė lietuvių kalbos komisija, 2015).

Creation of Term Banks and Databases
At the end of 2003, the Law on LTB was adopted to regulate the creation, manage ment and funding of LTB.Thus, for 12 years terminology management in Lithuania has been regulated by the law and on this basis LTB was created and is administered by the Language Commission.
The structure of the term bank, technical data of the information system, require ments and other issues are defined in the Methodology of LTB, stating as follows: The purpose of the Term Bank is to ensure consistent usage of the approved terms of the Lithuanian language, particularly those used in legal acts of the Republic of Lithu Explanatory Dictionary of Electrotechnical Terms, 1078 pp., 10,400 terms; Žemės ūkio augalų selekcijos ir sėklininkystės terminų žodynas (2010) -Dictionary of Agricultural Plant Selection and Seed-Growing, 337 pp., 3,000 terms; Informatikos, kompiuterijos ir telekomunikacijų anglų-lietuvių kalbų žodynas (2011) -English-Lithuanian Dictionary of Informatics, Computer Science and Telecommunications), 831 pp., 38,000 Lithuanian terms; Adiafora: Aiškinamasis elektrotechnikos terminų žodynas (2012) -Explanatory Dictionary of Electrotechnical Terms (Electronic source), 10,000 terms; Lingvodidaktikos terminų žodynas (2012) -Dictionary of Linguadidactic Terms, 233 pp.; Aiškinamasis elektrotechnikos ir elektronikos gaminių terminų žodynas (2014) -Explanatory Term Dictionary of Electrotechnics and Electronic Products,4,200 terms.ania, to create a common information system for various public authorities, which could be accessed by and receive data from other individuals and organizations and which could be used freely by specialists in different fields not only in Lithuania but also in other countries ("Lietuvos Respublikos terminų banko metodika", n.d.).
Ministries and their subordinate departments and services, government authorities, the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania and other state institutions are authorised to store and manage terms of their fields in the Term Bank.Terminology Commissions have been established in different state institutions, initially responsible for making an inventory of terms of legislation in force, editing term entries and presenting them to LTB; subsequently, the focus moved to coordination of draft legislative terms with the Language Commission and adding them into LTB.The terms deliberated by the Terminology Subcommittee and approved by the Language Commission are added to LTB with a mark approved.In addition to legislative terms, dictionaries that receive positive assessment from the Language Commission are added to the Term Bank; these are mostly explanatory dictionaries whose terms have a mark recommended.Data from 37 term dictionaries are available in the Term Bank.
In 2014, 1,288 entries of used or recommended legislative terms, also 5 recom mended and 4 deprecated entries of terms of legislative or other documents were included in LTB.In addition to legislative terms provided by state institutions, 1,530 Lithuanian names for botanical and zoological nomenclature recommended or posi tively assessed in the resolutions of the Language Commission were entered into LTB, consisting of 1,025 plant names, 471 insect names, and 34 fish names.
As LTB data increase, so does the number of LTB users and frequency of using the term search.In 2012, about 700,000 enquiries were recorded, while in 2013 the total number thereof since the establishment of LTB exceeded 3 million (see Umbrasas, 2013, pp. 96-122 on the conception, legal basis, structure, enquiry statistics).
LTB contains over 237,000 term entries.At the end of 2016, LTB contained 12,772 entries of approved, 223,858 recommended, and 1,169 deprecated terms.
The Term Bank is currently the most reliable and universal source of Lithuanian termi nology available on the Internet which can be useful for scientists, editors, translators and other specialists working with terminology or interested in terminology (Umbrasas, 2013, p. 122).
LTB is available at http://terminai.vlkk.ltTwo more term databases containing Lithuanian terminology sources are worth mentioning: IATE and EUROTERMBANK.
IATE (Inter-Active Terminology for Europe) is an interinstitutional European Union term database launched in 1999.In 2004, employees of EU institutions started using it.IATE includes all databases of translation services of the European Union that were previously developed on an individual basis (e.g., Eurodicautom, TIS, Euroterms, CDCTERM, and Euterpe).This database was made public in June 2007.The term database is continually updated with terms from EU legislation, names of institutions, organisations, preformulated phrases in legislation, etc.Most IATE entries are multilingual -usually, terms are given in 23 official EU languages, terms of certain fields are also given in Latin.In addition to terms, IATE provides much other data, such as field (domain), definition, sources, context, notes, systemic links to other terms, reliability and acceptability information, etc.At the beginning of 2015, this database contained 1.5 million multilingual term entries, over 8.7 million terms and over 57,000 Lithuanian terms.IATE is available at http://iate.europa.eu/.
EUROTERMBANK is a centralised term bank of the new EU members available via the Internet and linked with other national and international term banks and resources.All terms are classified according to subject areas based on Eurovoc -an offi cial multilingual European Union thesaurus (this bank provides version 4.2 thereof).There are multiple term search possibilities: one can choose language, subject area, search for all forms of the term, search in definitions and explanations or in external databases.In addition, there is a possibility to find terms in the bank according to their status, i.e. approved terms.Term entries given in the EUROTERMBANK are compiled from different sources; however, the original source is always indicated (see Auksoriūtė, 2008, pp. 12-19).
EUROTERMBANK contains over 710,000 term entries consisting of more than 2.6 million terms in different languages, provides over 221,000 definitions, and includes 33 languages in total.EUROTERMBANK is linked with 4 external databases: TermNet.lv(Terminology database of the Latvian Academy of Science), OLSTEN (Open Diction ary of Scientific Terminology of the Agricultural Academy in Szczecin), MoBiDic (Hungarian term database), and IATE.There are more than 78,000 Lithuanian terms and their equivalents in other languages from 11 sources included in this term bank.EUROTERMBANK is available at www.eurotermbank.com.
In addition to large electronic databases and banks, smaller term databases exist.Recently published term dictionaries usually have electronic versions; thus, some authors provide them on the Internet.In addition, Lithuanian terminology resources are available on the websites of different projects and institutions (www.raštija.lt;http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/ev/ev.main;http://www.zodynai.ff.vu.lt., etc.).

Standardisation of Terms
The Lithuanian Standards Board is a national standardisation institution established in 1991 that forms technical committees for preparation of Lithuanian standards and coordinates their activity, sets the order of adoption of international, European and foreign standards as Lithuanian, approves, publishes and disseminates Lithuanian standards.As for Lithuanian terminology, it is important that the Standards Board prepares Lithuanian standards of terms and submits them to the Language Com mission for evaluation.In 2010, the Language Commission evaluated two, in 2011 and 2012 -five each, 2013 -one, 2014 -four Lithuanian standards of different fields.
In 1996, the Technical Committee 37 Terminology (LST TK 37 Terminologija) was established; its field of activity is standardisation of terminology, management of other linguistic and content resources, terminography, lexicography and principles and methods of computeraided terminology management.Unfortunately, due to lack of funding the activity of LST TK 37 Terminologija was suspended in May 2009 and the Terminology Commission was formed solely from employees of the Standards Board; this Commission deliberates terms of the standards.
Since 2000, the Lithuanian Standards Board has been maintaining a database of standardised terms.Currently, it contains around 64,000 terms.This database is freely available for users at the website of the Lithuanian Standards Board at www.lsd.lt.

III. Terminological Education
Since terminology today is established as a field of knowledge with scientific research and corresponding applications, it fulfils the requirements of an academic discipline which again can be considered the precondition for courses of studies and training (Picht, 2009, p. 18).
The terminology course for philologists is lectured at many universities of Lithuania.Terminology is taught as a compulsory subject under the master's studies programme Language for Specific (Legal) Purposes at Vilnius University; under the programme Translation and Interpretation Studies, terminology and terminography are taught as compulsory, legal terminology -as an optional subject; under the programme General Linguistics, terminology is offered as an optional subject.At Vilnius University, Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, terminology and language planning is lectured as a compulsory subject under the master's studies programme Lithuanian Linguistics.At the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, the master's studies programme Lithuanian Philology includes a course on terminology, and bachelor students spe cialising in terminology management -future language editors -are lectured on terminology management.At Vytautas Magnus University, a course on terminology and terminography is included in the master's studies programme Applied Lithuanian Linguistics.A lecture on terminology is included in the Lithuanian Lexicology course for bachelor students.Šiauliai university has also included a course on terminology into the master's studies programme Lithuanian Linguistics.Klaipėda university is the only one that teaches this subject under a bachelor's studies programme Lithuanian Philology and Language Management.
Bachelor's and master's theses on terminology are prepared at universities.For instance, in 2010-2014, students studying under the Translation and Interpretation Studies programme at Vilnius University completed 13 master's theses on terminology.Since 2010, 9 bachelor's theses on terminology were defended at Šiauliai University, 4 bachelor's theses and 2 master's theses -at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences.There were no master's and bachelor's theses written at the Lithuanian Lan guage Department of Vytautas Magnus University; however, at other departments of the Faculty of Humanities, mostly under the Applied English Philology programme, 8 master's theses were defended.At Klaipėda University, in 2010-2015, 10 bachelor's theses on seafaring terminology and one master's thesis on mycology terms were prepared3.
It is praiseworthy that at Lithuanian universities philologists learn the funda mentals of terminology.However, no Lithuanian terminology textbook has been published, the lecturers prepare their own lecturing material/notes.At many Lithuanian universities, students of other nonphilological disciplines are taught a course on language for specific purposes which, in addition to other subjects, analyses key terminological and terminographical issues, as it is of utmost importance for students to get acquainted with the basics of terminology and learn grammatically correct terms of their field at university already.In order to ensure education on academic language, the Language Commission supports this course in the institutions of higher education.

Conclusions
In most areas, Lithuanian language terms are managed considerably well; the prin ciples of term creation and ways of their management, directions of organisation of terminological work and activities have settled; terminological work is carried out in cooperation with specialists and terminologists working at different Lithuanian and European Union institutions.
Most terminological research is carried out at the Centre of Terminology of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, whereas at some Lithuanian universities terminological research is carried out by individual scholars only.Recent terminologi cal research does not cover all areas of terminology, theoretical research on current Lithuanian terminology is scarce.
In recent years, the growth of Lithuanian terminography emerging after the restoration of independence of Lithuania has slowed down, even though the Language Commission continues support for preparation of term dictionaries.Since 1990, 420 term dictionaries and specialised encyclopaedias of different fields and varying in scope have been published; yet properly prepared explanatory term dictionaries of some fields are still missing.
LTB is the largest and most reliable source of standardised Lithuanian terms freely available on the Internet, providing not only legislative terms approved by the Lan guage Commission but also terms from the most recent explanatory term dictionaries.Resources of Lithuanian terms are available at the websites of different projects and institutions as well as international databases (IATE, EUROTERMBANK).Lithuanian Standards Board maintains the database of standardised terms that is freely available for users on the website of the Board.
In Lithuania, terminology is an academic discipline -a terminology course for philologists is taught at many universities, bachelor's and master's theses on terminol ogy are written, and many universities teach students of nonphilological disciplines a course in language for specific purposes, which analyses issues of terminology and terms.However, there has been no Lithuanian terminology textbook published for institutions of higher education.
The institutions of higher education, particularly universities of nonphilological profile, still give terminology insufficient attention.University students should not only be introduced to the basics of terminology but also encouraged to take an inter est in the Lithuanian terms of their discipline, as they are the ones that will have to carry out the terminological work in the future.
The number of term dictionaries published in Lithuania is rather considerableover 600.The most productive period for publishing term dictionaries is from 1990 339 up to date.Between 1990-2013 more than 420 term dictionaries and special ency clopaedias were published.
The main and most important terminology database in Lithuania is the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania (lt Lietuvos Respublikos terminų bankas, further -LTB), initi ated in 2004.This bank is created as a common information system of state institutions administered by the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language (further -Language Commission).There are more than 237,000 term entries in LTB.The article discusses two more terminology databases containing Lithuanian terminology sources -IATE and EUROTERMBANK.The Lithuanian Standards Board, in addition to other work, prepares Lithuanian standards of terms and offers these terms to the Language Com mission for evaluation.Since 2000, the Lithuanian Standards Board has been creating a database of standardised terms which currently contains about 64,000 terms.
In Lithuania, terminology also exists as an academic discipline; at many universi ties, philologists are offered a course in terminology.At many universities, students of other nonphilological disciplines are taught a course in language for specific purposes, which covers matters of terminology and terms.
Słowa kluczowe: terminologia naukowa; terminologia litewska; zarządzanie zasobami terminologicznymi; terminografia; bank terminów; naukowe badania terminologiczne; kształcenie w zakresie terminologiiCurrent State of Terminology in Lithuania: Scientific Research, Management and EducationAbstractThe article discusses the current state of terminology in Lithuania, presents terminological research carried out in the last five years, analyses ways of Lithuanian terminology manage ment, and briefly overviews terminological education and teaching in Lithuania.Lithuanian terminological research is mostly carried out at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and at universities and other research institutes.The larg est part of terminological research is carried out at the Centre of Terminology of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, which researches Lithuanian terminology and terminography, analyses the use of Lithuanian terminology in different fields.