'Translating science': an empirical investigation of grammatical metaphor as a source of difficulty for a group of translation trainees in English-Italian translation
The present work reports on an empirical study aimed at investigating the difficulties emerging in the translation of scientific texts from English into Italian for a group of student translators at an advanced level of training. The study is based on the assumption that scientific discourse presents a set of lexico-grammatical features (a 'syndrome', in M.A.K. Halliday's words) that contribute to making it opaque for non-specialists. This syndrome is largely the result of what Halliday calls 'grammatical metaphor', which is manifested principally as a tendency towards heavy nominalisation. In particular, it was hypothesised that as the density of grammatical metaphor, and the heavy nominalisation this leads to, increases, so does the difficulty experienced by translators, especially as regards text comprehension. The hypothesis is investigated by analysing a range of datasets related to the translation process and the translations produced by a small group of subjects (N=5) for three English source texts, chosen with a view to presenting increasing degrees of nominalisation. Specifically, the analysis looks at the editing performed by the translators on their own drafts, the degree of inter-translator variation
Palumbo, Giuseppe
'Translating science': an empirical investigation of grammatical metaphor as a source of difficulty for a group of translation trainees in English-Italian translation. The present work reports on an empirical study aimed at investigating the difficulties emerging in the translation of scientific texts from English into Italian for a group of student translators at an advanced level of training. The study is based on the assumption that scientific discourse presents a set of lexico-grammatical features (a 'syndrome', in M.A.K. Halliday's words) that contribute to making it opaque for non-specialists. This syndrome is largely the result of what Halliday calls 'grammatical metaphor', which is manifested principally as a tendency towards heavy nominalisation. In particular, it was hypothesised that as the density of grammatical metaphor, and the heavy nominalisation this leads to, increases, so does the difficulty experienced by translators, especially as regards text comprehension. The hypothesis is investigated by analysing a range of datasets related to the translation process and the translations produced by a small group of subjects (N=5) for three English source texts, chosen with a view to presenting increasing degrees of nominalisation. Specifically, the analysis looks at the editing performed by the translators on their own drafts, the degree of inter-translator variation
translating science empirical_investigation grammatical metaphor source difficulty group translation english_italian translation present_work report empirical_study aim_investigate difficulty emerge translation scientific text english_italian group_student translator advance level training study base_assumption scientific_discourse present set lexico_grammatical feature halliday word contribute make opaque non largely halliday call grammatical metaphor manifest principally tendency_towards heavy particular density grammatical metaphor heavy lead_increase difficulty experience translator especially regard text_comprehension hypothesis investigate analyse range datasets related translation_process translation produce small_group subject english source_text choose view present increase degree specifically analysis look edit perform translator draft degree inter translator variation