The contribution deals with typical problems in translating specialised texts belonging to Classical Archaeology, an example of a ‘humanistic’ science with a traditionally multilingual and multicultural character. As has been pointed out in previous studies on translation in humanities, difficulties are expected to depend on specific features, such as a marked influence of culture-bound text type conventions and a wide range of possible stylistic choices which allow to use a more personal style than in ‘exact’ sciences. The aim of the research, based on a corpus of Italian translations of German texts, is discussing the possible methodology for investigating about the various factors which may influence the translation process and its result(s), such as the choice of the strategy, the translator’s knowledge about text type conventions in academic writing and about the specific field. Two case studies point out that the application of a target-culture oriented translation technique risks altering the scientific and/or cultural position of the source text. The specific collocation of the source text in the scientific communication process sometimes calls for a visible contextualisation even in translation.
Übersetzen in den Geisteswissenschaften (Deutsch/Italienisch): Fachtexte der Klassischen Archäologie
HEMPEL, Karl Gerhard
2010-01-01
Abstract
The contribution deals with typical problems in translating specialised texts belonging to Classical Archaeology, an example of a ‘humanistic’ science with a traditionally multilingual and multicultural character. As has been pointed out in previous studies on translation in humanities, difficulties are expected to depend on specific features, such as a marked influence of culture-bound text type conventions and a wide range of possible stylistic choices which allow to use a more personal style than in ‘exact’ sciences. The aim of the research, based on a corpus of Italian translations of German texts, is discussing the possible methodology for investigating about the various factors which may influence the translation process and its result(s), such as the choice of the strategy, the translator’s knowledge about text type conventions in academic writing and about the specific field. Two case studies point out that the application of a target-culture oriented translation technique risks altering the scientific and/or cultural position of the source text. The specific collocation of the source text in the scientific communication process sometimes calls for a visible contextualisation even in translation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
