Resumen

BATISTA OJEDA, Judith T; ARRIETA DE MEZA, Beatriz  y  MEZA, Rafael. Transfer of syntactic-semantic rules applied to the translation of the scientific-technical discourse written in English. Opcion [online]. 2008, vol.24, n.56, pp.11-27. ISSN 1012-1587.

The transfer of Spanish syntactic/semantic rules applied by students who learn English as a Foreign Language (FL) in order to translate the lexical/semantic components of the scientific/technical discourse written in this language is analyzed through this article. The theoretical background in which this analysis is based includes Salazar (1998) about the transfer process of reading skills from Spanish into English, and Martínez and Hurtado (2003) considering the components of the scientific/technical discourse written in English, which are difficult for students who learn English as FL. Both the documental review and the description of data from 32 students belonging to the Petroleum School of the Engineering Faculty of Zulia University led to the conclusion that there is a generalized tendency to transferring a same syntactic/semantic rule in order to give meaning to some grammatical elements and that the lack of both syntactic and semantic correspondence between Spanish and English produces the reading comprehension interference in these learners.

Palabras clave : semantic/lexical components; translation; scientific/technical discourse.