Translation of ICT neologisms in ESP classroom

Abstract

ICT terms and neologisms are a rapidly expanding semantic field to which new terms are constantly being added. Currently, neologisms that have been recently included in English in many cases do not have their equivalents in Lithuanian as the process of inclusion of newly coined words or neologisms into the Lithuanian language is much slower mostly due to institutionally regulated language policy and normative guidelines. As a result, Lithuanian translators face a lot of challenges when they have to find equivalents for English neologisms. As regards ESP classroom, translation-based activities are not widely-used but, if applied in a balanced way, they can significantly improve comprehension of new terminology and neologisms in specific fields. The portal of TED talks is an immense resource of materials related to newest technological developments and is a valuable source for teaching/learning ESP in such a way that is engaging for contemporary learner. Moreover, TED talks provide valuable material for teaching translation as they represent real language in use, and the portal makes comparison of the content in different languages available through translations of the talks into multiple languages. The aim of this paper is to research the ways TED translators from English into Lithuanian deal with neologisms in the context of language policy implications and rapidness of societal technological development. Comparative approach to learning materials facilitates the acquisition of specific terminology. For this particular paper, six talks from the TED portal have been analysed for the occurrences of neologisms. The neologisms have been grouped into three structural groups: (1) single-root terms, (2) compounds, and (3) collocations. The total number of analysed terms is 120. Modern-day neologisms that have been integrated into English in many cases do not have their equivalents in Lithuanian. Hence, the semantic gap in the technical vocabulary of the Lithuanian language which is frequently filled up by loan words or by adapting English terms. Analysis of new coinages revealed the substantial difficulties for translators due to objective factors. The majority of the analysed words are not included into the Modern Lithuanian dictionary. Out of 120 selected items only 4 are included into the Database of Lithuanian neologisms.