Scientific and technical translation has always played a pivotal role in disseminating knowledge. Today, the domain of science and technology is the main area of translation work. Nevertheless, there is still a discrepancy between the growing need for high-quality technical translations and the short supply of competent technical translators to produce them, a situation which may be due in part to the recent neglect of the equivalence concept in the theoretical/descriptive and applied branches of translation studies (TS). This thesis sets out to redefine, reassess, and reinstate equivalence as a useflul concept in TS by adopting an approach based on the English-German language pair and on one specific text genre and type. The investigation of equivalence as a qualitative complete-text-in-context-based concept is embedded in an equivalence-relevant methodology based on two methodological pillars, the first being a theoretically sound translation comparison and the second a highly refined translation corpus. Within this methodological framework, equivalence-relevant features are investigated and described at the syntactic, lexical-semantic, terminological-phraseological and overall textual levels. These levels are hierarchically interrelated in descending and ascending order and may be conditioned by pragmatic aspects, viz., domain knowledge and register considerations. The comparison is made using a high-quality corpus selected on the basis of a threefold set of selection criteria, with a special emphasis on the qualitative criteria. This helps us generate well-underpinned intersubjectifiable regularities in the form of potential equivalents established in the TT for ST equivalence-relevant features and enables us to obtain meaningful generalizations. Both regularities and generalizations should be capable of implementation in the applied branches of TS and, at the same time, help dynamize and intersubjectify the complex concept of equivalence. So, hopefully, this thesis will also contribute toward creating a link between the methodological, theoretical/descriptive and applied branches of TS to their mutual benefit.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:537088 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Krein-Kuhle, M. |
| Publisher | University of Salford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://usir.salford.ac.uk/14846/ |
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