Scientific and Technical Translation

Maeve Olohan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317394679
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Routledge Translation Guides cover the key translation text types and genres and equip translators and students of translation with the skills needed to translate them. Concise, accessible and written by leading authorities, they include examples from existing translations, activities, further reading suggestions and a glossary of key terms.

Scientific and Technical Translation focuses on texts that are typically translated in scientific and technical domains, such as technical instructions, data sheets and brochures, patents, scientific research articles and abstracts, popular science press releases and news reports. In seven chapters, this practical textbook:

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• Introduces readers to the typical contexts in which scientific and technical translators work;

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• Shows how corpus resources can be used for terminological and phraseological research;

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• Considers how translation technologies are employed in technical and scientific translation;

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• Explains a range of technical and scientific genres and their translation.

Including a wide range of relevant tasks and activities, examples from the most commonly taught language pairs and a glossary of key terms, this is the essential textbook for modules on scientific and technical translation and specialised translation.

1
Scientific and technical translation as a professional activity

This chapter provides an introduction to scientific and technical translation as a situated activity, by outlining some of the typical workplace configurations for translators and other professionals in the sector. It also notes the kinds of competences that may be expected of scientific or technical translators. It explains the notion of genre, as a way of understanding how the texts you translate are part of communicative events and fulfil communicative purposes. The translation brief and the translation project specification are introduced as tools that can be used to help you in your translation preparation and production.

Introducing science and technology

Science and technology are often paired together in general language usage, as well as when we talk about translation. However, science and technology designate different, though related knowledge domains. A simple indication of this is found in dictionary definitions, for example in the online Oxford Dictionaries, where science is defined as ‘the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment’ and technology as ‘the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry’ (www.oxforddictionaries.com). As if to emphasize the close relationship between the two domains, the first contextual example of usage of the word ‘science’ offered by the Oxford Dictionaries is ‘the world of science and technology’. As well as reflecting the close relationship between them, these definitions seem to imply that technology emerges from science and gives priority to the ends rather than the means (‘application … for practical purposes’). Science, on the other hand, seems to value the means by which knowledge is obtained, that is, through the scientific method of ‘observation and experiment’. Although perhaps simplistically formulated here, this perspective on both activities is common throughout pre-modern and modern eras, particularly in anglophone contexts. However, like the well-known conundrum of the chicken and the egg, the primacy of science and the subordination of technology is now disputed by some scholars. Forman (2010), for example, argues that this relationship has been reversed in the postmodern era, claiming that, from around the late 1970s or early 1980s, we have become more interested in ends than means, and technology has become the ‘principal model for all our social and cultural activities’ (ibid.: 162). This means, he continues, that resourcefulness, risk-taking and utilitarian entrepreneurship are now more highly valued in society than scientific means and methods.

The question of the standings of science and technology in society is a fascinating but complex one, explored in sociological disciplines, including science and technology studies (STS). It is beyond the scope of this book to pursue it much further, but Sismondo (2010) offers an accessible overview for those who are interested. A key point to be made here, and borne in mind throughout this book, is that traditional views of science as a neutral, objective, value-free activity carried out by disinterested scientists is heavily challenged by much of that scholarship. On the contrary, it is argued that science is a culturally and socially contingent activity, which can be ideologically and politically driven. Likewise, technology, often portrayed as the means by which many of the world’s problems and our human imperfections can be fixed, must also be examined closely for its motivations, influences and effects. On that topic, Morozov (2013) offers a thought-provoking and polemical challenge to what he calls solutionist and Internet-centrist mindsets.

In the chapters that follow, we can adopt the convenience of grouping science and technology together, while recognizing that the nature of the domains and the dynamic relationships between them can be understood in different ways. Bringing them together in this book implies that they share some features, challenges or approaches. Rather than reflecting on how some things might be labelled as scientific and others as technical, we will focus on the ways in which texts and language are used to perform specific communicative functions in technical and scientific contexts. The analytical concept of genre, discussed in more detail below, will be helpful to us in highlighting those aspects. Before that, the next section introduces the translation landscape, to give you an insight into the settings in which scientific and technical translators work and the key competences they acquire and exercise.

The translation landscape

Apart from the enticing intellectual challenge that scientific and technical translation presents, there are other factors that may motivate you to pursue a career in this area. Firstly, the language services sector is a growing one (MarketWatch 2014). Secondly, a large proportion of professional translation work is technical or scientific; the sectors of industry that spend most on translation globally include manufacturing, software and healthcare, alongside defence in the USA (Kelly 2012). Thirdly, some surveys of professional translators (Aparacio et al. 2001) show that translators who offer a specialization can command higher rates of pay for their work. In addition, commissions from direct clients, rather than translation agencies, are also more lucrative (CIoL and ITI 2011) and are perhaps easier to secure in a specialized domain. The next sections outline some of the typical configurations in which scientific and technical translators work professionally.

Freelance translation

Many or most translators work freelance, in many parts of the world (Kelly 2012). This means they are self-employed – they are not employees of the companies who give them commissions. This is an important distinction when it comes to financial matters like paying income tax (you should consult relevant information for your national or regional situation regarding self-employed status), but it also has implications for finding work and keeping a steady supply of work. Freelance translators generally only get paid for the translation work they do, but they also have to set aside time for marketing themselves, networking, doing test translations for prospective clients, kitting out their office with the necessary equipment and resources and maintaining it, learning about new developments, keeping their own financial records, and lots of tasks that employees of a company might take for granted. For example, unless they work in a very small company, employees can often call on someone in the IT support department or elsewhere when they have technical problems with their computer or their internet access; freelancers have to sort this out themselves or commission and pay someone to work on the problem.

Working freelance has both advantages and disadvantages. One of the key advantages is that it can give you the flexibility to organize your work around your own circumstances, location and preferences. One of the key disadvantages is the lack of a guaranteed regular income. Other pros and cons to consider may revolve around aspects such as contact with people during the working day, variety in translation work and range of other activities.

Most freelance translators (e.g. 82 per cent of the respondents in the last CIoL/ITI survey in 2011) receive their translation commissions from a translation company or agency, often referred to as a language service provider or LSP.

Translator cooperatives and partnerships

A variation on individual freelance work may be seen in partnerships or cooperatives of translators; this is where translators group together, sometimes just to share translation work but sometimes to set up a joint approach to organizational matters too, for example they may hire a shared work premises or market themselves collectively.

An example can be seen on the website of the Swedish group called Lund Translation Team. They present themselves as a group of translators who market themselves under one name, share office space and meet once a week to share experiences and offer mutual advice. They present the advantages for them of working in this way as: ‘greater resources, broader reach, greater expertise, more inspiration, more ideas, and of course more fun’ (www.lundtranslationteam.se/what-is-lund-translation-team). They see the group as offering advantages to clients too, namely access to a variety of skills and entrepreneurial expertise.

In-house translation

While the vast majority of today’s translation work is done by freelance translators worldwide, some in-house/salaried positions for translators continue to exist. Some of the more common configurations are as follows.

A translation company employs in-house translators

‘In-house’ refers to something which happens within an organization, so in this case we are talking about translators who are employed or salaried. An LSP is more likely to employ in-house translators if it specializes in a specific set of languages or subject domains. For example, the UK-based Sandberg Translation Partners (stptrans.com) specializes in translation of Nordic languages, and around half of its employees are in-house translators for those languages. Fry & Bonthrone (www.fb-partners.com) is a German company specializing in translation for the financial services sector and they employ in-house translators for their most specialized work. For this set-up to make sense for an LSP, they usually have to be sure they have enough regular work for specific language pairs or specialisms to keep in-house staff occupied.

It is seldom the case that an LSP covers all its translation needs with in-house staff; they will usually commission freelancers too, as is also the case with the two companies just mentioned. It is also worth noting that ‘in-house’ does not necessarily mean that the translators work on the company premises; in some situations they may have the flexibility to work from home.

A company or organization whose core business is not translation has a translation department employing in-house translators

This set-up makes sense for specialized companies which require very regular translation work, perhaps for a limited set of languages. A major advantage of having an in-house translation department is that there can be communication between the translators and technical writers, engineers or other specialists engaged in the company’s core activities. Indeed this liaison may be a crucial part of the translator’s role, and it is vital that translators have an appropriate set of interpersonal skills, as well as linguistic and technical ones. Another advantage of in-house translation is that the company can manage its own quality assurance and quality control more closely than when translation is outsourced. A potential disadvantage for translators is that the translation department can sometimes be seen within the company as less important than the core business and thus perhaps less valued as an ancillary support service.

A useful insight into running an in-house translation department is given by the then head of the translation department at SMA Solar Technology AG, Germany (Salisbury 2010) in an article in the online magazine tcworld. The company produces equipment for solar energy installations and distributes its products to numerous locations around the world. Salisbury describes in-house translation as ‘the hard way’, but also ‘the better way’. He writes about some of the aspects of the work of the internal language services team that make it a successful configuration for that company. These aspects revolve around optimization of communication channels, terminology and project management. Some scientific research centres employ in-house translators, so can be included in this category.

An international organization employs in-house translators

Among others, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) fall into this category. The ranges of languages and translation activities vary in accordance with the institutional remits. The translation services of the EU institutions are the largest in the world in terms of the number of languages and specialist fields covered. To illustrate the scale of activities, based on 2013 data (European Union 2013), the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) employs around 1,700 translators. The European Council and the Council of the European Union share a translation service employing over 600 translators. Another translation service is shared by the Court of Justice, the General Court and the Civil Service Tribunal, and this also employs around 600 translators, known as lawyer–linguists because they have to be qualified lawyers as well as well as translators. The European Court of Auditors employs around 150 staff in its Translation Directorate. The Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee have a joint Directorate for Translation, employing around 350 translators. Translators are employed by the European Central Bank and the European Investment Bank. Finally, the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union is a service providing translation for 50 other EU agencies, institutions and bodies; it employs around 200 staff.

The work done by these translators is often described as institutional translation, and legislation is a core part of that. However, it is useful to note that the EU makes policy in domains of science and technology, among others, and this process requires the translation of scientific and technical reports and papers as well as legislative instruments.

It is common for international organizations to commission translation agencies or freelancers to provide translation services to supplement the translation work of their in-house staff; for example, of the 2 million pages of text handled annually by the DGT of the European Commission, around one-quarter is translated by external contractors (European Union 2013).

The remit of other in...