Eight Types of Translation
There are eight types of translation. Each
type has its features and. These types are:
-
Word-for-word translation
2. Literal translation
3. Faithful translation
4. Semantic translation
5. Adaptive translation
6. Free translation
7. Idiomatic translation
8. Communicative translation.
The last type, in particular, transmits the
meaning from the context, respecting the form
and structure of the original and is easily
comprehensible by the readers of the target language
Dichotomy of Translation Emphasis
Source Language Emphasis
• Word-for-word translation
• Literal Translation
• Faithful Translation
• Semantic Translation
Target Language Emphasis
• Adaptation
• Free Translation
• Idiomatic Translation
• Communicative Translation
The following is a brief survey of each type of translation, with special emphasis on itsmeaning and nature. An explanatory example
is introduced for each type:
- Word-for-word translation
• It is an interlinear translation, with the
TL immediately below the SL words
• The SL word-order is preserved and the
words translated singly by their most
common meanings, out of context.
For example, the Arabic proverb:
اللي فات مات
{The what passed died.}
• The main use of word-for-word
translation is either to understand the
mechanics of the SL or to construe a
difficult text as pre-translation process.
- Literal translation
• The SL grammatical constructions are
converted to their nearest TL equivalents
but the lexical words are again translated
singly, out of context.
For example:
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{The likes of these things have much
demand now.}
• As a pre-translation process, this
indicates the problems to be solved.
- Faithful Translation
• It attempts to reproduce the precise
contextual meaning of the original within
the constraints of the TL grammatical structure.
• It attempts to be completely faithful to
the intentions and the text-realization of
the SL writer.
For example,
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{Things like these are in great demand
now.}
- Semantic Translation
• It differs from ‘faithful translation’ only
in taking more account of the aesthetic
value (that is, the beautiful and natural
sound) of the SL text.
• Faithful translation is uncompromising
and dogmatic while Semantic translation
is more flexible admits the creative
exception to 100% fidelity and allows the translator’s intuitive empathy with the
original.
For example,
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{This kind of thing is in great demand at the
moment.}
- Adaptation
• This is the ‘freest’ form of translation.
• It is used mainly for plays (comedies),
poetry stories, where the themes
characters and plots are usually
preserved.
• The SL culture converted to the TL
culture and the Text rewritten.
For example, the adaptation of
Shakespeare’s play {King Lear} into an "الشيخ الغني الأعمى وأولاده :called Play Arabic
الثلاثة"
- Free Translation
• It reproduces the matter without the
manner, or the content without the form
of the original.
• It is usually a paraphrase much longer
than the original.
• It is often prolix and pretentious, and not
a translation at all.
For example,
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{This one's dead trendy}
- Idiomatic Translation
• By ‘idiom’ we mean affixed figurative
expression whose meaning cannot be
deduced from the denotative meanings of
the words that make it up as in ‘car
racing is not my cup of tea’.
• It reproduces the ‘message’ of the
original but tends to distort nuances of
meaning by preferring colloquialism and
idioms where these do not exist in the
original.
For example,
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{This type’s all the rage.}
• This form of translation is sometimes
called lively ‘natural translation’.
- Communicative Translation
• It attempts to render the exact contextual
meaning of the original in such a way
that both content and language are
readily accepted and comprehensible to
the readership.
• A communicative translation is
produced, when, in a given situation, the
ST uses an SL expression standard for
that situation, and the TL uses a TL
expression standard for an equivalent
target culture situation.
For example,
{Let bygones be bygones} is an obvious
اللي فات مات of translation
{To kill two birds with one stone}is an obvious translation of
ضرب عصفورين بحجر واحد.
Translation Problems: Linguistic and
Cultural
Translation problems can be divided into
linguistic problems and cultural problems: the
linguistic problems include grammatical
differences, lexical ambiguity and meaning
ambiguity; the cultural problems refer to
different situational features. This
classification coincides with that of El Zeini
when she identified six main problems in
translating from Arabic to English and vice
versa; these are lexicon, morphology, syntax,
textual differences, rhetorical differences, and
pragmatic factors.
Another level of linguistic difficulty in translation work is attributed to over - translation , under-translation, and
untranslatability.
Culture constitutes a major problem that
faces translators. A bad model of translated
pieces of literature may give misconceptions
about the original. For poorly translated texts
distort the original in its tone and cultural
references. In this respect researchers in
literary translation wonder about the possible
role of the target culture content as a
motivating variable in enhancing or hindering
the attainment of linguistic, communicative
and, more importantly, cultural objectives of
EFL (English as a Foreign Language)
education.
Hassan (1997) emphasized this notion
when he pointed out the importance of paying attention to the translation of irony in the
source language context. He clarified that this
will not only transfer the features of the
language translated but also its cultural
characteristics.
Translators, who tackle these problems
and others, direct our attention to specific
linguistic and cultural features of the
translated work and the character of its
translators; how they attack a text so as to
translate, and the processes they follow to
arrive at the final product of a well-translated text in the target language.
Cultural Knowledge and Cultural
Differences
Cultural knowledge and cultural
differences have long been a major focus of
translator training and translation theory. The
main concern has traditionally been with
words and phrases that are so heavily and
exclusively grounded in one culture that they
are almost impossible to translate into the
terms – verbal or otherwise – of another
culture. Long debates have been held over
when to paraphrase, when to use the nearest
local equivalent, when to coin a new word by
translating literally, and when to transcribe.
All these “untranslatable” cultural-bound
words and phrases continued to fascinate translators and translation theorists.
The first theory developed in this field
was introduced by Mounin in 1963 who
underlined the importance of the signification
of a lexical item claiming that only if this
notion is considered, will the translated item
fulfill its function correctly? The problem with
this theory is that all the cultural elements do
not involve just the items. What a translator
should do in the case of cultural implications
which are implied in the background
knowledge of SL readers?
The notion of culture is essential to
considering the implications for translation
and, despite the differences in opinion as to whether language is part of culture or not, the two notions of culture and language appear totext in the target language
Cultural Knowledge and Cultural
Differences
Cultural knowledge and cultural
differences have long been a major focus of
translator training and translation theory. The
main concern has traditionally been with
words and phrases that are so heavily and
exclusively grounded in one culture that they
are almost impossible to translate into the
terms – verbal or otherwise – of another
culture. Long debates have been held over
when to paraphrase, when to use the nearest
local equivalent, when to coin a new word by
translating literally, and when to transcribe.
All these “untranslatable” cultural-bound
words and phrases continued to fascinate
translators and translation theorists.The first theory developed in this field
was introduced by Mounin in 1963 who
underlined the importance of the signification
of a lexical item claiming that only if this
notion is considered, will the translated item
fulfill its function correctly? The problem with
this theory is that all the cultural elements do
not involve just the items. What a translator
should do in the case of cultural implications
which are implied in the background
knowledge of SL readers?
The notion of culture is essential to
considering the implications for translation
and, despite the differences in opinion as to
whether language is part of culture or not, the
two notions of culture and language appear to be inseparable.
Considering the problems of
correspondence in translation in relation to
both linguistic and cultural differences
between the SL and the TL, it is realized that
differences between cultures may cause more
severe complications for the translator than do
differences in language structure. For it is
found that parallels in culture often provide a
common understanding despite significant
formal shifts in the translation. Cultural
implications for translation are thus of
significant importance as well as lexical
concerns.
This creates a tendency to go beyond
language and focus on the interaction between
translation and culture, on the way culture
impacts and constraints translation and on the larger issues of context, history and
convention.
Therefore, the move from translation as a
text to translation as culture and politics is
what is called a "Cultural Turn" in translation
studies. In fact, Cultural Turn is the metaphor
adopted by Culturally-oriented translation
theories to refer to the analysis of translation
in its cultural, political, and ideological
context.
This Cultural Turn has extended to
incorporate a whole range of approaches from
cultural studies and become a true indicator of
the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary
translation studies. As the result, cultural
studies have taken an increasingly key interest in translation.
These cultural approaches have widened
the horizons of translation studies. But at the
same time, there has been a strong element of
conflict and differences in the cultural
manipulation of the SL text. This is inevitable
due to the complicated and dynamic nature of
the translation act as well as the translator in
relation to the cultural content of the SL text.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of
Machine Translation
In the past when we had to figure out the
meaning of a word from another language,
we made use of a dictionary. Not only was
this a very time consuming task but it was
kind of irritating owing to the fact that it was
difficult to interpret the meanings. Moreover,
when an entire paragraph or note had to be
translated, this could be very difficult because
one word had several meanings. So what to
do? That's where the machine translator came
into the picture.
But what exactly is a machine translator?
Since the advent of the 21st century,
there have been a lot of developments and new technologies have been introduced
which have made life more convenient and
simple. A machine translator is such a small
yet useful device. Machine translation, which
is also known as Computer Aided
Translation, is basically the use of software
programs which have been specifically
designed to translate both verbal and written
texts from one language to another. In the
face of rapid globalization, such services
have become invaluable for people and you
just cannot think of any disadvantages of
machine translation.
Nevertheless, like everything has its
pros and cons, so has machine translation.
Let's go over the advantages and disadvantages of machine translation.
Advantages of Machine Translation:
• When time is a crucial factor, machine
translation can save the day. You don't have
to spend hours poring over dictionaries to
translate the words. Instead, the software
can translate the content quickly and
provide a quality output to the user in no
time at all.
• The next benefit of machine translation is
that it is comparatively cheap. Initially, it
might look like an unnecessary investment
but in the long run it is a very small cost
considering the return it provides. This is
because if you use the expertise of a
professional translator, he will charge you
on a per page basis which is going to be
extremely costly while this will be cheap.
• Confidentiality is another matter which
makes machine translation favorable.
Giving sensitive data to a translator might
be risky while with machine translation
your information is protected.
• A machine translator usually translates text
which is in any language so there is no such
major concern while a professional
translator specializes in one particular field.
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Disadvantages of Machine Translation:
• Accuracy is not offered by the machine
translation on a consistent basis. You can
get the gist of the draft or documents but
machine translation only does word to word translation without comprehending the information which might have to be
corrected manually later on.
• Systematic and formal rules are followed by
machine translation so it cannot concentrate
on a context and solve ambiguity and
neither makes use of experience or mental
outlook like a human translator can.
These are the primary advantages and
disadvantages of using machine
translation for a document regardless of
language. They can be weighed and the right
decision can be made depending on the
information and the quality that is required.
Difficulties of Literary Translation
(1) Translating without Changing the
Original Tones of the Author
While business translation requires high
accuracy and localization involves changes in
layout, formats, colors, etc., literary
translation takes a step further. To have a
great translated book, translators do not only
need excellent insights into literature and
subject-matter expertise to guarantee the
accuracy of the knowledge writers want to
share.
The translator also makes sure that the literary
translation process does not affect the authors’
expression and their unique writing styles.
That means the word choices should not be
too literal or too exaggerating compared to the original book. They should be “perfect” words
to evoke the same understanding and feelings
from the readers as the original. Trust me, it’s
no easy task.
(2) Culturally-Specific Expression
Sometimes, the name of a famous person or
character in novels or poems is used as a
personality adjective. Don Juan, for instance,
is an infamous fictional character in a play by
Tirso de Molina in 1630. Don Juan is a
wealthy libertine who devotes his life to
seducing women. As the popularity of the
character grows, Don Juan becomes a generic expression for a womanizer.
The question is when performing a literary
translation referring to this character, should
translators keep the name as the original and
add a footnote. Or should they find an
equivalent fictional character in the target
language’s culture?
(3) Play-on-words and Tongue Twisters
Wordplay or tongue twisters are no doubt a
real headache for any translators while
working on a literary translation task. It
requires more time to translate more than
anything else. “She sells seashells by the
seashore” or, “You know New York, you need
New York, you know you need unique New
York” to name a few. The translators do not
stop at finding an equivalent expression for
the sentences, but they also find words that carry the same pronunciation challenges for
the readers.
(4) Dialects and Slang
The use of Slang or Dialects in novels or
poems is no stranger to readers, but it’s also a
challenge for translators when dealing with a
literary translation project. How can they
translate these words into a new language
while retaining the characters’ unique talking
styles? Gone with the wind by Margaret
Mitchell is a representative of this case. Most
black people in the novel speak in a different
dialect. Let’s see how linguists handle with the dialect.
The Original:
“Is de gempmum gone? Huccome you din’ ast
dem ter stay fer supper, Miss Scarlett? Ah
done tole Poke ter lay two extry plates fer
dem. Whar’s yo’ manners?” – Mamma in
Chapter.
The Vietnamese Translation:
“Mấy cậu về ‘ồi sao? Sao không mời người ta
ở lại dùng bữa? Tôi đã bảo Pok’ dọn thêm hai
bộ dĩa cho họ. Đó là lối xã giao nào vậy?”
Refer to the original and the intention of the
author, the translator illustrates this dialect in
Vietnamese by cutting out some syllabus
like ‘ồi instead of rồi, or Pok’ instead of Poke.
Literary Translation Process
An excellent literary translation requires the
involvement of many experienced linguists
who must put a great amount of time as well
as effort into the translation. A clear working
process will be a great and indispensable
assistant to guarantee the quality of the book
and meet the deadlines of the publisher. The
process may vary upon the working styles of
translators, yet it stills include the following
basic steps:
(1) Read the Original Book
This step can be considered as the cornerstone
of the whole translation project. Why? If the
translators do not understand the ins and outs
of the book themselves, how can they convey
the exact message of the book to the readers?
At this step, the translators should read the
original book (over and over again) to get the
idea, message, and writing tone of the author.
But reading the original book is just the first
preparation. The translators may use the next
few days to read the previous books of the
author (to fully understand the author’s
literary style), do research on relevant topics
or cultural references referred to in the book,
and discuss with the native about unclear
points of the book if necessary. Only when the
translators know the book inside out should
they start translating it.
(2) Translate and Self-Review the
Translation
To avoid conflicts in literary styles, only one
translator should work on translating the book. The translator then keeps self-review the first
translation a couple of times until he or she is
satisfied with the outcome.
(3) Edit the Translated Version
A second native linguist will review the whole
translated book again to correct possible
mistakes. The editors make changes in
wording or language-use mistakes, sentence
structures, inconsistencies, and misuse
terminology.
(4) Proofread
Unlike the editor who reads and compares the
target to the source text, the third linguist only
reads the final translated version to guarantee
the smoothness and visuals of the book. The
proofread focuses on spelling and punctuality,grammar mistakes, typing errors, consistent
language, and the overall format of the
translation.
(5) Desktop Publishing (DTP)
After the TEP process, the book is laid out and
indexed in a proper template. It is reviewed
again (in-context review) before being printed and published