CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION STUDIES text or ST) in the original verbal language (the source language or SL) into

a written text (the target text or TT) in a different verbal language.

Translation Concepts
TRANSLATION - The English term translation that started in 1340 came for
Old French translation. The English word translation comes from the Latin CATEGORIES OF TRANSLATION PROPOSED BY JACOBSON
“translatio”. “Trans” translates as “across”, while “ferre” means to “to carry or
1. intralingual translation, or ‘rewording’ – ‘an interpretation of verbal signs
“to bring”, “latio” derives from “latus”, the past participle of “ferre”. Taking
by means of other signs of the same language’
these meanings together, our contemporary definition for translation is
“carrying across”, or “bringing across” 2. interlingual translation, or ‘translation proper’ – ‘an interpretation of
verbal signs by means of some other language’
3. intersemiotic translation, or ‘transmutation’ – ‘an interpretation of verbal
How does translation differ from interpretation?
signs by means of signs of non-verbal sign systems’.
Interpreting is defined as ‘a form of translation (in the wider sense) in which:
(a) the source language text is presented only once and thus cannot be
INTERSEMIOTIC TRANSLATION - The definitions draw on semiotics, the
reviewed or replayed, and
general science of communication through signs and sign systems, of which
(b) the target language text is produced under time pressure, with little chance language is but one. The use of the term semiotics is significant here because
for correction and revision. translation is not always limited to verbal languages. Intersemiotic
translation occurs when a written text is translated into a different mode,
such as music, film or painting.
MEANINGS OF TRANSLATION
INTERLINGUAL TRANSLATION - would occur when we produce a summary
1. The general field of phenomenon (I studied translation at university) or otherwise rewrite a text in the same language, say a children’s version of
an encyclopedia. It also occurs when we rephrase an expression in the same
2. The product – that is, the text that has been translated (‘they published the language. In the following example, revenue nearly tripled is a kind of
Arabic translation of the report’) intralingual translation of the first part of the sentence, a fact that is
3. The process of producing the translation, otherwise known as translating highlighted by the trigger expression in other words.
(‘translation service’). In the decade before 1989 revenue averaged around [NZ]$1 billion a year
TRANSLATION PROCESS - The process of translation between two different while in the decade after it averaged nearly [NZ]$3 billion a year – in other
written languages involves the changing of an original written text (the source words, revenue nearly tripled.
It is interlingual translation, between two different verbal sign systems, that EARLY HISTORY OF TRANSLATION
has been the traditional focus of translation studies.
While the practice of translation is long established, the study of the field
developed into an academic discipline only in the latter part of the twentieth
century. Before that, translation had often been relegated to an element of
WHAT IS TRANSLATION STUDIES?
language learning. In fact, from the late eighteenth century to the 1960s and
Values of Translation: beyond, language learning in secondary schools in many countries had come
to be dominated by what was known as grammar translation.
• Translation provide access to scholarship and religious purposes.
In the west, the different ways of translating were discussed by, among
• Benefits world trade others, Cicero and Horace and St Jerome [in the 4th century]
When did translation as a field of study start? Their writings were to exert an important influence up until the twentieth
The study of translation as an academic subject only really began in the century
second half of the twentieth century. In the English-speaking world, this In St Jerome’s case, his approach to translating the Greek Septuagint Bible
discipline is now generally known as ‘translation studies’ into Latin would affect later translations of the Scriptures.

TRANSLATION IS PROMINENT IN 4 WAYS: GRAMMAR TRANSLATION - Applied to Classical Latin and Greek and then
• Vast expansion in specialized translating and interpreting programs to modern foreign languages, this centered on the rote study of the
grammatical rules and structures of the foreign language. These rules were
• Proliferation of conferences, books and journals on translation in many both practiced and tested by the translation of a series of usually
languages unconnected and artificially constructed sentences exemplifying the
• Increased demand for general and analytical instruments such as structure(s) being studied. This is an approach that persists even today in
anthologies, databases, encyclopedias, handbooks and introductory texts certain contexts.

• International organizations have also prospered

CHAPTER 2: TRANSLATION THEORY BEFORE THE 20th CENTURY
Word-for-word or sense-for-sense?
The distinction between ‘word-for-word’ [literal] and ‘sense-for-sense’ [free]
translation goes back to Cicero (106–43 AC) and St Jerome (347–420 AC)
 • Latin, controlled by the Church in Rome, had a stranglehold over knowledge
and religion until challenged by the European Humanist movement of the
HOW JEROME POPULARIZED FREE TRANSLATION
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Word-for-word translation was then criticized. Horace was one of the critics. In
• The Humanists sought liberation from the power of the Church by
one of his works [Ars Poetica] he emphasized the goal of producing an
recovering the refinement of Classical Latin and Greek and their secular
aesthetically pleasing and creative poetic text in the TL. This had profound
writers, free from the changes wrought by the Middle Ages.
impact on Jerome. *
• In the early fifteenth century, the Protestant Reformation of northern
The terms word-for-word and sense-for-sense are credited to Jerome.
Europe, which was to lead to a huge schism within Christianity, began to
Jerome rejected the word-for-word approach because, by following so closely challenge Latin through the translation of the Bible into vernacular languages.
the form of the ST, it produced an absurd translation, hiding the meaning of
• The translation of any book which diverged from the Church’s interpretation
the original.
ran the risk of being deemed heretical and of being censured or banned.
The sense-for-sense approach, on the other hand, allowed the sense or
The mere act of translation could be considered a threat to the established
content of the ST to be translated.
order.

HUMANISM and THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

BIBLE TRANSLATORS WHO WERE EXECUTED
Within western society, issues of free and literal translation were for over a
William Tyndale – English Theologian Translator (c.1490–1536)
thousand years after Jerome were linked to the translation of the Bible and
other religious and philosophical texts. Tyndale’s English Bible translation, produced in exile, was later used as the
basis for the Geneva Bible (1560) and King James version (1611).
Prior to the invention of the printing press texts were copied resulting in
variant readings. Étienne Dolet - French humanist (1509–1546)
A sensitive religious text such as Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, which was not Dolet was condemned by the theological faculty of the Sorbonne in 1546,
actually accepted as official by the Roman Catholic Church until 1546, was apparently for adding, in his translation of one of Plato’s dialogues, the phrase
also unstable because of constant attempts to ‘correct’ it with alternative rien du tout (‘nothing at all’) in a passage about what existed after death. The
readings, the addition of glosses and so on. addition led to the charge of blasphemy, the assertion being that Dolet did not
believe in immortality. For such a translation ‘error’, he was burned at the
• Language and translation became the sites of a huge power struggle.
stake.
LUTHER’S LEGACY EARLY ATTEMPTS AT SYSTEMATIC TRANSLATION THEORY
Another notable example is Martin Luther’s crucially influential translation into During 17th century, apart from the Bible, translation into English was almost
East Central German of the New Testament (1522) and later the Old exclusively confined to verse renderings of Greek and Latin Classics.
Testament (1534).
At that time translation had come to be valued as an exercise in creativity and
CONTRIBUTION OF LUTHER TO LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT novelty, some of these renderings were extremely free.
Luther played a pivotal role in the Reformation while, linguistically, his use of
a regional yet socially broad dialect went a long way to reinforcing that variety
JOHN DRYDEN (1631–1700), whose brief description of the translation
of the German language as standard.
process would have enormous impact on subsequent translation theory and
LUTHER’S APPROACH TO TRANSLATION practice.
Luther follows St Jerome in rejecting a word-for-word translation strategy Dryden classified translation into 3 categories:
since it would be unable to convey the same meaning as the ST and would
1. Metaphrase - word by word and line by line’ translation, which
sometimes be incomprehensible.
corresponds to literal translation;
SAMPLE LUTHER’S TRANSLATION
2. Paraphrase - ‘translation with latitude, where the author is kept in view
“Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Luther’s version
by the translator, so as never to be lost, but his words are not so strictly
“With what the heart is full, the mouth overflows.”
followed as his sense’; this involves changing whole phrases and more
or less corresponds to faithful or sense-for-sense translation;

FIDELITY, SPIRIT, and TRUTH 3. Imitation - forsaking’ both words and sense; this corresponds to very
FIDELITY was once thought as literal or word-for-word translation. free translation and is more or less what today might be understood as
adaptation.
At the end of 17th century, it came to be understood as faithfulness to the
meaning rather that to the words of the author.
DOLET’S PRINCIPLE OF TRANSLATION
SPIRIT - used in the sense of the creative energy of a text or language.
• The translator must perfectly understand the sense and material of the
TRUTH – sense of content. original author, although he should feel free to clarify obscurities.
• The translator should have a perfect knowledge of both SL and TL, so as organizes the world differently. Languages do not simply name existing
not to lessen the majesty of the language. categories, they articulate their own.”(Culler 1976 :21–22)
• The translator should avoid word-for-word renderings. WORD – the smallest unit of language that can be used by itself.
• The translator should avoid Latinate and unusual forms. We think of the word as the basic meaningful element in a language. This is
not strictly accurate.*Are there smaller units that carry meaning?
• The translator should assemble and liaise words eloquently to avoid
clumsiness. Is there a one-to-one relationship between word and meaning?
If you consider the word rebuild, what elements of the word have meaning?
TYLER’S GENERAL RULES OF TRANSLATION re – build
• The translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original Elements of meaning which are represented by several orthographic words in
work. one language may be represented by one orthographic word in another and
vice versa.
• The style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of
the original. ENGLISH TURKISH
• The translation should have all the ease of the original composition. tennis player tenisçi
ENGLISH JAPANESE
CHAPTER 3: EQUIVALENCE AT WORD LEVEL if it is cheap yasukattara
THE WORD AT DIFFERENT LANGUAGES - “If language were simply a SPANISH ENGLISH
nomenclature for a set of universal concepts, it would be easy to translate
pasar a maquina type
from one language to another. One would simply replace the French name for
a concept with the English name. If language were like this the task of
learning a new language would also be much easier than it is.”
INTRODUCING MORPHEMES - In order to isolate elements of meaning in
EQUIVALENCE AT WORD LEVEL - “But anyone who has attempted either words and deal with them more effectively, some linguists have suggested the
of these tasks has acquired, alas, a vast amount of direct proof that term morpheme to describe the
languages are not nomenclatures, that the concepts . . . of one language may
differ radically from those of another. . . . Each language articulates or minimal formal element of meaning in language, as distinct from word, which
may or may not contain several elements of meaning.
An important difference between morphemes and words is that a morpheme Expressive meaning cannot be judged as true or false
cannot contain more than one element of meaning and cannot be further
TO ILLUSTRATE: The difference between Don’t complain and Don’t whinge
analyzed.
does not lie in their propositional meanings but in the expressiveness of
LEXICAL MEANING - The lexical meaning of a word or lexical unit may be whinge, which suggests that the speaker finds the action annoying.
thought of as the specific value it has in a particular linguistic system and the
So, what’s the point?
‘personality’ it acquires through usage within that system.
Two or more words or utterances can therefore have the same
propositional meaning but differ in their expressive meanings.
TYPES OF MEANING IN WORDS AND UTTERANCES
This is true not only of words and utterances within the same language, where
1. Propositional meaning such words are often referred to as synonyms or near-synonyms, but also for
2. Expressive meaning words and utterances from different languages.
3. Presupposed meaning
ENGLISH: Famous is (normally) neutral in English; it has no inherent
4. Evoked meaning
evaluative meaning or connotation
PROPOSITIONAL vs EXPRESSIVE MEANING
FRENCH: Fameux, is potentially evaluative and can be readily used in some
PROPOSITIONAL MEANING of a word arises from the relation between it contexts in a derogatory way (for example, une femme fameuse means,
and what it refers to or describes in a real or imaginary world, as conceived by roughly, ‘a woman of ill repute’
the speakers of the particular language to which the word or utterance
It is worth noting that differences between words in the area of expressive
belongs.
meaning are not simply a matter of whether an expression of a certain attitude
EX: A shirt is a piece of clothing worn on the upper part of the body. or evaluation is inherently present or absent in the words in question. The
same attitude or evaluation may be expressed in two words or utterances in
It is inaccurate to use shirt, under normal circumstances, to refer to a piece of
widely differing degrees of forcefulness.
clothing worn on the foot, such as a sock.
Compare: unkind cruel
When a translation is described as ‘inaccurate’, it is often the propositional
meaning that is being called into question.
PRESUPPOSED MEANING - arises from co-occurrence restrictions, that is,
restrictions on what other words or expressions we expect to see before or
EXPRESSIVE MEANING - Relates to the speaker’s feelings or attitude rather
after a particular lexical unit.
than to what words and utterances refer to.
TWO TYPES OF RESTRICTIONS 3. Social (words and structures used by members of different social classes:
cf. scent and perfume, napkin and serviette ) .
Selectional restrictions: these are a function of the propositional meaning of
a word. We expect a human subject for the adjective studious and an REGISTER - is a variety of language that a language user considers
inanimate one for geometrical. Selectional restrictions are deliberately appropriate to a specific situation. Register variation arises from variations
violated in the case of figurative language but are otherwise strictly observed. along the following parameters:
Collocational restrictions: these are semantically arbitrary restrictions which • Field of discourse : this is an abstract term for ‘what is going on’ that is
do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of a word. For instance, relevant to the speaker’s choice of linguistic items.
laws are broken in English, but in Arabic, they are ‘contradicted’.
• Tenor of discourse : this is an abstract term for the relationships between
In English, teeth are brushed, but in German and Italian, they are ‘polished’; in the people taking part in the discourse.
Polish, they are ‘washed’ and in Russian, they are ‘cleaned’. Because they
• Mode of discourse : this is an abstract term for the role that the language is
are arbitrary, collocational restrictions tend to show more variation across
playing (speech, essay, lecture, instructions) and for its medium of
languages than do selectional restrictions.
transmission (spoken, written). Linguistic choices are influenced by these
Dear Sir dimensions. For example, a word such as re is perfectly appropriate in a
business letter or as part of the subject line in an email communication, but it
I am very pleased that you have selected one of our garments. You have
is rarely,if ever, used in spoken English.
made a wise choice, as suits, jackets and trousers eminating from our
Company are amongst the finest products Europe has to offer.
THE PROBLEM OF NON-EQUIVALENCE
EVOKED MEANING - arises from dialect and register variation. A dialect is a Factors Affecting the Choice of Equivalence
variety of language which has currency within a specific community or group
Extralinguistic and Linguistic
of speakers.
Dialect may be classified on one of the following bases:
SEMANTIC FIELDS AND LEXICAL SETS
1. Geographical (e.g., a Scottish dialect or American as opposed to British
English: cf. the difference between lift and elevator ) . Semantic field is group of words with related meaning. The words in a
semantic field are usually part of a category, such as agricultural words or
2. Temporal (e.g., words and structures used by members of different age
weather words.
groups within a community or words used at different periods in the history of
a language: cf. verily and really ) .
Each semantic field will normally have several sub-divisions or lexical sets LIMITATION OF SEMANTIC FIELD - A large number of words in any
under it, and each sub-division will have further sub-divisions and lexical sets. language is difficult to classify under one heading.
EX. of semantic fields: Examples:
• speech just
• plants nevertheless
• vehicles only
The actual words and expressions under each field are sometimes called Areas in which an understanding of semantic fields and lexical sets can be
lexical sets useful to a translator:
Each semantic field will normally have several sub-divisions or lexical sets • appreciating the ‘value’ that a word has in a given system;
under it, and each sub-division will have further sub-divisions and lexical sets.
• developing strategies for dealing with non-equivalence.
Example:
A. Understanding the difference in the structure of semantic fields in the
Field: speech source and target languages allows a translator to assess the value of a given
item in a lexical set.
Subdivision: verbs (speak) of speech (say)
Take the case of the field TEMPERATURE
General: speak say
Specific: mumble, murmur, mutter
Division in English:
ISSUES:
Cold, cool
• It seems that the more detailed a semantic field is in a language, the more
different it is likely to be from related semantic fields in other languages. Hot, warm
• There tends to be more agreement among languages on the larger In Arabic:
headings of semantic fields and less agreement as the sub-fields become
baarid (‘cold/cool’)
more finely differentiated.
haar (‘hot: of the weather’)
saakhin (‘hot: of objects’)
daafi (‘warm’) Ex: kehujanan (going out in the rain without the knowledge that it is raining)
B. Semantic fields are arranged hierarchically, going from the more general to hujanhujanan (going out in the rain with the knowledge that it is raining)
the more specific. The general word is usually referred to as superordinate
5. The target language lacks a specific term (hyponym)
and the specific word as hyponym.
6. Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective
What’s the point?
7. Differences in expressive meaning
While not always straightforward or applicable, the notion of semantic fields
can provide the translator with useful strategies for dealing with 8. Differences in form
nonequivalence in some contexts. It is also useful in heightening our
awareness of similarities and differences between any two languages and of 9. Differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms
the significance of any choice made by a speaker or writer in a given context.

STRATEGIES USED BY PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATORS

COMMON PROBLEMS OF NONEQUIVALENCE 1. Translation by a more general word
1. Culture-specific concepts. Ex: bayanihan 2. Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word
2. The source-language concept is not lexicalized in the target language. 3. Translation by cultural substitution
Examples: 4. Translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation
• savory • standard • landslide 5. Translation by paraphrase using a related word
3. The source-language word is semantically complex 6. Translation by omission
Examples: 7. Translation by illustration
Pang-ilan?
euthanasia
dillema
4. The source and target languages make different distinctions in meaning