Translation of Patent Documents: Language of Descriptions and Claims

Yıl 2019, Sayı: 27, 220 - 241, 31.12.2019

Gülden Taner

https://doi.org/10.37599/ceviri.584725

Öz

Technical advancements and new inventions highlighted the
importance of technical translation, particularly patent translations as a specialised
sub-field. In this respect, translation of patent application documents has
emerged as a practice requiring specialisation, especially because the
translated text is bound by the legal rules and restrictions in language use. The
regulations governing the writing and wording of Claims and the textual
characteristics in the patent documents require more attention. The main aim of
this study is to provide a description of the general textual characteristics of
patent documents as a subfield of technical translation, and particularly to
provide examples to illustrate the characteristics of Claims with reference to
related legal requirements. The focus of analysis is on English and Turkish language
pair. The linguistic, contextual, structural and terminological properties of
Turkish and English patent documents are introduced; then, Turkish and English
versions of Claims are compared, to exemplify different sentence structures and
translation requirements pertaining to specific textual conventions in TL. In
the analyses of the translations, discussions centre not only on the
translation itself, but also on what governs the translators’ decision process
in terms of technically appropriate and legally acceptable text
characteristics. It is claimed that it is not merely the technical and
terminological knowledge, but in fact the expertise in this specific genre and
style of writing that brings quality in the translation of patents. The
discussions regarding the translation process and examples of textual
conventions might be beneficial for professional and prospective translators
who are interested in the translation of patent documents.

Anahtar Kelimeler

patent translation, technical translation, claims, specifications, description

Patent Metinlerinin Çevirisi: Tarifname ve İstemlerin Dilsel Özellikleri

Öz

Teknik ve teknolojik gelişmeler ve yeni
buluşlar, hem teknik çeviri hem de özelinde patent çevirilerinin önemini
arttırmıştır. Bu açıdan, patent başvuru dokümanlarının çevirisi, çeviri
kuramcıları ve profesyonel çevirmenler tarafından, özellikle de çeviri metin
yasal sınırlamalara maruz kaldığı için sıklıkla tartışılan bir kavramdır.
İstemlerin yazımı ve stili ile ilgili yönetmelikler yanında patent
disiplinindeki metin geleneği, patent çevirisini özel dikkat gerektiren bir
alan kılmıştır. Bu çalışmanın temel amacı yürürlükteki mevzuatla da ilintili
olarak, teknik metin olarak değerlendirilen patent metinlerinin genel
özellikleri ile ilgili bilgi vermek ve özellikle de İstemlerin çevirisiyle
ilgili örnekler sunmaktır. İlk olarak İngilizce ve Türkçe patent metinlerinin
dilsel, bağlamsal, yapısal ve terimsel özellikleri açıklanmış, sonrasında örnek
istemler üzerinden patent başvurularının İngilizce’den Türkçe’ye yapılan resmi
onaylı çevirileri orijinal metinlerle karşılaştırılmıştır. Bu sayede farklı
yapılardakı İstem türleri tanıtılmış, aynı zamanda çevirisi için Türkçe patent
metni geleneğinde kullanılan kalıplar örneklendirilmiş ve çeviriler işlevsel
açıdan da değerlendirilmiştir. Bu makalede sunulan teknik çeviri ve patent
belgelerine dair incelemeler ve çeviri örnekleri alanda çalışan çevirmen ve
çevirmen adayları için bu alan hakkında bilgi sağlaması açısından faydalı
olacaktır. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

teknik, patent, çeviri, istem, tarifname

Kaynakça

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