Keywords
legal translation
medical texts
legal language
How to Cite
Abstract
Medical translation has been an area of an increased growth in the demand for translation services. It is considered to cover an extensive variety of genres, starting from hospital discharge reports, epicrises, specialist articles in medical journals, patient information leaflets (PILs) or instructions for use (IFU). It also has entered the area of activity of court translators due to e.g. migration or Poland’s membership in the EU and resultant EU-law implementation procedures (i.e., implementation of the Medical Devices Directive 93/42/EEC) and commercialisation of medical devices, thus generating the need to deal with an array of texts from the entire realm of various fields of medicine, and related disciplines (pharmacy, pharmacology, biology, etc.). Court translators are therefore facing difficulties and at the same time challenges, among which most important are the lack of medical knowledge, medical terminology (including acronyms and abbreviations) or medical phraseology in general. This entails the development of a new professional approach towards proceeding with such tasks, and requires constant improvement of skills and knowledge as well as special competencies that might be of help for translators (for this reason the notions of professionalism and translation competence shall be briefly elucidated). The focus of the article is placed on translation of medical texts seen from the point of view of translators and the purpose of translation, and not from the perspective of users, thus the approach is translator-centred.
References
Amabile, Teresa. 1996. Creativity in context. Westview: Boulder, Co.
Askehave, Inger and Karen Korning Zethsen. 2002. “Translating for Laymen”. In Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 10(1), 15-29. London: Routledge.
Beeby, Alison. 2000. Choosing an Empirical-Experimental Model for Investigating Translation Competence: The PACTE Model. In Intercultural Faultlines. Research Models in Translation Studies I. Textual and Cognitive Aspects, ed. Maeve Olohan, 43-55. Manchester: St Jerome.
Bell, Roger. 1991. Translation and Translating. Theory and Practice. London and New York: Longman.
Englund Dimitrova, Birgitta. 2005. Expertise and Explicitation in the Translation Process. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Gouadec, Daniel. 2007. Translation as a profession. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Hansen, Gyde. 1997. Success in Translation. In Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 5(2): 201-210. London: Routledge.
Harris, Brian and Bianca Sherwood. 1978. Translating as an Innate Skill. In Language, Interpretation and Communication, eds. David Gerver and H. Wallace Sinaiko, 155-170. New York & London: Plenum.
Hatim, Brian. and Ian Mason. 1997. The Translator as Communicator, London & New York: Routledge.
Hewson, Lance and Jacky Martín. 1991. Redefining Translation. The variational approach. London: Routledge.
Hoof van, Henri. 1998. The Language of Medicine: A Comparative Ministudy of French and English. In Translation and Medicine, ed. Henry Fischbach, 49-65.Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Jakobsen, Arnt Lykke. 2002. Translation drafting by professional translators and by translation students. In Empirical Translation Studies Process and Product, ed. Gyde Hansen, 191-193. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur.
Kasprowicz, Małgorzata. 2010. Handling Abbreviations and Acronyms in Medical Translation. Translation Journal, vol. 14, No 2. http:// translationjournal.net/journal/52abbreviations.htm.
Kiraly, Don. 1997. Think-Aloud Protocols and the Construction of a Professional Translator Self-Concept. In Cognitive Processes in Translation and Interpreting, eds. Joseph H. Danks et al., 137-160. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage.
Kussmaul, Paul. 1995. Training the Translator. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Lörscher, Wolfgang. 1991. Translation Performance, Translation Process, and Translation Strategies. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
McMorrow, Leon. 1998. Breaking the Greco-Roman Mold in Medical Writing: The Many Languages of 20th Century Medicine. In Translation and Medicine, ed. Henry Fischbach, 13-27. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Neubert, Albrecht. 2000. Competence in Language, in Languages, and in Translation”. In Developing Translation Competence, eds. Christine Schäffner and Beverly Adab, 3-18. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Nord, Christiane. 1991. Textanalyse und Übersetzen. Heidelberg: Julius Groos.
O’Neill, Marla. 1998. Who Makes a Better Medical Translator: The Medically Knowledgeable Linguist or the Linguistically Knowledgeable Medical Professional? A Physician’s Perspective. In Translation and Medicine, ed. Henry Fischbach, 69-80. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
PACTE. 2003. Building a Translation Competence Model. In Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in Process Oriented Research, ed. Fabio Alves, 43-66. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
PACTE. 2009. Results of the Validation of the PACTE Translation Competence Model: Acceptability and Decision Making. In Across Languages and Cultures, 207-230. Vol. 10. No. 2.
Resurreccio, Vicent Montalt and Maria Gonzalez Davies. 2007. Medical Translation Step by Step. Manchester: StJerome.
Risku, Hanne. 1998. Translatorische Kompetenz. Kognitive Grundlagen des Übersetzens als Expertentätigkeit. Tubingen: Stauffenburg Verlag.
Sternberg, Robert. 1999. Cognitive Psychology. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
Tirkkonen-Condit, Sonia. 1992. The Interaction of World Knowledge and Linguistic Knowledge in the Processes of Translation: a think-aloud protocol study. In Translation and Meaning. Part Two, eds. Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Marcel Thelen, 433-440. Maastricht: Euroterm.
Tirkkonen-Condit, Sonia. 1996. What is in the Black Box?. In Übersetzungswissenschaft im Umbruch, eds. Angelika. Lauer et al., 251-257. Tübingen: Günter Narr Verlag.
Toury, Gideon. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
EU directives:
Medical Device Directive (Directive 93/42/EEC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 1993 on medical devices).
In Vitro Diagnostics Directive (Directive 98/79/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 October 1998 on in vitro diagnostic medical devices.
In Vitro Diagnostics Directive (Directive 98/79/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 October 1998 on in vitro diagnostic medical devices.
Active Implantable Device Directive (Directive 90/383/EEC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 1990 on active implantable medical devices).
Human Medicines Directive (Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use).
License
When submitting a paper the author agrees to the following publishing agreement and processing personal data.
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT, COPYRIGHT LICENSE, PERSONAL DATA PROCESSING CONSENT
This is a publication agreement and copyright license (“Agreement”) regarding a written manuscript currently submitted via Pressto platform
(“Article”) to be published in Comparative Legilinguistics International Journal for Legal Communication (“Journal”).
The parties to this Agreement are:
the Author or Authors of the submitted article (individually, or if more than one author, collectively, “Author”) and Comparative Legilinguistics International Journal for Legal Communication (“Publisher”), address al. Niepodległości 4, 61-874 Poznań, represented by its editor in chief Aleksandra Matulewska.
§1. LICENSE OF COPYRIGHT
a) The Author and the Publisher agree that the Author grants a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which is incorporated herein by reference and is further specified at Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 copyright license in the Article to the general public.
b) The Author grants to the Publisher a royalty-free, worldwide nonexclusive license to publish, reproduce, display, distribute, translate and use the Article in any form, either separately or as part of a collective work, including but not limited to a nonexclusive license to publish the Article in an issue of the Journal, copy and distribute individual reprints of the Article, authorize reproduction of the entire Article in another publication, and authorize reproduction and distribution of the Article or an abstract thereof by means of computerized retrieval systems (such as Westlaw, Lexis and SSRN). The Author retains ownership of all rights under copyright in the Article, and all rights not expressly granted in this Agreement.
c) The Author grants to the Publisher the power to assign, sublicense or otherwise transfer any and all licenses expressly granted to the Publisher under this Agreement.
d) Republication. The Author agrees to require that the Publisher be given credit as the original publisher in any republication of the Article authorized by the Author. If the Publisher authorizes any other party to republish the Article under the terms of paragraphs 1c and 1 of this Agreement, the Publisher shall require such party to ensure that the Author is credited as the Author.
§2. EDITING OF THE ARTICLE
a) The Author agrees that the Publisher may edit the Article as suitable for publication in the Journal. To the extent that the Publisher’s edits amount to copyrightable works of authorship, the Publisher hereby assigns all right, title, and interest in such edits to the Author.
§3. WARRANTIES
a) The Author represents and warrants that to the best of the Author’s knowledge the Article does not defame any person, does not invade the privacy of any person, and does not in any other manner infringe upon the rights of any person. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Publisher against all such claims.
b) The Author represents and warrants that the Author has full power and authority to enter into this Agreement and to grant the licenses granted in this Agreement.
c) The Author represents and warrants that the Article furnished to the Publisher has not been published previously. For purposes of this paragraph, making a copy of the Article accessible over the Internet, including, but not limited to, posting the Article to a database accessible over the Internet, does not constitute prior publication so long as the as such copy indicates that the Article is not in final form, such as by designating such copy to be a “draft,” a “working paper,” or “work-in-progress”. The Author agrees to hold harmless the Publisher, its licensees and distributees, from any claim, action, or proceeding alleging facts that constitute a breach of any warranty enumerated in this paragraph.
§4. TERM
a) The agreement was concluded for an unspecified time.
§5. PAYMENT
a) The Author agrees and acknowledges that the Author will receive no payment from the Publisher for use of the Article or the licenses granted in this Agreement.
b) The Publisher agrees and acknowledges that the Publisher will not receive any payment from the Author for publication by the Publisher.
§6. ENTIRE AGREEMENT
a) This Agreement supersedes any and all other agreements, either oral or in writing, between the Author and the Publisher with respect to the subject of this Agreement. This Agreement contains all of the warranties and agreements between the parties with respect to the Article, and each party acknowledges that no representations, inducements, promises, or agreements have been made by or on behalf of any party except those warranties and agreements embodied in this Agreement.
b) In all cases not regulated by this Agreement, legal provisions of Polish Copyright Act and Polish Civil Code shall apply.
c) Any disputes arising from the enforcement of obligations connected with this Agreement shall be resolved by a court competent for the headquarters of the Publisher.
d) Any amendments or additions to the Agreement must be made in writing and signed by authorised representative of both parties, otherwise being ineffective.
e) This Agreement is signed electronically and the submission of the article via the PRESSto platform is considered as the conclusion of the Agreement by the Author and the Publisher.
f) Clause for consent to the processing of personal data - general
g) The Author shall give his or her consent to the processing of their personal data in accordance with the Act of 10 May 2018 on the protection of personal data and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of persons physical in connection with the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46 / EC (General Data Protection Regulation) for the purpose and in connection with making publications available on the PRESSto scientific journals platform and DeGruyter platform, guaranteeing the security of services rendered, and improving them.
I HAVE READ AND AGREE FULLY WITH THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT.
The Author The Publisher