1. LESSON 1 ANALYSING A TEXT
Translation practice
LESSON 1
ANALYSING A TEXT

2. Newmark’s introduction (1/2)
“Bear in mind that knowing a foreign language and your subject is not as important as being sensitive to language and being competent to write your own language dexterously, clearly, economically and resourcefully”
“Being good at writing has little to do with being good at 'essays', or at 'English‘ as you may have learned it at school. It means being able to use the appropriate words in the appropriate order for the object or process you are attempting to describe”
“A translator has to have a flair and a feel for his own language. There is nothing mystical about this 'sixth sense', but it is compounded of intelligence, sensitivity and intuition, as well as of knowledge. This sixth sense, which often comes into play during a final revision, tells you when to translate literally, and also, instinctively, perhaps once in a hundred or three hundred words, when to break all the 'rules' of translation”
(Newmark, 1988: 3-4)

3. Newmark’s introduction (2/2)
“I cannot make you into a good translator; I cannot cause you to write well. The best I can do is to suggest to you some general guidelines for translating. I shall propose a way of analysing the source language text; I shall discuss the two basic translation methods; and I shall set out the various procedures for handling texts, sentences and other units. I shall at times discuss the relation between meaning, language, culture and translation. By offering plenty of examples I hope to provide enough practice for you to improve your performance as a translator.”
(Newmark, 1988: 4)

4. READING THE TEXT (1/2)
According to Newmark (1988), a translator reads a text for two main reasons:
Understand what it is about
Analyse it from the “point of view” of a translator
- Determine its intention
- Determine the way it is written

5. READING THE TEXT (2/3) We need to read a text
to determine the intention and the way it is written
Select a suitable translation METHOD Identify specific/recurrent PROBLEMS
Two types of “reading”: GENERAL and CLOSE
(Newmark, 1988: 11)

6. READING THE TEXT (3/3) GENERAL READING CLOSE READING
“to get the gist; you may have to read encyclopedias, textbooks, or specialist papers to understand the subject and the concepts, always bearing in mind that for a translator, the function precedes the description”.
CLOSE READING
“is required, in any challenging text, of the words both out of and in context. In principle, everything has to be looked up that does not make good sense in its context”
(Newmark, 1988: 11)

7. THE INTENTION OF THE TEXT
In reading, you search for the intention of the text; you cannot isolate this from understanding it, they go together and the title may be remote from the content as well as the intention.
The intention of the text “represents the SL writer’s attitude to the subject matter”
EX: “That was clever of him”  Is it ironical, openly or implicitly?
AND WHAT ABOUT THE INTENTION OF THE TRANSLATOR?
It’s usually the same of the author of the ST… unless the commission says differently!
(Newmark, 1988: 12)

8. TEXT STYLES He identifies four main types of texts:
1. NARRATIVE dynamic sequence of events, where the emphasis is on the verbs
2. DESCRIPTION which is static, with emphasis on linking verbs, adjectives, adjectival nouns
3. DISCUSSION a treatment of ideas, with emphasis on abstract nouns, verbs of thought, mental activity
4. DIALOGUE with emphasis on colloquialisms and phaticisms
(Newmark, 1988: 13)

9. You may try to assess: 1. level of education; 2. sex; 3. age; …
The readership
The translator will try to identify the readership of the original on the basis of the variety of language used, and then of the translation.
You may try to assess: 1. level of education; 2. sex; 3. age; …
“The most common variety of 'marked' error in register among student translators tends to be 'colloquial‘ and 'intimate', e.g. use of phrases such as 'more and more' for 'increasingly', 'above all' for 'particularly' […] and excessively familiar phrasal verbs ('get out of, 'get rid of). The other common error, use of formal or official register (e.g. 'decease' for 'death'), also shows signs of TRANSLATIONESE”.
(Newmark, 1988: 13)

10. STYLISTIC SCALES SCALE OF FORMALITY (from Joos and Stravensen)
Officialese  'The consumption of any nutriments is categorically prohibited in this establishment.'
Official  'The consumption of nutriments is prohibited.'
Formal  'You are requested not to consume food in this establishment.'
Neutral  'Eating is not allowed here.'
Informal  'Please don't eat here.'
Colloquial  'You can't feed your face here.'
Slang  'Lay off the nosh.'
Taboo  ' Lay off the fucking nosh.'
(Newmark, 1988: 14)

11. SETTING - WHERE WOULD THE TEXT BE PUBLISHED?
WHAT IS THE TL EQUIVALENT OF THE SL NEWSPAPER, TEXTBOOK, ETC…?
WHO IS YOUR CLIENT? WHAT ARE HIS REQUIREMENTS?
…plus, further assumption on the readership: Will they know the topic? Are they expert? Will my readership be motivated?
(Newmark, 1988: 15)

12. The quality of the writing
The QUALITY of the writing and the AUTHORITY of the text are two critical factors in the choice of translation method.
“If the text is well written […], you have to regard every nuance of the author's meaning (particularly if it is subtle and difficult) as having precedence over the reader's response […] Deciding what is good writing is sometimes criticised as 'subjective‘ but it is a decision, like many others, not subjective but with a subjective element (the area of taste) which you have to make, using any experience of literary criticism you may have had”
“The authority of the text is derived from good writing; but also independently, unconnectedly, from the status of the SL writer”.
(Newmark, 1988: 16)

13. CONNOTATION vs DENOTATION
Bear in mind that whilst all texts have connotations […]
…in a non-literary text the denotations of a word normally come before its connotations. But in a literary text, you have to give precedence to its connotations
(Newmark, 1988: 16)

14. THE LAST READING
Finally, we should highlight the cultural aspects of the source text:
neologisms
metaphors,
cultural words
institutional terms peculiar to the SL
But also every other element which may create problems in translation:
a third language
proper names
technical terms
'untranslatable' words (that have no direct equivalent in the TL)
(Newmark, 1988: 17)

15. To summarize
“You have to study the text not for itself but as something that may have to be reconstituted for a different readership in a different culture”
(Newmark, 1988: 16)

16. references
NEWMARK, P A Textbook of Translation. New York and London: Prentice Hall.