Technical translation
Technical translation
is a type of specialized translation involving the translation of documents produced by technical writers (owner's manuals, user guides, etc.), or more specifically, texts which relate to technological subject areas or texts, which deal with the practical application of scientific and technological information.
Technical translation covers the translation of many kinds of specialized texts and requires a high level of subject knowledge and mastery of the relevant terminology and writing conventions.
As a field, technical translation has been recognized, studied, and developed since the 1960’s. Stemming from the field of translation studies, the field of technical translation traditionally emphasized much importance on the source language, from which text is translated. However, over the years there has been a movement away from this traditional approach to a focus on the purpose of the translation and on the intended audience. This is perhaps because only 5-10% of items in a technical document are terminology, while the other 90-95% of the text is language, most likely in a natural style of the source language.
Though technical translation is only one subset of the different types of professional translation, it is the largest subset as far as output is concerned. Currently, more than 90% of all professionally translated work is done by technical translators, highlighting the importance and significance of the field.
The role of the technical translator is to not only be a transmitter of information, but also to be a constructor of procedural discourse and knowledge through meaning, particularly because often, the technical translator may also take on the role of the technical writer. Research has demonstrated that technical communicators do, in fact, create new meaning as opposed to simply repackaging old information. This emphasizes the important role that technical translators play in making meaning, whether they are doing technical translation in one language or in multiple languages
Just as important as proper translation of linguistic qualities of languages, is the subject of culture and how specific cultural features are transferred and communicated in the field of technical translation. In fact, a mutual understanding of cultural components is just as important as linguistic knowledge in technical translation.
In an example using a commonly translated document, the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a researcher used correlation analyses, including semantic network analysis and spatial modelling, to interpret data describing differences among seven different translated versions of the document. Demonstrating, how culture plays an important role in the process of technical translation, the results of the study showed that while the translations were fairly similar, cultural subtleties and differences existed in each language’s translated version. For example, across the seven languages, common words such as “people”, “individual”, “man”, “nation”, “law”, “faith”, and “family’ had differing levels of importance in relation to other words in the language. While in Arabic the word “man” exhibited high levels of importance in the text, other languages placed higher levels of importance with words such as “person” or “individual”.
Theses slight differences demonstrate the culturally specific nuances that exist across languages.
Translation as a whole is a balance of art and science influenced by both theory and practice. Having knowledge of both the linguistic features, as well as the aesthetic features of translation applies directly to the field of technical translation.
At Perevodim.pro we provide high quality technical translations of all sorts of documents including scientific papers, project documentation, test results etc. We only work with those translators, who understand the field of topic of your document, because we understand the importance of accuracy and correctness that you require, when you translate your technicalities.
