To get along,
you have to understand each other.
In the translation industry - as in any other specialisation - there are many different terms in use. Some are borrowed from colloquial speech, others are more related to the translation profession and serve to clarify tasks.
In order to understand translators, it is useful to familiarise yourself with definitions related to the specifics of their work. Familiarising yourself with a dozen or so of the most important terms will make cooperation easier and allow you to plan the tasks facing the translator and the client.
DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS RELEVANT TO THE TRANSLATION INDUSTRY
1 Types of translation.
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translation - the written transformation of a source text into the target language.
2 Directions of translation. Translation is divided into:
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translation from a foreign language into Polish;
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translations from Polish into a foreign language;
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translation from a foreign language into another foreign language.
3 Language groups
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first language group: English, French, German, Russian;
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second language group: other European languages and Latin;
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third language group: non-European languages using the Latin alphabet;
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fourth language group: non-European languages using a non-Latin alphabet or ideograms
4 Types of translation
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general translations - translations of texts that do not go beyond the level of general secondary education in terms of terminology;
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specialised translations - translations of texts containing specialist terminology in the field of secondary education in a given specialisation and texts of a general legal nature;
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specialised translations with a particular degree of difficulty - translations of texts containing university-level terminology in a given specialisation, as well as texts from rare fields of culture, science and technology and texts with a high content of dialect elements, dialect, environmental jargon, abbreviations, especially local ones, as well as translations of advertisements, slogans, announcements. Such translations require the use of professional literature, documentation, consultation and expertise.
5 General concepts
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Source language - the language in which the source text is written, intended to be translated into another language.
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Source text - the text to be translated.
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Target language - the language in which the text is written after translation.
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Target text - the text that is the result of the translation.
Proofreading - correcting or elaborating the source or target test in terms of factual, grammatical or stylistic correctness without changing the language of the text. The overall quality of the source or target text, grammatical correctness, completeness and layout is checked. Any minor errors or typos are removed.
Professional proofreading/verification - the use of domain-specific terms and the consistency of the concepts used are checked using the glossary provided or created, reference materials or by other means agreed in advance.
Stylistic correction - stylistics are corrected (e.g. word order in sentences or whole sentences, comprehensibility and readability for the given purpose of use, for the target country and the target reader).
Proofreading before printing - typographical errors (after DTP, after conversion to HTML, etc.) are removed, e.g. incorrect word splitting at the end of a line, offsetting of figures or texts, incomplete texts, missing diacritical marks.
Editing - checks are made to ensure that the correct corrections have been ordered by the client for the given purpose of using the text, that these corrections have been made and that comments have been taken into account. A general check of the completeness of texts and graphics and a random check of the quality of the translation is carried out.
Graphic design/DTP services - bringing texts, graphics and drawings into the required graphic form in a suitable graphic editor.
Page of a regular translation - includes 1500 characters with spaces.
Page of a certified translation - includes 1125 characters with spaces of the target text.
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