Translation of Technical Terms: A Case of Science Textbook for Grade VIII

Abstract

The present study entitled "Translation of Technical Terms: A Case of Science Textbook for Grade VIII" attempts to present description and interpretation of English and Nepali Scientific terms from the point of view of their morphological structures. It also aims to find out the techniques and linguistic problems of translating technical terms of science from English to Nepali. In order to accomplish the objectives, the researcher collected two hundred forty six English scientific terms and their Nepali translation from the textbook of science of Grade VIII published by CDC and JEMC. This study found out that terms of both English and Nepali are profusely used as a source of technical terms in the field in science. Similarly, monomorphemic words are found in English version but the words which are monomorphemic in English are not necessarily monomorphemic in Nepali and vice- versa. Six techniques are used to translate the technical terms of science from English to Nepali which are literal translation, loan creation, loan shift, hybrid formation, borrowing and paraphrasing. While analyzing English and Nepali scientific terms four kinds of linguistic problems were found to translate the technical terms of science viz lack of conceptual accuracy, translingual lexical ambiguity, lack of lexicalization of scientific concepts: lexical gap and lack of preference for already existing TL terms. This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one introduces the study in terms of general background review of the related literature objectives and significance of the study. Chapter two deals with the methodology adopted for the study under which the sources of data process of data collection and limitations of the study are presented. Chapter three focuses on analysis and interpretation of the data. Mainly descriptive and analytical approaches have been used for the purpose. The final chapter presents the findings and recommendations. Findings are derived from the analysis and interpretation of data carried out in chapter three and recommendations for pedagogical implications are made on the basic of the findings. The references and appendixes are the concluding parts of the study.