An Introduction to Translation Studies / Nguyễn Quang Nhật, Nguyễn Hoàn Vũ, Đinh Thị Thùy Trang

BANKING UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

AN INTRODUCTION TO

TRANSLATION STUDIES

Nguyễn Quang Nhật

Nguyễn Hoàn Vũ

Đinh Thị Thùy Trang

HO CHI MINH CITY, 09/2019

Translation has long been seen as a career-oriented discipline to accommodate various processes that

do not strictly belong to the linguistic realm. Hence, this book looks at translation not only as a

linguistic activity but also as a socio-cultural exchange. This coursebook is designed to meet the needs

of students at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking University of HCMC. Its fundamental purpose

aims to help students get access to some major concepts, principles, methods, and strategies to solve

a number of issues in translation theories and practices. It is hoped that learners will find the course

useful and practical.

The material presented here borrows from Peter Newmark's “A Textbook of Translation” and Luu Van

Tuan’s “An Introduction into Translation Theories”. It is meant to serve pedagogical purposes with

careful citation and acknowledgements. For reasons of space and consistency,the term “translation”

include both written translation and oral translation (the latter is commonly known as

interpretation), although the overlaps make a clear distinction impossible (cf. Gile 2004).

Good luck and best wishes!

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF TRANSLATION ..................................................................3

I. Definitions of “Translation”...............................................................................................3

II. Scope of Translation – Science, art and skill.....................................................................4

III. Translation typology ..........................................................................................................5

IV. Codes of ethics.................................................................................................................11

V. Translation principles.......................................................................................................12

VI. Requirements for a professional translator/interpreter.....................................................13

VII. Further practice ................................................................................................................14

CHAPTER 2: TRANSLATION THEORIES ...............................................................................15

I. Rationale for Translation studies .....................................................................................15

II. Descriptive translation studies (DTS) of Holmes............................................................16

III. Historical background of Translation studies ..................................................................19

IV. Early theories of translation studies.................................................................................25

V. Contemporary theories in translation studies...................................................................28

VI. Further practice ................................................................................................................37

CHAPTER 3: TRANSLATION UNITS, METHODS AND TECHNIQUES ............................40

I. Translation Units (UT).....................................................................................................40

II. Translation methods by Newmark ...................................................................................42

III. Translation techniques by Vinay and Darbelnet ..............................................................48

IV. Further practice ................................................................................................................55

CHAPTER 4: EQUIVALENCE.....................................................................................................58

I. Untranslatability...............................................................................................................58

II. Gain and Loss...................................................................................................................59

III. Equivalence......................................................................................................................59

IV. Further practice ................................................................................................................67

CHAPTER 5: CULTURAL TERMS AND NON-EQUIVALENCE .........................................67

I. Cultural elements in translation .......................................................................................68

II. Non – equivalence at word-level.....................................................................................70

III. Suggested strategies for dealing with non-equivalence at word level .............................72

IV. Collocations and Non – equivalence above word-level...................................................74

V. Suggested strategies for translating idiomatic collocations.............................................76

VI. Further practice ................................................................................................................78

CHAPTER 6: TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT ......................................................80

I. Views for “A good translation” .......................................................................................80

II. Main reasons for translation errors ..................................................................................80

III. Approaches to evaluating a translation ............................................................................81

IV. House’s translation Quality Assessment Model ..............................................................85

V. Steps of House’s translation Quality Assessment Model ................................................89

VI. Further practice ................................................................................................................91

CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF TRANSLATION

I. Definitions of “Translation”

The English term “Translation”, first attested in around 1340, derives from the Latin word

“translatus” which means “carried across” (Lewis, 2004, p.257).

Translation, by dictionary definition, means turning one‘s own language into another language

(The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 1974).

In the field of Linguistics, “Translation” has several meanings:

It is a subject (môn dịch thuật). E.g.: I studied translation at university.

It is a product (bản dịch). E.g.: They published the Arabic translation of the report.

It is the process of producing the translation (dịch thuật). E.g.: translation service.

In the field of Translation studies, there are different definitions:

Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the

source language message, first in terms of meaning and, second in terms of style.

(Nida & Tiber, 1969)

Translation is the replacement of a text in the source language by a semantically and pragmatically

equivalent text in the target language. (House, 1982)

Translation is a craft consisting of the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in

one language by the same message and/or statement in another language. (Peter Newmark, 1998)

Translation is to be understood as the process whereby a message expressed in a specific source

language is linguistically transformed in order to be understood by readers of the target language.

(Houbert, 1998)

→ As implied in the definitions above, translation in its overall meaning is basically a change of

form to reproduce in the receptor language the closest natural meaning of the source language

message. Only the form changes but the meaning stays the same. Moreover, translation not only

involves understanding the general meaning of the communication but calls upon the ability to

understand the pragmatic elements/culture of the communication as well.

Task 1: Work in groups and fill in the blanks with appropriate phrases given.

source language, cultural barriers, communicate interculturally, target language,

rendering, oral transfer, message receiver

a. Translation is the process of conveying messages across linguistic and ............... (Ian Tudor, 1987)

b. Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (.................................) by

equivalent textual material in another language (.................................) (Catford, 2000)

c. Translation is ................................ the meaning of a text into into another language in the way that

the author intended the text. (Newmark, 1998)

d. Interpreting is the ................................... of messages between speakers of different languages.

(Gentile et al,1996)

e. To interpret is to ................................. with the message sender and the .......................................

whose languages and cultures are unknown to each other. (Nguyễn Quốc Hùng, 2010)

II. Scope of Translation – Science, art and skill

First, translation means more than substitution of words in one language with those from

another language. It is a scientific attempt to bring two cultures together since languages differ from

each other not just in grammatical structure but also the way in which they conceptualize abstractions.

The question of how to bridge these gaps is decided by the aim of the translators and the receivers,

requiring scientific methodology to bring about the most productive outcomes.

Second, translators

a. must be able to cope with the elegancy of expressions and language

b. have to artistically preserve and fit into a different linguistic and social contexts: neutral and

emotional words, archaic words and new coinages, metaphors and similes, foreign borrowings,

dialectal, jargon and slang expressions, stilted phrases and obscenities, proverbs and quotations,

illiterate or inaccurate speech, and so on.

c. have to sensitively tackle complicated specialized descriptions and terminology in specific fields

of study for which appropriate terms have not yet been invented.

Lastly, translation is the bridge into the world of academic, scientific and technical knowledge.

Today most of the scientific and technical literature is written in different languages. Both translation

and interpretation of such works into other languages become even more of a challenge and require

superior language ability in at least two languages. A scientific article in medicine, for example,

cannot be translated only by somebody who has proficiency in two languages as well as at least a

working knowledge of medicine. Therefore, terms and words have to be chosen carefully for both

major and non-major receivers.

To sum up, it can be said that translation is a combination of science, art, and skill. It is a

science in the sense that it necessitates complete knowledge of the structure and make-up of the two

languages concerned. It is an art since it requires artistic talent to reconstruct the original text in the

form of a product that is presentable to the reader who is not supposed to be familiar with the original.

It is also a skill because it entails the ability to smooth over any difficulty in the translation, and the

ability to provide the translation of something that has no equal in the target language. As a result,

translation plays a very important part in the formation and shaping of any literature or culture, being

a window to the world, helping people to assimilate their sights and sounds while developing a culture

of their own.

III. Translation typology

The process of translation between two different languages involves the changing of an

original text (the source text or ST) in the original verbal language (the source language or SL) into a

written text (the target text or TT) in a different verbal language (the target language or TL):

Sourcetext(ST) văn bản nguồn Target text (TT) văn bản đích

Sourcelanguage(SL) ngôn ngữ nguồn Targetlanguage(TL) ngôn ngữ đích

E.g.: When a translator renders a book from English into Vietnamese, the SL is English and the TLis

Vietnamese.

- Source text-oriented translation (bản dịch thiên về bản gốc) means rendering the message that is

as close as possible to that of the source text. It can be a “copy” of the original and it clearly

reflects the structure, tone and linguistic structures of the source text.

- Target text oriented translation (bản dịch thiên về người đọc/người nghe) means conveying the

information contained by the source text to a target text so that is fully comprehensible to the

readers/listeners. This might be altering the original structure, merging two sentences into a single

one or even changing the style of the text.

One goal of an empirical translation theory is to establish a comprehensive translation

typology. There are many kinds of translation, some more typical and widespread than others, and we

need a system of classification both for theoretical and practical purposes. Many scholars have

different ways of classifications. Here are some prominent typology:

1. Jakobson’s semiotic classification

In his essay “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation”, Jakobson (1896–1982) arrived at three

forms of translation:

1. Intralingual translation / Rewording / Paraphrasing is the transference of verbal signs by

means of other signs of the same language. It occurs when we produce a summary, rephrase or rewrite

a text in the same language.

E.g.: blockchain → a digital ledger that records transactions made in Bitcoin or another

cryptocurrency

2. Interlingual translation / Translation proper is the transference from one language into

another linguistic code. This has been the traditionalfocus oftranslation studies.

3. Intersemiotic translation /Transmutation is the transference of meaning from a verbal to a

non-verbal sign system. It occurs when a written text is translated into a different mode, such as music,

film or painting.

E.g.: The film Harry Potter was adapted from the same novel of J.K.Rowling.

Task 2: Choose the correct answer for each question.

1. ………… is the translation within the same language

A. Interlingual translation C. Intralingual translation

B. Intersemiotic translation D. Transmutation

2. Translation from one language to another is termed ………