GRM 355 Stunde 9

Chapter 11: Scientific & Technical Translation. Hervey, pp. 133-44

I. The Problem:

Scientific and technological texts are so very unfamiliar for many language students -> clear illustrations of two important points:
1. The translator must be -- or become -- just as familiar with the technical terms and genre-features in the TL as in the SL. 2. The problems met in translating specialist texts include almost all those met in translating in any other genre, specialized or not.

II. Inaccessibility of most technical texts

I dont get it.

Most technical texts are relatively inaccessible to non-specialist readers. Ultimately, this inaccesibility is conceptual in nature:
Its all conceptual, Dude!

Inaccessibility of technical texts (contd)

1. the expert in any technical subject has, over a period of years, absorbed a mass of practical scientific & technical knowledge that has become part of the general background and so does not become explicit in discussions.
Hopeless, he is, Obe Wanlearn much he must, but hard headed, hard headed

Master Yoda, it is not necessary to explain the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to me, for I have absorbed a mass of knowledge of this already.

Inaccessibility of technical texts (contd)

2. beyond this general competence, there is the knowledge of the individual specialty shared by a much smaller class of individuals but still often taken for granted when specialists talk to specialists.

We may have different specialties, but we all know how to fight criminals and launder Spandex!

Inaccessibility of technical texts (contd)

3. Further dimension: it is not only the concepts themselves that have to be understood, but also the logic of the discipline, its method of argumentation, the ways in which its concepts relate to each other.

Tell me, Grasshopper, why I really should get more familiar with the technical language of quantum physics!

Specialist terminology of technical languages

III.The best place for new translators to start to become familiar with the disciplines concerned is the specialist terminology of the technical languages.

IV. Lexical problems < specialized use of technical terms:

1. terms are not used in everyday, ordinary language and are consequently unfamiliar to the lay translator; 2. terms whose ordinary uses are familiar to the translator, but which are manifestly used in some other, technically specialized way in the ST. 3. a term may have an ordinary, everyday sense that is not obviously wrong in the context. This is the most dangerous sort of case.

Technical Lexica

V. Access to up-to-date specialist dictionaries and databases is essential for technical translators even if not always a sufficient safeguard, as scientific and technological fields and terminology are constantly developing.

VI. Two complicating factors:

1. minor one: even established technical terms are occasionally used loosely or informally in technical texts. 2. conceptual problems: knowledge gaps may concern the facts known and taken for granted and therefore never spelled out; or they may have to do with the disciplines logic, in particular the relationship between concepts

Special Characteristics of Scientific & Technical language

Scientific and technical language is impersonal: in principle at least, it does not use connotation or suggestion. It is clear, precise and compact. The prime virtues of a translation are accuracy & clarity, and consistency is also important. Implications of mistranslation are generally more serious in technical translation, where a simple error can cause financial loss or even endanger structures & lives. It is often necessary to attach a legal disclaimer to the TT.

German Textual Pitfalls

* On Pp. 138-139 there is a discussion of some of the pitfalls that can "lurk in any German text." What are some of these that can cause great trouble to an unwary translator?

Working In-House
* The reality of professional translation is such that working "in-house" is often the best way to ensure good translating practice. Why?: one has to learn the concepts of the field in which one wishes to translate, and the way to do this is in practice very often the hard way of translating texts against a deadline, researching as one goes.

Translation Memory Software

* (140) How does translation memory software come into the technical translation process? Since technical translation is often very repetitive; furthermore, it goes far towards solving the problem of terminological consistency, and it greatly reduces the human involvement in purely repetitive work.

Characteristics of Technical Texts:

1. The language is usually informative, and often includes expressions denoting purpose or role, and explanations of method or process. 2. Often the passive is used extensively, which keeps the style impersonal. 3. A third typical feature = the frequent use of compound nouns. 4. Fourth feature = nominalization = the use of a noun that, in the same language or in a TT, could be replaced by an expression not containing a noun - avoids complicated verb constructions, but involves the supply of a colorless function verb to the nominalized concepts.

Practical 11.1
The ST is from a specification of works issued by a government agency for trunk road construction and aimed at prospective contractors. For a study visit by American planners and engineers, you are asked to provide an English translation. Bearing in mind the information supplied in Chapter 11 (pp. 134-135, 140-141) with reference to the ST, discuss the strategic decisions that you have to make before starting detailed translation of this ST, and outline and justify the strategy you adopt. (cf. also Practical 5.3) Translate the ST into English. Explain the main decisions of detail that you made. Compare your TT with the professionally prepared TT that I will link for you to the webpage after we have discussed the translations in class

Pp. 134-135

Terms whose ordinary uses are familiar to the translator, but which are manifestly used in some other, technically specialized way
Kaverne : cavern Rhre : bore (not pipe / tube / tunnel) Ausbau : construction, (not extension / development) Angriffspunkt : application point (breaking-out or cutting-out point in a good dictionary).

Pp. 140-141
Example of nominialization the use of the noun that, in the same sentence in the TT, could be replaced by an expression not containing a noun. Die Herstellung der Abdichtung und der Innenschale erfolgt abschnittsweise zwischen den jeweiligen Angriffspunkten Nordportal Kehltal Flgraben Sdportal. The sealing and inner lining will be formed in segments between the North Portal, Kehl, Flgraben and South Portal breaking-out points.

Wortschatz: Schalwagen

Ein zweiter Schalwagen

Zuluftstollen = air intake adit

An adit is a type of entrance to an underground mining operation in which the entrance shaft is horizontal or nearly horizontal. Adits are usually built into the side of a hill or mountain, and often occur when a measure of coal or an ore body is located inside the mountain but above the adjacent valley floor or coastal plain.

Mining Adit

Abluftkamin = ventilation shaft

Practical 11.2
The manufacturer's descriptive literature for a new servo amplifier has been drafted in German, but is to be issued simultaneously in English. You are responsible for the English version. Discuss the strategic decisions that you have to make before starting detailed translation of this ST, and outline and justify the strategy you adopt. Translate the ST into English. Explain the main decisions of detail that you made. Discuss the professionally prepared TT ("Startup and Diagnostic Software for Inline Servo Amplifiers") that I will link to the webpage

Contextual Information

Servo amplifiers are typically used to control small electric motors, e.g. in vehicle braking systems. The ST is taken from Phoenix Contact's Application Note 704000 (dated March 2004), a 13-page document. The first section is headed "Funktionsbeschreibung," and its first two paragraphs are reproduced on p. 143 for translation. The ST has one misprint.

Phoenix Contact Servoverstrker 2819587 IB IL EC AR 48/10A-PAC

Practical 11.3

It might help to read up some on the more technical aspects of malaria and the MSP-1 protein molecule: surf the Malaria Website at Brown University to get some background on this topic from the experts. The ST comes from an article published online in 2001 by Die Welt. You are asked to translate it for an equivalent-quality Englishlanguage newspaper. Discuss the strategic decisions that you have to make before starting detailed translation of this ST, and outline and justify the strategy you adopt. Translate the ST into English. Explain the main decisions of detail that you made. Discuss the TT that I will link for you here after we have discussed the translations in class.

Contextual Information:

The article's opening section explains that malaria is on the increase world-wide, and that for over thirty years scientists have been struggling in vain to find an effective vaccine. The extract has two linguistic errors.