Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Loyalty to the Source Text 
Unless the translator is told otherwise, the text type of the translation will 
be the same as the source text. To use Vermeer’s example (1989:183), it is 
safe to assume that a scientific article on astronomy will be translated as such 
in the target language. This might seem to contradict the claim made else-
where that consistency of function is not the normal Skopos of a translation 
but it is not the case. The function of a given text type in one language 
might be different to a greater or lesser degree in another. So while the 
purpose of the text might stay the same (i.e. the astronomy article stays an 
astronomy article), the function of the text, e.g. to entertain and educate or 
educate and provoke, may need to change depending on the culturally or 
text specific conventions in the target language. This is what Nord regards 
as a “conventional” assignment (1997:31). But in order to do this, it is 

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42 Technical Translation 
calquing, modulation etc. 
mationsangebot 
means that there are, in theory, multiple “texts” and multi-
ple meanings and interpretations. Similarly, there are multiple situations in 
which the information could be used. Nord sums this up by saying that “a 
‘text’ is as many texts as there are receivers” (1997:31). Hatim (2001:76) 
describes this as a text’s “plurality of meaning”. 
With this potential for different interpretations and situations, translators 
need to ensure that the target text will at the very least be meaningful for 
the intended receivers and that it will make sense in the particular commu-
nicative situation and culture. Only if the text makes sense in the receiver’s 
situation will the translation be regarded as successful. For this reason, Ver-
meer introduces what he calls the 
coherence rule
which states that a transla-
tion must be coherent with the receivers’ situation or that it should b
be part 
of the receivers’ situation (Reiss and Vermeer 1984:113). This is defined as 
intratextual coherence and is one of the two basic types of “conceptual 
connectivity” central to Skopos theory (Hatim 2001:76). 
This rule firmly places the emphasis on the target text and its audience. 
However, because a translation is an offer of information based upon a pre-
vious offer of information, there has to be at least some relationship be-
tween the source text and the target text lest there are criticisms that the 
translation is not a translation but rather some abstract form of adaptation 
(Nord 1997:32). Vermeer calls this intertextual coherence or fidelity. The 
form taken by intertextual coherence, however, depends both on the 
Skopos and the translator’s interpretation of the source text (Nord 
1997:32). Subordinate to the intratextual rule, the fidelity rule can take 
form ranging from an extremely faithful rendering of the source text or a 
loose rendering. 
Nord (1997:125) introduces the notion of “function plus loyalty” to 
Skopos theory. This she defines as a bilateral commitment on the part of 
the translator to both source and target sides of the translational interaction. 
She stresses that it is not the same as fidelity or faithfulness which is associ-
ated with texts. Rather, loyalty is a relationship between people. It is the 
translator’s responsibility to provide readers with what they expect of a 
interaction. 
necessary to decide on various strategies, e.g. word-for-word, transposition, 
instead claiming that the selectability of information presented in the 
Infor-
Nord refers to the difficulty in speaking of a single, definitive text, 
translation (i.e., literal, word-for-word, free, readable). It also requires 
the translator to convey the author’s intentions as regards the communicative 

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Theory in Technical Translation 43 
It is important to note that this is an improvement on the notion that the 
author’s intentions are evident from what the author has actually written 
because this presupposes consistent and uniformly competent authors, 
something which is impossible to gauge in the real world. However, Ver-
meer himself expressed concerns in 1996 at the inclusion of the loyalty rule 
as it represented a social and subjective criterion which damaged the appli-
cability and reliability of his general theory.