Despina Papadopoulou
Translator - Subtitler
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Konstantinos Chatzitheodorou
A.U.Th
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Abstract
The terminology a company uses to render its message or concepts related to its products or services is very important, as it defines its corporate identity. Thus, it determines the level of differentiation or homogenization in relation to the competition. In the first part of this paper, we refer to the creation of terminology and the way it is being handled by the company. More specifically, questions such as "how does a company selects the appropriate terms initially?", "Based on which criteria a company selects the terms, phraseology or concepts to be used?", are being answered.In the second part of the paper, we focus on the localization of these terms, phraseology and concepts. We examine the most frequently used approaches: a head of the company identifies an equivalent (usually the Marketing Managers or subject-matter experts), or the linguists suggest the equivalents, or these two parties collaborate to this direction.In addition, we analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each approach providing examples.Finally, we propose a model that leads to the successful selection of the appropriate equivalent ensuring the principles of the corporate identity.
Keywords
terminology, terminology management, phraseology, corporate identity, localization
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