 translation has several meanings – it may cover the area of translation studies itself, it may

refer to the finished product, namely the translated text or it may refer to the translation
process, namely the act of producing a translated text.

The first sense covers the translation process, while the second one covers the translated text, the
product of the translation process, which means that the term translation can be viewed from two
different perspectives.

 translation: a loose term which may be understood in various ways. For instance, one can
speak about translation as a product or a process and one can identify various types of
translations, such as: literary translation, technical translation; subtitling; machine-translation,
a.s.o. As a rule, the term translation refers to the transposition of written texts; sometimes, the
term also covers oral translation, namely interpretation.
 translation: 1. an interlinguistic transfer procedure which covers the interpretation of the
meaning of the ST and the production of a TT in order to establish a relation of equivalence
between the two texts, while observing the parameters inherent to communication as well as
the constraints imposed by the translator; 2. any product created by the application of this
procedure; 3. a profession which covers the transfer of ideas expressed in writing from one
language into another one in order to establish a communication relation between two or
several languages.

In his work entitled On linguistic aspects of translation Roman Jakobson described three categories of
translations:

a) intralinguistic translation, or „reformulation”, defined as „the interpretation of verbal signs by

means of other verbal signs in the same language”

eg. He is expected to come tomorrow. / We expect him to come tomorrow. /It is expected of him to
come tomorrow

b)interlinguistic translation, namely translation proper, defined as the „interpretation of verbal signs by
means of the verbal signs from another language”

eg. He is expected to come tomorrow. / We expect him to come tomorrow. /It is expected of him to
come tomorrow

Este asteptat maine. / Ne astepatam sa vina maine. / (Lumea) se asteapta ca el sa vina maine.

c) semiotic translation, or „transmutation”, defined as the „interpretation of verbal signs by signs

originating in non-verbal systems”

eg. Traffic signs/lights; nodding one’s head; pointing one’s finger to one direction;

In fact, what is important is to define the area covered by the term translation conceptually speaking:
1. the transfer of a written text from the SL into the TL, made by a translator against a specific social
and cultural background
2. the written product, namely the translated text which results from the process mentioned under 1.
and which operates against the social and cultural context of the TL
3. the cognitive, linguistic, visual, cultural and ideological phenomena which are inherent components
of points 1. and 2.

James S. Holmes

Holmes establishes the objectives of this study, as follows:

a) the description of the phenomenon represented by the translation act and by the translation
product as manifested in our experience
b) the establishment of general principles which can explain or predict this pehomenon
Subsequent studies have shown that there are two rather general trends:

1) the law of enhanced standardization – as a rule, translated texts evince less linguistic variation
than ST
2) the law of interference – there is a trend to copy syntactic and lexical structures typical of the
SL into the TL, this creating unusual structures in the TL
I n f a c t , Robinson believes there is little use in trying to write interestingly about things one
has never tried to actually do. To paraphrase a well-known saying, it would be a mere case of
“Those who can, do; those who can't, teach... or theorize.” Peter Newmark has also played around
with this saying at some point, and he paraphrased it as follows: “Those who can, translate.
Those who cannot, teach translation theory, learning hopefully from their mistakes.”

Translation unit /unit of translation

The term „translation unit” refers to the linguistic level where the ST is reencoded into the TL, in other
words it is the translator’s working unit in the ST. We may be speaking about words, phrases,
sentences or whole texts.

Ferdinand de Saussure was the first one to speak about the linguistic sign as a unit between the two –
the signifier, that is the phonetic image of the word and the signified, namely the conceptual image of
the world. De Saussure emphasizes the idea that the linguistic sign is arbitrary by nature, and its
meaning is apparent by opposition to other signs belonging to the same system, namely language (eg.
tree, copac, arbore).

Lexicological unit

The lexicological unit described by Vinay and Dalbernet contains „all lexical items grouped so as to
make up a single unit of thought”. For instance, simple soldat in French and private in English, or
soldat neinstruit in Romanian which illustrate the lack of correspondence at word level despite the fact
that traditional dictionaries are organised based on the title-words of the dictionary entry, which are
then detailed depending on their various senses.

Unit of thought
Vinay and Dalbernet define the unit of thought as „the smallest segment of the sentence whose signs
are connected in such a way so that they could not be translated individually”.

There is a problem related to the Romanian equivalents of a number of concepts ( outbreak, foot-and-
mouth disease) as well the problem of register and the degree of politeness involved by the English
text.In other words, the unit of translation does not coincide with the word, but it rather coincides with
the units of thought (semantic units).

As James Holmes translation theories will be divided into two periods, pre-1972 and post-1972.

THEORIES OF TRANSLATION BEFORE 1972.

 word for word

 sense for sense

Ancient Rome. Cicero and Horace.

 formulated the distinction between word for word and sense for sense translation.
 In his turn, Horace underlines the idea that the translator’s aim is to produce in the TL an
aesthetically pleasant, creative text. Their opinions have greatly influenced all the following
centuries.

St. Jerome

 He is best known for his translation of the Bible into Latin, known as the Vulgate, from
the Greek and Hebrew originals, which remained the standard text of the Bible for many
centuries.
 St.Jerome states that he did not go for a word-for-word translation, but a sense for sense one,
even if the very syntax of the Scripture contains a mystery
 The saint chose this solution as the word-for-word translation resulted in absurd TL structures
which made the sense even more obscure. It is the sense-for-sense translation which clarifies
the meaning or content of the SL.

Martin Luther

 is famously known as the first and most prominent leader of the Protestant Reformation in
the sixteenth century
 During these times, there was a tendency among Bible translators to treat the sacred text with
reverence and great caution, so as not to distort its meaning. They could not really do
otherwise, as the Roman Catholic Church was highly concerned about protecting the “correct‘
meaning of the Bible. So translations generally aimed at formal equivalence, where
faithfulness to the text was the top priority.
 The main idea was to provide each and every man with access to the Scriptures in a
language that they could understand.
 This was not very well received by the Church, and translators of the Bible were
sometimes persecuted and executed as heretics, and their translations were banned.
 Non-literal translation was seen as blasphemy, a weapon against the Church. It was not that
the Church did not want people to read the Bible, their concern was related more to the
way in which it was translated.
PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION:

-the translator should inquire how the common people would use the language, and use language in
a similar way;

-translator is to translate into the nature of the German language;

-translators are to have a great store of words for each word or expression in the original because one
vernacular word may not fit all contexts;

-the exact literal translation may in special cases have to be retained, where important issues depend
on precise terminology;

-the translator must take into account the immediate contextual meaning in light of the author‘s whole
message;

-it is necessary (and right) to translate as plainly and fully as possible.

Martin Luther was accused of having added various words in hid translation which did not exist in the
original and which altered the meaning of the Latin version of the text, creating implications which
contradicted the generally accepted religious interpretation.

Just like St. Jerome, Luther rejected the word-for-word translation, whcih he considered unable to
convey the same meaning as the ST.

Étienne Dolet

 Dolet was actually tried and burned at the stake for heresy because of a “mistranslation” of
one of Plato‘s dialogues
 he would have added the expression „rien du tout” to a passage on life after death. The
translator was charged with blasphemy as he was suspected not to believe in immortality

PRINCIPLES FOR THE TRANSLATOR:

-The translator must fully understand the sense and meaning of the original author, although he is at
liberty to clarify obscurities.

-The translator should have a perfect knowledge of both SL and TL.

-The translator should avoid word-for-word renderings.

-The translator should use forms of speech in common use.

-The translator should choose and order words appropriately to produce the correct tone.

 a particular emphasis on the importance of understanding the source text, while also warning
against the practice of word-for-word renderings.

John Denham

 he warns against the use of literal translation in the translation of poetry.

  the translator's duty to his source text to extract what he perceives as the essential core of
the work and to reproduce or recreate the work in the target language.

Abraham Cowley

 also denounced literal translation

 Cowley even went further and assumed a more liberal attitude towards translation

John Dryden ???

THREE CATEGORIES OF TRANSLATIONS:

 the metaphrase, namely the „word-for-word or line-for-line” translation, which correspondas

to literal translation
 the paraphrase – ‚translation with latitude” where the author is taken into account by the
translator, so as not to lose sight of him, but what is followed more strictly is the sense and
not his words – such a translation involves latering whole sentences and roughly
corresponds to the sense-for-sense translation of faithful translation
 imitation –leaving bothe the sense snd thw ords aside, which would correspond to the free
translation and would roughly mean adaptation
CRITERIA:
-to master both the author‘s language and their own,

-to understand the particular turns of thought and of expression of the original author,

- to conform to the aesthetic canons of their own age by taking care of the “outward ornaments‘,
the words.

Alexander Fraser Tytler

PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION:

I. That the Translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work.

II. That the style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original.

III. That the Translation should have all the ease of original composition.

 he was critical of his extensive use of paraphrase, which at times led to exaggeratedly loose
translations.
 the translator must adopt the very soul of his author, which must speak through his own
organs
 “good translation”= “a translation in which the merits of the original work have been
transposed so well into another language that it is understood and perceived by a native
speaker of the language into which the work ahs been translated as intensely as the work in
its original language”
PRINCIPLES FOR THE TRANSLATORS :

 as it refers to the idea that the translator must have perfect knowledge of the original, be
competent on the topic and render the author’s sense and meaning with fidelity.
 the second principle, refers to the author’s style, but also involves the fact that the
translator nmust identify the very nature of the style and have the ability and the right
taste to recreate it in the TL.
 third principle refers „the ease of the original composition”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 departs from all the previous theories presented so far

 new concept of “originality‘ in translation, together with a vision of universal deep structures
 is moving dangerously close to a theory of untranslatability.

Wilhelm von Humboldt

 Humboldt was not against fidelity in translation

 every good translation should grow out of a simple and modest love of the original.
 translator‘s task is precisely to use this ability to build up, educate, cultivate or create his or
her national language, or rather, his or her nation. This simply means that the translator‘s
fidelity is, in the final analysis, a patriotic virtue, a loyalty to the nation.

August Wilhelm von Schlegel???

 very much depended on the relation between the two languages involved in the translation
process, and his main interest lay in presenting the actual work undertaken with the original
text and its translations.
 Schlegel did not consider literal translation to be necessarily a good translation, as in his
view translators had to be able to translate the spirit of the text.
 in order to translate a text from a different culture, the translator needed to maintain the text's
naturalness, and could not convert it into something strange; in that context, there was no
need to violate the language or to invent a new language

Friedrich von Schlegel

 brother of August Wilhelm von Schlegel, but his views on translation were somewhat
different.
 the translator “as a creative genius in his own right, in touch with the genius of his original and
enriching the literature and language into which he is translating.”
 setting of new standards for literary translation
 the transfer of meaning on the basis of an awareness of difference.

Friedrich Schleiermacher

between two types of translators, who work with two different types of texts:
 a) „Dolmetscher” – he who translates commercial texts
b) „Ubersetzer” – he who translates artistic and theoretical texts
 two possible methods of translation: a) either the translator leaves the author in peace as much
as possible and moves the reader toward him; or b) he leaves the reader in peace as much as
possible and moves the writer toward him.
 proposes a solution that the translator can use to bring the reader closer to the author, and that
would be using the plasticity of language.
 if the language into which a translation is done does not possess the right words and concepts
for rendering the original, the translator can bend the language of the translation as far
possible towards that of the original in order to communicate as far as possible an impression
of the system of concepts developed in it.

The translator must use the foreign elements in the ST and transfer them into the TL. It is an approach
which has at least two consequences:

1. if the translator wants to communicate the same impression created by the ST, the impression
depends on the level of education and understanding of the target readership, which may be
different from the translator’s
2. a special translation language may be necessary, namely the translator must compensate at
some point using a very imaginative word, while somewhere else he must be content with a
poorer expression which cannot convey the impression created in the foreign language.
 the readers to understand the original, they “must perceive the spirit of the language which was
the author‘s own and be able to see his peculiar way of thinking and feeling.”
 Schleiermacher contradicted that long-standing idea by positing the impossibility of a
faithful transfer of a text from the source to the target culture and language.

Ezra Pound

 what Alexander calls “copies‘, which stick close to the original, and what he calls “remakes‘,
which edit and reshape the original, and cast it into the English style Pound chooses or forges
for it.
 each translation is a kind of criticism of the original translations should be new poems in
their own right, and they should be artistically well-done.

THEORIES OF TRANSLATION AFTER 1972

Theodore Savory - a number of translation principles, some of them quite contradictory:

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 translator.

7 A translation should read as a contemporary of the original.

8 A translation should read as a contemporary of the translator.

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.

Linguistic Theories of Translation.

 emerged in the late ‘50s

 The general purpose was to establish the boundaries of the linguistic aspects of the translator‘s
task: meaning, equivalence and shift.

Roman Jakobson

 classified translation into three categories:

- Intralingual translation or rewording, which is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of

other signs of the same language.

- Interlingual translation or translation proper, which is an interpretation of verbal signs by means

of some other language.

- Intersemiotic translation or transmutation, which is an interpretation of verbal signs by means

of signs of nonverbal sign systems.

 meaning and equivalence are linked to the interlingual form of translation, which
―involves two equivalent messages in two different codes.
  It is the role of the translator to decide how to carry out the translation.
 claims that it is possible to understand what a word signifies even if we have no real
experience of the concept or object.
 shows that „usually there is no total equivalence between the units of the code”. For instance,
at the beginning of the 1990s, the English code unit cheese and the Romanian code unit
branza were not identical as the Romanian term did not cover the concept of cottage cheese.
 the differences between languages focus around some obligatory grammatical and lexical
categories: „ essential differenves between languages pertain to what they must convey no to
what they can convey”. For example:

In terms of gender , the noun house is feminine in Romance languages, neuter in German, while in
English gender is irrelevant
In terms of grammatical aspect – the differences between languages lies in the fact that there are
labguages which have a progressive aspect and languages that do not
In semantic terms – the English term siblings can be translated into Romanian as fraţi şi surori or only
fraţi.
The verb to be / a fi which is generally expressed as a single lexical item in most languages, in
Spanish it is expressed by two verbs, namely ser and estar, while in Russian it is not explicitly used in
the Present Tense
 only poetry in untranslatable because in the case of poetry the form conveys meaning,
therefore the translation of poetry requires some kind of creatice transposition.

Eugene Nida

 a word acquires meaning in context and can generate various reactions depending on the
cultural environment in which it is used.
 hierarchical structuring, namely differentiating series of words depending on the level
where they occur (for instance the noun animal which is a hypernim and the words goat, dog,
cow which are its hyponyms).
 componential analysis which identifies or delimits the specific features of a series of related
words.
 the importance of the context for communication, especially when it comes to metaphoric
meaning or cultural idioms, where the meaning of the expression is different from the sumtotal
of the separate lexical items (beat somebody black and blue; let the cat out of the bag).
 Dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence have often been understood as fundamentally
the same as sense-for-sense translation and word-for-word translation,the idea is that the
translator should translate so that the effect of the translation on the target reader is roughly
the same as the effect of the source text once was on the source reader.
 content should come first in translation
  formal translators who focus more on forms of poetry, for instance, are more likely to
misinterpret the "intention of the author", and more apt to "distort the meaning"
 of componential analysis that could be used to gauge the degree of equivalence between
words, and thus ensure their correct translation.
 His theory on the code-model of communication is based on two fundamental assumptions:
(a) any message can be communicated to any audience in any language provided that the
most effective form of expression is found; (b) humans share a core of universal experience
which makes such communication possible.
 employs two models of communication. The simpler of the two is composed of only three
elements: source, message, and receptor.
Peter Newmark
 concepts of communicative translation and semantic translation:

Communicative translation – attempts to create on the readership an effect as close as possible to the
one on the original readership (some resemblace to Nida’s dynamic equivalence)
Semantic translation – attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original as closely as
possible, to the extant allowed by the syntactic and semantic structures of the second language (some
resemblance to Nida’s formal equivalence)
 Semantic translation stays closer to the original text, and is recommended when the distinctive
style of the original author is thought to be worth preserving.
 Communicative translation can depart further from the original, and the result may look no
different from any non-translated text in the target language.

THE METHODS OF TRANSLATION:

Word-for-word translation: in which the SL word order is preserved and the words translated singly
by their most common meanings, out of context.
Literal translation: in which the SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL
equivalents, but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context.
Faithful translation: it attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning of the original within
the constraints of the TL grammatical structures.

Semantic translation: which differs from 'faithful translation' only in as far as it must take more
account of the aesthetic value of the SL text.
Adaptation: which is 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.
Free translation: it produces the TL text without the style, form, or content of the original.
Idiomatic translation: it 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.
Communicative translation: it 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

On the other hand, he lists the following translation procedures:

Transference: it is the process of transferring an SL word to a TL text. It includes transliteration.

Naturalization: it adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then to the normal
morphology of the TL.
Cultural equivalent: it means replacing a cultural word in the SL with a TL one. However, "they are
not accurate".
Functional equivalent: it requires the use of a culture-neutral word.
Descriptive equivalent: in this procedure the meaning of the culture-bound term is explained in
several words.
Componential analysis: it means "comparing an SL word with a TL word which has a similar
meaning but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent, by demonstrating first their common
and then their differing sense components." Synonymy: it is a "near TL equivalent." Here economy
trumps accuracy.
Through-translation: it is the literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations and
components of compounds. It can also be called: calque or loan translation.

Shifts or transpositions: it involves a change in the grammar from SL to TL, for instance, (i)
change from singular to plural, (ii) the change required when a specific SL structure does not exist
in the TL, (iii) change of an SL verb to a TL word, change of an SL noun group to a TL noun and
so forth.
Modulation: it occurs when the translator reproduces the message of the original text in the TL
text in conformity with the current norms of the TL, since the SL and the TL may appear dissimilar in
terms of perspective.
Recognized translation: it occurs when the translator "normally uses the official or the generally
accepted translation of any institutional term."
Compensation: it occurs when loss of meaning in one part of a sentence is compensated in another
part.
Paraphrase: in this procedure the meaning of the CBT is explained. Here the explanation is much
more detailed than that of descriptive equivalent.
Couplets: it occurs when the translator combines two different procedures.

 the tradition too often and too readily dismissed literal translation when it might have been
the best solution at hand.
 Parameter Semantic translation Communicative translation

Focus on the thinking processes of Subjective, focus on the TT

the transmitter as an individual; it reader, specific language and
Focus on the transmitter
must only help the TT reader culture-oriented
/receiver
decode some connotations if they
are an essential part of the message

It keeps to the SL culture Transfers foreign elements to the

TL culture
Culture

Not fixed in time and space; the Ephemeral; rooted in the

translation has to be redone with contemporary context
Period and origin
every new generation

Always inferior to the ST; loss of May be better that the ST; may
meaning gaib force and clarity even if
Relationship with the ST
there is loss of semantic content

Use of the SL form If the SL norms are abnormal, these Respect for the SL form; but goes
abnormalities must be reproduced beyonf loylaty to the TL norms
in the TT; loyalty to the ST

TL form More complex, awkward, detailed, Soother, simpler, clearer and

concentrated, a tendency to more direct, more conventional, a
overtranslate tendency to undertranslate

For serious literature, For most texts, such as

autobiographies, personal effusions, non0literary texts, technical and
Adequacy
important political statements informative ones, publicity,
standardized texts, popular
literature

Accuracy of the ST sense rendition Accuracy of the conveyance of

the SL message into the TL
Assessment criterion

 But, if there is a conflict between the two forms of translation, namely if the semantic
translation resulted into an abnormal TL text, the communicative translation should be used.
(For instance the Romanian warning Câine rău cannot be semantically translated into
 English as Bad Dog, but communicative translation has to be resorted to, namely Beware the
dog).
 any translation are the words, but not as isolated pieces of the text, independently
transferred, but as connected elements, the (syntactical, collocational, situational, cultural)
relations which trigger meaning.

Jean-Paul Vinay & Jean Darbelnet

 criticised for their view on literal translation and blamed for recommending it too warmly to
translators.
 the principle of compensation, namely the recovery in a different part of the text of what
could not be translated in another part of the text. They limit compensation only to adjacent
parts of the text, namely compensation operates only a few words away from the segment
which caused problems.
 Eg. Play upon words. If the subject of the text obliges the translator to use a play upon words
and the TL does not have the words to be used, than it is untranslatable.
 French – Le socialisme français est un cadavre exquis. The last two words may be
interpreted literally, as ‚good-looking corpse’, as French socialisme id dead, but they may also
be interpreted figuratively, meaning that French socialialism was a mixture of conflciting
tendencies. Apprently, there is no way to adequately translate this play upon words. So, the
suggestion was made that the translator should use a play upon words in another section of the
text to compensate for the loss.
 Vinay and Dalbernet classify translation procedures into two categories: direct or literal
translation and indirect, or oblique translation. They further identify three direct translation
procedures – borrowing, calque and literal translation - and four types of oblique
translation – transposition, modulation, equivalence, adaptation.

Borrowing is the simplest form of translation the aim of which is to overcome a lexical gap, but
also to create a stylistic effect by rendering the local colour. According to Vinay and Dalbernet,
borrowed words usually penetrate a certain language through translations and they may become so
familiar that they are no longer perceived as borrowings.
 Eg. The term sputnik which the Western press borrowed from Russian when the Russians
launched their first space satellite; glasnost (openness), perestroika(recosntruction),
nomenklatura.
 Eg. marketing, leader, soft, etc

Calque is a “special kind of borrowing‘ which consists in borrowing an expression from another
language and translating it element by element. Vinay and Dalbernet distinguish between lexical
calque, which observes the syntactic structure of the target text and introduces a new mode of
expression and structural calque, which introduces a new construction in the target language.

 Eg. weekend – sfârşit de săptămână; House of Commons – Camera Comunelor; Skyscraper –

zgârienori

Literal translation, also called word-for-word translation, is the direct transfer of the original text
while observing the grammatical rules of the target text. It is also important to note that in principle,
literal translation may be tested by means of back-translation. This strategy of translation is
facilitated when the source and the target language belong to the same family (such as Romance
languages) and having similar cultures.
 Eg. I have a headache – Am o durere de cap (the natural form in Romanian is Mă doare
capul) Vinay şi Dalbernet call the form Mă doare capul oblique translation or transposition.
It is used when literary translation

- Creates a different meaning

- Is meaningless

- Is impossible from the point of view of the language structure

- Does not have a corespondent within the TL metalinguistics

- Has a correspondent in the TL but not at the same language level

Transposition implies the replacement of a word category by another, while preserving the meaning
of the message (grammar changes) This strategy may be used also within the same language, where a
common phrase or sentence may be transposed to another one, less common. It is important to note
that transposition can be obligatory or optional
 Eg.L’économie n’a cessé de croître. translated as The economy did not stop growing. When
it should ahve been translated as a Verb+Adverb in Englisgh, namely The economy grew
steadily.

Modulation is a variation of the form of the message, obtained by a change in the point of view. Its
use is justified whenever a literal or transposed translation would result in a grammatical but awkward
utterance in the target text. Again, modulation may be either optional (free) or obligatory (fixed).
Unlike optional modulation, fixed modulation is mentioned and acknowledged in dictionaries. An
optional modulation may become fixed if it is extensively used and eventually documented in
dictionaries. (in fact, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche).

 Eg. give a pint of blood – donner un peu de votre sang (abstract – concrete)
 Don’t be a stranger – On ne se voit plus (effect – cause)
  You can have it – je vous le laisse (reversal of terms)
 Don’t get so excited – Linişteşte-te (negative opposites)

Equivalence means that the same situation may be expressed through different means from one
language to another and various strategies are employed to produce a target text equivalent to the
source text. In Vinay and Dalbernet‘s opinion, the most eloquent cases of equivalence are
onomatopoeia, proverbs and idioms.
 Eg. as thick as two short planks (very stupid)

Adaptation, or situational equivalence, is a special instance of equivalence where a situation

unknown to the target language and culture must be transposed.
 Eg. white as snow – the translation would sound absurd in a culture which does not know
snow
 the translation startegies into three major categories:

- Those covering the vocabulary (aspects of the vocabulary)

- The way in which words combine in sentences (syntax)
- The message, connected to factors such as situation, context, contextual meaning,
stylistic effect, the impact of the view of the world, the impact of the different
perspectives on the conceptyal structure and the presentation of the information. It
also include cultural references (specificity, transferability, translatability into the TL)

John C. Catford

 types of translation in terms of three criteria:

a. The extent of translation (full translation vs. partial translation);

b. The grammatical rank at which the translation equivalence is established (rank-bound

translation vs. unbounded translation);

c. The levels of language involved in translation (total translation vs. restricted translation).

 Catford also makes a fundamental difference between the formal correspondence and textual
equivalence.

Formal correspondence – any category in the TL (unit, class, structural element, etc) about which we
can say that it occupies approximately the same place in the economy of the TL as the place occupied
in the SL.
Textual equivalence - any text or text fragment in the TL about which we can notice at some point in
time that it is the equivalent of a text or text fragment in the ST.

 two main types of translation shifts, namely

level shifts, where the SL item at one linguistic level (e.g. grammar) has a TL equivalent at a different
level (e.g. lexis) (the French conditional translated by a lexical correspondent in English - Trois
touristes auraient été tués. / Three tourists have been reported killed), and

category shifts which are divided into four types:

1.Structure-shifts, which involve a grammatical change between the structure of the ST and that of
the TT;

S-V-O structures in English and French ( I like jazz. / J’aime le jazz) ared translated into Romance
languages (Romanian, Spanish, Italian) as IO – V – O (Îmi place jazzul. / Me gusta el jazz. / Mi piace
il jazz)

2.Class-shifts, when a SL item is translated with a TL item which belongs to a different grammatical
class, i.e. a verb may be translated with a noun;

 Eg.medical student – etudiant en medicine, student la medicină

3.Unit-shifts, which involve changes in rank. Rank refers to the hierarchy of the linguistic units,
namely sentence, phrase, word, morpheme

 Eg. The genie [inhabiting the lamp]Participial Clause helped Aladdin fulfill his desires.

The nonfinite participial clause is translated as an NP.

[Spiritul lampii]NP l-a ajutat pe Aladin sa-si indeplineasca dorintele.

4.Intra-system shifts, which occur when 'SL and TL possess systems which approximately
correspond formally as to their constitution, but when translation involves selection of a non-
corresponding term in the TL system'. For instance, when the SL singular becomes a TL plural.

 Eg. The use of the article and the use of number in French/ Romanian and English - advice –
des conseils - sfaturi
 Il a la jambe casse. / Are priciorul /un picior rupt./ He has a broken leg. (definite and indefinite
article)
Kitty M. Van Leuven-Zwart

 two complementary models: a comparative model which involves a detailed manual

classification of microstructural shifts (semantic, stylistic and pragmatic, modulation,
modification and mutation) between the ST and the TT, and a descriptive model which
attempts to calculate the effects of the microstructural shifts on the macrostructural level
using the three functions of language from systemic linguistics (interpersonal, ideational
and textual functions) as well as discourse concepts.

The comparative model – involves a detailed comparison between the ST and the TT as well as a
classification of microstructural shifts at the level of sentences, subordinate clauses and phrases.

First of all, the passages selected are divided into comprehensible textual units called transemes. For
instance, she sat up quickly may be considered a transeme the Romoanian corerspondent of which
would be s-a îndreptat de spate.
Then the architransemes are defined, namely the invariable sense of a transeme In the ST which is
used as the basis for compariosn between the two languages. In the example abobe it would be to
stand / a se ridica.
Then a comparison is made between each individual transeme and the architranseme so as to establish
the relationship between the two transemes. If the two transeme are synonyms of the architranseme, no
transfer is necessary. If there is no synonymy, a transfer is necessary. The three categories of
transferare: – modulation, modification and mutation.
Modulation - one of the transemes is a synonym of the architranseme, but the other one differs
stylistically and semantically. The example already mention is an example of modulation as the
meaning of the adverb quickly is lost in the meaning of sit up.
Modification – both transemes depart from the architranseme (stylistically, sematically, syntactically
and pragmatically)
 Eg. you had to cry – te-a făcut să plângi

Mutation – no architranseme can be identified because an addition, a deletion or a radical change in

the TT meaning has occurred .

 Eg. As to the boy – well, thank heaven, mother had taken him; he was mother’s, or Beryl’s, or
anybody’s who wanted him.
Cât despre micuţ......slavă domnului, din fericire se ocupase mama lui de el; era al ei, al lui
Beryl, sau al oricui îl dorea.

The ST transeme mother’s and the TT al ei - two microtransfers can be identified

 1) A syntactic and semantic modification – the English `s Genitive becomes a Genitive marked
a Genitive article in Romanian
2) A syntacic and pragmatic modification – the choice of the English `s Gentive mother’s
instead of hers, which means that the English reader is offered more information than the
Romanian reader who has to understand the connection between al ei and mama.
When all the transfers have been identified and classified at microstructural level, the number of
transfers in category is calculated and then the cumulative effect is calculated using a descricptive
model.

The descriptive model – a macrostructural model to be used for the analysis of literay translations. It
is based on concepts originating in narratology and stylistics. It brings together concepts such as
„discourse level” (the linguistic expression of the iamginary world) and „story level”(the narrative, the
narrative point of view) with three linguistic metafunctions (interpersonal, ideational, textual).

FUNCTIONAL THEORIES; DISCOURSE ANALYSIS-BASED TRANSLATION THEORIES

Functional theories emergesd in the 1970s and 1980s, especially in Germanay:

 Katharina Reiss – text type and language fucntions

 Justa Holz-Mänttari – theory of translational action
 Christiane Nord – a model for a more detailed analysis of the text which continues the
fucntionalist tradition
Katharina Reiss

fourth type of text:

1. Informative texts - plain communication of facts – information, knowledge, opinions, etc.

The language is logical and referential, the main focus of the communication is the content. In
this case the TT (target text) should transmit the full referential content and the translation
method should be something which might be called „plain prose” with the necessary
explicitation, if required, and without redundancy. Types of texts – reference work (scientific),
reports, lectures, operating instructions, tourist brochures. Yet, the plain prose method may
not work all the time. In English, for instance, business texts are full of metaphors which are
quite difficult to translate into other langauges

Eg. Bear/bull market – piata in scadere/piata in urcare; hostile take-over bid – oferta de
preluare ostila

2. Expressive texts – creative composition – the aesthetic dimension of language; the author or
sender of the text as well as the form of the message are foregrounded, as the author’s attitude
 is expressed. Focus is on the form of the message. In this case the TT (target text) should
transmit the aesthetic and artistic form of the ST. In this case the translation method should be
an „identifying” method, a method which adopts the perspective of the ST author. Text types –
literature (poems, plays, novels), fiction, biographies

3. Operative texts – inducing behavioural responses – the aim of the appellative function is to
appeal to or persuade the reader of the text to act in a certain way. The form of the language
used is like a dialogue. In this case the TT (target text) should elicit the desired response. The
translation method should be „adaptative” as what is required is to create an equivalent effect
among the TT readers. Text types – advertisments, electoral speeches, sermons.

4. audiomedial texts (Reiss’s type) – films, visual and spoken advertisments which supplements
the other three functions with visual images, music, etc. The translation method should be a
“supplementary method”, adding written words to visual images and music.

Justa Holz-Mänttari

 a series of roles and players:

the initiator – the company or person who needs the translation

the commissioner – the person who contacts the translator
the ST producer – the person within the company who writes the ST, not necessarily involved in the
text production
the TT producer – the translator
The TT user – the person who uses the TT, for instance as teaching material
The TT receiver – final recipient of the TT – for instance the students in the class of the TT user
 focuses mainly on professional non-literary translations.

Christiane Nord

 two types of translation:

1) Documentary – where the reader knows that the text has been translated.

2) Instrumental – where the reader believes that the translated text is an original.

Translation theories based on discourse analysis

Halliday’s model

 systemic functional grammar, focusing on the study of language as communication.

 is conditioned by the socicultural environment and, in turn, determines the other elements in
the systemic frameowrk.
 three variakle elements:
Field – what is being written about (for instance, about a goods delivery)
Tenor– who is communicating to whom ( a sales representative to a customer)
Mode - the form of the communication (written)
All these variables are associates with a strand o meaning, which, taken together, form the discourse
semantics of the texts and stand for three metafunctions of the texts, namely ideational, interpresonal
and textual. The metrafunctions are realized by means of the lexical and grammatical (syntactic)
structures in the text. Broadly speaking, the links operate as follows:

The field of a text is associated with the ideational meaning, which is realized by means of the verbs
patterns ( verb classes, active and passive structures, the argument structure of the verbs, etc
The tenor of a text is associated with the interpersonal meaning, realized by the patterns of modality
(modal verbs, modal adverbs, evaluative adjectives)
The mode of a text is associated with the textual meaning, realized by means of the thematic and
information structures, namely the order and structure of a clause as well as by means of cohesion
(use of pronouns, ellipsis, collocations, repetition, etc)
Juliane House

 She creates a model for translation, which compares variables between ST and TT before
deciding on whether to employ an overt or covert translation

 Textual means – theme-dymanics – thematic structure and cohesion

- clausal linkage: by coordination (and, in addition, but, however), by
subordination

- iconic linkage – parallelism of structures

 Social attitude refers to the formal, consukltative or informal style. All of these incude an
element of individuality, so there a stance specific to the author. Mode refers to the channnel
(written/oral, etc) and the degree of participation between the author and the public (for
instance, a monologue ora a dialogue).

 Juliane House’s model operates as follows:

1. a profile of the ST register is established

2. a description of the ST genre based on register is added
3. these two elements are cumulated so as to establish the ST function, including the
ideational and interpersonal components of the function (meaning whta information is
conveyed and what the relation between the author and the public is)
4. the same descriptive proccess is carried out for the TT
5. the profiles of the ST and TT are compared, so as to identify the mismatches orthe
errors, classiifed according to genre and the situational dimensions of register and
 genre. se compară profilul TS şi cel al TS, astfel se identifică nepotrivirile sau erorile,
clasificate cf. genului şi dimensiunilor situaţionale ale registrului şi genului.
Dimensional errors are called „covert errors” so as to distinguish them from „ocert
errors”, namely denotative mismatches or target system errors.
6. a quality assessment of the translation cam be made now (statement of quality)
7. finally, the translation can be included in one of the two categories – overt translation
or şi covert translation.

Overt translation – a TT which does not pretend to be an original text.For instance, the translation of
one of Winston Churbill’s political speeches, delivered during WWII, a speech clearly connected to a
specific Source Culture and a historical context or the translation of literary works are anchored in the
source culture.Such translations entail the fact that the target readers of the translations are not the
readers to whom the source text was initially addressed. In such cases, House believes that
equivalences should be looked for at the level of the language/text, register and genre. Yet, the
fucntion of the TT can no longer be identical to the function of the ST as the two text operate intwo
different worlds. So, House suggests a new type of equivalence, namely second-level functional
equivalence so that the TT could enable access to the ST function and the TT readers couls eavesdrop
on the ST.

Covert translation– a translation which, in the target culture, has the same status as the ST in the
original. The ST is not particularly linked to the source culture or readers; bothe the ST and the TT
adress their respective readers directly. For instance – a tourist information booklet, an article carried
by a publication of an international organisation (UNO, UNESCO). The fucntion of such a translation
is to recreate, to reporduce or to represent in the translated text the fucntion the original has its
linguistic, cultural and discourse world.

Mona Baker – text and pragmatic level analysis

1) Coherence relates to the audience’s understanding of the world, which may be different for ST and
TT readers.

2) Presupposition is where the receiver of the message is assumed to have some prior knowledge. “It’s
a shame about Uncle John!” assumes the reader knows that something bad has happened to that person
called Uncle John. This raises problems in translation because TT readers may not have the same
knowledge as ST readers. Possible solutions are rewording or footnotes.

3) Implicature is where the meaning is implied rather than stated. “John wanted Mary to leave” may
imply that “John is now happy that Mary left”, which can lead to a mistranslation of the intention of
the message.

 the concept of equivalence at various levels – word, above word, gramamr, thematic structure
(theme/rheme), cohesion and the incoerporation of pragmatics.
Thematic structure (theme/rheme Semantically speaking, the information conveyed by a sentence is
organized as follows: theme (what the sentence is about, the known infornation) and rheme (what is
said about the theme, the new information).

 Romanian is a pro-drop language, while Englidh is a non-pro-drop language.

 Obviously, copying the English SVO when translating into Romanian, which is a VSO
language, can only produce a monstruous translation:
 Eg. copying the English pseudo-cleft sentences

What pleases the public is to know exactly what the government is going to do in each specific
situation.

Ceea ce face plăcere opiniei publice este să ştie ce va face guvernul........ (stângace)

Opinia publică este încântată / Opiniei publice îi face plăcere să afle ce face guvernul........

Cohesion Just like in the case of thematic structure, what is important in a text is the density and the
way cohesion ties are realized in that text. The ties may difer in the ST and the TT, as cohesion is not
produced by the same means in all languages.

Eg. The translation of EN adjectives into a language with a rich morphology

EN: „Fat or thin?” (întrebarea cu care începe piesa lui Pinter intitulată Old Times )

RO: traducerea trebuie să expliciteze genul referentului din această întrebare

Pragmatics and translation

coherence – it depends on the expectations and the experience of the world that teh reader (receiver)
has. Obviously, there is a difference between the ST and the TT readers.
 Eg. a paragraph on the London department store Harrods which carries the NPs the flagship
Harrods şi the spendid Knightsbridge store. To understand the text, the reader must know
that the two NPs have the same referent in the real world. In a translation into a language of a
culture which has no knowledge of this department store, coherence is achieved by repetition
(ex. the main store Harrods ; the spendid Knightsbridge store)

Presupposition – pragmatic deduction (inference). It refers to the linguistic and extralinguistic

knowledge that the reader is supposed to have or which is necessary for him to understand the author’s
message.
 Eg. in 1999 – in a speech delivede in the European Parliament Parlamentul, the British
Commissioner l Sir Leon Brittan used the following expression: Let me now turn to
bananas,
Implicature – what the authors means or implies rather than say
 Eg. 1. Mary had a baby and got married
 The implicature may be that Mary first had the baby and the got married.
 . A. How did you like the guest lecturer?
B. Well, I’m sure he was speaking English.

Paul Grice’s maxims

 they generally operate in normal conversations

1. The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives
as much information as is needed, and no more.
2. The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is
false or that is not supported by evidence.
3. The maxim of relation, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the
discussion.
4. The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in
what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.

Hatim and Mason – the semiotic level of context and discourse

 non-verbal meaning can be transferred, such as the change from active to passive voice which
can shift or downplay the focus of the action.
 Halliday’s Systemic Grammar should be viewed in the context of translational institutions