CHAPTER 1
Introduction
The three main areas of translation are: (a) science and and technology, technology, (b) social, economic and/or political topics and institutions, and (c) literary and philosophical works.
Knowing a foreign language language and your subject subject is not as important as being sensitive to language and being competent to write your own language dexterously, clearly, and economically. We need to apply common sense and show sensitivity to language.
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.
Translation is to render render the meaning of of a text text into another another language, language, in the way that the author intended the text.
A text may be pulled in ten different directions:
1. The individual style of the author, when when should it be preserved? preserved? 2. The conventional grammatical grammatical and lexical usage for this type of text, depending on the topic and the situation. 3. Content items referring referring to the SL or third language culture. 4. The typical format of a text text as influenced influenced by tradition at the time. 5. The expectations expectations of the putative readership. 6. 2, 3 and 4 respectively, respectively, but related to the TL. TL. 7. What is being described or reported, ascertained or verified, where possible independently of the SL text and the expectations of the readership. 8. The views views and prejudices prejudices of the translator. translator.
There are many other tensions tensions in translation, translation, for example example between between sound and sense.
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Everything without exception is translatable.
Translation is an instrument of education, education, because it has to reach readers whose cultural and educational level is different from that of the readers of the original.
A satisfactory translation is always possible, but a good translator is never satisfied with it. It can usually be improved. There is no such thing as a perfect, ideal or ‘correct’ translation.
Translation is, first, a science, secondly a skill, thirdly an an art, and lastly, a matter of taste.
The translation theory is the body of knowledge knowledge that we we have about translating. What a translation theory does is, first, to identify and define a translation problem; second, to indicate all the factors that have to be taken into account in solving the problem; third, to list all the possible procedures; finally, to recommend the most suitable procedure.
There are new elements in translation:
1. The emphasis on naturalness, ease ease of understanding understanding and an appropriate appropriate register. 2. Expansion of topics beyond the religious, the literary and the scientific to virtually every topic of writing. 3. Increase in variety of formats (articles, papers, laws, laws, etc.).
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Everything without exception is translatable.
Translation is an instrument of education, education, because it has to reach readers whose cultural and educational level is different from that of the readers of the original.
A satisfactory translation is always possible, but a good translator is never satisfied with it. It can usually be improved. There is no such thing as a perfect, ideal or ‘correct’ translation.
Translation is, first, a science, secondly a skill, thirdly an an art, and lastly, a matter of taste.
The translation theory is the body of knowledge knowledge that we we have about translating. What a translation theory does is, first, to identify and define a translation problem; second, to indicate all the factors that have to be taken into account in solving the problem; third, to list all the possible procedures; finally, to recommend the most suitable procedure.
There are new elements in translation:
1. The emphasis on naturalness, ease ease of understanding understanding and an appropriate appropriate register. 2. Expansion of topics beyond the religious, the literary and the scientific to virtually every topic of writing. 3. Increase in variety of formats (articles, papers, laws, laws, etc.).
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CHAPTER 2
T h e A n a l y s i s o f a T ex ex t
You begin begin the job by reading the original: first, to understand what it is about; second, to analyse it from a ‘translator’s’ 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 writer’s attitude to the subject matter.
Usually, the translator’s intention is identical with that of the author of the SL text.
Sometimes, he may be translating translating for a less educated readership. Therefore, the explanation in his translation may be much larger than the ‘reproduction’.
We distinguish four types of text:
1) Narrative: a dynamic sequence sequence of events. events. 2) Description: it is static. 3) Discussion: a treatment of ideas. ideas. 4) Dialogue: with with emphasis emphasis on colloquialisms.
The average text for translation tends to be for an educated, middle-class readership in an informal, not colloquial style.
The use of colloquial colloquial words, words, excessively excessively familiar phrasal phrasal verbs, verbs, formal or official register show signs of translationese.
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In passages passages making evaluations and recommendations, recommendations, you you have have to assess the standards of the writer.
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 quality of the writing has to be judged in relation to the author’s intention: the manner is as important as the matter and the syntax will reflect the writer’s
The greater the quality of a language’s resources (e.g. polysemy, wordword-
play, etc.) expended on a text, the more difficult it is likely to be to translate.
You should note the cultural aspect of the SL text.
Untranslatable words are the ones that have no ready one-to-one equivalent in the TL.
Underline only the items where where you see a translation problem, study such an item first in context, then in isolation, and finally in context again.
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CHAPTER 3
T h e Pr P r o c e s s o f T r an an s l a t i n g
Translating procedure is operational. We translate with four levels more or less consciously in mind: (1) the SL text level, the level of language; (2) the referential level; (3) the cohesive level, which traces the feeling tone (positive or negative); and (4) the level of naturalness. Finally, there is the revision procedure.
‘Naturalness’ is both grammatical and lexical.
Translation is for discussion. Everything is more or less. There are are no absolutes.
There are two approaches to translating:
(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 f ind the intention, register, and start tr anslating 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 when you translate is the text. text. This is the level of the literal translation.
You should should not not read a sentence sentence without without seeing it on the referential referential level. level.
For each sentence, when it is not clear, when there is an ambiguity, 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
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with the referential level, the factual level with the necessary additional information from this level of reality.
The referential goes hand in hand with the textual level.
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.
The structure through the connective words (conjunctions, enumerations, definite article, punctuation marks, etc.) follows the train of thought.
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.
The level of naturalness of natural usage is grammatical as well as lexical.
Naturalness is essential, that is why you cannot translate properly if the TL is not your language of habitual usage.
You have to pay special attention to:
(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.
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(5) The usage of words and idioms possibly originating in bilingual dictionaries. (6) The use of the articles, progressive tenses, collocations, etc.
The four levels (textual, referential, cohesive and natural) may be in conflict with each other.
The first and last level is the text.
The first sign of a translation problem is where the automatic procedures from language to language are not adequate.
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.
If long sentences and complicated structures are an essential part of the text, and are characteristic of the author, you should reproduce a corresponding deviation from the target language norms in your own version.
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.
Many common nouns have four types of meaning: (a) physical or material, (b) figurative, (c) technical, (d) colloquial.
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Most noun, verbs or adjectives can be used figuratively and therefore can have figurative meanings.
The words may have an archaic or a regional sense, may be used ironically or they may be misprinted.
You have to look up all proper names you do not know.
Consider giving classifiers to any town, mountain or river likely to be unknown to the readership.
Check the spelling of all proper names.
A great translation is also a work of art in its own right.
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.
Spend on revising 50-70% of the time you took on translating. If you have the time, do a second revision a day or so later.
It is difficult to resist making continual ‘improvements’ in the taste area, and this is harmless provided you make sure that each revised detail does not impair the sentence or the cohesion of the text.
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CHAPTER 4
L a n g u a g e F u n c t i o n s , Te x t -c a t e g o r i e s a n d T ex t - t y p e s
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.
For the purposes of translation, the characteristic ‘expressive’ text-types are:
(1) Serious imaginative literature (poetry, short stories, novels, plays). (2) Authoritative statements: such texts have the personal ‘stamp’ of their authors, although they are denotative, not connotative. (political speeches, etc.). (3) Autobiography, essays, personal correspondence.
The core of the informative function of language is the facts of a topic.
The format of an informative text is often standard: a textbook, report, article, scientific paper, thesis, etc.
A high proportion of these texts are poorly written and sometimes inaccurate, and it is usually the translator’s job to ‘correct’ their facts and their style. Thus, the majority of translations nowadays are better than their originals.
The core of the vocative function of language is the readership, ‘calling
upon’ the r eadership to act, think or feels.
Few texts are purely expressive, informative or vocative: most include all three functions, with an emphasis on one of the three. However, strictly,
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the expressive function has no place in a vocative or informative text: it is there only unconsciously.
Jakobson’s other functions of language: the aesthetic (called by Jakobson the ‘poetic’), the phatic and the metalingual.
The aesthetic function is language designed to please the senses through its sound and through its me taphors.
The sound-effects consist of onomatopoeia, rhyme, intonation, etc.
In many cases, it is not possible to ‘translate’ sound-effects, but compensation of some kind is usually possible.
Metaphor is the link between the expressive and the aesthetic function.
The phatic function of language is used for maintaining friendly contact with the addressee.
Some phaticisms are ‘universal’, others cultural, and they should be rendered by equivalents, which are not literal translations.
In written language, phaticisms attempt to win the confidence and the credulity of the reader: ‘of course’, ‘naturally’, often flattering the reader: ‘it is well known that’.
The metalingual function of language indicates a language’s ability to explain, name, and criticize its own features.
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CHAPTER 5
T r an s l a t i o n M et h o d s
The central problem of translating has always been whether to translate literally of freely.
Word-for-word translation: The SL word-order is preserved. Cultural words are translated literally.
Literal translation: The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents.
Faithful translation: It attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the TL grammatical structures.
Semantic translation: It differs from ‘faithful translation’ only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text, compromising on ‘meaning’ where appropriate.
Adaptation: This is the ‘freest’ form of translation, used for plays and poetry. The themes, characters, plots are preserved but the text is rewritten.
Free translation: It reproduces the content without the form of the original.
Idiomatic translation: It reproduces the ‘message’ of the original but tends to distort the 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.
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Only semantic and communicative translation fulfill the two main aims of translation, which are first, accuracy, and second, economy.
A semantic translation is written at the author’s linguistic level, a communicative at the readership’s.
A semantic translation has to interpret, a communicative translation to explain.
Equivalent effect is to produce the same effect on the readership of the translation as was obtained on the readership of the original. Equivalent effect is the desirable result.
In the translation of vocative texts, equivalent effect is essential.
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.
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CHAPTER 6
T h e U n i t o f T r an s l a ti o n a n d D i s c o u r s e A n a l y s i s ● Discourse analysis can be defined as the analysis of texts beyond and “above” the sentence, the attempt to find linguistic regularities in discourse. Its main concepts are cohesion and coherence. The largest quantity of translation in a text is done at the level of the word and the sentences, rarely the paragraph, never the text. ● The more cohesive, the more formalized a text, the more information it, as a unit, affords the translator. ● If the SL text title adequately describes the content, and is brief, then leave it. The title should sound attractive, allusive, suggestive, even if it is a proper name, and should bear some relation to the original. ● The translator has to bear in mind the main differences between speech and dialogue: speech has virtually no punctuation. ● Punctuation can be potent, but is so easily overlooked. Make a separate comparative punctuation check on their version and the original. Punctuation is an essential aspect of discourse analysis, since it gives a semantic indication of the relationship between sentences and clauses, which may vary according to languages. ● Sound effects, even at the level beyond the sentence, should be taken into account. ● Connectives are tricky when they are polysemous, since they may have meanings contradicting each other. ● Sentences cohere through the use of referential synonyms, which may be lexical, pronominal or general. All three types of referential synonym are used to avoid repetition rather than to supply new information. Whilst the translator must reproduce the new information, he should not be afraid of repetition. ● Enumerations also act as connectors between sentences.
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● Linguistic synonyms are also used as a cohesive device to avoid repetition, particularly in a reinforcing sentence. ● Functional sentence perspective links the study of discourse, sentence and emphasis. It is intimately related to translation problems. FSP examines the arrangement of the elements of a sentence in the light of its linguistic, situational and cultural context, determining its function within the paragraph and the text. What is known is to be regarded as the theme of a sentence. The new piece of information is the rheme. Elements that belong neither to theme nor rheme are transitional. Normally, one proceeds from the known to the unknown. ● Climax or focus can also be marked by a negative-positive sequence, where the negative is likely to introduce an opposite or a heightened meaning. Less frequently, the contrast is from positive to negative. Contrasts or oppositions are one of the most powerful cohesive factors in discourse. ● Other types of contrast are normally signalled by comparatives and superlatives. Rhetorical questions, which are more common in many other languages than in English, and should frequently be translated into statements, are anaphoric or cataphoric, since they are often used to summarise an argument or to introduce a fresh subject (as well as a to emphasise a statement). ● If we include chapter or section under “text”, the next lower unit is the paragraph, which is Nietzsche’s unit of thought. Typical paragraph schemes: (a) start with a generealisation and then produce two or three examples; (B) introduce and relate an event and give the result: (C) introduce and describe an object or brief scene. ● Unless a sentence is too long, it is unusual to divide it. If it is unusually short, it is likely to be for a special effect. ● Grammar always has more alternative forms, is more flexible, than lexis. ● Most translation is done at the level of the smaller units (word and clause), leaving the larger units to “work” automatically, until a difficulty occurs and until revision starts.
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CHAPTER 7
Literal Translatio n ● 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 translator’s 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.
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● Some transparent institutional terms are translated literally in at least Western European languages even though the TL cultural equivalents have widely different functions. The terms are normally so important in their relation to the TL culture that a literal translation rather than transference is indicated. ● The SL word may: (a) be used more frequently; (b) have a wider semantic range than the corresponding TL word. ● Literal translation is the first step in translation, and a good translator abandons a literal version only when it is plainly inexact or, in the case of a vocative or informative text, badly written. Re-creative translation is the heart or the central issue of translation. ● Another reason may be the pursuit of the sub-text. To an intelligent reader, the true meaning behind the meaning is clear. The translator should not go beyond the words of the original by promoting the sub-text to the status of the text. The concept sub-text is a useful variant term for the function or the intention of a text which the translator has to pursue throughout his work. ● The difficulties of literal translation are often highlighted not so much by the linguistic or referential context as by the context of a cultural tradition. ● The translator indeed has to be aware of all the varieties of context. Context is omnipresent, but it is relative. A good translation must be effective in its own right. If it shows SL interference, that must be by the translator’s conscious decision.
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CHAPTER 8
T h e O t h e r Tr a n s l a t i o n P r o c e d u r e s ● While translation methods relate to whole texts, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of language. Literal translation is the most important of the procedures. ● Transference is the process of transferring a SL word to a TL text as a translation procedure. The word then becomes a “loan word”. ● The following are normally transferred: names of all living and most dead people, geographical and topographical names, newspapers, names of private companies and institutions, names of public or nationalized institutions, street names, addresses, etc. Where appropriate, a culturally-neutral TL third term, i.e. a functional equivalent, should be added. The argument in favour of transference is that it shows respect for the SL country’s culture. The argument against it is that it is the translator’s job to translate, to explain. ● Naturalisation. This procedure succeeds transference and adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation then to the normal morphology (word-forms) of the TL. ● Cultural equivalent is an approximate translation where a SL cultural word is translated by a TL cultural word. Their translation uses are limited, since they are not accurate. ● Functional equivalent. This common procedure applied to cultural words, requires the use of a culture-free word, sometimes with a new specific term, it therefore neutralizes or generalizes the SL word. This procedure, is the most accurate way of translating. ● Descriptive Equivalent. In translation, description sometimes has to be weighed against function. Description and function are essential elements in explanation and therefore in translation. ● The word synonym in the sense of a near TL equivalent to an SL word in a context, where a precise equivalent may or may not exist. This procedure is used for a SL word where there is no clear one-to-one
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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.
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● Other Procedures: 1) Equivalence; 2) Adaptation ● Couplets, triplets, quadruplets combine two, three or four of the abovementioned procedures respectively for dealing with a single problem. They are common for cultural words, if transference is combined with a functional or a cultural equivalent. ● The additional information is dependent on the requirement of the translator’s readership.
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CHAPTER 9
T r an s l a t i o n C u l t u r e ● 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
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to movements, process and organizations generally depends on the putative knowledge of the readership. ● For gestures and habits there is a distinction between description and function which can be made where necessary ambiguous cases.
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CHAPTER 10
T h e Tr a n s l a t i o n o f M e t ap h o r s
The most important particular problem is the translation of metaphor, that is, any figurative expression.
Metaphors may be “single” (one-word) or “extended” (a colocation, an idiom, a sentence, a proverb, an allegory).
Its referential purpose is to describe more comprehensively than is possible in literal or physical language; its pragmatic purpose is appeal to the senses. The first purpose is cognitive, the second aesthetic.
A metaphor is a kind of deception, often used to conceal an intention.
Image: the picture conjured up by the metaphor, which may be universal, cultural or individual.
Object: what is described or qualified by the metaphor.
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.
Metaphor: the figurative word used.
Metonym: a one-word image which replaces the “object” (“crown” as monarchy). Metonym includes synecdoche, i.e., part for whole, or whole for part.
Symbol: a type of cultural metonym where a material object represents a concept- thus “grapes” as fertility.
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Usually cultural metaphors are harder to translate.
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.
Dead metaphors: Metaphors where one is hardly conscious of the image (field, fall, rise).
Cliché metaphors: They are used as a substitute for clear thought. A translator should get rid of clichés of any kind. If in doubt, always reduce a cliché metaphor of simile to sense or at least to dead metaphor.
Stock or standard metaphors: This is an established metaphor, covering a physical and/or mental situation both referentially and pragmatically. It has a certain emotional warmth, and it is sometimes tricky to translate. You should not use a stock metaphor that does not come naturally to you. The first and most satisfying procedure for translating a stock metaphor is to reproduce the same image in the TL. Stock cultural metaphors can sometimes be translated by retaining the metaphor (or converting it to simile), and adding sense. A more common procedure for translating stock metaphors is to replace the SL image with another established TL image. Everything is possible, even the reproduction of the sound-effects, but at the cost of economy. Reducing a stock metaphor to sense may clarify.
Adapted metaphors: An adapted stock metaphor should be translated by an equivalent adapted metaphor.
Recent metaphors: A metaphorical neologism, often “anonymously” coined, which has spread rapidly in the SL.
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Original metaphors: Created or quoted by the SL writer. In authoritative and expressive texts, these should be translated literally.
The translation of any metaphor always offers choices in the direction either of sense or of an image, or a modification of one, or a combination of both.
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CHAPTER 11
T h e U s e o f Co m p o n e n t i al A n a l y s i s i n T r a n s l a t i o n
Componential analysis: comparing a source language word with a target language word which has a similar meaning, but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent. Normally the source language word has a more specific meaning than the target language word, and the translator has to add one or two target language sense components in order to produce a closer approximation of meaning.
Componential analysis in translation is a method of bridging the numerous lexical gaps, both linguistic and cultural. It will never do it perfectly. In its fight against uder-translation (use of synonymy) it will tend to over-translate. It will tend to sacrifice economy.
A source language word may be distinguished from a target language word on the one hand in shape, function of its referent, etc; on the other in its cultural context and connotations, social class, degree of formality, emotional tone, generality or technicality and pragmatic effect, e.g. onomatopoeia.
Sense components have been called semes. In componential analysis, the various single senses (sememes) of a word have to be analysed separately.
A translator carries out a componential analysis only on a word of some significance in the target language text which cannot adequately be translated one to one. If the word is not important, he will normally make do with a target language synonym.
The only purpose of componential analysis in translation is to achieve the greatest possible accuracy, inevitably at the expense of economy.
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The first and most obvious use of componential analysis is in handling words that denote combinations of qualities, or actions and qualities.
Words that are not cultural express universal characteristics, so they have to be translated, not transferred.
Degrees of formality can be noted as pragmatic components when they have no target language equivalents.
The second use of componential analysis is in translating cultural (and institutional) words that the readership is unlikely to understand. Componential analysis is accompanied by an accepted translation, transference, functional equivalent, cultural equivalent and so on.
Normally you should include at least one descriptive and one functional component.
Universal or cultural series or hierarchies are all amenable to componential analysis.
If a concept-word is central to a professional non-literary text, it may be useful to analyse the concept componentially in a footnote.
Componential analysis is useful in translating neologisms.
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.
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CHAPTER 12
T h e A p p l i c a t i o n o f C a s e Gr a m m a r t o Tr a n s l a t i o n
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.
Natural word-order is an aspect of grammar, but odd word-order is used for emphasis or stress.
Case grammar: a method of analysing a sentence, clause, or a verbless compound in a manner that demonstrates the central position of the verb or the word that has verbal force within the word sequence; this word may be an adjective, an adverb, a noun, etc.
When a verb is omitted it is inevitably semantically underdetermined, but given its importance the translator must supply it.
It is not difficult to ‘derive’ missing verbs from statements since the number of basic verbs is limited. The number of nouns is infinite.
When the stylistic effect of verb omission cannot be reproduced in the target language, the translator has to intervene ‘semantically’.
A more common aspect of case grammar applies to case-gaps in the SL text.
There are four main categories of case-gaps: (1) mandatory; (2) implied; (3) optional; and (4) supplementary.
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The translator automatically fills in the case-gap, because the syntax of the TL requires it or because a sentence in the SL text is ambiguous.
The most important category: a semantic category. SL words such as ‘growth’ have strong implications of economy, wealth, etc., but it may be unnecessary to fill them in. A medical or geographical text, however, may have to be clarified.
Optional case-partners are semantic and stylistic. The translator is at liberty to supply them or not as he wishes. This is partly a pragmatic decision, partly a decision dictated by reasons of exhaustiveness or style.
Supplementary information (‘free indicators’) is ‘referential’. it consists of additional information, not given in the text, but which the translator chooses to supply from his knowledge of the situation and the cultural context.
Faced with an incomplete verb or verbal noun or adjective, the translator may have to consider: for what purpose does who do what to whom with what instrument, for what reason, etc.
One could suggest particular case-frames for particular types of verbs. The most common missing case-partner is the direct object.
Trivalent verbs are regarded as ‘dangerous’ as they are constructed differently in different languages.
The translator would normally fill in gaps for trivalent verbs only if the SL text required clarification.
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The main use of case grammar in translation: nouns, adjectives, infinitives and gerunds are more likely to require filling out than verbs in their tense forms.
There are a large number of adjectives formed from verbs that imply case-partners. Translators frequently prefer to supply the missing partner.
Secondly, there is a group of ‘equative’ adjectives, often used with equative or copula verbs. They usually refer to the previous sentence, therefore functioning as connectives.
Thirdly, there is a type of adjective whose meaning is clarified only in context.
Case-relations extend beyond implied nouns or pronouns to clauses within or outside the sentence.
In case grammar, the verb is the central element in a clause.
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CHAPTER 13
T h e T r an s l a t i o n o f N e o l o g i s m s
Neologisms can be defined as newly coined lexical units or existing lexical units that acquire a new sense.
Old words with new senses tend to be non-cultural and non-technical.
They are usually translated either by a word that already exists in the TL or by a brief functional or descriptive term.
If the referent exists in the TL, there is usually a recognised translation or through translation. If not, an economical equivalent has to be given.
There is also the possibility of devising a new collocation in inverted commas.
New coinages: There is no such thing as a new word. Words derive from various morphemes, or are phonaesthetic.
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.
New coinages must be re-created systematically and ingenuously
Derived words: The great majority of neologisms are words derived from Greek or Latin, usually with suffixes such as -ismo, -ismos, naturalised in the appropriate language. This word-forming procedure is used for scientific and technological terms.
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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.
Abbreviations have always been a common type of pseudo-neologism. Unless they coincide, they are written out in the TL.
New collocations are particularly common in the social science and in
computer language.
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.
Languages which cannot convert verbs to nouns, nor supress
prepositions, cannot imitate the English procedure. For this reason, the English collocations are difficult to translate concisely, and an acceptable term emerges only when the referent becomes so important that a more or less lengthy functional term will no longer do.
Eponyms are any word derived from a proper name (including toponyms).
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When derived from people´s 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 English’s 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.
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The translator has to beware of pseudo-neologisms where a generic word stands in for a specific word.
In non-literary texts, you should not normally create neologisms. You can create one only: (a) if you have authority and (b) if you compose it out of readily understood Graeco-Latin morphemes.
A translator’s job is to account for every source-language word, and therefore he has to guess the word’s meaning from the context and the word composition, adding a footnote if necessary: “The source-language original word not found”.
Firstly, in literary texts it is his duty to re-create any neologism he meets on the basis of the SL neologism.
Secondly, when translating a popular advertisement, he can create a neologism usually with a strong phonaesthetic effect, it appears to follow the sense of its SL “counterpart” and is pragmatically effective.
Thirdly, He can transfer an SL cultural word, if he thinks it important. If he recreates an SL neologism using the same Graeco-Latin morphemes, he has to assure himself that no other translation already exists, and that both referent and the neologism are likely to interest the SL readership.
He should acknowledge at least with inverted commas any neologism he creates. The more formal the language, the more conservative he should be in respect of neologisms.
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CHAPTER 14
T ec h n i c a l T r an s l at i o n ● 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 translator’s 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 associated with academic papers; (2) Professional: experts; (3) Popular: Layman vocabulary, which alternative terms. These are general categories arbitrary to assign one or another term.
and Greek words formal terms used by may include familiar to which it is often
● 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.
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● Professional technical translators have a tendency to reject any descriptive term where a TL technical term exists; a technical term (standardized language) is always more precise narrower in semantic range) than a descriptive term (non-standardized language). Whilst the technical term may be a translator’s find and will help to acclimate the professional reader, it is mistaken to invariably prefer it, bearing in mind that the descriptive term in the SL text may serve other communicative purposes. Where an SL technical term has no known TL equivalent, a descriptive term should be used. ● Bear in mind that we are more interested in understanding the description, the function and the effect of a concept such as entropy rather in learning laws, particularly axioms, theorems, theories, systems in some of which entropy is involved. In a sense, we are learning the language rather than the content of the subject. The translator has to check the present validity in the register and dialect of the terms he uses. ● Both text and translation are thing-bound. The SL text is also the basis of the translation; much of the translation departs from it: (a) owing to its different natural usage; (b) if it has to be referentially more explicit than the original. When you approach a technical text you read it first to understand it, and then to assess its nature, its degree of formality, its intention, the possible cultural and professional differences between your readership and the original one. Next, you should give your translation the framework of a recognized house-style. ● Normally, as a translator, you are entitled to change the title of your text. Al titles are either descriptive or allusive. ● Read the article through, and underline all words and structures that appear to contain problems. These may include: (1) Unfamiliar apparently transparent words in Latin or Greek morphemes; (2) Figurative symbols. These have to be checked for TL equivalence; (3) Verbs that do not require a recasting of TL sentence; (4) “Pun Words”. ● In a technical translation you can be as bond and free in recasting grammar (cutting up sentences, transporting clauses, converting verbs to nouns, etc.) as in any other type of informative or vocative text, provided the original is defective. You should produce a better text than the writer of the original, who is not. As technical translator you vary your format in relations to your customer. Lexically, the main characteristic of technical language is its actual richness and its potential infinity.
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● A technical translation is so varied in topic and often diverse in register, and so badly written, that it is not easy to make helpful generalizations about it. This is the field, on the frontier of knowledge, where you have to be most up to date.
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CHAPTER 15
T h e Tr a n s l a t i o n o f S er i o u s L i t e r at u r e a n d A u t h o r i t a ti v e Statements
The translation of serious literature and authoritative statements is the most testing type of translation, because the word is as important as the sentence, and the effort to make word, sentence and text cohere requires continuous compromise and readjustment.
There are two text-categories: serious imaginative literature and authoritative statements (scientific, philosophical, legal). The differences: authoritative statements are more openly addressed to a readership than literature; they are figurative only in exceptional passages, and selfexpression is only incidental.
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.
The original metaphor is the controlling element in all creative language, evoking through a visual image the four senses. The translator has to reproduce it scrupulously, even if they are likely to cause cultural shock.
The translator first chooses a target-language poetic form as close as possible to that of the source-language. Secondly, he will reproduce the figurative meaning, the concrete images of the poem. Lastly the setting, the various techniques of sound-effect.
However good as a translation, its meaning will differ in many ways from the original. A successfully translated poem is always another poem.
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The translator has to decide whether the expressive or the aesthetic function of language in a poem is more important. Some fusion between the expression and the aesthetic function of language is required.
Original metaphors have to be translated accurately, even if in the TL culture the image is strange and the sense it conveys may only be guessed.
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
translator’s version is likely to be longer than the original though, always, the shorter the better.
The translator has to be careful to preserve certain cohesive effects, and he has to decide which lexical units are central.
Serious novels: the obvious problem is the importance of the sourcelanguage culture and the author’s moral purpose to the reader.
Drama: The main purpose of translating a play is normally to have it performed successfully. Unlikely the translator of fiction, the translator cannot explain puns or cultural references.
There should be no difference between the acting and the reading version.
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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. It is useful to look up in dictionaries words that you have known by their contexts for years, because you often find you have missed an essential component of their core meaning. As regards resources, you need firstly a good English dictionary, and a thesaurus is essential for bringing up words from your memory and extending your vocabulary. There may be at least 18 types of ‘unfindable’ word, such as: neologisms; dialect; colloquialisms, slang, taboo words; ‘rival’ alternative names (‘Malvinas’); names of small villages and streets, etc (in novels they may be real or invented); brand names, misprints, misspellings; archaisms; etc. As regards the search procedure for words, bilingual general and specialized dictionaries may be consulted first, and they must be followed up with careful checks in SL and TL monolingual dictionaries. Secondly, the translator has to consider the possibility of a misprint (e.g. ‘calli’, ‘kalli’). He can take no word for granted. He must be prepared to engage in the lateral thinking. The most elusive ‘unfindable’ words are one-syllable slang words. A brand name is normally transferred in translation, but there may be a case for adding or replacing it with its TL equivalent if it exists. If the ‘unfindable’ word is a misprint, misspelling, etc, the correct word is translated.
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If the ‘unfindable’ word is found as a little-known proper name, it is normally transferred with the addition of generic information. If the word is verified as a neologism, the translator has the choice of: transference, new coinage, literal translation, cultural equivalent. The translator can never ‘abandon’ an ‘unfindable’ word, must never assume that it can be ignored. He must make some compromise between the most likely contextual meaning of the word and the meaning suggested by the morphology. The translator’s job requires common sense and imagination.
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CHAPTER 17
T r an s l a t i o n C r i t i c i s m
A text may be different translated, depending on the preferred method of the translator. The point here is not how good is the translation or why it was not more closely translated. If there is so much to correct, you can consider why the translator has apparently changed the mood so drastically. The challenge in translation criticism is to state your own principles categorically, but at the same time to elucidate the translator’s principles, and even the principles he is reacting against. There is a new element in translation now, as it has become a profession. The introduction of a ‘scientific’ method in this activity tends to reduce the range of choices a translator has. Translation criticism improves your competence as a translator and expands your knowledge. A translation may be evaluated by various authorities: the reviser employed by the translation company; the head of the company; the client; the professional critic; and the readership. Criticism of a translation has to cover five topics: (1) a brief analysis of the SL text; (2) the translator’s interpretation of the SL text; (3) comparison of the translation with the original; (4) an evaluation of the translation; (5) an assessment of the likely place of the translation in the TL culture. The translator has to assess the quality of the language to determine the translator’s degree of license. Before criticizing the translation, it is important to analyze it from the point of view of this translator. You may decide that the translator has misinterpreted the author; you have to establish whether the translator has attempted to counteract by over-translating; to what extent the text has been deculturalised, or transferred to the TL culture.
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You distinguish between incompetence and a translation method which may be too idiomatic or too academic for your tastes but which appears consistent.
The third section of your critique should consist of a discussion of translation problems. Fourthly, you assess the referential and pragmatic accuracy of the translation by the translator’s standards. After considering whether the translation is successful in its own terms, you evaluate it by your own standards. There are two approaches when assessing a translated text: The functional approach is the attempt to assess whether the translator has achieved what he attempted to do.
The analytical approach is detailed. All translations are science, skill, art, and a matter of taste: Firstly, a science. Referential mistakes are about the real world, they exist in fiction only when it incorrectly depicts the real world. They reveal the ignorance of the translator or the writer. Linguistic mistakes show the translator’s ignorance of the foreign language.
Secondly, translation is skill. The skill element is the ability to follow or deviate from the appropriate natural usage. Many believe that style takes a second place where facts are concerned; but it is the style that ensures that the facts are effectively presented. It is skilled usage that ensures successful transmission. Third, translation is an art. The translator has to go beyond the text (what the writer means rather than what he says). Creative translation is a happy or elegant solution. The fourth area of translation is that of taste. This area is related to preferences between lexical synonyms, etc.
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CHAPTER 18
S h o r t e r I t em s
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. All words are more or less context-bound in their meaning. A common mistake in translation is to ignore context. It is normally accepted that the literary genres which in translation suffer varying degrees of loss of meaning are poetry, prose, texts with a large proportion of word-play or cultural content and dialect. This does not mean that they are unsuitable for translation. 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.
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The main disadvantage of “machine translation” is that it promotes jargon and unthinkable language provoked by a quickly responsive machine, rather than by the mind. 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.
Function lends itself particularly to communicative translation. Description refines function with detail, and characterizes semantic translation. Whereas a compromise is necessary in the interests of economy, description usually has to give.
An ‘eponym’ is any word that is identical with or derived from a proper name which gives it a related sense. They can be divided into three categories : those derived from persons, objects and places. Eponyms denoting objects usually derive from their inventors or discoverers; in translation, the main difficulty is that they may have an alternative name, the authenticity of the discoverer may be implicitly disputed or it is replaced by a technical term. Therefore, there is a tendency to translate the eponyms under this category to by descriptive terms. Eponyms denoting objects are mainly brand names which tend to ‘monopolize’ their referent first in the country of their origin, then internationally, which in translation require additional descriptive terms only if the brand name is not known to the readership. Geographical terms are used as eponyms when they have obvious connotations. Translators should transfer them, and when necessary, gloss. An acronym is defined as the initial letters of words that form a group of words used for denoting an object, institution or procedure.
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Normally, translators should not recreate acronyms. Objects, individuals and actions are often designated by alternative terms. They have to be translated by neutral terms, if the TL has no corresponding familiar alternative. This is due to the fact that the reader may not be so familiar with the translated referent. 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. Translators have no right to improve an authoritative text, however clichéd and unnatural its language may be; he has to pursue the same style, making slight concessions for the different stylistics norms of the target language, but assuming on the whole that the personality of the author is more important that any forms of language. Possibly, a translator makes more concessions to the readership when translating nonliterary texts. In ‘anonymous’ texts the translator must be loyal to the truth or the facts of the matter. The main criterion for the improvement is the translator’s conviction that he is helping the SL writer to get his message or information across without distorting it. The translator can improve the original text when: 1. The original text presents an illogical sequence 2. The original presents syntactically weak sentences 3. Idiolect (which should be normalized by the translator in the translation) 4. When the text is ambiguous. 5. It is important to point out that if the ambiguity is deliberated, then it should be retained in the translation. As regards unintentional ambiguity, the translator has to avoid any possible misunderstandings. 6. Redundancy and clichés
Translators are allowed to eliminate redundancies of the SL version in translation 7. Slips, misprints, errors, miscopying
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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 If there is a SL text misprint or words out of place, he corrects the error. 8. Jargon
The translator is entitled to delete, reduce, or slim down jargon (redundant words that are semantically too broad for the features they are describing) In all cases, the translator will adopt the author’s register, and he can and must justify modifications to the text only on the basis of its inadequacy. A collocation is the habitual co-occurrence of individual lexical items. For the translator, for whom the collocation is the most important contextual factor, collocation is considerable narrower. The most common collocation-types are:
Adjective plus noun
Noun plus noun
Verb plus object
People’s names:
Normally, people’s first and surnames are transferred, thus preserving their nationality, and assuming that their names have no connotations in the text. There are some exceptions: the names of saints, monarchs and popes are translated. In literature, names are translated, unless, nationality is important.
Names of Objects:
Names of objects as proper names consist of trademarks and brands. They are normally transferred, often coupled with a classifier if the name is not likely to be known to the TL readership.
Geographical terms:
As regards the names of geographical areas, a translator must be updated in his rendering. He has to respect a country’s wish to determine its own choice of names for its own geographical
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features. A translator is never supposed to invent new geographical terms.
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. Generally, it can sometimes be compensated by another pun o a word with a different but associated meaning, A word or a syntactic structure is ambiguous when it apparently has more than one meaning, or is, in spite of its context, vague or obscure. 1. Grammatical Ambiguity: a sentence is syntactically ambiguous within its context when it is bad written. Grammatical or functional words are themselves a common source of ambiguity. 2. Lexical ambiguity: words may have more than one sense, and the senses may be close to or remote from each other. Sometimes a word has two senses which are both equally effective (pragmatically and referentially) in the relevant stretch of language. A translator may translate the word with both senses in mind. 3. Pragmatic ambiguity: It arises when the tone or the emphasis in a SL sentence is not clear. 4. Cultural ambiguity: In principle, cultural terms should not be ambiguous, as they refer to particular features of a single culture. However, ambiguity mar arise if the function or the substance of a cultural feature change at a point of time and the term remains whilst the period background is not clear in the SL text. 5. Idiolectal ambiguity: people use some words in a sense that is peculiar to themselves, sometimes it is inappropriately used. A good advice for the translator would be to establish the sense of that misused word and translate accordingly.
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CHAPTER 19
R e v i s i o n H i n t s f o r E x a m s a n d D e ad l i n e s
In translation exams for professional purposes, you should be allowed to use reference books. These should include at least a bilingual dictionary and the best SL monolingual dictionary possible. 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. Write double space and leave gaps between paragraphs. This allows the students to have space for correction. If you cannot find a word in the dictionary , then translate provisionally according to their derivational and/ or analogical sense. Try to make sense in everything you translate, unless you know the text is purposely irrational. The meaning of sentences must cohere with those of the previous and the following sentences, then the paragraph, then the text. Make your translations referentially and pragmatically accurate. Withdraw from literal translation when this is no longer possible. Remember that you make use alternative grammar structures in order to make your translation more natural. It is essential to read your version without looking at the original. Compare your version closely with the original, to check that you have not missed anything. Do not replace the dictionary with the encyclopedia. Do not translate a technical term by a descriptive term, and do not t ranslate a descriptive term by a technical term. Always consider the use of couplets for translating institutional and cultural terms. Take into account that the more context-free word, the more it is likely to be used in its primary meaning.
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Write well and naturally, unless the SL text is ‘sacred’. Fill in all gaps, guided by your contextual understanding of the piece.
Write a translator’s note only when it is exceptionally necessary.
Be careful with pragmatic mistakes of usages.
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