GRM 355 Stunde 9

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GRM 355Stunde 9

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

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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.

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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!
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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.

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.
Hopeless, he is, Obe Wanlearn much he must, but
hard headed, hard headed
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Inaccessibility of technical texts (contd)
We may have different specialties, but we all
know how to fight criminals and launder Spandex!

• 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.

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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.

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

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

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IV. Lexical problems 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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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
• Röhre bore (not pipe / tube / tunnel)
• Ausbau construction, (not extension /
  development)
• Angriffspunkt application point (breaking-out
  or cutting-out point in a good dictionary).

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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
  Flößgraben Südportal.
• The sealing and inner lining will be formed in
  segments between the North Portal, Kehl,
  Flößgraben and South Portal breaking-out points.
  

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Wortschatz Schalwagen
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Ein zweiter Schalwagen
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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
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Abluftkamin ventilation shaft
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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

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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.

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Phoenix Contact Servoverstärker2819587 IB IL EC
AR 48/10A-PAC
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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 English-language
  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.

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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.

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(No Transcript)