Technical translation (or translation for specific purposes) as a compulsory course for students majoring in translation has some peculiarities which cause difficulties in the process of translation.

This paper studies the difficulties of translating abbreviations and specialist terms and provides practical recommendations that can serve as guidelines for faithful translation of technical texts.

One of the problems is translation of English abbreviations (shortened forms of the words) into Ukrainian. Abbreviations often occur as names of organizations and associations − UNO (United Nations Organization), IMF (International Monetary Fund), etc. They also appear as names of appliances, such as TV (television), DVD (digital versatile disk), etc., vehicles and on vehicle license plates. We have a series of recently created abbreviations especially with the advent of telecommunication companies in the field of mobile telephony such as MTN (message transfer network), MTS (message transfer service). Another area where abbreviations abound is in academic certificates and names of educational institutions such as B.A. (Bachelor of Arts), Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy), etc.

Translating abbreviations could be regarded as reformulation of abbreviations of one language to another, e.g. UNO (ООН), IMF (МВФ). Abbreviations of multinationals, such as P&G (Procter and Gamble) G.E. (General Electric) would be easily comprehensible to a Ukrainian translator, but some abbreviations would cause difficulties. At times, initials may be reformulated into full words: SES (інтелектуальна система енергозбереження), VR (віртуальна реальність). Some others are simply acquired into the target language as borrowed acronyms (words made up from the first letters of the names of something) such as 'laser'.

In spite of the cultural issues, to deal with problems of abbreviations a good translator must have the latest information worldwide at his disposal through reading of newspapers, journals, international magazines, the consulting of which has been facilitated by the Internet. And of course while on the job, there are also popular online dictionaries to get around the complex task of translating acronyms. Another useful tool for the translator is to have at his disposal a glossary of abbreviations of the subject field he is working on. In some cases; the translator may also have to consult his client or the author or the source text for more clarification of the terms.

In summary, one last recommendation for the translator is to simply render the acronyms as borrowed concepts, as they figure in the original text. In this era of globalization, the issue of translating acronyms is becoming less emphasized due to the constantly widening vocabulary, thanks to the modern information technology. We are being faced with a deluge of new acronyms daily and before these get officially translated from English into Ukrainian, the Ukrainian speaker is already using the English acronym and is used to it.

Another difficulty of translating technical texts is adequate interpretation of technical terms. A specialist (technical) term is a word, fixed group of words or abbreviation that has a precisely limited sense and is used in the same sense in a particular branch of human knowledge or practical activity, such as science and technology.

Ideally, a specialist term must have the following properties. It must be systemic, independent of context within the same specialist field, brief or compact. Besides, it must have a single word-sense, only one interpretation and a precise definition accepted by specialists in a given field.

In reality, not all terms have the above properties, which may lead to misunderstandings. In order to translate specialist texts competently, the translator must have a deep understanding of the concepts employed by specialists in a particular field and the technical terms used to express these concepts and their relationships in the source and target languages. There are two main ways of translating specialist terms: 1) by using the term that has already been adopted in the target language or 2) by creating one’s own term. Technical terms are usually created in translation by a) borrowing the term from the source language and transferring it unchanged into the source language; b) transcribing and/or transliterating the term in the source language, the modern tendency being that of a maximal phonetic approximation of the technical terms in the source and target languages; c) using a loan translation whereby the semantic components of a given term are literally translated into their equivalents in the target language (i.e. активна матриця − active matrix); d) providing a descriptive translation of a given term (i.e. software − програмне забезпечення).

The process of translation from one language into another suggests the solution of a whole set of tasks. For example, it is necessary to choose the right meaning of the term circuit in the sentence: Firing circuit is a combination of initiators composed of unconfined, blasthole, or chamber charges in a certain pattern. The term circuit has the following vocabulary equivalents: 1) схема, ланцюг, контур 2) ел. мережа 3) звз. канал; лінія, тракт 4) тлф. шлейф 5) ксм. орбітальний рух. In order to translate this term correctly, it is necessary to determine in what of the above meanings it is used. The subject of the text concerns mining, and the term refers to blasting terminology used in mining. On the basis of this analysis we make the conclusion that the term circuit has the meaning of мережа and the sentence can be translated in the following way: Вибухова мережа − це з’єднання за визначеною схемою ініціаторів зовнішніх, шпурових, свердловинних та камерних зарядів.

No doubt, the knowledge of peculiarities of translation for specific purposes will help students become professionals in their field of activity.

 

Literature:

1. Karaban V. Translation from Ukrainian into English. − Vinnytsa: Nova Knyga, 2005.

2. Burak A. Translating culture. − Moscow: R. Valent, 2002.

3. English-Russian Dictionary of Networks and Network Technologies. − Moscow: Solon, 1997.