Technical translation and related disciplines

The article discusses recent developments in technical translation and the ways they will affect future training of technical translators. Technical translation already looms large in that it comprises more than 90% of the translation of the professional world output. Technical translators still have to master a foreign language as they already have contingent liability and are legally responsible for translation errors. The functions of technical translation and gradually fusing or becoming difficult to distinguish from those of technical writing as both professions have an interest in producing unambiguous messages. The technical translator also has to take into account the audience to a more marked extent. This means that deliberate formatting of texts to local "styles" and the use of controlled language will become more pronounced and used more often by translators. In addition, localisation, and the extensive use of translation memories mean that technical translators will come to rely less on traditional source texts. This implies that translators must also command content management and make use of tagging and metadata.