O Ciclo Vicioso do Satisfatório na Gestão de Terminologia em Contexto Empresarial: problemas e oportunidades

Our main objective is to understand the way companies manage technologies and languages for specific purposes in multilingual communication contexts, especially when translation is used. Given the interdisciplinary approach of this study and based upon not only a theoretical translation oriented terminology support, but also management and specialized translation theories , we have carried out the research within the scope of a descriptive methodological framework using several qualitative and quantitative methods for primary and secondary data collection. Our background is apparently controversial. On the one hand, for clients (companies and consumers) language is considered an asset and a functional and supportive resource: it is used as a means to reach an objective and not the objective itself. On the other hand, for the language industry, the language is the raw material and the main and ultimate good, hence the linguistic quality becomes a major preoccupation. The research has been carried out in two cycles: in the first cycle the work focuses upon the Portuguese language as target language for the specialized translation market in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLC). In the second cycle, we describe the way the languages are managed within internationalized companies, highlighting the practice of ad hoc business translation– and we discuss the status quo of terminological management in most companies. Though we have identified terminology as one of the critical issues in the process, more than looking for errors, we have tried to understand the reason for the suboptimal or satisfactory cycle that is maintained in the companies which neither the best arguments nor studies undertaken by the language industry agents, namely terminologists, have managed to change. We have tried to demystify the cleavage among suppliers and clients and the tout court idea of companies’ malpractices both under the European Community linguistic policies and the characteristics of the global knowledge society. There we identify some opportunities that require not only the investment of an entrepreneurial culture, but also a more proactive attitude of Terminology agents in order to trigger the changing process that is based on education for quality. Therefore we believe it is easier to create a “favorable culture” for terminology management and for the quality of the language for specific purposes, based on trust and skill, with collaborative attitudes and behaviors amongst all those engaged in the process.