9. ŠTUDENTSKÁ VEDECKÁ K ONFERENCIA 608 KATARÍNA ŠAMUDOVSKÁ ON TRANSLATION OF EDUCATION TERMINOLOGY – NAME S OF SLOVAK EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS As the… [604137]

9. ŠTUDENTSKÁ VEDECKÁ K ONFERENCIA
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KATARÍNA ŠAMUDOVSKÁ

ON TRANSLATION OF EDUCATION TERMINOLOGY –
NAME S OF SLOVAK EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

As the world has become more globalised, a need for sharing knowledge and information among
nations has arisen, and consequently contributed to the significance of a translation process as a
means of international dat a exchange. However, translation may sometimes become a cause for co n-
cern, particularly in regard to specialised terms of which rendering becomes a daunting and deman d-
ing task even for a professional translator. When dealing with specialised terms translat ion, the pri n-
cipal aim is represented by an attempt to search for full or at least approximate equivalents which is
virtually not always successful. Such a failure usually arises from cultural diversity and different
views of life among nations what is co nsequently reflected in language structures. This phenomenon
may be observed in various fields of human activities such as politics, religion, sport, transport etc.
One of the areas in which considerable differences in language systems may be noticed is ed ucation,
specifically education systems. A terminological distinctiveness of every education system makes
translation an extremely problematic and complex process that may sometimes result into the ado p-
tion of inaccurate translation solutions. Even though the situation worsens with every inappropriate
translation, no remarkable effort to standardise education terminology may be observed.
Therefore, the thesis attempts to bring the issue of problematic translation in the field of education
into focus, specif ically concentrating on the analysis of the translation of names of Slovak educational
institutions into the English language. More specifically, the existing English equivalents that subst i-
tuted the Slovak terms are closely and thoroughly examined by mean s of the definitions’ comparison
on the basis of which a degree of mutual correspondence between the Slovak and the English term is
established and the accuracy of the equivalents’ usage tested. In the case of the application of partic u-
lar translation proc edures as a means of rendering the Slovak terms, since substitution is considered
impossible, procedures are defined and the correctness of the English translations thoroughly consi d-
ered. In the case of an imprecisely established equivalent or a suggested translation, an alternative
solution is suggested. The analysis comprises of the examination of 35 specialis ed terms representing
the names of Slovak educational institutions and their English translations collected from various
sources, specifically from the documents of the European Union and the dictionaries. As regards the
English translations, the British and the American English and the education systems of both countries
are taken into consideration.

1 Translation of specialised terms
When translati ng a general language text, the main objective is to achieve the reproduction of fo r-
mal structures of the source language into the target language as well as to convey content and style of
a source text. However, when the target of translation is a special ised text, the situation becomes more
difficult. A problematic part of a translation process is caused by the component usually lacking in a
general language text, namely specialised terms that seem to require more careful attention and prep a-
ration on the part of a translator.

1.1 Knowledge of a specialised subject field
At the very beginning of the specialised translation process, it is important to be acquainted with a
specialised subject field of a translated text. It does not include only a basic kno wledge competence of
the field, but also the awareness “of the conceptual organization of the area in both languages” (T ala-
ván Zanón 2011: 15) as well as the familiarity with terminology and its usage in both languages. In
order to achieve a desired result in translation, Cabré (1999) argues that translators themselves should

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choose the subject area in which they are willing to work. Knowledge of the area and its terminology
may be gained by means of parallel texts, specialised dictionaries, glossaries, dat abases etc. However,
when looking for sources of information, their quality should be taken into consideration. Employed
sources should exhibit the characteristics of reliability, accessibility, specificity, originality, thoroug h-
ness and they should be inc orporated in authentic corpora. Apart from written documents, ‘oral h u-
man informant’, i.e. either a native speaker of the target language or specialists in a given field, seems
to represent one of the most relevant sources (Talaván Zanón, 2011). Sometimes, specialised
know ledge acquisition tends to be underestimated and one might think that the proficiency in source
and target languages is sufficient for a translation process. However, in such cases, a final revision is a
necessity leading only to wasted ti me on the part of the expert responsible for revising.

1.2 Conceptual equivalence
After a translator gets acquainted with the subject field of a translated text, it is time to identify
particular specialised terms in a source text and attempt to provide corresponding equivalents in the
target language. When a translator tries to substitute source language specialised terms for target la n-
guage terms, the major principle underlying the process of finding an equivalent is based on conce p-
tual identity, since “only after having certified the correspondence between the concepts of the terms
used in different linguistic systems can one speak about terminological equivalence” (Fuertes -Oliver
and Abbaras -Baño 2008: 72). In order to ascertain a degree of corresponde nce, one is required to u n-
dertake conceptual analysis of definitions of both terms, since it is a definition that “provides the only
reliable instrument for the analysis of equivalence” ( Picht and Draskau 1985: 105, in Feder 1999:
141). However, as regards definitions, a translator has to face an uneasy task, as definitions among
various languages may differ. This phenomenon is caused by many factors, with distinct language
structures resulting from different views of the world being apparently the most rel evant one. Ther e-
fore, the aforementioned knowledge of the subject field in which translation is realized seems consi d-
erably essential.
In the case of the translation of the education terminology in question, finding an appropriate En g-
lish equivalent prove d to be extremely difficult task since a distinct nature of the education systems
and their developed terminology systems seem to profoundly affect means through which the an a-
lysed Slovak terms are rendered, with a result that only a small number of the Sl ovak terms may be
substituted for the English equivalents and the rest of the terms are translated by means of translation
procedures. The performed analysis shows that only 12 terms, from the overall number of 35, were
rendered through the corresponding E nglish equivalents. The remaining number of the Slovak terms
was rendered through various translation procedures.

1.2.1 Degrees of conceptual equivalence
Generally, there proved to be four degrees of equivalence found between terms, with the
full/complet e conceptual equivalence representing the first degree. With regard to this type of equiv a-
lence, the relation between terms is based on total conceptual correspondence. There were only three
cases in which the relation between the Slovak and the English t erms may be considered fully equiv a-
lent, namely fakulta -faculty, pedagogická fakulta -faculty of education and špeciálna škola -special
school. Unfortunately, this ideal state is considered rather uncommon, since it is only the specialised
language with high ly developed taxonomies and so -called international terminology that may serve as
a source of conceptually full equivalents (Arntz, 1993).
Conceptual overlapping, standing for the second degree of equivalence, is dependent upon “the
degree of documented intersection” (Fuertes -Oliver and Abbaras -Baño 2008: 72). On the basis of this
fact, two types of conceptual overlapping may be distinguished, namely intersection and too small
intersection. When two terms are intersected, their content equivalence is so s imilar that they may be
correlated, for instance , základná škola -primary school/elementary school, stredná škola -secondary
school/high school, konzervatórium -conservatory/conservatoire. The analysis shows that this type of
equivalence is the most widesprea d one among the examined terms. The second type of conceptual
overlapping, namely too small intersection, tends to occur between terms of which content equiv a-

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lence is hardly comparable. The terms such as detské jasle -créche, obchodná akadémia -business
school or akadémia -academy of arts may serve as examples of this type of conceptual overlapping.
The third possible relationship established between terms is that of inclusion. It is based on the i n-
clusion of one term in another, meaningfully ‘larger’, term t hat usually has, apart from a common
meaning, further additional meanings such as akadémia -academy.
Lastly, there might be the possibility of no conceptual relationship existing between both terms.
This situation refers to the last type of equivalence, na mely conceptual lack of equivalence that is
usually related to the issue of faux amis, i.e. two seemingly comparable terms have actually nothing in
common. During the analysis, no example of faux amis was found.

1.3 Application of translation procedures
In the case of too small intersection, absolute lack of equivalence or when a translated term exists
only in one of language systems and there is no at least roughly comparable equivalent in a target
language system, one is required to overcome this probl em and reproduce a term in the target la n-
guage by means of employing particular procedures. The procedures that are considered the most
frequently used ones among translators as well as terminologists comprise of loan words or calques,
coining a new term i n the target language or the use of an equivalent paraphrase (Arntz, 1993).
Loan words, i.e. borrowings, represent words originally coming from the source language that are
incorporated into a target text, either in their authentic form or in a form accom modated to the rules of
the target language. A typical example of borrowing observed in the analysed materials is the English
term gymnasium serving as the translation solution for the Slovak term gymnázium.
On the other hand, calques represent a translat ion procedure during which a phrase or a word is
rendered from one language to another literally (Hrehovčík, 2006). There is a tendency for these pr o-
cedures to be employed when the content of a translated term is unique and typical of the region
where the source language is spoken. There were only two Slovak terms rendered by means of fully
calqued English expressions, namely základná škola – basic school and praktická škola -practical
school. Surprisingly, it was observed that calques are more often employe d in combination either with
the already established English equivalent ( hotelová akadémia – hotel academy ), or with another tran s-
lation procedure, namely simplification ( policajná vysoká škola – police higher education institution )
and borrowing ( tanečné gy mnázium – dance gymnasium ). These means of translation also proved to be
the most frequently employed ones when rendering the Slovak terms in question.
Coining a new term in the target language is regarded as another possibility when the problems
with tra nslation occur. The process involves the creation of a new word by means of grammatical or
word -formation rules of a target language system what may consequently lead into the naturalness of
an expression as well as to a greater acceptance on the part of a target audience. Stredná odborná
škola -secondary vocational -technical school may be regarded as an example of this type of a transl a-
tion procedure.
An equivalent paraphrase stands for a paraphrase explaining a source language term. Because of its
informa tive nature, a paraphrase is apparently preferred means of translation of specialised terms with
no equivalents in the source language (Arntz, 1993). Stredná všeobecno -vzdelávacia škola – secondary
school providing general education stands for an example.
Although the aforementioned procedures are the most frequently employed ones, they do not e xhaust
all the possibilities of how to render specialised terms. According to Kvetko (2009), with regard to a
translation process, the following procedures may be al so regarded as frequent means of transl ation:
explicitation, simplification, modulation, transposition and translator’s note. From the mentioned proc e-
dures, only simplification, which represents the replacement of a source text word with more general
word in a target text, was employed within the analysed terms. It was used as the translation solution for
the Slovak terms materská škola – pre-primary school and vysoká škola – higher educ ation institution.

1.4 Problems occurring during the translation of e ducation terminology
As the analysis indicated, a distinct nature of the education systems functioning in Slovakia, the
United Kingdom and the United States of America and their developed terminologies seems to be
clearly reflected in means of translation of the analysed education terms. However, it is also an overall

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quality of translation that is affected, unfortunately, in a negative way. Terminological distinctiveness
often leads to the problem of various translation solutions suggested for a single te rm, inaccurately
established English equivalents and incorrectly proposed translations required to be completely a l-
tered or further modified.
First of all, in 19 cases, every single Slovak term was rendered by means of several alternatives
what proves the unstable character of the translation of the education terminology in question. For
instance, the Slovak term materská škola was rendered by two English terms nursery school, kinde r-
garten and by the simplified term pre-primary school . In such a case, when more than one translation
solution is offered, the context of translati on should be taken into account and only one translation
solution should be employed throughout a text.
As regards the accuracy of the translation, only 16 Slovak terms were accuratel y translated without
any need for change or replacement. The translations of the remaining number of the Slovak terms were
necessary to be modified or completely altered. With regard to them, 7 cases of inaccurately used equi v-
alents occur, such as detské j asle-créche , obchodná akadémia -business school, and the number of i m-
properly suggested renderings increased to 17. Examples include zdravotnícke vysoké školy -medical
higher education institutions ( suggested alternative -health care higher education institut ions), ped agog-
ická fakulta -faculty of pedagogy ( suggested alternative -faculty of education) or odborné učilište –
secondary vocational school ( suggested alternative -special secondary vocational school) .
In 11 extreme cases, completely new alternative soluti ons were proposed such as stredná odborná
škola – secondary vocational -technical school, stredná zdravotnícka škola -secondary school of allied
health or školy pre žiakov so špeciálnymi výchovno -vzdelávacími potrebami – schools for disabled,
socioeconomically disadvantaged and gifted children.

Conclusion
As the performed analysis indicates, the translation of the education terminology poses many o b-
stacles that translators have to overcome. Not only that there seems to be a problem to find an appr o-
priate equi valent to a particular term, but in many cases, chosen equivalent is inaccurate. In such si t-
uations, translators are compelled to translate an equivalent through a variety of translation proc edures
what also proves to be problematic process often resulting into incorrect solutions. Apparently, there
are still many defective parts in the translation of the education terminology that are necessary to be
further examined and properly solved in order to avoid confusion and misunderstanding on the part of
a read er and to make the education terminology work less complicated. Therefore, it is hoped that this
study will serve as an impetus for the people working in the field to concentrate more intently on the
mentioned problematic parts of the translation process a nd thus avoid the confrontation with further
potential difficulties.

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