Pragmatic aspects of scientific and technical translation

The chapter starts with a brief introduction on the importance of pragmatics in the translation of scientific and technical (sci-tech) texts, which are service texts written in a language for special purposes (LSP) in the context of scientific and technological disciplines and are directed to a more or less restricted target discursive community having very specific practical needs and expectations. The concept of ‘pragmatic equivalence’ is then introduced with specific reference to sci-tech translation as a professional service activity. The chapter then reviews the main pragmatic factors exerting a determining influence at the textual and terminological levels of sci-tech texts, which should also inform translation decisions in order to achieve pragmatic equivalence at these levels. These pragmatic factors are, on the one hand, ‘situationality’ (i.e. external situational and cultural factors), and, on the other, ‘intentionality’ of the source-text author as well as ‘acceptability’ of the target text by its final readers (i.e. internal cognitive factors). The last part of the chapter contains some examples of pragmatic choices made by sci-tech translators illustrating instances of the translation strategies that have been adopted to achieve pragmatic equivalence at different levels of the text.