Translation Theory Mirvan Xhemaili, PhD

TRANSLATION Old French translation or Latin translatio At first, a merely practical activity used to reinforce language learning Now, Translation is an academic field in its own right Here we talk about written translation, rather than oral translation (a.k.a. interpreting)

What is translation? Which of the five points below do you most agree with? 1.Translation is more about people than about words 2.Translation is more about the jobs people do and the way they see their world than it is about registers and sign systems 3.Translation is more about the creative imagination than it is about rule-governed text analysis 4.The translator is more like an actor or a musician (a performer) than like a tape recorder 5.The translator, even of highly technical texts, is more like a poet or a novelist than like a machine translation system

THE PROCESS Source text (ST) -------------Target text (TT) In source language (SL) in target language (TL) E.g. An English text (ST) is translated into Albanian (TL) and becomes a target text (TT). This is an ‘interlingua translation’ (see next slide) One has to be brilliant in both languages. Different types of text. (Content/Law) Audience/Reader Translation Written transfer of a text from one language to another Intercultural transfer and content. Adaptation

ROMAN JACOBSON Three categories of translation: a. Intralingual or rewording (in the same language, e.g. subtitles for hard-to-hearing people) b. Interlingual or translation proper (from one language into another, cf. Example above) c. Intersemiotic or transmutation (verbal signs into non-verbal sign systems, e.g. A novel into a musical )

TRANSLATION STUDIES In 2008, EU estimated the turnover of the translation and interpreting industry at €5.7 billions. Translation has always been part of human communication, used in particular to transmit religious texts. Only after the second half of the Twentieth Century, TS became an academic subject, with specialized translating and interpreting programmes.

HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLINE The writings --Cicero and Horace Roman rhetorician and orator (first century BCE) and St Jerome (Bible Translator) (forth century CE), by now the patron saint of all translators. From the late 18th century to the 1960s – grammar-translation method replaced by the direct method or communicative approach in the 1960s and 1970s In the 1960s, the USA promoted the translation workshop concept based on Richards’s reading workshops and practical criticism approach that began in 1920s; running parallel to this approach was that of comparative literature where literature in compared transnationally and trasculturally.

HISTORY OF THE DISCIPLINE The USA 1930s-1960s/70s – contrastive analysis of similarities and differences in languages More systematic, and mostly linguistic-oriented, approach 1950s-1960s: 1. Jean Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet (French/English) 2. Alfred Malblanc (French/German) 3. Georges Mounin (linguistic issues of translation) 4. Eugene Nida (based on Chomsky’s generative grammar) 5. James S. Holmes’s “The name and nature of translation studies” is considered to be the ‘founding statement’ of a new discipline 6. Theo Hermans’s ‘Manipulation School’ 7. Vieira’s Brazilian cannibalist school 8. Postcolonial theory 9. Laurence Venuti’s cultural-studies-oriented analysis

THE HOLMES/TOURY ‘MAP’ OF TRANSLATION STUDIES ‘Pure’ Theoretical (translation theory) 1)General 2)Partial Medium restricted By machine: alone/ with human aid By humans: written/ spoken (consecutive or simultaneous ) (b) Area restricted (specific languages) (c) Rank restricted (word/sentence/text) (d) Text-type restricted (genres: literary, business, technical translations) (e) Time restricted (periods) (f) Problem restricted (specific problems e.g. equivalence)

THE HOLMES/TOURY ‘MAP’ OF TRANSLATION STUDIES ‘Pure’ Descriptive (DTS) 1) Product-oriented (examines existing translations, single ST-TT pair or ST and many TTs) 2) Function-oriented (a study of context; ‘socio-translation studies’; cultural-studies-oriented translation) 3) Process-oriented (what happens in the mind of a translator, e.g. Think-Aloud-Protocols)

THE HOLMES/TOURY ‘MAP’ OF TRANSLATION STUDIES ‘Applied’ 1) Translator training a) Teaching evaluation methods b) Testing techniques c) Curriculum design 2) Translation aids a) IT applications (machine, translation, corpora, translation software (CAT tools), on-line databases, internet searches, online forums) b) Dictionaries, grammars c) expert informants 3) Translation criticism a) Evaluation of translations b) Revision of students’ translations c) Reviews of published translation

THE VAN DOORSLAER ‘S MAP Translation 1) Lingual mode (interlingual, intralingual) 2) Media (printed, audiovisual, electronic) 3) Mode (covert/ overt translation, direct/indirect translation, mother tongue/ other tongue translation, pseudo-translation, retranslation, self-translation, sight translation, etc.) 4) Field (political, journalistic, technical, literary, religious, etc.) Translation Studies 1) Approaches (cultural. Linguistic) 2)Theories (general translation theory, polisystem theory) 3) Research methods (descriptive, empirical) 4) Applied translation studies (criticism, didacticts, institutional environment)

THE VAN DOORSLAER’S TAXONOMY Strategies - the overall orientation of the TT: a) Free translation b) Idiomatic translation c) Functional translation d) Literal translation (sentence by sentence, word for word, interlinear) e) Source-oriented approach f)Target-oriented approach g) Foreignizing h) Exoticizing i) Neutralization j) Localization k) Domestication

THE VAN DOORSLAER’S TAXONOMY Procedures – the specific techniques used at a given point in TT: Acculturation Adaptation Amplification Borrowing Calque Coinage Compensation Concision Condensation Denominalization Direct transfer Dilution Expansion Imitation Implicitation Interchange Interpretation Modulation Modification Paraphrase Recategorization Reformulation Addition Omission

INTERDISCIPLINARITY “A true interdiscipline is... not easily understood, funded or managed in a world divided along disciplinary lines, despite the standard pieties… Rather it is an entity that exists in the interstices of the existing fields, dealing with some, many or all of them.” (McCarthy 1999 in Munday 2012) Translation can have a primary (but not ancillary) relationship with Linguistics, modern languages and language studies, comparative literature, cultural studies and philosophy.

The concept of translation: What is the aim of translation? *To introduce the reader to major concepts and models of translation studies. *Erases the borders between disciplines and research. *Builds bridges between the humanities and the sciences to respond to the needs of a globalized world. * Destroys language walls.

Translation theories Most TT is: But usually has elements of all three Product-orientated – focuses the translation Function-orientated – examines the context and purpose of the translation Process-orientated – analyses the psychology of translation and process But usually has elements of all three

Partial theories of translation Medium restricted – man or machine? Area restricted – specific languages/cultures Rank-restricted – word/sentence/text Text-type restricted –different genres Time-restricted – historical view Problem-restricted – specific problems, e.g equivalence

Think about the following points and be prepared to actively discuss them in class. Is a graduate or a postgraduate qualification a prerequisite for working as a professional translator in your country? If someone (individual, company, etc.) needs a translation in your country, how do they go about obtaining it? Try to trace the phases of the process.

OVERVIEW Literal or free? Word-for-word or sense-for-sense? Chinese translation of Buddhist sutras Translation practice in Baghdad The Protestant Reformation in Europe Early attempts at more systematic theory Schleiermacher and the foreign

MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (46 BCE) Translation of Greek Attic orators ‘And I did not translate them as an interpreter, but as an orator, keeping the same ideas and forms, or as one might say, the ‘figures’ of thought, but in language which conforms to our usage. And in so doing, I did not hold it necessary to render word for word, but I preserved the general style and force of the language’ (Cicero 46 BCE/1997 CE: 364)

LITERAL OR FREE Literal translation (or direct translation): a type of translation that adheres closely to the surface structures of the ST message, both in terms of semantics and syntax. Versus Free translation (or oblique translation): a type of translation that attempts to translate the meaning of the word within its context and within target language requirements.

ST JEROME (395 CE) Translation of the Greek Septuagint and its Hebrew version. ‘Now I not only admit but freely announce that in translating from the Greek – except of course in the case of the Holy Scripture, where even syntax contains a mystery – I render not word-for-word, but sense-for-sense’ (St Jerome 395 CE/1997: 25)

CHINESE TRANSLATION OF BUDDHIST SUTRAS  Wide-ranging project translating oral texts into written form.  First phase: initial a zhìyì (word-for-word) strategy adhere closely to the SL, often using transliteration.

CHINESE TRANSLATION OF BUDDHIST SUTRA Second phase: the approach was later modified and the Yìyì (sense-for-sense) approach was preferred.  Dào´ān’s (4th century) third preface to the translation of the Prajñāpāramitā identifies  Five ‘losses’  Three ‘difficulties’  Kumārajīva (4th–5th century CE) Xuán Zàng (7th century CE) advocated a translation that replicated the style of the original text.

TRANSLATION PRACTICE IN BAGHDAD Abbāsid period (750–1250 CE) Translation of Greek scientific and philosophical works into Arabic First method was literal with borrowings Later methods were more sense-for-sense  But social, political and ideological factors involved Groups of translators

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION IN EUROPE  Humanist advances in the study of ancient Hebrew and Greek (15th–16th centuries CE)  Use of translation of the Bible to challenge the Roman Catholic Church and promote the vernacular languages  Martin Luther in Germany  William Tyndale in England  Étienne Dolet in France

FIDELITY, SPIRIT AND TRUTH  Fidelity, or faithfulness, Horace (65 – 8 BCE) dismissed it as literal ‘word–for–word’ translation. However, in the 17th century it was identified as faithfulness to the meaning rather than the words.  Spirit: (1) the Latin word spiritus denotes creative energy or inspiration; (2) the creative energy of a text or language  Truth (veritas) in the the sense of ‘content’ of the text.

EARLY ATTEMPTS AT MORE SYSTEMATIC THEORY Étienne Dolet (1509-1546), French scholar and translator. In his 1540 manuscript La manière de bien traduire d’une langue en aultre he set Five principles of the process of translation in order of importance: (1) The translator must perfectly understand the ST (2) The translator should have a perfect knowledge of both SL and TL (3) The translator should avoid word-for-word rendering (4) The translator should avoid Latinate and unusual forms (5) The translator should avoid clumsiness

EARLY ATTEMPTS AT MORE SYSTEMATIC THEORY John Dryden (1631-1700) - English poet and translator. In the preface to his translation of Ovid’s Epistles he reduces all translation to three categories: (1) metaphrase, or ‘word by word and line by line’ translation, which corresponds to literal translation; (2) paraphrase: ‘[where the author’s] words are not so strictly followed as his sense’ and which this more or less corresponds to faithful or sense-for-sense translation; (3) imitation, a free adaptation, ‘forsaking both words and sense’ (today’s adaptation)

EARLY ATTEMPTS AT MORE SYSTEMATIC THEORY Alexander Tytler (1747-1813) - Scottish historian and professor. He defines a ‘good translation’ as being oriented towards the target language reader and set out three general ‘laws’: (1) it should fully represent the ideas of the original (2) it should render the style of the original (3) it should have the ease of the original composition.

EARLY ATTEMPTS AT MORE SYSTEMATIC THEORY  Yán Fù (1854-1921) - Chinese thinker and translator who proposes three translation principles: xìn (fidelity / faithfulness / trueness) (2) dá (fluency / expressiveness / intelligibility / comprehensibility) (3) yă (elegance / gracefulness)

SCHLEIERMACHER AND THE FOREIGN Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834). German theologian and philosopher. In his seminal lecture Über die verschiedenen Methoden des Übersetzens [‘On the different methods of translating’] (1813) he expounded a Romantic approach to interpretation based not on absolute truth but on the individual’s inner feeling and understanding. He distinguished two types of translator The ‘Dolmetscher’ – commercial texts The ‘Übersetzer’ – scholarly and artistic texts Schleiermacher considers there to be only two paths open for the ‘true’ translation: ‘Either the translator leaves the writer in peace as much as possible and moves the reader toward him, or he leaves the reader in peace as much as possible and moves the writer toward him’

SCHLEIERMACHER AND THE FOREIGN The two methods of translation are: ‘alienating’ or ‘foreignizing’: the value of the foreign is emphasised by “bending” TL word-usage to try to ensure faithfulness to the ST ‘naturalizing’: the foreign text is brought in line with the typical patterns of the TL.

Direct Translation Techniques Direct Translation Techniques are used when structural and conceptual elements of the source language can be transposed into the target language. Direct translation techniques include: • Borrowing • Calque • Literal Translation

Borrowing Borrowing is the taking of words directly from one language into another without translation. Many English words are "borrowed" into other languages; for example software in the field of technology and funk in culture. English also borrows numerous words from other languages; abbatoire, café, passé and résumé from French; hamburger and kindergarten from German; bandana, musk and sugar from Sanskrit. Borrowed words are often printed in italics when they are considered to be "foreign".

Calque A calque or loan translation is a phrase borrowed from another language and translated literally word for-word. Examples that have been absorbed into English include standpoint and beer garden from German Standpunkt and Biergarten; breakfast from French déjeuner (which now means lunch in Europe, but maintains the same meaning of breakfast in Québec). Some calques can become widely accepted in the target language (such as standpoint, beer garden and breakfast and Spanish peso mosca and Casa Blanca from English flyweight and White House). An unsuccessful calque can be extremely unnatural, and can cause unwanted humor, often interpreted as indicating the lack of expertise of the translator in the target language.

Idiomatic translation Idiomatic translation reproduces the message of the original text but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original. Communicative translation Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership.