Sources of difficulties and selection of strategies in translation of socio-political terms

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the most common difficulties faced by students in translating socio-political terminological units from English and Ukrainian and the strategies they choose to overcome these difficulties. To achieve this goal, two lists of terminological units had been compiled in English and Ukrainian. The total number of units per a testee was one hundred and fifteen words and word combinations in each language. The testees were third and fourth year students of the School of Foreign Languages at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, who had mastered specialized courses in the socio-political field of translation during several semesters, and therefore had gained some experience in translating the relevant terminology. They were asked to translate the above mentioned terms within seventy minutes. Then their translations were analyzed: the types of difficulties that caused errors were identified and systematized. The analysis of erroneous answers showed that most errors were caused by: unjustified word-for-word translation, which was caused by faulty selection of a translation equivalent; interlingual and intralinguistic interference; semantic modification; structural complexity; low frequency of the terminological unit and lack of subject knowledge. The sources of difficulties that students have in translating socio-political terminology, and the strategies they choose to overcome them, are generally the same as in other fields of translation. These sources and strategies should be considered in designing training courses for future translators.