Coursework: Specialised Translation
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Table of Contents
Intro
In keeping with a functionalist approach to translation, the fourth module revolved around “specialised translation” which, to describe it simply, focusses on how translating for different sectors or verticals might affect the outcome.
In total, we looked at 6 broad categories: scientific, technical, legal (institutional and commercial), academic, literary and general. A large part of specialised translation work is terminology management, so that also came up quite frequently, with the caveat that translation for a general readership is kind of the opposite, as it would use fewer terms and less frequently, accounting for the presumed knowledge-base of the target audience.
Quick Look: Legal Translation
For me, legal translation was the most intriguing as there are a lot of things to factor in.
For example: unlike America and many European countries, a translator cannot notarise their own work in the UK—they have to get a notary to notarise their translations. Similar to the US however, translators can certify their own work, which consists of signing and dating it and attaching your contact details, should your accountability be required—one hopes it won’t be. So if you are looking for notarised translation in the UK, you either have to find a translator who works closely with a notary, or an agency who specialises in notarised translation and so has both professionals on the payroll.
Additionally, there are different kinds of legal translation depending on what the document is and what systems you are translating between, as different cultures and communities have different legal structures.
- “Normative”, which is the hardest type of legal translation. Such documents need to be legally valid and applicable in the target system, which for some documents are just not going to be possible.
- “Informative”, which is easier. The legal document is translated so that it makes sense in the target language, and perhaps some notes are included about nuances between the source and target legal systems, but whether it conforms to target culture law is someone else’s can of worms (as long as it is legal in the source culture).
- “General”, which is more about supporting documents, e.g. for a court case, such as texts or witness statements. That doesn’t mean “easy” just “less complicated”.
Just as a disclaimer, I do not work with legal translation (or finance or medical). I am simply not trained (as of early 2025) in any of those translation types, although I have saved some translation courses which could push me towards legal translation in the future.
Not Really Legal Translation…
Like my other coursework pieces, I was restricted somewhat by what materials I could access. The task was to translate and compare two texts from different categories, so I chose literary and general legal, comparing a short horror story with a news article about two men who had just been convicted of shooting two police officers in Kusel, located in the Rhineland-Palatinate of Germany (the state in which I lived for a year, although I was nowhere near the town in question).
Both were rather dark accounts that shared the theme of murder (I don’t know, maybe I wanted to unsettle my examiners?) and I created two rather convoluted scenarios for the translations before comparing how my approach and application of translation techniques would differ for both based on the kind of text they were and what the translations were intended for.
Comparing Verticals
As a comparative task, I first compared the different scenarios, establishing the general framework that I would use anyway and then how that would be adapted to the needs of the particular task. I then went on to look at how both informative and emotive information would need to be handled in each text, either based on legal or cultural conventions, the demands of the texts themselves, and the expectations of the readers.
I will admit that the essay itself is not my most cohesive. It was particularly challenging to try and analyse both texts and the short story was not ideal as a mirror for the piece of journalism. That being said, in both pieces, establishing the right connection between the reader and the texts was of paramount importance. The article, especially, concerned the actual judicial process of convicting the two poachers who were guilty of the shooting, and so it used proper legal terms (if sparingly). It was necessary then to represent German civil law in a way that was both accurate and accessible to someone who was unfamiliar.
Likewise, imagery was important in the short story, not only for its role in setting the ambience but in cramming as much information as possible within a short space. Not only that, but the level of emotional connection has to be high in order to create immersion. This affects word choice, but this time for the emotional outcome rather than the information conveyed. The article on the other hand required the complete opposite. As a work of journalism, it needed to stay impassive while not becoming dry, so as to respect the seriousness of the events in question.
Conclusion
Translation doesn’t always happen at the world level, it happens at all levels of the text, from the pieces that make up words to the document as a whole. Sometimes, rephrasing or restructuring a sentence can actually recreate the nuance of the original, while choosing the appropriate synonym or finding a new way to convey the information-content is preferable to a literal translation solution that does not succeed at either.
In some ways, this is the benefit of human translation, as this level of semantic nuance is not something any machine yet created can achieve. This human-level intervention can then prevent a translated article from falsely suggesting that a judge was harsh to the victim’s families or that the journalist disagreed with the ruling—all by just properly considering the impact of a select handful of words out of several hundred.
(If this interests you, you can find the PDF of my essay here).
Image credit: moi
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