A comparative study of terminological variation in specialised translation

Abstract

This article presents an ongoing project in which terminological variation is studied in the context of specialised translation. The project aims to fi nd out whether certain patterns or tendencies can be derived from a comparative analysis of terminological variation in source texts and their translations. New insights about terminological variation in specialised translations could contribute to the development of a new type of specialised translation dictionary which will better account for the different ways in which a given thought is expressed. In this article, I will present the methodology that was set up in this project to carry out the comparative analysis. Currently, the analysis is carried out on English, Dutch and French texts related to biodiversity issues (including climate change, air pollution, invasive species, etc.).