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WESTERN TRANSLATION THEORY
17

Western translation theory_--oct_1

Oct 21, 2014

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Page 1: Western translation theory_--oct_1

WESTERN TRANSLATION THEORY

Page 2: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Central Concept : Equivalence

the central concepts is ‘equivalence’ (such as correspondence, similarity, analogy, or even the sameness). The term roughly corresponds to the ‘faithfulness’ of a TT to its original or ST and it has dominated this discipline for many years.

Seeking to render word for word and form for form from a linguistic level, many scholars from the branch of linguistics, either as applied, or as comparative or contrastive linguistics.

Page 3: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Unit/level of equivalence between ST and TT

linguistic scholars develop their approaches to translation from the basic linguistic level/unit (morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, or sentences) and the basic ‘equivalence’ at the linguistic level between the ST and the TT.

In other words, from the very beginning of translation theory, the concept of equivalence has focused on the word or form as the ‘unit of translation’ and ‘unit shifts’ were the many scholars’ preoccupation from the 1950s onward.

Page 4: Western translation theory_--oct_1

The concept of Equivalence

The term ‘equivalence’ is so central in the areas of translating and translation that it is used to define translation itself in terms of equivalence relations by some scholars (Catford 1965:20; Koller 1995:196; Nida 1959:19/1975:33; Nida and Taber 1969:12; Pym 1992:37; Wilss 1982:62; Toury 1980:39).

Page 5: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Catford’s : textual equivalent and formal correspondent

A textual equivalent is any TL text or portion of text which is observed on a particular occasion … to be the equivalent of a given SL text or portion of text.

A formal correspondent is any TL category (unit, class, element of structure, etc.) which can be said to occupy, as nearly as possible, the ‘same’ place in the ‘economy’ of the TL as the given SL category occupies in the SL.

Page 6: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Nida’s The Concept of Dynamic Equivalence

Nida, with the reference to Bible translation, advocated a translator has to “seek to find the closest possible equivalent”

Nida proposed two basic types of equivalence in translating: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. Formal equivalence focuses on the message itself in both form and content and on such concerns as the correspondence on the levels of: word to word, sentence to sentence, concept to concept, etc.

Page 7: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Functional Equivalence By the end of the 1970s, the concept of

‘functional equivalence’ was proposed by functionalists and scholars working from the text-linguistic standpoint. The new ‘text-linguistics’ models started emerging with many proponents of this new approach.

They viewed translation as “an act of communication”, not as a process of trans-coding in linguistic approaches

House (1997:49, 2001:989) further claimed that a translated text “should not only match its ST in function, but employ equivalent situational-dimensional (eg social role relationship, time, geographical origin and so on) means to achieve that function”.

Page 8: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Newmark’s Communication Theory Semantic translation refers to cases when

a translator attempts to render the ST “within the bare syntactic and semantic constraints of the TL, to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the author”. Literal translation as one strategy for this.

Communicative translation covers cases whereby “a translator attempts to produce the same effect on the TL readers as was produced by the original on the SL readers”. Free translation as one strategy for this.

Page 9: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Skopos theory

Skopos is the Greek word for aim, finality, objectives, and/or intention” and was introduced by German’s scholars (i.e. Reiss, Vermeer, and Nord) in translation to refer to the aim or purpose of a translation.

A further development of the skopos model came with the addition of the notion of ‘loyalty’, which helped redefine the classical binary mode of translation – —literal vs. free translation.

Page 10: Western translation theory_--oct_1

literal translation vs Free translation Along with the criticism of Newmark’s

communicative translation, which is linked to the notion of cultural adaptation, the awareness of cultural elements in context was gradually developed and taken into a consideration by some proponents ofin functional theory such as Reiss.

A further development of the skopos model came with the addition of the notion of ‘loyalty’, which helped redefine the classical binary mode of translation – —literal vs. free (Nord 1991:91-100).

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prescriptive v.s descriptive translation Theorists and scholars from the

discipline of comparative literature and literary translation started conducting translation research by moving away from prescriptive studies and toward descriptive translation studies.

Scholars argued that these problem- and process-oriented prescriptive theories can be treated as reference concepts for translation strategies

Page 12: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Descriptive Translation Studies

The translated texts are used: (i) to describe the phenomena of transiting and

translation;

(ii) to establish general principles by means of which these

phenomena can be explained and predicted.

DTS do not aim to prescribe what a translation should or ought to be. Alternatively, they observe how translations have been carried out in practice, and, consequently, concepts of ‘equivalence’ or ‘faithfulness’ would be not obvious when comparing the ST and TT.

Page 13: Western translation theory_--oct_1

PTS--equivalence vs. DTS--norms Therefore, these constraints or so-called

‘norms’ may have influenced the translation strategies or methods and the ensuing translations themselves.

DTS could be characterised as a target-oriented, functional, historical, and cultural approach to translation. Also, replacing the concept of ‘equivalence’ with the concept of ‘norms’,

DTS has attracted the attention of researchers in modern translation studies.

Page 14: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Translation Norms

Translations made at different times therefore tend to be made under different conditions and to turn out differently, not because they are good or bad, but because they have been produced to satisfy different demands. It cannot be stressed enough that the production of different translations at different times does not appoint to any ‘betrayal’ of absolute standards.

Thus, the translation norms might be differences in different times, societies, cultures..etc.

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Norms, Conventions, Rules

With regard to norms of language this means that they are conventions in the sense as far as their origin is concerned, but for every new generation, and every newcomer, they are norms.

As a convention with non-normative character could be regarded as a norm, but a convention can gradually become a norm, particularly for a ‘new generation’ or ‘newcomer’; as a result, a convention can grow into a norm

Page 16: Western translation theory_--oct_1

Polysystem

The whole polysystem, including social, historical, cultural, temporal, and even political elements, is taken into consideration and the activity of studying translation gives a relatively empirical account of human behaviour. In other words, this theory work does help translation studies “break down certain conceptual barriers and find a method for better describing translation”, as approved by Gentzler (2001:135).

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Discussion

Prescriptive translation studies Descriptive translation studies

Translation theories: The combination of Chinese and West

Preference: Chinese or Western theories