textual categories. There will thus be two sets of categories, one subsumed under Description syntactic, etc., the other under Explanation genre, discourse,
purpose
of translation, culture, etc.. Establish these two levels and the cate- gories within each, and leave the entire analytic ‘toolkit’ open for other variables
to be added as we progress through the book.
2. To appreciate the difference between literal, formal and dynamic equivalence,
reflect on the translation of an entire article. Ideally, the translator will be a a professional, and b accessible. Conduct an informal interview asking
the translator ‘why like this, why here?’. Consider specifically how loss of TT authenticity i.e. fluency may be desirable in one place through true formal
equivalence
but not in others when translation is blindly literal. Catalogue the constraints within which one type of equivalence works, and the other does
not. 3. Poetry is an interesting translation domain to analyse.
a You will be able to see semantics and syntax in a new way i.e. not merely
as a linguistic phenomenon, but both as a cultural and a conceptual phenomenon.
b You will also see dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence at work. c You will be able to see how excessive ‘fluency’, ‘authenticity’, etc. can com-
promise the ST message. Find a collection of poems translated from your own language into English,
and comment on a, b and c.
4. Editorials provide us with texts that often call for substantial adjustment towards dynamic equivalence. Collect a sample of this type of text probably
from an internet source which caters for the translation of current affairs in your part of the world, or from an issue of your daily English-medium local
newspaper.
Focus in your assessment on the need for different types of adjustment to iron out structural, semantic or stylistic incongruities. You can do this by listing all
the modifications that you have introduced and reflecting on whether they involve structure, style, etc.
5. Newsweek now appears in various bilingual editions. Examine the translation of the regular section, which features Quotable Quotes.
a Reflect on the best way to deal with the ‘point’ of the quote, the most important element to preserve in translation.
b Assess the translation of these quotable elements, and if translations are not available, reflect on the ST and attempt a translation of your own.
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Bear in mind that the formal translations you will produce cannot simply be literal
renderings:the focus is on the form and content of the ‘message’ i.e. on
the context of the utterance.
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Unit C7 Textual pragmatics and equivalence
In Unit C6, we explored some of the contexts appropriate for formal equivalence through which the translator seeks to reflect in a motivated manner the linguistic
or rhetorical prominence of an ST element. In the absence of such an aim, and when a literal translation would be unworkable due to incompatibility of form
or content, the translator opts for adjustment of the ST in an endeavour to create on the TT reader a semblance of the effect which the ST could have had on its
original receivers. This is dynamic equivalence, a valid procedure to circumvent problems of incomprehensibility and attain reasonable levels of translatability
between languages.
COMPLEX DECISION-MAKING But the process of translation is not as stable as the picture just presented might
suggest. Translation involves a complex process of ‘decision-making’, where deci- sions are hierarchical and iterative, of the kind we saw with Koller’s equivalence
relations Section A, Unit 7. It is safe to assume that, instinctively, translators start out with the most basic forms of what Koller calls ‘formal equivalence’ and what
we shall continue to call ‘literal’ translation since we reserve ‘formal equivalence’ for those situations in which ‘form’ is preserved in a contextually motivated
manner. It is only when the literal proves insufficient that resort is made to other kinds of equivalence relations.
Task C7.1
➤ Choose two kinds of text a news report and an editorial, preferably on the same
topic, and translate into your own language. ➤
Try out the idea of initially opting for a literal translation and of moving on to other forms of equivalence only when necessary.
➤ Go through the translation and reflect on the decisions you have made. Record
these decisions and label them L = literal, F = formal if contextually motivated, D = departure, Sy = syntactic, Se = semantic, P = pragmatic, etc..
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➤
Are departures from the literal fairly common and in which kind of text:the news report or the editorial?
➤ In addition to the type of text, what other factors can you identify as playing a
role in departures from the literal? What aspects of language are affected most, and in which kind of text?
➤ You can now extend the sample to include other translations and, focusing on
the editorial variety, examine the kind of complex decision-making necessitated specifically by a the need to capture connotative meaning and b the need
to comply with textual and rhetorical norms relevant to editorials.
Pending further research, available evidence from process investigations e.g. Lörscher 1991 points to the general validity of identifying this effortless literal
option as the translator’s first port of call in the bulk of what we do in translation. But decision-making is less straightforward than this ‘sequential’ model seems to
indicate i.e. if not literal or formal, then pragmatic, etc.. As we have shown in Section A, Unit 7, decisions tend to be hierarchical and iterative:the literal might
work but for a variety of reasons you can and often do:
■
jump the loop and climb up the hierarchy to handle a particular element in, say, a ‘norm-oriented’ way;
■
iteratively
revisit decisions already made in one part of the text but valid only for that phase of the process;
■
revise your strategy in the light of subsequent decisions you take;
■
prioritize different kinds of equivalence relations such that what may be a priority to you in one situation may not be a priority in a different kind of
situation or to another translator, in one kind of translation commission and not in another, and so on.
Example C7.1
The Definition of Jihad as a Term in Shari’a The legal scholars have defined jihad in various closely connected ways. We will choose
the definition of Ibn ’urfa, one of the Maliki legal scholars, when he says, ‘Jihad is a Muslim’s fight against a disbeliever who does not have a covenant with the Muslims,
in order to exalt the word of God or because the disbeliever has attacked him or entered his land.’ [. . .]
From a translation commissioned by UNESCO for a scholarly monograph on Islam
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Task C7.2
You are commissioned to produce a scholarly translation for a textbook, which may be illustrated by Example C7.1 which is a short extract from such a
translation.
➤ You have been asked to re-work the text for publication in a mass-circulation
magazine. Experiment with the above TT and modify with the new purpose mass-circulation publication in mind.
➤ Examine the decision-making involved in producing the two versions.
➤
What kinds of equivalence relations would dominate in one version and not in the other? This could probably be explained in terms of the nature of the
‘commission’. Are there any other factors driving the decision-making:The kind of audience envisaged? The text type expected? The kind of language fulfilling
the communicative requirements of one or other occasion?
In working through the above tasks, you will undoubtedly have noticed that several factors play a role in the decision-making characteristic of translation as a process.
These include:
1. aesthetics e.g. translator’s ‘aesthetic standards’; 2. cognition e.g. translator’s ‘cognitive system’;
3. knowledge base i.e. epistemology; 4. task specification e.g. agreed with clients.
Task C7.3
➤ Examine the role of these criteria in motivating decisions in an area such as
translating popular fiction e.g. Mills Boon or a similar mass-produced text Goosebumps, Harry Potter.
EQUIVALENCE OF TEXTS
Factors such as the kind of language appropriate to a given situation and the type of text or communicative act in question, which Koller discusses under normative
equivalence
, are crucial in translational decision-making.
Task C7.4
➤ Consider these flawed signs collected from around the world. What is wrong
with them?
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1. The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable. Sign in a Bucharest hotel lobby
2. Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 a.m. daily. In a hotel in Athens
3. Special today:no ice cream. In a Swiss mountain inn 4. Order your summer suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in
strict rotation. At a Rhodes tailor shop 5. If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it. On the door of
a Moscow hotel room
You will have noted that these texts are all poor, literal, unidiomatic translations.
➤ Are the problems simply lexical grammatical, or more deep-rooted, probably
grounded in culture, the kind of text involved, etc.? ➤
What are the parameters within which these texts may be revised?
Below is an example of such a contexttext analysis of the first sign:
Some basic language editing will see to it that the sign reads: The lift is being fixed. We regret that you will be inconvenienced for the next 24
hours. Linguistic appropriateness is restored. But contextual appropriateness is still a
problem. To see to that, we might first opt for: The lift is being fixed. We regret any inconvenience.
Then, perhaps: Out of Order. We regret any inconvenience.
Or even, simply Out of Order.
This leads us to a consideration of the kind of constraints under which translators operate in attempting to determine the types of resemblance that are most crucial
for a given textcontext in translation. Essentially, these constraints relate to the original text and the appropriateness of the TT. On both sides of the linguistic-
cultural divide, these constraints have to do with
■
preference for a given text type
■
the nature of the communicative event
■
the kind of reader
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Task C7.5
➤ Examine how far these factors have been taken into consideration by carefully
studying this excerpt from a bilingual tourist brochure. Focus on elements in italics.
Example C7.2a English version italics added
The reptile and insect house has exhibits of many of the Arabian snakes, lizards,
amphibians, common insects and arachnids. A huge aviary, with a waterfall cascading down rocks into a small lake and river, contains several species of local songbirds as
well as some small raptors. The Tourism Board, Government of Sharjah, UAE
Example C7.2b Arabic version Back-translation. Italics added
The visitor begins his tour by discovering the reptile department, which contains a
variety of Arabian snakes and lizards. Then he continues the journey to find himself within a huge aviary, where waterfalls cascade on the rocks, a spacious place which
contains different varieties of songbirds. The visitor continues his journey through a long corridor, which takes him to where there are baboons.
Task C7.6
➤ Having worked through these examples, can you identify distinct patterns in
how the two languages view the experience:Subjectively? Objectively? Test your hypothesis on a more extensive text example.
➤ Examine tourist brochures produced in your language.
➤ Translate or assess existing translations.
➤ What kind of changes do you think are necessary to fulfil the requirements of
the text type, the communicative event, the target reader, etc.?
DECISION-MAKING: THE TEXT FACTOR
In performing Task C7.6, you probably noted the ‘objectivity’ of the English version, compared with the ‘subjectivity’ of the Arabic version. For example,
English:
The reptile and insect house has exhibits of many of the Arabian snakes
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Arabic:
The visitor begins his tour by discovering the reptile department
This disparity is to do with the issue of what we choose to make salient from the perspective of a particular language and culture. In some texts or parts of text, some
elements inevitably exhibit more prominence than others. Textual salience is a crucial factor which, as we suggested in Section A, Unit 7, may best be explained in
text-pragmatic ways. That is, the equivalence sought in this area of varying linguistic andor conceptual prominence would be of a text-normative and pragmatic kind.
Marked word order is one way of displaying prominence. In well-written texts, prominence is often functional, that is, purposeful within the text. Consider,
for example, the following text by Oliver Sacks, a writer renowned for his human perspective on those aspects of near-psychology, which his ‘medical novellas’ so
graphically portray. This is how Sacks describes his patient’s suffering:
Example C7.3
But it was not merely the cognition, the gnosis, at fault; there was something radically wrong with the whole way he proceeded. For he approached these faces – even of
those near and dear – as if they were abstract puzzles or tests. He did not relate to them, he did not behold. No face was familiar to him, seen as a ‘thou’, being just
identified as a set of features, an ‘it’
. Oliver Sacks 1985 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,
London: Picador [italics added]
Note in particular the recurrent use of mental clauses added in italics. Compare this with how a core neuropsychologist would have described a similar
phenomenon:
Example C7.4
Neurological examination was essentially negative, apart from her recent memory deficit and visual performance. Her visual acuity was difficult to determine because of her
agnosia, but using the open E method, and the occasional letter identification, it was found to be 2020 bilaterally.
Andrew Kertesz 1979 Aphasia and Associated Disorders
, New York: Grune and Stratton
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