Analysis of Terminology in the Translations of Defence Industry Texts

Abstract

In the new world order, the defence industry has been one of the most vital factors in determining the economic and political power of the countries due to the increasing need for security. Therefore, innovation and modernization are continuously needed to maintain technological sovereignty in the defence industry, and the role of translation is indispensable in the provision of the continuity of these developments and changes. The fact that this field of industry plays a crucial role in the struggle of a country against global threats and keeping up with the new developments around the world necessitate the transfer of technology that brings about the need for enormous translation work, giving rise to the emergence of lots of new concepts and terms. Defence industry terminology is crucial for the common language used by the stakeholders in the production and management of technology. This situation brings forth a new dimension in terminology management, and the problems regarding terminology management in the defence sector must be handled with an academic mind style. This thesis aims to raise awareness about the need for accurate and standardized terminology by means of analyzing the procedures employed in the translation of defence industry terms where high use of borrowing procedure and existence of nonstandardized terms are observed. To that end, firstly, the overall comparisons of the source and the translated texts are made within the scope of Skopos theory to see if translated texts are acceptable and to see to what extent the translation serves the purpose. Then, analyses are made both at the syntactic and lexical levels that will provide a closer look at the appropriateness of the equivalences in the target language. With the aim of revealing all procedures used in the translations of defence terms, product catalogues of Presidency of Defence Industries are examined in detail. All detected terms are recorded with their translations. A set of terms are analyzed in light of Vinay and Darbelnet’s translation procedures, and frequently used procedures are determined, and their appropriateness is reviewed. Finally, a glossary of terms is presented to provide a supplementary material emphasizing the need for a comprehensive dictionary of defence industry terms for standardized use of terms and providing insight for future studies on translation and terminology in this sector. vii Keywords: Translation of Defence Industry Texts, Skopos Theory, Translation Methods of Vinay Darbelnet, Terminology