Translation

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Translation Summary

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Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics

translation

1 In the broad sense, ‘translation’ refers to the process and result of transferring a text from the source language into the target language.

2 In the narrow sense, it refers to rendering a written text into another language as opposed to simultaneously interpreting spoken language.

3 In foreign-language instruction, translation is considered, by some, to be a ‘fifth skill’ (next to the traditional ‘four skills’ of speaking, listening, reading, and writing). Translation is a method used to practice and test competence and performance in a second language.

Translators are generally trained at private, government, or military institutes as well as at some colleges and universities. Studies in translation focus on linguistic, psychological, aesthetic, pedagogical, and professional aspects. Most such studies have been of greater use to the area of computer and machine-aided translation than to the practical concerns of human interpreters. Some important issues in translation include: (a) the typology of translation, which differentiates between the translation of literary vs scientific or professional texts, and between human vs machine-aided translation; philological translation, which is concerned with the process of communication in the source language and culture; and pragmatically based simultaneous translation; (b) the format of equivalent units (sounds, words, phrases, etc.). An equivalent communicative effect is all the more difficult to attain, the greater the cultural distance between the receivers of the source and target text (problem of translatability) ( linguistic determinism, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis). In this area, recent discussions center on the intercultural implications of translation and have all but dispensed with the concept of ‘equivalence.’

References

Bell, R.T. 1991. Translation and translating: theory and practice. London.

Brislin, R.W. (ed.) 1976. Translation: applications and research. New York.

Catford, J.C. 1965. A linguistic theory of translation. London.

Cummings, R. and S.Gillespie (eds) 1991. Translation and literature. Edinburgh.

Gentzler, E. 1993. Contemporary translation theories. London.

Grähs, L., G.Korlén, and B.Malmberg (eds) 1978. Theory and practice of translation. Bern.

Guenthner-Reutter, M. and F.Guenthner (eds) 1975. Anthology on the theory of translation. Cambridge.

Gutt, E.A. 1991. Translation and relevance. Oxford.

Hatim, B. and I.Mason. 1990.

Discourse and the translator. London.

Hewson, L. and J.Martin. 1991. Redefining translation: the variational approach. London.

Holmes, J.S. 1988. Translated! Essays and papers on translation and translation studies. Amsterdam.

Holmes, J.S., J.Lambert, and R.van den Broeck (eds) 1976. Literature and translation. Louvain.

Kelly, L.G. 1979. The true interpreter: a history of translation theory and practice in the west. Oxford.

Larson, M. (ed.) 1991. Translation: theory and practice, tension and interdependence. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA.

Lörscher, W. 1990. Translation performance, translation process, and translation strategies: a psycholinguistic investigation. Tübingen.

Newmark, P. 1991. About translation. Clevedon.

Snell-Hornby, M. 1988. Translation studies: an integrated approach. Amsterdam.

Titford, C. and A.E.Hieke (eds) 1985. Translation in foreign language teaching and testing. Tübingen.

Venuti, L. 1992. Rethinking translation. London.

Zlateva, P. 1993. Translation as social action: Russian and Bulgarian perspectives. London.

Journals

International Journal of Translation Studies.

Target.

4 Term used in L.Tesnière’s dependency grammar in addition to connection and junction which expresses the third process for constructing sentences or complex expressions. With translation, a function word (translative), such as a preposition or conjunction, changes the syntactic category of an expression and makes its connection in the sentence possible. For example, the noun time can be made into an ‘adjective’ with the preposition of, which can be combined with end: the end of time.