Interchange using TBX 8 th Metadata conference Berlin April 2005 Alan K. Melby Brigham Young University, Provo campus

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 Outline  (A) Introduction to TBX  (B) One Use for TBX: interchange  (C) Checking for TBX compliance

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 A: Introduction to TBX  TBX® stands for TermBase eXchange  TBX is a Terminological Markup Framework (TMF) markup language  TMF is an ISO standard (16642)  TBX is consistent with ISO (MARTIF)  TBX is maintained by OSCAR (  The TBX specification is free  But why should I care about TBX?

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 Who Should Care about TBX?  If you don’t care about terminological consistency in your translation/localization work, then you have no reason to care about TBX  If you only need a simple bilingual list of terms (source term and target term) with no additional information, then you don’t need TBX; just use a two-column spreadsheet for your list

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 On the other hand …  If you do care about terminological consistency and you maintain one or more terminology databases (termbases), then you should be interested in TBX, unless you want your termbase to be locked into the terminology management software you are currently using.  Portability of complex terminological data is the key benefit of TBX

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 What does TBX look like?  A TBX file is an XML document  A TBX file consists of:  A header that describes the file  A set of entries, one per concept in the termbase  For each concept, a set of terms, grouped by language, that designate the concept  A terminological concept entry (termEntry)  Can be multilingual  Can be monolingual

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 Example of a TBX file  [+ ref to DTD/schema]   [ global info ]   [concept entries] 

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 TBX header   from AKM Berlin   SYSTEM "TBXDCSv05c.xml" 

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 Parts of a Paintbrush - Handle - Ferrule (with crimp to attach it to handle) - Brush tip (with adhesive to attach to ferrule)

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 TBX body   [concept: brush]   [concept: ferrule] 

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 Concept Entry for “brush”   art  An instrument composed of bristles, or other like material, set in a suitable handle and used for various purposes, as in laying on colors   brush   pinceau 

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 Concept Entry for “ferrule”   art  the metal tube connecting the brush to the handle   ferrule   virole 

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 Relationship between TBX and TMF  TBX is a TML (Terminological Markup Language) of TMF (ISO 16642) ( see Annex B )  TBX maps to the TMF meta-model  A TBX file is a TDC (terminological data collection)  martifHeader provides GI (global information)  termEntry: TE (terminological entry)  langSet: LS (language section)  tig/ntig: TS (term section)  A TMF DCS (Data Category Selection) in TBX is in XCS (eXtensible Constraint Specification) format

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 TMF and lexical resources  In general, a terminological resource is organized into concept entries, each of which includes one or more terms designating a particular concept  In general, a lexical resource is organized into lexical entries, each of which includes one or more senses of a particular lexical item (a word or phrase)  A concept entry containing multiple terms can be split into multiple lexical entries, one per term, and multiple lexical entries associated with the same concept can be combined into one concept entry

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 B: One use for TBX: interchange  A termbase is a collection of concept entries, each associated with a subject field  There are many different data models for termbases  Information is not directly transferable between termbases with different data models  TBX facilitates interchange among termbases

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 Some obstacles to interchange  Not all termbases include the same data categories  e.g. one allows geographicalUsage; another not  Some data categories are required in one but optional in another  Some data categories appear at different levels of the entry structure in different termbases  e.g. definition is at concept vs. language level

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 When could TBX be used for exchange?  An organization requires a translation and supplies terminology for that translation. If the organization’s terminology is in TBX and the translation/localization tool supports TBX, then terminology can be imported.  A document production system includes multiple terminology-aware software components. TBX can be used as the interchange format between components.  TBX facilitates information interchange among termbases with different data models

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 C: Checking for TBX compliance  TBX compliance has three requirements:  Well-formedness (an XML notion that can be checked with any XML parser)  Validity (an XML notion that can be check using any validating XML parser and the TBX core DTD or core XSD schema)  Adherence to the DCS named in the martifHeader Option one: use the open source TBX checker Option two: generate an elaborated XSD schema

Open Forum Berlin 2005 © Alan K. Melby of 18 For More Information TBX webpage: or Alan K. Melby Translation Research Group Brigham Young University Department of Linguistics Provo, Utah USA