MEANING-BASED TRANSLATION A Guide to Cross- Language Equivalence Second Edition Mildred L. Larson University Press of America,” Inc. Lanham + New York * OxfordCopyright © 1998 by University Press of America,® Inc. 4720 Boston Way Lanham, Maryland 20706 12 Hid's Copse Rd. Cummor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America British Library Cataloging in Publication Information Available Co-published by arrangement with the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Inc. Previous edition © 1984 Volume editor: Bonnie Brown Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Larson, Mildred L. Meaning-based translation : a guide to cross-language equivalence / Mildred L. Larson. —2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. |. Translating and interpreting. I. Title. P306.L34 1997 418°.02—DC2} 97-4626 CIP ISBN 0-7618-0970-8 (cloth: alk. ppr.) ISBN 0-7618-0971-6 (pbk: atk. ppr.) Ome paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48—1984ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express appreciation to the following authors and publishers for granting permission to quote from their materials in this book: Samson Negbo Abangma from The Use of Modes in Denya Discourse (1987), Katharine Barnwell from her two textbooks Bible Translation (1975) and Introduction to Semantics and Transla- tion (1980); Chicago Linghistic Society from Papers from the Eighth Regional Meeting; Ellis W. Deibler and A. J. Taylor from Translation Problems (1977), Carl D. Dubois from his article Connectives in Sarangani Manobo; Nah Fleming from her Field Guide for Commu- nication Situation, Semantic and Morphemic Analysis (1977), Ellen M. Jackson from Real and Rhetorical Questions in Tikar (1982); Kenneth and Evelyn Pike for permission to use the example on pages 49-50 of their book Grammatical Analysis (1977), the Summer Institute of Linguistics for permission to quote from Notes on Trans- lation, Notes on Linguistics, John Beekman and John Callow, Trans- lating the Word of God (1974), Kathleen Callow, Discourse Consid- erations in Translating the Word of God (1974), Mildred Larson, A. Manual for Problem Solving in Bible Translation (1975) and John Beekman, John Callow, and Michael Kopesec, The Semantic Structure of Written Communication (1981). The United Bible Societies from The Bible Translator, particularly the articles by Barclay Newman (1977) and David Fox (1959); Western Publishing Company from Universal History of the World Vol. 2 by James L. Steffensen (1966), and James Wheatley from his articles Knowledge, Authority, and Individualism among the Cura (Bacairi) (1970) and Pronouns and Nominal Elements in Bacairi Discourse (1973). iiibud Tee I Suares CaS, Lgl A Al S ge xabe ha tS S we 2 GUUS Ml 3 PPTAAVTS — PPTAT IVY coat A saly THY SGCONTENTS Foreword. .....-0- 00-02: e eee nee teens vii Preface... 0.0.02 cece ene etter teenies & Overview of the Translation Task........--.-5-- +--+ 1 1. Form and Meaning 3 2. Kinds of Translations {7 3, The Semantic Structure of Language . 29 4, Implicit Meaning....... 41 $. Steps in a Translation Project... .-. +++ ce seer eens 5) The Lexicon. 0.0.00. c cee tee ete eens 57 6, Words as “Bundles” of Meaning ...-..-.-+--+--555 59 7. Some Relationships between Lexical Items. . . . 7h 8. Discovering Meaning by Grouping and Contrast...... - 87 9, Mismatching of Lexical Systerns between Languages . . . 97 10. Multiple Senses of Lexical Items ....--..+-++0+++> 109 11. Figurative Senses of Lexical Items . 12. Person Reference 13. Lexical Items and Situational Context. - 143 14. Collocation and Concordance of Lexical Items 185 15. Lexical Equivalents when Concepts are Shared......-. 169 16. Lexical Equivalents when Concepts are Unknown ..... 179 17. Speciat Problems in Finding Lexical Equivatents .....- 195 Propositional Structure 18. Propositions. . 19, Case Roles within Event Propositions 20, Relations within State Propositions... .-- +++ --+++> 21. Skewing between Propositional Structure and Clause Structure . 22. Skewing of IMocutionary Force and Grammatical Form . 257 23. Figurative Propositions/Metaphors and Similes......-- 271 24. More on Propositional Analysis ...-. +++ +++ esse see 283 vCommunication Relations... 2.0000 ...0000...0.0.00, 25. Addition and Support Relations . . . 26. Orientation and Clarification Relations . 27. Logical Relations......,....... 28. Stimulus-RESPONSE Roles TeX cece eee cera en eees 30. Discourse Genre . . 31. Cohesion. ... 32. Prominence . 33. The Communication Situation . 34, Information Load... 0... eee eee eee aT] The Translation Program .....0...2...00..0..00000005 507 35. Establishing the Project ............0......00000. 509 36, Translation Procedures... 002.02... . cee cece ae $19 37, Testing the Translation. 2.00.0... cee cee $29 Bibliography 60... e eee ee nee 549 Jadex 2... eee eee eee $7] viFOREWORD In the last thirty years a body of literature on translation theory, strongly influenced by modern linguistics, has appeared to support and give academic respectability to the new profession of the nontiterary translator. Some of these books, notably written by West or East Germans, have been too philosophical and abstract to relate at all closely to the translator’s mundane problems. Some have leaned towards contrastive linguistics. Others have tended to tie translation too closely to a linguistic theory. Nida’s were the first to deal at all practically with the cultural as well as the manifold linguistic problems of translation. Dr. Mildred Larson has here produced the first textbook designed to be used in the classroom, as a basis for course work. Tam pleased and flattered to be invited to write a foreword for her textbook of translation method. The book’s purpose is first to make the Summer Institute of Linguistics’ translation principles and study procedures widely known, and secondly, to offer a textbook which will be generally useful to translation courses in universities and colleges of further and higher education throughout the world, par- ticularly in the third world countries, where good English textbooks are much in demand. This book includes translation examples from a remarkably wide range of languages, particularly Asian, African, and Amerindian languages, ranging from the semantics of words, collocations and proposition to that of texts, ending each chapter with a useful set of practical exercises which are also a back-up for learning English. Her treatment of collocations is the most thorough and illuminating that I know, Metaphor and simile have an important place in the book; the semantic distortions of literal translation are well handled. Dr. Larson is continuously exercised to explain and illustrate the interplay of syntax, semantics, and communicative force through stress and variations of word order in the composition of atext. She makes ' viigood use of the still fairly recently established principles of text-linguistics, The emphasis of the book is on the value of idiomatic and unconstrained language, The abundant and subtle resources of the English language are described and exemplified here with a pervasive verve and enthusiasm. The book is exceptionally well planned, with a comprehensive index and bibliography, and I have no doubt that every teacher and self-teaching student of translation and of English will find much in it which they can use with profit. Peter Newmark Polytechnic of Central London and Universities of Bradford and Surrey, U.K. vitiPREFACE More and more universities around the world are adding courses in translation to their curriculum: however, the textbooks available for such courses are few. This volume has been written with these courses in mind. The desire of the author is to make available the principles of translation which have been learned through personal experience in translation and consultation. and through interaction with colleagues involved in translation projects in many parts of the world. A pedagogical style of presentation has been deliberately adopted. Repetition is regularly used; frequently use is made of examples; and each chapter concludes with exercises to be carried out by the student. Since it is assumed that many of the students will be speakers of minority languages, many of these exercises involve translating from or into their mother tongue. The material is presented in such a way that it can be used in a self-teaching situation or in a classroom. An attempt has been made to keep technical terms to a minimum. When technical vocabulary is used, every effort is made to clarify the meaning of such vocabulary. This has been done so that the book can be used by any translator, even though his exposure to linguistic and translation theory has been minimal. However, some of the theory is complex and no attempt has been made to oversimplify it. But the author has sought to use an uncomplicated straightforward style in order to make it easy for the user to grasp the principles being presented. This is an introductory textbook. The first five chapters give an overview presenting the fundamental principles of translation and the rest of the book expands and illustrates these principles. The overriding principle is that translation is meaning-based rather than form-based. Once the translator has identified the meaning of the source text, his goal is to express that same meaning in the receptor language with forms which may be very different from those of the source text. Manyexamples of cross-language equivalence are used to illustrate this principle. The author is deeply indebted to the late John Beekman, from whom she learned much of what is included in this book. The material presented here borrows heavily from his writings and those of John Callow, Kathleen Callow, Katharine Barnwell. and Eugene Nide. This book simply takes the translation principles expounded by them and puts these principles into a new framework as a textbook for prospec- tive translators, especially speakers of the many minority languages of the world. I also wish to thank Dr. Peter Newmark for reviewing the manuscript and writing the foreword. Dr. Newmark is visiting Profes- sor at the Polytechnic of Central London and Universities of Bradford and Surrey, U.K., with considerable experience in training translators. His 1981 book, Approaches to Translation, was especially helpful to me in the preparation of this text book. Many persons have helped in the preparation of this book. The author is especially grateful to her colleagues, members of the Summer Tastitute of Linguistics. who reviewed the manuscript, making many helpful suggestions, and to those who helped in many ways in the preparation of the manuscript. The list of those who contributed is very long and each is greatly appreciated. MLL September 1997