Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
The three main areas of translation are: (a) science and technology, (b)
social, economic and/or political topics and institutions, and (c) literary
and philosophical works.
A translator has to have a sixth sense which tells him when to translate
literally, instinctively or when to break all the rules of translation.
There are many other tensions in translation, for example between sound
and sense.
Translation is, first, a science, secondly a skill, thirdly an art, and lastly, a
matter of taste.
CHAPTER 2
You begin the job by reading the original: first, to understand what it is
about; second, to analyse it from a translators point of view.
Understanding the text requires both general and close reading. General
reading (you may have to read encyclopaedias, textbooks) to understand
the concepts. Close reading is required, in any challenging text, of the
words both out of and in context, to find their TL equivalents.
In reading, you search for the intention of the text, which represents the
SL writers attitude to the subject matter.
Usually, the translators intention is identical with that of the author of the
SL text.
The three typical reader types are perhaps the expert, the educated
layman, and the uninformed. You then have to consider whether you are
translating for the same or a different type of TL readership.
The quality of the writing and the authority of the text are two critical
factors in the choice of translation method.
The greater the quality of a languages resources (e.g. polysemy, wordplay, etc.) expended on a text, the more difficult it is likely to be to
translate.
Underline only the items where you see a translation problem, study
such an item first in context, then in isolation, and finally in context again.
CHAPTER 3
(1) You start translating sentence by sentence, for say the first paragraph or
chapter, and then you deliberately sit back, review the position, and read
the rest of the SL text.
(2) You read the whole text two or three times, and find the intention,
register, and start translating only when you have taken your bearings.
The second method is usually preferable. You may prefer the first approach
for a relatively easy text, the second for a harder one.
Your base level when you translate is the text. This is the level of the
literal translation.
You should not read a sentence without seeing it on the referential level.
For each sentence, when it is not clear, when there is an ambiguity, you
have to ask yourself: for what purpose? Can you see it in your mind? If
you cannot, you have to supplement the linguistic level, the text level
with the referential level, the factual level with the necessary additional
information from this level of reality.
You are working continuously on two levels, the real and the linguistic,
life and language.
There is a third level linking the first and the second level: the cohesive
level.
This cohesive level secures coherence. At this level, you reconsider the
lengths of paragraphs and sentences, the formulation of the title, etc.
For the vast majority of texts, you have to ensure: (a) that your
translation makes sense; and (b) that it reads naturally, by reading your
own translation as though no original existed.
(1) Word order: their placing often indicates the degree of emphasis.
(2) Common structures can be made unnatural by silly one-to-one
translation.
(3) Cognate words: many sound natural when you transfer them, and may
still have the wrong meaning.
(4) The appropriateness of gerunds, infinitives and verb-nouns.
You abandon the SL text, literal translation only when its use makes the
translation inaccurate, when it is unnatural.
Since the sentence is the basic unit of thought, the sentence is your unit
of translation.
The chief difficulties in translating are lexical, not grammatical, i.e. words,
collocations and fixed phrases and idioms.
Difficulties with words are of two kinds: (a) you do not understand them;
(b) you find them hard to translate.
Be accurate: you have no license to change words that have plain oneto-one translations just because you think they sound better than the
original.
CHAPTER 4
The three main functions of language are the expressive, the informative
and the vocative. These are the main purposes of using language.
The core of the expressive function is the mind of the speaker. He uses
the utterance to express his feelings.
Few texts are purely expressive, informative or vocative: most include all
three functions, with an emphasis on one of the three. However, strictly,
Metaphor is the link between the expressive and the aesthetic function.
10
CHAPTER 5
Translation Methods
Adaptation: This is the freest form of translation, used for plays and
poetry. The themes, characters, plots are preserved but the text is
rewritten.
11
Only semantic and communicative translation fulfill the two main aims of
translation, which are first, accuracy, and second, economy.
Translate as literally or as closely as you can, and then make sure you
have accounted for each word in the SL text. There are plenty of words
which for good reasons you may decide not to translate.
There are other definitions of translation methods, such as: plain prose
translation, which is the prose translation of poems. No sound-effects are
reproduced, the reader can appreciate the sense of the work without
experiencing equivalent effect.
12
CHAPTER 6
13
14
CHAPTER 7
Literal Translation
The only unit of translation is the text. Literal translation is correct and
must not be avoided, if the secures referential and pragmatic
equivalence to the original.
It may be useful to distinguish literal from word-for-word and one-to-one
translation. Word-for-word translation transfers SL grammar and word
order, into the translation, and it is normally effective only for brief simple
neutral sentences. In one-to-one translation, each SL word has a
corresponding TL word, but their primary (isolated) meanings may differ.
The longer the unit the rarer the extended one-to-one. Where there is
any kind of translation problem, literal translation is normally out of
question.
The translation of poetry is the field where most emphasis is normally put
on the creation of a new independent poem, and where literal translation
is usually condemned. A translation can be inaccurate; it can never be
too literal.
We must not be afraid of literal translation or in particular of using a TL
word which looks the same or nearly the same as the SL word.
Everything is translatable up to a point. There are often enormous
difficulties.
We do not translate isolated words; we translate words bound by their
syntactic, collocational, situational, cultural and individual idiolectal
contexts. Grammar is expressed only in words.
Elegant variations on literal or one-to-one translation are common and
sometimes satisfy the translators understandable wish to write in a style
or phrase that is entirely natural to him. They are not justified in semantic
or even communicative translation. They are a temptation for any
translator.
The validity of literal translation can sometimes be established by the
back-translation test. The back-translation test is not valid in the case of
SL or TL lexical gaps.
15
16
CHAPTER 8
17
equivalent, and the word is not important in the text, in particular for
adjectives or adverbs of quality.
The literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations,
the components of compounds and perhaps phrases, is known as
through-translation. Normally through-translations should be used only
when they are already recognized terms.
A shift is a translation procedure involving a change in the grammar
from SL to TL. One type, the change from singular to plural. A second
type of shift is required when an SL grammatical structure does not exist
in the TL. The third type of shift is the one where literal translation is
grammatically possible but may not accord with natural usage in the TL.
The fourth type of transposition is the replacement of a virtual of a virtual
lexical gap by a grammatical structure. Transposition is the only
translation is the only translation procedure concerned with grammar,
and most translators make transpositions intuitively.
Modulation. A variation through a change of viewpoint, of perspective
and very often of category of thought. Free modulations are used by
translators when the TL rejects literal translation.
Use the official or the generally accepted translation of any institutional
term.
Translation label is a provisional translation, usually of a new institutional
term, which should be made in inverted commas.
Compensation is said to occur when loss of meaning, sound-effect,
metaphor or pragmatic effect in one part of a sentence is compensated in
another part, or in a contiguous sentence.
Componential is the splitting up of a lexical unit into its sense
components, often one-to-two-three or four translations.
Reduction and Expansion are rather imprecise translation procedures.
Paraphrase is an amplification or explanation of the meaning of a
segment of the text. It is used in an anonymous text when it is poorly
written, or has important implications and omissions.
18
19
CHAPTER 9
Translation Culture
Culture is the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a
community that uses a particular language as its means of expression.
Most cultural words are easy to detect, since they are associated with a
particular language and cannot be literally translated.
A few general considerations govern the translation of all cultural words:
recognition of the cultural achievements referred to in the SL text, and
respect for all foreign countries and their cultures. The translator of a
cultural word, has to bear in mind both the motivation and the cultural
specialist and linguistic level of the readership.
Geographical features can be normally distinguished from other cultural
terms in that they are usually value-free, politically and commercially.
Food is for many the most sensitive and important expression of national
culture; food terms are subject to the widest variety of translation
procedures.
In considering social culture one has to distinguish between denotative
and connotative problems of translation.
The political and social life of a country is reflected in its institutional
terms. Name of ministries are usually literally translated, provided they
are appropriately descriptive. In general, the more serious and expert the
readership, particularly of textbooks, reports and academic papers, the
grater the requirement for transference.
The first principle is no to translate historical terms, whether the
translation makes sense or not, unless they have generally accepted
translations.
International terms usually have recognized translations which are in fact
through-translations, and are now generally known by their acronyms.
In religious language, the proselytizing activities of Christianity are
reflected in manifold translation. The translation of artistic terms referring
20
21
CHAPTER 10
Sense: the literal meaning of the metaphor; usually this consists of more
than one sense component. Usually the more original the metaphor, the
richer it is in sense components.
22
Whenever you meet a sentence that does not appear to make sense,
you have to test its apparently nonsensical element for a possible
metaphorical meaning.
23
24
CHAPTER 11
25
Normally you should include at least one descriptive and one functional
component.
Componential analysis is used for the words that have become symbols
of untranslatability and cultural consciousness (the American baseball,
the Italian pasta).
An ordered account of the cultural difference between two words with the
same referent but different pragmatic components is offered by
componential analysis.
26
CHAPTER 12
Grammar gives you the general and main facts about a text: statements,
questions, requests, purpose, reason, condition, time, place, doubt,
feeling, certainty. Lexis describes objects, actions and qualities; or,
roughly, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
There are four main categories of case-gaps: (1) mandatory; (2) implied;
(3) optional; and (4) supplementary.
27
The translator would normally fill in gaps for trivalent verbs only if the SL
text required clarification.
28
There are a large number of adjectives formed from verbs that imply
case-partners. Translators frequently prefer to supply the missing
partner.
29
CHAPTER 13
They are usually translated either by a word that already exists in the TL
or by a brief functional or descriptive term.
Nowadays, the main new coinages are brand or trade names. These are
usually transferred unless the product is marketed in the TL culture under
another name; or the proper name may be replaced by a functional or
generic term, if the trade name has no cultural or identifying significance.
30
They are generally trough-translated. However, this does not mean that
the translator can apply the process automatically. First, he has to assure
himself that the neologism is not in competition with another. He has to
consult the appropriate ISO glossary in order to find out whether there is
already a recognised translation; secondly, whether the referent exists in
the target-language culture; and thirdly how important it is, and therefore
whether it is worth transplanting it at all. He should put it into inverted
commas.
In all derived words you have to distinguish between terms which have a
slid referential basis and fulfil the conditions of internationalisms, and
those which do not at present warrant the formation of a TL neologism.
The computer terms are given their recognised translation if they do not
exist, you have to transfer them (if they appear important), and then add
a functional descriptive term- you have not the authority to devise your
own neologism.
31
When derived from peoples names (e.g. Keynesian), tend to rise and
fold depending on the popularity or vogue of their referent and easy of
composition. When they refer directly to the person, they are translated
without difficulty.
When derived from objects, eponyms are usually brand names, and can
be transferred only when they are equally well known and accepted in
the target language (e.g. nylon). Brand name eponyms usually have to
be translated by denotative terms (e.g. Bic ballpoint).
New eponyms deriving from geographical names appear to be rare. Most
commonly, they originate from the products of the relevant area. In
translation, the generic term is added until the product is well enough
known.
New phrasal words are restricted o Englishs facility in converting verbs
into nouns, and are translated by their semantic equivalent. They are
often more economical and informal than their translation.
Newly transferred words keep only one sense of their foreign
nationality, so they are the words whose meanings are less dependent
on the context. They are likely to be media or product neologisms and,
given the power of the media, they are common to several languages.
They are generally transferred together with a generic term and the level
of detail that the readership requires.
Acronyms: In translation, there is either a standard equivalent term or, if
it does not yet exist, a descriptive term.
Acronyms for institutions and names of companies are usually
transferred. When acronyms are as important in the source language as
in the target language, they may be different in both languages.
32
33
CHAPTER 14
Technical Translation
Technical translation is one part of specialised translation; institutional
translation is the other. Technical translation is potentially non-cultural,
therefore universal, the benefits of technology are not confined to one
speech community.
The terms should be translated; institutional
translation is cultural. Technical translation is distinguished from other
forms of translation by terminology.
It is usually free from emotive language, connotations, sound-effects and
original metaphor, if it is well written. The translators job is precisely to
eliminate these features.
The central difficulty in technical translation is usually the new
terminology. The best approach to an opaquely technical text is to
underline what appear to be its key terms when we first read it and then
look them up. The purpose of any new standardization is always to
establish a single one-to-one relationship between a referent and its
name. The less important the referent, the more likely the relationship is
to hold. As soon as the currency of the referent increases (owing to
more frequent use, greater importance, etc.) its name is likely to acquire
figurative senses.
(1) Academic: this includes transferred Latin and Greek words
associated with academic papers; (2) Professional: formal terms used by
experts; (3) Popular: Layman vocabulary, which may include familiar
alternative terms. These are general categories to which it is often
arbitrary to assign one or another term.
A Further problem is the distinction between technical and descriptive
terms. The original SL writer may use a descriptive term for a technical
object for three reasons: (1) The object is new, and has not yet got a
name; (2) The descriptive term is being used as a familiar alternative, to
avoid repetition; (3) The descriptive term is being used to make a
contrast with another one. Normally, the translator should translate
technical and descriptive terms by their counterparts and, in particular,
resist the temptation of translating a descriptive by a technical term for
the purpose of showing his knowledge, thereby sacrificing the linguistic
force of the SL descriptive term.
34
35
36
CHAPTER 15
Poetry is the most personal of the forms: no phatic language, the word
has greater importance than in any other type of text. The lexical units
and the lines have to be preserved within a context of corresponding
punctuation and accurate translation of metaphor.
However good as a translation, its meaning will differ in many ways from
the original. A successfully translated poem is always another poem.
37
In any modern version, the language must be kept modern and formal.
The short story is the second most difficult of the literary forms. The
translators version is likely to be longer than the original though, always,
the shorter the better.
Serious novels: the obvious problem is the importance of the sourcelanguage culture and the authors moral purpose to the reader.
38
CHAPTER 16
Reference
Books
and
their
Uses;
Tracing
the
Unfindable Word
The translator has to know where and how to find information. Bilingual
dictionaries are indispensable, but they normally require checking in at a
monolingual dictionary.
39
If the word is verified as a neologism, the translator has the choice of:
transference, new coinage, literal translation, cultural equivalent.
40
CHAPTER 17
Translation Criticism
The translator has to assess the quality of the language to determine the
translators degree of license.
41
42
CHAPTER 18
Shorter Items
Translators translate words, and they have to account for each of them
somewhere in the TL text, sometimes by deliberately not translating
them, or by compensating for them, because if words are translated cold,
then they are usually over-translated. This does not mean that translators
translate isolated words. They translate words that are more or less
linguistically, referentially, culturally and subjectively influenced in their
meaning, words conditioned by a certain linguistic, referential, cultural
and personal context.
The referential context relates to the topic of the text. Often only the topic
will determine the meaning of the word.
Then, there is the cultural context, which deals with words related to
ways of thinking and behaving within a particular language community. It
is important to point out that words may be cultural or universal denoting
a specific material cultural object.
Lastly, there is the individual context; that is to say, the idiolect of the
writer, the fact that we all use words and collocations in a way peculiar to
ourselves.
A translation into dialect runs the risk of being antiquated, therefore, the
translator should not reproduce it, but normalize it to the target language.
Computers are useful for translation, in particular for LSPs (languages for
special or specific purposes). However, its output needs some kind of
editing. Clearly, the more restricted the language and the greater the
proportion of standard or technical terms, the more likelihood there is of
MT being acceptable.
43
In many cases, particularly in translation, function precedes descriptionfor the majority of people, it is more important to know what something
does that what is consist of, and this emphasis is likely to be reflected in
translation. Nevertheless a purely functional theory of translation is
misguided. Sometimes the description includes significant cultural facts
and the TL reader should not be deprived of them. Normally function is
simpler, more concise than substance, and it is tempting for the
translator to substitute it for substance. However, he should do it only as
a last resource. Usually, a translation, if it is accurate, should have both
elements.
44
Translators may have to be considering carefully the reasons for the use
of a familiar alternative term before they translate it. It may be used in
order to avoid repetition, for phatic reasons or to show off that the SL
writer belongs to specific groups. It is essential for the translator to
distinguish between politically loaded and familiar alternative references.
45
Where the translator is certain that the SL writer has made a referential
slip, a linguistic slip (whether grammatical or lexical), he normally
corrects the slip
In all cases, the translator will adopt the authors register, and he can and
must justify modifications to the text only on the basis of its inadequacy.
Peoples names:
Names of Objects:
Geographical terms:
46
One makes a pun by using a word, or two words with the same sound or a
group of word with the same sound in their two possible, usually for the
purpose of arousing laughter or amusement, and sometimes also to
concentrate meaning.
47
CHAPTER 19
If students have three hours for a text, then they should develop a
technique which allows him or her to do the do a translational
analysis of the SL text in 15 minutes, do the whole translation in 2
hours and 10 minutes and leave 35 minutes for revision.
Try to make sense in everything you translate, unless you know the
text is purposely irrational.
Compare your version closely with the original, to check that you
have not missed anything.
Take into account that the more context-free word, the more it is
likely to be used in its primary meaning.
48
49
CHAPTER 20
By Way of Conclusion
3AM
Equipo 6:
Carina Brizuela
Brbara Cseres
Constanza Prez Ortiz
Carina Terracina
50