DIAGNOSING MEDICAL TRANSLATION AND FRAMING CURRENT CHALLENGES

Abstract

Specialised translation includes technical and scientific translation as research fields in their own right, on account of method, text type, purpose of translating and degree of specialisation. Being a borderline case between technical and scientific translation, medical translation requires a multidisciplinary approach. Admittedly, the paper focuses on shedding light on the complexity of medical translation, the medical translator facing as main challenges a vast range of texts and formats (even within the same sub-field of medicine), non-standardised terminology (continuing to evolve as aligned to new scientific discoveries), a lack of relevant resources (most importantly, multilingual medical databases) and the different expectations of the intended users of translation.