SCIENTIFIC TEXTS

WEEK 7
■ Scientific texts are considered the most challenging for the translator.

■ The term ‘science’ covers a wide range of disciplines that could

include, but are not limited to, physics, biology, chemistry,
astronomy, mathematics, geology, biochemistry, astrophysics,
ecology and engineering sciences.

■ Scientific texts are more challenging, for example than literary

texts, especially because ‘if the text is perceived as an object that
should only produce a single invariant reading, any “deviation” on
the part of the reader/translator will be judged as transgression’.
■ Part of the difficulty in translating such texts arises from
their use of specialised terminology:

■ a large number of very specific terms and concepts, as well

as numbers, symbols, graphs and diagrams.

■ This can be challenging for the translator who does not have
sufficient knowledge of these fields.

■ Indeed, exceptional language and writing skills are required

to enable the translator to transmit technical content in one
language into another in a clear and precise manner.
 Translation Strategies
Peter Newmark’s translation theory (1988, 1991). He distinguishes two kinds
of translation:

I. Semantic Translation

1. Semantic translation at the phonetic level (transliteration)

2. Semantic translation based on morphological processes such as

suffixation, derivation and reduplication (calque)

3. Semantic translation based on lexical equivalence (gloss translation)

II. Communicative Translation

 Semantic Translation:
The phonetic level (Borrowing)

■ Semantic translation at the phonetic level refers to transliteration which is a

word taken from one language into another language alphabet: Borrowing.
■ Borrowing: this strategy involves introducing the SL term into the TL:
SARS= ‫سارس‬
Corona= ‫كورونا‬
COVID-19= 19 ‫كوفيد‬
Alzheimer‫= الزهايمر‬
Microwave‫= ميكروويف‬
Spam = ‫سَّبام‬
 Transliteration follows the phonetic rules of the target language. Transliterated words are
often naturalized to assimilate the structure of the target language.
 SemanticTranslation:
Morphological Level (Calque)

Loan Translations or Calque which involves providing a translation of the new term in TL.
 This strategy renders a phrase borrowed from another language, keeping the source
language structure:
Electromagnetic= ‫كهُرطيسَّية‬
Atomic number = ‫العدد الذري‬
Atomic mass = .‫الكتلة الذرية‬
Naturalisation, where the SL term is adapted to the morphology of the TL. This strategy is
common with the terminology of computer sciences and technology, chemistry and biology.
Examples:
facebooks (plural) ‫ فيسبوكات‬/faisbūkāt/; To facebook: ‫ يفسبك‬/yufasbuk/
computers ‫كمبيوترات‬/kumbiyūtarāt/
e-mails: ‫ ٕايميالت‬/īmaylāt/
faxes: ‫فاكسات‬/fāksāt/.
 Semantic Translation:
Lexical Level (Coinage)

■ Coinage: with this strategy new terms are created in the TL

■ Semantic translation at the lexical level refers to lexicalizing equivalent words in

the target language

■ It aims at rendering the terms and concepts into the Arabic language by translating
the lexicon. It receives much acceptance in some scientific texts.

For example:

Resolution: ‫االستبانة‬

HDTV: ‫التلفزيون عالي الوضوح‬

The following are the three basic strategies for coinage in Arabic:

1. Derivation ‫اْش ِتقاق‬: according to this process, Arabic derives new terms by
analogy based on its derivation system data is translated as ‫ معطيات‬givens
taken from give ‫أعطى‬

2. Transplantation ‫ استنبات‬involves the revival of old words by extending

their meanings to express new concepts, e.g. cloning is translated as .‫استنساخ‬

3. Loan Translations ‫االقتراض‬: the meaning of the term is translated literally

into Arabic. For . example, electronic e-mail is translated as ‫البريداإللكتروني‬
Communicative Translation of Scientific Texts

■ Communicative translation aims at influencing the reader. It is target language oriented

■ Newmark proposes the principle of "equivalent effect": it focuses on making the target
language readers understand the source language author’s thoughts
■ The differences between communicative and semantic translation is based on their
different emphasis In semantic translation, the focus is on the original’s formal
properties
■ However, communicative translation does not adhere to the source language text. Then,
it attempts to eliminate any exoticism and to look natural; smooth translation
■ While communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect close to
that of the original, semantic translation aims to render the semantic and syntactic
structures of the original (Newmark 1991: 11).
■ Esperanto:
Semantic Translation: ‫االسبرانتية‬
Communicative Translation:‫لغة دولية مبسطة للتفاهم‬
 Quarks:
Semantic Translation: ‫الكواركات‬
Communicative Translation: ‫ُجسيمات تكون عالمنا‬
 Glue:
Semantic Translation:‫الكلُيونات‬
Communicative Translation: ‫جسيمات صغيرة‬
 Silcene:
Semantic Translation: ‫السيليسين‬
Communicative Translation:‫رقائق سيليكون تشبه الجرافين بسمك ذرة‬
 Translation Problems and practical Steps

■ Scientific translation is sometimes viewed as a communicative service

■ It offers new information for a new audience

■ Its basic goal is to deliver scientific information that may be used easily, properly
and effectively.

■ If certain terminology in the original text requires more elaboration in the TL, the
translator must ensure that this extended explanation (e.g. added in a footnote)
remains within the grasp of the reader.

■ For this purpose, the scientific translator should be a good researcher to keep up
with all new development, since scientific discoveries evolve very rapidly.
 Translation Problems and practical Steps
This process involves analysing the text on two levels, lexical and grammatical.

① Lexical Analysis involves looking up the technical terms, using a good technical
dictionary, and identifying the text’s register.

② Grammatical Analysis involves a contrastive analysis of grammatical structures in

the SL and TL. In the case of translating from English into Arabic, there are many
differences as far as the grammar of both languages is concerned. English is
characterised by a scarcity of connectives, little repetition of keywords, extensive use
of passive forms, and the verbs to be and to have. Arabic, on the other hand, uses
more connectives, repeats key words more often and favours active structures. Tense
and aspect are also problematic in both languages.
■ Arabic is a highly inflected language compared to English which uses very
few inflections (infliction is the name for the extra letter or letters added to
nouns, verbs and adjectives in their different grammatical forms).

■ Arabic has inflections for tense, number and gender.

■ For example, the following sentence is usually translated as follows:

Elements are substances consisting of one type of atom

‫العناصر مواد تتٔالف من نوع واحد من الذرات‬

 The verb ‘are’ is not translated into Arabic.
■ Furthermore, while English has inflection for plural only, Arabic has inflections
for singular, dual and plural.
■ For instance, if you want to translate the sentence ‘the proton is located in the
centre of the atom’, you should treat the proton as masculine saying:
‫يقع البروتون في مركز الذرة‬
■ The word ‘atoms’ in the sentence ‘Atoms are the smallest particle into which an
element can be divided.’ is treated as feminine plural and therefore the verb is
inflected with feminine inflection at the beginning:
■ ‫الذرات ٔاصغر الجزئيات التي يمكن ٔان تقسم لها العناصر‬
 For example, English uses the pronoun ‘it’ to refer to both the electron and the
atom while Arabic treats the electron as masculine and the atom as feminine.
 This grammatical gender distinction is shown in the inflections of the verbs that
follow these noun