Introducing Translation Studies: Studying Translation Product and Process
Author: Eman Mohamed Sayed Ahmed Aly
Master’s Degree in English Language and Translation Studies, The American University of Sharjah
Main points
1. Overall translation strategies and specific translation procedures
2. Vinay and Darbelnet ( 1958): classic taxonomy of linguistic changes in translation
3. Catford ( 1965/ 2000) uses the term “translation shift” in his linguistic approach to translation
4. Translational stylistics ( Malmkjaer 2003) attempts to identify and analyze translator style
5. Cognitive models seek to explain the process of translation through theory and observation
6. Think-aloud protocols and other experimental methods for analyzing the translation process
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Introduction
This chapter looks at ways of analyzing translation as:
1. a Linguistic product
2. a Cognitive process
Vinay and Darbelnet Model
• A clarification to the difference between strategy and procedure is needed:
1. Strategy: in technical sense, it is an overall orientation of the translator ( e.g. toward “free” or “literal” translation, or toward ST or TT, or towards “domestication” or “foreignization”)
2. Procedure: is a specific technique or method used by the translator at a certain point in the text ( e.g. the borrowing of a word from the SL, or an explanation or a footnote in the TT)
Although the model of Vinay and Darbelnet was based on English/ French comparison, it extended to include other languages such as German and Spanish.
The model came to a wider prominence in the 1995 when it was published in revised form in English translation, 37 years after the original.
So, we have 2 Strategies and 7 Procedures
First the two strategies ( as per Vinay and Darbelnet) are:
1. Direct Translation “Literal”
2. Oblique Translation “free”
The 7 Procedures
A) Direct Translation covers Three:
1. Borrowing
2. Calque
3. Literal Translation
Oblique Translation covers four:
4. Transposition
5. Modulation ( it can be obligatory or optional)
6. Equivalence
7. Adaptation
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5. Modulation
it can be obligatory or optional
Modulation at the level of message is subdivided:
Abstract ( Versus)
Particular
Effect
Concrete
General
Cause ( explicative modulation)
Whole Part
Part
Reversal of terms
Active
Rethinking of intervals and limits in space and time Change
Another part
Passive
of symbol
Levels of Translation
The seven main translation procedures are described as operating on three levels:
1. The lexicon
2. Syntactic Structures
3. The message ( i.e. the utterance and its metalinguistic situation or context)
4. Two further terms perform on the level of word:
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Word order and Thematic structure
- Connectors
Supplementary Translation Procedures
• There are other techniques exemplified by Vinay and Darbelnet that have maintained currency in translation theory:
1. Amplification
2. False Friend
3. Loss, Gain and compensation
4. Explication
5. Generalization
Such levels of analysis begin to point to the text based and discourse based analysis ( which will be discussed later in chapters 5 and 6)
- There are two more levels that we need to differentiate between:
- Servitude
- Option
The Analytical Steps
Five analytical steps for the translator to follow in moving from ST to TT:
1. Identify the units of translation
2. Examine the SL text, evaluating the descriptive, affective and intellectual content of units
3. Reconstruct the metalinguistic context of the message
4. Evaluate the stylistic effect
5. Produce and revise the TT
Catford draws a difference between formal correspondence and textual equivalence
1. Formal Correspondence: Any TL category ( unit, class, element of structure) which can nearly occupy in the “economy” of the TL as given SL category occupies in the SL ( Catford 1965: 27)
2. Textual Equivalence: Any TL text or portion of text which is observed on a particular occasion… to be the equivalent of a given SL text or portion of text.
Catford and Translation “Shifts”
Catford ( 1965: 20) follows the Firthian and Hallidayan linguistic model which analyzes language as communication , operating functionally in context and on a range of different levels: phonology, graphology, grammar, lexis), and ranks ( sentence, clause, group, word, morpheme, etc.)
Catford two types of shift in translation from SL to TL
1. A Level Shift:
2. Category Shifts:
A) Structural Shifts
B) Classic Shifts
C) Unit Shifts
D) intra-system Shifts
Option, Markedness and Stylistic Shifts in Translation
- In the 1960s and 1970s, “expressive function” or style of a text was introduced.
- Levy, In the translation of poetry, in particular, sees literary translation as both a reproductive and a creative labor with the goal of equivalent aesthetic effect ( 1969: 65-69)
- Hermans ( 1996) speaks of the conscious and unconscious decision-making from the translator and the translator’s “discursive presence” which are all conveyed in the linguistic choices that appear in the TT.
Translational Stylistics
It means the possibility of analyzing the style and the intentions of the translator, rather than the source text author, through the analysis of the TT choices. ( Kirsten Malmkjaer 2003)
Servitude and Option
Vinay and Darbelnet’s servitude and option can relate to the difficulty in distinguishing between shifts in translation and those that are the result of the translator’s linguistic preferences. ( not much explanation in this point)
Motivation
The interesting point is to hypothesize the motivation behind the selections. The choices in translation, whether conscious or unconscious, may be due to translator's environment including
- Education
- Sociocultural and political context in which they operate
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Personal ideology of the translator
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Markedness
Markedness relates to a choice of patterns of choices that standout as unusual and may come to the reader’s attention.
Cognitive Process of Translation
The “interpretive Model” of translation championed in Paris from the 1960s onwards by Danica Saleskovitch and Marian Lederer and initially applied to the study of conference interoperating, explains translation as an overlapping three-stage process involving the following:
1. Reading and understanding
2. Deverbalization
3. Re- expression
Way of Investigating Cognitive Processing
Think-aloud protocols (TAPs)
In this type of study the translator is asked to verbalize his or her thought processes while translating or immediately afterwards ( i.e. retrospective protocol)
Think-aloud is an experimental method innovated by psychology( Ericson and Simon 1984) and may provide more detailed information on the translation process than simply comparing the St- TT pair.
Limitations of TAP
1. Do TAP actually give us information on the mental process at work?
2. The effort involved in verbalizing slows down the translation process and may affect the way the translator segments the text.
3. The data gathered is therefore incomplete and does not give access to the process which the translator does automatically.
4. What tool should the subjects be allowed to use ( dictionaries, notes, internet, …)
Conclusion
In conclusion the chapter covered ways of analyzing translation as A) a Linguistic product, and B) a Cognitive process
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References:
- Baker, Mona (2011) In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation , London and New York: Routledge.
- Benjamin, Walter (1969/2004) ‘The task of the translator’, translated by Harry Zohn, in Lawrence Venuti (ed.) (2004), The Translation Studies Reader , 2nd edition, London and New York: Routledg
- Catford, John (1965/2000) ‘Translation shifts’, in Lawrence Venuti (ed.) (2000) The Translation Studies Reader , 1st edition, London and New York: Routledge. From Catford’s A Linguistic Theory of Translation , London: Oxford University Press (1965).
- Chesterman, Andrew (2005) ‘Towards consilience?’, in Karin Aijmer and Cecilia Alvstad (eds) New Tendencies in Translation Studies , Göteborg: Göteborg University.
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Nord, Christiane (2005) Text Analysis in Translation: Theory, Methodology and Didactic Application of a Model for Translation-Oriented Text Analysis , translated by Christiane Nord and Penelope Sparrow, 2nd edition, Amsterdam: Rodopi.
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Sewell, Penelope (2002) Translation Commentary: The Art Revisited , Dublin: Philomel.
