Is translation synonymous with bilingualism?

It is one of the general misconceptions in translation practice that translation is bilingualism and that every bilingual individual is automatically a translator. But is this really so? Can every bilingual be or become a translator? Before one can effectively answer this question, one has to have an understanding of who a bilingual is and what a translator actually does. It is also very essential to understand the relationship between bilingualism and translation. The understanding of the above will help the reader know that translation is not synonymous with bilingualism, although one can complement the other.

The different types of bilingualism such as social, professional and native will be discussed here.

Relationship between bilingualism and translation

Bilingualism, according to Kholer (1973), helps us to examine some general questions in the use of language and to learn more about how the human mind handles different kinds of reformation. Since translation is a practical application of the theory of meaning, the translator’s understanding of meaning in a text can be analyzed at different levels and for different units.

Bilingual people interpret words in a way that is different from the dictionary translations of the same words, and this has a psychological explanation. To the bilingual, words are commonly used in context, in situations that are defined both by their physical characteristics and by their habits, attitudes, dispositions, and intentions towards the words. These cognitive and emotional conditions affect the way words are interpreted when heard or seen (Kholer, 1973:283) and the meanings given to them.

Words denoting ethnical or political ideas or emotions usually have different meanings in different languages and cultures. Although these words exist in other cultures and languages, the meanings attributed to them differ from culture to culture and this explains the difficulty in translating culturally distant languages and why translations of bilinguals sometimes differ from dictionary translations because they adjust the meanings to the other culture as they switch between languages. The above is possible because being bilingual also implies being bicultural.

Learning to do one thing in one language does not guarantee that one will be able to do so in the other language. Unlike natural sciences or pure arts, languages have different characteristics that affect translation activity making it more difficult. For instance, if one has to do a word-for-word or phrase for-phrase translation, it will yield a result very similar to what machine translation would provide; this is because a word-for-word translation would create an equivalent product, but even closely related languages have some differences in idiomatic expressions or syntax (Malakoff and Hakuta, 1991).

A bilingual who does not practice his native language or near-native language may have difficulty in thinking in his own language and may find it easier to express ideas in his second language.

Translators are considered (Lambert, 1978) special people because of the seriousness applied in capturing every detail of the speaker’s message and conveying it in another language without omitting anything. According to Lambert, translators’ bilingualism has the effect of providing them with special forms of intelligence, sensitivity, and skills at finding out what is meant and what is implied.

Translation can generally be considered an innate skill, which can be developed through guidance just like any other skill. This is called natural translation, which Harris and Sherwood (1978:155) defined as ’the translating done in everyday circumstances by people who have no special training for it.’ This idea is supported by the fact that almost all bilingual children can translate or interpret for adults in various situations such as medical, legal or administrative cases. Harris and Sherwood believe that although the ability is something natural, yet, there are stages that a natural translator goes through and according to him, translating is coextensive with bilingualism, that is, they have a relation that is similar to the one between speaking a language and the ability to communicate.

Toury (1995), however, is of the opinion that, although the predisposition for translating is coextensive with bilingualism, the unfolding of the translator’s skill depends on interlingualism, that is the ability to establish a relation between the similarities and differences between languages.

A natural translator according to Harris and Sherwood (1978:165-166) has to go through stages, which include:

- The first stage is the pretranslation stage where the translator uses mostly single words. This is because the child, being a monolingual, is still at the stage of one-word sentence.

- The second stage is called auto translation stage whereby the translator translates to others what he has said or written himself. This is also known as intrapersonal translation. But when the subject’s own words are translated to other people, this is known as interpersonal translation.

- The last stage is known as transduction whereby the translator acts as an intermediary between two other people.

According to Harris, age is a major factor contributing to the innate skill in translation, but we feel there are other factors. Age is simply a biological factor whereas there are other factors such as linguistic and social factors. Limiting the argument on bilingualism to age is limiting the validity of the argument. Although children can and do translate without receiving special training in the field of translation, that type of translation would not take care of the cultural implications of the message and may create barriers to communication. The translation may even be less functionally redundant and spontaneous.

From the above, it can be concluded that translation is generally identified with bilingualism. In fact, Shannon (1987:115) writes that translating is coextensive to bilingualism, that is, they have a relationship that is similar to that between speaking a language and the ability to communicate. In what could be termed as a response to this assertion, Toury (1995) believes that even though translating is related to bilingualism, one’s translating skills actually depend on the ability to establish a relationship between the similarities and the differences between languages Not all translators can translate in the same way because it is the personal characteristic of each translator or his /her knowledge of the two languages that determines the success or failure of the translation work done.

However, it is acknowledged that competence may have some relationship with age since there could be an increase in linguistic proficiency as one’s age increases. it is also necessary to say that the difference in people’s translation of the same work is due to the fact that the capacity to transfer from one language to another is different from one individual to another. Everything depends on each person’s interlingual capacity.