Translation Theory part 5

What is Translation?

Translation is the process in which a written communication or a text in a first language is produced as the written communication or text in the second language interpreting the same meaning. Here the text in the first language is the "source text" and the equivalent text that communicates the same message is the "target text" or "translated text". Initially translation has been a manual activity. Today, together with manual translation, there is also automatic translation of natural-language texts, which is referred to as machine translation or computer-assisted translation which use computers as an aid to translation. Translation is one way to bring the world closer.

Origin of the term
Etymologically, "translation" refers to "bringing across" or "carrying across". Originated from the latin word "translatio" , the perfect passive participle of which is "translatum" or "transferre". Trans implies "to transfer" and "ferre" implies to "to carry to bring across". For the modern Roman, Germany and Slavic European language, the word "traducere" is used for translation which implies "to bring across" or "to lead across" in English. The Greek term for translation is "metaphrasis" which implies "a speaking across". "Metaphrase" implies a word-for-word translation or literal translation while "paraphrase" in Greek means a saying in other words.

Factors to take in Consider for Translation
Translation is not so easy as it sounds to be. Moreover, translation does not mean a simple word for word for correspondence between any two languages. It is not a mechanical process where each word is translated to the target language. Rather, many factors are to be taken into consideration to get the exact output in the target language. The factors are as follows:

• Actual context
• The rules of grammar of the two languages
• The spellings in the two languages
• Their writing conventions
• Meaning of idioms and phrases
• The usage of points and commas to separate decimals and thousands within numbers. This is to be noted that some languages follow reverse style. For example, while in English we write 1,000.01, the same is written as 1.000,01 in Spanish languages, except for Panama, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the United States itself.
• Again text translation also implies the translation of right-to left alphabets (such as Arabic and Hebrew).

Beside the above factors, to get the final document all activities are equally important like

• The document needs to be read
• The document needs to be translated
• The document is then edited
• The document is then proofread, not to mention retyped and often reformatted.
• Sometimes, research is also required for translation.
• Thorough knowledge of the native language is required by the translator.

Translation requires a complete understanding of the customs and lifestyle of a group of people so as to translate in a manner that communicates to that culture's world view.

Approaches to Translation
There are two approaches to translation:

• Formal equivalence: Formal equivalence implies word for word translation or literal translation. It translate not only the exact appearance of vocabulary but also the idioms and grammatical structure used in the original. This creates a problem because idioms are expressions that have meaning which is quite different from the actual meaning of the words used in the idiom. For example, the idiom "top notch" implies excellent while in simple English it represents the top notch of a stick. The drawback of formal equivalence is that idioms or phrases can mislead or confuse the reader.
  
• Dynamic equivalence: Dynamic equivalence, also referred to as functional equivalence, implies the essential thought expressed in the source text. This include, if necessary, literality, original sememe and word order, the text's active vs. passive voice, etc. It is not following a word for word translation but changing, adding, or subtracting from the original text to make it look as the translator sees fit.

Success of Translation
For the success of translation, four requirements are to be fulfilled:

• Making sense.
• Displaying the spirit and manner of the original.
• The translated document has a natural and easy form of expression.
• The translated document produces a similar response.

Source :
http://www.thelanguagetranslation.com/what-translation.html