CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
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Technical Translation: An Investigation into
Challenges Facing Can Tho University English
Translation and Interpreting Majored Students in
Translating Manuals.
B.A Thesis
Field of study: English translation and interpreting
Supervisor: Trương Thị Ngọc Điệp,M.Ed
Can Tho, May 2014
Student: Nguyễn Thị Tô Liên
Student Code: 7107132
Class: NN10Z8A2
Course: 36
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
I certify that this work has not been submitted for any publication, or previous studies.
I also declare that the content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to
the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style,
presentation and linguistics express is acknowledged.
Nguyễn Thị Tô Liên
May, 2014
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would never have been able to finish my thesis without the guidance of my advisor,
help from friends, and support from my family.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Ms. Truong
Thi Ngoc Diep, for her excellent guidance, caring, patience, and providing me with an
excellent atmosphere for doing research.
Next, I would like to take opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to my
roommates who supported me for data analysis.
I would like to acknowledge the encouragement and strong support from my beloved
family, especially my mother. Without their support, I could not have had enough
perseverance in facing the difficulties during the period of conducting this study.
Then, I also want to express my appreciation to my classmates, especially Ms. Lai
Tuyet Nhung, Mr. Tran Van Hau, and Ms. Dang Thi Kim Thanh for their help and
encouragement.
Finally, I also wish to thank all the participants of thesis for their support. Without
their assistance, I could not have completed my thesis
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ...................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ...........................................................................................................vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale ................................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Research objectives ................................................................................................. 2
1.3. Significance of research ........................................................................................... 2
1.4. Thesis organization .................................................................................................. 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................. 4
2.1. An overview of technical translation ........................................................................ 4
2.1.1. Definitions ............................................................................................................ 4
2.1.2. Types of technical documents ............................................................................... 6
2.1.4. Features of technical documents ........................................................................... 8
2.2. Translation approaches ............................................................................................ 9
2.3. Knowledge and skills requirements to produce a good technical translation ........... 10
2.4. Difficulties in translating technical texts ................................................................ 11
2.5. Method in translating technical documents ............................................................ 12
2.6. Summary and indication ........................................................................................ 13
2.7. Research questions ................................................................................................ 14
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................ 15
3.1. Research design ..................................................................................................... 15
3.2. Participants ............................................................................................................ 15
3.3. Materials ............................................................................................................... 15
3.3.1. Translation text ................................................................................................... 15
3.3.2. Questionnaire...................................................................................................... 16
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3.4. Data collection....................................................................................................... 16
3.4.1. Translation text ................................................................................................... 16
3.4.2. Questionnaire...................................................................................................... 17
3.5. Data analysis ......................................................................................................... 17
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS, DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ....................... 18
4.1. Research results ..................................................................................................... 18
4.1.1. Translation text. ..................................................................................... 18
4.1.2. The difficulties in translating technical documents ................................ 22
4.1.2. The methods which students prefer using in translating technical documents
........................................................................................................................ 23
4.2. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 25
CHAPTER 5: LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................ 27
5.1. Limitations ............................................................................................................ 27
5.2. Recommendations ................................................................................................. 27
5.3. Directions for further research ................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
APPENDICES ...................................................................................................... 31
APPENDIX A – Translation text .................................................................................. 31
APPENDIX B – Questionnaire ..................................................................................... 32
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TÓM LƯỢC
Nghiên cứu này nhằm điều tra những khó khăn mà sinh viên chuyên ngành BiênPhiên dịch tiếng Anh gặp phải khi dịch văn bản kĩ thuật từ tiếng Anh sang tiếng Việt.
Ngoài ra, nghiên cứu còn liệt kê ra các phương pháp và tìm ra phương pháp được sinh
viên sử dụng nhiều nhất để giải quyết các khó khăn trên trong khi dịch văn bản kĩ
thuật. Bài thực hành dịch hướng dẫn sử dụng máy hút bụi và bảng câu hỏi được phát
ra cho 50 sinh viên năm cuối chuyên ngành Biên-Phiên Dịch tiếng Anh trực thuộc
khoa Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn, trường Đại học Cần Thơ. Kết quả nghên cứu cho
thấy đa số sinh viên đều gặp khó khăn trong việc dịch thuật ngữ trong văn bản kĩ
thuật. Kết quả cũng cho thấy rằng đa số sinh viên thích sử dụng Internet để giải quyết
các khó khăn trong việc dịch văn bản kĩ thuật.
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ABSTRACT
This study aims to investigate the difficulties facing English translation and
interpreting majored students in translating technical documents from English into
Vietnamese. Furthermore, this study also lists the methods and identifies the method
which is used by most of students to solve the difficulties in translating technical
documents. A translation text of vacuum cleaner manual and a questionnaire were
delivered for fifty senior students majoring in English translation and interpreting who
belong to the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Can Tho University. The
findings indicated that the majority of students have difficulty in translating
terminology in technical documents. The findings also showed that the majority of
students prefer the Internet to solve the difficulties in translating technical documents.
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents (1) the rationale of the current study, (2) research objectives, (3)
significance of research, and (4) thesis organization.
1.1. Rationale
Translation is a science which has occurred for a long time and bilingual inscriptions
are first found in the area of Elephantine (Newmark, 1988). Moreover, translation is
related to the human development and Baakes (1994) states that the relationship
between translation and history of the world was much closed; now translation is very
important in communication as a language bridge in the world.
Therefore, studying about translation is a significant and essential task of each
generation. As Roger (1991) says that translation is considered as an art or a science
has been argued. And training translators is also important. In Becoming a Translator
(2003), Douglas Robinson defines that the study of translation and the training of
professional translators are related to both intercultural relations and scientific and
technological knowledge.
Translating different texts requires different principles. Translators have to understand
and satisfy the requirements of each kind of text. Newmark (1981) states that while
literature translation is an art, technical translation is a science. So, to translate
technical documents well, translators need to not only understand terms and topics but
also have technical thinking and understand logical categories. However, according to
Newmark (1998), the quality of translated texts today is not good and so badly written,
the technical translation topic and vocabulary are various, so it is difficult for
translators to make helpful generalization about it. Schleiermacher (cited in Thuy
2012) claims that a technical translated text is “mechanical, boring and nonacademic.” Some translated texts do not meet the high demand of technical
documents. Based on that fact, many universities have applied technical translation
skills specialized in English materials, especially materials for English majored
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students. That English undergraduates practice translating technical documents at
university is very necessary because of two following reasons:
(1) It will help students to have an overview and understanding of technical documents
so they can proactively avoid basic mistakes
(2) Students can detect their difficulties, so they can find suitable solutions.
English translation and interpreting majored students at Can Tho University have
studied basic subjects such as Translation Theory (XH456), Introduction to
Translation (XH551)... and specific subjects like Translation 1, 2, 3 (XH552, XH553,
XH554), when studying these subjects they also have opportunities to practice
translating technical documents. So student all know about technical documents.
However, because of the feature of technical documents, students usually feel
confused and make mistakes in translating this kind of material. In addition, I have
just found the research project in Dich Thuat Van Ban Khoa Hoc (Luu 2009);
however, this research only focused on students in chemical, biological and medical
majors.
Therefore, this study focuses mainly on English translation and interpreting majored
students, especially the seniors, who are preparing for graduation and become
translators. To find out the difficulties in translating technical documents of these
students is the primary purpose of this thesis.
1.2. Research objectives
The two main purposes of this study are to find out (1) whether translating technical
documents are problematic to English translation and interpreting majored seniors at
Can Tho University and (2) to present some methods they prefer to use in translating
technical documents.
1.3. Significance of the research
This research results will help students pay more attention to dealing with technical
translation. In particular, they can help students recognize difficulties of translating
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manuals. As a result, they prepare themselves for their knowledge and necessary skills
well before participating in their future job.
1.4. Thesis organization
The thesis is divided into five chapters: (1) Introduction, (2) Literature Review, (3)
Research Methodology, (4) Result, Discussion, and Conclusion, (5) Limitations, and
Recommendations.
In Chapter One, firstly, the background information and reasons for conducting the
thesis is presented. Then, the research objectives and significance are introduced. The
thesis organization is the last part of this chapter.
Chapter Two- Literature Review- provides definition of terms used in the thesis, an
overview of the recent studies and the research questions.
Chapter Three focuses on research methodology, which describes the research
designs, participants, and research procedure. In addition, this chapter also depicts the
instruments and data collection in detail.
Chapter Four reports the findings of the questionnaire responses analyzed by Excel. In
the chapter, a summary of main results of the thesis is provided. Additionally, further
discussion of the results in comparison with the results of previous studies is also
given. The last part of the chapter is conclusion.
Chapter Five includes the Limitations of the study, Recommendations and the
Directions for further research.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews some theories related to translating as well as the difficulties in
translating technical documents. It includes the following sections: (1) an overview of
the technical translation; (2) the translation approach; (3) the knowledge and skills
required to produce a good technical translation; (4) difficulties in translating
technical texts; (5) method in translating technical documents; (6) summary and
indication; (7) research questions.
2.1. An overview of technical translation
2.1.1. Definitions
2.1.1.1. Technical documents
FreeDictionary.com defines technical documents as “… documentation that typically
contributes to the study of human or mechanical factors, procedures, and processes in
the fields of medicine, science, logistics, research, development, test and evaluation,
intelligence, investigations, and armament delivery.” More specifically, the Society for
Technical Communication (2013) regards technical documents as the broad field
including any form of communication that exhibits one or more of the following
characteristics: (1) communicating about technical or specialized topics, such as
computer applications, medical procedures, or environmental regulations; (2)
communicating through technology, such as web pages, help files, or social
media sites; or (3) providing instructions about how to do something, regardless of the
task's technical nature. Nirmaldasan (2005) defines that technical documents are the
art of communicating technical knowledge to a specified audience. The topic may be
as simple as a recipe or as complex as an integral equation. Two of the common
technical documents are business letters and user manuals. The definition by the
Society for Technical Communication is used in this thesis because it is relevant to
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materials used for data collection to find the difficulties in translating technical
documents.
2.1.1.2. Translation
Sankey (1990) asserts translation as the replacement of textual materials in one
language by equivalent texts in another language. He believes that translator’s
capability of the source language (SL) and the target language (TL) skills is one of the
most important factors to produce a good translation. However, this definition just
focuses on the equivalence ignores the communicative element in translation. From
another point of view, Newmark (1988) suggests that translation involves transferring
the message in the SL to the TL. He considers translation as a craft that attempts to
replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message
and/or statement in another language. During the translation process, the translators
have to keep the message of the SL as much as possible. Moreover, Wills (1982, cited
in Thuy, 2012) considers translation as the product of an optimally equivalent of SL
and TL. Therefore, translation is comprehensive with the syntax, semantics, stylistics,
and pragmatics of the original text. In other words, translation is to reproduce meaning
from the SL to the TL while keeping original tone, style, sometimes the form as much
as possible. Translation in this thesis can be understood as the process of transferring
the meaning, message and style from the SL to the TL.
2.1.1.3. Technical translation
Newmark (1988) defines technical translation as the field belongs to specialized
translation; specialized translations have two fields: technical translation and
institutional translation. In this definition, technical translation has features of
specialized translation. Byrne (2006:3) describes technical translation as translation
that “deals with text on subjects based on applied knowledge from the natural
sciences. Byrne does not deny the importance of technical terms, but the term is not
only able to make a written text into a technical level, but also to many other factors.
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In short, technical translation is a type of specialized translation involving
the translation of documents produced by technical writers. Technical translation plays
significant role but difficult to practise because of its typical features and
requirements. Indeed, translating technical documents requires practitioners much
competence and skills.
2.1.2. Types of technical documents
According to Newmark (1988), the division of specialized texts clarifies the kinds of
technical and institutional translation among specialized translation. Specialized
translation is translation in specialized subjects. It is sort of a high quality translation,
used for the most crucial documents - corporate material, product brochures, or user
manuals (Newmark 1988). Newmark claims that technical translation as specialized
translation. More specific, Newmark divides specialized translation into technical and
institutional translation.
Chart 2.1: Division of specialised texts (Newmark 1988: 151)
According to Newmark (1988), specialised translation, or specialised texts, could be
divided into two categories. The first is technical documents. These are "non-cultural
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and therefore 'universal'." They apply terms which are common to all languages and
are not fixed to one specific culture. They are specialised terms, usually of Latin
origin, which are used in a subject field and are usually known internationally. The
second category is that of institutional translation which covers the area of politics,
commerce, finance, government, law and so on. Institutional translation is cultural the terms are more or less transferred. This is due to the fact that the terms refer to a
specific cultural or historical phenomenon which is typical for a certain society or
culture. The focus of this thesis is on technical translation.
According to Newmark (1988), types of documents can vary depending on the subject,
the nature of the product and the industry within which the company operated. In the
book “Technical Translation”, Byrne (2006) classifies technical documents into four
categories as follows:
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Procedural documents such as assembly instructions, instructions for
operation.
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Descriptive and explanatory documents such as descriptions of products and
services, explanations of processes, concepts, progress reports.
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Persuasive or evaluative documents such as research proposals or
engineering projects, product or service evaluations as well as reports
recommending actions or policies.
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Investigative documents such as reports which are intended to present new
knowledge.
The first two categories are most closely related to this thesis because they connect
directly to the subject of manual documents. Byrne (2006) also presents some typical
technical documents that are frequently produced by technical writers and translated
by technical translators:
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Proposals: in general, proposals are an offer to perform research or to
supply a product or service (Markel, 2003) and may originate outside a
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company or from within the company. The crucial aspect of proposals is
that they are persuasive documents. To write a proposal, the writer must
know clearly the reader’s need, so that the proposal can meet their promises
(Markel, 2003). Proposals can be quite challenging for writers and
translators because they can frequently involve quite varied and disparate
information such as financial information and legal issues in addition to
highly technical engineering material.
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Reports: a product needs many related aspects: development status,
viability, commercial success, safety, and effectiveness and reports are an
efficient tool to present those aspects. A report consists of a statement
providing facts and information to help readers understand, analyze or take
action on some situation or idea (Markel, 2003). There are three basic types
of reports: informational reports, analytical reports and recommendation
reports. Informational reports present information and results. Analytical
reports supply the same information and drawing conclusions due to the
facts contained in the report. Recommendation reports build on analytical
reports by making various recommendations as to further action.
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Manuals: documents containing instruction, use, parts list, support, and
training requirements for the effective deployment of an equipment,
machine, process, or system (Markel, 2003). Manuals are one of the
mainstays of technical documents. Manual are also the main focus in this
thesis to identify the difficulty in technical translation.
2.1.3. Features of technical documents
According to Baakes (1994: 3) technical documents are characterized by:
“...objectivity, absence of expressiveness and emotion, precision, economy,
conciseness, and formality.” Regarding grammatical features, Newmark (1988) lists
some features such as: passive, nomination, third person, empty verbs, and present
tenses.
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Traditionally, technical documents are defined on the basis of subject-matter,
terminology and a number of typical syntactic features such as nominalization, heavy
pre- and post-modifications, extensive use of passives, use of third person, long and
complex sentences (Byrne, 2006). Terminology is the most important feature of
technical documents. It is also the most difficulty feature to translate and it requires a
wide knowledge in vocabulary.
2.2. Translation approaches
Newmark (1988) classifies the approaches to a translation into semantic and
communicative ones. Semantic translation is faithful to the author’s idea and the
context of the SL text. If there are symbols and expressive elements that are
completely inaccessible, translators will make them possibly comprehensive in
translation procedures. In contrast, in communicative translations, only some parts of
meaning in the original text correspond to the readers’ understanding and identical
messages are translated. Translators can modify, correct, and reproduce the
translations without referring to the original texts. However, there are two main
problems in communicative translations. The first problem is that translators have to
simplify and emphasize the basic messages. The other obstacle is that they have to
determine the most common elements of intelligence, knowledge, and sensitivity of
the total readership. Generally, a communicative translation is considered as readeroriented while semantic one is regarded as author-oriented.
According to Munday (2001), there are three approaches to a translation: metaphrase,
paraphrase, and imitation. Metaphrase is word-for-word translation that is similar to
literal translation. Paraphrase is freer translation that keeps the author’s ideas but does
not strictly follow his words. Imitation is very a type of free translation that ignores
both the words and the sense of the original texts. In this kind of translation,
translators use the SL texts as “a pattern to write as translators’ purpose that the author
would have done if he had lived in our age and in our country” (p.19). Metaphrase and
imitation are not highly appreciated because metaphrase leads to the loss of the sense
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of the original text while imitation has some problems of whether the authors and
translators have experienced the same attitudes. It is advisable recommended that
translators should avoid metaphrase and imitation in translation, especially technical
translations. The concept of translation in this thesis can serve as a theoretical
foundation to approach technical translations
Whether a text is technical, institutional or literary, a translator has to orient what it is
about, what it is in aid of and what the writer's peculiar slant on it is. There are two
primary approaches to translation: (1) translating a piece of a text sentence by sentence
to feel the tone of the text, reading the rest of the source text and then starting
translating, (2) reading the whole text several times, finding the authors’ intention,
register, tone, then marking the difficult words and passages of the text and starting
translating (Newmark, 1988).
2.3. Knowledge and skills requirements for translator to produce a good
technical translation
Many researches have demonstrated that technical communicators do, in fact, create
new meanings as opposed to simply repackaging old information. This emphasizes the
important role that technical translators play in making generating new meanings,
whether they are doing technical translation in one language or in multiple languages
(Newmark, 1981).
Much like professionals in the field of technical communication, the technical
translators must have a cross-curricular and multifaceted background. In addition to
grasping theoretical and linguistic orientations for the actual translation process, an
understanding of other subjects, such as cognitive psychology, usability engineering,
and technical communication is necessary for a successful technical translator (Byrne,
2006). Moreover, most technical translators work within a specialized field such as
medical or legal technical translations, which highlights the importance of an
interdisciplinary background. Finally, the technical translators should also become
familiar with the field of professional translation through training (Weiss, 1995).
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2.4. Difficulties in translating technical texts
A translation always challenges translators. It also emerges in words, phrases,
sentences. The problems in translating technical documents are traced to terminology,
combined words, no subject sentences s, negative structure and passive voice.
Terminology is considered as the most common challenge facing translators. The
comment of Newmark (1988) considers that technical translation is primarily
distinguished from other forms of translation by terminology. In this comment,
Newmark admits that terminology is the most difficult in translating technical
documents. Technical terminology has its own specific feature which translators must
pay attention to. Newmark (1988) claims that new term in source language only
appear once and cause trouble to translators. The obstacles are obvious when technical
terminology are polysemy our or have various senses. Nguyen (2009) states that
terminology is generally considered the main challenge of the technical translator. The
principal requirement of specialised translation is that the translator should have some
knowledge of the subject fields which the source text comes from. The translator
should be acquainted with the subject both within the source language as well as
within the target language.
Other less common problems are discussed by Nguyen (2009) on passive voice. In
passive sentences, the focus of the sentence is the ‘receiving’ object of an action and it
comes at the start of the sentence; therefore, the object and the subject change
positions in the sentence. Passive voice makes some troubles for translators in
translating literally an English passive sentence by a Vietnamese passive sentence
because the translated sentence doesn’t sound natural in Vietnamese. The problems in
combined words are discussed by Newmark (1988). The problem of no subject
sentences s and negative structure in translating technical documents are listed by
Nguyen (2009) and Newmark (1988).
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2.5. Method in translating technical documents
To deal with translating technical texts, Byme (2006) recommends five methods. First,
translators should notice the length of the text. They must consider whether to add or
shorten the documents and employ language service provider (LSP) for editing
translated texts. Second, a localization-proof content is required. Keeping the texts
concise and clarified are also necessary. Third, automate as much as possible using
computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools. This device is useful in case the same rules
of terminology management occur. Fourth, the documents should be well-prepared
and organized. The file structure needs to be cleared and easily navigated. Irrelevant
content should be omitted. Last but not least, a sample of technical translation has
better be prepared.
According to Newmark (1988), when translating technical documents, the translators
can apply use two methods: (1) translate sentence by sentence the main idea of the
texts to feel the tone, and then read the rest of the text and translate all the remained
parts, and (2) read the whole text several times, find the intention, register and tone of
the text and start translating. In this point, the second method is better than the first,
one because it helps the translators go through the document and translate with the
tone of the document.
In translating terminology, Newmark (1988) shows some methods to find the meaning
of terminology. First of all, some terminology has meanings in English-Vietnamese
dictionary. Therefore, the translators can look it up in the English-Vietnamese
dictionary to find the meaning. Secondly, if the terminology is not defined in bilingual
dictionary, the translators can find its meanings in monolingual dictionary. In EnglishEnglish dictionary, the translators can discover the meaning in English, and then infer
the suitable meaning in Vietnamese. Thirdly, the translators can analyze the root to
identify infer the meaning of terminology. Fourthly, the translators can use their
background knowledge and the context to infer the terminology meaning. Next, the
Internet is an effective tool to search the terminology meanings. The translators should
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use the Internet to find the information about the terms and the related definition.
Finally, the information in a similar text is a document reference. It is a source for
translators to find the meaning of terminology. In practice translation, students should
apply these methods to translate the terminology.
Lu (2009) states that student must face with combined words in technical translation
and suggests some methods to solve this difficulty. First, students can translate each
meaning of each word, and then combine them with new Vietnamese meaning.
Second, students can find out the suitable meaning basing on each word’s meaning.
Third, some combined words have their own meaning in dictionary; students can look
them up in dictionary. Fourth, it is similar to translating terminology; students can
search in the Internet to find out the most suitable meaning for combined words.
Finally, students can ask teachers or friends, maybe they know the combined word’s
meanings.
To translate no subject sentences s, students can apply three methods: adding suitable
words or subject, keeping the original text and finding out the best way to translate it
into Vietnamese based on the context.
2.6. Summary and indication
As mentioned above, translation is not an easy task; it is a complex process which
requires translator’s not only linguistic but also special knowledge. Technical
translations belong to specialized translation (Newmark 1988). Therefore, technical
translation has features of special translation. Technical translation has many types,
the types of documents can vary depending on the subject, the nature of product and
the industry within which the company operated (Newmark 1988). Some special types
are proposal, report and manual…
Technical documents have many features: grammatical feature, syntactic feature.
Terminology is special feature which distinguished technical document with other
document.
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