EDiCT - Electronic Dictionary of Communication Terminology

The aim of the project (1990-2016) was the compilation of a termbase on the broad topic of 'communication within businesses, organizations and the press' and the theoretical study of this domain.  This broad domain focussed in particular on the following fields: public relations, marketing, advertising, journalism and the press, the printing and allied trades.

The languages studied were English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch and Russian. Hungarian was added later (starting 2007/08) with the help of the University of West Hungary

The method used was that of GenTerm, the Department's termbase strategy.  Most of the data were collected through MA Dissertations and were subsequently edited.  Students were required to apply the established scholarly principles of terminology and terminography in researching and presenting their data. This source of data was discontinued in 2016.

Project results will, however, continue to be edited and distributed. At regular intervals, the project has published simplified summary versions of the research results.  The summary version is called ELeCT, which stands for Electronic Lexicon of Communication Terminology.  The version with the latest updates is available online. (The previous download versions will no longer be distributed).

Project managers

Overall co-ordination: Joost Buysschaert

Past MA dissertation supervisors per language:

  • English: Joost Buysschaert (and +Paul Robberecht)
  • French: Sonia Michiels
  • German: (+ Mike Hinderdael)
  • Spanish: Patricia Vanden Bulcke
  • Russian: (Heili Verstraete, ret’d) / Bart Hendrickx.

Co-ordination of the Hungarian contributions: László Kovács

Project management: Klaar Vanopstal

Project partner

Euprera. European Public Relations Education & Research Association, info@euprera.org

www.euprera.org

Demos and screenshots

Example of a term record from the EDiCT project in its original Word format.

Example of 2 term records with Spanish and German from the EDiCT project in mtw format (Download, then open in Multiterm 5.5 or lower.  Not compatible with higher versions.  Multiterm 5.5 is a product of SDL Trados.)

Example of 2 term records with Spanish and German from the EDiCT project in sdltb format. (Download, unzip, open in Multiterm 2014 or higher.)

Screenshot of the interface used in ELeCT 3.2. (no longer available)

Associated projects

EDiCT has had two associated projects, meanwhile discontinued:

  1. The HR or Human Resources project: this associated project focuses on the terminology of human resources management and is based on a term list provided by the HR company De Witte & Morel. The HR project researches English, French and Dutch terminology mainly.
  2. The “Social Security” project. This associated project focused on social security terminology and was initiated as part of a Tempus project. The project researched English, French, Dutch and Russian terminology.

Publications

  • Buysschaert, J.– Kovács, L. “Challenges encountered during the compilation of a multilingual termbase in the domain of communication” in Alkalmazott Nyelvtudomány, XVII (2017)/1. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18460/ANY.2017.1.001
  • Buysschaert, J., Vanopstal K., Kovács, L. eds. ELeCT 3.2. Electronic lexicon of communication terminology. Gent, Communication & Cognition, 2012. Electronic publication.
  • Buysschaert, J. “Quantifying Anglicisms in French, German and Dutch business communication” in S. Slembrouck, M. Taverniers & M. Van Herreweghe (eds.), From will to well: Studies in linguistics offered to Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen. Gent, Academia Press, 2009, pp. 69-77.
  • Buysschaert, Vanopstal K., Kovács, L. eds. ELeCT 3.0. Electronic lexicon of communication terminology. Third edition. Gent, Communication & Cognition, 2008. CD-ROM and electronic publication.
  • Buysschaert, J., ed. ELeCT 2.0. Electronic lexicon of communication terminology. Second edition. Gent, Communication & Cognition, 2004. CD-ROM.
  • Buysschaert, J. et al, eds. ELeCT 2000. Electronic lexicon of communication terminology. Gent, Mercator & Euprera, 2001. CD-ROM.
  • Buysschaert, J. “ELeCT. Of de taal van de account-executive en de persmuskiet” leading article in Over Taal 40 (2001) 91-94.
  • Buysschaert, J. & Cotton, A.M. “Communication language in Europe” in Barbara Baerns u. Juliana Raupp Hrsg., Information und Kommunikation in Europa/Information and communication in Europe. (Berlin, VISTAS Verlag, 2000), pp. 363-366.
  • Buysschaert, J. “Towards a termbank-based multimedial LSP course for students of public relations and marketing communication. Outline of a proposed Lingua project” in R. Godijns (red.), TT-M Cahier Nr 8 (Gent, 1999), pp 19-22.
  • Buysschaert, J. “Het EDiCT-project aan de Mercatorhogeschool (Gent)” in Nl-Term Nieuwsbrief -2 (1999), Nr 2, pp. 7-9.
  • Buysschaert, J. “Terminografie met de computer: twee voorbeelden” in J. Buysschaert (red), De computer van de Germanist. (Gent, BGG, 1996), pp 11-24
  • Buysschaert, J. “The CERP Education project on public relations terminology” in Newsletter. European Association of Public relations Education and Research 3 (1995), p. 17.