Neologisms Coined by the Translator when Translating Educational and Popularizing Texts with a Scientific Content

Abstract

When translating educational or popularizing texts with a scientific content into Spanish (or into Galician, etc.), the translator often has to coin and use neologisms in his/her target text, especially when such texts reflect recent research, which nowadays is documented almost exclusively in English. The proper coinage of those neologisms is a delicate act endowed with cultural significance. Those neologisms that can be coined and used by a translator belong to three categories, viz. semantic neologisms, morphological neologisms, and loanwords. The present paper reviews each of those neological strategies, and assesses, in various cases, which are the best options for the translator, resorting to the analysis of a number of published and unpublished translations (into Spanish, Galician or Portuguese) of scientific encyclopedic articles, textbooks, and popularizing articles and books written in English or German.