UNIT 4 Scientific and Technical English

1
UNIT 4 Scientific and Technical English

• Many different labels
• e.g. English for Science and Technology (EST),
  Academic English, English for Academic Purposes,
  Medical English, Netspeak, Electronic English

2
Some historical/cultural reasons for the present
predominance of English in Science and Technology
(see Gotti)

• In Britain in the 17th century the birth of the
  experimental scientific method (F. Bacon) and of
  the experimental essay (R. Boyle), and the
  founding of The Royal Society in London (1660)
  starting from the 18th century the development of
  the Industrial Revolution
  
• In the USA in the 20th century the American
  leadership in scientific and technological
  research during and after the Second World War,
  and the invention of the computer

3
CONFLICTING IDEOLOGIES ON THE ROLE OF ENGLISH AS
THE GLOBAL LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• MULTILINGUALISM ALLOWS DIFFERENT CULTURAL AND
  HUMAN PERSPECTIVES ON THE WORLD
  
• BUT
• MAY RENDER COMMUNICATION DIFFICULT
• A GLOBAL LANGUAGE ALLOWS UNPRECEDENTED
  POSSIBILITIES FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
• BUT
• MAY STILL THE VOICE OF SCIENCE IN LANGUAGES
  OTHER THAN ENGLISH
• CAN THESE TWO VIEWS BE RECONCILED?

4
Compare two medical texts (Texts 13 and 14)

Text 13 downloaded from the website of CDC,
Center for Disease Control, 1600 Clifton
Road, N.E. Atlanta, GA 30333 USA
Key Facts About Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) and
Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Virus Text 14
downloaded from (Chest. 2006129156-168.)
American College of Chest Physicians Avian
Influenza Virus Infections in Humans by
Samson S. Y. Wong, MRC Path and Kwok-Yung
Yuen, MD
5
Terminological banks

• European terminological bank http//iate.europa.
  eu/iatediff/

6
TEXT ANALYSIS

• Consider Text 13 and Text 14 and analyse
  their similarities and differences in terms of
• GENRE a fairly stable form of communication -
  with specific conventions - which is adopted and
  recognised by a scientific/professional
  community
• FIELD the topic, e.g. the use of concepts and
  terms to express them and the link between
  concepts,
• TENOR who speaks or writes to whom, e.g formal
  or informal register, use of modality and
  evalutative expressions, writer-reader
  visibility
• MODE the medium chosen, the structure and order
  of information

7
TEXT ANALYSIS

• TEXT 14
• Genre the abstract of an article published in an
  American scientific journal, and also available
  on the web
• Field Avian influenza, terminology of classical
  origin ( e.g. influenza, pathogenic,
  immunogenicity) long nominal groups (e.g. more
  than 200transmission)
• Tenor experts to experts
• Mode written, compact text , no paragraphs,
  genre conventions, e.g. key words

• TEXT 13
• Genre a fact sheet published by
• the Center for Disease, Control and
  Prevention (CDC) of the Department
• of Health and Human Services, US, (HHS),
  available on the web
• Field Avian influenza use of less specialized
  terms, eg. bird flu repetition of key-words
  (e.g. secretions and excretions) definitions,
  explanations, clarifications and examples are
  often provided
• Tenor experts to medical doctors and/or educated
  readers
• Mode divided into titled sections, written in
  paragraphs

8
DOSSIER Text 14 ,15 and 16An online software
manual

• From Wordsmith Tools online Manual, by Mike
  Scott, OUP, 1996,
• General stuff, pp. 55/56

9
THE LEXIS OF COMPUTER SCIENCE (see Gotti) 1.
internal borrowing

• BORROWED FROM GENERAL LANGUAGE AND ACQUIRING
  A SPECIALIZED MEANING (e.g. window, discussion
  group) often with the American spelling (e.g.
  program. disk), sometimes with a metaphorical
  meaning (e.g. store, menu), sometimes with
  different grammatical rules (e.g. mouse/mouses
  versus mice), often colloquial (e.g. bug, spam)

10
THE LEXIS OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 2. NEOLOGICAL
PROCESSES

• New coinage (e.g. byte )
• Analogy (e.g. software, hardware, courseware)
• Similes (e.g. star-shaped data)
• Derivation (e.g. e-mail both noun and verb,
  e-mailer, e-commerce, emoticons, spamming,
  spammer, anti-spamming)
• Compounds (e.g. computer programmer, on-line,
  off-line)
• Blends (e.g. modem modulator/demodulator)
• Acronyms and abbreviations ( e.g. RAM, ROM, Bit
  binary digit, FAQ)

11
GLOSSARIES

• Several glossaries through search engines
• e.g. Webopedia Computer Dictionary (in
  English)
• http//www.webopedia.com/
• Terminological data bank in the European
  languages
• http//iate.europa.eu/iatediff

12
LOCALIZATION (localizzazione) see Scarpa

• The process of linguistic and cultural
  translation and adaptation of a text to local
  expectations and needs more specifically the
  translation of a computer manual or web site
  according to specific contexts, technical
  requirements and /or pre-existing guidelines set
  by producers
• Localization Industry Standard Association
  (LISA) a private nonprofit organisation
  promoting and discussing localization issues. See
  www.lisa.org

13
Stylistic Analysis of the English version (text
14) and of two possible translations of it into
Italian (15 and 16).

• Consider
• the writers attitude to the reader, and the
• register of the text
• the syntactic choices (e.g. sentence
• structure, tense and mood)
• textual organisation
• lexical and terminological choices

14
WORDSMITH TOOLS MANUAL

• From expert to expert-to-be
• Adoption of a friendly and personal tone (e.g.
  use of you and I, use of contracted verb
  forms, use of non-technical words along with
  specialized terms e.g. General stuff / anyway
  versus 4MB of RAM)
• Use of American spelling ( e.g. disk, program)

15
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRANSLATION 1(Text 15) AND 2
(Text 16)

• What major differences do you notice between
  translation 1 and translation 2 at the levels of
• - register
• - lexical and terminological choices
• - syntactic choices
• - omission/addition
• In conclusion, which translation do you prefer,
  and why?

16
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRANSLATION
1 AND 2

• TRANSLATION 2 (Text 16)
• 1. The same
• 2 The same
• 3. Retention of a more personal tone (e.g Per
  avviare Wordsmith Tools avete bisogno di Io
  suggerisco
• 4 . Preference for terms in Italian ( e.g.
  cartella and use of italics for some English
  terms)

• TRANSLATION 1
• (text 15)
• 1 Adoption of a more formal tone
• (General stuff Informazioni generali)
• Similar textual organization (with some graphic
  differences)
• 3 Adoption of a neutral / impersonal tone (
  e,g. Per eseguire Wordsmith Tools occorrono.
  Verrà suggerita la posizione
• Preference for terms in English
• ( e.g. directory)

17
Car reviews on specialized web sites (Text 20)

• A hybrid genre combining technical information
  and advertising features
• Identify some of the technical terms and some
  of the advertising linguistic strategies