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Article published In: Indirect Translation and Sustainable Development
Edited by Jan Buts, Hanna Pięta, Laura Ivaska and James Hadley
[Translation Spaces 12:2] 2023
► pp. 255–284

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Special Issue Article

Indirect translation and its influence on term variation

A pilot study on climate action

ORCiD logo with link | Universidad de Granada
ORCiD logo with link | Universidad de Granada
Published online: 27 July 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.22026.cab
Abstract
Term variation occurs when different designations are used to name the same concept. In institutional settings, such as the European Union, term variants multiply, partly as a result of the different languages and directions involved. Indirect translation is a recurrent practice in these multilingual contexts since it limits the number of language combinations, besides reducing costs and the need for translators. This paper describes how indirect translation via English has an influence on Spanish term variation in the European Union. We analyzed the EUR-Lex and Europarl English and Spanish corpora in Sketch Engine. The focus was on concepts related to Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action, which are specifically addressed in these institutional corpora as a result of a long-standing environmental awareness. Our analysis indicates that indirect translation seems to have a subtle effect on term variants, since their proliferation seems to be mitigated when indirect translation is used.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Term variation in translation
  • 3.Indirect translation
  • 4.Materials and methods
    • 4.1Selection of concepts related to SDGs
    • 4.2Extraction of term variants from EUR-Lex and Europarl
    • 4.3Identifying indirect translation in Europarl
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Multilingualism and term translation variants
    • 5.2The influence of indirect translation on term variation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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