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Specialized translation is a term and concept used in the translation business and in translation schools. A text to be translated is specialized if translating it calls for knowledge in some field that would not normally be part of a translator's or translation student's general knowledge.
The word 'specialized' applies differently to translators and to texts. Some translators work in a variety of fields (such as law, finance, medicine or environmental sciences), while others are 'specialized' or 'specialists' in the sense that they work exclusively in just one or two fields. A specialist may translate both specialized and non-specialized texts in those fields. A text to be translated is specialized if translating it calls for knowledge of the field that would not normally be part of a translator's general knowledge. A translator who advertises as a 'finance specialist' may sometimes be translating finance texts which are not specialized (do not require more than general financial knowledge). Professional translators who are able to translate specialized texts in a field can usually command higher prices for their work. [1] [2]
In order to understand the specialized text that is to be translated, and write the translation, the translator must have or acquire somewhat advanced or even highly advanced concepts of the relevant field. However, the level of understanding required to translate specialized texts is considerably less than the level possessed by practitioners of the field in question. Sometimes even experienced translators must consult practitioners when their knowledge falls short.
Understanding is necessary because translation is not a matter of replacing words in one language with words in another. Translators have to be able to guarantee that their translations have more or less the same meaning as the text in the original language. If they do not have a fairly good understanding of what the writer of that text was trying to say about the subject matter, then no such guarantee can be given.
Some translation businesses make a three-way distinction between 'general' texts (calling only for general knowledge of a field), 'specialized' texts (calling for advanced knowledge of a field) and 'highly specialized' texts (calling for detailed knowledge of a subject, such as jet engines or commercial law). The price charged per word will then vary with the degree of specialization. Many texts have parts which are general and parts which are specialized or highly specialized.
Aside from the concepts of a field, translators must know or discover the related terms in both languages. [3] With some target languages, terms in fields new to the culture of its speakers must be invented.
It is often said that translators must also master the typical writing styles used in each of the genres in which they work (for example, a legal translator might handle contracts, court decisions, transcripts of court proceedings and so on). And they must tailor their writing style to the future readers of the translation. It is important for translators to have a clear idea of who those future readers will be. Some specialized texts are written by experts for other experts, some by experts for non-experts, some by people who are not experts but have more knowledge of the field than the intended readers (for example, science journalists writing for the general public). Some texts may address more than one kind of reader; for example, a study for the refurbishment of a bridge may have a section addressed to transportation managers, a section addressed to finance people, and a section addressed to engineers. The different sections will require different styles.
There used to be considerable debate about whether specialized texts should be translated by practitioners of the field in question or by professional translators. It might be thought that practitioners would make the best translators because specialized texts are very commonly 'expert-to-expert' (both the author and the intended readers are practitioners). However attempts to have texts translated by practitioners will very often encounter insuperable obstacles: it will be difficult or impossible to find a practitioner who not only possesses the necessary linguistic and translational skills, but is also interested in translating and available to complete the translation by the time it is wanted. It is easier to have a practitioner play the role of an advisor who is consulted by a professional translator, or else the role of a reviewer/editor who reads the completed translation looking for any conceptual or terminological errors.
That said, some people with degrees in law, for example, do become professional legal translators. In addition, practitioners in a field do sometimes engage in a little translation 'on the side'.
Translation schools usually have courses designed to teach students how to acquire specialized concepts and the related terms. [4] The students apply what they have learned by translating specialized texts, typically in a single field, or sometimes a couple of fields, with which the instructor is familiar. Such courses may focus on concepts and terms, or they may also cover field-specific and genre-specific writing styles. These courses are typically given after students have completed courses in which they translate non-specialized texts (texts which can be understood by calling on general knowledge that students will usually already possess), usually in a variety of fields.
Instructors grade student translations in various ways. Some simply subtract marks for each error in the translation, though the errors are often classified (mistranslations, term errors, grammar mistakes, and so on), with different numbers of marks subtracted for different kinds of error, and perhaps different degrees of seriousness of error. Other instructors base their marking on 'competencies': they identify certain skills the students must acquire (ability to find terms, ability to write coherently in the target language, ability to understand specialized concepts and so on); then they assign a mark for each skill (a student might get 80/100 for terminology, 60/100 for coherent writing, and so on). [5]
Here are some examples of the ways the term specialized translation has been used. Some people use technical translation, pragmatic translation or LSP translation as synonyms (LSP = language for special purposes or language for specific purposes).
1) "Specialized translation covers the specialist subject fields falling under non-literary translation, the best known of which include science and technology, economics, marketing, law, politics, medicine and mass media...as well as lesser researched areas such as maritime navigation, archaeology...." [6]
2) "Due to the semantic ambiguity of the English adjective ‘technical’, the term can relate to content either from technology and engineering or from any specialized domain. In this article, the term is understood in the narrower sense. In the broader sense, the activity is also called ‘specialized translation’. Much of what is said here about technical translation equally holds for specialized translation and to some extent also for specialized communication in general." [7]
3) "I felt that a journal dedicated to specialised translation was needed, both to promote research in non-literary communication and to exchange information between translators, subject-field specialists and academics." [8]
As can be seen, specialized translation is often defined by contrast with literary translation, though one person has written an entire book opposing this view. [9] Much translation theory has been rooted in literary translation even though, in today's world, most translation is not literary (figures are hard to come by, though most people in the field would probably agree).
Apparently similar terms in other languages (French 'traduction spécialisée', German 'Fachübersetzung') are not necessarily used with the same range of meanings as the English term specialized translation.
In 2018, the Journal of Specialized Translation Issue 38 included a detailed review of the articles it had published since its founding in 2004, showing how the journal's concept of specialized had changed.
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically, which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.
Machine translation is use of computational techniques to translate text or speech from one language to another, including the contextual, idiomatic and pragmatic nuances of both languages.
Jargon, or technical language, is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a particular occupation, but any ingroup can have jargon. The key characteristic that distinguishes jargon from the rest of a language is its specialized vocabulary, which includes terms and definitions of words that are unique to the context, and terms used in a narrower and more exact sense than when used in colloquial language. This can lead outgroups to misunderstand communication attempts. Jargon is sometimes understood as a form of technical slang and then distinguished from the official terminology used in a particular field of activity.
A translation memory (TM) is a database that stores "segments", which can be sentences, paragraphs or sentence-like units that have previously been translated, in order to aid human translators. The translation memory stores the source text and its corresponding translation in language pairs called “translation units”. Individual words are handled by terminology bases and are not within the domain of TM.
In computing, internationalization and localization (American) or internationalisation and localisation (British), often abbreviated i18n and l10n respectively, are means of adapting to different languages, regional peculiarities and technical requirements of a target locale.
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, and many other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate and complete piece of work.
Terminology is a group of specialized words and respective meanings in a particular field, and also the study of such terms and their use; the latter meaning is also known as terminology science. A term is a word, compound word, or multi-word expression that in specific contexts is given specific meanings—these may deviate from the meanings the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. Terminology is a discipline that studies, among other things, the development of such terms and their interrelationships within a specialized domain. Terminology differs from lexicography, as it involves the study of concepts, conceptual systems and their labels (terms), whereas lexicography studies words and their meanings.
A language-for-specific-purposes dictionary is a reference work which defines the specialised vocabulary used by experts within a particular field, for example, architecture. The discipline that deals with these dictionaries is specialised lexicography. Medical dictionaries are well-known examples of the type.
Legal translation is the translation of language used in legal settings and for legal purposes. Legal translation may also imply that it is a specific type of translation only used in law, which is not always the case. As law is a culture-dependent subject field, legal translation is not necessarily linguistically transparent. Intransparency in translation can be avoided somewhat by use of Latin legal terminology, where possible, but in non-western languages debates are centered on the origins and precedents of specific terms, such as in the use of particular Chinese characters in Japanese legal discussions.
Translation studies is an academic interdiscipline dealing with the systematic study of the theory, description and application of translation, interpreting, and localization. As an interdiscipline, translation studies borrows much from the various fields of study that support translation. These include comparative literature, computer science, history, linguistics, philology, philosophy, semiotics, and terminology.
In sociolinguistics, a register is a variety of language used for a particular purpose or particular communicative situation. For example, when speaking officially or in a public setting, an English speaker may be more likely to follow prescriptive norms for formal usage than in a casual setting, for example, by pronouncing words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal, choosing words that are considered more formal, such as father vs. dad or child vs. kid, and refraining from using words considered nonstandard, such as ain't and y'all.
Controlled vocabularies provide a way to organize knowledge for subsequent retrieval. They are used in subject indexing schemes, subject headings, thesauri, taxonomies and other knowledge organization systems. Controlled vocabulary schemes mandate the use of predefined, preferred terms that have been preselected by the designers of the schemes, in contrast to natural language vocabularies, which have no such restriction.
Professional writing is writing for reward or as a profession; as a product or object, professional writing is any form of written communication produced in a workplace environment or context that enables employees to, for example, communicate effectively among themselves, help leadership make informed decisions, advise clients, comply with federal, state, or local regulatory bodies, bid for contracts, etc. Professional writing is widely understood to be mediated by the social, rhetorical, and material contexts within which it is produced. For example, in a business office, a memorandum can be used to provide a solution to a problem, make a suggestion, or convey information. Other forms of professional writing commonly generated in the workplace include email, letters, reports, and instructions. In seeking to inform, persuade, instruct, stimulate debate, or encourage action from recipients, skilled professional writers make adjustments to different degrees of shared context, e.g., from a relatively accessible style useful for unsolicited contact letter to prospective clients to a technical report that relies on a highly specialized in-house vocabulary.
Cultural translation is the practice of translation while respecting and showing cultural differences. This kind of translation solves some issues linked to culture, such as dialects, food or architecture.
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction between translating and interpreting ; under this distinction, translation can begin only after the appearance of writing within a language community.
Technical translation is a type of specialized translation involving the translation of documents produced by technical writers, or more specifically, texts which relate to technological subject areas or texts which deal with the practical application of scientific and technological information. While the presence of specialized terminology is a feature of technical texts, specialized terminology alone is not sufficient for classifying a text as "technical" since numerous disciplines and subjects which are not "technical" possess what can be regarded as specialized terminology. 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.
Medical translation is the practice of translating various documents—training materials, medical bulletins, drug data sheets, etc.—for health care, medical devices, marketing, or for clinical, regulatory, and technical documentation. Most countries require that companies and organizations translate literature and labeling for medical devices or pharmaceuticals into their national language. Documents for clinical trials often require translation for local clinicians, patients, and regulatory representatives. Regulatory approval submissions typically must be translated. In addition to linguistic skills, medical translation requires specific training and subject matter knowledge because of the highly technical, sensitive, and regulated nature of medical texts.
Skopos theory is a theory in the field of translation studies that employs the prime principle of a purposeful action that determines a translation strategy. The intentionality of a translational action stated in a translation brief, the directives, and the rules guide a translator to attain the expected target text translatum.
Transcreation is a term coined from the words "translation" and "creation", and a concept used in the field of translation studies to describe the process of adapting a message from one language to another, while maintaining its intent, style, tone, and context. A successfully transcreated message evokes the same emotions and carries the same implications in the target language as it does in the source language. It is related to the concept of localization, which similarly involves comprehensively adapting a translated text for the target audience. Transcreation highlights the translator's creative role. Unlike many other forms of translation, transcreation also often involves adapting not only words, but video and images to the target audience. Transcreation theory was first developed in the field of literary translation, and began to be adapted for use global marketing and advertising in the early 21st century. The transcreation approach is also heavily used today in the translation of video games and mobile apps.
Sense-for-sense translation is the oldest norm for translating. It fundamentally means translating the meaning of each whole sentence before moving on to the next, and stands in normative opposition to word-for-word translation.