Session- 3

Major Terms & Concepts

in
Translation
An Understanding

By
Dr. Jyoti Laxmi Kashyap
Department of Humanities
 1. Major Terms & Concepts: Language

 It is a System that deals with the development, acquisition and application of complex system of
communication.
 Encyclopaedia Britannica:
• Defines it as a system of conventional spoken, manual, or written symbols by means of which
human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves.
• Functions of language include communication, expression of identity, play, imaginative
expression, and emotional release.

3. Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language scholar, states:

“Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words.
Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of ideas into thoughts.”

Thus Language is a system of Signs for encoding and decoding of information.

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 1.1 Nature of Language

1. Language is a combination of sounds, which uttered make a word.

2. Words have meaning .
3. But, meaning is in people, not words.
4. These words are arranged in a grammatical pattern.
5. The pattern generate meaning.
6. There are various types of meaning

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 1.2 Types of Meaning
There are different categories of meaning mentioned by linguists, Such as:
 Connotative meaning: Is hidden meaning communicated by words in a text.
Is also the suggested meaning.
 Denotative Meaning: Is the meaning communicated by a written word.
It is also the literal meaning.
 Literal Meaning: Is the actual meaning conveyed by a word or phrase.
Is also the denotative meaning, verbal meaning or meaning
communicated by the language of the text.
 Logical Meaning: Is meaning generated by the logical arrangement of words.
It is largely rational and depends upon the stated facts.
 Pragmatic Meaning: Pragmatic meaning is meaning generated out of a given situation,
or condition. Pragmatic meaning rests upon the sign, context and its
users.
.
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 1.2.1 Geoffrey Leech (1974) lists at least seven types of meaning in
semantics, as follows:

 Conceptual Meaning: Deals with logical, cognitive and denotative content.

Generally is dictionary meaning, where one can find many synonyms
or concepts of a term or a word.
 Connotative Meaning: Meaning generated by virtue of the use of language.
Connotative meaning exists along with the denotative meaning
 Social Meaning: It refers to the usage of language in and by society which has big
proportions in determining the meaning that certain speaker has to use
and wants to convey.
 Affective Meaning: The term, ‘Affective’ refers to emotions and feeling.
The term denotes message generated or communicated by the feelings
and attitude of the writers or author.
Refers to the speakers feeling for the content.

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1.2.2 Geoffrey Leech (1974) lists at least seven types of meaning in
semantics, as follows:
 Reflected Meaning: Refers to the term having more than one meanings surfacing at the
same time
It sometimes cause ambiguity.
 Collocative Meaning: Refers to the associations a word acquires on account of the
meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment, or
suggested by the words that go before or come after a word in
question, for instance, heavy news (a piece of sad news).
 Thematic Meaning: The meaning communicated by the way in which the speaker or writer
organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis.

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 1.3Three Views on the Nature of Language

1. Structural View of Language: Language is a system of structurally related elementsfor the

transmission of meaning.
2. The Elements are:
 Phonological Units (Phonemes)
 Grammatical Unit (Phrase, Clause & Sentences)
 Grammatical Operations (Adding, Shifting, joining or transforming elements)
 Lexical Items ( Function Words & Structure words)
2. Communicative View of Language: Also called as the Functional, views language, as a
vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. In communicative view semantic and
communicative dimensions are emphasized, than the grammar, which are though included.
3. Interactional View of Language: Views language as a means of establishing and maintaining
interpersonal relationship, for performing social transactions between individuals

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 1.4 Functions of Language- I
There are many functions of language. Below mentioned are some of them:
1. Micro:
 Physiological function
 Phatic function
 Recording function
 Identifying Function
2. Macro Functions:
 Ideation Function
 Interpersonal Function
 Poetic Function
 Textual Function

Finch G. How to Study Linguistics. Houndmills: Palgrave. Macmillan. 1998.

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 1.5 Functions of Language: II
• Geoffery Leech (1974) in one of his essay has also enlisted following five functions of
language:

 Informational (to convey information)

 Expressive ( to express emotions)
 Directive (go give orders, commands etc.)
 Aesthetic (to create aesthetic effect)
 Phatic (to Maintain social bonds for sociability

Reference:
Essays, UK. (November 2018). Five Functions Of Language (Leech, 1974). Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/five-functions-of-language-english-
language-essay.php?vref=1

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 2. Linguistics:

1. Scientific study of language

2. It involves the analysis of:
i. Form of Language ii. Meaning of language iii. Context of Language.
3. There are various building blocks that make up a language, word, meaning, context etc.
4. Various branches of Linguistics:
• Phonetics: Study of Speech Sound.
• Phonology: Study to see how signs and sounds (phonetics) are arranged.
• Morphology: Study of the formation of words to create meaning.
• Syntax: Study of the construction and combination of phrases, clauses and sentences.
• Semantics: Study of the meaning. Focus on relation between words etc. and to the world.
• Discourse Analysis: Study of larger chunks of language in texts, conversation speeches, stories
• Historical Linguistics: Study of the change of language over time.
• Sociolinguistics: Study of language and society. Use of language in social context.

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 3. Major Terms & Concepts: Semiotics, Signifier & Signified
1. Semiotics: Also called Semiology.
• Study of Signs and Symbols.
• Studied as an elements of language or other systems of communication.
• Common examples of semiotics include traffic signs, emojis, and emoticons used in electronic communication, and
logos and brands used by international corporations to sell us things—"brand loyalty," they call it.
• It was defined by one of its founders, the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, as the study of “the life of signs within
society.”
2. Signifier & Signified: Two concepts that interests semioticians and an inseparable components of a SIGN

Signifier: It is the concept, the word, or the sound, image.

It is more stable
Signified: Is the meaning, the inherent message evoked by the signifier.
It is the referent.
It is created, internal or perceived via the signifier.
It varies between people and context.
It gets stabilized with habit.

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 4. Sign: Meaning & Types
1. Ferdinand de Saussure, defined a sign as any motion, gesture, image, pattern, or event that
conveys meaning.
2. American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce defined a sign as “something which stands to
somebody for something.”
3. Charles Sanders Peirce categorized signs into three main types:
I. An icon, which resembles its referent (such as a road sign for falling rocks).
II. An index, which is associated with its referent (as smoke is a sign of fire)
III. A symbol, which is related to its referent only by convention (as with words or traffic
signals) [Encyclopaedia Britannica]
3. Peirce stated that signs can never have a definite meaning.
4. For Saussure, language is a system of sign, have meaning in relation to signifier and signified.
5. Saussure believed that language must be considered as a social phenomenon, a structured
system that can be viewed synchronically (as it exists at any particular time) and
diachronically (as it changes in the course of time).

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 5. Langue & parole

Two terms common to linguistics are:

1. Langue: It is the principle use of language.
It is the system of language underlying the speech activity.
It encompasses abstract, systematic rules and conventions of a signifying
system
It is the starting point of the study of linguistic aspect of known as structuralism.

2. Parole: It is the speech of the individual person.

It is the concrete use of language.
It is in other word a meaningful utterance that rests on langue.
If langue is system, Parole is practice.
The message rests on the context.

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 6. Major Concepts in Translation: SL, TL, ST, TT,
1. SL: Source Language (SL) is the term in translation studies that denotes the language
being translated from.
Source Language (SL) is also the translator’s second language.
2. TL: Target Language (TL) is the term in translation that denotes the language being
translated to.
Target Language (TL) is also receptors language.
Target Language (TL) is also translator’s first language.
3. ST: Source Text (ST) is the term that denotes the text, a translator is given to translate in
another language.
Source Text (ST) is also the original text.
4. TT: Target Text (TT) is the term that denotes translated text in another language.

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7. Major Terms and Concepts: Source Culture & Target Culture

1. Source Culture: Is the term that denotes the cultural references found in the
source text taken up for translation.
The terms and references that denote sociocultural practices specific
to a certain culture mentioned in source text are retained.

2. Target Culture: Is the term that denotes the transference of socio-cultural practices
specific to a certain culture into target language for the readers.

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 Translation, Adaptation, Interpretation and Retelling
1. Translation:
• The process of carrying across a message or any written content from one text to another, from one
person to another and from one language (source language) to a different language (target language).
• It is literal transfer of content from one language to another.
2. Translator: A person who transfers message from one to another written or spoken.
3. Adaptations:
• It is also known as free translation.
• In adaptations, a translator substitutes cultural realities or scenarios for which there is no reference in the
target language.
• There is no literal transference, but it does not mean there is sense of unfaithfulness but choosing cultural
realities of a certain scenario from which there is no reference in the target language.
• British scholar Peter Newmark defines adaptation, taken from Vinay and Darbelnet, as, “The use of a
recognized equivalent between two situations. It is a process of cultural equivalence:

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 Interpretations and Retellings

4. Interpretations:

• The act of explaining the meaning of something.

• The difference between interpreting and translation is only in the medium:
the interpreter translates orally, while a translator interprets written text.
• Both interpreting and translation presuppose a certain love of language and deep knowledge
of more than one language.

5. Retellings:
• It is a new, and often updated or retranslated, version of a story

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 Anuvaad, Rupantar, Tarzuma
6. Anuvaad:
• The word means ‘speak’ ‘after’.
• Indian equivalent of translation.

7. Rupantar:
• From roop ‘form’ antar’ transition’ or ‘change’.
• Change of form or structure from one language to another.

8. Tarzuma:
• Interpretation of message
• Reproduction of message.
• Is Urdu word for translation

9. Indology:
• The study of Indian history, literature, philosophy, and culture

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 8. Equivalence
3. Equivalence: The term denotes sameness or similarity or evoking same meaning or effect in
translation from Source Text (ST) to Translated Text (TT).
 It is a key concept in translation.
 The term has been studied in relation to translation process using different approaches by
theorists, such as Vinay and Darbelnet, Jacobson, Nida, and Baker etc.
Nida states that : “translation consist of reproducing in the receptor language the closest
natural equivalence of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly
in terms of style.”
Nida states two types of equivalence, also the basic orientation of Translation:
I. Formal: focuses attention on the message itself, in both of form and content.
The message in the receptor language should match with different elements in the source language.
I. Semantic: Also, dynamic by Nida, is basically from Newmark’s notion. The relationship
between receptor and message should be same as the original receptor.
It is literal and the loyalty is to the ST (source text) author

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 Sources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Finch G. How to Study Linguistics. Houndmills: Palgrave. Macmillan. 1998.
• Essays, UK. (November 2018). Five Functions Of Language (Leech, 1974). Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/five-functions-of-language-english-
language-essay.php?vref=1
• https://www.sil.org/linguistics/what-linguistics
• https://muawanah66.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/translation-definition-kinds-of-
translation-and-equivalence/
•

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