Terminology workflows in theory and practice

This contribution intends to illustrate the processes and roles involved in terminology work in real life scenarios. It is mainly based on 17 interviews with terminologists and terminology managers employed in the most important terminology centres in Europe and beyond, which were carried out between 2011 and 2012 within the LISE (Legal Language Interoperability Services) project. Next to providing tools aimed at improving the quality of terminological resources in legal and administrative domains, the project partners developed a set of Guidelines for legal and administrative terminology work, which give a detailed and wider picture of the issues treated in this article. In this paper particular attention is given to those aspects of practical terminology work that contradict common convictions, differ from terminology work in domains other than law and administration or partly clash against general terminology theory.