Translating Scientific and Technical texts into Spanish (I)

Prof. Sergio Font Milián, PhD.

Today’s contents

A brief comparison between English and Spanish morphology, syntax and word-forming processes

English and Spanish compared

• English has an analytical tendency: a majority of monosyllabic roots, few affixes, reliance on sentence structure for the full expression of meaning.

• Spanish is a synthetic language. The individual word, as a rule, contains other concepts besides those expressed by the root, e.g. word class, gender, number, person.

Examples:

• Give it to me. Dámelo.• I will never forget it. Nunca lo olvidaré.• Dr. Smith will take care of that topic. El Dr. Smith / La Dra. Smith se ocupará

de ese tema.

Marcadores de tiempo, número y persona• Descubrió una nueva vacuna.– He/she discovered a new vaccine.

• Descubrieron una nueva vacuna.– They discovered a new vaccine.

• Descubrí una nueva vacuna.– I discovered a new vaccine.

• Descubrimos una nueva vacuna.– We discovered a new vaccine.

• Descubriste una nueva vacuna.– You discovered a new vaccine.

Reliance on sentence structure for the full expression of meaning

1. None of the researchers managed to find anything important. (nada / algo)

2. The researchers found nothing important. (nada)

3. Did they find anything important? (algo)4. Anything can be important. (cualquier cosa)5. We did not find anything important. (nada)

Word formation

• Spanish makes use of two main word-forming processes: derivation and compounding.

• English makes use of three main word-forming processes: derivation, compounding and conversion.

Examples of derivation in English:

constitution / revolution / evolutioncareless / jobless / homeless

happiness / sadness / madness technology / biology / lexicology beautiful / faithful / grateful naturally / basically / really unfriendly / unpleasant / unusual

Motivated compound words

fingerprint huellas digitalesbookcase librerosunburn quemadura de soldoorbell timbre textbook libro de textowastebasket cesto de basurawaterbed cama de agua

Some idiomatic compound words

shortcomings defectos

aftermath consecuenciassecuelas

doublecross traicionartraición

outbreak brote (de enfermedad)ola (de violencia)

Conversion in English

book (n) – book (v)stone (n) - stone (v)milk (n) – milk (v)change (n) – change (v)

number (n) – number (v) increase (n) – increase (v)

Conversion• The number of natural disasters has increased

dramatically in the last few years.

• The king’s days were numbered.

• An increase in foreign investment has caused important changes in the country.

• The world has changed a lot since then.

English and Spanish syntax

English noun phrases generally follow a modifier(s)-noun pattern, while Spanish noun phrases are generally characterized by a noun-modifier(s) structure.

– a scientific discovery–un descubrimiento científico

• Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer.

• Charles Babbage fue el primero que conceptualizó y diseñó una computadora mecánica completamente programable.

During the first half of the 20th century, many unsolved problems were solved by increasingly sophisticated

analog computers.

En la primera mitad del siglo XX muchos problemas no resueltos

fueron solucionados por computadoras analógicas cada vez más sofisticadas.

Nouns can be used as noun modifiers in English.

In June 2009, the World Health Organization declared the new strain of swine-origin H1N1 as a pandemic.

En junio del 2009, la Organización Mundial de la Salud declaró la nueva cepa de H1N1 de origen porcino como pandemia.

A grammatical structure that causes problems to Spanish speakers

The airline needed its spare part suppliers to meet their delivery commitments in due time.

La aerolínea necesitaba que sus suministradores de piezas de repuesto cumplieran sus compromisos de entrega en el tiempo acordado.

First tips to translating a text

1. Translate IDEAS, not words.2. Do not change, add or omit

ideas.3. Write the new text as if it was

originally written in the target language.

HomeworkTranslate into Spanish

1. The information stored in the file may be related with anything.

2. Supercomputers in particular often have highly sophisticated architectures that differ significantly from the

basic stored-program architecture.

3. Metals occupy the bulk of the Periodic Table, while non-metallic elements can only be found on the right-hand-side of the Periodic Table of Elements.

4. Foreign language teachers should encourage their students to read in the language they are learning.