Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• Retain the original paragraph divisions • Some SL words may have no TL equivalents
+ unless there are very strong reasons to change + differences in geography / culture
– not just because you ‘feel like it’ + new technology
• Retain any sub-paragraphs / dot-points + borrowing from SL to fill gaps in TL vocabulary
+ also retain any identifying numbers / letters • These may require transferring the SL word into the TL
+ ie, the SL word is not translated
+ but a translator’s note may be required
+ requirements when SL & TL use different scripts
– may require transliteration
1
Names of People, Places etc (1) Names of People, Places etc (2)
• Particular cases of ‘transference’ are names of: • Translation of position names depends on type of
+ people (eg, Quentin Bryce) document:
+ positions (eg, Student Welfare Coordinator) + in other cases, translate using suitable equivalents
• Some SL documents may use: • Punctuation in translated text should reflect the original
+ abbreviations, eg Kodam = Komando Daerah Militer + but should be ‘converted’ to reflect normal TL usage
= Military Area Command + eg, English use of comma [,] for thousands / millions
+ acronyms, eg NAATI = National Accreditation Auth- + many languages use full stop [.] for this purpose
ority for Translators & Interpreters
• Quotation marks in SL should be reflected in TL
• These may also be handled by transferring the SL word
+ eg, to indicate quoting of exact words / unusual
+ but a translator’s note may be particularly useful meaning
+ some TL scripts may not allow separate letters for • Use of round brackets ( ) should also be reflected in TL
acronyms
+ ie, to indicate a parenthesis
– may require full translation
2
Punctuation & Capital Letters (2) Words of Unknown / Uncertain Meaning
‘loss of 1 laptop, 3 [word illegible], 2 watches’ ‘he stated [that he] had once met this man’
+ mistakes in the SL document – in most types of texts, this will not be required
‘pay the sum of $125,000 (one hundred and twenty • Over-use of TNs in NAATI tests may be penalised
thousand dollars) to the other party’
‘moved from Melbourne to Sidney to seek work’