«Особенности перевода технических терминов с английского языка на русский»
материал по английскому языку по теме

«Peculiarities of English technical terms` translation into Russian»

( «Особенности перевода технических терминов с английского языка на русский» )

2017

Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………..3

1. Theoretical part. Problems in translation of technical texts…………………….4

1.1 Disclosure of the concept «Technical translation» and «Terminology»…………………………………………………………………….5

1.2 Peculiarities of technical texts terminology…………………………………...5

1.3 «False friends» of translator…………………………………………………...8

2. The Practical Part………………………………………………………………10

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...11

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………….12

Introduction

The demand of professional technical translation is increasing day by day in all spheres of our life. Nowadays a correct translation of  technical text is urgent because of  high demand in translation and difficulties with which technical translator, working in foreign companies, faces.

Technical translation is the translation of materials dealing with technical subjects and using the specialized terminology of the technical field. The types of material that might qualify as needing technical translation are varied: articles from scientific, engineering, and technical journals. These generally require people with graduate training in the field involved as well as good translation skills. But it is also important to study technical terms, to find them out in the text and to translate them correctly.  

The importance of our work is great because much attention is paid to translation of technical texts and to the analysis of technical terminology.

The object of our work is technical terminology.

The subject is the translation of  technical text.

The purpose of our research is to find out the peculiarities of technical terms` translation from English into Russian

1. Theoretical part. Problems in translation of technical texts

Technical texts translation is one of the most popular services in the translation sphere. Technical texts represent a type of functional texts which deals with various technical processes and production and is expressed in various forms of written texts with the main purpose to provide objective representation of information. Throughout the last century the quantity of technical text translation has tremendously increased as a result of industrialization and fast developing international business and collaboration. Nowadays, translation of technical texts represents vast majority of the professional translator’s workload. Translation of technical texts is directly related to modern technical and productive development and the necessity to ensure its continuing based on available professional knowledge. In each language functional style one can distinguish certain linguistic features which can have direct impact on the process and the result of translation and such impact is rather significant. Similarly, translation of technical texts is characterized by a number of peculiarities that determine the specificity of translator’s activity when handling texts of the technical style. The main purpose of technical texts is to communicate factual information, notions and conclusions. One of the features of thinking in technical sphere is its informative and logical character. This determines such general peculiarities of technical texts as intentional consistency of exposition, meaning accuracy (instead of ambiguity), information depth, objectiveness and absence emotions in the text.

1.1 Disclosure of the concept «Technical translation» and «Terminology»

Technical translation is a type of specialized translation involving the translation of documents produced by technical writers (owner's manuals, user guides, etc.), texts which relate to technological subject areas or texts which deal with the practical application of scientific and technological information.

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.

1.2 Peculiarities of technical texts terminology

1. The translation of the traditional units.

Every language has a number of traditional units,  collocations not coinciding with the units in the other language.

Example: «salt pen» - can`t be translated as «солёное перо», because it`s a marine idiom in English. While translating such idioms should be replaced by equivalent units in English. The right translation is «писатель-маринист»

2. The translation of  pun

Pun is a form of word play that suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words.

Example: to make faces –гримасничать, to make faces – изготавливать циферблаты часов.

3. Terms with the new meaning:

Polysemy–is a case in which the same word may have a set of different meanings.

The most common words which have different meaning in technical texts:

4. Words borrowed from other languages

Borrowings – are words and word combinations, adopted from one language to another according to its phonetic and grammatical rules. The number of borrowings is constantly increasing. Many words became international.

Example: user- пользователь, driver – программа операционной системы, display - устройство для визуального отображения информации, tuning — настройка

5. The translation of international words

Expanding global contacts result in the considerable growth of international vocabulary. All languages depend upon the cultural and social matrix in which they operate and various contacts between nations are part of this matrix reflected in vocabulary. It is often the case that a word is borrowed by several languages. Words of identical origin that occur in several languages as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from one ultimate source are called international words.

International words play an especially prominent part in various terminological systems.  The 20-th century scientific and technological advances brought a great number of new international words. 

Example: device –устройство, прибор, аппарат, magnetic - магнитный, telephone

6. The formation of new terms with the help of conversion 

Conversion is transferring a word from one part of speech to another without the use of an affix. This way of building new words is most typical of English as compared with Russian.

Example : a sign – обозначение   to sign- помечать 

a screw –винт     to screw – завинчивать

an access- доступ   to access – иметь доступ

There may be various directions of conversion:

• a verb may come from a noun: to word, to bicycle, to gangster; to screw
• a noun may come from a verb: a try, a drive, a drive-in;
• an adjective may be converted to a noun: a round, a monthly, the bitter;
• an adjective may be changed to a verb: to empty, to better, to calm down;

It should be kept in mind that not all the meanings of a word are carried through into the derivative form. Therefore, a translator should be careful about the equivalent.

7. A compound word is a word consisting of at least two stems which usually occur in the language as free forms

Example : radioactivity –радиоактивность

flame-proof – огнеупорный

dishwasher - посудомоечная машина

8. The formation of new terms with the help of shortening

Shortening is the process of substracting phonemes and / or morhemes from words without changing their lexico-grammatical meaning.

Abbreviation is a process of shortening the result of which is a word made up of the initial letters or syllables of the components of a word-group or a compound word. Example:

CGI (Common Gateway Interface )       общий шлюзовый интерфейс

CDF (Channel Definition Format)          формат определения канала

1.3 «False friends» of translator

The translator’s false friends are words and expressions which have similar form but different meaning. Their formal similarity is deceptive and may lead to translation mistakes.

The translator’s false friends are divided into 2 groups:

1. words similar in form but absolutely different in meaning (The Eng. magazine магазин)
2. words similar in form but partially different in meaning (student–студент,ученик; bank – банк, берег(речки))

The translator’s false friends are not interchangeable due to the following factors:

1. the semantic factor which results from different historical development of such words in English and in Russian

minister – священник, посланник

2. the stylistic factor which results from the difference in connotation (an ability to evoke negative/positive emotion) of such words in English and in Russian

ambitious - амбициозный (The Eng. ambitious is positive and Russian.– амбициозный (used to be/was negative )

3. the pragmatic factor which results from the difference in background knowledge in English and in Russian speech communities

Below is a list of some of the most common false friends in English and Russian:

2. The Practical Part

Having analyzed the peculiarities of  technical terms translation, we  compiled a basic glossary of the most common terms and concepts. See in Appendix 1.

A survey questionnaire.

75 students of our college were interviewed on the topic connected with the research.

The first question was:

 Do you translate technical texts?

40 students translate technical texts regularly. 25 students don`t translate technical texts.

The number of students translating technical texts is significant. It is connected with the fact that the amount of  hours given to technical translation in curriculum  is rising year by year.

The second question was:

  How much time do you spend on translating technical texts?  

Internet became a part of our life. And it influenced on penetration of terms. Students of the first course spend 3 hours a week, the second course- 5 hours and the third course - 6 hours.

Conclusion

So we must say that the translation of technical texts from English into Russian is one of the most difficult types of translation. For translation there is a need to meet a minimum number of conditions: foreign language proficiency; knowledge of a certain amount of a foreign language vocabulary (terminology); the ability to use bilingual dictionaries. In our opinion, the development of the basic skills of translating technical texts can be carried out through the study of materials from the technical texts to expand the knowledge of vocabulary and grammar and to form the skills of analysis and translation of English technical texts taking into account its peculiarities: polysemy, borrowed words, international words, conversion, abbreviations.

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Электронные ресурсы:

http://weldworld.ru

http://www.perfekt.ru/dictionaries/tech

http://msd.com.ua

http://techenglish.vpvd.ru/

http://proshinazoyag.weebly.com

http://www.brighthubeducation.com

http://multitran.ru

http://www.englishonline.co.uk