Use of dictionaries in translation process Nour Mohmed Dawood "220161008" Nesreen Ibraheem Barood Presented for : Dr.Mohmed Al haj Ahmed

WHY YOU SHOULD BE USING A DICTIONARY

Have you noticed that experienced doctors consult their medical reference book when dealing with patients? Or did you know that professional lawyers frequently make use of extensive law libraries when working on a client’s case? For translators, the same applies to dictionaries: dictionaries act as an important reference tool for professionals, and they certainly shouldn’t be considered as a crutch for beginners.

The importance of dictionary

A dictionary is a compilation of words ranging from letters A-Z A dictionary is a compilation of words ranging from letters A-Z. When reading or writing an article, deciphering profound word or phrase, the use of a dictionary could be of great help. Primarily, its purpose is to give meanings to words. They are a necessary tool because they provide us different types of information that may help us make right decisions in the process of translating.

So, there are many advantages of using a dictionary:

1. Right pronunciation: Through the aid of a dictionary, you can check out a word’s right utterance. For that it will assist you in the right pronunciation of words Translation \ trænslei∫ən\

2. Which part of speech: It could inform you as to which part of speech does a certain word belong. May it be a verb, noun, adjective or a combination of these three? One more thing, it could also be a guide as to how should a particular word be used.

3. Correct spelling: Linguistically speaking, there is no doubt that a dictionary could help us out in knowing the proper spelling of words. In this connection, it will guide us in writing a word or phrase.

4. give the learner good learning habits:  There is tremendous amount of information in a good learner’s dictionary – sometimes an overwhelming amount. Helping students tap into that information efficiently is one of the best ways to help them become independent, lifelong language learners.

What is a competent translator?

Competence : can be defined as the mix of skills, know-how, praxis and expertise needed to fulfill a task. That means translators should be aware with different skills beside dictionaries . Although dictionaries are important tools , they can not make competent translator by themselves.

WHY !! 1. Translation is a complex process involving many facts that are practically missing in most dictionaries such as collocational , textual , cultural , and discoursal parameters .

Cultural Competence A translator must have cultural competence of both source language and target language . Some of the expressions in source language may have different way to express in target language, or even does not exist at all. By having cultural competence, the translator may need not to look the substitution but enough to see the equivalence

Textual Competence Textual competence is knowledge of regularities and convention of texts, genres and text types. It is important to distinguish texts; this is closely related to how a text is translated. For instance, translating a narrative text is different from translating expository text, because the structures of those texts are different. Having competence to distinguish texts is very crucial for a translator. Textual competence enables a translator to see how certain text genre functions in certain culture. If a translator does not have or is not qualified in this regard, it is possible that there will be dysfunction of translated text.

2. Dictionaries focus on denotation ,and lack of connotation. Example : . Friend – Comrade : They share the same denotation but not the same connotation . Comrade has a political connotation .

So ,Dictionaries should be available for translator to fall back on when needed , but translators should never over-depended on them If they want to produce natural translation.

context It is the determining factor in searching for equivalence It shapes the meaning in all communication . Without context you can’t communicate effectively. When your message is delivered in one context, but received in another, it likely leads to miscommunication.. By context what is meant is the entire environment in which the word or sentence is expressed or stated. So a translator has to go into the background of the text to understand the text. 

Press my shirt. I work in a press. Press the button. In the above examples, the meaning of the word ‘press’ changes based on its placement and interaction with other words in the sentence.

العليق وقت الغارة خسارة Programmes to teach heritage languages to ethnic youngsters in upper elementary or high schools are all quite laudable, but if it is merely a question of trying or reinforce or replant first language competence already lost for all practice purposes, then t his is rather like shutting the stable door when the horse has bolted. Canada has chosen to ‘entrench’ its dual cultural heritage in its institutions and, as a result, official translation has taken firm root. If you say that someone has closed or shut the stable door after the horse has bolted , you mean that they have tried to prevent something happening but they have done so too late to prevent damage being done. العليق وقت الغارة خسارة

So, dictionaries should be used sparingly and intelligently to make sound lexical decisions , but without losing sight of the context .

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