The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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20 The Linguist Vol/56 No/2 2017 www.ciol.org.uk FEATURES Chris Bissell gives an insight into the pleasures and potential pitfalls of translating in the field of ICT W ith a degree in natural sciences and diploma in translation, I have often worked as a translator in the field of information and communications technology (ICT). Apart from highly technical terms – which quite often appear in English in source texts – ICT vocabulary does not present huge difficulties. For novices, though, some very simple concepts require care. The normal term for 'voltage' in French and German, for example – tension/Spannung – has numerous other meanings, some technical and some not ('tension', 'pressure', 'strain', 'nervousness', 'stress', 'excitement'), as does the German Kraft ('power', 'force', 'energy', 'strength'). A mistranslation of such terms in a technical text could be very damaging. Another word requiring some care is 'battery' – often pile/Akku in French/German (although strictly speaking an 'accumulator' is a rechargeable device). A 'fuel cell' (which converts a gas such as hydrogen directly into electricity, and is now being used in mobile phones and computing devices) is a pile à combustible in French but never a 'battery' in English. As always, you have to be cautious. On a more technical level, for example, the French for 'signal processing' is either traitement de signal (the more common term) or élaboration de signal (sometimes you will also see élaboration du signal or des signaux). But while the traitement versions in GoogleTranslate are given correctly at the time of writing, the élaboration alternatives return 'elaboration'. One way of checking such matters in the source is to search in the relevant language version of Google: in this case traitement de signal gives 1.5 million hits in google.fr, while élaboration de signal comes up with a few hundred thousand. Another online mistranslation is 'research', 'computing' or 'integrator' for the computing term Rechenwerk which, as one online dictionary explains, 'wird häufig synonym mit arithmetisch-logische Einheit (ALU)' ('is often synonymous with arithmetic-logic unit (ALU)'). Use of multiple sources to obtain information or check draft translations is often known as 'triangulation', by analogy with the technique of using at least three measurements to pinpoint a location, and is a vital skill. Fundamental digital modulation methods The most fundamental digital modulation techniques are based on keying: PSK (phase-shift keying), a finite number of phases are used; FSK (frequency-shift keying), a finite number of frequencies are used; ASK (amplitude-shift keying), a finite number of amplitudes are used; QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), a finite number of at least two phases and at least two amplitudes are used. bit.ly/2lqXHXc Digitale Modulationsverfahren mit einem Träger Zu den einfachsten digitalen Modulationen zählt die digitale Amplitudenmodulation oder auch Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) genannt, bei der die Amplitude des Sendesignals in diskreten Schritten in Abhängigkeit von der Nutzdatenfolge umgeschaltet wird… Die digitalen Winkelmodulationen sind in der einfachsten Form auch als Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) und Phase Shift Keying (PSK) bekannt. Dabei wird die Frequenz oder der Phasenwinkel des Trägersignals in diskreten Stufen umgeschaltet… Im digitalen Bereich werden vor allem auch Kombinationen aus Amplituden- und Winkelmodulationen verwendet… Quadraturamplitudenmodulation,abgekürzt QAM. bit.ly/2l3Kwu5 Modulations numériques En modulation numérique, les paramètres de la porteuse, amplitude ou angle, sont commutés entre plusieurs valeurs discrètes… La modulation en tout-ou-rien (OOK: On-off Keying)… est celle qui est utilisée en télégraphie… En modulation par commutation d'amplitude, ASK (Amplitude- shift keying), l'amplitude est commutée entre plusieurs valeurs discrètes. En FSK (ou Frequency-shift keying) et en PSK (ou Phase-shift keying) ce sont respectivement la fréquence et la phase qui sont commutées. En APK (ou QAM), la phase et l'amplitude prennent différentes valeurs discrètes. bit.ly/2kV2vSI Wikipedia entry extracts in English, French and German Getting technical