A comparative study that investigates the treatment of technical terms, acronyms and numbers in a Tsonga technical target text

Abstract

In each and every translated text, there is a certain intended meaning that is being communicated to the target reader or audience in their target language, which is equivalent to what is in the source text. Nonetheless, there is still a big debate on whether a translation should follow the communicative meaning or the semantic meaning when conveying the communicated message. This article provides an analysis and application of Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) methodology on the treatment of technical terms, abbreviations or acronyms and numbers in a Tsonga target text. It also investigated the strategies applied by the translator to close the gap between the two languages in question (Tsonga and English), which vary significantly when we compare their instrumental value, hegemony and economic status.