Articles for Translators and Translation Companies
Translation Theory
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Is Translation a Rewriting of an Original Text?
Lefevere (1992a: xi) describes translation "a rewriting of an original text." This paper will reevaluate Lefevere's concept of translation through examining my chosen texts. In order to demonstrate how the translator of the example text transports the source text messages in the target language, some excerpts will be analyzed using a Systemic Functional Linguistics (systemic linguistics) approach which provides "a semantic account of the grammatical structures of the language" (White, 2001: 3)…
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Cultural and Linguistic Equivalence in Translation
This study is to find those factors which determine the equivalence
in translation. The ideas of the prominent and distinguished
scholars will be defined and elaborated. On the basis of those
ideas, the final conclusion will be made …
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Equivalence
Much ink has flown on discussing the term equivalence in translation.
The proponents of this notion, as Nida (1964), Newmark (1981),
Jacobson (1959-2000), Bayar (2007) and others, try hard to
define its nature, types and also compare its degrees as a
crucial subject of research in translation, whereas other
opponents like Vander Broek (1978), Mehrach (1997) and Van
Leuven (1990) consider it as an impossible point for the translator
to reach, and a hindering matter in the development of translation
theory…
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The norms and beliefs governing English-Japanese translation - A
case study
According to Toury, translation is nearly always conducted
within a certain cultural environment, and consequently, translators
“operate first and foremost in the interest of the culture
into which they are translating” (1995: 12). Culture can be
defined as “the customs and beliefs, art, way of life and
social organisation of a particular country or group”…
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Meaning: The Translators’ Role in Clarifying Some Misconceptions
This paper has been encouraged by the publication of Maite
Aragonés Lumeras: Meaning: The Philosopher's Stone
of the Alchemist Translator? (Translation Journal, Volume
12, No. 3 July 2008). She seems to be brave enough to raise
the issue of the definition of meaning in a context where
even theoretical and applied linguists fail to provide a decent
definition of the term. For instance, a prominent professor
of Linguistics in Hungary has only this to say: „meaning (sense)
is a relational term..."…
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the full article…
Skopos in Practice: Building an Appealing Brand Image in the Translation
of Soft News
The Skopos theory posits that translation is produced for
particular recipients with specific purpose(s) in a given
situation. The maturing of the Skopos theory results in the
dethroning of the source text and the de-mystification of
"equivalence," foregrounding the significance and implication
of "purpose" that contributes to the translation
as a sort of social construction…
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The Comparable Corpus-Based Chinese-English Translation - A Case
Study of City Introduction
Since only a limited pool of qualified native English-speaking
translators can do Chinese-English translation, it is inevitable
for native Chinese-speaking translators to translate out of
their native language. Influenced by their mother tongue,
Chinese translators often use some awkward expressions, which
do not exist in English, in the translated texts…
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Beyond Translation Theories
This article aims at depicting how most of
translation theories that seem to be fairly linguistic are
deeply influenced by ideological motives lying behind them.
Trying not to address any theory specifically, the current
article approaches the translation theories in a holistic
way from a different perspectives…
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Word sense disambiguation
In computational linguistics, word sense disambiguation
(WSD) is the process of identifying which sense of a word
is used in any given sentence, when the word has a number
of distinct senses. For example, consider two examples
of the distinct senses that exist for the word bass…
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Meaning: The Philosopher's Stone of the Alchemist Translator?
This paper aims at analyzing the way technical
translators construct the textual meaning. The methodological
framework based on genre theory and its application is used
to reveal the complex relationships between the semiotic,
pragmatic, rhetorical, semantic and linguistic approaches.
The understanding of meaning will depend on the interaction
between textual and contextual factors…
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Wikipedia about dynamic and formal equivalence
Dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence
are two approaches to translation. The dynamic (also known
as functional equivalence) attempts to convey the thought
expressed in a source text (if necessary, at the expense of
literalness, original word order, the source text's grammatical
voice, etc.), while formal attempts to render the text word-for-word
(if necessary, at the expense of natural expression in the
target language)…
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Pseudo-translation
Pseudo-translation is a technique needed for
pseudolocalization that is used in software localization.
In contrast to the usual translation process it is the process
of creating text that mimics a foreign language without the
goal of expressing the source text meaning in the target language.
The intent is instead to ensure that there is enough room
in the GUI to allow for a full string of localized text based
on the size of the GUI in the original language…
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Translation procedures
Translation is a field of various procedures.
In addition to word-for-word and sense-for-sense procedures,
the translator may use a variety of procedures that differ
in importance according to the contextual factors of both
the ST and the TT. In the present research, we will try to
define the most crucial and frequent procedures used by translators…
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The history of translation
When we talk about the history of translation,
we should think of the theories and names that emerged at
its different periods. In fact, each era is characterized
by specific changes in translation history, but these changes
differ from one place to another. For example, the developments
of translation in the western world are not the same as those
in the Arab world, as each nation knew particular incidents
that led to the birth of particular theories…
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Proper Names and Translation
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, defines
proper name in the following way: "Proper name
is a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it
is that we are talking about, but not of telling anything
about it."…
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A Use of Thematic Structure Theory in Translation
According to systematic functional
grammar model; language is said to fulfill three functions:
the ideational macrofunction, the interpersonal macrofunction,
the textual macrofunction. The textual function is as it is
the focus of this study, express the discoursal meaning by
drawing on the system and network of THEME to create text
in actual communicative event…
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Wikipedia about translation
Translation is the action of interpretation
of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an
equivalent text, also called a translation, that communicates
the same message in another language. The text to be translated
is called the source text, and the language it is to be translated
into is called the target language; the final product is sometimes
called the "target text." Translation must take into account
constraints that include context, the rules of grammar of
the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms…
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The Explicitation of the Implicit in English-Ukrainian-English Translation
Indeterminacy in translation has always
been the cornerstone of numerous scientific works, and not
without reason—translation implies an explicit conveying of
things so far unknown to the addressee. There is plenty of
"vague" information types in speech messages—preterition,
irony, parody, intertextuality, etc.—all of these can be combined
under a single term—implicit information…
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Hybrid texts, sources and translation
Since long, war and attempts to dominate
a nation, colonialism, and more recently, advances in technology
and globalization have made people communicate widely with
each other. These phenomena, more strongly the more recent
ones, have influenced the whole levels of the human life.
Among such levels, the linguistic one is to be elaborated
on in this paper…
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The Problems of Third Person Pronoun in Translation
Translation is an activity comprising
the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language
–the source- and in the other language-the target. Translation
must take into account a number of constraints, including
context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their
writing conventions, and their idioms. In translation, both
the source language and the target one are important…
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¿Es la traducción una ciencia o una tecnología?
A lo largo de este artículo
se analiza si la traducción debe considerarse una ciencia
o una tecnología. Para ello, se presentan las definiciones
más aceptadas de lo que es la ciencia. Posteriormente,
estudiaremos los autores que no aceptan el estatus de ciencia
para esta disciplina y, en último lugar, los argumentos
de los teóricos que otorgan a la traducción
dicho estatus…
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The expanded system of the coordinated dictionaries and its using
for universal semantic coding and translation of the polysemous
source text
Semantic coding is based on supplementing
the polysemantic words and word-combinations by components
of dictionary entries that the author chooses in the basic
explanatory dictionary of the source language (the native
language for the author). The universality consists in subsequent
machine translation into other languages using bilingual dictionaries
coordinated with a basic explanatory dictionary. The process
of coding takes into account not only the wide range of meanings
of polysemantic words, but also the ambiguity or incompleteness
in the expression of actions and states, where in one language
such features as gender and number, character of action and
state, etc., are determined only by the context, while in
another language they may be reflected in concrete grammatical
forms…
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Difference Between Marked and Unmarked Translation of English Thematized
Sentences Regarding Their Effect on the Audience
The aim of this paper is to find cross-linguistic
data, English vs. Persian, in examining markedness in relation
to thematization. The question is “Is there any difference
between marked and unmarked translation of English thematized
sentences regarding their effect on the audience?…
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Good Translation: Art, Craft, or Science?
Throughout history, translation has
made inter-linguistic communication between peoples possible.
Theoretically, one can consider translation a science; practically,
it seems rational to consider it an art. However, regardless
of whether one considers translation as a science, art, or
craft, one should bear in mind that a good translation should
fulfill the same function in the TL as the original did in
the SL…
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Compare and contrast two theoretical approaches to translation
During the course of this essay, two
theoretical approaches to translation – Skopos and Polysystems
– will be examined. They will be placed in historical context
before the main features of each, accompanied by relevant
critique, are discussed in some detail. Case studies will
then help determine advantages and disadvantages before a
final comparison is made to reveal similarities and differences
between the two positions…
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Mentality and Language
It is well known that human culture,
social behavior and thinking cannot exist without language.
Being a social and national identity, and a means of human
communication, language cannot help bearing imprints of ethnic
and cultural values as well as the norms of behavior of a
given language community. All is reflected in the vocabulary
of a language. But it should be noted that the grammatical
structure of a language more exactly reflects the mentality
of a nation as it is closer to thinking…
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Why is translation into the mother tongue more successful than into
a second language?
It is commonly believed that translators
are better at translating into their native language than
into a second language. The underlying reason for this assumption
is that translators have a more profound linguistic and cultural
background of their mother tongue than of a second language
which they have to learn in order to be well-versed translators.
By the same token, the translator who translates into his
or her native language has a more natural…
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Cultural Translation
Culture and intercultural competence
and awareness that rise out of experience of culture, are
far more complex phenomena than it may seem to the translator.
The more a translator is aware of complexities of differences
between cultures, the better a translator s/he will be. It
is probably right to say that there has never been a time
when the community of translators was unaware of cultural
differences…
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Blue Lines on Black Ink:
A Look at a New Book on Censorship and Translation
The TJ's editor asked if I would do
a write up on a volume on censorship and translation edited
and introduced by Francesca Billiani, a Lecturer in Italian
Studies and member of the Centre for Translation and Intercultural
Studies at the University of Manchester in the UK. I immediately
agreed, for censorship is one of the things that have fascinated
me for a number of years…
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Problems of dynamic equivalence in Translation
Formal Equivalence and Dynamic equivalence
caused heated controversy. The concept of equivalence has
been one of the key words in translation studies. Equivalence
can be said to be the central issue in translation although
its definition, relevance, and applicability within the field
of translation theory have caused heated controversy, and
many different theories of the concept of equivalence have
been elaborated within this field in the past fifty years…
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Translation procedures, strategies and methods
Translating culture-specific concepts
(CSCs) in general and allusions in particular seem to be one
of the most challenging tasks to be performed by a translator;
in other words, allusions are potential problems of the translation
process due to the fact that allusions have particular connotations
and implications in the source language (SL) and the foreign
culture (FC) but not necessarily in the TL and the domestic
culture…
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Formulating Strategies for the Translator
The ability to formulate strategies
for translators lies at the heart of the tensions between
translation studies (TS) and professional translators and
between the applied and non-applied branches of TS. It also
affects the relationship which TS has with neighboring disciplines
such as linguistics…
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Global Translation: The Dream of a Translation Tower of Babel
After the destruction of the Tower of
Babel sons of Adam are restoring their talents to reconstruct
and pose a symbol of power with the same ramifications. But
the stature of a unified language in the form of English language,
the World Wide Web, Global Economy and other cultural strategies
are not enough to overpower the divinely established human
diversity…
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GILT-Internationalization, a right-brainer approach
In GILT literature, you will encounter the following: G11n, I18n, and L10n. They simply mean Globalization, Internationalization, and Localization respectively, taking the first and last letters of these words with the number of letters tucked in between. This is a way of making these long words short…
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Theta
Theory in English and French
As the title of this paper indicates,
I am going to focus on Theta Theory in English and
French. In this way, the first chapter will be concerned
with Theta Theory in English. In the first section,
I am going to discus Universal Grammar and its sub-theories,
such as X-bar theory, Case theory, Government theory,
Binding theory, Bounding theory, Control theory and
a brief introduction to Theta theory…
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Domesticating
the Theorists: A Plea for Plain Language
Throughout the history of translation,
those who we now call theorists expressed their views
in respect to the translation process and the desired
results to be achieved by translation. They formulated
their views by advocating translation ad verbum or
translation ad sensum and, more recently, by defending
or opposing the theory that a translation must read
like an original text…
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Translation
of Proper Names in Non-fiction Texts
The present article deals with
the translation of proper names in non-fiction texts.
Starting with the delimitation of the category of
proper names on a linguistic basis, it examines the
various strategies of translating proper names. The
effect of the communicative situation is an important
factor in the choice of the appropriate translation
strategy…
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Translation
And Interpreting Methods And Approaches
The disciplines of language translation and interpreting
serve the purpose of making communication possible
between speakers of different languages. In
the past there has been a tendency to perceive interpreting
as an area of translation, but from the second half
of the 20th century differentiation between the two
areas has become necessary…
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Dynamic
Equivalence (D.E.) and Idioms Translation
The meaning of the word equivalence can be described
as "equal in value, measure, force, effect, significance."
Based on the word's etymology, however, its first
half can also be taken to mean "like."
Throughout the history of translation, equivalence
has revealed itself both as a phenomenon that can
be located on different levels and as a concept eventually
so riddled with contradictions …
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Translation
as a Psycho-Semiotic Phenomenon
The article sketches the outlines of a theoretical
framework for the analysis of translation of literary
texts, viewed as psycho-semiotic phenomenon and based
on evaluation of earlier attempts in this direction,
and on the results of a psycholinguistic empirical
study of translations. Central to this framework is
the recent insight that the human cerebral hemisphere
functional asymmetry somehow plays a role in structuring
the fictional text by its author and in its processing
by the interpreter…
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“Heads
I Win, Tails You Lose”: Logical Fallacies and
Ethics in Everyday Language
Throughout our daily oral and written communications
with others, we rely on basic rules of reasoning which
guide our arguments. Whether a particular argument
is valid or not—logically speaking—is not always evident.
Indeed fallacious arguments can point to seemingly
compelling conclusions that are, however, invalid
and often misaligned with ethical principles. By focusing
on the inextricable link between ethics and language,
this article reviews some of the most common logical
fallacies to help in detecting (and avoiding) them…
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Maxim
of Manner and Metaphoric Address in Translation
Neither Grice, nor any other speech act theorist has
ever opened the scope of monolingual communication,
- during which speech acts arise and work, - to cross
-cultural communication.
However, this cross-examination would actually make
sense for pragmatic theorists, and what is more, would
benefit a lot translation theorists and practitioners…
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The
Importance of Adequacy in Translation
There are both linguistic and extralinguistic aspects
that hinder to reach adequacy in fiction translation.
Semantic information of the text differs essentially
from the expressive-emotional information of the text
but they have one common trait: both can bear and
render extralinguistic information. Extralinguistic
information often becomes a stone to stumble over
by a translator, as it is a lingvoethnic barrier for
a fiction translator; Misunderstanding or misinterpretation
of the extralinguistic information means to misrepresent…
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Translation
of Vietnamese Terms of Address and Reference
This paper resulted from the author's study of the
translation into English of the Vietnamese terms of
address and reference used in four short stories,
"A Marker on the Side of the Boat," "A Very Late Afternoon,"
"The General Retires," "Without a King," and selected
chapters of two novels, "The Sorrow of War" and "A
Novel Without a Name." The study investigates the
strategies adopted in the translation of the terms
and the degree to which these strategies are effective
in conveying…
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Connotation
and Cross-cultural Semantics
Connotation is one of the most pervasive categories
of literary and non-literary discourse, and is, therefore,
strongly enmeshed with culture. In this paper, connotation
will be tackled from as board a perspective as possible
so as to include literature, art and linguistics -
in other words, culture at large…
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Translating
Abbreviations
Translation is a complex process where fragile balance
is achieved between the equivalence of the text translated
and the linguistic means chosen. Abbreviations can
cause many difficulties during the translation. First
of all despite the history of translation originates
since ancient times when people needed to communicate
with people from different communities, abbreviation
is a comparatively new linguistic phenomenon and thus
its translating isn’t well studied yet…
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Same
questions - different continent
Translating documents into any language requires using
the appropriate terminology and a clear and concise
writing style. Terminological accuracy and effective
prose must blend seamlessly; otherwise, the message
will lack quality, efficacy and reliability needed
in documents destined to the target market…
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La
traduction français-espagnol des titres journalistiques
du Monde Diplomatique : un exemple de tension
entre adéquation et acceptabilité
Press headlines are short and multi-functional textual
segments strongly influenced by the discourse genre
and the journalistic tradition in which they are produced.
Their interpretation requires a complex construction
of meaning on the part of the translator. The aim
of this paper is to study the translation strategies
applied in a corpus made up of press headlines taken
from the French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique and
their Spanish versions. The study shows the «tension»
between adequacy and acceptability brought to bear
by the translation process, as well as the important
role of the source culture to determine the global
translational behaviour…
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Back
Translating Some Collective Nouns From English into Arabic
This paper deals with backtranslating some of the collective
nouns and analysis of the results of the test. It also explains
what is meant by back translation as little research has been
done about it in the literature of translation. It also sheds
light on the grammatical and semantic treatment of collective
nouns in English…
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Narrowing
the Gap between Theory and Practice of Translation
Since its inception, translation has not ceased to play its
indispensable role of transferring messages across languages
and cultural barriers. By so doing it continuously weakens
the fences between languages, exposing their similarities,
getting a consensus on their differences and easing interactions
that will assist in developing cross-cultural integrative
skills useful in an interdependent world. Several theories
have been suggested to explain the concept of translation…
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Translation
in Context
Translation, seen as a mode of being in the world,
should not be regarded per se but should be contextualized
as a social system. Infidelity is built in translation
because it inevitably describes domestic scenes that
are loaded not only linguistically and culturally,
but also socially and politically. Translation is
simultaneous decontextualization and recontextualization,
hence is productive rather than reproductive…
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Equivalence
in Translation
The main purpose of this paper is to explain the concept
of equivalence in translation. To this end, first
language and translation are defined. Later, examples
are provided to develop the discussion. Each example
indicates an area of standards in English and Persian.
In fact, the process of finding equivalents in the
two languages is that the translator should first
decode the source text (ST), that is, to figure out
the meaning / message/ intention of the original speaker
or writer and then ask himself or herself how the
same decoded meaning/ message/ intention is encoded
in the target text (TT)…
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The
Implication of Culture on Translation Theory and Practice
Related to translation, culture manifests in two ways.
First, the concept or reference of the vocabulary
items is somehow specific for the given culture. Second,
the concept or reference is actually general but expressed
in a way specific to the source language culture.
In practice, however, it is suggested that a translator
should take into account the purpose of the translation
in translating the culturally-bound words or expressions.
The translation procedures discussed should also be
considered…
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A
few words on translations
Hum. I ain't gonna make a course, but here are a few basic
data you should know if you ever get to deal with translations.
Well, translation is a rather codified science. And that is
one of the first things to know about it…
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Aesthetics & Translation
What is translation? As a most nontechnical definition the Webster's New World dictionary define" to translate" as follows:
1. to move from one place or condition to another;
transfer; specif., a) Theol. to convey directly to
heaven without death b) Eccles. to transfer (a bishop)
from one see to another; also, to move (a saint's
body or remains) from one place of interment to another…
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Gender and Translation
In recent years, a considerable volume of academic literature and researches in the field of translation are being focused on the concept of gender in translation (e.g. von Flotow 2001, Simon 1996, and Chamberlain 1998). According to Chamberlain (1998: 96), “the issues relating to gender in the practice of translation are myriad, varying widely according to the type of text being translated, the language involved, cultural practices and countless other factors”…
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Japanese and Korean: testing the links
I think the classification of Japanese and Korean is the biggest remaining puzzle in philology. There are two issues: are these two languages related to each other, and are they part of any known family? The Japanese and Koreans call each other ‘close but distant neighbours,’ and this phrase also roughly sums up the relationship of their languages…
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Inttranews Special Report: The end of the written word
The ways in which we use language are currently undergoing faster change than ever before, principally due to technology. But if language is the defining characteristic not only of who, but of what we are, as human beings, how will those changes affect us, and the societies we live in?
One of the pioneers in this realm of research is William Crossman, a philosopher, futurist, professor, and the author of a new book, “VIVO [Voice-In/Voice-Out]: The Coming Age of Talking Computers”…
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¿Qué traducción?
Los métodos de traducción en el análisis contemporáneo
Todavía no existe uniformidad
por indicar un método universal ni una explicación
al fenómeno de la entropía, la fatal
pérdida de significado que ocurre siempre que
pasamos de un texto a otro. Tradicionalmente, para
superar este obstáculo, se ha intentado encontrar
aquella equivalencia dinámica de la
que habla Nida, guardando el mensaje y no la forma del original
…
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Foreignization / Domestication and Yihua / Guihua: A Contrastive Study
The debate on foreignization or domestication is still heated in Chinese translation circles. Analysis reveals that the terms used by Chinese scholars and Venuti look the same, but actually have different origins and meanings and are used in different contexts for different purposes. They are simply not discussing the same thing
…
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What Localization Models Can Learn From Translation Theory
Translation theory may have a lot to learn from localization models, but the latter may have just as much to learn from the former. With that in mind, Anthony Pym invites us to pause in our dismissal of translation theory as academic clap-trap long enough to discover what it has to offer
…
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Writing and Translation
Writing plays a very important role in any translation. Since a translation happens in a context and implies the transposition of a source text into a target text, this must fulfill the same constraints of an original text written in the target language
…
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Translation Theory
The study of proper principle of translation is termed as
translation theory. This theory, based on a solid foundation
on understanding of how languages work, translation theory
recognizes that different languages encode meaning in differing
forms, yet guides translators to find appropriate ways of
preserving meaning, while using the most appropriate forms
of each language …
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Some Images and Analogies about Translation
Over several decades I have sometimes reflected that writings about the theory of translation can be too theoretical. By which, I probably mean I have found them too wordy, too complex, too unreadable for my taste. Others may choose to differ, but it has always seemed to me that writing about language or linguistics or translation ought by its very nature to qualify as an absolute model of good and clear writing
…
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The Language Contest
Fifty contestants enter a large hall. Inside the hall are fifty desks. Each contestant sits down at oneof the desks. On each desk is a large weirdly shaped package. All the packages on all the desks have the same size and shape. They all jut out and scoop inwards in strange ways, and they all have a large number of surfaces at odd angles to each other. Some of the surfaces are very hard to the touch, some very soft
…
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The History of Translation History
By my count, nine useful books about translation history, specialized works aside, have been published over the last thirty years. It must say something about where this field is going that six of them have come out during the last seven years (and four since 1992). The latest such work, Translators through History, edited and directed by Jean Delisle and Judith Woodsworth, appears under the very highest auspices, being co-published by John Benjamins and Unesco
…
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1536—1546: Ten Years that Changed The Perception of the Translator
Those who suppose translators lead hard lives today might want to consider the fate of their Sixteenth Century colleagues. During the ten years between 1536 and 1546, three famous translators met their death. One was tortured first and then burned at the stake in that great center of civilization, Paris. The second was strangled and then burnt in the city of Antwerp. And even though our third colleague died more naturally, it wasn't because half of Europe didn't long to see him hanged, drawn, quartered, and impaled in pieces
…
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Translators and Interpreters: The Binding Force of World Civilization
The following summary of displays, along with the "map" showing one possible plan for installation, comes from the extended text of a proposed multi-media museum exhibit on the subject of Translators and Interpreters, which might in the ripeness of time be mounted at major American institutions
…
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Hermes - God of Translators and Interpreters
The case for Hermes as the god of translators and interpreters is a clear and compelling one. While some European translators have campaigned for St. Jerome as the patron saint of translation, there are probably some good reasons, with all due respect to the translator of the Vulgate, for having a god of translation rather than a saint
…
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Some Major Dates and Events in the History of Translation
The speaker will try to show some common threads in
the history of translation or at least some modern
parallels with more ancient examples. As for instance
the perils of translating from Sumerian into Hebrew,
Sacred Egyptian into Classical Greek, or Aramaic into
Arabic …
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Mediation as translation or translation as mediation?
Widening the translator's role in a new multicultural society
Contrary
to expectations, globalization is not accompanied by
the use of a single language. It is obvious that the
constant influx of people from other countries and cultures
is producing changes in the way society is structured
as well as in how relationships are established in the
European Union (EU). These changes also affect interlingual
mediation and the role that translators and interpreters
(T&I) have to perform
…
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What Makes a Translator?
The "prison of language is only temporary…someday a merciful guard ? the perfect translator ? will come along with his keys and let us out," Wendy Lesser wrote in an article, "The Mysteries of Translation," in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2002. The following questions remain, however: Who is this translator? What does he do? And what skills should he possess?
…
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These Embarrassing, Costly, Terrible Typos
Typo n. pl. -os. Informal. A typographical error.
Typographical error. A mistake in printing, typing or writing.
That's what it says in the New College Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. But it does not begin to tell the story of these mistakes - these embarrassing, costly, terrible typos. I know -- from collecting them, and from personal experience
…
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Translation Misconceptions
Translation is occassionally taken too lightly by some. However, translation is in fact a serious business that should be approched sensibly in order to avoid poor results. Before starting a project that invloves translation bear in mind the following misconceptions regarding translation
…
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Results of Poor Cross Cultural Awareness
Having a poor understanding of the influence of cross cultural differences in areas such as management, PR, advertising and negotiations can eventually lead to blunders that can have damaging consequences
…
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Lost in Translation?
How to get your marketing message to an international
audience
Did you know that only 28% of the entire European
population can read English? This percentage is even
lower in South America and Asia. Even the growing
Hispanic community in the U.S. still prefers to read
in Spanish for the most part. This means that if you
want to sell your products and services to these markets,
you will need to be able to communicate effectively
in their languages …
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the full article…
The Moving Text
Texts of every kind are produced in the source language (SL) and they get translated into the target language (TL). If the process were as simple as that, Pym would not have written The Moving Text (further referred to as Text)
…
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Frame-based interpretation of readers reception of the parallel translations of
Ady Endre, On Elijahs Chariot (Az Ills szekern)
Frame theory is intended to serve as a tool for linguistic and psychological investigations. The latter two constitute what we call cognitive linguistics, where the psychological processes, which take place in the mind mainly in comprehension are explained within linguistic boundaries, and vice versa, where the linguistic utterances are observed as physical manifestations of brain work
…
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Why is English the international lingua franca?
As a means of expression of an insular population with specific political and social behaviour, English has become an international communication tool, in the wake of the economic and scientific expansion of Great Britain, and later the United States…
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Causes of Failure in
Translation and Strategies
Translation is communication. When the translation causes trouble in
understanding or results in zero communication, it is a failure.
This paper makes an analytical study on what causes such failure:
one is a misconception that translation is a word-for-word process
whereas the other is the translators blindness to cultural
differences…
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Style and Stylistic
Accommodation in Translation
Accommodation in translation emerges in perspectives such as
cultural accommodation, collocation accommodation, ideological
accommodation and aesthetic accommodation. This article focuses
specifically on stylistic accommodation in translation, proposing
that accommodation should be oriented to style which includes
writers style, genre style and historical style…
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Hermeneutics and
Translation Theory
Translation theory was once strictly confined within the scope of linguistics for
translation was merely referred to as a conversion of languages, from the source language
into the target language. Nevertheless, when research is carried further and deeper,
meaning is found not only associated with the language or the text but also with the
author and the reader, which form the tripartite in understanding of the appropriate
meaning of any text. This paper starts with the discussion of the relationship of
hermeneutics and literary translation and then goes on to propose that a perfect theory of
translation should be an overall concern of all the three aforementioned factors…
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Book Review: Science
in Translation
Scott L Montgomery, Science in Translation. Movements of Knowledge through Cultures and
Time. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press… The author set himself two major
targets in writing this volume…
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Accommodation
in Translation
Faithfulness
was once considered the iron rule in translation in the history
of translation in China as well as in the West. Yet when we
take a closer look, accommodation, or adaptation, is found
in most published translations. This article attempts to investigate
the reasons why accommodation is frequently needed and enumerates
the following types of accommodation translators or interpreters
make in their work: cultural accommodation; collocation accommodation;
ideological accommodation; aesthetic accommodation…
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How to Choose a Translator Wisely
Translation clients are often buying blind.
They seldom know what they are paying for, especially when buying a translation into a
language other than their own. Translations are definitely not all born equal, a fact to
which anyone who has experienced the pain, amusement or confusion of reading a bad one
will attest…
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Virgin Birth and Red
Underpants The Translator's Responsibility in Shaping Our
Worldview
The Virgin Birth and Virgin Mary are, pardon
the pun, pregnant with social symbolic significance in most, if not all, parts of the
world. Whether you believe in them or not, they are solid social constructs, rehearsed
endlessly in art, humour, everyday life, and language. And yet their birth is due to a
relatively simple mistake in translation. The Old Testament talks about almah
'young woman,' not bethulah 'virgin.' However, the scholars in the 3rd
century BC translated the Hebrew almah as parthenos in
Greek. Thus the 'young woman' in Hebrew metamorphosed into a
'virgin' in Greekand she has remained a virgin ever since in
translations across the world. The notion of 'virgin birth' was
born, thanks to a mistranslation…
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Emotions, Taboos and
Profane Language
Perhaps it is not too far-fetched
a statement to say that most of us like to think of ourselves as (more or less) rational,
articulate and disciplined human beings. Having postulated this, I would add in haste that
we are not always quite as rational, articulate and disciplined as we might wish to be
since we are, like it or not, also emotional, sexual and aggressive animals. Since both
speech and emotions are universal features of the animal species called humans across
space and time, so is swearing…
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The Invisible in
Translation: The Role of Text Structure
It is conventionally believed that
familiarity with the source and target languages, as well as the subject matter on the
part of the translator is enough for a good translation. However, due to the findings in
the field of text analysis, the role of text structure in translation now seems crucial.
Therefore, the present paper sets out with an introduction on different types of
translation followed by some historical reviews on text analysis, and will then describe
different approaches to text analysis…
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Constructing a Model
for Shift Analysis in Translation
The occurrence of shifts
in any translational activity is an unavoidable phenomenon. Unfortunately, the bulk of
research carried out in this regard has not perceived the urgent need for a model to
analyze or shown interest in identifying these shifts. In this paper, the researchers
attempt to construct a workable eclectic model for shift analysis whose major aim is to
provide a sound machinery to analyze various types of shifts in translation at various
levels of linguistic and paralinguistic description…
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Language Ambiguity:
A Curse and a Blessing
Despite the fact that ambiguity
in language is an essential part of language, it is often an obstacle to be ignored or a
problem to be solved for people to understand each other. I will examine this fact and
attempt to show that even when perceived as a problem, ambiguity provides value. In any
case, language ambiguity can be understood as an illustration of the complexity of
language itself…
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