Translation Flashcards
Translation studies?
Translation studies refer to the academic discipline concerned with the study of translation at large, including literary and non-literary translations, different forms of oral interpretation, as well as dubbing and subtitling.
Two major areas of the discipline?
Pure and applied.
Pure translation has the dual objective to provide the theoretical approaches, principles and rules for the study, as well as, to offer valid description and explanations of translation phenomena (theoretical and descriptive). The descriptive studies of translation are product, process and function orientated.
Applied translation studies covers activities directed at specific practical applications of the discipline. Applicable side of translation requires translation training, translation aids and translation criticism, as well as, precision, unambiguous expressions and no vagueness.
Analyses in translation?
Analyses may be needed in cases of problematic words, phrases or entire portions of text. The translator will have to break down the meaning of the problematic unit into smaller constituent parts of meaning in order to find the best possible equivalent in the target language. There are two types of analyses: contrastive and component analyses.
Contrastive analysis?
Finding the closest equivalent in the target language for a certain concept in the source language. The problem of the degree of correspondence between two equivalents.
Correspondence?
Correspondence is a term used in contrastive studies and assumes pairing or matching certain units on structural level.
Absolute correspondence-a perfect equivalent for a term in the SL.
Partial correspondence-the meaning of a particular lexeme in the SL has to be adjusted to the context of the TL.
Absolute lack of correspondence-no equivalent term so that the translation has to be paraphrased or a note explaining the concept has to be introduced.
Component analysis?
Component analysis is a technique that is used to describe the meaning of the word in the SL so as to find the best equivalent in the TL by reconstructing the meaning in the TL.
Lexical decomposition and the atomisation of meaning-decomposing the meaning of the SL term, breaking it down to its component or constituent meaning, establishing whether the term possesses or lacks certain qualities and then finding direct or indirect translations for each component/constituent in the TL in order to reconstruct the meaning of the whole term in the SL.
Coding?
Translation consists of decoding and encoding.
Decoding is the deciphering of the meaning in the source language.
Encoding is the rewriting or expressing the original meaning in the target language.
Transcription?
Transcription maps the sounds of the SL to the best matching sounds in the TL. Peter-Piter
Transliteration?
Transliteration represents the letters of the SL by letters pronounced similarly in the TL whereby they use some specific pairs of SL and TL.
Equivalence?
Equivalence is the relationship between the source language and the target language. Five types of equivalence: Referential or denotative, connotative, text-normative, pragmatic or dynamic, and formal.
Referential or denotative equivalence?
The equivalent elements in the SL and TL refer to the same thing in the real world.
Connotative equivalence?
The equivalent elements in the SL and the TL trigger the same associations in the minds of the speakers of both languages.
Text-normative equivalence?
The equivalent elements in the SL and the TL are used in the same or similar contexts in their respective languages.
Pragmatic or dynamic equivalence?
The equivalent elements in the SL and the TL create the same effect on their respective readers.
Formal equivalence?
The equivalent elements in the SL and TL have the same orthographic and phonological features.
Localisation?
Localisation is used in relationship to industrial discourse by means of which some marketing material, a text, an ad, a commercial presentation or some web pages are adapted to the needs and preferences of a local community where the advertised product is to be launched and sold.
Transposition?
Transposition is a strategy in translation used to transpose (transfer) the meaning of the unit from the SL into the TL by exchanging one part of a discourse for another without changing the meaning of the entire discourse.
