Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Mestrado em Tradução e Serviços Linguísticos
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL
TRANSLATION
ENGLISH - PORTUGUESE
SPRING SEMESTER 2011
Tue. 17:30-19:30 – Room 206A
Teacher:
Elena Zagar Galvão
elenazagar@gmail.com
egalvao@letras.up.pt
Webpage: web.letras.up.pt/egalvao
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Learning outcomes (1)

Students who successfully complete this class will:
• be able to analyse scientific and technical texts of
various types (academic, industrial, promotional)
paying special attention to terminology, phraseology,
information structure, register and style;
• be able to carefully select and make effective use of
the multiple resources used by professional
translators: information provided by experts in
different fields, the Internet, databases, CAT tools,
electronic corpora, Machine Translation;
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Learning outcomes (2)
• be able to specialize in different areas, i.e., be
autonomous learners of specialized
languages, with emphasis on personal
preferences and interest in a specific
scientific and/or technical field;
• be fully familiar with all the different
phases of a professional translation project;
• be able to adapt their translations to the
specific needs and objectives of the target
audience;
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Learning outcomes (3)
• be able to select the appropriate translation strategy at
macro level and the most adequate translation
solution at micro level and to justify these choices
using the correct metalanguage;
• be able to work in a translation team and to network
with other language service professionals with a view
to achieving better translation solutions;
• be aware of the need to implement a quality assurance
plan adapted to each translation project.
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Teaching Methods
Given that the expression “scientific and technical
translation" covers an extremely vast range of text
types and areas of knowledge, the focus of this class
will be on helping students acquire and develop the
skills that will enable them to specialize in one or
more areas of their own choice. In-class work will be
based on different text types (Power Point
presentations, academic articles, abstracts, reports,
etc.) on various topics, such as, for instance,
renewable energy. The guided discovery on how to
deal with these translation projects, from the pretranslation and research phase to the production and
post-translation phase, will then serve as a model for
students' own projects in other fields.
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Assessment
75% compulsory attendance (working students should
come and talk to me at the beginning of the
semester)
Formative assessment (group):
Translation Company Work - 50%
Summative assessment (individual):
Final test - 50%
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Translation Companies
The class is going to be divided
into ?? groups of ?? and will form
Translation Companies, who will
attend regular tutorials in the
second part of the weekly class.
Companies should be formed by
next Tuesday.
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Each Translation Company is
responsible for:
• creating their own image (name, logo, slogan, leaflet,
Power Point presentation, webpage, etc.);
• deciding on each partner’s specific responsibilities
(project management, translation, revision, overall
quality control, etc.);
• managing each translation job in a professional
manner (from answering requests for quotation and
planning the project to delivering the final product
and invoicing the client).
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Each student should have a copy of
(and should read):
Translation Company Guidelines, available
soon at
web.letras.up.pt/egalvao (Scientific and
Technical Translation link)
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
COMPANIES
15 students;
5 companies of 3
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Dictionary of Translation Studies
(Shuttleworth and Cowie 1997:181)
Translation. An incredibly broad notion which can
be understood in many different ways. For
example, one may talk of a translation as a process
or a product, and identify such subtypes as literary
translation, technical translation, subtitling and
machine translation; moreover, while more
typically it just refers to the transfer of written
texts, the term sometimes also includes
interpreting.
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
What is Translation? (1)
a)
b)
a process by which a spoken or written utterance
takes place in one language which is intended or
presumed to convey the same meaning as a
previously existing utterance in another language
(Rabin 1958)
the transfer of thoughts and ideas from one
language (source) to another (target), whether the
languages are in written or oral form . . . or whether
one or both languages are based on signs (Brislin
1976ª)
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
What is Translation (2)
c) a situation-related and function-oriented complex
series of acts for the production of a target text,
intended for addressees in another culture/language,
on the basis of a given source text (Salevsky 1993)
d) Any utterance which is presented or regarded as a
‘translation’ within a culture, on no matter what
grounds (Toury 1995).
(quoted in Pöchhacker, Franz. Introducing Interpreting Studies, 2004: 11-12)
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
The basic conceptual ingredients
contained in the various definitions of
Translation are:

an activity consisting (mainly) in
the production of texts which are
presumed to have a similar meaning and/or
effect
as previously existing texts
in another language and culture
(Pöchhacker, Franz. Introducing Interpreting
Studies, 2004: 12)
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Roman Jakobson, “On Linguistic
Aspects of Translation”, 1959
TRANSLATION
INTERLINGUAL
INTRALINGUAL
INTERSEMIOTIC
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
TRANSLATION
The process of transferring a written text
from SL to TL, conducted by a translator,
or translators, in a specific socio-cultural context
The written product, or TT, which results from
that process and which functions
in the socio-cultural context of the TL
Cognitive, linguistic, visual, cultural and ideological
phenomena which are an integral part of Translation
as process and product
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
For next Tuesday:
Read:
NORD, Christiane. Loyalty and Fidelity in
Specialized Translation.
Translation Company Guidelines.
(both available on our website)
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão
Translate
File: TTCIP_11_Class_Task_1_Twins
Excerpt from the book by Elizabeth Bryan
Twins, Triplets and More (the chapter is
The Biology of Twinning).
FLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão