Translation theories

Translation is as old as language. Different language communities considered translation necessary for their interaction. With translation as an important activity, there emerged diverse theories to guide it.

1. As-Safi, A. (2010). Translation theories, strategies and basic theoretical issues. Jordan, Petra: Petra University Press Introduction to Translation Theories A Course Presentation by: Dr. Jihan Zayed Mustaqbal University, KSA 2020

2. Translation is as old as language. Different language communities considered translation necessary for their interaction. With translation as an important activity, there emerged diverse theories to guide it. Introduction 2

3. Translation Translation is the expression in a target language (TL) of what has been expressed in a source language (SL), preserving semantic* and stylistic** equivalences. *Semantic: meaning **Style: refers to the relations among the participants in a language activity, especially the level of formality they adopt (colloquial, formal, etc.). 3

4. Criteria for Classifying Translation Types Translation Method/Approach Mode Code 4

5. Translation Types: Method/Approach Translation Literal Literary Semantic Free Non-literary Communicative Static Dynamic 5

6. Translation Types: Code Translation Proper: by means of some signs of another language. Rewording: by means of other signs of the same language. Transmutation: by means of signs of nonverbal sign system. Intralingual Translation Interlingual Translation Intersemiotic Translation There are three ways of interpreting a verbal sign: 6

7. Translation Types: Mode Written (Translating) Translation Oral (Interpreting) Interpreting consists in conveying to the TL the most accurate, natural equivalent of the SL oral message. 7

8. Requirements for Competent Translators Mastery/Proficiency of SL and TL 1 Thorough knowledge of Source and Target cultures 2 Familiarity with the topic 3 Vocabulary wealth 4 Awareness of the 3-pahase process: SL decoding, SL-TL transcoding, TL encoding 5 8

9. Requirements for Competent Interpreters Short-term memory for storage and retrieval 1 Acquaintance with different accents 2 Quick wittedness and full attention 3 Knowledge of short-hand writing 4 Self-exposure 5 9

10. Translation Theories: A Historical Perspective For almost 2000 years, translation theory has merely been concerned with outstanding works of arts. The science of translation or “ translatology” has not emerged until the 1940s in an attempt to establish itself as a new discipline. 10

11. Main Periods in Translation History 11 The Fourth Period The Third Period The Second Period The First Period 1960s: Present 1940s:1960s 1600:1940s 27 BC:1600

12. The First Period: Though translated documents were found in the third and the second millennium B.C. in ancient Egypt and Iraq, t his period starts with the Romans (i.e., 27 B.C.). It is the longest period as it covers a span of about 1700 years. An underlying principle of enriching the native language through translation led to stress the aesthetic criteria of the TL product. Translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work. 12

13. The Second Period: This period runs up to the forties of the twentieth century. The French theorist, Etienne Dolet ( 1509 –1546) , stressed the importance of understanding the text. He put some principles for the translator: The translator should avoid word-for-word translation. The translator is at liberty to clarify obscurities. The translator attempts to reach the “spirit” of the original. 13

14. John Dryden (1631-1700) formulated 3 basic types of translation: 14 Metaphrase : Translating word by word, line by line, from one language into another 1. Paraphrase: Translation with latitude: sense-for-sense 2. Imitation: The translator can abandon the text of SL. He can mix between the two extremes: paraphrase and metaphrase . 3. .

15. The Third Period: This period, which is the shortest as it extends to less than three decades, starts with the publication of the first papers on machine translation in the 1940s, and is characterized by the introduction of structural and applied linguistics, and contrastive studies which helped the translators identify between SL and TL. 15

16. The Fourth Period: The last period coexists with the third period as it has its origins in the early 1960s. This period sets the discipline in a wide frame which includes a number of other disciplines. 16

17. The invention of computer led to automatic machine translation (MT). MT is simply translation performed either purely automatically by a computer or with human assistance which involves the preparation of ST (pre-editing) and/or product editing (post-editing). Translation Computerization Era 17

18. The Arabs are credited with initiating the first organized, large-scale translation activity in history. Al- Ma’mun had founded in 830 Bait Al- Hikma in Baghdad which functioned as an academy, library and translation bureau and had a personnel of 65 translators. Two methods of translations had been adopted: Ibn Al- batriq and Ibn Na’ima Al- Himsi’s method was highly literal and consisted of translating each Greek word with an equivalent Arabic word, but when there was no equivalent, the Greek word was adopted. Ibn Ishaq revised the first method and exercised translating sense-for-sense translation. Al- Jahiz insisted that the translator can never do the original writer justice or express him with fidelity. Arabs’ Theorization 18

19. Translation Theories: A General Survey Translation theory is mainly concerned with determining appropriate translation methods for the widest possible types of texts. It also provides a framework of rules for translating and criticizing translations. A theory should also be concerned with translation strategies adopted to address problems in certain texts. 19

20. Translation Theories The following part will show some main theories: 20

21. Philology is the study of development of language and the classical literary studies. Philological theory is concerned with the comparison of structures in the native and foreign languages, especially the functional correspondence and the literary genres in addition to stylistics and rhetoric. Philological Theory 21

22. This theory emphasizes the psychological and intellectual functioning of the mind of the translator. Translation is essentially a semantic transfer from SL into TL. Philosophical Theory 22

23. This theory is based on the comparison of the linguistic structures of the STs and TTs. It is only the linguistic translation that can be considered “faithful” because it is one which only contains elements which can be directly derived from the ST wording, avoiding any kind of explanatory interpolation or cultural adjustment. Linguistic Theory 23

24. This theory views translation as purpose-driven, or product-oriented human interaction with special emphasis on the process of translation as message-transmission from a source text. Translational Action Theory 24

25. Skopos Theory 25 Skopos is derived from Greek as a technical term for the purpose of translation. It was developed in Germany in the late 1970s. It reflects a shift from predominantly linguistic and rather formal theories to a more functionally and socio-culturally oriented concept of translation. It endeavours to meet the growing need in the later half of the twentieth century for the translation of non-literary texts: scientific, academic papers, instructions for use, tourist guides, contacts, etc.

26. It has first arisen from the work of a group of Russian literary theorists. As it offers a general model for understanding, analyzing, and describing the functions and evolution of literary systems, its specific application is to the study of translated literature. These systems, whether in the original or translated texts, subsume several levels: linguistic, cultural, and social, all of which overlap and interact with each other. Polysystem Theory 26

27. Sociolinguistic Theory 27 This theory endeavors to link translation to communicative theory and information theory, with special emphasis on the receptor’s role in the translation process. It does not overlook language structures, instead it deals with them at a higher level in accordance to their functions in the communicative process.

28. This theory subsumes the early work on text type and language function, the theory of translational action, skopos theory and text-analysis model. Functional Theory 28

29. Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Translation 29 Three types of theories are required: 1 Theory of translation as a process ( translating ) . This requires a study of information processing, including: Perception, memory, and encoding and decoding. Besides, there is a need for psychology and psycholinguistics. 2 3 Theory of translation as a product ( translated texts ) . This requires a study of texts on several levels (syntax and semantics) and making use of stylistics and recent advances in text-linguistics and discourse analysis. Theory of both process and product ( translating and translated texts ) . This is the long-term goal for translation studies. It adds an element between the process and product (i.e., transfer ). This supposes that the three elements are not separate from each other.

30. Translation Strategies General Strategies deal with different text types. Translation Strategies Specific Strategies deal with a certain text type or readership. It has 5 types. A translation strategy is a procedure for solving a problem encountered in translating a text or a segment of it. 30

31. 1. Domestication Strategy 31 This strategy is often adopted by literary translators as it gives them the right to manipulate the text so as to make it natural, comprehensible, and readable in order to bridge the cultural gap and achieve intelligibility. Example: “Your daughter spent, as I heard one night, fourscore ducats.” سمعت أن ابنتك قد أنفقت في ليلة واحدة سبعين دينارا. *The translator has replaced the currency of the time “ducat” with “dinar” to be understood by the Arab audience, and even changed the number “fourscore” into “seventy”.

32. 2. Compensation Strategy 32 It is making up for ST effects achieved by one means through using another means in the TT. Kind Place Merging Splitting The Arabic emphatic devices ( ل، ن ) as in لنبلونكم “ Surely we will try you ”, compensated by lexical items such as truly, verily, surely, etc. As in compensating for the loss of alliteration (for ex.) at a given place in the ST by employing assonance in the TT or vice versa. As in translating the phrase خاطره جبر into one lexical item, the English verb “ consoled .” Distributing the features carried in a short stretch of the ST over a longer stretch in the TT. For ex., الإحرام is translated into “ a state in which one is prohibited to exercise certain deeds and practices that are religiously permitted at another state. ”

33. 3. Addition Strategy 33 This strategy is often adapted when the translator adds a word to the original text. As in this example, he adds “Hellfire”: Example: “Truly, then I fear you are damned both by father and mother.” الواقع أن جهنم مثواك ... من والدك و والدتك!

34. 4. Strategy of Elaboration and Explication 34 In order to communicate the original message in an intact manner to the recipient, the translator sometimes resorts to elaboration and explication. Example: “What news on the Rialto?” ما أخبار ريالتو؟ *Such translation is clearly unintelligible, for the proper noun could be understood as a name of a person rather than stock market. Therefore, the translator replaced the noun by what it means in Arabic as in: ما أخبار بورصة ريالتو؟

35. 5 . Strategy of Approximation and Compromise 35 This strategy creates a balance between the SL aesthetic and cultural values which are acceptable or unacceptable in the TL. Example: “The Call of the Curlew ” دعاء الكراوان *In this case, an approximation, rather than complete translation, is possible in order to present a natural, acceptable translation.

36. Translation Equivalence 36 Equivalence is a bilingual synonym or sameness which is sought by means of “equal” verbal signs for those in the original. Many theorists think that translation is based on some kind of equivalence depending on: word, sentence, or text levels. It must be acknowledged that this equivalence in Arabic and English is, in many cases, unattainable on all levels.

37. Types of Equivalence 37 One-to-one A single expression in the TL for a single expression in the SL One-to-part-of-one The concept of zakat into English as alms or charity reveals only a part. One-to-many Cousin for the son or daughter of the uncle or aunt Many-to-one More than one TL lexical item for a single SL lexical item Nil or Zero No TL expression for the SL expression, for example, video in Arabic and Algebra in English

38. Translation Loss and Gain 38 Due to the discrepancies between English and Arabic as two languages of different families, one is European and the other is Semitic, loss in translation is very common.

39. 39 Inevitable: Due to the divergent systems of the two languages; therefore, the translator resorts to compensatory strategies. Kinds of Loss Avertable: It is attributed to the translator’s failure to find the appropriate equivalence.

40. Levels of Loss 40 Stylistic Level Textual Level Semantic Level Syntactic Level Morphological Level

41. Arabic classifies countable nouns into singular, dual, and plural; whereas English has a binary classification whereby countable nouns are either singular or plural. To transfer duality from Arabic into English, a lexical item such as both or two must be added. In Surat Al-Rahman , the aya "فبأي آلاء ربكما تكذبان“ repeated 31 times shows duality in ربكما (your Lord: Lord of the two of you) and تكذبان (you both deny). Morphological Level 41

42. English has 12 tenses, some of which have no equivalents in Arabic, such as present perfect and present continuous, or progressive. This can be illustrated by the verb جاء in the following Quranic ayas : "جاء السحرة فرعون" "و جاءت سكرة الموت" "قل: جاء الحق و زهق الباطل" "و سيق الذين كفروا إلى جهنم زمراً حتى إذا جاءوها و فتحت أبوابها" The verb جاء in the above four ayas denotes past , present , present perfect and future tenses respectively. Syntactic Level 42

43. The loss on this level occurs due to the lack of equivalence in English and Arabic, especially for many religious and cultural words. Here is an example of this loss in translating the following aya : "فإذا فرغت فانصب" “So when thou art empty , labour” The translator missed the intended meaning (i.e., the completion of work) for an uncontextualized one: empty . Semantic Level 43

44. Cohesion is one of the most significant constituents of the text: It can be achieved via conjunctions, referring expressions, repetition, etc. Coordination, for example, is employed differently in English and Arabic. The excessive use of coordinated clauses in English may make the text rather boring to read and hard to focus on its ideas. Conversely, the Arabic most recurrent coordinator الواو recurs 157 times in Surat Yusuf , which is not always adopted in translating it, thus, creating loss on the textual level. Textual Level 44

45. The translation of the rhetorical device metaphor in: "هن لباس لكم و أنتم لباس لهن" “They are garments for you and your garments for them.” not as in the following translation” “They are a comfort to you as you are to them.” Stylistic/Rhetorical Level 45