Terminologiretningslinjer

Terminologiretningslinjer are systematic guidelines that define how terms are selected, classified, documented and maintained in a specific domain or across multiple domains. Their goal is to promote consistency, reduce ambiguity and improve communication among stakeholders, including professionals, researchers, translators and computer systems.

The concept emerged in the mid‑twentieth century with early works in science and engineering, but it gained broader adoption in the 1970s and 1980s as national vocabulary projects and international standards such as ISO 704 and ISO 1087 were published. In Denmark, the term *terminologiretningslinjer* has been used by government agencies, universities and industry to establish national terminology policies, particularly in translation and informatics.

Typical components of a terminology guideline include: definition of scope (subject domain or interdisciplinary coverage); controlled term entry rules (orthography, gender, pluralisation and usage notes); classification schemes (hierarchies, part‑of‑speech tags, relational fields); and a maintenance protocol (revision cycles, quality assurance and version control). Terminologiretningslinjer often integrate with terminology management systems, allowing automated retrieval, cross‑reference and consistency checks.

By following these guidelines, organisations can reduce misunderstanding in documentation, support interoperability of databases, improve searchability of information, and provide a robust foundation for machine translation and natural language processing. In practice, successful implementation requires stakeholder engagement, training and ongoing review to adapt to evolving language use and technological developments.