About ATL

A small group of individuals has set up an association for terminology and lexicography in the United Kingdom.

Lexicographers and terminologists have traditionally employed different working methods, with lexicographers covering both general and specialist words and terminologists being exclusively concerned with specialist fields. Both lexicography and terminology are now also attracting increasing attention as academic subjects taught in universities. This new association provides the opportunity for co-operation in a contemporary world in which words are an essential and evolving currency.

The main objective of the new association is to provide an infrastructure for:

Efforts are being made at European and international level to document the relevant literature, information and activities. These institutions and organisations have begun to realise that they should coordinate their activities to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and to gain the assistance and cooperation of others involved in the same field. An appropriate terminology organisation in the UK will enhance British involvement in this movement.

The lexicographical records of every language are important for historical and cultural reasons. They are a central part of the culture to which they belong. Terminology may also be culturally-specific or more universal in meaning, depending on the subject matter. Monolingual terminologies are a basic essential for successful communication in technical writing, documentation, critical business processes and related fields, and bi- or multilingual terminologies are a valuable translation tool.

Membership of the association is open to students, institutes of learning, language professionals, academics, language and translation bodies, communication managers, dictionary publishers, standards bodies, government bodies, thesaurus and taxonomy builders, terminology and language technology centres. (For membership, contact Mike Roberts).

We had a successful inaugural conference at Dr. Johnson's House in November 2004 and a similar event, to be held in conjunction with our AGM, is planned for 18 June 2005. (For conference details, visit the Bulletin Board or contact Virginia Lester)