An introduction to translation studies

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

1

BANKING UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

AN INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION STUDIES

Nguy n Quang Nh t Nguy n Hoàn V inh Th 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 d ch thu t) E.g.: I studied translation at university

It is a product (b n d ch) E.g.: They published the Arabic translation of the report

It is the process of producing the translation (d ch thu t) 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

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

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 (Nguy n Qu c 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):

Source text (ST) v n b n ngu n Target text (TT) v n b n đích Source language (SL) ngôn ng ngu n Target language (TL) ngôn ng đích

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

- Source text-oriented translation (b n d ch thiên v b n g c) 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 (b n d ch thiên v ng i đ c/ng i 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 traditional focus of translation 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 ………

A Translation proper C Intralingual translation

B Intersemiotic translation D Rewording

3 ……… is the conversion of text from one script to another

A Translation proper C Intralingual translation

B Intersemiotic translation D Transmutation

4 The translation of ‘absolute monopoly” as “đ c quy n tuy t đ i” is termed …………

A Translation proper C Intralingual translation

B Intersemiotic Translation D Transmutation

5 The translation of “déjà vu” as “the strange feeling that in some way you have already experienced

what is happening now , but in reality you haven’t” is termed …………

A Translation proper C Intralingual translation

B Intersemiotic Translation D Transmutation

6 The translation of “t ng s n ph m qu c n i” as “Gross Domestic Product (GDP)” is termed ……

A Translation proper C Intralingual translation

B Intersemiotic Translation D Transmutation

7 The adaptation of the book “Lords of the Ring” into movie is termed ………

A Interlingual translation C Intralingual translation

B Intersemiotic Translation D Transmutation

8 Which of the following is an example of Transmutation?

A “Monetary policy” is translated as “chính sách ti n t ”

B “Accountability” is translated as “responsibility”

C “Accountability” is translated as “trách nhi m (gi i trình)”

D “x is more than y” is translated as “x > y”

9 Which of the following is NOT an example of Transmutation?

A “ ABC = DEF” is translated as “triangle ABC is congruent to triangle DEF”

B f x dx” is translated as “a function whose derivative is f”

C “2 + 7 = 9” is translated as “two plus seven equals nine”

D “A is a subset of B” means “A là t p h p con c a B”

10 Which of the following is an example of Translation proper?

A “Spear phishing” is translated as “the fraudulent act of sending emails ostensibly from a different person's account in order to obtain confidential information”

B “Fixed cost” is translated as “chi phí c đ nh”

C “Aesthetic” is translated as “relating to beauty or refined taste”

D “f(x) = x/2” means “f of x equals x divided by 2”

2 Binary classifications

a) Semantic vs Communicative translation

- Semantic translation gives highest priority to the meaning and form of the original, and is

appropriate to translations of source texts that have high status, such as religious texts, legal texts, and ministerial speeches

- Communicative translation is freer, and gives priority to the effectiveness of the message to be

communicated These are texts like advertisements, tourist brochures, product descriptions and instructions, manuals

E.g.: I do myself the honor of calling her as soon as after my arrival in Hanoi

 Semantic translation: Tôi cho phép mình vinh d đ c th m cô y ngay sau chuy n đáp đ n Hà N i

 Communicative translation: Tôi ghé th m nàng ngay khi tôi đ n Hà N i

Task 3: Decide if the following translations are Semantic or Communicative

1 I would like to make a few comments Tôi mu n bình lu n đôi câu

2 I have just returned from a visit to my landlord Tôi v a m i tr v t chuy n ghé th m ng i

ch nhà c a tôi

3 I don’t want to talk to him whom I will be troubled with Mình ch mu n tôi chuy n v i h n đâu dây d a r rà l m

4 V n đ n y không th gi i quy t đ c This problem cannot be solved

Task 4: Translate these sentences semantically and communicatively

b) Covert vs Overt translation (House)

- Covert translation is a translation intended not to be recognized by target readers as

translations In other words, it is so natural that they do not seem distinguishable from

non-translated texts of the same kind in the target language

E.g.: The translations of advertisements and newspaper articles

- Overt translation is a translation intended to be recognized as translations, because it is more

closely linked with the source culture

E.g.: The translations of political speeches, songs, poems

c) Documentary vs Instrumental translation (Nord)

- Instrumental translation (d ch công c ) is a translation which functions as an instrument of

communication It works independently of a source text, and is judged on how well it expresses

its message It is not to produce a maximally accurate representation of the original text

E.g.: The translation of a refrigerator manual, the translation of “Cinderalla” for children

- Documentary translation (d ch t li u) serves as a document of a source culture communication

between the author and the source text recipient Since the translated version can be used as a document or reference, it is required to be faithful to the original text

E.g.: business contract, certificate, Donald Trump’s speech

d) Written translation vs Oral translation/Interpretation

- Written translation: is a kind of translation in which a translator studies written material in the

source language and reproduces it in written form in the target language

- Interpretation: is a kind of translation in which an interpreter listens to a spoken message in the

source language and renders it orally in the target language

3 Back translation

It means translating a word, phrase, or sentence multiple times between two languages until both translations yield the same phrase It has 3 steps:

- Translate from Language 1 to Language 2

- Translate from Language 2 to Language 1

- Repeat until all discrepancies have been fixed

4 Machine translation

Machine translation is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of software to translate text or speech from one language to another

Task 5: Choose some appropriate translation types for each kind of documents

1 Legal documents:

2 A recipe

3 Laptop manual

4 Brochures

5 Inauguration speech of Obama

Task 6: Match the words with the correct definitions

A Intralingual translation B Interlingual translation C Semantic translation

D Intersemiotic translation E Communicative translation F Covert translation

G Documentary translation H Instrumental translation I Overt translation

1 It is the transference of meaning from a verbal to a non-verbal sign system

2 It is a translation intended not to be recognized by target readers as translations

3 It is the transference of verbal signs by means of other signs of the same language

4 It gives priority to the effectiveness of the message, focusing on factors such as readability and naturalness, and is appropriate to translations of “pragmatic” texts where the actual form of the original is not closely bound to its intended meaning

5 It is the transference from one language into another or reinterpretation of the message in another linguistic code

6 It functions as an instrument of communication, working independently of a source text, and is judged on how well it expresses its message

7 It gives highest priority to the meaning and form of the original, and is appropriate to translations

of source texts that have high status

8 It is a translation intended to be recognized as translation, because it is more closely linked with the source culture

9 It is a bit like reported speech, presenting itself as a report of something else

Task 7: Each word below depicts a characteristic of translation or interpretation Put them into

the correct column

………

………

………

………

………

………

………

………

………

………

………

………

fluency, write, dictionaries, speak, real-time, note-taking, business meeting, delayed, verbal, accuracy, highly aesthetic, time pressure, legal contract, refinement, microphone

IV Codes of ethics

1 Accuracy and completeness: Translators/Interpreters have to select the

language that most accurately conveys the content and spirit of the clients’

message They cannot not alter, make additions to, or omit anything that can

influence the accuracy of the message

2 Confidentiality: Translators/Interpreters shall respect their clients’ right to privacy and confidentiality Confidential information shall not be disclosed without authorization

3 Impartiality of non-egotism: Translators/Interpreters shall be impartial and unbiased, maintain

professional detachment and refrain from inappropriate self-promotion

4 No conflict of interest: Translators/Interpreters shall disclose any conflict of interest

5 Professional development: Translators/Interpreters shall maintain and improve their skills and

knowledge through professional training/education and interactions with colleagues and specialists in related fields Translators/Interpreters will refrain from accepting assignments beyond their professional skills, language fluency, or level of training

Task 8: Find solutions for each following situation

a You have provided a wrong translation of important information in a contract and this might cause

disastrous consequences What code of ethics is violated?

b You have just found out that today you have to interpret for your love rival in a big conference

You really don’t like him Moreover, he is going with the girl you like However, you still accept the

assignment What code of ethics is violated?

c Your employer wants you to translate part of the Qu’ran Holy Book In fact, you have little

knowledge and interest in Muslim What code of ethics is violated?

d You have added some parts into the translation of a legal document and received some money for

this action What code of ethics is violated?

V Translation principles

An ideal translation should be:

1 Accurate (Tín): Reproducing as exactly as possible the meaning of the source text

2 Beautiful (Nhã): Using natural forms in a way that is appropriate to the target language

3 Communicative/Natural ( t): Expressing all aspects of source text in a way that is

understandable to the intended audience

Task 9: Identify what principle is violated in the following translations

1 C m ng i đi u khi n các lo i xe có mùi bia r u It’s forbidden to drive car with alcoholic smell

………

2 S thi u v n đ ti n hành c nh tranh dài h n là nguyên nhân ch y u đ d n đ n s s p đ c a 80%

s công ty Cash flow problem for long-term competition is the main cause for the shutdown of 80% of all companies

4 Ng i dân Hu v n gi đ c phong cách tao nhã, v d u dàng và s tr m l ng c a đ t th n kinh

Hue native people still keep the refined manners, the gentleness and quietness of the crazy land

VI Requirements for a professional translator/interpreter

1 Knowledge competence

Professional translators/interpreters must possess a wealth of general knowledge including:

- Subject/Domain knowledge - Contextual/Situational knowledge - Cultural knowledge

2 Linguistic competence

Linguistic proficiency means a fairly good command of the languages involved Specifically,

it means acute reading and hearing, large vocabulary, precision and flexibility of expression, etc Constant exposure to different variety of English spoken and written texts is indisputably necessary

3 Communication competence

Interpreters and translators must be skillful in using the right register for a given situation, choosing the appropriate words to express different aspects of the same concepts, adopting suitable non-verbal languages (intonation pitches, gestures, ), recognizing intentional and unintentional verbal language, as well as manipulating information mining, retrieval and management, etc

Task 10: Choose the best answer for each question

1 A translator should master a wide knowledge of nutrition and diseases if he has to translate in a medical setting What kind of criteria is it?

A Knowledge competence B Linguistic competence C Interpreting competence

2 A translator misused the word “Negro” to indicate the Black people What criteria did he violate?

A Knowledge competence B Linguistic competence C Interpreting competence

3 An interpreter tries to add more information to the interpreting process, explaining what mitochondria or metabolism is to a group ordinary listeners What is the requirement of his professional job and should he do it?

A Knowledge competence – he shouldn’t do it C Linguistic competence – he should do it

B Translating competence – he should and has to do it

4 An interpreter is always speaking with monotonous voice and slow speed What criteria of interpretation did he violate?

A Knowledge competence B Linguistic competence C Interpreting competence

5 Lý Lan translated Harry Potter by using extensively and beautifully a wide variety of Vietnamese synonyms to explain fantasy world, such as “T th n th c t ” for “the Death Eaters” What criteria

of translation did she master?

A Knowledge competence B Linguistic competence C Interpreting competence

VII Further practice

Task 11: Find 2 examples for each translation issues

1 Intralingual translation: ………

………

2 Intersemiotic translation: ………

………

3 Covert translation: ………

………

4 Overt translation: ………

………

5 Instrumental translation: ………

………

6 Documentary translation: ………

………

Task 12: Read the statements and decide if they are TRUE or FALSE

1 If you have a good knowledge of two languages, you can translate well

2 Translators cannot be replaced by computers

3 Translators just need good dictionaries or reference documents

4 Translation and interpreting are totally different

5 I know Portuguese and Finnish, so I can translate those languages well

6 Translation has existed longer than interpretation

7 Semantic translation means rendering the message that is as close as possible to that of the target text

8 Translation means a change in form and meaning

9 Translators/Interpreters don’t have to respect their clients’ right to privacy and confidentiality

10 Criteria for a professional translator are knowledge competence and linguistic competence

11 Translation is the process of conveying messages across linguistic barriers

12 The adaptation of the book “Harry Potter” into movie is termed Translation proper

13 Slogan is an example of covert translation

14 Documentary translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as closely as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original

CHAPTER 2: TRANSLATION THEORIES

I Rationale for Translation studies

The study of translation as an academic subject began in the second half of the twentieth century In the English-speaking world, this discipline is now generally known as “translation studies”, thanks to the Dutch-based scholar James S Holmes (1924–1986) There are four reasons explaining why translation studies has become more prominent

First, there has been a vast expansion in specialized translating and interpreting programs at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels These programs are mainly oriented towards training future professional commercial translators and interpreters and serve as highly valued entry-level qualifications for the professions Take the example of 2010, the keyword search “translation” revealed over twenty institutions offering a combined total of 143 MA programs These may include MAs in applied translation studies, scientific and technical translation, conference and bilateral interpreting, audiovisual translation, sign interpretation, etc

Second, there have been various conferences, books and journals on translation in many

languages Longer-standing international translation studies journals such as Babel (the Netherlands) and Meta (Canada), The Translator (UK) in 1995, etc can be accessed online freely There are also

various professional publications dedicated to the practice of translation

Third, the number of international publications has increased, so has the demand for general and analytical instruments such as anthologies, databases, encyclopedias, and handbooks Their

number is ever-growing Among these are Translation Studies (Bassnett 1980), Contemporary Translation Theories (Gentzler, 2001), Introducing Translation Studies (Munday, 2008), etc

Fourth, international organizations have also prospered In more recent years, translation studies scholars have banded together nationally and internationally in bodies such as the Canadian Association for Translation Studies (CATS, founded in Ottawa in 1987), the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST, Cardiff, 1995), the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association (ATISA, Kent, OH, 2002) and the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies As a result, international conferences on a wide variety of themes are held in an increasing number of countries, leading to the development of translation studies

To sum up, from being a relatively quiet backwater in the early 1980s, translation studies has now become one of the most active and dynamic new areas of research encompassing an exciting mix

of approaches

(Adapted from www.routledgetranslationstudiesportal.com)

II Descriptive translation studies (DTS) of Holmes

Holmes draws attention to the limitations imposed at the time for this translation studies, and puts forward an overall framework describing what translation studies covers This framework was subsequently presented by the leading Israeli scholar Gideon Toury as in the Figure below

Figure 2-1: Holme’s map of Translation studies

1 The descriptive branch of “Pure” research in Holmes‘s map is known as Descriptive translation studies (DTS) It examines: (1) the product; (2) the function; and (3) the process

- Product-oriented DTS involves the description or analysis of a single ST–TT pair or a comparative analysis of several TTs of the same ST These smaller-scale studies can build up into

a larger body of translation analysis looking at a specific period, language or text/discourse type Examples would be translation in the twenty-first century, in the English-Vietnamese language pair, or of scientific reports

- Function-oriented DTS means the description of the function of translations in the recipient

sociocultural situations For example, the study of the translation and reception of Shakespeare into European languages, or the subtitling of contemporary cartoon films into Arabic Nowadays

it would probably be called the sociology and historiography of translation

- Process-oriented DTS is concerned with the psychology of translation, i.e what happens in the

mind of a translator Work from a cognitive perspective includes think-aloud protocols (where

recordings are made of translators‘verbalization of the translation process as they translate) More

recent research using new technologies such as eye-tracking shows how this area is now being

more systematically analyzed

2 As regards Partial theories of translation, there are some basic terms:

- Medium-restricted DTS subdivide according to translation by medium E.g.: automatic machine

translation, computer-assisted translation, consecutive or simultaneous interpretation

- Area-restricted DTS are restricted to specific languages, groups of languages, or cultures

Language-restricted theories (e.g for the Japanese-English pair) are closely related to work in contrastive linguistics and stylistics

- Rank-restricted DTS have been restricted to a level of the words or sentences

- Text-type restricted DTS look at discourse types and genres E.g.: literary, business and technical

translation

- Time-restricted DTS refer to theories and translations limited according to specific time frames

and periods E.g.: The history of translation in Vietnam

- Problem-restricted DTS refer to certain problems E.g.: Non-equivalence between Vietnamese

and English language

3 The ”Applied‘ branch of Holmes‘s framework concerns applications to the practice of translation:

- Translator training: teaching methods, testing techniques, curriculum design

- Translation aids: dictionaries, grammars, IT applications

- Translation criticism: the evaluation of translations, including the marking of student

translations and the reviews of published translations

(Adapted from “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies” of James S Holmes)

Task 1: Answer the following questions

1 Who was the first person that raised the notion of “Translation studies as a discipline”?

2 List three reasons which make Translation studies more prominent in the contemporary time

3 List 3 famous translation works from other languages into Vietnamese

4 List three translational categories of James Holmes’ theory

5 What are the three branches of Applied translation studies (DTS) in Holmes‘framework? Give 2 examples of each

6 What are the five branches of Partial theories of translation studies in Holmes‘framework? Give 2 examples of each

7 Which of the following is an advantage of Descriptive translation studies?

A It is systematic and allows different studies to be compared

B It provides a replicable framework for research

C It helps to evaluate the quality of a TT

D It is used to assess the quality of a translation

III Historical background of Translation studies

1 Ancient time

Two of the first translation theorists were Cicero and Horace Cicero was a Roman philosopher

who translated Greek philosophical works into Latin He was of the view that translations should capture the essence of the original ( “sense for sense” rendition) rather than ‘word for word’

translation The other major figure is Horace, the great Roman poet He stated translation was a mean

of enriching language and literature He, like Cicero, did not believe in exact rendering of words into the other language

It should be remembered that most of the educated Romans knew Greek, so translation from

Greek into Latin was for those who appreciated the beauty of Latin language There was no need to translate word for word It was enough if they were able to reproduce the spirit of the original SL work It also worth noting that in this period a certain license in translation was acceptable

2 The Medieval time

As Christianity flourished, it became necessary to translate the Bible which was originally in Hebrew into other languages For example, Wycliffe’s Bible was written in simple English so that it could be understood by ordinary people William Tyndale was another figure who translated the Bible into Greek These translations strengthened the English language and weakened the position of Latin

as a superior language In fact, the Bible translations were considered a defiance of the clergy who believed that the right to understand and interpret the Bible rested only with them The clergy believed

it was a sin to interfere with the word of God Consequently, John Wycliffe was the person who had

to face the extreme punishment of burning for his English translation of the Bible Other translators were also persecuted by the church

Besides these religious exercises, secular translations helped in the formation and standardization of the English language One major figure was King Alfred the Great of Wessex Alfred is primarily remembered for upholding the pride of Anglo-Saxons and resisting the attacks of the invading Viking tribes After consolidating his triumphs and establishing a stable kingdom, Alfred realized that his kingdom did not have much to boast about in terms of culture and literature Therefore, he launched a project of translations of classical works into Old English These translations had a specific mission to educate ordinary people in morals and to familiarize them with the culture

of other languages Alfred himself was a translator, and the chief of his works were the Roman

Christian philosopher Boethius’s Consolations of Philosophy and St Augustine’s Soliloquies These

works acted like handbooks in moral philosophy, contributing to the evolution of English They also instilled the pride of Englishness and the English language in his people

On the whole, the translation at this time had to be faithful to the original and the message had to be accurate Translations thus had moral and didactic purposes, as different from the classical

times when it was seen as part of the study of rhetoric and aesthetics

3 The sixteenth century - Elizabethan age

The Elizabethan age played a significant role in the development of English There were many sea voyages being undertaken to parts of the globe and translations from other languages into English

became more popular It should be noted that these translations were undertaken without much concern about fidelity to the original The translations were mostly from another translation of the

original, with the result that they were more of recreations of the original One example is Sir Thomas

North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (1579) North did not know

Latin and translated Plutarch’s work from French Plutarch was a Roman historian who had written biographies of famous Greek and Roman men This translation became an important source book for Shakespeare when he wrote his historic plays like Julius Caesar

One of the first person to come up with a theoretical framework for translation was a

Frenchman called Etienne Dolet In 1540, he wrote a book called How to Translate Well from One Language into Another with 5 principles on which the translator should operate:

1 The translator should understand the SL text and be able to capture its sense

2 The translator should be competent in both the SL and TL

3 The translator should not be literal in translation

4 The translator should use common idiomatic language

5 The translator should reproduce the correct tone of the original by a careful use of words

 Dolet’s principles reveal a change in attitude to translation He emphasizes that the translator should be able to capture the tone of the original text where the translator has to be sensitive to the

cultural differences too Dolet’s views on translation were considered to be valid by his contemporaries and are taken seriously by translation theorists today

4 The seventeenth century

The 17th century emphasised on order and reasoning The major translators of this age are John Denham, Alexander Pope, and John Dryden John Denham believed that the task of the translator was

to extract the essence of the SL text and reproduce it with maximum effect in the TL He believed that

the translator could take a few liberties in the process Alexander Pope asserted that translators had a moral duty to the readers, namely of conveying the spirit of the original texts Thus, he believed that

it is alright to add to a text if it does not harm its spirit

However, the main figure in this time is John Dryden who was an influential critic and poet

He outlined three basic methods of translation:

1 Metaphrase: Word for word translation

2 Paraphrase: Sense for sense (figurative) translation

3 Imitation: This is like adaptation where the SL text is set aside and recreated in the TL

Dryden personally preferred the paraphrase method which was the middle path between the other two He also had a set of criteria to evaluate the skills of a translator/interpreter The translator had a moral duty both to his/her original and also to the reader to capture the spirit of the SL text We

find the notion of the ‘master writer’ and ‘servant translator’ beginning to emerge at this time

5 The eighteenth century

The concept of translation as a painting and the translator as an imitator are more important

in the 18th century, believing that a translator should be like a painter who depicted the original with loyalty

The 18th century also saw the first book on translation theory in English, Alexander Fraser

Tytler’s The Principles of Translation published in 1741 He believed that the translator should

capture “the soul and the body” of the original texts By the 17 th and 18 th century translator/interpreter was expected to be an expert in the SL and its culture Translation was seen as secondary and expected

to convey the SL text fairly accurately

6 The Romantic age - late eighteenth century

The Romantic Age, in which Imagination became important in creativity, saw a change in

attitudes to translation Creativity was valued very much and translation that did not require that much

of creativity was seen as a secondary activity that derived from the primary act of writing poetry The

poet Shelley was of this view However, there was a lot of translation activity going on during this period German authors like Goethe were translated into English and English writers like Walter Scott and Lord Byron were translated into French and Italian

In this context we should remember the German philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher (17681834) who was of the view that translations should use a language that retains the “foreignness” of

the original so that readers could get a taste of the original work Schleiermacher’s model is a much discussed one in translation theory today

7 The early nineteenth century

The early nineteenth century believed that the purpose of translation was to bring the readers

close to the original, so the translators had to be completely faithful to the original and should not allow themselves to be carried away by personal interpretations For example, Longfellow who

translated Dante’s Divine Comedy and Rubaiyaat said: “The business of a translator is to report what

the author says, not to explain what he means; that is the work of the commentator” Another example

is William Morris, a poet He believed that translations should capture all the peculiarities and

‘foreignness’ of the original and pass them on to the readers His translations of Homer, therefore, are difficult to read because they attempted to convey the archaic nature of the texts that he was translating But they were very highly regarded by critics and readers of that time

8 The late nineteenth century (colonial time) to the present

The spread of colonialism drew the world together and discovered unknown languages and

literatures There were two opposite viewpoints on translation one thought that it was alright to take

liberties and the other viewed that translators had to be faithful to the original work On one hand, many translations had a lot of archaisms in it, sometimes the effect was very far from that of the original For instance, the American poetic movement called Imagism drew inspiration from classical

Chinese and Japanese poetry an example being the American poet Ezra Pound His work Cathay

was a translation of Chinese poetry Although these translations were like a ‘discovery’ of the east by the west, it often presented a distorted version of the original The Japanese poetic form of ‘haiku’ was also the source for many Imagists who emphasized images rather than drawn out poetic language

On the other hands, there were many writers and translators who saw translation as a secondary activity for scientific and economic purposes to penetrate into the multidimensional world, which does not require much of creativity These two viewpoints have still been in debate up to now, and the major concerns about the autonomy of the text and translators have still existed

Translation Studies as a discipline started emerging in the second half of the 20th century,

when Catford’s book published in 1965 set the stage for translation studies as a discipline in England Today Translation was no longer seen as a secondary activity but it is a discipline itself, drawing from

various fields of study It should also be noted that the theoretical framework of translation studies is connected to the practice of translation The theory of translation studies is informed by the experiences of translation and this makes the area vibrant and alive

As for machine translation, efficient though they may be, computers can never really understand language in all its nuances and subtle variations Languages are the living expressions of cultures, of social settings, traditions and the history of the peoples who speak them, a reflection of the characters and moods of the writers/speakers, their social backgrounds, and their intentions Only the brain of a human translator is fit enough to fully grasp the multi-faceted manifestations of the combinations of these characteristics in a foreign tongue in the respective context and render them correctly Hence, the use of machine translation is still limited to a certain extent

Task 2: Choose the best answer for each question

1 Who were the two outstanding representatives of translation in the Ancient Roman time?

A Cicero & Horace

B John Wycliffe & Cicero

C John Wycliffe & William Tyndale

2 What kind of translation was used in the Ancient Roman time?

A Sense-for-sense B Free translation C Word-for-word

3 Which statement is CORRECT about translation at Ancient Roman time?

A They translated for aesthetic purpose only

B They translated into Latin from Greek

C Translators were highly appreciated

4 In translation theory, what was the contribution of Cicero?

A He consolidated the word-for-word translation method popular in Ancient Rome

B He translated the speeches of Greek orators in a word-for-word fashion

C He translated the speeches of Greek orators through creative imitation

D He strictly followed the word-for-word translation

5 What kind of translation was mainly used for the Bible in the Medieval time?

A Sense-for-sense B Free translation C Word-for-word

6 What happened to those who tried to translate the Bible in the Medieval time?

A They were respected by clergy

B They were punished and burnt to death

C They were free to do what they liked

7 What is another name of the sixteenth century?

A The Medieval time B The Romantic age C The Elizabethan age

8 What work was created in the Elizabethan age?

A Odyssey and Iliad

B Montaigne

C How to Translate Well from One Language into Another

9 Who was the author of the “How to Translate Well from One Language into Another”?

A George Chapman B Sir Thomas North C Etienne Dolet

10 Who raised the idea that a “translator should be able to capture the tone of the original text where the translator has to be sensitive to the cultural differences too”?

A Etienne Dolet B Alexander Pope C Alexander Fraser Tytler

11 What CANNOT be assumed about the 17th century?

A This era emphasized on order and reason

B The main figure of this time was Sir John Denham

C John Dryden outlined three basic methods of translation

12 Which of the following is the most important point of Tytler’s “laws of translation”?

A Accuracy to the source text content

B Preservation of the author’s way of writing

C Naturalness of target language expression

13 What does it mean “paraphrase” by John Dryden?

A Word-for-word B Sense-for-sense C Free translation

14 is translating an author word-by-word and line-by-line from one language to another

15 At what time did the notion of “foreignness” first appear?

A The early 18th century B the late 18th century C the 19th century

16 At what time emerged the idea that “a translator should be like a painter who depicted the original with loyalty”?

A the 17th century B the 18th century C the 19th century

17 Which statement is CORRECT about the colonial time?

A There were two diametrically opposite viewpoints on translation

B The translators had to be completely faithful to the original

C The translation could not have any archaisms in it

18 What could be assumed about the Translation Studies today?

A How to translate a work literally or figuratively is still in debate

B Many scholars still do not consider Translation Studies as a discipline

C Translation should be considered as a secondary activity

19 in translation is being faithful and accurate to the SL text

20 Which statement is CORRECT about the translation studies in the 20th century?

A There is still a debate between faithfulness and creativity in translation

B Machine translation will soon substitute human beings

C Translation is still considered as a secondary activity

IV Early theories of translation studies

1 Formalism (Hình th c lu n)

Formalism refers to an early 20th-century literary movement in Russia whose theoreticians believed that a literary text has to be considered by itself based on its structural aspects of language and grammar without the preoccupations with the intrinsic meaning or deep structure of a text They also subscribed to the concept of “defamiliarization” - which is the ability to make even the most

ordinary things new by special use of language They believed that the literary quality of a text is determined by the language it uses Early translation theorists also believed in defamiliarization in that they did not take efforts to smoothen the translation by catering to TL readers They also asserted that translators could arrive at the meaning of a text if they had a purpose clearly outlined This theory appears naive and uninformed today, but it still is the guiding principle for most translators who believe that their task is to communicate meaning from one language to another and that it can be done, provided one understood what the “real” meaning of that text is

2 Czech and Slovak influence

Jirí Levý and Anton Popovic could be seen as two scholars who provided the link between the early and later phases of translation theory Jirí Levý (1926 – 1967) was a Czech theorist who is

primarily known for his work Literary Translation published in 1963 He was influenced by the

principles of Russian Formalism, but he went beyond them He believed that the translation should succeed in producing the same effect in its receptor language culture as the SL text had in its own Language was seen as a code that followed certain rules Levy's concept of translation involved not just superficial code-changing but also interpretation However, his focus was more on surface structure of language like stylistic features than meaning In his concept of translation, the literary components could be isolated and recoded in another language system This by itself is not a problem

in a monolingual situation, but this acquires another dimension in the context of translation The meaning that is constituted by one language need not be the same when it is transcribed in another language The translated text thus becomes unstable; it is not a unified work, but one that is full of tension and contradictions because the content is intertextually constructed

Popovic (1933 – 1984), a Slovak theorist, is known for the concept of “shifts” in translation

theories His perspective was more comprehensive in that he acknowledged the losses and gains that

inhered in the translation process and analyzed the changes that occurred in the translated text Popovic was of the view that shifts occur because of cultural and linguistic differences The translators had to make compromises in translation to recapture something of the original in the translated text These shifts have to be analyzed for they tell a lot about the SL text as well as the translator and the

process of translation His theory, in addition to the focus on structural aspects, also had a cultural dimension to it

The drawback of the theories of Levý and Popovic was this emphasis on structure rather than content These theories might work well with modernist texts in which language plays a major role, but they might be inadequate to deal with older texts where language and linguistic elements alone did not make a work of art Moreover, the emphasis on form rather than content could lead the way

to a complete dissociation of the text from its socio-cultural aspects and thus lead to its consideration

as an autonomous entity without reference to an external reality

3 André Lefevere

Lefevere's Translating Poetry: Seven Strategies and a Blueprint published in 1975 showed a

pragmatic approach to the issue of translation He described seven different methods of translation:

1 Phonemic translation: It tries to reproduce the sound of the SL in the TL, simultaneously

attempting to capture the sense This is effective in translating onomatopoeic words but can often become very awkward as the meaning gets lost in the process

2 Literal translation: Word-for-word translation that might distort the meaning as well as the

stylistic aspects of the original

3 Metrical translation: Translation in which there is an attempt at metrical reproduction Like

literal translation, concentrating on the metre might result in distortion of sense and the overall qualities of the text as a whole

4 Poetry into prose: This can capture the sense, but the poetic qualities tend to get lost

5 Rhymed translation: The translation tries to retain the rhyme scheme and metre of the original

This can end up in very clumsy translation that does no justice to the source text

6 Blank verse translation: The restrictions imposed by metre can distort the text But Lefevere also

notes that this translation can achieve greater degree of accuracy

7 Interpretation: Lefevere discusses versions and imitations under this head Versions are those in

which the substance of the SL text is retained and the form is changed Imitation is that in which the translator produces a poem that is only marginally related to the SL text Both are receptor- friendly texts but they acquire that quality at the expense of the original text

Lefevere preferred a translation that would impact the readers like the original with the SL readers He believed that the translator's task is precisely to render the source text, the original author's interpretation of a given theme expressed in a number of variations, accessible to readers not familiar with these variations, by replacing the original author's variation with their equivalents in a different language, time place and tradition

4 Susan Bassnett

Susan Bassnett's Translation Studies published in 1980 demonstrates the reception of the early

scholars of the field The book was and still is one of the best introductory works on the topic Bassnett seems to agree with two concepts of the early theorists:

- There is no single correct way of translating a text

- The translation has to be based on the comparison of the SL text's function or purpose in its own context and the receptor-language context

Her approach is somewhat similar to the Russian Formalist concepts She broadened the reader's concept about what a translation should be, but she essentially seemed to accept the Formalist idea of defamiliarization by which a translator could adopt foreign' terms and usages to preserve the impact of the original She is also one of the earliest theorists to have taken to the cultural turn in Translation Studies, along with Lefevere

5 Evaluation of Early theories

Despite differences in approach, all of them were of the view that the translated text must be studied with reference to the source text in terms of similarities and differences They tried to come

up with objective criteria to analyze the translation process Their approach was a combination of the synchronic and diachronic approaches in that it studied the text in itself and also looked at the intertextual and socio-cultural aspects of the text This demanded a lot of capability from the individual translator and led to the collaboration of effort that we see in the field of translation studies today Scholars from various fields like linguistics, literature and socio-cultural theory are active in the effort to evolve a systematic approach to the field

From this phase onwards, translation theory is more focused on the process of translation and

we see a host of disparate fields coming together Before this phase, writings on translation were described as “intuitive” or they believed in the intuition of the translator to come up with an adequate translation However, the emergence of scholars like Lefevere and Holmes demanded a more systematic approach to translation The cultural aspect that has been factored into translation studies today can also be traced back to these early scholars

V Contemporary theories in translation studies

1 Linguistic approach

According to linguistic approach, any translation should be considered from the point of view

of its fundamental units; that is, the words, the syntactic structure and the sentences Thus, scholars

who are concerned with this approach try to translate from one language to the other in order to reproduce in the target language a message that is equivalent to that of the source text One example

is the work of Vinay and Dabel, who classified the translation techniques into 7 small subsets (see

Chapter 3) The linguistic approach also introduced the notion of equivalence which sees the source

text as what determines the nature of the target text

One major shortcoming of linguistic theory is that they do not pay much attention to the contribution of the context to the understanding of the whole message or text Studies conducted

within a linguistic-based approach to translation concentrated on the systematic relations between units of the language systems, but often abstracted from aspects of their contextual use A chosen TL-form may well be correct according to the rules of the language system, but this does not mean that the text appropriately fulfils its communicative function in the TL situation and culture

E.g.: Th ng bé trông “th y ghét” ch a kìa! How damned the baby looks! (not appropriate in terms

of cultural context)

2 The hermeneutic approach

Hermeneutics can be defined as the science and methodology of interpreting texts The

hermeneutic approach is mainly based on the work of George Steiner, who believes that any human

communication is a translation In his book entitled “After Babel” (1975), Steiner explains that

translation is not a science but an “exact art” He stated that a true translator should be capable of becoming a writer in order to capture what the author of the original text “means to say.” The writer

may be an editor and that he may have used sources so that he could integrate subjectivity, corporeality and creativity during the translation process As a result, it can create an ideal translational practice which focuses on translating meanings, not words

George Steiner suggested three things should be taken First, translators must take into account the writer's purpose as well as the culture Secondly, one must consider the narrator in the writing who

is usually different from the writer Sometimes he is a real person, sometimes fictional One must determine his purpose in speaking and his cultural milieu, taking into consideration the fact that he may be omnipresent and omniscient One must also take into consideration the narratee within the story and how he hears One must reckon with the person or persons to whom the writing is addressed; the reader, not always the same as the one to whom the writing is addressed; and later readers Thirdly,

one must consider the setting of writing, the genre (whether poetry, narrative, prophecy, etc.), the figures of speech; the devices used, and, finally, the plot

In conclusion, modern ideas on hermeneutics hold that that understanding and interpreting the meaning of a source text involves actually three factors: the author, the text (or speech) and the receptor A proper understanding of these three factors is the first and foremost step of any translation and must all be counted in so that meaning is best determined and a perfect piece of translation is produced

3 The sociolinguistic approach and Gideon Toury’s theory

a) The sociolinguistic approach

According to the sociolinguistic approach, the social context defines what is and is not translatable, and what is or is not acceptable through selection, filtering and even censorship Scholars who favour this approach focus on setting up prototypes of genres, trying to identify parallel texts across languages and cultures by doing a systematic comparison of genres in both the source culture and the target culture (Schaeffner, 2001) This enables translators to adapt the text to the conventions

of the target culture Thus, scholars believe that a translation goes beyond language to cultural considerations This approach is associated with the School of Tel Aviv and figures such as Annie Brisset and Guideon Toury

E.g.: N m 1750, ông đ c th ng ch c Th ng Th B L i In 1750, he was promoted to be

Thuong Thu Bo Lai – equal to the position of a Minister of Home Affairs

b) Gideon Toury’s theory

Toury believed that translations were somewhere in the middle between two opposing poles – that of complete equivalence or correspondence with the source text, and of complete acceptability in the target language He maintained that no translation can ever be completely acceptable in a receptor culture as it will have many new elements that cannot easily be assimilated The converse is also true that no translation can ever be completely true to the source language as it will be governed by different cultural norms

c) Toury's Concept of Translation Norms

Norms can defined as a system of interrelated factors including linguistic-cultural- historical rules that determine translation products These norms derive from both the source language and target language perspectives Toury focused on the actual relationships between the source text and the translation According to him, there will be a set of multiple norms in any society at a particular period

in time This means that there might be some different translations of the same text in different time periods in the same culture

d) Three Kinds of Norms

- Preliminary norms are those which influence the translation strategy, for example: those factors

that govern the choice of text types; the directness of translation, to what extent the audience of the target language can tolerate These are the preliminary norms in the process of translation, and lie outside the personal preference of the translator

- Initial norms are the personal decisions that translators have to make with respect to translation

strategy For instance, should translators remain close to the source text or should they be more loyal to the target language?

- Operational norms are those rules directing the decisions made during the act of translation This

is influenced by the position occupied by the translated text in the target culture

e) Contributions of Toury’s theory

Toury's theory has contributed to translation studies in many ways His theories brought in socio-cultural factors that were largely ignored in the process of translation The biggest advantage of Toury's theory was that translation is considered an empirical activity undertaken in the real world, and that translators are people driven by their ideology in their choice of translations Translation then becomes an activity that spreads beyond the purely linguistic and literary realms with far-reaching implications in the actual world

4 Eugene Nida’s theory

The journey of Translation Studies towards a more scientific and systematic methodology was pioneered by Eugene Nida, an influential force in the field of translation theory in the U.S Nida in his

essay “Theories of Translation” outlined four major perspectives in translation theory, and these

categories are not always antagonistic but complementary and supplementary

a) Philological Perspective

It is concerned about the accuracy of translations and the “faithfulness' to the SL text This became a primary focus especially in the case of Bible translations Nida says that practitioners of this approach realized the narrowness of its focus and acknowledged that other linguistic and cultural aspects need to be factored into the process of translation

b) Linguistic Perspective

This focuses on finding the equivalence by means of linguistic elements such as rules of grammar, content, meaning, etc It is also valuable for computer-aided machine translation This encouraged interest in the ordinary use of language and helped to avoid a naive belief in the reliability

of natural language

c) Communicative Perspective

Nida points out that an understanding of the ways in which language is used in interpersonal relationships in any given society is crucial to the act of translation Emphasis on the communicative aspects would also mean that the translator is primarily concerned about the translatability of languages The functions of language (informative, expressive, imperative, and cognitive) have great influence on translation In this context Nida points out how, contrary to popular perception, the informative function is perhaps the least important of all functions of language According to Nida, the minimal requirement for adequacy of a translation would be that the receptor language readers are made aware of the emotional and cognitive responses of the source language readers to the text Maximal requirement would be that the responses of the receptor language readers are similar to those

of the source language ones

d) Sociosemiotic perspective

This perspective views communication as an act that involves numerous codes embedded in the socio-cultural context and communication will be influenced by all these factors For example, the impact of a verbal message is not that of words alone, but of extralinguistic and paralinguistic aspects like the background of the speaker, his/her sincerity, knowledge and expertise etc Here, Ttranslation that takes all these factors into account will be sensitive to source and receptor socio-lingual codes

Nida outlines the advantages of the sociosemiotic approach:

- It perceives language as the offshoot of a host of socio-cultural factors and hence rooted in the everyday world of reality, rather than in an ideal speaker community

- It can be verbally creative as its focus is on actually spoken language; it is not bound by reductive rules of language

- It does not conceive of language as a rigid system with clear cut boundaries and a well established meaning underlying it It acknowledges the malleability of language and the indeterminacy of meaning

- It takes into account the interdisciplinary nature of codes, which tends to expand the boundaries

of translation activity

a) Contributions of Nida s theory

Nida is one of the many influential translation theorists He gave a theoretical and scientific bent to translation that was thought to be a secondary and derivative activity in the U.S Nida has made valuable contribution to translation theory He helped to focus attention on the socio-cultural contexts of language and literary texts His concepts of formal and dynamic equivalence remain useful and relevant even today However, he does not trust his readers to understand the text by themselves

and polishes it according to his tastes The result is a text that is doctored to avoid the inherent ambiguities and instabilities of all literary works In other words, Nida provides an excellent model for translation for a manipulative purpose (like the translation of the Bible) but that his theory fails to become a science

5 The literary approach and polysystem theory

In the 1970s, the literary approach to translation theory emerged, partly as a response to the linguistic theories According to the literary approach, a translation should not be considered a linguistic endeavor but a literary one Language has an “energy”: this is manifested through words, which are the result of experiencing a culture This change is what gives translation strength and ultimately, meaning: this is what the translation-writer should translate

Key elements of this new literary approach are the writings of the Manipulation School;

systems theories; and Gideon Toury’s Descriptive translation studies (DTS), which tries to identify

laws in translation At the Leuven Conference in 1976, Even-Zohar presented a paper entitled “The Position of Translated Literature in the Literary Polysystem” where he considers the position of translated literature within the literary, cultural and historical contexts of the target culture He does not advocate the study of individual translations but rather views the body of translated works as a system working within and reacting to a literary system, which, in turn, is working within and reacting to the historical, social and cultural systems of the particular target audience Therefore, the notion of polysystem emerged

a) Polysystem theory (thuy t đa h th ng)

This theory views translations from a more comprehensive perspective by locating them within the context of the literature and of the receptor language System in this context means a total combination of all literary traditions, genres, social conventions, prejudices, and even a literary work, etc A literary work is not studied in isolation but as part of a literary system (social, cultural, literary and historical framework), and a translated literature which is being imported to a country can influence the native writings

b) The position of translation and its influence on receptor culture

The literature of every country consists of “original” writings and “translated” writing Each

of these kinds can occupy the central position (primary position) or peripheral one (secondary position) in the literary system of a country Moreover, different literatures and genres, including translated and non-translated works, compete for dominance Therefore, translated literature not only

is as an integral system within any literary system, but as a most active system within it

- The primary position

There are three situations in which translated literature would maintain a primary position: (a) When an emerging literature from a relatively new culture adopts translations from more established literatures in order to fill the gaps within its own system, due to it being unable to instantly create a wide range of text types and genres Translated literature introduces features and techniques that did not previously exist, such as new poetic structures

(b) When a smaller nation is dominated by the culture of a larger nation, it may rely on imported literature from the dominant culture in order to keep its literary system dynamic, as well as being possibly the only source available for the creation of new genres For example, the influence of Tang poetry (Th ng lu t) on Vietnamese poetic system

(c) When there are turning points in literary history, such as when established forms lose popularity

or when there is no existing model This could conceivably be the role that Harry Potter occupies in Chinese Mandarin

In the first two cases translations play an important part because the language/literature is inadequate to express a wide range of experiences in the contemporary world Translations can also bring in a whole new set of literary genres that are nonexistent in the literature of that language Even-Zohar believed that this is true of translations into a language like Hebrew Here translated works were not only sources of new ideas, but also the works to which the creative writers in that language looked

up to

- The secondary position

This case happens when translation occupies a secondary position in strong literary traditions like English or French In such situations, there has already existed norms and translations tend to follow them rather than set a pattern of their own This is because the receptor culture is strong enough

to have well-developed traditions of literature and would not welcome new norms The translation will thus adjust to the receptor culture and not vice versa

In short, translations that occupy primary position will try to retain the flavor of the original and will emphasize their faithfulness to the original Translations that are considered secondary, on the other hand, will be eager to please the receptor culture and cannot afford to be like the original It will have to be “smoothed over” by making it more like the receptor culture As a result, they will not

be faithful to the original

c) Contributions of Polysystem theory

Polysystem theory is important because it moves translation away from the traditional ST-TT linguistic comparisons of shift and equivalence towards the viewing of translation in a social, cultural

and historical context There is also a change from the study of individual texts as a systemic approach which tries to uncover the universal laws and principles that govern translation It is also quite significant because it can be applied to other systems besides strictly literary systems (e.g television programming and politics)

d) Shortcomings of Polysystem theory

Polysystem theory has been criticised on a number of issues:

- The universal laws are too abstract, and little thought has been given to limitations placed on translation and texts

- Translating literature generally occupies a role of secondary importance in the target culture because

“it downplays their creative and formative aspect” (Hermans, 1999, p.154) Translated literature also remains a separate entity within the target culture

- It doesn’t provide concrete evidence, doesn’t venture into specifics, or offer functioning examples No mention is made of the concept of overt and covert translations

6 The functionalist approach and Skopos theory

a) The functionalist approach

The second half of the 20th century witnessed some paradigm shift in translation studies, especially with the publication in German of Katharina Reiss and Hans Vermeer’s Foundation for a General Theory of Translation and Justa Holz-Manttari’s Translatorial Action: Theory and Method, both in 1984 These works set the pace for what is later known as functionalist approach to translation, which sees translation as “a communicative action carried out by an expert in intercultural communication (the translator), playing the role of a text producer and aiming at some communicative purpose” (Nord, 2001, p.151)

Quite a good number of translation scholars subscribe to functionalism like Vermeer (1978); Reiss and Vermeer (1984); Nord (1997), etc Functionalists believe that a text can be intended for a variety of functions, and the function of a text in the target culture determines the method of translation According to Jakobson (1960), there are four basic textual functions:

(a) Referential function (i.e reference to objects and phenomena of the world) Some

subfunctions: informative function (object: e.g a traffic accident), metalinguistic function (object: e.g a particular use of language), instructive function (object: e.g the correct way of handling a washing machine), teaching function (object: e.g Geography) etc

(b) Expressive function (i.e expression of the sender's attitude or feelings towards the objects and

phenomena) Some subfunctions: emotive function (expression of feelings, e.g in interjections), evaluative function (.g in a political commentary)

(c) Appellative function (i.e appealing to the recipients’ experience, feelings, knowledge, sensitivity etc in order to induce them to react in a specific way) Some subfunctions: illustrative function (intended reaction: recognition of something known), persuasive function (intended reaction: adopt the sender's viewpoint), imperative function (intended reaction: do what the sender is asking for), pedagogical function (intended reaction: learn certain forms of behaviour), advertising function (intended reaction: buy the product)

(d) Phatic function (i.e establishing, maintaining or finishing social contact) Some subfunctions:

salutational function, “small talk” function, “peg” function (e.g text introductions)

The essence of the functionalist concept of translation which was first brought forward by Hans Vermeer in 1978 under the label of “Skopstheorie”

b) Shortcomings of functionalist approach

The functionalist approach has received a lot of criticisms, especially from scholars of the linguistic-based approaches Critics of Skopos theory argue that not all target texts based on a source text can be called translations, that Skopos theory makes no distinction between a real translation and adaptation or non-translation One other controversy surrounding functionalism is the myriad of terminologies introduced and used differently Indeed many of these criticisms still go on to this day However, despite the various controversies surrounding the development and thrust of functionalist approaches, their contributions to the study of translation are remarkable

c) Contributions of functionalist approach

One major contribution of this approach is that it addresses the “eternal dilemmas of free vs faithful translations, dynamic vs formal equivalence, good translators vs slavish translators, and so

on” Thus, a translation may be free of faithful depending on its purposes Translators no longer have

to go back to the source text to solve translational problems, rather they base their translation on the function of the text in the target culture

Functionalist approach also liberates translation from theories that impose linguistic rules upon every translational decision Theorists recognise that the translation process involves more than languages involved and requires the consideration of extra-textual and extra-linguistic factors They look forward to the function of the text in the target culture as the major determining factor for how the translation is done Thus, they introduced the cultural dimension to translation studies

Functionalist approaches are also flexible and general enough to account for a wide range of translational situations (i.e cultures, subject domains, text types and genres) Interestingly, the consideration of extra-textual factors in the translational process accentuates the multidisciplinary nature of translation studies A text does not have a stable intrinsic meaning, but that meaning is

affected by the subjective translator as well as by the cultural, historical, ideological and historical circumstances surrounding the production of the text

In short, functional approach bridges the gap between theory and the practice of translation,

as it suggests practical ways of dealing with translational problems (see Chapter 4 and 5)

d) Skopos theory

Skopos is the Greek word for "aim" or "purpose" and was introduced by Hans J Vermeer According to Skopos theory, any translational action is intentional and purposeful Translators must know what they are doing, what the effect of a text created will be in the target culture and how much the effect will differ from that of the source text It then follows that the translation should be produced

to suit the purpose for which it is needed in the target culture

Three rules of the Skopos theory

1 The purposeful rule

It means translating in a way that enables the translation to function in the situation in which

it is used and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to function E.g: BMW" was an acronym for Bayerishe Motoren Werke (the German famous auto company's name) It has no meaning but shows the place where the car come from However, the translation of

it into Chinese language is, " " (b o m ), which " " means "precious" and " " means “horse” The reason for this translation is that it can reach the purpose of arousing the customers' association

of the swift horse and implies this kind of cars can go a long way with a high speed, thus facilitating the revenues of BMW

2 The coherence rule

This rule emphasizes that the translation must be adequately coherent to allow the intended users to comprehend it What the translator can do, and what he should do, is to produce a text that is

at least likely to be meaningful to target-culture receivers

E.g.: "Safeguard", a brand for soap and bathing lotion, means security and guardian It is transliterated as " " Here " " means "comfort", " " means "skin" and " ³" means "good quality" So this translation will leave the impression on people that this soap or lotion with good quality can bring comfort to the skin Furthermore, Chinese people will have a basic conception about what kind of product it is and understand it very well when they first saw the translation

3 The fidelity rule

The fidelity rule stresses that some relationship must remain between the target-text and source-text once the overriding principle of Skopos and the rule of coherence have been satisfied

E.g.: "Crown"(the trademark of a car) is translated literally into Chinese " ” whether it is in English or in Chinese "Crown" and " "both represent the superior social status The Chinese version can well express that the car is in good condition, the style is grand and the quality is first-rate It is faithful to its original meaning of the brand which is and will undoubtedly be accepted by the consumers in China just the same as in the original country

4 Contributions of Skopos theory

Skopos theory considers translation as a complicated interactive behavior According to the specific translation requirements such as the writer's intended aims and expectations as well as interactive needs of readers, etc translators/interpreters can determine any tactics, and does not have

to care about the equality of translated text to the original text, for which would weaken the interactive functions in the environment of target language Therefore, with the guide of translation purposes, the translators/interpreters can consider the relative factors comprehensively and then decide the most suitable methods and strategies "Translators can take any appropriate tactics in order to achieve different goals" (Yin Xiaohong, 2006:171) In short, this is a theory that could be applicable to the translation of every text since not only the linguistic aspect, but also the cultural ones would be taken into account

VI Further practice

Task 3: Answer the following questions

1 How many prominent theories of the Early Translation Studies are there? ………

2 Are the Early Translation Studies theorists mainly in favor of source oriented or target oriented translation?

text-3 What is INCORRECT about the Formalism theory?

A It appeared in the early 20th century

B A literary text has to be based on its structural aspects of language and grammar

C They believed in the concept of “defamiliarization”

D It is naive since it cannot communicate meaning from one language to another

4 Who are the Czech and Slovak theorists of the Early Translation Studies?

A Jirí Levý and Anton Popovic C James Holmes and Anton Popovic

B Lefevere and James Holmes d Lefevere and Susan Bassnett

5 What is CORRECT about Czech influence?

A Translation cannot produce the same effect in its receptor language culture as the SL text had

in its own

B It is superficially code-changing only in written translation

C His focus was more on surface structure of language than meaning

D His book Literary Translation was unknown by many scholars in this field

6 What can be inferred about Popovic?

A He was Czech

B He was known for the concept of “Shifts”

C He paid no attention to cultural aspects of the target language

D He was a modern translation theorist

7 What are the seven different translation methods of André Lefevere?

8 What are the three kinds of translation norms in Toury‘s concepts? Do you agree with his

concepts of norms? Why?

9 What are the 4 kinds of perspectives of Nida‘s theory? What are his contributions to Translation Studies?