Translation of medical texts: a translation-oriented study of dental terminology

Abstract

Scientific developments, the following technological innovations and the globalizing world further increased the ubiquitous need for translation over the centuries. Due to the newly emerging and constantly evolving fields, terminology is created for each discipline in order to ensure communication between field specialists and it enables them to meet both nationally and internationally on a common ground, at which point translation becomes an inevitable need. Although specialized translation is widespread in the translation industry, it is one of the most difficult fields for translators. For the translation of medical texts in particular, since the terms, terminology and specialist knowledge used within the context of the fields form the key point of translations, the translator must have the translation competence and the relevant specialist knowledge and especially the terminology. For this reason, in addition to the aforementioned skills, the translators who perform medical translations should interact with professionals and be open to innovation, research and learning. The aim of this study is to examine how the terms of dental terminology manifest themselves in the context of the respective subject area and with which translation methods they were introduced into Turkish using concrete examples. In this context, the corpus of study concerns instructions for use for dental products, which include the field of dentistry and are intended for professional use. The terms used in the instructions for use were compared in English, German and Turkish. In the specialized translation, it is emphasized that before starting the specialized translation, translators should have translation skills, expert knowledge and should work with relevant specialists and that translation-oriented terminology studies in the specialist areas are crucial.