Scientific and Technical Translation on the Revisited Maps of Translation and Translation Studies

Abstract

Historically, scientific knowledge has proven to be a mobile form of culture. Translation is what has rendered this knowledge mobile. Scott L. Montgomery, ‘Scientific translation’ This paper looks into the core of scientific and technical translation, with regard to the nature of science and technology texts. The article revises the research opinions on the development of similar and different features of these translation types and highlights the importance of their differentiation, notwithstanding that it is generally convenient to group science and technology together. The research attempts to prove that though scientific translation and technical translation are closely connected domains, they are not identical and the terms ‘scientific’ and ‘technical’ are not interchangeable. Of particular research interest is the studying of scientific translation and technical translation as separate fields within the translation science. The article analyses the existing bibliography maps of translation and Translation Studies, to find out that scientific translation and technical translation have quite recently found their place as distinct fields on the map of translation. However, on the map of Translation Studies, these translation types are not yet present. The assumption for this investigation was that theories of scientific and technical translation, among others, are highly likely to be established within specialized translation and they need a comprehensive methodological research. There is much prospect for these theories to be developed, provided that major recent theoretical works in the field are systematised.