The peculiarities of technical translation in the sphere of trade

Управление  Образования г. Алматы

Алматинский Государственный Гуманитарно-Педагогический Колледж №2

 

 

Специальность 0832002 

«Переводческое дело»  

 

 

 

 

« The peculiarities of technical translation

in the sphere of trade ».

Курсовая работа

По предмету: «Теория и практика перевода»

 

 

 

Выполнила:

студентка гр. ПД-35

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Руководитель:

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Алматы

2010

 

Contents

 

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………2

 

 

II. Theoretical Part. Lexical problems in translation of Technical texts

 

II. 1. Translation of technical literature as a special discipline………………….4

 

II. 2. Disclosure of the concept «Technical translation»………………………...7

 

II. 3. Lexico-grammatical transformations………………………………………9

 

II. 4. Linguistic peculiarities of technical texts…………….…………………....13

 

II. 5. «False friends» of translator……………………………………………….15

 

II. 6. Lexicology and grammar of technical literature…………………………..17

 

II. 7. Translation of titles in technical articles…………………………………...25

 

 

III. Practical Part

 

III. 2. Translation of the text of mechanical engineering in the sphere of trade…27

 

 

IV. Conclusion …………………………………………………………….…...40

 

 

V.  Bibliography………………………………………………………………..42

 

   

   Appendix ……………………………………………………………………..43

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I.  Introduction.

 

The present course work deals with the lexical problems in translation of technical texts and research the main methods of translation of Technical texts at a deeper level. In connection with the rapid developments in technology and increase the technical information practical value of technical translation was raised.                       

Translation is a mean of interlingual communication. The translator makes possible an exchange of information between users of different languages by producing in the target language a text which has an identical communicative value with the source text. Technical translation or research in language for specific purposes has long been considered as a field of the exact sciences, and the idea of cultural embedding of technical texts was dismissed. When someone calls language technical in everyday life, it is usually understood to mean that its message is hard to grasp. In scientific circles however the modifier has a happier connotation. The expressiveness and flexibility of natural language make it hard to process in a methodical fashion, and researchers generally understand ‘technical text´ to mean writing which is more tractable because, for example, it lacks figurative language and can be understood in its literal sense.                                                             

The aim of our course work is to study and analyse the lexical problems in translation of technical texts.                                                                       

There are 3 following objectives:

1. To characterize the translation of technical texts.

2. To give a detailed explanation of constructions which cause special difficulties while translating. 

3. To suggest some strategies for translating technical texts.

     The subject of research – peculiarities in translation of technical texts in the sphere of trade.

     The purpose of this work - the study of language features and technical literature on the lexical level.

In way translation of technical texts is the opposite of literary translation in what concerns the freedom of translator’s actions and choices. The technical texts are highly standardized this applies both to the structure of the whole text (macrostructure) and to the arrangement of individual paragraphs and sentence (microstructure). At the macro level in technical texts usually consists of a preamble, main text body and a finalizing (concluding) part. Depending on the type of document the composition and content of its individual parts may slightly vary.                                                                                                     This course work is intended for students who are already aware of the basics and peculiarities of the grammatical and syntax of the English language. That is why it offers some introduction in translation of technical texts which can cause special difficulties while translating. In my course work I have used the following resources:

• The usage of different information such as books, references and Internet.
• The own experience of work as a translator from English into Russian.

As for the structure of this project, it consists of the following parts:

Introduction

Theoretical part

Practical part

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction gives the full review of all course work; it contains objectives, short description of each part of my course work.

The theoretical part present the analyze of theoretical aspects in translation of technical texts. The theoretical part gives a detailed review of the study of the theory of translation and also reveals the role of technical literature and terms in everyday life of the humanity which are believed to be interesting to future translator/interpreters. It also discussed the methods of translation of technical text with purpose to make it easier for translator to achieve adequate translation in the target language.

Also theoretical part deals with the detailed study of grammatical and lexical, difficulties involved in translation of political literature.

It have been also attached some samples of translation of technical expressions and variants of possible translations so that to enable the future translator to benefit from the given paper in their further researches in the fields of translation.

In practical part I tried to apply all knowledge that I have obtained. I prepared translation of automobile, because it is good example of technical text and common for everyday life of humanity.

In conclusion we have summed up the results of our laborious investigation translation of technical literature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

II. Theoretical part. Lexical problems in translation of technical texts.

 

II.1. Translation of technical literature as a special discipline.

 

The translation of technical literature is a special discipline that arose at the intersection of linguistics, on the one hand, and science and technology, on the other.

The translation of technical literature must be viewed as a linguistic as well as scientific and technical positions, with the primacy of the first in study of common issues, and secondly, when considering the narrow nomenclature.

Most translators prefer to think of their work as a profession and would like to see others to treat them like professionals rather than as skilled or semi-skilled workers. But to achieve this, translators need to develop an ability to stand back and reflect on what they do and how they do it. Like doctors and engineers, they have to prove to themselves as well as others that they are in control of what they do; that they do not just translate well because they have ‘flair’ for translation, but rather because, like other professionals, they have made a conscious effort to understand various aspects of their work.

Unlike medicine and engineering, translation is a very young discipline in academic terms. It is only just starting to feature as a subject of study in its own right, not yet in all but in an increasing number of universities and colleges around the world. Like any young discipline, it needs to draw on the findings and theories of other related disciplines in order to develop and formalize its own methods; but which disciplines it can naturally and fruitfully be related to is still a matter of some controversy. Almost every aspect of life in general and of the interaction between speech communities in particular can be considered relevant to translation, a discipline which has to concern itself with how meaning is generated within and between various groups of people in various cultural settings. This is clearly too big an area to investigate in one go. So, let us just start by saying that, if translation is ever to become a profession in the full sense of the word, translators will need something other than the current mixture of intuition and practice to enable them to reflect on what they do and how they do it. They will need, above all, to acquire a sound knowledge of the raw material with which they work: to understand what language is and how it comes to function for its users.

Translation is a process of rendering a text, written piece or a speech by means of other languages. The difference of translation from retelling or other kinds of transfer of a given text is that that translation is a process of creating an original unity in contexts and forms of original.

The translation quality is defined by its completeness and value. “The completeness and value of translation means definite rendering of the contextual sense of the original piece and a high-grade functional-stylistic conformity.”

The concept “high-grade functional-stylistic conformity” clearly points on two existing ways of rendering the form in unity with the meaning: the first one is a reproduction of specific features of the form of the original piece and the second one is the creation of functional conformities of those features. It means when translating the specific features of an original literature we should rather consider the style inherent for the given genre but than direct copying the form of an original. While translating, we should also remember that different lexical and grammatical elements of an original might be translated differently if accepted by the norms of conformity to the whole original. The translation adequacy of separate phrases, sentences and paragraphs should not be considered separately but along with achievement of the adequacy and completeness of the translating piece as a whole because the unity of a piece is created through collecting the components.

No matter how a translator (interpreter) is talented he should remember two most important conditions of the process of translation: the first is that the aim of translation is to get the reader as closely as possible acquainted with the context of a given text and then second – to translate – means to precisely and completely express by means of one language the things that had been expressed earlier by the means of another language.

Bilingvistical study of language and style of scientific and technical literature provides an opportunity to obtain comparative data, which then form the basics of transfers so as a foreign language in Russian, with Russian as a foreign language.

Wall bilingvistical study of theoretical and practical patterns of language and style of scientific and technical literature and the development of translation from one language to another requires the combined efforts of linguists and logic, phycologists and teachers, translators and engineers.

New program of teaching foreign languages in high schools, approved in 1967, focuses its efforts on training teachers of reading and translation of scientific and technical literature. The new goal will require the development of new methods of teaching foreign languages. This new method should be based on the data bilingvistical study of languages and style of technical literature identifying the specific laws of its reading and interpretation.

Based on the characteristics of the language and style of technical literature and its attendant formal and logical style is necessary, starting with the first lessons to teach students a strictly logical analysis of language material, focusing on those phenomenal that are specific to language and style naunoy and technical literature cause errors in translation.

We can not allow the mechanical transfer method of teaching spoken language and leaning to read literature on the development of patterns of reading an translation of scientific and technical texts. In this regard, it is necessary first of all to abandon the emphasis on consolidation of “frequency” words and grammatical forms that do not cause difficulties in translation, and the popularization of “wireless reading”, which was build on the conviction that one can correctly understand the scientific and technical thought not knowing special words and combinations based on intuition and speculation.

Translation is the process and the result of turning a text from one language into another, which means expressing the same by the signs of a different language. Bearing in mind that every sign has two planes (plane of expression and plane of content) the essence of translation could be described as changing the elements of the plane of content remains constant.

The language of the original text is called «source language», the language into which the text is translated is called «target language » (the corresponding Russian terms are «исходный языкe» and «переходящий язык»). One of the main difficulties of translating lies in the fact that the meaning of the whole text is not exhausted by the sum of meaning of its elements. The meaning of a text is made up by words (characterized by their denotative and connotative meaning and stylistic reference), syntactic meaning of sentences and utterances larger than sentences, suprasegmental elements and lexico-semantic connections between words and phrases.                                                                                                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II. 2. Disclosure of the concept «Technical translation ».

 

Technical translation is a type of specialized translation involving the translation of documents produced by technical writers (owner's manuals, user guides, etc.), or more specifically, texts which relate to technological subject areas or texts which deal with the practical application of scientific and technological information. While the presence of specialized terminology is a feature of technical texts, specialized terminology alone is not sufficient for classifying a text as "technical" since numerous disciplines and subjects which are not "technical" possess what can be regarded as specialized terminology. Technical translation covers the translation of many kinds of specialized texts and requires a high level of subject knowledge and mastery of the relevant terminology and writing conventions.

Technical writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of formal writing used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology. Technical writers explain technology and related ideas to technical and nontechnical audiences. This could mean, for example, telling a programmer how to use a software library or telling a consumer how to operate a television remote control.

Technical writers gather information from existing documentation and from subject matter experts. A subject matter expert (SME) is any expert on the topic that the writer is working on. Technical writers are often not SMEs themselves (unless they are writing about creating good technical documentation). Workers at many levels, and in many different fields, have a role in producing technical communications. A good technical writer needs strong language and teaching skills and must understand the many conventions of modern technical communications.

Technical writing teams or departments are often referred to as Information Development, User Assistance, Technical Documentation, or Technical Publications. Technical writers themselves may be called API Writers, information developers, documentation specialists, documentation engineers, or technical content developers.

For technical documents to be useful, readers must understand and act on them without having to decode wordy and ambiguous prose. Good technical writing clarifies technical jargon; that is, it presents useful information that is clear and easy to understand for the intended audience.

Technical writing is often subject to parody, perhaps due to the publication of poor quality technical documents. A classic parody of poor technical writing is the assembly instruction sheet for a complicated device such as a bicycle or barbecue grill produced by a writer whose native language is not that of the target audience, and who lacks any sense of effective use of overview, naming, and sequencing in technical instruction documents. The phrase "some assembly required" has come to symbolize difficulty with essentially technical writing issues.

Technical translations, in the broader sense, involve any non-literary translation, i.e., translation of texts dealing with electronics, medicine, law, economics, or sports. In a narrower sense, technical translations deal with texts from the world of engineering, including chemistry, computer science, automotive engineering, geology, etc. The number of technical fields is infinitely large, and terminology is expanding and changing daily. Moreover, even within the same field, competing companies often use different terms for the same object to differentiate their products from those of their competitors.

Ideally, a technical text should therefore be translated by a specialist in the specific area in question, who is familiar with the terminology of the company for which the translation is being done. For example, it is highly desirable that a text dealing with IBM computer parts be translated by an IBM computer specialist, because chances are the same part is called a different name by Apple, Dell, or NEC. Obviously, this is not always possible in practice. What is important, however, is that the translator be familiar with the technical concepts involved in the text, so that the translation conveys the right idea to the engineer or technician reading it. The client can greatly contribute to the quality of the translation by providing the translator with any related documents written in the target language, as well as with the drawings and source-language documents dealing with the same topic. Then, especially if the translation is for publication, the terminology must be refined via a dialog between the translator and the client.

Dictionaries do not always provide the right answers to technical terminology problems. A technical translator will know the proper term to use. 

Translation/conversion of units of measurement poses a special challenge to the translator. It's not only finding the correct conversion factor from pound per square inch to kilopascal, but also choosing the right fractional units to avoid expressing the weight of a microchip in tons or its dimensions in miles. Competent technical translators know that converting a temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius units or vice-versa requires a different formula from converting a temperature difference between the same units. They realize that some units (like standard screw sizes) are not to be converted. They know when to round numbers and how. 

Even if the terminology and all information contained in the document is correct, technical writing has a style that is difficult, if not impossible, for a non-technical person to imitate. A high-quality technical translation combines correct terminology and a style appropriate for the type of document and the intended audience. A text describing a surgical procedure will use a different terminology and style depending on whether it is intended for physicians or laypersons. Excessively technical terminology may not be understood by the layman, while the specialist may be offended by use of popular.

 

 

 

 

 

II.3. Lexico-grammatical transformations.

 

Every language is characterized by a specific structure of its lexico-grammatical fields and has its own lexical, morphological and syntactic system. It may result in lack of coincidence between the means of expressing the same content in SL (source language) and TL (target language). That is why good practical knowledge of the two languages is quite necessary but not sufficient for translating. Besides this knowledge one must possess a number of skills and be guided by a number of principles worked out by the theory of translation.  These principles are connected both with linguistic and extra linguistic aspects.                                                                                                         While translating one must keep in view typological characteristics of both the language and remember that the same idea may be expressed lexically in one of them and grammatically in the other.

It is well known that language differ in their grammatical structure. Apart from aving different grammatical categories that seem to be similar. This naturally results in the necessity to introduce some grammatical change in the translated version of any text. These changes depend on the character of correlation between the grammatical norms of SL and TL. Various as they are, all the possible changes may be classed under four main types: transposition (перестановки), replacement (замены), additions (добавление), and omission (опущение).