Translation

Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language — the source text — and the production of a new, equivalent text in another language — called the target text, or the translation.

Specialised types of translation

Any type of written text can be a candidate for translation, however, the translation industry is often categorised by a number of areas of specialisation. Each specialisation has its own challenges and difficulties. An incomplete list of these specialised types of translation includes:

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Administrative translation

The translation of administrative texts.

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Commercial translation

The translation of commercial (business) texts.

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Computer translation

The translation of computer programs and related documents (manuals, help files, web sites.)

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The notion of localisation, that is the adaptation of the translation to the target language and culture, is gaining prevalence in this area of specialisation.

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(Note that the term "computer translation" is sometimes used to refer to the practice of machine translation, using computers to automatically translate texts.)

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Economic translation

The translation of texts in the fields of economics.

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Financial translation

The translation of texts of a financial nature.

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General translation

The translation of "general" texts. In practice, few texts are really "general"; most fall into a specialisation but are not seen as such.

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Legal translation

See also full article: Legal translation.

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The translation of legal documents (laws, contracts, treaties, etc.).

Related Topics:
Law - Contract - Treaties

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A skilled legal translator is normally as adept at the law (often with in-depth legal training) as with translation, since inaccuracies in legal translations can have serious results.

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(One example of problematic translation is the Treaty of Waitangi, where the English and Maori versions differ in certain important areas.)

Related Topics:
Treaty of Waitangi - English - Maori

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Sometimes, to prevent such problems, one language will be declared authoritative, with the translations not being considered legally binding, although in many cases this is not possible, as one party does not want to be seen as subservient to the other.

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Literary translation

The translation of literary works (novels, short stories, plays, poems, etc.)

Related Topics:
Literary works - Novel - Short stories - Plays - Poems

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If the translation of non-literary works is regarded as a skill, the translation of fiction and poetry is much more of an art. In multilingual countries such as Canada, translation is often considered a literary pursuit in its own right. Figures such as Sheila Fischman, Robert Dickson and Linda Gaboriau are notable in Canadian literature specifically as translators, and the Governor General's Awards present prizes for the year's best English-to-French and French-to-English literary translations with the same standing as more conventional literary awards.

Related Topics:
Canada - Sheila Fischman - Robert Dickson - Linda Gaboriau - Canadian literature - Governor General's Awards

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Writers such as Vladimir Nabokov have also made a name for themselves as literary translators.

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Many consider poetry the most difficult genre to translate, given the difficulty in rendering both the form and the content in the target language. In 1959 in his influential paper "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation", the Russian-born linguist and semiotician Roman Jakobson even went as far as to declare that "poetry by definition untranslatable". In 1974 the American poet James Merrill wrote a poem, "Lost in Translation," which in part explores this subject. This question was also explored in Douglas Hofstadter's 1997 book, Le Ton beau de Marot.

Related Topics:
Genre - 1959 - Russia - Roman Jakobson - 1974 - James Merrill - Lost in Translation - Douglas Hofstadter - 1997 - Le Ton beau de Marot

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Medical translation

The translation of works of a medical nature.

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Like pharmaceutical translation, medical translation is specialisation where a mistranslation can have grave consequences.

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Pedagogical translation

Translation practised as a means of learning a second language.

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Pedagogical translation is used to enrich (and to assess) the student's vocabulary in the second language, to help assimilate new syntactic structures and to verify the student's understanding. Unlike other types of translation, pedagogical translation takes place in the student's native (or dominant) language as well as the second language. That is to say that the student will translate both to and from the second language. Another difference between this mode of translation and other modes is that the goal is often literal translation of phrases taken out of context, and of text fragments, which may be completed fabricated for the purposes of the exercise.

Related Topics:
Vocabulary - Syntactic structures - Native - Dominant - Phrase - Context

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Pedagogical translation should not be confused with scholarly translation.

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Pharmaceutical translation

The translation of works in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Like medical translation, pharmaceutical translation is specialisation where a mistranslation can have grave consequences.

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Scientific translation

The translation of scientific texts.

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Scholarly translation

The translation of specialised texts written in an academic environment.

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Scholarly translation should not be confused with pedagogical translation.

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Technical translation

The translation of technical texts (manuals, instructions, etc.).

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More specifically, texts that contain a high amount of terminology, that is, words or expressions that are used (almost) only within a specific field, or that describe that field in a great deal of detail.

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