Interference in the translation of Social Sciences texts from French into Spanish

Abstract

Interference is present in every translation process and becomes visible in the discourse product through deviations from the normal and codified practices of the target system –negative transferences– as well as in the similar features that exist and are used in both source and target systems –positive transferences (Toury, 200: 345). In the latter case, the results are hardly identifiable because the production corresponds to the system and the norms of the target language-culture; on the other hand, negative transferences become visible as a contamination and their incidence can go from the growth in the frequency of certain elements without breaking the norm (Sinner, 2004: 73) –which complicates the adjustment between the expression and the content to be transmitted–, to the mistake derived from the lack of correspondence between the languages-cultures at stake. This is why special efforts are required from the translator in order to dissociate and counteract automatic discourse mechanisms. Usually, the teaching of specialized translation focuses on terminological search, on thematic research, and neglects syntactic expression, for this would be part of the acquired linguistic competences, whose production is automatic. In this paper, we shall enumerate the criteria which have been taken into account in order to describe the syntactic and discourse anomalies in elliptic statements from translated Social Sciences texts by the influence of interference.