Translation of acronyms and initialisms in medical texts on cardiology
Keywords:
Acronym, Initialism, Translation, Cultural CharacteristicsAbstract
Introduction and Objectives: Acronyms and initialisms are frequently used in medical texts. Their translation is not only language-dependent, but also culture-bound. The objective of this research was to analyze the problems associated to the translation from English into Spanish of acronyms and initialisms used in medical texts on Cardiology.
Method: This is a qualitative, interpretive, descriptive, synchronic study based on the lexical analysis of acronyms and initialisms in the English source text (ST) and the Spanish target text (TT), within the framework of descriptive translation studies. An empirical textual sample of 8 medical articles on Cardiology was analyzed, as well as their corresponding translations into Spanish.
Results: In the corpus 83 acronyms and initialisms were identified. Only 15 were identified as acronyms. When analyzing the acronyms and initialisms, it was found that, in most of the cases, suitable solutions were given to the translation problems posed by their use in the TT, and such solutions coincided with the ones proposed in the reviewed literature on the topic. Some difficulties were found, however; they were related to the use of acronyms and initialisms appearing in the ST without their full form or without an explanation, especially those referring to institutions and regional or national organizations.
Conclusions: Acronyms and initialisms are not only linguistic forms, but they are also objective phenomena within scientific culture and they are cultural referents. That is why their use and translation imply linguistic as well as extra-linguistic considerations which demand from the translator the use of auxiliary sources and reference materials, including interviews to specialists, to achieve quality and precision in the translated text. This will guarantee the fulfillment of its main communicative function, that is, to provide useful information to health care-related staff.
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