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Article published In:
Localization around the globe
Edited by Minako O'Hagan and Julie McDonough Dolmaya
[The Journal of Internationalization and Localization 7:1/2] 2020
► pp. 1–27

French-language COVID-19 terminology

International or localized?

| University of Ottawa

The COVID-19 pandemic situation developed very quickly, driving an urgent and global need to communicate public health information that left relatively little time for traditional and formal language planning activities. This article investigates and compares French-language COVID-19-related terms appearing in linguistic resources developed in Canada and Europe to determine whether this terminology appears to be international or localized. Findings reveal that regional variation exists and that one contributing factor is that de-terminologization is being accelerated by the popular media. Another key factor leading to linguistic differences is the language situation (i.e., majority vs minority situation). Overall, while there is considerable overlap in the terminology used in the two resources, there are enough differences to warrant underlining the importance of localizing terminological content in a situation such as a pandemic in order to ensure that communication of critical information is as effective as possible.

Keywords: localization, regional variation, terminology, de-terminologization, popular media, language situation, Canada, Europe, TERMIUM Plus, Inter-Active Terminology for Europe (IATE), COVID-19
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Corpus
  • 3.Method
  • 4.Findings
  • 5.Examples and discussion
    • 5.1Coverage of the two resources
    • 5.2Difference in grammatical gender
    • 5.3Difference in register
    • 5.4Difference in semantic prosody
    • 5.5Difference in viewpoint
    • 5.6Language situation and the influence of English
      • 5.6.1Case where the Canadian term has been expressly chosen to avoid calquing the English
      • 5.6.2Case where Canadian terminologists tried to avoid a calque, but ended up allowing it
      • 5.6.3Cases where the Canadian term appears to be more influenced by English
        • Example: Couvre-visage and masque buccal
        • Example: Auto-isolement and isolement à domicile
        • Example: Cas index and cas repère
        • Example: Dépistage sanitaire and dépistage médical
        • Example: équipement médical and matériel médical
    • 5.7Orthographic variation
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Note
  • References
  • Dictionaries and term banks
Published online: 6 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jial.20014.bow
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Dictionaries and term banks

Grand dictionnaire terminologique (GDT)
[URL]
Inter-Active Terminology for Europe (IATE)
[URL]
Le Robert Dico en ligne
[URL]
TERMIUM Plus
[URL]