Exoticism – a phrase translated from another culture with minimal adaptation (‘Je dis!

’ in Astérix)

Cultural borrowing (‘Joie de vivre’)

Calque – a word for word translation of an expression from another language (‘It’s raining ropes)

Communicative translation (Chien méchant)

Cultural transplantation (‘Thompson & Thomson’ for ‘Dupond et Dupont’ in Tintin)

Linguistic transposition involves replacing a ST word or structure with a TL word or structure from a
different category.

(Dès son lever [lever used as noun] = After he got up [got up as a verb])

(La fraude fiscale [adj.] – tax evasion [noun])

Denominalisation – the translation of phrase function rather than structure.

(Respirer avec joie = to breathe in exultantly)

(Il a été séquestré par erreur = He was wrongly arrested)

Modulation – involves a change in the viewpoint from SL to TL.

(Objets trouvés = lost property) – here, “found” becomes “lost”

(Chien méchant = Beware of the dog) – here, explicit danger becomes implied danger

(Le taux d’abstentions = the turnout) – here, the emphasis on absence becomes an emphasis on
presence

(Il paraît rarement à New York = He is rarely seen in New York) – here, active becomes passive

Week 4: Compensation

“The principle of equivalent effect… implies ‘sameness’… is too vague to be useful. A TT produces a
carefully fabricated approximation of some of the properties of the ST. A sound attitude to
translation methodology should avoid an absolutist attempt to discover sameness in [aspects of the
text] that are crucially different”

“Translation loss is inevitable… reduce it by deciding which of the relevant features in the ST it is
most important to preserve, and which can most legitimately be sacrificed”

“When faced with apparently inevitable, yet unacceptable, compromises, translators may feel the
need to resort to techniques referred to as compensation”

Hervey and Higgins