WHAT IS TRANSLATION?

INTRODUCING TRANSLATION
Translation is a phenomenon that has a huge effect on everyday life. This can range
from the translation of a key international treaty to the following multilingual poster
that welcomes customers to a holiday resort or to any tourist destination in your
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home country:
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UFLS-FLTE TRANSLATION THEORY LE THI GIAO CHI

How can we go about defining the phenomenon of ‘translation’ and what the study
of it entails? By looking at a general dictionary, we find the following definitions of
the term ‘translation’.

• Example 1.1
translation n. 1 the act or an instance of translating. 2 a written or spoken
expression of the meaning of a word, speech, etc. in another language
(The Concise Oxford English Dictionary)

• Example 1.2
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Translation consists of changing from one form to another, to turn into one’s own
or another language
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(The Merriam- Webster Dictionary, 1974)

• Example 1.3
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Translation An incredibly broad notion which can be understood in many ways.

For example, one may talk of translation as a process or a product, and identify
such sub-types as literary translation, subtitling and machine translation;
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moreover, while more typically it just refers to the transfer of written texts, the term
sometimes also includes interpreting.
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DEFINING TRANSLATION
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From the perspectives of translation theorists, translation as a concept can be

defined in these different ways:
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- Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (source

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language) by equivalent textual material in another language (target language).

(J.C. Catford 1965)
- Translation is the process of conveying messages across linguistic and cultural
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barriers. (Ian Tudor)

- Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that
the author intended the text. (Peter Newmark)
- Translation consists 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 & Taber, 1969, p. 12)
- Translation is a process of finding a target language equivalent for a source language
utterance. (Pinchuck, 1977, p. 38)

UFLS-FLTE TRANSLATION THEORY LE THI GIAO CHI

As can be implied in the definitions above, translation is basically a change of form
(which is usually referred to as the actual words, phrases, clauses, sentences,
paragraphs etc., which are spoken or written). However, we can see that meaning
captures the essence of the text and only by having a meaningful translation, we can
transfer the essence of a text.

‘Each language carries with it its own meaning since message is property of a language’ (J.C.
Catford)

The process of translation can be displayed in the diagram below.

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SOURCE LANGUAGE RECEPTOR LANGUAGE

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TEXT TRANSLATION
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ANALYSIS RESTRUCTURING
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TRANSFER
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THREE TYPES OF TRANSLATION

- Interlingual, Intralingual, and Intersemiotic

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"In his seminal paper, 'On Linguistic Aspects of Translation' (1959/2000), the Russo-
American linguist Roman Jakobson makes a very important distinction between
three types of written translation, in which only the second category, interlingual
translation, is deemed 'translation proper' by Jakobson." (Basil Hatim and Jeremy
Munday, Translation: An Advanced Resource Book. Routledge, 2005)

UFLS-FLTE TRANSLATION THEORY LE THI GIAO CHI

 Intralingual translation – translation within the same language, which
can involve rewording or paraphrase

Interlingual translation – translation from one language to another

Intersemiotic translation – translation of the verbal sign by a non-

verbal sign, e.g. music or image, or braille.

THE DYNAMICS OF TRANSLATION (Peter Newmark)

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There are different elements involved in the process of translation. Hence, any
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attempt to understand the meaning of a text requires in-depth knowledge of the

dynamics of translation presented by Peter Newmark as follows.
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The truth (facts of the matter)

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TL readership
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SL writer
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SL norms
TL norms
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TEXT
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SL culture TL culture
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SL setting TL setting
Translator

UFLS-FLTE TRANSLATION THEORY LE THI GIAO CHI