Technical and specialized Translation

Cuando hablamos de traducción especializada es habitual encontrarnos con categorías como jurídica o biosanitaria, la técnica parece constituir el cajón de sastre. Las facultades de traducción españolas que prestan atención a esta especialidad generalmente incluyen en el currículo el tratamiento de manuales y TIC pero olvidan, precisamente, todas las materias que componen el conocimiento científico: matemáticas, física, química, etc. y sus aplicaciones. Es importante cambiar esta visión tanto en universidades como en asociaciones para que el traductor tome conciencia del trabajo al que se enfrenta. No sólo debe procurar la corrección en la terminología sino también en la jerga del gremio, de ahí el cuidado con el que debe manejar glosarios especializados y memorias de traducción y la importancia de los textos paralelos y el contexto: igual que en jurídica se hacen malabares entre sistemas jurídicos diferentes, en la traducción de arquitectura, por ejemplo, deben tenerse en cuenta los distintos sistemas constructivos y tecnologías usadas dependiendo de los países. De aquí deriva parte del debate entre la idoneidad del técnico o el traductor.When we talk about specialized translation we usually find ourselves in categories such as legal and medical, and technical translation seem to be a catchall phrase. Spanish university translation departments focusing on this specialty generally include manuals and IT in their curriculum, but they forget precisely about all the subjects involved in scientific knowledge: maths, physics, chemistry, etc. and their applications. It is important to change this vision in universities and associations so that the translator may become aware of the work facing him or her. Not only should correction of terminology be undertaken, but also professional jargon, hence the care that should be taken when using specialized glossaries and translation memories and the importance of model texts and context. Just as in legal translations when juggling between different legal systems, in architectural translation, for example, different construction systems and technologies used depending on country should be kept in mind. Part of the debate between suitability of translators or technicians working as translators is derived from this point

The cognitive shift in terminology and specialized translation

This article offers a critical analysis and overview of terminology theories with special reference to scientific and technical translation. The study of specialized language is undergoing a cognitive shift, which is conducive to a greater emphasis on meaning as well as conceptual structures underlying texts and language in general. Terminology theory seems to be evolving from prescriptive to descriptive with a growing focus on the study of specialized language units from a social, linguistic and cognitive perspective. In consonance with this, new voices are beginning to be heard, which offer different and complementary perspectives on specialized language and translation.Este artículo propone un análisis crítico y una visión global de las teorías terminológicas con especial atención a la traducción científica y técnica. El estudio de los tecnolectos está sometido en la actualidad a un cambio hacia el cognitivismo, que a su vez conduce a un énfasis mucho mayor tanto en el significado como en las estructuras conceptuales que subyacen en los textos y en la lengua en general. La terminología parece estar pasando del prescriptivismo al descriptivismo, con un interés creciente por enfocar el estudio de las unidades de los tecnolectos desde una perspectiva social, lingüística y cognitiva. En esta misma línea, comienzan a oírse nuevas voces que ofrecen perspectivas diferentes y complementarias en torno a los tecnolectos y la traducción

Exploring the boundaries of transcreation in specialized translation

Transcreation has recently become a buzzword in Translation Studies. Definitions abound, some of them placing it within a functionalist perspective (e.g. Baker 2009), some interpreting it as a heuristic method to be used in the translation of poetry (e.g. Snell-Hornby 1994), some others relating it to the translation of computer games (O\u2019Hara & Mangiron 2006). Nowadays often used in advertising and the media, transcreation is a portmanteau word made by combining together translation and creation, in order to emphasize the considerable amount of creativity required in the process. Yet, since a varying degree of creativity is implicit in the translation of any type of text, this study argues that creativity is not the discriminating factor in order to recognize the difference between translation and transcreation; the aim, rather, is to restore the original conception of the term, based on the word \u2018creation\u2019, i.e. the generation of new words or meanings. From this perspective, no single domain (poetry, computer games, advertising, etc.) can be said to have priority in the use of transcreation. In particular, I argue that even a domain which is thought to impose the heaviest semiotic constraints on the translator, i.e. legal translation, is developing in ways that generate \u2018semantic voids\u2019 to be filled; an example is the lack of lexicalization of new concepts

Teaching Specialized Translation Error-tagged Translation Learner Corpora

This paper describes the method used in teaching specialised translation in the English Language Translation Master’s programme at Masaryk University. After a brief description of the courses, the focus shifts to translation learner corpora (TLC) compiled in the new Hypal interface, which can be integrated in Moodle. Student translations are automatically aligned (with possible adjustments), PoS (part-of-speech) tagged, and manually error-tagged. Personal student reports based on error statistics for individual translations to show students’progress throughout the term or during their studies in the four-semester programme can be easily generated. Using the data from the pilot run of the new software, the paper concludes with the first results of the research examining a learner corpus of translations from Czech into English.Článek popisuje metodu používanou při výuce odborného překladu v magisterském studijním programu Překladatelství anglického jazyka na Masarykově univerzitě. Po krátkém popisu kurzů se zaměřuje na korpus překladů studentů (TLC) sestavený v novém rozhraní programu Hypal, které lze integrovat do systému Moodle. Studentské překlady jsou automaticky zarovnány (s možnými úpravami), označkovány podle slovního druhu a nakonec jsou ručně označeny chyby. Program umožňuje sledovat práci jednotlivých studentů pomocí statistik chyb pro jednotlivé překlady v průběhu semestru nebo během studia ve čtyřsemestrovém programu. Na závěr jsou v článku uvedena data z pilotního běhu nového softwaru s prvními výsledky výzkumu korpusu překladů z češtiny do angličtiny

Clinical research as a source of specialized translation work

La investigación clínica genera un enorme volumen de trabajo para los traductores especializados en medicina. Este artículo constituye un repaso general de la traducción relacionada con la investigación clínica en nuestro país y para ello trata los principales actores y empresas demandantes de servicios lingüísticos, los géneros que más se traducen, el marco jurídico-administrativo, las relaciones que se establecen entre la industria, el sistema sanitario y los traductores, y la actitud de los profesionales autónomos a la hora de buscar trabajo (empresas, tarifas, experiencia, etc.), así como las herramientas y los recursos necesarios para acometerlo. Con ello pretende ofrecer una visión somera de la actual situación del mercado, transmitir una serie de conceptos básicos y aportar unas pistas para el traductor que se plantee introducirse en este campo.Clinical research is a source of a great deal of work for translators specializing in medicine. This article provides an overview of translation related to clinical research in Spain. Issues discussed include: the main stakeholders and companies requesting language services; the genres most commonly translated; the regulatory and legal framework; relationships between the pharmaceutical industry, the healthcare system and translators; and attitudes of freelance professionals when seeking work (companies, rates, expertise, etc.). The basic tools and resources needed to work in this field are also examined. This article is intended to offer a snapshot of the current market situation in Spain, illustrating a number of key concepts, and providing a few tips for translators who might consider entering this field of translation

Szakfordítás angolról magyarra: jellegzetes műveletek, a fordított szövegek jellemzői és értékelése = English-Hungarian technical translation: characteristic operations, translated text, evaluation

1. A kutatók létrehoztak egy fő- és egy kiegészítő részből álló angol-magyar párhuzamos szaknyelvi korpuszt. A fő korpusz mintegy egy millió szót tartalmaz, publikált könyvekből és jelentésekből áll. A kiegészítő korpusz mintegy 500 ezer szót tartalmaz a SZIE szakfordítói képzésében 2002 és 2008 között végzett szakfordító hallgatók képesítő fordításaiból. A korpusz 7 szakterületről gyűjtött szövegeket. Az angol szövegeket a Winclaws szoftverrel szófaj szerinti jelöléssel láttuk el, majd a Paraconc szoftver segítségével a magyar szövegekkel szinkronizáltuk. 2. A kutatók a szakfordítás és a szakfordítóképzés kérdéseit vizsgálták, részben a korpusz létrehozásának előkészítéseként, részben a korpusz segítségével, részben attól függetlenül. Tisztáztuk a szakfordítás és az irodalmi fordítás viszonyát, illetve különbségeit. Vizsgáltuk az ekvivalencia kérdését és a relevancia-elmélet alkalmazhatóságát a szakszövegfordításban. Meghatároztuk a szaknyelvi párhuzamos korpusszal vizsgálható kérdések körét, megvizsgáltuk a fordításban alkalmazott fordítói műveltek relatív gyakoriságát irodalmi és szakfordításban, a terminusok fordításának kérdéseit. Elméleti síkon vizsgáltuk a műfaj-transzfer kompetencia és stratégiák kérdéseit, az explicitációs hipotézist és az aszimmetria-hipotézist. Tisztáztuk a műfaj, regiszter és szövegtípus fogalmát, a nyelvi normák, a kvázi-helyesség kérdéseit és a szaknyelvi kollokációk kérdéseit. | 1. A bilingual English-Hungarian corpus of non-literary texts has been built to study the processes of English-Hungarian specialized translation. The main corpus comprises published books and reports (cca. 1 million words), and a subcorpus contains translations made by translator students graduating from SZIE University between 2002-2008. Texts were collected from 8 subject areas. The texts were POS-tagged using Winclaws and aligned using Paraconc. 2. Issues in specialized translation were studied by the researchers, some aimed at preparing the building of the corpus and some carried out using the corpus. Some issues were of a more theoretical nature. The range of topics that can be investigated using a bilingual corpus was determined, and the relative frequency of transfer operations in literary and specialized translation as well as problems in the translation of terminology were explored. Other issues involved the problem of language norms, quasi-correctness and collocations in translation. From a more theoretical perspective the relationship and differences between literary and specialized translation and the issue of equivalence and the applicability of relevance theory to specialized translation were studied. The concepts of genre, register, text type, genre transfer competence and strategies were clarified. The explicitation hypothesis, as well as the asymmetry hypothesis, an extension of the latter, in which one of the participants can claim credit, was studied

Terminology and specialized translation: the relevance of the diachronic Approach.

The purpose of this paper is to show the relevance of diachrony for terminology work and to discuss its relationship with other disciplines like the history and philosophy of sciences. It also aims at proving the importance of the diachronic dimension for specialized translation. In order to produce high quality translations, it is indeed essential for translators to know more than only the language. They also have to become familiar with the concepts behind the terms they need to translate, and understand how these concepts organize and interact with each other. Diachronic information is instrumental in providing translators with a thorough and solid knowledge of the source area, especially if this information is added to the main body of the terminological definition as an hyperfile. In this case, terminology work uses information technology to promote the value of the diachronic dimension

Translation problems and translation difficulties : tools for teaching specialized translation

Daniel Linder. "Translation problems and translation difficulties : tools for teaching specialized translation. Translatio : nouvelles de la FIT - newsletter, Vol. 19, No. 04, 2000, p. 375-383[ENG] This article and the exercises proposed below make use of the distinction between translation problems and translation difficulties. Many authors seem to equate these terms in their writings, but severa! authors have used the distinction in very helpful ways. Peter Newmark has used the term "translation problem" more or less as a unit of translation. Newmark defines translation problem as an instance when literal translation becomes inadequate ( 1988: 30-31 ). When this happens, the translator must make a concerted effort to enact all of bis or her skills in order to render the source-language sentence into an adequate target-language sentence. However, he uses "problem" and "difficulty" almost in the same breath. Christiane Nord makes ':l more practica!, pedagogical distinction between the two, first in a short article . ( 1987), and then in her Text Analysis in Translation (1991). She defines "translation problems as those points which prove a challenge for all translators in a pru1icular language combination, while she regards "translation difficulties rooted in the individual t:ranslator as they may arise from his or her educational or cultural background and experience (1991: 150-160)

Sequence to Sequence Mixture Model for Diverse Machine Translation

Sequence to sequence (SEQ2SEQ) models often lack diversity in their generated translations. This can be attributed to the limitation of SEQ2SEQ models in capturing lexical and syntactic variations in a parallel corpus resulting from different styles, genres, topics, or ambiguity of the translation process. In this paper, we develop a novel sequence to sequence mixture (S2SMIX) model that improves both translation diversity and quality by adopting a committee of specialized translation models rather than a single translation model. Each mixture component selects its own training dataset via optimization of the marginal loglikelihood, which leads to a soft clustering of the parallel corpus. Experiments on four language pairs demonstrate the superiority of our mixture model compared to a SEQ2SEQ baseline with standard or diversity-boosted beam search. Our mixture model uses negligible additional parameters and incurs no extra computation cost during decoding.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted to CoNLL201

Package Leaflet Corpus as a Learning Resource for Teaching French-Spanish Specialized Translation

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the compilation of a corpus of package leaflets of medicines for human use as a versatile teaching resource for the French-Spanish specialized translation classroom. Firstly, we establish the curricular context of the Degree in Translation and Interpreting in Spain to contextualize the competences required by the EHEA. Then, we show the methodology followed to compile a bilingual corpus of French and Spanish package leaflets and its potential application in specialized translation training.El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo la presentación de un corpus de prospectos de medicamentos para el uso humano como recurso didáctico versátil en el aula de traducción especializada para la combinación lingüística francés-español. En primer lugar, se realiza una aproximación a la situación actual del Grado en Traducción e Interpretación en España para contextualizar las competencias requeridas por el EEES. A continuación, se muestran los aspectos metodológicos de la compilación de un corpus bilingüe de prospectos farmacéuticos francés-español y su uso potencial en el aula de traducción especializada.