Intro to MT

1. Scientific and Technical
Translation in English: Week 3
Dr. Ron Martinez

2. General course outline
• Week 1: Introduction to the course; Important concepts in translation
• Week 2: Research article structure, common discourse problems
• Week 3: Hands-on introduction to electronic tools; glossaries
• Week 4: CAT tools; First IMRaD Team translation
• Week 5: Review of team translations
• Week 6: Introduction to midterm
• Week 7: Midterm assessment (in-class)
• Week 8: Midterm review; New teams, new “live” assignments
• Week 9: Assignments continued
• Week 10: Assignments continued
• Week 11: Completion of final translations
• Week 12: Group presentations
• Week 13: Group presentations
• Week 14: Group presentations
• Week 15: Certificates and meet-the-author

3. Aims for today
• Look critically at some key points of grammar;
• Explore “resourcefulness” in the contexto of
electronic tools;
• Introduce the concept of Machine Translation
and the role of the translator in MT STT.

5. Main reasons articles get rejected
Belcher
(2007)
Bordage
(2001)
Sullivan
(2002)
McKercher et
al. (2007)
Wrong journal X ✓ ✓ ✓
Faulty method ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Lack of transparency X ✓ ✓ ✓
Problems with statistics X ✓ ✓ ✓
Poor discussion, overstating
importance of findings
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Improper formatting X ✓ X ✓
Writing difficult to follow ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Inadequate literature review ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Nothing new ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Contribution not clear ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Poor English X X X X

7. Homework 2
• Are you confident enough to suggest changes to
an article? Read the introduction to the
unpublished “Corpus Linguistics” article (online).
Any problems? Make notes on what you would
tell the author; bring the suggestions to class.
• Read the Doherty article on translation
technologies (online). According to the author,
what opportunities and advantages do new
technologies present? Any potential
disadvantages?

8. Where should the translator start?

9. Cohesion!
TITLE
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
Prof. Dr. Ron Martinez
ronmartinez@ufpr.br

15. But what does all this have to do with
translation?
• Cohesion
• Coherence
• Identify the root of misunderstandings
• Alert author(s) and recommend changes
• We are not translating for sake of translation –
but as “literacy brokers” (people who have a
role in the path to publication)

16. An example: (though clearly not
enough...)

17. Homework 1
1. Download “Article Requiring Revision”.
2. Try to identify CARS in the introduction (Section 1).
3. Look at the comments from the Journal Editor (also
online). Specifically, focus on the comments from
“Reviewer 2”. Do you agree?
4. Look at lines 56-72: Can you identify any of the
problems discussed in Belcher (2007), McKercher et
al. (2007), etc.?
5. Look at lines 134 and 139: Which words were
translated “wrong” (i.e. potentially lead to
misunderstanding)?
6. Discuss with a partner.

19. Brazilian research articles:
“The resulting effect, an introduction without
a clear gap statement, might have difficulty
getting accepted in a journal like English for
Specific Purposes, considering the results of
the present study.” (Hirano, 2009, p. 246).

20. Notice the grammar
1. Look at the Hirano (2009) Introduction again.
2. In the first sentence of each new paragraph,
which has Hirano chosen to use: present
simple, past simple, or present perfect?
3. Discuss: Why are such grammar choices
important? What relevance might they have
in translation?

21. Move 1 (“Territory”)

22. Move 1  Move 2 (“Niche”)

23. Move 2  Move 3 (“Occupy the
niche”)

24. Move 2  Move 3 (“Occupy the
niche”)

25. Work in pairs

26. Hirano (2009)
“It is arguable that these authors transferred
the rhetorical organization they would use in
Portuguese to their articles in English. The
resulting effect, an introduction without a
clear gap statement, might have difficulty
getting accepted in a journal like English for
Specific Purposes, considering the results of
the present study.” (Hirano, 2009, p. 246).

29. “Epistemological shift” (17th century)
• Scientific observation of the
world must be dispassionate;
• Logos > Pathos: “Think things,
not words” (Francis Bacon);
• English academic rhetoric
became more “thing”-based
(noun-based).

30. Translate:
1. “Foram analisados cuidadosamente tanto
dados qualitativos quanto quantitativos.”
2. “Foram usados, para esta tarefa, os softwares
SPSS e MaxQDA, respectivamente.”

31. Portuguese “verbal fronting”

32. Move 2  Move 3 (“Occupy the
niche”)

36. You try!
1. Do the translation.
2. Keep track of all the steps you take and tools you use.
3. When finished, compare with a partner. Also compare steps taken.

37. Is Google Translate(and Bing, etc.) a
good thing?

50. Exercise: “Can you tell the difference?”
1. Go to the exercise on our class webpage
(“Which one did Google do?”).
2. When finished, discuss with a classmate.

51. Doherty (2016)

52. Doherty (2016)

53. So what is the role of the translator?

54. So what is the role of the translator?
“Source” text  “Start” text

55. So what is the role of the translator?

56. So what is the role of the translator?

57. HOMEWORK FOR NEXT WEEK
1. Download the Site Translation text (online).
2. If you are assigned number “1”: translate the
text manually (no MT). TIME YOURSELF.
Note the time, bring printed version of
translation to next class.
3. If you are assigned number “2”: Use MT (e.g.
Google Translate) and post-edit the text.
TIME YOURSELF. Note the time, bring
printed version of translation to next class.