Lecture 2. Peculiarities of scientific and technical translation

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1. The role of science in the present civilization

2. Definition of sci-tech (i.e. scientific and technical) translation

3. Scientific and technical materials

4. Knowledge and skills of technical translators

5.The responsibility and legal liability of the technical translator

Science is the main characteristic feature distinguishing the present civilization from the other civilizations in the past. From its early beginnings, the developments of science have influenced the course of western civilization more and more until today it plays a most dominant role. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that we live in a world that, materially and intellectually, has been created by science.

The point is easy to illustrate. One merely needs to mention the telephone, the radio, the television, the automobile, and the airplane, or any of the countless devices invented by the application of science. There is hardly an article used in the homes, in the places of work, or in the places of enjoyment that has not been modified by technology based on science.

Fundamentally, science is an intellectual enterprise, in attempt to understand the world in a particular way.

Science expands man's intellectual horizons. The range of human knowledge doubles every twelve to fifteen years. in 1930 man knew four times as much as he did in 1900; by 1960 his knowledge had grown sixteenfold, and by the year 2000 it was a hundred times what it had been a century previously.

Scientific activity, with all its technical and economic consequences, is at present passing through a period of particularly rapid development as compared with other human activities and may, broadly speaking, be said to be doubling in the course of each decade.

This law of growth can be deduced from a fairly wide variety of statistical facts such as: the number of original publications appearing in the scientific journals and the number of abstracts published in each branch of science. It is also found to be true if the criterion adopted is the number of scientific personnel working in laboratories. Lastly, the number of significant scientific discoveries made each year can be estimated, and though such an estimate must, of course, be somewhat arbitrary, the result will again show the same rate of growth.

A few figures will support the information given above. The number of scientific journals and periodicals which was about 100 at the beginning of the 19th century, reached 1,000 in 1850, more than 10,000 in 1900, approached 100,000 in 1960 and nearly 1,000,000 at the end of the century.

The second half of the 20th century brought a number of technical innovations — transistors, ICs (integrated circuits), satellites, etc. Recent developments in computer technology, nuclear weapons, space platforms and inter continental ballistic missiles have attracted public attention throughout the world. Innovations such as these are characteristic of the rate of technological development in the second half of the 20th century. They suggest that the technological innovations we are to experience during the next twenty years to come may well surpass our wildest fantasies.

We take it as axiomatic, that scientific and technological progress nowadays is unconceivable without active exchange of specialized information between people speaking different languages. Multilingual information exchange in the field of science and technology is of great significance. Scientists and technical experts have to follow the most current information that appears abroad in periodicals and specialized literature. Foreign language helps them in getting information about I the achievements of modern science and technology.

English is the universal language of science and technology. In many academic libraries around the world English-language scientific and engineering journals take up as much as 50% of the total book and periodical budget. An increasing percentage of scholarly papers written in English (over 80%) inevitably means that an increasing proportion of paper, are being both written and read by members of the scientific and technological community who do not have English as their first language. In many senses, the scientific paper is one of the most important manifestations of the role of English as a language of wider international communication.

For a modern engineer, technical expert or research worker it is absolutely necessary to have practical command of foreign languages. A scientist who can read the literature of his or her field in several languages has a much better grasp of the subject.

Unfortunately, not all scientists master a foreign language thoroughly enough to read original scientific and technical literature. They often turn to translators for help.

Sci-tech (i.e. scientific and technical) translation or technical translation involves translation of texts written in the context of scientific or technological disciplines.

Sci-tech translation is the translation used for the purpose of specialized information exchange between people speaking different languages. It is the main means of multilingual information exchange.

This process is impossible without technical translators. As the amount of scientific and technical information grows constantly, there is an urgent need for competent sci-tech translators capable of rendering information from one language into another.

Sci-tech translators deal with scientific and technical materials which may be divided into several groups: 1) patents as the main form of sci-tech information exchange; 2) instructional literature (engineering maintenance manuals, operational and maintenance handbooks for various types of instruments); 3) sci-tech periodical literature intended for sci-tech information exchange (branch bulletins containing abstracts, annotations; scholarly journals containing scientific and technical articles; bibliographic guides which index by author and subject the most current information on many topics and sometimes contain annotations, reviews or brief descriptions of particular subjects); 4) periodical and non- periodical publications which are not originally intended for sci-tech information exchange but which may be used for this purpose (books, advertisements, manuals, newspaper or magazine articles); 5) consumer information, publicity and information from manufacturers, etc.

Scientific and technical texts are seldom aimed at complete non-specialists. The typical technical source text is not easily accessible to most native source language speakers, let alone to those who have learnt the source language as a foreign language. There are three main reasons for this inaccessibility. One is lexical arising from the specialized use of technical terms and the other two are conceptual.

The first type of conceptual problem is caused by failure to understand underlying suppositions and knowledge taken for granted by experts in a science, but not understood by non-specialists. "Obvious" piece of background knowledge- may not be obvious at all to the non-specialist, and without such background knowledge, the translator may fail to produce the right translation. The second type of conceptual problem is caused by conceptual difficulties raised by grasping the "logic" of a discipline, in particular the relationship between concepts.

Thus, the non-specialist is not well equipped for producing a reliable technical target text guaranteed to be useful for technical experts in the target culture. Would-be technical translators must acquire as soon as possible some degree of technical expertise in the field in which they intend to work. Training in technical translation usually has this as its main target. Such training cannot be general, however: technical translators can only train by specializing in particular fields. Naturally, a combination of an academic degree in a science and a qualification in a foreign language is an ideal background for a technical translator.

To render sci-tech information accurately technical translators must have the following knowledge and skills: 1) fluent command of the source language; 2) complete command of the target language; 3) skill in using source materials (dictionaries and other reference materials, computer aids, etc.); 4) familiarity with the main types of technical translation (full-length written translation, annotative translation, abstract translation, express information translation, translation of patents, etc.); 5) basic grasp of the technical discipline in question including the knowledge of the subject matter (specialist knowledge, technical knowledge, or background knowledge) and of basic ,terminology of the given science (active terminological vocabulary, terminological minimum).

There is an important question of the responsibility and legal liability of the technical translator. There is a difference here between literary translation and technical translation. In a literary text, choosing the wrong equivalent is, at worst, a stylistic error; but in a technical text it could cause financial damage or loss of life and limb. For example, in a technical text, translating swimming-pool as плавальний басейн instead of гомогенний реактор could at least lead to an infuriating waste of time. The implications of mistranslation are generally less serious for literary translators than for technical translators. Factual correctness ranks maximally high in technical genres and even the smallest error of detail is typically magnified in a technical text.

Dealing with the question of error and accuracy, there is the problem of what to do if the source text is badly written or oven ungrammatical. This is in fact a general and controversial issue. Translators are not in principle responsible for improving defective source texts. However, this may sometimes be necessary. It is more often necessary in the case of technical texts because the paramount concern is factual accuracy. If there is any accidental ambiguity or obscurity in the source text, and it is potentially misleading or dangerous, there is every reason to keep it out of the target text — if necessary after consultation with the author or an expert.

The potential textual competence demanded of the technical translator is staggering: it is the ability to possess the linguistic power of the lawyer, the doctor, the engineer, the politician, Пи' public servant. Non-specialist translators, therefore, have only two options: learn the concepts of the technical field in which they are translating, or work in close consultation with experts.