TERMINOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION OF FRENCH TECHNICAL TEXTS INTO HINDI
RAMESHWAR DAYAL
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In this contemporary age of informatics & techno-scientific progress, policies of liberalization & globalization of economies throughout the world, have made it imperative to acquire, simultaneously, not only the knowledge but also the know-how about such techno-scientific developments taking place in the world. In a multi-linguistic world, acquisition of technological know-how & its subsequent development is possible only through translation, which plays the role of a bridge between two distinct linguistic systems.
In the context of our country, assimilation and adaptation of technological know-how to suit our local requirements has made it compulsory for us to acquire technological know-how not only from English speaking world but also from non-English speaking world- especially French speaking world, in the context of our study.
Should a direct contact between two linguistic systems exist, communication through translations is smooth and fast. On the contrary, dependence upon a third language as intermediate for communication results not only in double expenditure & loss of time, but at times, loss of contents.
At present, no direct linguistic contact between French and Hindi exists and as such, all communications & interactions of India
In this present research, we have dealt with the purely technical texts, such as:
· Technical specifications and norms;
· Technical notices (documents on manufacturing process);
· Technical handbooks.
Technical texts dealt with by us in our research are mainly from the fields of:
· Civil engineering, including survey and construction of railway lines, Waterways, airports, roads and bridges, etc.
· Mechanical Engineering including mechanical science, Specifications of machinery, plants and tools;
· Electrical engineering, Electronics, Signalling & Telecom.
The present research is first of its kind in the field of translation of French technical texts into Hindi for two reasons:
· Language pairs selected for study (French and Hindi) and terminological problems inherent to them;
· It seeks to project theoretical reflections drawn upon practical experience.
The present research is a unique attempt to explore the possibilities to deal with the problems of translation of purely technical texts from French to Hindi, at a conjuncture when even the field of technical translation between French and English is not fully explored and only a few works such as the <Traduction technique> of Jean Maillot, and <La traduction technique- principes et pratique> of Claude Bedard and <Scientific and technical translation> of Isadore Pinchuck are available, in contrast with a wide range of research works available in the field of literary translation between French and English.
The present research is also a solitary attempt of a professional technical translator as most of technical translation professionals do not come forward to theorize & disseminate their respective experiences through research works but on the contrary prefer to keep their expertise with them only.
Translation of technical texts differs from translation of literary texts due to technical texts’ objective, neutral, impersonal, & cognitive style in which they are drafted as also their content. Besides the requirements of prior knowledge of the subject and translator’s capacity to understand or assimilate concepts, notions and principles of the field in question, technical translation requires a thorough knowledge of the language of the text and the terminology used in the source text as well as that to be used in the target text.
As the terminology plays a major role in the scientific and technical texts, it is imperative for a translator to know not only the terms used in the texts but also the criteria of their creation in both languages- Source Language and Target Language.
In our research, by examining steps proposed by well known theoreticians such as Kocourek, Bedard, Jean Maillot, Pinchuck, etc., we have concentrated on translator’s practical approach to terminology rather than purely academic approach of terminologists, such as Dubuc, Kocourek, etc..
To present our point of view in a global manner, we felt it necessary to propose, in the first chapter, a theory of technical translation process consisting of five steps:
· Reading of the source text;
· Simultaneous comprehension of the source text;
· Analysis of inherent traits & structures of the source text;
· Reproduction of an equivalent target text; and
· Auto-regulation of target text to meet qualitative requirement of the target language.
We have elaborated in detail on these steps of translation, in a pragmatic manner, in order to explain:
· How the reading of a given text proceeds, with the help of receptors like eyes- a medium through which human brain perceives transmitted data;
· How human brain processes data received through eyes, etc;
· How human brain anticipates, analyses, compares & comprehends data in order to store it at three levels -short memory, medium memory and long memory;
· How the comprehension of data assists in reformulation of text in the target language;
· How the target text can be made to appear as an original text drafted in the target language, after remedying eventual lapses in text reformulation.
In the second chapter, we have made attempts to clarify as to what we intend by expression <<technical text>> in the context of our research and as to what we deem the characteristics of such a technical text. We found that technical texts contain several extra-linguistic features besides normal linguistic signs. In fact, technical texts differ with normal general texts due to their graphical features and symbols, which are so closely knitted with general features that they represent an amalgamation of various features in the technical text and sometimes it becomes very difficult to make a net distinction between a normal text and a technical text. In a purely technical text meant for communication between two specialists of the field of engineering, we find special characteristics such as Greek alphabets, alphanumerical, Non-alphanumerical symbols, abbreviations, acronyms, eponyms, which are intertwined in such a manner that a technical text appears prima facie a very distinct one.
In the third chapter, we have discussed the characteristics of technical terms and various criteria of their creation in French as well as in Hindi. A succinct analysis of several criteria of creation of terms in French and Hindi enabled us to deduce that despite linguistic differences between French and Hindi, both languages share a common identical platform in so far as criteria for creation of neonymes (new terms) is concerned.
The common criteria for creation of neonymes in both languages are (a) affixation (adhivridhi) (upasarga / pratayaya); (b) confixation; (c) composition (samaas vidhi); (d) parasynthetisation; (e) eponymy; (f) change of grammatical category (vyaakaran saadrasya vidhi) (g) borrowed words (videshi), etc. It is the criteria of <lexicalisation>/ <syntagmatic formation>- a most predominant criteria of creation of technical terms in French, which was found absent in Hindi. The main reason for its absence in Hindi may be the difference of syntactic structures and position of words in both languages: in French, modificator or extension follows main word whereas in Hindi, modificator or extensions are used before main words.
We have also discussed in brief various approaches underlining the creation of terms in Hindi: (a) terms coined as per Sanskrit radicals; (b) terms coined as per nature of Arabic and Urdu; (c) terms of English adapted in Hindi in their transliterated form, besides succinctly examining as to how the official policy of the Government of India laying down the principles for creation of terms came into effect through a centristic approach by accommodating and assimilating many features of various approaches.
In the fourth chapter, we have succinctly examined certain specificities of technical texts especially signs and symbols and their use in technical texts. We have categorized these symbols from practical point of view of translation as to when they are to be used in the same form following the official policy of the Government and as to when it is incumbent upon translator to translate them in <full words>>, especially when it is not possible to use their equivalent symbols in the target language.
We have also examined in this chapter as to how translation of units of measurements requires technical translator’s expertise of language and his expertise of subject matter, esp. in the cases where, use of an equivalent term in the target text does not enable user specialist to comprehend target text despite the translation being perfect from the point of view of language. Should the translator convert the unity of measurement, it’s easily comprehensible for such specialist.
In the fifth chapter, we have examined in detail two broad situations faced by technical translators namely (i) multitude of equivalents & (ii) absence of equivalents and also as to how a practitioner of technical translation solves his problems in such situations.
In case of multitude of terms, we found that a translator is confronted with three distinct situations: -
· He finds a single term in target language as an equivalent of either monovalent or polyvalent term of source language;
· He finds many terms in target language as an equivalent of a single term of source language;
· He finds that source texts employ a term with a figurative sense- metaphors and metonymies.
While examining problem of absence of equivalents in target language, we gathered the impression that this notion of absence of equivalent is mainly caused by non-availability of dictionaries and this problem is bi-dimensional: there is no French-Hindi or Hindi-French bilingual technical dictionary in the world; secondly, insertion of a term in a dictionary is time consuming and is only possible when a term is widely used & accepted by the society. As such, the problem of absence of terminology becomes superficial, borne out of translator’s dilemma for not finding readily an equivalent in his dictionaries.
While pondering over a solution to the problem of absence of equivalents in Hindi, we noticed that a competent technical translator, conversant with his subject, can overcome this situation by applying the principles laid down by Standing Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology, Government of India, namely:
· By adopting international terms in their current English forms in devanagari script, and in conformity with grammatical rules of Hindi;
· By continuing the use of words borrowed from English, French, etc.;
· By using indigenous words in use in Indian languages;
· By adopting terms of hybrid nature in devanagari;
· By coining new Hindi terms conforming to its grammatical rules.
To conclude, we can say that a lot is required to be done in the field of French-Hindi translation and it should be our endeavour to ensure that the direct communication between the two languages is possible before Hindi becomes a language of the United Nations.
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