Translating terminological variation: the case of biodiversity terminology

This article summarises a study of terminological variation, i.e. a study of the different terms that are used to express a given unit of understanding in specialised discourse. For instance, the terms 'invasive alien species', 'invasive exotics' or 'pest organisms' are all used to designate a specific alien species that disrupts native fauna and flora. One reason for the growing research interest in terminological variation is that such studies fuel the ongoing discussions on the nature of terms (Temmerman 2000). Another reason is that in many areas of specialised communication (e.g. technical writing, translation, business communication), terminological variation is often felt as a problem that needs to be "solved".
The aim of the project is to examine how translators of specialised texts deal with terminological variation. Several questions will be raised such as whether specialised translations tend to contain less terminological variants or whether they tend to mirror the patterns of variation in the original texts.
The article will focus on the method that was worked out to identify terms in the source texts, cluster the terminological variants and retrieve the translation equivalents from the target texts