Scientific Prose Stile

What has been said in connection with the translation of official documents can be applied to the translation of scientific prose – physical and natural sciences. In the humanities and in popular science prose a certain emotive and subjective element is apparent.

The terrestrial globe is a member of the system, the third in distance from the sun. The earth revolves about the sun, the mean distance of the earth from the sun being a most important astronomic constant.

Земной шар входит в солнечную систему и является третьей планетой по удаленности от Солнца. Земля вращается вокруг Солнца, причем среднее расстояние Земли от Солнца является весьма важной астрономической константой (постоянной величиной).

The translation practically does not depart from the SL text. The content is scrupulously rendered, equivalence is absolute. Yet owing to differences between the two languages the following changes have been made:

The construction with the nominal predicate – link verb + predicative (is a member of) is translated by a verbal predicate which is an accepted cliché – входит в; the elliptical construction (the third in distance) is translated by a coordinate clause – и является третьей планетой по удаленности от Солнца; the absolute construction (the mean distance of the earth from the sun being a most important astronomic constant) is also rendered by a coordinate clause – причем среднее расстояние Земли от Солнца является весьма важной астрономической константой. The additions the Russian translation are justified because they are necessitated by structural differences.