TRANSLATION

 Definition:

It’s the process of converting the meaning of a written message (text) from a source language
to a target language, which means from one language to another. Also, translators must strike a
fine balance between staying true to the original meaning and making a text sound natural in the
target language—to ensure that the final text communicates the same message, feeling, and tone
as the original.

 Theory:

 Methods/Approaches (types):

1. The communicative approach

It was proposed by Peter Newmark, who first puts forward that texts should be divided
into expressive, informative and vocative texts and distinguishes semantic translation and
communicative translation based on this. Particularly, communicative translation focuses on
the reader and aims to produce the same effect obtained on the readers of the original. On the
other hand, its emphasis is on the informative and vocative texts such as advertisement,
public signs, news and so on, thus it not only analyzes the words of the source text but also
the readers of the target text so as to achieve the best translation.

According to this perspective, meaning must be translated, not language. Language is

nothing more than a vehicle for the message and can even be an obstacle to understanding.
This explains why it is always better to deverbalize (instead of transcoding) when we
translate.

2. The functional approach:

A functionalist and communicative approach to the analysis of translation was invented in

the early twentieth century in Germany. In translation practice, the strategy should not be
determined by the text itself or the translator himself/herself, but should be mainly decided
by the purpose of the translation. This purpose-oriented approach to translation is one of the
central ideas of functionalist theory. Functionalism is a broad term for various theories that
approach translation in this way.

3. The hermeneutic approach:

The hermeneutic approach is mainly based on George Steiner’s research. Steiner believed
of any human communication as a translation. His book After Babel shows that translation is
not a science but rather an “exact art”: a true translator should be capable of becoming a
writer in order to capture what the author of the original text “means to say.”

4. The semiotic approach:

In a semiotic approach culture is considered as a web of signs in which texts are an

embedded subsystem. Semiotically, translation is primarily the transmission of a cultural
artefact into another cultural system of signs.

 Techniques

- Direct Translation:

1. Borrowing. To take a word or expression straight from another language. It can be pure
(without any change), e.g., to use the English word lobby in a Spanish text, or it can be
naturalized (to fit the spelling rules in the TL), e.g., gol, fútbol, líder, mitin. Pure
borrowing corresponds to SCFA’s borrowing. Naturalized borrowing corresponds to
Newmark’s naturalization technique.
2. Calque. Literal translation of a foreign word or phrase; it can be lexical or structural, e.g.,
the English translation for the French École normale. This corresponds to SCFA’s
acceptation.
3. Literal translation or word for word translation. To translate a word or an expression
word for word, e.g., They are as like as two peas as Se parecen como dos guisante, or,
She is reading as Ella está leyendo. In contrast to the SCFA definition, it does not mean
translating one word for another. The translation of the English word ink as encre in
French is not a literal translation but an established equivalent. Our literal translation
corresponds to Nida’s formal equivalent; when form coincides with function and
meaning, as in the second example. It is the same as SCFA’s literal translation.

- Oblique Translation:
1. Transposition. To change a grammatical category, e.g., He will soon be back translated
into Spanish as No tardará en venir, changing the adverb soon for the verb tardar, instead
of keeping the adverb and writing: Estará de vuelta pronto.
2. Modulation. To change the point of view, focus or cognitive category in relation to the
ST; it can be lexical or structural, e.g., to translate as you are going to have a child,
instead of, you are going to be a father. This coincides with SCFA’s acceptation.
3. Equivalence. This accounts for the same situation using a completely different phrase,
e.g., the translation of proverbs or idiomatic expressions like, Comme un chien dans un
jeu de quilles and Like a bull in a china shop.
4. Adaptation. A shift in cultural environment, i.e., to express the message using a different
situation, e.g. cycling for the French, cricket for the English and baseball for the
Americans.
5. Compensation. To introduce a ST element of information or stylistic effect in another
place in the TT because it cannot be reflected in the same place as in the ST. This
corresponds to SCFA’s conception.
6. Periphrasis
7. :