Name of the Course Unit: SNH 325

Name of the Lecturer: Prof Manoj

Ariyaratne

Lesson iv: Types and Methods of

Translation
 In his article ‘On Linguistic Aspects of Translation’ (1959)
Russian linguist ‘Roman Jakobson’ has distinguished
three types of translation ( Bassnett, Susan; 2000(1991).
translation STUDIES. London: Routledge Publishers)
 1. Intralingual Translation or rewording - NdIdjdka;r
mßj¾;kh ( an interpretation of verbal signs by means of
other signs in the same language) E.g. different versions of
the Bible, of the same basic message, are created in order to
cater for various target groups. It is this basic message which is
intralingually translated into new versions, irrespective of the
element (small or great) of interlingual translation – intralingual
translation is crucial in each new version.
 As we see from Jakobson’s distinction,
 there is also translation within the same language that is
called intralingual translation. Strictly speaking, it is an
interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs of
the same language. Intralingual translation can refer to
rewording or paraphrasing, summarizing, expanding or
commenting within a language. To get a feel for it, look
at the following dialogue:
 Policeman
 : There has been an accident ahead, Madam… I am
afraid you will have to turn left at St. Mary’s lane here,
the road is blocked.
   Jill: Oh, OK. Thanks Jack: What did he say? Jill:
 We’ve got to turn left.

 In these example, instead of repeating everything the

policeman said, Jill only gives the main idea and
summarizes his speech
 2. Interlingual Translation or translation proper
(NdIdka;r fyda wka;¾ NdId mßj¾;kh )
 Translation from one language into another.
 Unlike rewording, interlingual translation is
translation from one language into another or
reinterpretation of the message in another
linguistic code.
 It can be considered as an interpretation of verbal
signs by means of some other language. In other
words, translation proper means translating
between two different languages: from Italian to
English, from Spanish to Japanese, and so on.
(INTERLINGUAL TRANSLATION AS THE MAIN TYPE
OF TRANSLATIONI International Scientific Conference of Young
ResearchersAlmaz MIRZAYEVABaku Engineering University
amirzeyeva@std.qu.edu.az) 

3
3. Intersemiotic Translation or Transmutation
( wka;¾ika{dk mßj¾;kh )
The intersemiotics (translation or transposition) deals with
two or more completely different codes, e.g., linguistic one
vs. music and/or dancing, and/or image ones. Thus, when
Tchaikovsky composed the Romeo and Juliet, he actually
performed an intersemiotic translation: he 'translated'
Shakespeare's play from the linguistic code into a musical
one.
The expression code was changed entirely from words to
musical sounds. Then, as it was meant for ballet, there
was a ballet dancer who 'translated' further, from the two
previous codes into a 'dancing' one, which expresses
itself through body movement. (Kubilay Aktulum
What Is Intersemiotics? A Short Definition and Some
Examples. International Journal of Social Science and
Humanity, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 2017)
 Jakobson points to the central problem in three
types. While message may serve as adequate
interpretation of code units or messages, there is
ordinarily no full equivalence through translation.
 Even apparent synonymy does not yield
equivalence.
 Since, each unit contains within itself a set of non-
transferable associations and connotations.
 Because complete equivalence ( in the sense of
synonymy or sameness) cannot take place in any
of this catogories, Jakobson declares that all
poetic art is therefore technically untranslatable.
 English poet John Dryden has introduced three
translation methods for the translation of poetry.
 1. Metaphase-ප්‍රත්‍යනුවාදය

 2. Paraphrase-අර්තෝද්ධාරය

 3. Imitate-අනුකරණය
 Metaphrase , or turning an author word by word, and
line by line, from one language into another
 Metaphrase is a term referring to literal translation, i.e.,
"word by word and line by line" translation. In everyday
usage, metaphrase means literalism; however,
metaphrase is also the translation of poetry into prose.
 uq,dY%h lD;sh modkqmÈl j ,laIH NdIdjg yerùuhs‘
 ñka ìys jkafka uq,dY%h lD;sfha wka;¾.;h" wdlD;sh
tfiau wkq.ukh l< RcQ mßj¾;khls'
 moH .oH f,i mßj¾;kh lsÍu;a ñka woyia flfrhs
 Paraphrase-අර්තෝද්ධාරය- translation with
latitude(freedom) :Sense for sense translation,
 When you paraphrase a poem, use your own words to
explain the major ideas line-by-line. ... The goal is to
rephrase the ideas in your own words without evaluating
or addressing the author's hidden messages or underlying
themes. A paraphrased poem is a literal translation in
regular prose without rhyme or meter
 Of these three types Dryden chooses the second as the
more balanced path provided that translator fulfills
certain criteria: to translate poetry.
 1. The translator must be a poet
 2.Master of both languages
 3. must understand both the characteristics and spirit of
the original author. (Susan Bassnet. ( 200)Translation
studies. P 60)
 3. Imitate-අනුකරණය-Translator can abandon the text
of the original as he sees fit.

 Translator gets freedom to translate the source text freely

making changes.

 According to Dryden, not only the words but also the

meaning could be changed, new parts could be added…..

 Get the Sinhala translation of “I wandered lonely as
a cloud’ and compare whether it is metaphase,
paraphrase , imitation.
A METHODOLOGY FOR TRANSLATION

 Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet (1958)

 A METHODOLOGY FOR TRANSLATION
 Direct ඍජූ පරිවර්තනය and Oblique Translation (වl% පරිවර්තනය)

 ඍජූ පරිවර්තනය හෙවත් පදගතාර්ථ පරිවර්තනය (Literal translation)

 Literal, or word for word, translation is the direct transfer of a (Source
Text) SL text into a grammatically and idiomatically appropriate TL text
in which the translators’ task is limited to observing the adherence to the
linguistic servitudes of the (target text) TL
 It is raining cats and dogs. (How we translate this sentence with idiomatic
usage ?)
 Generally speaking, translators can choose from two
methods of translating, namely direct, or literal
translation and oblique translation. 
 In some translation tasks it may be possible to transpose
the source language message element by element into the
target language, because it is based on either (i) parallel
categories, in which case we can speak of structural
parallelism.
 But translators may also notice gaps, or“lacunae”, in the
target language (TL) which must be filled by
corresponding elements, so that the overall impression is
the same for the two messages. (Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean
Darbelnet,1958.  A METHODOLOGY FOR TRANSLATION. P85)

 Further, Jean Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet in ‘A Methodology for

Translation’ (1958), which carries out a comparative stylistic analysis
of French and English, stated seven methods of translation to
overcome Linguistic untranslatability (LU) and cultural
untranslatability(CU). Though it is based on the language pair of
French and English, it is applicable for any language pair of which
untranslatability occurs.
 Direct Translation Methods
 1. Borrowing (ඍණීකරණය )

 2. Calque (ඍණ පරිවර්තනය )

 3. Literal Translation (පදගතාර්ථ පරිවර්තනය)

 Borrowing: There are several sub-categories of

borrowings as follows,
I. Regular Borrowing: SL word is transferred directly to TL
by transliterating it. E. g. .d:d – /gāthā/ (what proposed
by Vinay and Darbelnet)
II. Converted Borrowing / Double Borrowing: directly
transliterating another form of the SL term e. g. ksjka –
Nivan (Sinhalese Term) ksර්jdK /Nirvāna/
(Sanskrit Term) > ksjka –Nivan
III. Annotated Borrowing: A combination of borrowing and
annotation.
Footnote (FN) at the end of the page or at the end of the
whole document
e. g. lsrsm¿-kiripaḷu

FN: Buchanania Latifolia [botanical term]

Text Embedded
IV. Sentence Embedded – e. g. nqoaOjxi - ‘Buddha Vaṁsa’
or the ‘Chronical of Buddha’
In Bracket – e. g. mdKavqlïn, - pāṇdukambala (Seat of
pale yellow stone)

V. Loan Blend: A combination of both borrowing and

literal translation. e.g. liS jf;ys - Kasī cloth (proposed by
Charles F. Hockett)
 Accordingly, two translation strategies were mainly
identified namely direct and indirect or oblique translation
methods.

 While borrowing, calque (another term for loan

translation- In linguistics, a calque (or loan translation) can
be defined as a word-for-word translation from one
language into another), and literal translation belong to the
category of direct translation.
 Transposition, equivalence, modulation, and adaptation
belong to indirect translation methods.
 Calque: This is 'a special kind of borrowing' where the
SL expression or structure is transferred into a literal
translation. (e. g. f;rejka –teruvan- Triple gems) Vinay
and Darbelnet note that both borrowings and calques
often become fully integrated into the TL, although
sometimes with some semantic change, which can turn
them into false friends.
 Eg. Sun light- හිරු එලිය
 Get up, loiter not- නැගී සිටින්න , අලස නොවන්න.
 Literal translation: This is 'word-for-word' translation,
which Vinay and Darbelnet describe as being most
common between languages of the same family and
culture (e. g. tlÕis;a – ekangasit- peace of mind). ‘Literal
translation is the author prescription for good translation:
literalness should only be sacrificed because of structural
and metalinguistic requirements and only after checking
that the meaning is fully preserved. But, say Vinay and
Darbelnet the translator may judge literal translation to be
'unacceptable' because it:
  
 a) gives a different meaning;
 (b) has no meaning;
 (c) is impossible for structural reasons etc.

 Eg: Can we use literal translation to translate the

following sentence into Sinhala?
 The increased pace of research on first language
acquisition in the 60s and 70s attracted the attention not
only of linguists of all kinds but also educators in various
language related fields.
 In those cases, where literal translation is not possible,
Vinay and Darbelnet say that the strategy of oblique
translation (Indirect Translation) must be used.
 .sf;, úof.k kÕsk b¢lgq ;=v fuka ( Gamperaliya p. 141)
Gitela vidagena naṁgina idikatu tuda men- Like a needle
piercing through butter ( Uprooted p. 129) ( Literal
Translation)
Oblique Translation (වl% පරිවර්තනය)

 Oblique Translation (වක්‍ර

පරිවර්තනය ) Techniques are used when the
structural or conceptual elements of the source
language cannot be directly translated without
altering meaning or upsetting the grammatical and
stylistics elements of the target language.
 1. Transposition (අතිස්ථාපනය)
 2. Equivalence (සමානාර්ථතාව )
 3. Modulation (අනුකූලනය )
 4. Adaptation (අනුවර්තනය )
Transposition: (අතිස්ථාපනය)

This is a change of one part of speech for another without

changing the sense. Vinay and Darbelnet see transposition
as 'probably the most common structural change undertaken
by translators.

 
 The method called transposition involves replacing one
word class with another without changing the meaning
of the message. In other words, transposition is the
process where parts of the speech change their sequence
when they are translated (blue ball becomes boule
bleue in French). It is in a sense a shift of word class.
Grammatical structures are often different in different
languages.
 E.g. As soon as he gets up…
ඔහු නැගිටි වහාම
 Transposition is the first technique or step towards
oblique translation. Oblique translation is another term
for free translation where the translator exercises his/her
freedom to attain equivalence.
 It operates at the grammatical level and it consists of the
replacement of a word class by another word class
without changing the meaning.
 From a stylistic view point, the transposed expression
does not have the same value, but the meaning is the
same. Transposed expressions are usually more literary in
character. What is the most important is to choose the
form that best fits the context (TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES:
TRANSPOSITION
 By Chiara Grassilli
https://translatorthoughts.com/2016/05/transposition/)
 Transposition can be:
 –  Free: when the transposition that we use is mainly
dependent on the context and particularly on the desired
effect.  For example:
 The course is of interest to all of us. (The course interest
all of us: back translation)
 Types of transposition:
1.– Adverb-verb: I only defended myself / I did nothing but defend myself
2.– Adverb-noun: I called you early this week / I called you at the beginning of the
week
3.– Adverb-adjective: He lives dangerously / He lives a dangerous life
4.– Adjective-noun: He found it difficult to learn for exams / He had difficulties
learning for the exams
5. – Possessive article-definite article: Your hair is too long / You have the hair too
long
6.– Verb or past participle-noun: I intended to give you a present / My intention was
to give you a present
7.– Adverb-noun: I wrote to you early this year / I wrote to you at the beginning of
this year
  
 2. Equivalence - සමානාර්ථතාව
 We have repeatedly stressed that one and the
same situation can be rendered by two texts using
completely different stylistic ( Auxiliary meaning,
Clarity etc), and structural methods. In such cases were
dealing with the method which produces equivalent
texts. 
 Vinay and Darbelnet view equivalence-oriented
translation as a procedure which 'replicates( to copy
something exactly) the same situation as in the original,
whilst using completely different wording (ibid.:342).

 They also suggest that, if this procedure is applied during

the translation process, it can maintain the stylistic
impact of the SL text in the TL text.
 According to them, equivalence is therefore the ideal
method when the translator has to deal with proverbs,
idioms etc.
 Proverbs
 Prove to the letter
 අකුරට ඔප්පු කරනවා

 Out of pocket, Badly off- අතමිට හිස් වූ

 Cannot make head or tail of
 අගක් මුලක් දන්නේ නෑ
 Wheels within wheels
 අන්තෝ ජටා බහි ජටා

 Idioms
 E.g It is raining cats and dogs
 මොරසුරන වර්ෂාව
 The police produced evidences to bear out the charge of
murder.
 මිනි මැරීම් චෝදනාව ඔප්පු කිරීම සඳහා පොලිසිය
සාක්ෂH ඉදිරිපත් කළේ ය
 Eg: Holy Kiss- “ Greet one another with a ‘Holy Kiss’ as
give one another a hearty handshake all around
( Dynamic Equivalence) ( A customary method of
greeting in New Testament time) ( Footnote)
 According to Eugene Nida, dynamic equivalence, the
term as he originally coined, is the "quality of a
translation in which the message of the original text has
been so transported into the receptor language that
the response of the receptor is essentially like that of the
original receptors.
 The desire is that the reader of both languages would
understand the meanings of the text in a similar fashion.
 Because functional equivalence  approach eschews strict
adherence to the grammatical structure of the original
text in favor of a more natural rendering in the target
language, it is sometimes used when the readability of
the translation is more important than the preservation of
the original grammatical structure.
 Formal equivalence is often more goal than reality, if
only because one language may contain a word for a
concept which has no direct equivalent in another
language.
 In such cases, a more dynamic translation may be used
or a neologism may be created in the target language to
represent the concept (sometimes by borrowing a word
from the source language).
 Hardware - දෘඩාංග
 Software- මෘදුකාංග
3. Modulation- අනුකුලනය

Modulation is a variation of the form of the message,

obtained by a change in the point of view. This change can
be justified when, although a literal, or even transposed,
translation results in a grammatically correct utterance, it is
considered unsuitable, unidiomatic or awkward in the TL.
 Free Modulation is a free translation procedure that is
done for the reason of nonlinguistic, for example, to
clarify the meaning, to create equivalence in target
language (Modulation in Translation Process Kartini Rahmatillah
 kartinirahmatillah@ymail.com Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi (STIE) Madani Balikpapan,
Indonesia)
 When there is no exact equivalence , we can use free
modulation
 E g. දානෙ - (Food offered to religious dignitaries)
 As there is no exact equivalence in English, for the term
දානෙ - Free modulation is used for the reason of
 nonlinguistic, for example, to clarify the meaning, to
create equivalence in target language
4. Adaptation (අනුවර්තනය )

 Adaptation: (අනුවර්තනය) This involves changing the

cultural reference when a situation in the source culture
does not exist in the target culture (Munday, 2001).
 The meaning of the term “adaptation” means ‘ to adjust’
(අනුකූල ව යෙදීම ). The term adaptation has been based
on the Latin term ‘ adaptare’.
 As one of a number of translation STRATEGIES,
adaptation can be defined in 
a technical and objective way. 
The best known definition is that of Vinay and 
Darbelnet (1958), 
who list adaptation as their seventh translation procedure: 
adaptation is a procedure which can be used whenever the 
content referred to  in the original text does not exist in the 
Culture of 
the target text, thereby necessitating some form of recreatio
n (restoration)
 This widely 
accepted definition views adaptation as a local 
rather than global strategy, 
employed to achieve an equivalence of situations whereve
r cultural mismatches  are encountered ( Routledge
Encyclopedia of Translation Studies p 04)
 Eg: “Off to the wars I went my way

 Leaving my loved one at her door

 My friend will keep her honor safe
 Till from the wars I’m back once more”( The
Caucasian Chalk Circle)
 යුද්දෙට මං ගියා
 ගෑනි ගෙදර තියා
 මගේ යාළුවො
 මන් එනතුරු
 උන්දැ බලාගයි නිරතුරු ( හුණුවටයේ
කාතාව)