Bottom-up terminology work to complement top-down terminology planning. The Basque case.

This paper explores the complementary roles of bottom-up and top-down approaches in Basque terminology planning. It traces the evolution of language normalization efforts in Basque, emphasizing the institutional contributions of Euskaltzaindia, UZEI, and the Terminology Commission. While systematic terminology work methods are essential for expanding the use of Basque in new domains, corpus-driven descriptive approaches provide valuable insights into real term usage. The ‘Weaving Terminology Networks’ program at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) serves as a case study, documenting academic terminology usages. The paper also addresses challenges such as harmonizing general and specialized lexicons. Finally, it emphasizes the need for robust terminology planning integrating both prescriptive and descriptive strategies for the effective development of Basque specialized registers.