Если у вас возникли сложности с курсовой, контрольной, дипломной, рефератом, отчетом по практике, научно-исследовательской и любой другой работой - мы готовы помочь.
Предоплата всего
Подписываем
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL TRANSLATION EDITING
Slide 1
Lecture 1
Slide 2
Recognize the impossibility of what you want to do, and then do it anyway… (Translation Editing: An Unedited Conversation by John O’Brien and Jeremy M. Davies)
Slide 3
I. Technical translation. Scope and essence
Technical translation encompasses the translation of special language texts, i.e. texts written using Languages for Special Purposes (LSP). As such, technical translation includes not only the translation of texts in engineering, but also those in medicine, economics, psychology, law etc. These texts require not only a firm mastery of both the source and the target language, but also at least an informed layman’s (не спеціаліст) understanding of the subject field treated by the text, coupled with the research skills needed to write like an expert on the leading edge (the leading edge of a particular area of research or development is the area of it that seems most advanced or sophisticated) of technical disciplines.
Technical translators are typically either trained linguists having profound expertise in selected technical areas or engineers, scientists and other subject-area specialists who have developed a high degree of linguistic knowledge which they apply in their fields of specialization. Thus, collaboration among linguists and subject specialists is quite common.
A translation of a technical text is different from that of a literary text in terms of preciseness. Though non-literal, it should convey the exact meaning of the original text as directly as possible. Purposeful ambiguities, ungrammatical constructions and sound combinations which call attention to themselves are the province of literary translation. In other words, technical translation requires CLARITY.
Slide 4
Why do we have to edit translations?
The main reasons:
English is the most widely-spoken language in the world and is currently an official language in 88 sovereign states and territories. Therefore, it has many different versions and standards (British, Irish, American, Australian, Canadian, Indian, Jamaican, Singapore etc.). For this reason, English terminology is often misused due to native language interference, language contact or language change.
Also, English is widely used in Europe, in particular by European Institutions.
Some words are used with more or less the correct meaning, but in contexts where they would not be used by native speakers. Finally, there is a group of words, many relating to modern technology, where users prefer a “local term” to the one normally used in English speaking countries, which they may not actually know:
“GPS” or “navigator” – for “satnav” (Satnav is a system that uses information from satellites to find the best way of getting to a place. It is often found in cars. Satnav is an abbreviation for “satellite navigation”.)
“To send an SMS” – for “to text”
“To recharge your account” – for “to top up your account” (поповнити рахунок).
Let us consider the following examples:
Slide 5-7
Examples
Remarks:
Slide 5: EESC - European Social and Economic Committee.
Unless you are talking about making something physically deeper (a well for example), you should avoid the word „deepen“ and reformulate the sentence.
Slide 7: The safest policy with this word is to avoid it. If you do wish to use it, bear in mind that it is one of the most frequently misused ones. Its basic meaning in English is „to see something in advance“ and therefore to predict or expect/ It is often used to describe the activities of soothsayers and fortune tellers (She foresaw that you would meet a tall dark-haired stranger“).
Slide 8
If the syntactical and lexical features of the source and target languages differ, as the case with English and Ukrainian is, clarity often requires that the sentence in the target language be completely recast. Being highly inflected, Ukrainian, Russian, and to a lesser extent, German can string together long chains of independent and dependent clauses and still keep the whole meaning clear. In English, the number of words in a sentence should not exceed 25 words (not taking into account articles and particles).
Slide 9-10
Examples
Slide 11
Ukrainian, Russian, and to a lesser extent, German can string together long chains of independent and dependent clauses and still keep the whole meaning clear. In English, the number of words in a sentence should not exceed 25 words (not taking into account articles and particles).
Slide 12
The English sentence, however, still requires work on the part of an editor beyond merely looking up the words in a dictionary.
To step away from literality, the editor has to recast the grammar and use the English terminology with a different degree of specificity than that of the original. English has a larger lexicon than Ukrainian. Many English words carry comparatively narrower lexical meanings. Yet, some Ukrainian words do contain a narrower lexical meaning than the English words. Further differences may arise from differences in the thought processes embodied in different languages.
Slide 13
To sum up the above, let us look at the crucial points of translation:
Literarity: Высокосортная ароматная стелька предотвратит гниль ноги и простерилизует плесень.
“Constant wars were a part of their [Romans'] make-up” – “Войны были частью макияжа римлян”
Mental make-up (психічний склад), personal make-up (індивідуальні особливості), physiological make-up (фізіологічні особливості).
Poor use of terminology:
Технологические сливы (flashings) – technological plums.
«клапан бабочка» (“butterfly valve” – «дисковый поворотный затвор»)
Slide 14
The possible solutions are as follows:
Conclusion:
Facility (легкість у розумінні) with the source language is important, but facility with the target language is crucial. No one but a skilled technical writer is likely to make a good translation of a technical document. But knowledge of the source language and writing skills in the target language are still insufficient. An editor is required to know the subject matter of the original document and to be experienced in applying the editing methodology. Only then is a clear, concise (лаконічний переклад) and correct translation possible.
II. What do we actually edit? The object of editing is the author’s original translation. However, apart from text information, this original may also contain illustrations, audio or video parts, which should be regarded as equal objects of editing.
Slides 15-17 Examples
Slide 18
Defining the subject matter of editing is the most controversial issue in the respective scientific studies. Most researchers believe that the subject matter of editing is bringing the object of editing into compliance with the applicable norms or regulations. The normative basis of editing is the whole set of both simple and complex norms established by all peripheral sciences related to editing.
To properly amend and adjust the translated text, an editor has to specify some things, delete the odd or modify the available ones.
Working out the optimum, editors apply general scientific methods, namely the following:
3. The purpose and tasks of editing
The purpose of editing is to compile a message so that the planned social effect can be achieved. That is, an editor is supposed to translate the message into the recipient’s language. The specified purpose shall be achieved via solving a range of tasks. The most important of them are