Equivalence in scientific and technical translation : a text-in-context-based study

Abstract

Scientific and technical translation has always played a pivotal role in disseminatingknowledge. Today, the domain of science and technology is the main area oftranslation work. Nevertheless, there is still a discrepancy between the growing needfor high-quality technical translations and the short supply of competent technicaltranslators to produce them, a situation which may be due in part to the recentneglect of the equivalence concept in the theoretical/descriptive and applied branchesof translation studies (TS).This thesis sets out to redefine, reassess, and reinstate equivalence as a useflul conceptin TS by adopting an approach based on the English-German language pair and onone specific text genre and type. The investigation of equivalence as a qualitativecomplete-text-in-context-based concept is embedded in an equivalence-relevantmethodology based on two methodological pillars, the first being a theoreticallysound translation comparison and the second a highly refined translation corpus.Within this methodological framework, equivalence-relevant features are investigatedand described at the syntactic, lexical-semantic, terminological-phraseological andoverall textual levels. These levels are hierarchically interrelated in descending andascending order and may be conditioned by pragmatic aspects, viz., domainknowledge and register considerations. The comparison is made using a high-qualitycorpus selected on the basis of a threefold set of selection criteria, with a specialemphasis on the qualitative criteria. This helps us generate well-underpinnedintersubjectifiable regularities in the form of potential equivalents established in theTT for ST equivalence-relevant features and enables us to obtain meaningfulgeneralizations.Both regularities and generalizations should be capable of implementation in theapplied branches of TS and, at the same time, help dynamize and intersubjectify thecomplex concept of equivalence. So, hopefully, this thesis will also contribute towardcreating a link between the methodological, theoretical/descriptive and appliedbranches of TS to their mutual benefit