ABSTRACT
In so far as all texts can be categorized in terms of genre, there is no reason why one particular genre should be singled out for special attention rather than any other. However, since technical translation is a far more ‘marketable’ skill than literary translation, and since most language students are, owing to their lack of training in science or technology, in awe of ‘technical’ texts, we feel the need to devote a separate chapter to problems confronting the translator of texts in this genre. By ‘technical’ translation we mean especially the translation of empirical/descriptive texts written in the context of scientific or technological disciplines. As a matter of fact, any specialist field, from anthropology to zymurgy via banking, history, numismatics and yachting, has its own technical register, its own jargon, its own genre-marking characteristics, with which translators should be familiar if they are to produce convincing TTs in the appropriate field. It is also worth emphasizing that the problems met in translating technical texts are to a great extent no different from those met in translating in any genre, specialized or not. Textual variables are textual variables, particularizations are particularizations, whatever the genre and whatever the subject matter; and the relative merits of literal and communicative translation need to be considered in translating any text. Nevertheless, the very fact that technical texts are at the far extreme of unfamiliarity for many language students makes them especially valuable illustrations of all these points. There are three reasons, then, for devoting a chapter to technical translation: first, because it probably offers the widest field of employment for translators; second, because it is often so unnerving for language students; and third, because it is so exemplary of issues crucial to translation methodology.
