The article considers basic requirements for the translation competence of a specialist who translates technical accompanying documentation. Attention is paid to such qualities of translation of a technical text as accuracy, clarity of presentation for a potential recipient. The specialist must use a formal logical style, know the lexical and grammatical patterns of the pair of working languages, convey special technical terminology accurately and use various translation methods to ensure equivalence and adequacy of the translation.
Keywords: technical text, accompanying technical documentation, technical terminology, equivalence, adequacy, direct translation, indirect translation.
The modern structure of the world economy requires manufacturers, as subjects of economic relations, to provide accompanying technical documentation not only in the national language. The accompanying technical documentation for high-tech equipment and software in English opens the way for manufacturers to global markets and determines their commercial success.
The translation of technical literature is achieved by other techniques than the translation of fiction. Comparing a translator of fiction with a portraitist [1, p. 49] seeking portrait similarity, and a translator of technical literature with a photographer seeking photographic similarity, effectively describes the difference between the two translation genres [2, p. 115–116].
If the translation of fiction is considered a matter of art, then the translation of technical literature belongs to science rather than to art. Therefore, a translator of technical literature is obliged to master his working languages and knowledge of a specific technical field, along with the skills to operate with logical categories, which determines the ability to think scientifically.
Translation experts argue that the translation of a technical text should be superior in some cases to the original. This statement is related to the requirements for the result of the work of a translator of technical literature. First, the translation must be accurate without distortion of the original and without introduction of anything extraneous into it. Secondly, the text of the translation should be clear to the potential recipient and, importantly, regardless of the degree of clarity of the original [3, pp. 231–233] . At first glance, this is a paradox, but the translator has to compensate for the shortcomings of the authors of technical texts according to his professional duties. The authors may wrongfully assume that everything in their materials is clear and understandable. They may not distinguish that certain components of the content require clarification or clarification. This is due to a lack of focus on the target audience, which arises from the author's many years of experience in this topic and in this technical field. What the authors take for granted is not clearly stated in the text. The translator should compensate for this.
Further, in technical texts, there are sometimes unjustified repetitions of various elements of the text that the translator can and must remove, otherwise he will violate the basic condition of translation — to ensure the use of a formal logical style. In this regard, an experienced translator translates the author's thought of the material in compliance with all elements of the formal and logical style, which leads to the fact that the translation becomes better than the original according to the criteria for this type of work.
Nevertheless, the translator must coordinate all corrections with the author in order to comply with the requirements of translation ethics and to avoid incorrect interpretation by the translator of the semantic structures of the original.
Translation of technical literature is a difficult, painstaking, independent work, the fruit of intense research work in the field of language and a specific specialty. To perform such work, it is desirable that the translator has exceptionally high qualifications: he is fluent in the language of technical literature, both the original and the translation. Theoretically, this is possible only within the limits of any one narrow specialty. However, «practically there are almost no such people, and the few of them who meet these requirements are not engaged in translations. Most of the full–time translators of technical literature are graduates of humanitarian universities» [3, p. 304].
Those who know the patterns of the language of technical literature can make adequate translations. Philologists with logical thinking abilities, knowledge of the formal logical style of technical literature and a desire to develop a scientific approach to translation can become good translators. A prerequisite for a translator within the framework of technical discourse is knowledge of the lexical and grammatical patterns of a pair of working languages. No major specialist in a narrow technical field will be able to make an adequate translation product.
It is only after deep acquaintance with a narrow technical field and long-term translation practice in this field that one can develop professional skills in relaying technical texts. But only people with special technical education are able to fully understand the content of technical texts.
The professional field of technical literature translation is a special area of translation activity with increased difficulty and responsibility. The performance of professional quality work is possible by highly qualified specialists in this technical field, who not only have excellent command of a foreign language and have theoretical translation knowledge, but also know the subject area with its narrow special terminology perfectly. The professional field of translation of technical literature requires from the translator, in addition to the above, the ability to stylistically accurately and competently present the content of the original text, translating the meaningful focus and style of the original into the target language.
The translator of technical texts must ensure the accuracy of the transmission of special technical terminology. He is obliged to familiarize himself with new terminology, navigate technical abbreviations, names of units of measurement, etc. He is required to provide a high quality translation product, ensure terminological correctness and preserve the format of the original accompanying documentation.
A translator of technical texts cannot be limited to knowledge of one narrow technical field. This requirement follows from the peculiarities of the current stage of technological progress, when special terminology penetrates from one professional field to another. This makes it necessary to simultaneously use dictionaries for a number of branches of knowledge for the translation of technical literature and accompanying documentation.
Familiarity with the terminology system of one narrow specialty of a technical orientation is a necessary, but insufficient condition. Work should be constantly carried out to compile an ever-expanding thesaurus of a separate special branch of science and technology.
The requirements for the equivalence and adequacy of the translation product are high. In translation studies, extensive experience has been accumulated in theoretical understanding of the problems of achieving adequate translation. Experts outline a number of special methods for creating an adequate translation product, highlighting primarily two methods: direct translation and indirect translation.
In some translation situations, an information segment is easily translated into a message in the target language in the case of structural parallelism or metalinguistic parallelism. Structural parallelism is based on parallel interlanguage categories, metalinguistic parallelism is based on parallel concepts [4, p. 25].
In other translation situations, an information segment is not easily translated into a message in the target language due to structural or metalinguistic differences. The translator states the presence of gaps in the translation language, which he is forced to fill with equivalent means, forcibly changing the grammatization or syntaxization of the original structures and selecting equivalent lexical units.
In technical translation, borrowing, сalque, literal translation, transposition, modulation, equivalence, adaptation are used. Marzoeva I. V. and Gilyazieva G. Z. describe direct and indirect methods of translation, considering that the first three are direct, the remaining methods are indirect or indirect.
1. Borrowing is used in a translation situation when borrowing a semantic complex together with a structural one. In other words, borrowing allows you to fill a gap of a metalinguistic nature (the emergence of a new technical device or the emergence of a new concept).
A significant influx of borrowings into the lexical composition of the Russian language in the 90s of the XX century is associated with the need to master advanced technologies of Western developed countries in the form of general technical, narrow technical and, in particular, computer terms. They were massively registered by dictionaries and reference books of special purpose and adapted to the Russian language system. For example, чип, модем, Интернет, сайт.
Today, the borrowing of new terms is giving way to lexical replacements due to the excessive level of unjustified borrowings. Nevertheless, experts continue to note cases of unjustified borrowings of terms already existing in the Russian language. They emphasize the priority of analogues already available in the Russian language and the absence of the need for borrowings. For example, upgrade should be translated into Russian with the available correspondence to обновить, улучшить, усовершенствовать , and avoid an alien-sounding апгрейд .
2. Calque involves using the syntactic structure of the original language and copying elements of this structure by elements of the structure of the target language.
The translator uses calculus, avoiding borrowing when filling in gaps.
In semantic calque, the structure of the term in the original language corresponds to the norms of the original language, while the structure of the term created in the target language corresponds to the norms of the target language. switching diagram — схема переключений, motor cable — кабель двигателя, hard disk — жесткий диск.
3. Literal translation , or word-for-word translation, is an adequate way if it leads to the creation of an equivalent text, and the translator at the same time monitors compliance with the requirements of mandatory language norms.
If the translator finds the literal translation unacceptable, then it becomes necessary to use indirect translation methods. The unacceptability of translation becomes obvious in cases when text elements translated verbatim give a different meaning, lose their meaning, are impossible for structural reasons, do not correspond to semantic complexes in the target language, do not meet the stylistic requirements of the target language.
To achieve functional equivalence of messages in two languages, the translator applies special procedures in order to arrive at the desired message. The translator, knowing the semantic complex of the message in the original language, makes the necessary choice of how to achieve the equivalence of the relayed message.
4. Transposition is reduced to replacing one part of speech with another part of speech without changing the meaning of the entire message. We emphasize that the original and transposed formulations are not necessarily stylistically equivalent. The translator uses the transposition method to compensate for the loss of stylistic nuances of the original while preserving the original part of speech of the original text. Experts comment that the transposed turnover is usually marked with more literature.
5. Modulation is used in cases where a literal translation or a transposed translation does not lead to the desired translation product according to all equivalence requirements. This method boils down to varying the message by changing the angle of view of the object.
6. Equivalence is applicable as a way to achieve an adequate translation product when different stylistic and structural means of two languages successfully model and describe the same situation. A classic illustration of the effectiveness of equivalence is proverbs and sayings, as well as idiomatic expressions: to pay an arm and a leg — заплатить целое состояние , be like two peas in a pod — похожи как две капли воды. Such messages are not subject to calculus, the translator should not arbitrarily introduce tracing paper into the translation language, violating its normativity. The abuse of calculus in such cases casts doubt on the professional qualifications of the translator and introduces structurally alien components into the text in the form of Anglicisms, Germanisms, etc.
7. Adaptation as a method of translation is applicable to cases when the communicative situation described in the source language does not exist in the target language. In these cases, it is transmitted through the involvement of another communicative situation, which the translator considered equivalent to the original one. This case can be called an equivalence of situations.
The refusal to adapt not only the components of the structure, but also the components of the content, leads to the creation of a false tonality of the translation text. This impression is often produced by texts translated according to the principles of literal translations and the desirability of maximum calculation. This understanding of accuracy in translation is incorrect and unscientific. The text of the translation should not be a tracing paper either structurally or in terms of content.
Conclusion. The translator of technical texts must ensure the accuracy of the transmission of special technical terminology. He is obliged to make himself familiar with new terminology, navigate technical abbreviations, names of units of measurement, etc. He is required to provide a high quality translation product, ensure terminological correctness and preserve the format of the original accompanying documentation. Work should be constantly carried out to compile an ever-expanding thesaurus of a separate special branch of science and technology.
The requirements for the equivalence and adequacy of the translation product are high. In translation studies, extensive experience has been accumulated in theoretical understanding of the problems of achieving adequate translation. Experts outline a number of special methods for creating an adequate translation product, highlighting primarily two methods: direct translation and indirect translation.
In technical translation, borrowing, calculus, literal translation, transposition, modulation, equivalence, adaptation are used.
References:
- Breus E. V. Theory and practice of translation from English into Russian.— M.: Ladomir, 2001.
- Strelkovskiy G. M. Scientific and technical translation. — M.: Prosveshchenie, 1980.
- Retsker Ya. I. Translation manual from English to Russian: in 2 parts. Part 1. Lexical and phraseological bases of translation. — Moscow.: Nauka, 1960.
- Marzoeva I. V., Gilyazieva G. Z. Features of translation of technical texts: a textbook. — Kazan: Kazan State Energy University, 2018.
- Parshina T. V. On the theory of technical translation / Topical issues of philological sciences: materials of the IV International Scientific Conference. — Kazan: Buk, 2016. URL: ht tps://moluch.ru/conf/phil/archive/232/10815/ (date of application: 03.09.2022).
