Lexical and terminological problems of medical documentary audiovisual text translation: a case study of medical documentary “In the Womb: Identical Twins” dubbing

Abstract

The articles dwells upon the study of medical documentary audiovisual texts translation. Some lexical and terminological problems of dubbing are identified and analyzed. Terminology and medical lexis are integral parts of medical documentaries. Hence, the main problems concerning special language of medicine translation are thoroughly studied. The object of the research is to distinguish some typical translation patterns of terminology, medical lexis and analyze translation strategies applied in audiovisual texts. The article deals with genre and stylistic specific features of medical documentaries audiovisual texts. In order to conduct rigorous analysis the terms “terminology” and “special language of medicine” are differentiated. The case study is based on the dubbing of the medical documentary National Geographic “In the Womb: Identical Twins”. Such methods as comparative and contrastive; statistical analysis are applied to the research. Due to comparing the original audiovisual text of medical documentary and Russian dubbing, some peculiarities of translation are observed. Thus, some definite problems in special language of medicine translation documentaries are detected; the main solutions of the problems are revealed. The study involves determination of the most frequently used translation strategies in audiovisual translation of medical documentaries. The comparative analysis of original and dubbed texts reveals that (43%) of medical terms are directly transferred. The percentage of cases when calque translation strategy is used for medical lexis is 21. Only 5 % of all cases are translated incorrectly. The findings of the study reflect a strong dependence between translation strategies and documentary video. Based on the studied material the most common lexical and terminological problems in medical audiovisual texts translation are revealed. It is concluded that context and video should be taken into consideration in medical documentary translation. Further studies of the above mentioned issues may significantly contribute to theoretical and practical aspects of medical documentary audiovisual translation.

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