Theoretical and methodological differences in the translation of social science and natural science texts and the requirements of translating legal texts

Abstract

Literature on translation science generally does not deal separately with the theoretical problems of social science and natural science transtations. All translations that cannot be ranged among the literary ones, are regarded as translations of special literature. There are, nevertheless differences within the field of special translations as regards the theory and methodology of social science and natural science translations. Author regards political science and law, economics, sociology and philosophy as social sciences, leaving humanities aside. The differences arise partly in the formulation, i. e. the terms used, and partly because of the varying semantic content. The semantic differences may be caused by spatial reasons (political-economic and socio-cultural differences in simultaneously existing communities) and by temporal reasons (the linguistic source originates from a historical age preceding the time of translating). The specific problems of social science translations are illustrated by the example of legal translations. While scientific and technical translators may count upon the constancy and identity of the communication collective, the same stability cannot be stated in respect of social science translations. While the main difficulties of a technical translator are of terminological nature, in the field of social sciences the linguistic communication may meet semantic difficulties, lacking the conceptual understanding of the communication partners. For the translator of social science literature a thorough knowledge of the political-economic and socio-cultural background of both the source and the target languages is indispensable. Research in special languages and translation theory has to pay detailed attention to the problems of special languages and to the translation of social science literature. These aspects have to be taken into consideration in the training of translators and interpreters as well.