STRATEGIC APPROACHESTO ACADEMIC PAPER ABSTRACT TRANSLATION

Abstract

Translation of academic paper abstracts has always been the point at issue in academic discourse. Translators are, particularly, faced with the problem to solve: should the translated abstract reflect accurately the original, thus presenting its formal features, or should it be modified, so that the target text becomes adjusted to the linguistic, cognitive and cultural expectations of the target reader. Taking into account that the techniques employed by the translators are predetermined by their strategic approach to academic paper abstract translation, the identification of the prevalent techniques in the target texts makes it possible to point out the most frequently taken translators’ stances. Specifically, the comparative-contrastive and descriptive analyses of the Ukrainian-English micro- and macro-unit pairs undertaken in this study enables us to outline the prevalent strategic approaches to this type of translation. The study shows that the techniques used by the translators involve calques, word-for-word rendering, obligatory and optional transformations, translation shift at the textual level, re-statement, etc. The target texts that exhibit the translators’ preference for a certain type of the techniques are distributed into the classes of literal (31 out of 71 cases), modified literal (37 cases) and free (re-contextualized) translation (3 cases). The findings of the study are commented on and generalized in the conclusions.