PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Shipbuilding is one of the key industries of our country. The next following years may see
the development in building many kinds of vessels: bulk carriers, oil tankers, container vessel,
car carriers, floating storage and offloading units …. Each kind of vessel has it own technical
specification. And in order to understand the structure, technical characteristic as well as the
operation, the translation of these technical documents has become more importantly than ever
before.
As a translator in a shipbuilding company, the author of this minor thesis days by days
work with technical documents. She is fully aware that the translation of technical document is a
difficult job, it requires the translator to continuously improve basic knowledge on shipbuilding
as well as skill in dealing with situations relating to technical terms, special expressions, and
ambiguous structures…
That is the reason why the author chooses the study on translation of technical texts in
shipbuilding for her MA minor thesis with the hope that the study can provide the translator a
general view on translation of technical texts in shipbuilding industry and the author herself can
improve her job.
2. Aims of the study
The study is implemented with the following aims:
o To clarify some aspects in translation of technical texts in shipbuilding
o To delve into some problems relating to translation of technical texts in shipbuilding
o To put forward some suggestions for solution of difficulty in translation
3. Scope of the study
Technical translation is a huge field, each technical field has it owns characteristic,
therefore, the translator working on any field of technical translation has to try her/ his best to
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fulfill her/ his job. The translation of technical texts in shipbuilding is not an exception. Within
the scope of this study, a study on the translation of technical texts in shipbuilding is very
exclusive to talk about. However, due to the limitation of time and lack of experience, my minor
thesis is only limited to dealing with some aspects, problems in translating technical text in
shipbuilding.

source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style”. Hatim &
Mason (1990) termed it briefly “Translating is a communicative process which takes place
within a social context”.
Different scholars defines translation in different way, seemingly, they have not come up
with a “single valid comprehensive theory of translation”, that is because they seem to look at
translation from different views.
2. Text, discourse and translation
2.1. About text, discourse and translation
Text and discourse sometimes are confused in linguistic. For Windowson, a text is
“sentences in combination”, and discourse is the “use of utterances in combination”. To put it
more clearly, text is a “structured sequence of linguistic expressions forming a unitary whole”
and discourse is a “structured event manifest in linguistic (and other) behavior”. Yet, these
definitions do not satisfy because text and discourse sometimes are used interchangeably, and
text is referred to as “written documents” while discourse as “speech”. Thus, Roger (1991)
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proposed the following: text is “the formal product of selections of options from the THEME
systems of the grammar; a unit which carries the semantic sense of the proposition (the
propositional content and locutionary force of the speech act) through sentences which are
linked by means of cohesion” and discourse is “ a communicative event which draws on the
meaning potential of the language (and other systems of communication) to carry
communicative value (the illocution force) of speech acts through utterances which are linked
by means of coherence”.
A text is a string of sentences, a unit of language in use. A discourse is a communicative
process by means of interaction and its linguistic product is text. And discourse refers to the
connected speech or writing at supra – sentential levels while text – both written and spoken – is
seen as the representation of discourse.
Discourse analysis is the analysis of language in use and includes in itself the analysis of
the text beyond and above the sentence. Thus, text is one of the core terms in translation.
2.2. Types of text
Type of text is an important factor in translation. It affects on all stages of translation and

Also, Newmark (1988) suggested in order to understand the text, general reading and close
reading are required. General reading is “to get the gist”. The translator can gather general
information about subject of the text through textbooks, specialist papers. Close reading is to
read “words both out of and in the context”.
2.3.2. The intention of the text and the intention of the translator
In reading, the translator, as Newmark (1988) stated, searches for the intention of the text,
he/ she can not isolate this from understanding it. Intention of the text is shown through the
selecting means like grammatical structures, vocabulary of the writer, for example: two texts
describe the same subject as a battle for instance, the positive text uses positive expressions,
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vocabulary such as hopefully, luckily…. However, the negative text, conversely, uses negative
expressions, vocabulary like unfortunately, it is a pity that…. “The intention of the text
represents the SL writer’s attitude to the subject matter” (Newmark (1988)). Thus, the first and
very important task is to search the intention of the text.
And, also according to Newmark (1988) “usually, the translator’s intention is identical
with the intention of the source text author”. But sometimes, it is adapted by the translator to
make it suitable to new readership.
2.3.3. Text styles
Understanding text styles is an important step in analyzing text. According to Nida (1979),
four types of text are divided as per the text styles. The first is narrative text , it is a “dynamic
sequence of events”, and because it is a sequence of event, it is expressed by a string a verbal
actions. The second type is descriptive. This kind of text is, on the contrary, is “static with
emphasis on linking verbs, adjective, adjectival nouns”. The third type is discussion, it is “a
treatment of ideas, with emphasis on abstract nouns (concepts), verbs of thought, mental
activity, logical argument and connectives”. And the last type as Nida (1979) suggested is
dialogue with “emphasis on colloquialism and phaticisms”.
2.3.4. Readership
The readership is a group of readers that the text is aimed at and this group is marked with
level of education, the class, age and sex. In translation, as Newmark (1988) claimed, the
readership of SL text should be characterized, then the readership of the translation to decide

“untranslatable” words” to identify the “semantic range, the frontiers”. This can be considered
to be the last analyzing step in translating process.
3. Translation method
For a good translator, which could be considered the utmost importance and the guideline
in translation job is translation methodology. It has been a central problems whether to translate
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“literally or freely” at least since the first century BC. Many years have gone, some methods
have been identified and Newmark (1988) has put the argument in the form of a flattened V
diagram as the following:
Diagram 1: V diagram of translation method by Newmark (1988)
3.1. Word – for – word translation
Word – for – word translation is a method in which the words are translated “singly by
their most common meanings, out of context”, the method in which the “SL word – order is
preserved”. This method is used to understand the mechanics of source language and to attempt
to analyze preliminarily draft of translation process.
3.2. Literal translation
This kind of method is somehow similar to word – for – word translation in that “the
lexical words are again translated singly” except for one thing, that is, it lays focus on the
conversion of the SL grammatical construction into their nearest TL equivalents.
3.3. Faithful translation
This method reproduces the precise contextual meaning of the original and deals with the
constraints of the TL grammatical structures. Its aim is to be “completely faithful” to the
intentions and the text-realization of the SL writer.
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3.4. Semantic translation
Semantic translation takes into account the aesthetic value – the beauty of the SL text. It is
more flexible than faithful translation in that it admits creative exception to 100% fidelity and
allows the translator’s intuitive empathy with the original.
3.5. Adaptations
For this type of translation, the SL culture is converted to TL culture and the text is re-

4.1. Quantity based equivalence
- One to one equivalence:
For this kind of equivalence, there is a single expression in TL for a single expression in
SL. This equivalence is commonly seen in terminology.
- One to many equivalence
There are many expressions in TL for a single SL expression in this kind of equivalence.
- One to part one equivalence
With this equivalence, one way of expression in SL has more than one meaning but the
way of expression in TL is only equivalent to one of the meanings.
- Nil – equivalence
There is no equivalence in TL due to difference in culture
4.2. Meaning – based equivalence
This kind of equivalence is considered by Koller (1979) as follows:
- Denotative equivalence
The equivalence in which both SL and TL expressions show the same definition, event in
real life.
- Connotative equivalence
This type of equivalence bases on connotation of language. It provides additional values
besides denotation value. This equivalence is formed by selecting words in different aspects
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such as style, usage, social, usage frequency…. It can be connotation of poetry language,
connotation of socially determined usage, connotation of geographical relation or origin,
connotation of stylistic effect, connotation basing on evaluation, connotation basing on attitude
and connotation basing on register (the case of technical language).
For the author of this minor thesis, connotative equivalence basing on register is of great
interest and importance because her topic deals with the translation of technical text in
shipbuilding and the equivalence of technical text translation is based on connotative register.
- Text – normative equivalence
For this type of equivalence, the SL and TL expressions are used in the same or similar
context in their respective language like correspondence and law.

Newmark (1988) states that “ Technical translation is primarily distinguished from other
forms of translation by terminology”. Thus, the core characteristic of a technical text in any field
is terms; terms are also the main factor to distinguish a technical text from other kinds of texts.
And, the central difficulty in technical translation is usually new terminology.
It is due to the fact that some technical terms appear only once in the source language and
the context is not clear to the translator. Furthermore, the technical terms are distilled knowledge
and written for specialists in that field.
It is also because that even standardized terms may have more than one meaning in one
specific field, as well as in the other fields.
5.3. Technical terms and descriptive terms
One matter in technical translation is to distinguish technical and descriptive terms.
According to Newmark (1988), the original SL writer may use a descriptive terms for a
technical object for three reasons:
o The object is new, and has not yet got a name
o The descriptive term is being used as a familiar alternative, to avoid repetition;
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o The descriptive term is being used to make a contrast with another one.
Also, he suggests that technical terms and descriptive terms should be translated by their
counterparts, and the translator should resist the temptation of translating a descriptive terms by
a technical terms for the purpose of showing off his/ her knowledge. However, he points out that
if the SL descriptive term is being used either because of the SL writer’s ignorance, or because
the appropriate technical term does not exist in the SL, and if an object strange to the SL but not
to the TL culture is being referred to, the translator is justified in translating a descriptive term
by a technical term.
Further to technical and descriptive terms, Newmark (1988) claims it is a trend that
professional translators make “a mystique out of their craft” by denying any descriptive terms
where a TL technical term exists. He points out the reason that because technical terms are
standardized language and more precise (narrower in semantic range) whereas, descriptive terms
are non-standardized language.
5.4. Translation method

text is often two long by English standards. Secondly, the title has a transparent collocation.
And according to him, almost errors in technical translation are caused by misleading
adjective plus noun collocations for standardized terms. And for non-standardized terms, the
errors can be caused by transparent or motivated verb plus object, or subject plus verb
collocations.
5.4.3. Going through the text
It is suggested by Newmark (1988) that The translator, then, should read the text through
to get the gist of the main idea and underline all words and structures that appear to contain
problems: new technical terms, special expressions, syntactic ambiguity…. After that, the
translator can translate sentence by sentence, making grammatical shifts to for natural language.
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In technical translation, the translator can be as bold and free in recasting grammar (cutting up
sentences, transposing clauses, converting verbs to nouns, etc.) as in any type of informative
text, provided the original is defective. Lexically, the main characteristic of technical language is
its actual richness and its potential infinity. The translator has to ensure the equivalent level of
register to TL (he/ she may separate new terms and compare to the context, sometimes actual
practice to deal with the meaning). And last, the translator has to adjust the translated sentence
as per the technical style.
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Chapter 2: An investigation into translation of technical texts in shipbuilding
1. Text characteristic in shipbuilding
1.1. Kinds of texts
Texts, as many other fields, are the main way to connect the builder, the engineers and the
owner. Through the texts, all the necessary written information is transferred. Thus, they are
very important. And in shipbuilding, texts are shown in the followings types:
1.1.1. Specification
For the vessel, specification is the thing that introduces, describes the main particulars,
equipment as well as necessary related matters the vessels must have when going in service.
Outline specification of 260 TEU container vessel is an example.
General description