10 Fordts

10. Translation and Translation Studies

Translation in past:
Its a natural activity It started with translations of the Bible and philosophy works The translation should be faithful to the original text. (source texts) The translation should sound natural and have to got literal meanings The translation should be equialent with the text The same thing should be spoken in other language (like= fa-tree) o The main question is: Can we say exactly the same thing in two different languages?

Kind of translations:
o o o o fogalom) o Translation is the replacing of one sign by another. (so we have two equivalent messages in two different codes.) We can replace the sign in 3 different ways: o Intralingual Based on synonyms what is said in the language can be said in another way with a similar meaning. (ms szinonimkkal mondod el ugyanazt, ugyanazon a nyelven) o Interlingual translation - usually called translation, the words meaning is the same, but the verbal signs are different. (for example: table asztaletc) o Intersemiotic translation - interpretation of the signs of a sign system with the signs of another sign system. (in traffic: the light is red which means: STOP!) Roman Jacobson sad that there are different linguistic aspects: The sign: The written word: Tree Signifier: The letters: T-r-e-e Signified concept: The notion Tree (a jellt koncepci, vagyis maga a

The code model of monolingual communication

Egy nyelv kommunikcis modell SENDER CODED MESSAGE RECEIVER encoding decoding o A Sender has a thought in his/her mind and s/he encodes it (puts it into words): this is the coded message. The Receiver receives this coded message and decodes it o The sender and the receiver speak the same language, so they can understand each other, because THEY CAN UNDERSTAND THE CODE

The code model of translation

Tbbnyelv kommunikcis modell A tolmcs SENDER1 CODED MESSAGE1 RECEIVER1 encoding decoding SENDER2 CODED MESSAGE2 RECEIVER2 re-encoding decoding According to the model, the translator acts as receiver and sender at the same time (Receiver1 and Sender2 are identical), and after decoding the original message s/he re-encodes it in a different code (coded message2, i.e. the translation). The codes are different, and only the translator knows the two codes the translator does is simply changing the form of the message.

Regular translation techniques

o o o o generalisation concretisation omission addition

Machine translation:
o was based on the underlying assumption that source language syntactic structures and words had to be exchanged for TL structures. o However, early attempts at machine translation failed, showing that the meaning of texts is not just the meaning of syntactic structures and words, and equivalence does not depend solely on linguistic structure.

Translating as a communicative process

o Linguists sad that the code model of communication does not work o Texts communicate much more than the semantic meaning of words and sentences

o They communicate the intention of the speaker/writer (which determines the function of the text), they communicate implied meanings (meanings that are not coded in linguistic form) o they communicate stylistic meanings, social meanings etc. These meanings are interpreted on the basis of knowledge of context, which includes knowledge of the cultural background. o The problems of translation, then, are not primarily due to differences between linguistic systems, but to differences between cultures, and equivalence is not a matter of the same linguistic content, but equivalence of function. Differences between words and grammatical structures are relatively easily overcome by various translation techniques, but it is more difficult to overcome differences in text organization, cultural background and pragmatic meanings.

Equivalence
o Katharina Reiss: equivalence must be considered on the textual level o different text types (i.e. texts having different functions) require different translation strategies. o Translation studies has devoted a lot of time and effort to define equivalence. o We commonly think of equivalence as sameness of meaning, but it is clear that two sentences or texts in two different languages never have exactly the same meaning.

Levels of equivalence:
several different levels and types of equivalence: it is probably impossible to achieve equivalence at all levels. The importance of these depends on the translation situation or the text type. TYPE The most important is functional equivalence: a translated tourist brochure should have the same function as its original source language text, that is, it should play the same role for its audience as the original did for its audience. Another type: Referential equivalence is more or less sameness of content, and it is very important in the translation of informative texts. at word, sentence and text level. Obviously, since translation concerns texts, generally it is equivalence on the text level that is decisive.

LEVEL

Text types and translation strategies

1. Informative texts. The most important function is to give information. 3

Translation: should be totally representative of the source text: avoiding omissions and providing explanations if required. 2. Expressive a higher level of literary text such as poetry whose main function is to create poetic or literary effects. Translation: should aim at recreating the effect that the author of the source text was striving to achieve. 3. Operative designed to induce a certain behavioral response in the reader, e.g. advertisement reader purchases a particular product or service. Translation: should therefore produce the same impact on its reader as the reader of the source text. 4. Audomedial films, television advertisements, etc. supplemented with images and music of the target culture in the target text.

Universals of translation
Some features of the process of translation, identified indirectly through studying translated texts, seem to be universal, i.e. present in all kinds of translation. There may be several translation universals, such as simplification, standardization and explicitation. Translated texts tend to be simplified, standardized (more conventional) and more explicit than non-translated texts.