I understand that it is possible to set up a monolingual term base by choosing a language variant (sublanguage) that you will likely never use as the source language and the main language as the target language. 

Is that the case?   

Thank you.

Theresa Truax-Gischler

Theresa Truax-Gischler said:

I understand that it is possible to set up a monolingual term base by choosing a language variant (sublanguage) that you will likely never use as the source language and the main language as the target language. 

I think it all depends on what you want to use this for.  If you are just building some sort of dictionary or parts list and intend to use it in MultiTerm directly, or by exporting to Excel or Word for example, then you can simply create a termbase with only one language in it.

But if you want to use a monolingual termbase to assist with translating because these terms are the same in the source language as they are in the target, then you'll need to use languages that match the language of your translation project.

As we don't know a lot about what your use case is here it's hard to provide the most appropriate answer.  It may be that what you really want is a simple word list, or variable list.  Maybe, if the termbase idea doesn't help, you can elaborate a little on what your needs really are?

Hi, Paul. Thank you for your detailed response.

I am interested in using it for monolingual editing or post-translation revising of extremely poorly written or translated texts in English.

Kevin Lossner has a video on this using MemoQ. MemoQ evidently has an option when setting up your project to use two sublanguages as separate languages: "Treat sublanguages as separate languages in TB lookup." In the demo, Lossner uses English (Philippines) as the source language and English (United Kingdom) as the target language.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR72YvEp9Fc 

Can we do this in Trados Studio?

Thanks!

Theresa Truax-Gischler

Theresa Truax-Gischler said:

Can we do this in Trados Studio?

Of course.  Try it!

Ultimately this isn't a monolingual project at all, it's just a bilingual project using two flavours of English.

Wonderful news! The idea is that you use an English sublanguage you will likely never use—in the demo, Philippines English—as the language setting for your poorly written or translated English-language source text. That way, you build up a termbase for the editorial decisions you make. I see the same mistakes over and over again, but don't always remember the great fixes I came up with in my editing or post-translation review. This is a possible way to do that. 

Theresa Truax-Gischler

Theresa Truax-Gischler said:

The idea is that you use an English sublanguage you will likely never use

Well... you've got 104 to choose from in Trados Studio 2021 and even more in the next release.  Who knew English speakers were really such amazing linguists ;-)