- •The Theory and the Craft of Translation
- •The Translation Process
- •Equivalence and Adequacy in Translation
- •The Translation of Word Combinations
- •Grammatical Aspects of Translation
- •Translation and the Problems of Style
- •Classification of Translation Techniques
- •The Theory and the Craft of Translation
- •Is Translation an Art or a Craft?
- •2. The Theory of Translation as a Linguistic Science
- •3. Translation Studies as an Academic Discipline
- •3. A Brief History of Translation
- •4. Ethics of Translation
- •5. Criteria for Assessing the Translator’s Competence
- •The Translation Process
- •1. Classification of the Types (Methods) of Translation
- •2. Translation Strategy
- •3. Stages of Translating Process
- •4. The Problem of the Unit of Translation (ut)
- •Equivalence and Adequacy in Translation
- •1. A Brief Outline of Approaches to Defining Equivalence in Translation
- •III. Mona Baker distinguishes between:
- •2. Semantic Correspondence
- •3. Translation of Internationalisms (Borrowings) and the Problem of False Friends
- •Internationalisms (Borrowings)
- •The Translation of Word Combinations
- •1. The Translation of Free Word Combination
- •2. The Translation of Bound Word Combinations
- •Grammatical Aspects of Translation
- •1. Ways of Translating the Passive Voice
- •2. Ways of Translating Modal Verbs
- •3. Ways of Translating the Subjunctive Mood
- •4. Ways of Translating the Non-Finite Forms of the Verb
- •5. Translation Problems of Syntactical Stylistic Devices
- •Translation and the Problems of Style
- •1. Definition of Style
- •2. Classification of Functional Styles
- •3. Translation Problems of Lexical Stylistic Devices
- •Classification of Translation Techniques
- •1. Lexical translation techniques
- •2. Contextual Replacements
- •1. Lexical Translation Techniques
- •2. Contextual Replacements
- •3. Grammatical Transformations
- •The Translation of Word Combinations
- •Grammatical aspects of translation
- •Translation: Working Procedures Part I
- •Part II
- •Переславль-Залесский и московские художники
- •20. Ways of translating the passive voice
- •22. Ways of translating modal verbs
- •33. Translation problems of lexical stylistic devices
The Theory and the Craft of Translation
Is Translation an Art or a Craft?
Translation is a means of interlingual communication. But is it an art or a craft?
This question has been under debate for many years. According to Natalia Strelkova “Ideally, the translator is like a talented artist who when he looks at his sitter or a landscape, sees something more than the ordinary viewer – he sees the essence of what is in front of him.” A good translator always processes “the textual information to allow the reader to see what he sees and feel what he is feeling. He acts as an invisible bridge between the author and the reader. That is what makes translation an art.” (N. Strelkova. Introduction to Russian-English Translation. New York, 2012, p. 1)
On the other hand, mastery of craft is important, too, for an inept, ineffectual translator or interpreter can wreak havoc on any effort at communication. (N. Strelkova. Introduction to Russian-English Translation. New York, 2012, p. 1)
The following example is just a case in point.
Hand-made in every detail, fused to the body of the model who displays it, an haute couture dress is a wearable sculpture.
The literal translation of this sentence will be the following: Сделанное вручную в каждой детали, слившееся с телом модели, которая его демонстрирует, платье высокой моды – это пригодная для носки скульптура.
fuse - объединяться, сливаться
wearable – пригодный для носки
To translate this sentence correctly, we’ll have to analyze its components on different levels, namely: lexical, grammatical and stylistic.
Then we should “decode” and reformulate these elements according to the norms of the Russian language. This stage of translation requires specific skills which are called translator’s competence. So, we can say that translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and statement in one language by the same message and statement in another language.
Taking all these facts into account, this sentence can be translated like that: Изготовленное вручную до малейших деталей, подчеркивающее фигуру модели, которая его демонстрирует, платье высокой моды – это настоящее произведение искусства.
The term translation has several meanings: it can refer to the general subject field, the product (the text that has been translated) or the process (the act of producing the translation, otherwise known as translating).
The process of translation between two different written languages involves the translator changing an original written text (the source text or ST) in the original verbal language (the source language or SL) into a written text (the target text or TT) in a different verbal language (the target language or TL). (Introducing Translation Studies, p. 5)
2. The Theory of Translation as a Linguistic Science
The core of the translation theory is the general theory of translation which is concerned with the fundamental aspects of translation inherent in the nature of bilingual communication and therefore common to all translation events, irrespective of what languages are involved or what kind of text and under what circumstances was translated.
The basis of this theory is linguistics in the broadest sense of the word, that is, macrolinguistics with all its new branches, such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, text linguistics, communicative linguistics, etc.
The task of the theory of translation is a theoretical description of the translation phenomenon.
The aims of the theory of translation are:
1) to describe general linguistic principles of translation;
2) to elaborate the principles of types of translation;
3) to define the notion of equivalence and / or adequacy in translation;
4) to describe the process (the notion) of translation from the scientific point of view;
5) to reveal pragmatic and social-linguistic factors of translation;
6) to define the notion of norm in translation (for example, professional norms, which regulate the translation process itself, linguistic norms as related to the language system, communicative norms as related to communicative behavior, production norms which concern the methods and strategies by which a correct product can be achieved, etc. (Current Issues In Language and Society Volume 5, Issue 1-2, 1998, Cristina Schaffner The Concept of Norms in Translation, Studies, p. 1)
One of the outstanding scientists who influenced the development of the theory of translation was Eugene Nida. (He is also famous for his translation of the Bible).
Central to Nida’s work is the move away from the old idea that an orthographic word has a fixed meaning and towards a functional definition of meaning in which a word ‘acquires’ meaning through its context and can produce varying responses according to culture. (Introducing Translation Studies, p. 39)
Fyodorov stresses that translation theory is an independent linguistic discipline, deriving from observations and providing the basis for practice. He believes that all experience is translatable and rejects the view that language expresses a peculiar mental word-picture (словесное изображение).
Comissarov sees translation theory moving in three directions:
the denotative (informational translation);
the semantic (precise equivalence);
the transformational (transposition of relevant structures).