General peculiarities of scientific style in English and in

Ukrainian
The scientific style is closely connected to so-called academic writing, which embraces wide range of
various texts: abstracts, summaries, reference papers, articles, diploma papers, theses, etc. Due to
national traditions, there are a number of features that differentiate scientific style of English from that of
the Ukrainian, but B.Slepovich distinguishes some of them to be universal:
-      the text audience, that is the main recipient or addressee of the scientific text;
-      the purpose of the text;
-      the text organization, including its coherence and cohesion;
-      the text style (namely – the text’s belonging to the scientific style);
-      the text flow, or how the parts of the text are connected with each other;
-      the type of text presentation [Slepovich 2006, p.190].

Let’s consider these points in details. Thus, when relying on the audience, the author has to predict a
sort expected reaction by the text recipient. For this purpose, the author also has to consider the
possible readers’ knowledge and experience.

The purpose of academic text depends on the correlation between the author’s and the audience’s
knowledge on the subject. If the audience has less knowledge, then the text is produced with
teaching/instructing purpose, if vice versa – the text serves displaying the level of the author’s
knowledge (for instance, the student’s course paper).
The organization of the text implies the certain text structure, which can be of two sorts – the
macrostructure and the microstructure. The macrostructure requires division of the text into chapters,
paragraphs, etc., the text microstructure can be described by means of several models. For instance,
“from general to specific” model consists of 4 parts: statement, supplying the statement with details,
examples, summarizing. Another popular model called “problem-solution” consists of description of
situation, problem formulating, description of solution of the stated problem, assessment or analysis of
the selected solution in the given situation.

The style of academic writing is characterized by features typical for formal written speech.
The text flow requires using special linking words, which are to serve the connection between different
parts of the text. According to the purpose, they can be grouped into the words of addition (крім того/in
addition; більш того/moreover); contrasting (незважаючи на те що/although; однак/however;
незважаючи на/despite, in spite of; тим не менше/nevertheless); expressing cause and result
(тому/therefore; в результаті/as a result; через/due to, because of); specifying (іншими словами/in
other words; тобто/that is, i.e.), etc.

When talking about the text presentation, one usually means its format, position on a page, margins,
footnotes, references, etc. Moreover, the text should be carefully edited
Difficulties occurring when translating scientific texts
Despite such complexity of scientific text, all its parts are closely connected, thus, the work of the
translator resembles the work of the multiprocessing computer, when the lexical, grammatical, stylistic,
communicative and other sorts of information are processed.
According to V.Karaban, most difficulties occurring when translating scientific texts, can fall into 3
categories, namely lexical, terminological and stylistic ones [Karaban 1999, p.12].

The lexical difficulties are as follows: polysemy within common lexicon and terminological vocabulary,
choice of the equivalent for the term in the dictionary, peculiarities of “neutral” words in scientific texts,
choice of the way the lexeme should be translated, extent of the possible transformations, translation of
terminological neologisms, acronyms, false internationalisms, homonymic terms, nationally biased units
of lexicon, borrowings, various proper names, etc.

Stylistic difficulties (especially when talking about English-Ukrainian translation of scientific texts) are
experienced when there occur metaphorical terms, phraseological units, clichés, colloquial lexicon,
peculiarities of usage of the personal pronoun I, genre peculiarities of some texts (manuals, patents,
certificates etc.).

The difficulties may result in translator’s mistakes. According to B.Slepovich, the main reasons for the
translator’s mistakes are ignoring the dictionary, sometimes due to lack of desire to consult it (oблік
– account, taking into account; мета – object, goal, objective); wrong choice of the equivalent when
translating homonyms (foreign/international, teaching/learning, intercourse/communication,
considerable/relevant, next/following); wrong use of the article; ignorance of the set phrases (meet the
needs, meet the interests); misunderstanding of the situation [Slepovich 2006, p.197].
The main ways suggested for solving these problems are their thorough detection, choosing the proper
way of their equivalent translation, pragmatic adaptation of the text in the process of translation, forming
the translator’s skills of solving the stated problems.
A lot of the stated difficulties can be resulted from the fact that many words besides their primary
“everyday” lexical meanings have additional “specialized” meanings (neutral scientific, neutral technical,
terminological, etc. – they thus belong to various systems of terms). For instance, the
word suggestion has the primary meaning «пропозиція», «припущення», that sometimes are
associated with it in the scientific text as well. But besides that, it can mean «[імовірне/раціональне]
пояснення»:
An early suggestion for the mechanism of this reaction was postulated in 1960.
- Одне з перших раціональних пояснень механізму цієї реакції було запропоновано у 1960 рoцi.
The verb realize means in “everyday” texts «уявляти собі», «проводити у життя», but in the scientific
texts it can also mean «чітко/ясно розуміти суть справи»:
Slowly it was realized, however, that the characteristic properties of each functional group are markedly
altered.
- Однак поступово стало абсолютно ясним, що xapaктepнi властивості кожної функціональ
ної групи помітно змінюються.
The word idea is often used in the scientific text as «погляд на природу явища/факту та відповідне
його пояснення»:
А key step in this development was the establishment of the idea of radicals as
the organic equivalent of atoms. – Вирішальним моментом в еволюції поглядів стало
утвердження пояснення радикалів як органічних еквівалентів атомів.
Most bilingual dictionaries are concentrated on common vocabulary or are specialized on special terms,
thus they do not contain “neutral scientific” and “neutral technical” meanings of the words. For instance,
the noun candidate can be used with such meanings in the scientific texts: 1) варіант (structural
candidate – структурний варіант); 2) тип, вид (candidate solutions – види можливих
вирішень); 3) засіб (information
candidate -  засіб інформації); 4) придатний, відповіднии, слушний (candidate
material - відповідний матеріал); 5) можливий, ймовірний, вірогідний (three candidate
definitions три можливих визначення); 6) доцільний, перспективний, цікавий (candidate
option - цікавий варіант вирішення проблеми).
Other words of the same kind can be attraction, attractiveness, beauty, usefulness, strength, bonus —
all meaning «перевага, позитивний бік»; strategy, treatment, scenario, avenue, concept meaning
«мeтод, спосіб».
A lot of words have special meanings, for instance: niche "галузь (сфера) застосування" (specialized
niche "вузька (спецiальнa) сфера застосування"); world "вид, рiзновид; сукупнiсть, система:
технiка" (the communications world "система зв'язку", the analogue world "аналогова технiка", real
world problem "практична (прикладна) проблема"), paper "стаття, тези, виступ на конференції,
to claim "висувати положення, стверджувати", claim "теза, положения, твердження", criticism
"критичне зауваження", entity "об'єкт", to argue "стверджувати", to ехаmine "аналiзувати", to
give an account "пояснювати", orthodoxy "загальноприйнятні (загальновідомі) положення",
undefended "необгрунтований", stipulation "положення, теза", technical "спеціальний", to maintain
“стверджувати", to capture "пояснити, встановити", good "надійний, достатній", empirical
evidence «надійні емпіричні дані», to fit «відповідати (критеріям), ample «значний» (ample material
"значний за обсягом матеріал дослідження"), recent development(s) «нові досягнення», concern
"проблема", challenge складна проблема", symptoms "ознаки", reviewer "рецензент", tool "засіб,
інструментарій", point "положення", background "тло; підготовка", abstrасt "тези, реферат",
proposal "вирiшення, запропонована iдея", contribution "стаття; наукова праця".

Translation of terms
Scientific and technical terms are a sort of lingual signs representing notions of special, professional
branch of theory and forming essential part of the wholesome body of scientific texts and being one of
the basic difficulties of translation due to, for instance, absence of translation equivalents for the
neologism terms, and their national variability, like existence of different terms in British, American,
Canadian variants of English, etc.

According to structure, the terms can be classified into simple (anode – анод) and derivative: suffixal
(transmitter – передавач), prefixal (multi-cylinder – багатоциліндровий), suffixal-prefixal (reprocessing
– повторна обробка), complex (flywheel – маховик) and phrasal (protective choke – захисний
дросель).

Considerable difficulties are possible when the terms are influenced by the homonymy resulting from the
fact of acquiring different meanings in different branches of sciences. For instance, leader means:
physics – іскровий або грозовий розряд;
cinematography – зарядка ділянки кіноплівки;
cybernetics – початок масиву;
bench work – ходовий гвинт;
political science – провідник, керівник;
polygraphy – пунктир, etc.

Special sort of homonymy occurs when applying abbreviations, for instance OP stands for outer panel
board (polytechnics), clearance sale (publishing), mark of changing price of postal stamp (post), snow
pellets (meteorology).

Stylistic peculiarities of scientific texts to be taken into

account by the translator
It should be borne in mind, that different languages may be characterized by different stylistic norms of
scientific texts. For instance, if we compare those of the English and the Ukrainian languages, we
should state, that the English scientific texts authors use the personal pronoun I more often, than they
do in Ukrainian. The same can be told about usage of colloquial and phraseological elements, etc.
These differences must be taken into account by the translator.
The set non-figurative phrases are translated by equivalent:
Around the beginning of the 20th century, the study of cognition in terms оf psychology, linguistics.
neuroscience and so on each developed into а distinct and separate area of inquiry. Десь на початку
столетия дослiдження пiзнання з точки зору психології, мовознавства, нейрології та інших
дисциплин призвело до появи окремої чітко окресленої галузі дослідження.
In the same wау the complex situation can be described with remarkable
simplicity. Подібим чином цю складну ситуацію можна описати досить-таки просто.
Early debates concerned issues such as whether the storage of visual information takes place іn terms
оf holistic images or of propositional
networks. Спочатку дискусії точилися навколо таких питань. як наступне: чи візуальна інфор
мація зберігається у вигляді повного i цілого образу або ж у вигляді пов'язаної сукупності пр
опозицій.
Figurative phraseological units may be rendered in the following way:
1. Full equivalent: tо rеаd between the lines - читати поміж рядків, а Pyrrhic victory - Піррова
перемога.
2. Relative equivalent: not to see the wood for the trees - за деревами не бачити лiсу, to play into
somebody’s hands - грати комусь на руку, а hard nut to crack - міцний горішок, to beat the air -
носити воду решетом, to kill twо birds with one stone - убивати вiдразу двох зайцiв.
3. Invariant equivalent: to be poles apart - рiзнитися як небо i земля (бути вiдмiнним як
день i ніч); to hold оnе's ground - не здавати своих позицій.
4. Calque: to acquire currency - набувати поширення, instrument of peace - iнструмент
миру, trial baloon - пробна куля.
5. Description (loss of figurativeness): plain as а pikestaff — абсолютно
зрозумiлий, to bear in mind - пам'ятати, acid test - точне випробовування, all in all - беручи все
до уваги, as matters stand - за iснуючого стану речей, to hold good - залишатися вiрним
(дiйсним), to be beside the point - не стосуватися справи, to go one's own wау - дiяти
абсолютно незалежно.
Metaphorical terms are translated either with or without retaining metaphor: coal basin - вугільний
басейн, apron - козирок, captain's bridge - капітанський місток, altar - горизонтальний шельф,
needle beard - крючок голки, bedroom - спальне купе.

Colloquial elements in the English texts may be seen rather often, though it is no tradition in Ukrainian
scientific discourse. Thus, in most cases they are substituted with stylistically neutral units:
The formal axiomatic system that Hilbert wanted to construct would have included аll of mathematics:
elementary arithmetics, calculus, algebra, everything. Формальна аксіоматична система,
яку Гілберт хотів опрацювати, мала включати всю математику: елементарну арифметику,
числення, алгебру ma ін.
Two роints tell against this outrageous comparison. Два моменти свідчать проти
такого неnpunycmuмого порівняння.

The personal pronoun I is used rather often in English scientific texts, though it is not good to use it in
Ukrainian translation. It is highly recommended to use “polite” personal pronoun ми or to use
impersonal constructions in this case:
I would like to stress the difference between the notions “component” and "module". Mu хотiли
б підкреслити різницю між поняттями "компонент" та "модуль".
І will refer to this phenomenon as "slashing". Ми будемо називати це явище "зрізанням".
In this paper I will ехрlоrе the possibility of measuring the amount of information in various texts. У цій
статті досліджується можливість вимірювання кількості інформації в різних текстах.
However, if the text goes about priority of personal discovery, Ukrainian scientific text may contain the
personal pronoun я as well:
As еаrlу as in 1984 I offered а new solution to the problem. Ще в 1984 роцi я запропонував нове
вирішення цієї проблеми.
Thus, the strategy of domestication is more common when translating the scientific text than in artistic
translation.