Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law presentation (edited)
1. University of the Philippines Diliman
School of Library and Information Studies
Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law:
English-Filipino and Filipino-English
Master’s Thesis Defense Presentation
22 February 2012
Jonas T. Sahagun
Examination Committee:
Atty. Vyva Victoria M. Aguirre (Adviser)
Prof. Rosalie B. Faderon (Co-adviser)
Dr. Jovy M. Peregrino
Prof. Kathleen Lourdes B Obille
Prof. Grace Golfo
2. Philippine laws are all steadily increasing in
number and are getting more diverse from day
to day.
2
3. The necessity to come up with tools to deliver
organized legal information is very much
apparent in libraries and the legal
profession.
3
4. The creation of a thesaurus which can be used for
classifying legal documents and materials is
the culmination of one of the activities in the
practice of librarianship.
4
5. Thesaurus is the vocabulary of a controlled
indexing language, formally organized so
that the a priori relationships between
concepts are made explicit (Aitchison &
Clarke, 2004).
5
6. Civil law is understood to be that branch of
law governing the relationship of persons in
respect of their personal and private
interests (Vitug, 2006).
6
7. “Ignorance of the law excuses no one from
compliance therewith.” (Art. III, Civil Code of
the Philippines)
7
8. The question of understanding the law, which
is written in a foreign language, arises for a
majority of Filipinos.
8
9. Therefore, this study aims to construct a
controlled vocabulary on Philippine civil
law with equivalent, associative, and
hierarchical relationships of terms and
translations in Filipino.
9
10. 1. What are the Philippine civil law
terminologies which can be translated into
Filipino?
2. What sources can be utilized to obtain
appropriate Filipino translations?
3. What are the existing equivalent, associative,
and hierarchical relationships?
4. Which of these terms best serve as standard
index terms and lead-in or approach terms?
10
11. The construction of the Philippine Thesaurus on
Civil Law, in English and Filipino, will serve:
1. As a vocabulary control device;
2. As a reference tool; and
3. To further strengthen and promote the use of
the Filipino language in the legal profession.
11
12. “Effective communication in any human
context is improved by a common language
that both parties understand” (Batty, 1959)
12
13. According to Moys (2001), library users
almost invariably approach the study of a
subject of law in the context of the law of a
particular jurisdiction.
13
14. Thesaurus construction
The legal terminologies collected were
analyzed using the concept of natural and
controlled language.
Combination of natural and controlled
vocabulary, or hybrid system.
14
15. The deductive or top-down approach.
Terms are identified and gathered from the
literature and grouped into broad
categories.
15
16. Terms under the following areas:
1. Persons;
2. Family law;
3. Property;
4. Ownership;
5. Obligations and contracts; and
6. Other peripheral areas.
16
17. The equivalent, associative, and hierarchical
relationships:
• Broader Term;
• Narrower Term;
• Related Term;
• Use; and
• Use for
17
18. BT Broader term / Mas malawak na termino
NT Narrower term / Mas limitadong termino
RT Related term / Kaugnay na termino
SN Scope note / Pagpapaliwanag ng sakop
USE Use / Gamitin
UF Use for / Gamitin para sa
18
19. The degrees of equivalence and non-
equivalence:
1. Exact equivalence;
2. Inexact equivalence;
3. Partial equivalence;
4. Single-to-multiple equivalence; and
5. Non-equivalence.
19
20. 1. Almario, V.S. (2010). UP Diksyonaryong Filipino. Quezon City : UP Sentro ng Wikang Filipino.
2. Commission on the Filipino Language. (1992). English-Tagalog Dictionary. Manila : Anvil.
3. Constantino, Ernesto. (1999). The Contemporary English-Filipino Dictionary. Quezon City : EAC
Center for Philippine Languages.
4. English, Leo James. (1977). English-Tagalog Dictionary. Mandaluyong City : National Book Store.
5. Gaboy, Luciano Linsangan. (2008). Gabby’s Practical English-Pilipino Dictionary. Mandaluyong
City : National Book Store.
6. Panganiban, J.V. (1973). Diksyunaryo-Tesauro: Pilipino-Ingles. Quezon City : Manlapaz.
7. Peralejo, Cezar C., Sr. (2004). English-Filipino Legal Dictionary. Quezon City : UP Sentro ng
Wikang Filipino.
8. Santos, Vito C. and Santos, Luningning E. (1995). New Vicassan’s English-Pilipino Dictionary.
Pasig City : Anvil.
20
21. Advice of subject experts on legal terms and
on Filipino language was sought to further
validate the terms collected.
Advice of thesaurus construction expert was
also sought in thesaurus construction in
order to validate the initial output.
21
22. The study resulted in two parts:
1. The Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law in English,
compiling a total of 433 terms consisting 361
preferred terms and 72 non-preferred terms; and
2. The Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law in Filipino,
compiling a total of 428 terms consisting of 361
preferred terms and 67 non-preferred terms.
22
23. Sample display formats (English / Filipino)
CIVIL LAW / BATAS SIBIL BATAS SIBIL / CIVIL LAW
SN Refers to the branch of law SN Tumutukoy sa sangay ng batas
governing the relationship of na nagtatakda sa ugnayan ng
persons in respect of mga personal at pribadong
their personal and private kapakanan ng mga tao.
interest. NT ARI-ARIAN
NT CONTRACT BATAS NG PAMILYA
ESTOPPEL ESTOPEL
FAMILY LAW KONTRATA
HUMAN RELATIONS OBLIGASYON
OBLIGATION PAGMAMAY-ARI
OWNERSHIP PAKIKIPAGKAPUWA-TAO
PERSON PERSONA
PROPERTY RT BATAS KOMERSIYAL
RT CIVIL CODE BATAS KONSTITUSYONAL
COMMERCIAL LAW BATAS KRIMINAL
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW BATAS REMEDYAL
CRIMINAL LAW KODIGO SIBIL
REMEDIAL LAW
23
24. Concluding remarks
• Equivalent, associative, hierarchical relationships
between and among terminologies were easily
recognized.
• Translation tools are deemed exhaustive.
• Difficulties encountered during construction was
the translation of technical and compound terms.
• The thesaurus is rather user-friendly.
24
25. Recommendations
1. Continuous content building;
2. Testing for relevance and usability;
3. Development of an electronic Philippine
Thesaurus on Civil Law; and
4. Development of the more general Philippine
Legal Thesaurus.
25
I have been a law librarian for about 8 years now and one of what I have observed is that Philippine laws are all steadily increasing in number and are getting more diverse from day to day.It can be said that the legal and library professions are overwhelmed by the sheer number of legal information needing classification.
Hence, the necessity to come up with tools to deliver organized legal information is very much apparent as law libraries and the legal profession gear towards providing legal information and services to its clientele.
The creation of a thesaurus which can be used for classifying legal documents and materials is the culmination of one of the activities in the practice of librarianship. This essential task of providing instruments is enshrined in The Philippine Librarianship Act of 2003 Sec. 5 (6) states that the “rendering of services involving technical knowledge/expertise in abstracting, indexing, cataloguing and classifying; or the preparation of bibliographies, subject authority lists, thesauri and union catalogues/lists,” is part of the scope of the practice of librarianship.
The kind of thesaurus this study focuses on is the thesaurus in the information retrieval sense, the vocabulary of a controlled indexing language, formally organized so that the a priori relationships between concepts are made explicit.
The proposed thesaurus attempts to cover pertinent terms on one general area of Philippine law, civil law.According to Vitug (2006), civil law is understood to be that branch of law governing the relationship of persons in respect of their personal and private interests.
Article III of the Civil Code of the Philippines is a provision that applies to everyone: ‘Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith.’One of the problems with Philippine law is, if majority of Filipinos struggle to understand it in the language Philippine law is currently written, then the essence of fairness and justice is not completely reached.
The occurrence of a language barrier between legal professionals and their clients is a common problem. The question of understanding of the law, which is written in a foreign language, arises for majority of Filipinos. The language problem is further exacerbated by the lack of a formally organized structure showing the interdependence of terms used in Philippine law.
Therefore, this study aims to construct a controlled vocabulary on Philippine civil law with equivalent, associative, and hierarchical relationships of terms and translations in Filipino.The thesaurus will be the bridge which will relate legal terms to terms of common usage.
The major task of this study is to construct a Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law in English and Filipino. In order to do this, the study seeks to answer the following preliminary questions:What are the Philippine law terminologies, specifically on civil law, which can be translated into Filipino?What sources can be utilized to obtain appropriate Filipino translations of these terminologies?What are the existing equivalent, associative and hierarchical relationships between and among the terminologies?Which of these terminologies best serve as standard index terms and which ones can be used as lead-in or approach terms?
As to significance of the study, the construction of the Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law, in English and Filipino, will serve:Primarily, as a vocabulary control device as it provides a set of standardized legal terms or descriptors on Philippine jurisdiction which can be used for indexing and information retrieval of the steadily increasing number of legal information;Secondarily, as a reference tool for the legal profession to aid Filipinos with little comprehension of English in understanding Philippine civil law; andTo further strengthen and promote the use of the Filipino language in the legal profession.
According to Batty (1959), effective communication in any human context is improved by a common language that both parties understand, in this case, the use of both indexer and user of a prescribed vocabulary, with conceptual relationships clearly laid out, and scope notes to encourage consistent application.
And according to Moys (2001), library users almost invariably approach the study of a subject of law in the context of the law of a particular jurisdiction.In this case, provision of a specific Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law is advantageous to the legal and library science professions since it can provide a set of standardized legal terms or descriptors for Philippine jurisdiction for use of both the indexer and searcher.
The construction of the Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law necessitated adherence to the following:The legal terminologies on civil law were gathered from existing legal thesauri, dictionaries and encyclopedias, standard classification scheme, legal database, primary source materials on Philippine law, case digests, and other selected Philippine legal literature. They were analyzed using the concept of natural and controlled language relationships.A combination of natural language and a controlled vocabulary, or hybrid system was decided as suitable enough for this study.
The legal terminologies on civil law were gathered, following the deductive or top-down method, an approach in thesaurus construction wherein the terms are identified and gathered from the literature and grouped into broad categories and further analyzed later into their various relationships.
The terms collected were grouped within the following broad categories of civil law: persons, family law, property, ownership, obligation, contract, and other peripheral areas such commercial law, criminal law, constitutional law, and remedial law.
The equivalent, associative, and hierarchical relationships of these terminologies were identified using as guide the arrangement into books, titles, chapters, and subheads of existing Philippine civil laws in the Civil Code of the Philippines.The “see” and “see also” references of existing legal dictionaries and thesauri were also consulted in identifying these relationships.
The following symbols were used to represent the scope notes and the equivalent, associative, and hierarchical relationship of terms.BT Broader term / MasmalawaknaterminoNT Narrower term / MaslimitadongterminoRT Related term / KaugnaynaterminoSN Scope note / PagpapaliwanagngsakopUSE Use / GamitinUF Use for / Gamitinparasa
The next step involved the translation of these terms. These were translated from the source language for this present study which is English, into its nearest equivalent term in a secondary or target language which is Filipino.The following are the degrees of equivalence and non-equivalence used:Exact equivalence is where the target language contains a term which is identical in meaning and scope to the term in the source language and is capable of functioning as a preferred term;Inexact equivalence is where a term in the target language expresses the same general concept as the source language term, although the meanings of these are not precisely identical;Partial equivalence is similar to the case of the near synonym, but a near translation can be achieved by selecting a term with a slightly broader or narrower meaning;Single-to-multiple equivalence is where the term in the source language cannot be matched by an exactly equivalent term in the target language, but the concept to which one term refers can be expressed by a combination of two or more existing terms;Non-equivalence is when there is simply no expressed equivalent term, and the only two possible solutions are the loan term or the coined term.
Terms were translated using terminological sources in standardized form. The following translation tools were consulted:Almario, V.S. (2010). UP Diksyonaryong Filipino. Quezon City : UP SentrongWikang Filipino.Commission on the Filipino Language. (1992). English-Tagalog Dictionary. Manila : Anvil.Constantino, Ernesto. (1999). The Contemporary English-Filipino Dictionary. Quezon City : EAC Center for Philippine Languages.English, Leo James. (1977). English-Tagalog Dictionary. Mandaluyong City : National Book Store.Gaboy, LucianoLinsangan. (2008). Gabby’s Practical English-Pilipino Dictionary. Mandaluyong City : National Book Store.Panganiban, J.V. (1973). Diksyunaryo-Tesauro: Pilipino-Ingles. Quezon City : Manlapaz.Peralejo, Cezar C., Sr. (2004). English-Filipino Legal Dictionary. Quezon City : UP SentrongWikang Filipino.Santos, Vito C. and Santos, Luningning E. (1995). New Vicassan’s English-Pilipino Dictionary. Pasig City : Anvil.Major source of legal terms in Filipino was Peralejo. Others, mostly used in translating compound terms, were Almario, English, Gaboy, and Santos.
After all these, advice of subject experts on legal terms from the UP School of Library and Information Studies and on Filipino language from the UP SentrongWikang Filipino was also sought to further validate the terms collected as well as identify more specifically how the collected terms were used. Advice of a thesaurus construction expert from the UP School of Library and Information Studies was also sought in thesaurus construction in order to validate the initial output of the project.
This resulted into the output Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law.The study resulted in two parts:The Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law in English, compiling a total of 433 terms consisting 361 preferred terms and 72 non-preferred terms; andThe Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law in Filipino, compiling a total of 428 terms consisting of 361 preferred terms and 67 non-preferred terms.
The conventional alphabetical display was applied as the appropriate layout for this thesaurus.
The equivalent, associative, and hierarchical relationships between and among the terminologies were easily recognized as the thesaurus subject area was narrowed to one general area of law which is Philippine civil law and further divided into more specific areas such as persons, family law, property, ownership, obligations and contracts. Relationships were also identified, as stated earlier, using the arrangement of civil laws in the Civil Code of the Philippines and the “see” and “see also” references of existing legal thesauri and dictionaries.Translation tools used are deemed exhaustive as some of them are considered the most comprehensive and authoritative English-Filipino dictionaries available in the Philippines.Although the translation tools used are deemed exhaustive, one of the major difficulties encountered during construction was the translation of technical and compound terms. Here, the opinion and suggestion of experts proved to be of big help.With respect to the retrievability of terminologies, the output is rather user-friendly in that, while trying respect the technical language of the law, it also includes terms in Filipino that are more familiar to Filipino language speakers.
The following measures are, therefore, recommended for the continuous development of the Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law:1. Continuous content building. To further encapsulate the coverage of Philippine civil law, continuous addition and updating of terminologies and translations is necessary.2. Testing for relevance and usability. Undertaking test activities by indexers, librarians, and practitioners of select institutions to measure the relevance and usability of this material.3. Development of an electronic Philippine Thesaurus on Civil Law. In relation to recommendation no.2, an electronic thesaurus manager prototype should be designed and developed to easily propagate it test and use.4. Development of the more general Philippine Legal Thesaurus. As conceptualized, this study should be incorporated to a future study of a more general Philippine Legal Thesaurus which will include the other general areas of Philippine law such as commercial law, criminal law, labor law, political law, remedial law, and taxation.5. Now, this being a pioneering project, the thesaurus still needs to go through major testing and refinement in the hands of its end users.
