Chapter 1 Translation Translation facilitates facilitates de ow ow of ideas, expertise, expertise, values values and other information information between dierent cultures. cultures. It also facilitated some of the most signicant signicant scientic and technological advances of recent decades. These advances have transformed transformed our dail lives. !hat man people do not reali"e is that these inventions and advances are accompanied at almost ever step of the wa b translation in its capacit as a vehicle for disseminating scientic and technical #nowledge. $cientic and technical texts !hile the two areas are separate in man was, the was in which the appear in the real world mean that the need to be considered together. Technical Technical text% text% designed to conve information information as clearl clearl and eectivel eectivel as possible. $cientic text% discuss, anal"e and snthesi"e information with a view to explaining ideas, proposing new theories or evaluating methods. &istorical signicance That translation translation has accompanied accompanied virtuall virtuall ever signicant signicant scientic and technological discover discover throughout the ages is well documented and it is di'cult to nd a single example of an invention or discover which was not exported to another language and culture b means of translation. !hile translation has alwas facilitated the dissemination of #nowledge, it was not until the 1( th centur that it reall came into its own. In 1))*, +ohannes utenberg developed developed the rst moveable tpe printing sstem which made it easier to produce and own boo#s. This invention had such an impact on translation. -ot onl did this ma#e it easier to distribute original language texts, it also made it easier to disseminate information in translation. t that time, scientists were ma#ing countless new discoveries and writing about their ndings in their own native language. !ith other researchers eager to ac/uire new #nowledge and learn new techni/ues, the demand for translations of these scientic texts was unprecedented. !ere if not for translation, each language area would be intellectuall isolated and each language communit would have to discover the entire bod of scientic and technical #nowledge for itself. 0oman translators were no less cavalier in their approach to scavenging #nowledge and passing it o as their own. Indeed, the 0omans described these practices as invention invention2, which involved the rewriting or rewording of
the original during translation, and contaminare contamination2, which involved combining translation together from dierent sources to form an entirel new wor#. This changed changed with the advent advent of relativel relativel high volume volume printing as facilitated b b utenberg3s invention. Texts became xed 4ob5ects to be respected and not written and copied b anone. The process of printing texts on paper binding them gave the #nowledge the contained legitimac and permanenc permanenc which had rarel existed previousl. The existence of a xed and standardi"ed source text made translators more accountable for omissions and mistranslations because it was easier to consult the original source text. 6odern scientic and technical translation Toda, Toda, scientic scientic and technical technical translation translation represents represents the bac#bone bac#bone of international trade. 7irtuall ever product sold or speciali"ed service provided will re/uire the involvement of scientic and technical translators at some point in its lifeccle. $cientic and technical translation now accounts for some 89: of global translation output. Translation Translation is the sub5ect of of numerous numerous laws, regulations regulations and and directives directives and man international scholarl scientic 5ournals, even those which publish papers in various languages, re/uire translations of abstracts at the ver least. $ome legal dimensions The translation translation of documents documents in these domains domains is an activit activit which is re/uired re/uired b law. In ;urope, ;< Council 0esolution C)11 specicall states that in order to be able to legall sell or distribute technical products and appliances, all technical documentation relating relating to the product must be translated into the languages2 of the countr where the product is to be sold. result of the =irective is that products are onl regarded as being complete when the are accompanied b full operating instructions in the users3 own language> if there are problems or inaccuracies in the instructions, the whole product can be regarded as defective. Instructions must be clear, comprehensible and must provide clear warnings to prevent misuse of products and to advise users of possible ris#s and ha"ards. There is a huge demand for translators. translators. Translations Translations%% are regarded regarded as original target language documents. place for translation theor?
@ne of the most di'cult aspects of translation theor is that scientic and technical translation have traditionall been neglected b scholars and none of the mainstream theories reall addresses scientic and technical translation specicall. =i'culties also arise because man theories of translation adopt a binar approach to translation consisting of diametricall opposed extremes. Translation Translation inevitabl inevitabl involves shades of gre gre 4new scenarios, scenarios, unusual unusual combinations of factors and so on A which means that tring to shoeAhorn a translation into one categor or the other is often uncomfortable. uncomfortable. 0ecreating the source text Traditionall, Traditionall, the the source source text has been been regarded regarded as the most important important element in translation, particularl particularl as it is the starting point for the whole process and the basis upon which target texts are produced. In recent ears, the focus of translation theor has shifted awa from framewor#s based on the source text towards a more communicative approach. Translation in increasingl being regarded as a communicative process and the guiding factors are the message and recipient the content and the target audience2. The emphasis on the source source text is perhaps perhaps most most apparent apparent in denitions and tpes of e/uivalence which rel a lin# or bond between the source text and the target text. This relationship allows the target text to be considered a translation of the source text. The target text text could not not function as a translation translation without the the everApresent everApresent source text. The most well #nown tpes of e/uivalence are% are% Bormal e/uivalence% concerned with the message in terms of its form and content. The message in the T should match the dierent elements in the $ as closel as possible. =namic e/uivalence% based on the notion that the TT should have the same eect on its audience as the $T had on its audience. The emphasis is on creating the same relationship between the target audience and the message as that which existed between the $ audience and the message. The aim is to produce a TT which is natural and idiomatic and which focuses on the T culture. successful translation needs to capture the sense of the $T and not 5ust the words. words. $uccessful $uccessful if the message message is successfull successfull transmitted transmitted to the target audience. ;/uivalence can occur on the following levels Doller2%
A A A A A
=enotatio =enotational nal meani meaning, ng, namel namel the ob5ect ob5ect or concept concept being being referr referred ed to> to> Connotati Connotational onal meaning, meaning, divided divided into into langu language age level, level, sociolect sociolect,, dialect, dialect, medium, stle, etc> Textual extual norms norms,, tpical tpical langua language ge featur features es of texts texts such such as legal legal documents, business letters, etc> Eragm Eragmati atic c meaning meaning,, which which inclu includes des read reader er expec expectat tation ions> s> inguist inguistic ic form, form, namel namel devices devices such such as metaphors metaphors,, rhme, rhme, etc.
;ach of these levels gives rise to a particular tpe of e/uivalence. In scientic and technical texts, achieving e/uivalence on an of these levels might re/uire re/uire the translator to focus on the information being communicated dm2 in the case of an instruction manual, on the wa in which information in expressed lf2 in a popular science article or on set phrases and document conventions conventions tn2 in the case if a certicate of conformit. Translators Translators ma ma nd themselves having having to settle settle for lower levels levels of e/uivalence e/uivalence on one or more of the remaining levels. The instance instance of e/uivalenceAbased e/uivalenceAbased approaches approaches on maintaining maintaining what what some would regard as excessivel close lin#s between the TT and the $T and its original audience seems incongruous when the point of translation is to communicate to a new audience. ;/uivalence can also be critici"ed for its general di'cult in incorporating realAworld, extratextual issues such as time constraints, preferred terminolog and stle, etc. These levels of of e/uivalence give give us the abilit abilit to compare compare $ and T texts, texts, once a translation has been produced. $cientic and technical translations will be treated as if the were originall produced produced in the T and not as translations. translations. ;/uivalence does not ta#e into account those realAworld issues which pla as much as a role in shaping the translation process as the $ and T languages, the text and its content, etc. ll we can expect to achieve using the various levels of e/uivalence is describe how the $ and T texts relate to one another after the translation has been completed. helpful wa of using e/uivalence is to emplo its levels as a set of tools or policies which can be selected in order to achieve some translation goal. Bocusing on the TT $#opos theor% the TT, or more precisel the purpose of the TT, is the most important in determining the wa we should translate texts. Fased on the principle that translation is a communicative activit, which is performed for a specic reason. It is this purpose, which is #nown as the s#opos, which governs the translation process, unli#e e/uivalence where the $T and its eects on the $ audience determine the translation process, or functionalism, where the $T function denes the TT function and the translation process.
The $#opos $#opos of the TT TT is specied b the commissioner commissioner and the translator translator.. text is an oer of information information raw materials from which a number of possible translations can be produced2. The wa in which a translator selects the GcorrectH translation depends on the intended purpose of the translation being #nown. The $#opos $#opos theor introduces introduces the the notion of the translation translation brief, which which is dened as a form of pro5ect specication which sets out the re/uirements for the translation. This brief is intended to form the basis for identifing the $#opos of the translation and is supposed to clearl dene what the translation is to be used for and who will use it. It can be problematic from the point of view that the $#opos of a translation is based on the undened notion of the translation brief, which which is open to interpretation and ma be ver di'cult to formulate because translators are rarel given meaningful translation briefs or commissions. @ne method of reconciling the problem might be to combine the best features of the $#opos theor, e/uivalence theor and wor# carried out on text tpologies. Technolog Technolog plas plas a crucial crucial role in scientic scientic and technical translation. translation. Commercial translation has alwas re/uired the use of certain tools. The benets to translators were modest and came in the form of slight improvements in the presentation of translations or faster deliver of texts. It is onl since around the midA1889s that the Internet has trul made its mar# on translation. Computers and the internet has created new demands for translations and placed new demands on translators, translators, re/uiring them to adopt new technologies and practices. Technolog facilitated global business> it creates a demand for new processes which inevitabl involve the use of technolog. Translation became a computerAbased activit. Toda3s Toda3s scientic scientic and technical technical translator translator has to contend contend not onl with with wordA processing and sending les b email or electronic le transfer, but receiving documents in a bewildering arra of le tpes which often have to be handled using speciali"ed software. eneral tools This categor categor forms the basic level of IT IT competence which which is needed to be able to function in an career and it consists of general EC s#ills such as maintenance, installation and deinstallation of software, data archival and bac#ups, etc. Text Text processing processing tools tools
ll translators needs to be procient in the use of basic wordAprocessing pac#ages.
Eroduc Eroducers% ers% the author author of of the $T pro profess fessiona ionall or sub5ectA sub5ectAspec speciali ialist2 st2 6ediat 6ediators ors%% transl translato ators rs,, edito editors rs modi modies es the the text text22 Communic Communication ation agents% agents% the commissio commissioner ner of a text or translati translation on 0ecip ecipie ient nt%% inte intend nded ed end end use userr
The translator translator Eerforms a role that is essential end extremel complex. $ta translators% emploed b large companies and translate documents produced b the compan. The generall deal with specic sub5ect areas and /uite often, specic range of text tpes. The texts and sub5ects rarel change. The have highl speciali"ed #nowledge #nowledge of the sub5ect area. InAhouse translators% translators% emploed b companies on a fullAtime basis. The wor# for translation companies or locali"ation vendors. Translators often wor# outside their comfort "ones. Teams Teams of translators translators to certain certain #e clients, clients, forming forming a Gvirtuall Gvirtuall translation translation departmentH. $uch teams will deal exclusivel with pro5ects for a specic client. Breelance Breelance translators% largest group in the world2 are are selfAemploed and are responsible for nding their own wor#. $ome freelancer ma also 5oin an online translator communit Ero2 to nd wor# but such practices are widel critici"ed b professional translators who blame sites li#e this for reducing reducing rates of pa for translators and promoting the use of un/ualied translators.
The pic# their their own sub5ects sub5ects and will often need to ta#e wor# wor# on several areas. The can 5oin forces with other freelancers in order to ta#e on translation pro5ects which are too large for one translator to handle within the time available. Breelancing re/uires motivation, determination and courage. The choose their own wor#ing hours, exibilit, and /uite often, higher levels of incomes than inAhouse or sta translators. $enior translators are often called to set and evaluate test translations which are given to 5ob applicants. =epending on the level of the position being applied for, the applicant ma be permitted to ma#e a certain amount of mista#es and still be considered for the 5ob. Translators Translators ma ma also be as#ed as#ed to provide provide reports reports on the cultural cultural appropriateness of various tpes of communications. Clients @bvious clients for scientic and technical translators A A A A
;ngineer ;ngineering% ing% the the texts texts invol involved ved relate relate to dier dierent ent elds elds and appli applicati cations ons of chemistr, phsics or biolog. Transport% ransport% companies companies involved involved in the the aeros aerospace pace or automo automotive tive industries, industries, railwa engineering, engineering, public transport, etc Informa Information tion technolog technolog % softwar software e and hardwar hardware e companie companies s involve involved d with the internet2 0esearch esearch organi"a organi"ation tions% s% govern government ment thin# thin# tan#s, tan#s, stand standard ards s institut institutions ions,, safet organi"ations, public service bodies, etc.
ess obvious% A
A A
Commerc Commercial ial entiti entities% es% insur insurance ance companies companies,, ban#s ban#s and venture venture capitali capitalists sts who ma re/uire detailed technical information in order to invest in new innovations, innovations, etc $ervice $ervice provider providers% s% train training ing centres centres,, techni technical cal consulta consultants, nts, etc. Individua Individuals% ls% anone anone who, for whate whatever ver reason reason,, needs needs to access access scien scientic tic and technical information whether for personal reasons or for research reasons.
Chapter J
What is technical communication? communication? The purpose purpose of technical communication is is to help people people understand understand how something wor#s or how to carr out a procedure, as a means to perform things /uic#l and safel, and avoiding an mista#es or even dangerous situations that can arise when using something. !hat this tpe of communication does to achieve it is to combine text and graphics to present complex information information in a wa that ma#es it easier to follow and understand for a particular audience in a particular moment. These tpes of of documents are are produced produced b technical technical professionals professionals and technical communicators. The rst ones are the sub5ect experts such as engineers, technicians technicians and scientists that develop all the data and #nowledge communicated in the texts, and in man cases the write their own texts at the same time the perform their primar tas#. $ince the are usuall no experts in
communication, man of them don3t want to spend much time writing their procedures that can ta#e up to )9: of their time2. The latter ones are technical technical communicators. communicators.
Features of technical communication Technical communication addresses specic readers ll technical documents focus on a specic purpose, such as helping users to perform a tas#, demonstrating a particular concept, or providing information to ma#e decisions. Therefore, technical documents are seen as tas#Aorientated tools aimed at particular group or groups of people. Dnowing the intended audience of the text is essential, and this can be a di'cult issue in man cases, because there might be multiple audiences for a text, each of them having dierent reasons to read it, as we will see later. The main fact to consider then is that technical documents are conceived, designed and produced to cover the needs of a specic group.
Technical Technical communication communication is a tool Texts Texts are are tools, a means means to an end which which is outside outside the text itself itself.. The text should not be the focus of attention. The aim is to conve the right information to the right people in the right format so that the can get their own 5obs. There is an exception exception to this general general rule and and that is the subcategor of of scientic writing. In this categor of text, we are communicating a dierent tpe of information. !riters ma need to invent terms for new concepts, use
various rhetorical devices in order to convince readers of the merits of the information being presented and to entertain them. In these cases, creativit and literar prowess are often essential in order to achieve a communicative goal. Technical Technical communication communication is often often produced produced collaborativel collaborativel Technical Technical documents documents are are fre/uentl fre/uentl the product product of several several people wor#ing wor#ing together. =ocuments ma be produced b teams of technical writers or other contributors, each writing specic sections of the text. ;ven where onl one writer is involved, documents pass through several ccles of review b various people such as technical experts, mar#eting mar#eting people, etc. It is ver eas for stlistic inconsistencies because dierent people have dierent was of writing and the ma not adhere to stle guides consistentl. Bor translators this means that sometimes the same concept is referred to using dierent terms throughout a document or the text suddenl stops ma#ing sense. Technical Technical documents documents are are often translated translated b teams of translators. translators. The problem problem of inconsistencies in stle has to deal with, usuall b an editor or a senior translator, or a freelancer. Technical Technical communication communication uses design to improve improve usabilit usabilit The font and its si"e, the colours% cosmetics cosmetics factors. Technical Technical documents documents fre/uentl fre/uentl use graphics graphics to reinforce reinforce and support support textual information or to conve large amounts of information /uic#l and clearl. s a translator, ou will have to wor# with and around them and ou can also pla a signicant role in ensuring the usabilit of information in documents. Technical Technical communication communication uses a variet of technologies technologies Technical Technical translators translators can can expect to be exposed exposed to a range range of technologies technologies which are used to produce technical documents. The nature and complexit of a document will necessitate the use of one tool or another. The variet of media media used to produce produce and distribute distribute technical technical information information is a #e characteristic. !ho reads technical documentation?
Finding out who the audience is Knowing who is going to read your translation means you can write specifcally or them and give them the type o text they need
1) Audience The notion of of audience is one with which which most of us are ver familiar, familiar, but despite the ubi/uit of the audience, it is still a surprisingl abstract and fu"" concept which is di'cult to dene in an concrete wa. Technical Technical writers, writers, too, struggle struggle with guring guring out who who their audience audience will be. be. In man cases, it is simpl not possible to create a detailed prole of our audience.
2) Rosenberg 0osenberg ac#nowledges both the need to identif our audience as well as the di'cult in doing this. &e proposes two simple /uestions which, when properl followed through and anal"ed, can provide a wealth of information to help us.
What does my audience already kno about this technology? What is the nati!e language of my audience? F understanding what the audience #nows about a particular technolog we can decide whether or not we need to provide additional explanations and foreground particular facts or whether we can omit certain facts> this also tell us whether we need to avoid speciali"ed terms acronms acronms or whether we can use them comfortabl The second /uestion /uestion is motivated motivated b the fact fact that, in ;nglish ;nglish at least, least, a si"eable proportion of the audiences of a technical text do not spea# ;nglish as their rst language and texts need to cater for their particular circumstances and abilities. It seems /uit unnecessar to as# this /uestion, but if we ta#e this /uestion and examine it in a more profound wa, it can pa dividends. anguage combines various factors such as culture" customs" norms" con!entions and countless other factors that ma#e up a language community# If we ma#e the /uestion even more specic and sa which specic variet of language the audience spea#s, this /uestion might ma#e more sense. s useful as these /uestions are, the are still rather vague and prone to arbitrar results.
$) Asking the right %uestions
!hile we ma never #now exactl who will be reading our texts, we ma be able to deduce who our audience is from the context or from the text tpe.
Rosenberg proposes a number of /uestions which can help us gain a clearer picture of our audience. a) What is the general education le!el? This will help help us understand understand the general general levels of literac among the the audience. Bor less literate audiences, a text which is written in overl complex language will be less eective, conversel using a language which is excessivel simple might frustrate literate audiences.
b) What e&perience and e&pertise does the audience ha!e? This information information will determine determine how much detail we we can present present in the text text and how we present it.
c) 'o ide and di!erse is the audience? $hould there be more than one audience the readerships will need to be categori"ed into primar and secondar audiences so that the appropriate level of attention can be paid to the needs, expectations and experiences experiences of specic groups.
d) What is the nati!e language? ;ven if all of our readers spea# ;nglish, ;nglish, there ma be signicant variation variation in their abilit to spea# it. This ma be because it is not their rst language. 0eaders 0eaders ma have onl a ver limited #nowledge of a language as used in a specic sub5ect area.
(trategies and solutions# imit the range of !ocabulary used in te&ts and dene ne or speciali*ed terms and abbre!iations hen they are rst used in the te&t# +se the acti!e !oice and a!oid long sentences# $imilarl, there are numerous regional varieties of languages such as ;nglish, rabic, $panish and Eortuguese, which means not all terminolog will be standardi"ed and not all cultural references will be commonl intelligible. $o #nowing the variet of a particular language language and the intended countr can have signicant implications for the text and the people who will read it.
What is the nati!e culture?
Culture ma consist purel of a group of people with a shared interest in some particular area, for example, computer games, electronics or even crime. The nature of the cultural norms, expectations and dnamics within the target audience culture aects texts in a variet of was, such as forms of address and cultural reference based on the assumption of shared #nowledge. The native culture will also determine date and time conventions, currencies and references to laws and institutions. To To identif an dierences dierences and similarities similarities between between the source source and target target audience in terms of educational sstems, learning stle, political, religious and social climate, we can compare our source and target audiences in terms of their approaches to context, authorit and uncertaint. The notion of of context provide provide us with a wa of assessing assessing how much detail there there should be in a technical document in order for it to be understood b the intended audience. Context is the amount of explicit information we need to include so that the recipient can understand us. culture3s attitudes to authorit can aect how information is presented in technical documentation. documentation. It can help us to determine what is and is not an appropriate wa of addressing readers or issuing instructions.
,noing hat you-re talking about# @ne of the most fre/uentl as#ed /uestions among aspiring translators is how to gain specialism. =eveloping the sub5ectAspecic #nowledge to allow ou to deal with dierent texts and to develop a specialism is an ongoing challenge challenge for translators. There is no eas wa of solving this problem but there are some useful tips, which can help%
Read e!erything and anything. 0egardless of whether ou3re interested in the topic or even whether ou understand what ou3re reading , ou will gain a familiarit with dierent writing stles and terminolog. /o your research. it is important to nd out about a particular area area as much as possible. The most valuable asset a translator can develop is the abilit to research research a topic /uic#l to nd the most important information information and then assimilate it. Take a night course. not onl are ou learning useful s#ills, but ou will also expand our #nowledge in a speciali"ed area. This is also a great opportunit to get out of the house and meet people. Talk to e&perts. if ou #now someone who is an engineer or a nurse, for example, ma#e use of their expertise. The can often answer /uestions more /uic#l than ou can tpe a #eword into a search engine.
