Specific features of the translation of scientific terminology

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Міністерство освіти і науки України

Національний технічний університет України «Київський політехнічний інститут»

Факультет лінгвістики

Кафедра теорії та практики перекладу англійської мови

Реферат

на тему:

«Specific features of the translation of scientific terminology»

Виконала:

студентка 3 курсу ФЛ

гр. ЛА - 22

Курабцева Лада

Перевірила:

Великодська О.О.,

ст.викл.

Київ - 2014

Scientific language is characterized by specific lexical system [2, p.151]. Translating terms can be a challenge for translators once even certain bilingual dictionaries of a science fail to distinguish academic meaning of a term from its common meaning.

Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings--these may deviate from the meanings the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. Terminology is a discipline that studies, among other things, the development of such terms and their interrelationships within a culture.

Terminology is a discipline that systematically studies the "labelling or designating of concepts" particular to one or more subject fields or domains of human activity. It does this through the research and analysis of terms in context for the purpose of documenting and promoting consistent usage. Terminology can be limited to one or more languages (for example, "multilingual terminology" and "bilingual terminology"), or may have an interdisciplinarity focus on the use of terms in different fields.

Technical term is a word that has a specific meaning within a specific field of expertise.

Scientific terms are not simple words; they are special and complex ones. Scientific terms are the most significant feature in science, they discriminate it from other registers (literary).

Scientific translation is mainly about translating terms in the fields of science and technology of all kinds, medicine, physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer sciences...etc from one language into another [1, p.197].

Technical terms are an essential part of all technical and scientific writing. Each field and specialty typically uses a vocabulary that relays a variety of specialized concepts by means of technical language. These special terms convey concentrated meanings that have been built up over significant periods of study of a field. The value of a specialized set of terms lies in the way each term condenses a mass of information into a single word. Technical terminology is often thought of as a shorthand, a way of gaining great depth and accuracy of meaning with economy of words. terminology terms scientific word

Technical terms can also lead to a great density of prose that is difficult to understand, even for the specialized reader. Observe these four principles when using specialized terminology:

• Match terminology to the ability of the audience. You may use a term with great accuracy and still not reach your audience. It is important that you be aware of your audience's level of understanding. If they are not experts in your field, you will need to substitute more general terms for your specialized terms. That means that you may not be able to write with great accuracy about your topic.

• Use terms with consistency. Be sure that you use the same term for a given item each time. If you shift from using mass to using weight in referring to the quantity of an object, if at first you call a tool a spanner and later call it a wrench, or if you shift from the Kelvin scale to Centigrade for measuring temperature, you may confuse the reader.

• Provide clear definitions or explanations of unfamiliar terms. If you are using a specialized term that is not widely used in your audience, even if the audience is an expert one, be sure you provide a clear definition of your term.

• Use a terminology list when you are introducing a variety of new terms into your discussion. The use of a list, which is generally placed before your introduction or in an appendix, can greatly aid a reader who wants to remind himself or herself of what you mean by the term [3].

While writing scientific articles terms should be defined or at least alternative language provided, so that a non-technical reader can both learn the terms and understand how they are used by scientists.

The two term translation principles “recombination of semantic components” and “functional equivalence” can be developed into six term translation procedures which are direct borrowing, “calque” or loan translation, literal translation, transposition, modulation, and adaptation.

Scientific words in English may conveniently be divided, from the standpoint of their origins, into three groups:

• those taken from the ordinary English vocabulary;

• those taken virtually unchanged from another language;

• those which have been invented.

The third group is by far the largest. The advance of science during the last few centuries has been so rapid and so extensive that no language has been capable of providing, ready-made, all the words which were required. Further, the classical languages do not contain words appropriate to modern discoveries, inventions and concepts. (There is no Latin word, for example, for photography!) Hence the scientist has had to invent new words for his own purposes.

In his task of inventing new terms, however, the scientist has usually turned to the classical languages for his raw material. He has taken 'bits and pieces' - roots, prefixes, suffixes - from these languages and joined them together to form the terms he needed. Thus, when he needed a general name for animals such as snails and slugs which apparently walk on their stomachs, he took the Greek roots gast(e)ro- (stomach) and -pod (foot) and formed the new word gastropod. When he wanted a word to describe a speed greater than that of sound he took the Latin prefix super- (above, beyond) and the Latin root son- (sound) and coined the adjective supersonic. Thousands of scientific words have been built up from classical word-elements in this way.

During this period many Latin words were taken into the scientific vocabulary and many new words were constructed (chiefly in the form of Latin words) from classical elements. The tradition of using the classical languages as a source of scientific words remains.

Prefixes which indicate degree, position or number are of particular value in word-building. Thus we may suffer from hyperpiesis (high blood pressure) or from hypopiesis (low blood pressure), the two terms being formed by the addition of contrasting prefixes to the same root.

Sometimes both Greek and Latin elements are combined in the same word. Television is a well-known example; the prefix tele-(from afar) is Greek and the root vis- (seeing) is Latin. (The 'all-Greek' word teleorama would have been more satisfying to the purists but it is unlikely to be adopted.)

Undoubtedly some hybrids have been formed because of thoughtlessness or ignorance, but many have been formed because certain prefixes and suffixes have become well known and have been found to be convenient. Thus the familiar Greek root -meter (measurer) has been added to all sorts of stems, e.g. to a Latin stem in audiometer and to an English stem in weatherometer. (Note the insertion of the o before -meter; in all-Greek terms an o ' normally arises as the ending of the stem.)

All kinds of people, however, may find themselves needing to interpret the meanings of scientific words. The scientist may meet new terms invented by other scientists; he may meet words which are unfamiliar to him because they are in specialised fields outside his own. The student frequently meets words which are strange to him but which he must learn and understand in order to progress in his studies. And, in these modern times, the layman meets scientific words in his newspapers, in advertisements, and through television.

As has already been pointed out, the meanings of a large number of scientific words are directly revealed by simple translation. Conchology is obviously the study of shells, a lignicolous fungus is clearly one which lives on wood, and what else can hypodermic mean than under (or below) the skin? Antiseptic, microphyllous, anemometer, centripetal, pentadactyl, hyperglycaemia are among the thousands of scientific words whose meanings may be readily deduced by simple analysis. It is possible that by simple translation one might occasionally miss some subtle shade of meaning or of application but one would nevertheless gain a useful idea of what the words denote.

We live in a scientific age; an understanding of science is at least as necessary to the make-up of an educated man as knowledge of the arts. More and more people need to understand the words of science. This does not mean that traditional courses of Latin and Greek should therefore form a part of everyone's education but it indicates the desirability of teaching the more important roots which enter into the formation of English, and especially scientific, words [4].

REFERENCES

1. Catford, J.C.(1999) A linguistic theory of translation. New York: Oxford University Press.

2. Newmark, P. (2001). A Textbook of Translation. London: Prentice Hall Europe

3. http://web.mit.edu/course/21/21.guide/techterm.htm

4. http://www.uefap.com/reading/exercise/texts/sw.htm

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