Terminological study about the language of workers’ rights in the European Union

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As a Bachelors student of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Alicante, I decided to carry out terminological research about the language of workers’ rights in the European Union as my final thesis (Trabajo de fin de Grado). The project mainly consisted of analysing, compiling and comparing the specialized vocabulary used in the legal documents related to the free movement of workers in the European Union.

Free-movement-of-workers-in-the-European-Union-ana-jimenez-morente

The aim of the research project was to extract a proper batch of terms for a harmonized glossary (Spanish-English) and provide useful information while giving an overview of the legal basis concerning this freedom. For my research, I referred to the study book El inglés jurídico (The legal English) by Enrique Alcaraz, English philology professor at the University of Alicante.

By its very nature, the importance of terminology became clear throughout the development of the whole project. Especially with regards to the European sphere, where there is a genuine need to harmonize all the specific vocabulary by domains. For me this was a compelling reason to conduct the research, since I wanted to do my bit and create the first step of a data base.

It was helpful to have access to a wide variety of resources, mostly online, made available by the EU institutions. In particular the Fact Sheets, the glossary of summaries and IATE:

  • The Fact Sheets by the European Parliament provide an overview of European integration and of the European Parliament’s contribution to that process. For this project in particular, the most used chapter was ‘Citizens’ Europe‘, which describes individual and collective rights. 
  • The glossary of summaries, by EurLex (the official website of European Union law) is published in the 24 official languages of the EU. This made it an invaluable source for obtaining accurate definitions of specific concepts as well as comparing both versions of Spanish-English at once.
  • IATE (Inter-Active Terminology for Europe) is the terminology data base shared among all EU institutions. It was a very helpful tool to search the most appropriate equivalent for each term.

In conclusion, once the study was finished, I was overall satisfied with the result. Not only because I gained a deeper understanding of what the free movement of workers in the EU means, but also because I realized how many tools we have at our disposal for use in terminology projects. In this sense, I would like to encourage students and professionals working closely with terminology to stay interested about it and never hesitate to make a contribution themselves to the discipline.

 

The complete paper (in Spanish) can be read here: Estudio terminológico y glosario bilingüe español-inglés sobre el lenguaje de los derechos de los trabajadores en la Unión Europea

 


Ana Jiménez Morente

ana-jimenez-morente-authorBorn in 1993 in Alicante, Spain, Ana studied Translation and Interpreting in this same city where she took courses in Spanish, English, French and Italian. She also spent some time living and studying in Aarhus, Denmark, as part of the Erasmus programme. After graduating from her Bachelors, she completed a Master’s degree in Business and Corporate Communications Management at the University of Barcelona. She has experience in content management, marketing and translation, joining TermCoord’s team in October 2016. She is passionate about languages, communication and photography.