Interdisciplinary approach to the study of scientific translation
Iuliia Alekseeva
Abstract
The paper deals with interdisciplinary analysis of translated scientific texts that, as a rule, oppose to literary ones, in order to gain deeper insight into some main problems touched upon the different linguistic issues, namely, translation and intertext studies, since the textual nature of the former correspond to the basic determination of the latter. This viewpoint provides fresh outlook on these issues and makes the methods originating from other spheres of science applicable for them. Thus, we used prototype method of categorization implemented by cognitive sciences for the reason of its universality unto any issues demanding characterization. In this respect, the key items within this study required for analysis were units of translation regarded as citations, and preciseness or equivalence of translated text (i.e. intertext) to the source or prior text. The latter was also important in terms of examining scientific translations as one of the properties defining this text genre. As a study material, we used scientific abstracts for their brief form and possibility to visually analyse the entire text, which was necessary for this research. Concerning the translation units, the sentence appeared to be the best representative among the other ones varying from words and expressions to transphrastique unities and the whole text. The choice made additionally allows expanding of the analysis to the larger units, up to the text as a whole. The prototypic characteristics of equivalence in translated sentence, according to the literary data on the subject, showed several linguistic demands to be included into the core area of the category. Those sentences, which did not meet the demands, depending on the degree, constituted the areas other than the core one. The results obtained proved the applicability of the interdisciplinary approach used and provided new data to the discourse peculiarities of translated text. Moreover, the present study has extended the knowledge about both translation and intertext, which can be useful for the further studies in this direction.