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What is translation?
Generally, translation is a process of rendering meaning, ideas, or messages of a text
from one language (source language/SL) to another language (target language/TL).
This is no easy task, especially when the source text (ST) and the target text (TT)
belong to two different cultures, such as those of English and Arabic.
Translated texts vary according to the method of translation, translators skills and
abilities, as well as other factors involved in the process of translation. The following
translators principles can be regarded as a summary of contradictory qualities of a
translated text:
1. A translation must give the words of the original.
2. A translation must give the ideas of the original.
3. A translation should read like an original work.
4. A translation should read like a translation.
5. A translation should reflect the style of the original.
6. A translation should possess the style of the translation.
7. A translation should read as a contemporary of the original.
8. A translation should read as a contemporary of the translation.
9. A translation may add to or omit from the original.
10. A translation may never add to or omit from the original.
11. A translation of verse should be in prose.
12. A translation of verse should be in verse. (Lev, 33-34, transl. J.Ch.).
The choice of one or more of the abovementioned principles to follow depends on
several factors. These include the type of the ST, the distance between the two
languages and the two cultures, the aim of the translation, the translator's level of
experience, and the target audience, among other factors.
The nature of the translated text is a result of the type or method of translation
adopted, as well as the translation strategies or techniques employed in the translation
process. The principles above correspond with several translation types and
techniques that will be considered in detail below. Before that we need to consider a
very important issue; i.e. types of meaning.
Baker (???) claims that every lexical unit has something that is individual and makes
it different from other words. There are four main types of meaning that deal with
words and utterance:
Conceptual or Denotative Meaning (also known as propositional, literal, logical, or
dictionary meaning): This type of meaning provides the speaker of a particular
language a description of a particular word or utterance in a real or imaginary world.
According to Cruse this type of meaning provides the basis on which one can consider
the utterances as a true or a false.
Example: Woman = human + female + adult )(
Examples: (owl ( ;)
On the other hand, collocational restrictions do not follow logically from the
propositional meaning of a word. For instance, teeth are brushed in English, they are
polished in Italian and washed in Polish. It means these restrictions are semantically
arbitrary and it should be bear in mind that there are differences among languages in
this arbitrary use.
Break the law =
Evoked meaning. It arises from dialect and register variations. Depending on the
origin, three types of dialect are distinguished:
geographical (e.g. American compared to British English lift and elevator)
- temporal (e.g. words and structures used by members of different age groups
within a community as well as words used at different periods in the history of a
language verily and really)
social ( e.g. words and structures used by members of different social classes scent
and perfume).
the target language (abstract or concrete; it may relate to a religious belief, a social
custom or even a type of food).
eg. English concept difficult to translate: Speaker (of the House of Commons)- it has
no equivalent in many languages, such as Russian, Chinese and Arabic, among others.
It is often translated into Russian as Chairman, which does not reflect the role of the
Speaker of the House of Commons as an independent person who maintains authority
and order in Parliament.
e.g.
e.g.
The target language may have specific words (hyponyms) but no general word
one another or to a place, as expressed in pairs of words such as come/ go, take/ bring,
arrive/ depart, etc. Perspective may also include the relationship between participants
in the discourse (tenor).
eg. Japanese has six equivalents for give, depending on who gives to whom: yaru,
ageru, morau, kureru, itadaku and kudasaru (McCreary, 1986).
meaning as the source-language word, but it may have a different expressive meaning.
If the target-language equivalent is neutral compared to the source-language item, the
translator can sometimes add the evaluative element by means of a modifier or adverb
if necessary, or by building it in somewhere else in the text.
eg. the rendering of the English verb to batter (as in child/ wife battering) by the more
neutral Japanese verb tataku, meaning to beat plus an equivalent modifier such as
savagely or ruthlessly.
9. Differences in from
There is often no equivalent in the target language for a particular form in the
source text.
eg. English makes frequent use of suffixes such as ish (e.g. boyish, hellish, greenish)
and able (e.g. conceivable, retrievable, drinkable). Arabic, for instance, has no ready
mechanism for producing such forms and so they are often replaced by an appropriate
paraphrase, depending on the meaning they convey (e.g. retrievable as can be
retrieved and drinkable as suitable for drinking).
Words such as au fait, chic and alfresco in English are used for their prestige
value, because they add an air of sophistication to the text or its subject matter. This is
often lost in translation because it is not always possible to find a loan word with the
same meaning in the target language.
eg. dilettante is a loan word in English, Russian and Japanese; but Arabic has
no equivalent loan word. This means that only the propositional meaning of dilettante
can be rendered into Arabic; its stylistic effect would almost certainly have to be
sacrificed.
Types of Translation:
These refer to the methods you apply to a text as a whole the primary choice you
have to make here is how close to the source text you want your target text to be.
Newmark refers to the following translation methods.
Word-for-word translation: The SL word order is preserved and the words are
translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context. Cultural words are
translated literally. The man use of word-for-word translation is either to understand
the mechanics of the source or to construe a difficult text as a pre-translation process.
When you are in Rome do as the Romans do.
.
Literal translation: The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest
TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context. As a
pre-translation process, this indicates the problems to be solved.
When you are in Rome do as the Romans do.
.
Faithful translation: A faithful translation attempts to produce the precise contextual
meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures and to
be completely faithful to the intentions and the text-realization of the SL writer.
When you are in Rome do as the Romans do.
.
Semantic translation: Differs from 'faithful translation' only in as far as it must take
more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text. The distinction between faithful
and semantic is that the first is uncompromising and dogmatic, while the second is
more flexible.
When you are in Rome do as the Romans do.
.
Adaptation: The freest form of translation, and is used mainly for plays (comedies)
and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture is
converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten.
For example the adaptation of Shakespeares play {King Lear} into an Arabic
Play called : ""
Free translation: Produces the TL text without the manner, content or form of the
original. Usually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original.
When you are in Rome do as the Romans do.
.
Idiomatic translation: Reproduces the message of the original but tends to distort
nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist
in the original.
.
This is like carrying coal to Newcastle.
Communicative translation: Attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the
original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and
comprehensible to the readership (Textbook of translation 45-47). Communicative, in
comparison with literal translation, is clearer and more direct and aims at making the
reader understand the ST message often by over-translation. The TT becomes more
specific than the original. The translator has the right to correct or improve the logic,
remove obscurities and reduce repetitions in the ST to help the reader comprehend
the ST fully. Yet, this manipulation needs to be clarified when necessary.
Communicative translation is applied in translating various types of texts including
proverbs, metaphors, standard notices, colloquialisms and ordinary language.
When you are in Rome do as the Romans do.
. /
Equivalence. This accounts for the same situation using a completely different phrase,
e.g., the translation of proverbs or idiomatic expressions like, Comme un chien dans
un
jeu de quilles and Like a bull in a china shop.
You're welcome.
Like father, like son.
Lundquist lists seven translation procedures, while Newmark lists a whole bunch of
them. Here is
an overview which integrates the Lundquist's and Newmark's procedures into one list:
Direct procedures:
Literal translation: word-for-word translation
Transference / loan: transferal of a word or expression from the source language/text
directly into the target text without translating it at all
Translation loan: retention of syntactic construction, but translation of the words in
it
Through translation: literal translation of collocations and combinations the
difference between this and translation loans is that in through translation, you strife
for
literal translation and a higher degree of formal retention
Naturalization: basically transference in which you apply target language spelling
and
morphology (and pronunciation) to the expression or word in question
Indirect procedures:
Equivalence: here, you focus on equivalence in meaning in the perspective of the
reader
of the target text this means that you may sacrifice equivalent in form, or you may
have to choose something which is note exactly the same thing as in the source text,
but
which is the closest get to it in the target language.
Cultural equivalent: translating a culturally rooted word in the source text/language
with a roughly equivalent culturally rooted word of the target language/text note,
this is what Lundquist calls tilpasning
Functional equivalent: translating a word in the source language/text with a
functionally equivalent target language word (i.e. a word which has the same
meaning)
Descriptive equivalent: translating a source language/text word using a description
Equivalence in Translation
Another key term in translation theory is Equivalence. ST and TT can be
formally equivalent, functionally equivalent, or ideationally equivalent. The
following examples illustrate this point:
.
Formal equivalence: I love her and she loves me. My he-camel loves her she-camel.
Functional equivalence: Love me, love my dog.
Ideational equivalence: If you love me, you have to love the people I love as well.
Discuss the three types of equivalence with your classmates and teacher.
Now try to translate the following formally, functionally, and ideationally.
Which translation do you think causes the least loss?
.
Formal equivalence:
Functional equivalence:
Ideational equivalence:
.
Formal equivalence:
Functional equivalence:
Ideational equivalence:
Formal equivalence:
Functional equivalence:
Ideational equivalence:
.
Formal equivalence:
Functional equivalence:
Ideational equivalence:
.
Formal equivalence:
Functional equivalence:
Ideational equivalence:
.
Formal equivalence:
Functional equivalence:
Ideational equivalence:
.
Formal equivalence:
Functional equivalence:
Ideational equivalence:
Natural translation
:) (
:
: : ()
Which row in the table should you resort to in order to translate the Arabic
example above? Translate and discuss.
More examples:
. 1
. 2
. 3
. 4
You must have noticed that the dictionary entries provided above were not of
use for you in translating sentences 3 & 4. So what should you do if your
Arabic-English dictionary does not help?
Consult an English-English dictionary. In example 3 above, the word " "could
be your starting point. What does " "mean in English? Seriousness, serious,
seriously. You would opt for "seriously" as " " has an adverbial
function in the Arabic sentence. Now look up "seriously" in your English-
You can see that English has an idiomatic expression that conveys the
meaning we are seeking. Now translate sentence 3 above.
Which word in sentence 4 would take as a starting point? Discuss and
translate.
How did you decide among the English senses of the word " "in example 2
above? )( .
Here are the English senses of " " again:
To attack, assail, assault, launch or make an attack on, charge, raid,
bear down upon, fall upon
: : ()
There are nine English senses here. What should you do? The English-English
dictionary is your guide in this case. You need to look up each and every word
to find the one that can naturally be used in a similar context in English.
Second, Collocations:
Collocation is the way words combine in a language to produce naturalsounding speech and writing. For example, in English you say strong wind but
heavy rain. It would not be normal to say *heavy wind or *strong rain.
Language that is collocationally rich is also more precise because most single
words in a language (say, English) embrace a whole range of meanings. The
precise meaning in any context is determined by that context: by the words
that surround and combine with the core word by collocation.
Collocations
Collocative meaning is the meaning which a word acquires in the company of certain
words. Words collocate or co-occur with certain words only e.g. Big business not
large or great. Collocative meaning refers to associations of a word because of its
usual
or
habitual
co-occurrence
with
certain
types
of
words. Pretty and handsomeindicate good looking.
However, they slightly differ from each other because of collocation or cooccurrence. The word pretty collocates with girls, woman, village, gardens,
flowers, etc.
On the other hand, the word handsome collocates with boys men, etc.
so pretty woman and handsome man. While different kinds of attractiveness,
hence handsome woman may mean attractive but in a mannish way. The
verbs wander and stroll are quasi-synonymous- they may have almost the same
meaning but while cows may wonder into another farm, they dont stroll into that
farm becausestroll collocates with human subject only. Similarly one trembles with
fear but quivers with excitement.
Sample Collocations
There are several different types of collocation. Collocations can be adjective +
adverb, noun + noun, verb + noun and so on. Below you can see seven main types of
collocation in sample sentences.
1. adverb + adjective
2. adjective + noun
3. noun + noun
4. noun + verb
5. verb + noun
7. verb + adverb
She placed her keys gently on the table and sat down.
Mary whispered softly in John's ear.
I vaguely remember that it was growing dark when we left.
Collocations Lists
Exercise
have a bath
have a drink
have a good time
have a haircut
have a holiday
have a problem
have a relationship
have a rest
have lunch
have sympathy
Exercise
annual turnover
bear in mind
break off negotiations
cease trading
chair a meeting
close a deal
close a meeting
come to the point
dismiss an offer
draw a conclusion
draw your attention to
launch a new product
lay off staff
go bankrupt
go into partnership
make a loss
make a profit
market forces
sales figures
take on staff
Quantifier + noun
Verb + noun
Verb + noun
Noun + noun
5
6
Preposition + noun
Verb + adverb
Verb + preposition
Adjective + adverb
Adjective + preposition
10
Noun + of + noun
11
Borrowed collocations
Text-type relevant collocations
Lecture
(to
sb)
(on
sth)
talk
giving
information
Discuss the entry above with your classmates and teacher, and then suggest a
translation of " " .
An even better resource to check is the Oxford Collocations Dictionary. Let's
consider " " as an example: We are going to look under the entry of
"light" in the Oxford Collocations Dictionary:
Lecture noun
1 talk given to a group of people
ADJ. fascinating, interesting | boring | formal | illustrated |
impromptu | guest A two-day event of guest lectures, seminars and
workshops. | popular, public | annual | inaugural ,
QUANT . course, program, series
VERB + LECTURE deliver, give, present | hold, put on The society is
putting on a series of lectures on the subject next term. | attend, go
to, hear (formal), listen to | miss, skip | prepare, write
Lecture + NOUN course, programme, series | hall, room, theatre |
notes | tour | circuit a familiar figure on the international lecture
circuit
PREP. At a/the --She wasn't at the lecture.
Third, Structure:
Fourth, Cohesion:
By cohesion we mean the explicit and transparent linking of sentences and
larger sections of text by the use of overt linguistic devices, such as
...............................................................
:
. ...
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
What other features can you find in the text above? Do you think such
?features would make it difficult to translate the text
/njuzaz()m
The semantic information follows. It is the basic meaning of the word as in the
meaning of boy above. Then we get the other sense or senses of the word
boy, son in this case.
Finally, some larger monolingual dictionaries give brief information about the
origin of the word whether it is Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, French etc.
As shown above, monolingual dictionaries, in general, provide the user with
valuable information and help him/her to have access to all the shades of
meanings of the words and the way each is used.
How to use a dictionary for translation purposes
All the following are translated literally. Think of a better translation if you
think the literal translation is not successful. Justify your decision.
ST
1. The football match
was cancelled because
of the heavy rain.
2. Charity begins at
home.
3. The President
delivers a speech at 8
p.m. tonight.
4. The committee is to
hold a meeting tonight.
5. John works at the
Bundestag.
6. Please, do not
disturb.
7. This is the Voice of
America.
8. A bird in the hand is
worth two in the bush.
TT Hint
. Subject verb order
. Culture-bound
expression
Collocation
. 8
. Tense
. What is 'Bundestag'?
. Unclear message
. What is 'the Voice of
America'?
Not natural
.
9. He is in black mood
today.
10. Are you really
interested in yellow
magazines?
11. This is the British
Home Office.
. Collocation
What are 'yellow
magazines'?
. Cultural Substitution