Translation
The translation is the activity that consists of understanding the meaning of a text in one language, called “source text” or “output text”, to produce a text with an equivalent meaning, in another language, called translated text or “target text”. The result of this activity, the “translated text”, is also called a “translation”. When translation is done orally it is known as interpretation. The discipline that systematically studies the theory, description and application of translation and interpretation is called translation science.
While interpretation is undoubtedly older than writing, translation arose only after the appearance of written literature. There are partial translations of the Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2000 BC) into Near Eastern languages of the time.
Given the laboriousness of the translation process, since the 1940s attempts have been made to find ways to automate translation using machines (automatic translation) or by mechanically assisting the translator (computer-assisted translation). From all this dynamic has emerged the modern language industry, greatly facilitated by the rise of the Internet, which has created new genres of translation such as internationalization and localization.
Etymology
The term translation comes from the Latin traductĭo, -ōnis, “to make pass from one place to another”, and was first used by Robert Estienne in 1539. Leonardo Bruni had used the verb tradurre for this meaning as early as 1440. Classical Latin used to speak of translatio (translation), versio (version) or interpretatio (interpretation), although it is not entirely clear what the difference between them was. translation"), μετάθεσις (metáthesis, "transposition") and μετάφρασις (metaphrasis, "restatement"). Most modern European languages use some of these roots or similar constructions, such as the German übersetzen ("to go to the other shore"). In medieval Spanish, the term trujamán, of Arabic origin, used to refer to both the translator and the interpreter.
Definition
There have been many attempts to define "translation" throughout history, although they have increased enormously since the 1960s and the rise of translation science as an autonomous discipline. There are five main approaches that have followed one another when looking for a complete definition:
- Activity between languages: "to go from one language to one language B to express the same reality" (J. P. Vinay and J. Darbelnet), "to enter into another language what has been enunciated in a source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences" (García Yebra, V.).
- Activity between texts: "to transmit the meaning of the messages containing a text" (Seleskovitch and Lederer), "the substitution of a text in the starting language by a semantic and pragmatically equivalent text in the target language" (House).
- Communication act: “reproduce in the terminal language the message of the original language by means of the closest and most natural equivalent, first in terms of meaning, and then in terms of style” (Nida), “a communicative process that takes place in a social context” (Hatim and Mason).
- Process: "analize the expression of the original language text in terms of prenuclear prayers, transfer the original language prenuclear prayers into prenuclear sentences equivalent to term language and, finally, transform these term language structures into stylistically appropriate expressions" (Vázquez Ayora), "operation that consists in determining the significance of linguistic signs according to an intention of concretizing it in a message, and re-establishing it.
- Textual, communicative and cognitive activity: «an interpretative process consisting of the reformulation of a text with the means of a language that develops in a social context and with a particular purpose» (Hurtado Albir)
History
Translation is a very old activity. One of the first written evidence of translation is the Rossetta Stone, where the same text is found in hieroglyphic Egyptian, demotic Egyptian and Greek, which served to decipher the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
A significant part of the history of translation in the West has to do with the translation of Biblical texts. The first attested written translations were of the Bible, since as the Jews had not spoken the Hebrew language for a long time, it was lost and the Holy Scriptures had to be translated so that they could be understood by Jews who did not speak their original language. Ptolemy Philadelphus in the 3rd century B.C. C. had the Holy Scriptures translated from Hebrew to Koiné Greek by 72 wise men who were fluent in Hebrew and Greek. This version is known as the Alexandrian version, the 1970s version, or the Septuagint. Throughout the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. C. the Bible was intermittently translated from Greek to Latin. This set of texts is known as Vetus Latina. Saint Jerome produced the first systematic translation of the Bible into popular Latin: the Vulgate, which appeared around AD 384. C.
In the 9th and 10th centuries in Baghdad, the works of the ancient Greeks in the fields of science and philosophy were translated into Arabic. This learning spread across Europe through Spain, under Muslim rule from the early VIII century century for four hundred years, until the 15th century, when the Muslims were banished.
The School of Translators of Toledo, where translations from Arabic into Spanish and later into Latin were carried out, contributed to the scientific and technological development that allowed the advent of the European Renaissance. Throughout the Middle Ages, Latin was the lingua franca of the Western world. In the 9th century Alfred the Great, King of Wessex in England, was ahead of his time in translating into the vernacular of Bede's Ecclesiastical History and Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Meanwhile, the Christian Church frowned upon even partial adaptations of Saint Jerome's Vulgate of about 384, the standard Latin Bible. Later, at the time of the invention of movable type printing, Martin Luther translated the Bible into German.
The translation process
The translation process is the mental process by which it is possible to transmit a text formulated in a language, using the means of another language. Historically, three different processes have been distinguished: comprehension, deverbalization and re-expression. Some authors they include deverbalization as an internal process of comprehension, and therefore distinguish only two basic processes.
In the comprehension or analysis phase, the meaning of the original text is decoded, considering the field, mode and tenor and establishing the units of meaning (at the level of word, phrase or even one or more sentences). Up to this point, the translator functions in approximately the same way as the monolingual reader. In the deverbalization or semantic representation phase, The translator forms in his head a semantic map (of meanings) independent of the grammatical relationships of both the source language and the target language. In the reexpression or synthesis phase i> the semantic map is poured into the target language taking into account, in addition to the purely semantic features, the literary or textual genre, the context, the grammatical rules, the stylistic conventions, etc. Certain authors, such as Delisle or Bell, add one more phase to the translation when it is done exclusively in writing: verification or revi sion.
These phases are of a recursive nature and not necessarily successive, that is, the translator can once again unravel the meaning of the source text, once the meaning has been recoded in the translated language. Controlled processes take place in it and are not controlled, and that requires processes of identification and resolution of problems, application of strategies and decision-making.
Complexity of the process
Although this process might seem simple at first glance, a complex cognitive operation is hidden behind it. In order to decode the full meaning of the source text, the translator has to consciously and methodically interpret and analyze all its features. This process requires a deep knowledge of the grammar, semantics, syntax, and idioms or similar of the source language, as well as the culture of its speakers. The translator must also have this knowledge to recode the meaning in the translated language. In fact, these are usually more important and, therefore, deeper than those of the source language. Hence, most translators translate into their mother tongue. In addition, it is essential that translators know the area that is being treated. In some types of texts, untranslatability is not uncommon as a problem (case of several poems).
Translator competence
Contrary to what is commonly believed, mastering one or several foreign languages is not a sufficient condition to be able to translate at a professional level. Foreign languages are just one more of the necessary tools to be able to perform in translation. Translating means being able to understand the meaning and re-express it in another language effectively and free from the syntactic ties of the source language; it is far from being a mere substitution of one word for another.
Translator competence is the generic name given to a series of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to translate. These in turn can be subdivided into various sub-competences that the translator must acquire to translate effectively:
- Bilingual subcompetence: underlying systems of knowledge and skills necessary for communication in two languages. It is composed of pragmatic, sociolinguistic, textual and lexico-gramtical knowledge.
- Extralingual subcompetence: Knowledge about the world in general and certain particular areas. Integrated by knowledge of both cultures, encyclopedics and thematics.
- Subcompetence of translation knowledge: Knowledge of the principles governing translation (type of unit, required processes, methods and procedures used, types of problems) and knowledge related to the professional exercise of translation.
- Instrumental subcompetence: Knowledge and skills related to the use of the sources of documentation and the information and communication technologies applied to translation (dictionaries, encyclopedias, grammar, style books, parallel texts, corpus, search engines, etc.
- Strategic subcompetence: Guarantees the effectiveness of the translator process and the resolution of the problems by linking the rest of the subcompetences. It serves to plan and develop the translator project, evaluate the translation process and partial results in relation to the final objective, and identify the procedures for its resolution.
- Psychophysiological components: Cognitive components (memory, perception, attention, emotion), attitudeinals (intellectual curiosity, perseverance, rigor, critical spirit, knowledge, confidence, motivation) and skills (cretivity, logical reasoning, analysis, synthesis).
Translation problems
- Lexicon-semantic problems: terminological alternation, neologismos, semantic lagoons, synonym or contextual antonimia, vertical or horizontal semantic contigüity, lexic networks (they are solved by consulting dictionaries, glossaries, thermal banks, consulting specialists).
- Grammatical problems: temporality, aspectuality, pronouns, correlative negations, specification of subject pronouns (they resolve to consult grammars of French and Spanish, contrasting grammars, syntax and writing manuals in both languages).
- Syntactic problems: syntactic parallelisms, principle of rection, passive voice, focalization, hypérbaton, anaphores and other rhetorical figures of construction (they are solved by consulting grammars of both languages, contrasting grammars, syntax and writing manuals in both languages).
- rhetorical problems: identification and recreation of figures of thought (similar, metaphor, metonimia, synecdoque, oxímoron, paradox, etc.) and diction (they are solved with rhetoric and poetic dictionaries in both languages, reference works on rhetoric).
- Pragmatic problems: differences in the use of ♪ and you, idiomatic phrases, locuciones, refranes, irony, humor and sarcasm (they are solved by consulting idiomatic phrases and locuciones, refranes anthologies, consultation works on pragmatic issues).
- Cultural problems: differences between cultural references, dates writing, food names, festivities, cultural connotations in general (they are solved with various documentary sources: books, magazines, films, videos).
Translation techniques
A translation technique is a concrete verbal procedure to achieve translational equivalences. It differs from the translation method in that the latter would affect the entire text, while the use of the different techniques is punctual. The first classification of technical procedures for translation was published by J. P. Vinay and J. Darbelnet in 1958, and since then it has received only minor modifications. The following translation techniques are generally distinguished:
Adaptation
The adaptation, cultural substitution or cultural equivalent consists of replacing a cultural element of the original text with another characteristic of the receiving culture, which therefore more familiar and intelligible. Eg: change football to fútbol in an English-Spanish translation.
Language expansion
The linguistic extension consists of adding linguistic elements for structural reasons or when it is necessary to solve the ambiguity produced by some elements of the original text. It is especially used in dubbing and consecutive interpretation. E.g. translate from English to Spanish no way by in no way instead of absolutely, which has the same number of words. It opposes linguistic understanding.
Reduction
This is the opposite of expansion. It is a technique for eliminating redundant elements used to produce a more concise translation or for structural or stylistic reasons, that is, to avoid problems such as repetition, lack of naturalness or even confusion. Also known as omission.
Compensation
This technique is used by translators in case of loss of nuances or in the impossibility of finding an adequate correspondence. Offset allows use of expansion and reduction. We see an example in the following sentence: 'Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God' which was translated as 'Ho! Suddenly it started to rain heavily! A deluge, I swear to God.' In this way, an attempt is made to recover the same effect that the original text produced.
Tracing
Lexical tracing is a translation procedure that consists of creating neologisms following the structure of the source language. A clear example of this is the word basketball, originated from the word basketball in English.
Modulation
It consists of changing the form of the message through a semantic or perspective change. The translation of the message is done from a new point of view:
- Original in English: It is not difficult to show.
- Verbatim translation in Spanish: It's not hard to prove.
- Translation modulated in Spanish: It's easy to show.
In the example, the expression of the sentence with a verbal copula with a negative adverb ("it is not difficult") was translated into Spanish with an affirmative verbal copula ("is easy& #34;) by changing the adjective (not difficult = 'easy'). Modulation is done especially when the literal translation does not fit the genius or particularity of the translated language, that is, modulation produces a better-sounding sentence.
Loan
Borrowing consists of using a word or expression from the original text in the translated text. The loans are usually noted in italics and consist of writing the word in the language of origin; in other words, it is the non-translation of the word. An example of a loan is blue jeans from English. Another example might be the word sandwich.
Literal translation
Refers to the step from the source language to the translated language where this step gives a correct result. The translator only has to worry about the servitudes linguistiques (collocations) that are specific to a language and cannot be changed. For example:
- "Mon Dieu pardonnez-moi cette méprisable prière, mais je ne puis écarter son nom de mes lèvres, ni oublier la peine de mon coeur".
- "May God forgive me this despicable prayer, but I cannot turn away his name from my lips, nor forget the sorrow of my heart".
According to Vinay and Dalbernet, literal translation is permissible above all between languages that share the same culture. This reveals physical coexistence, that there is a geographical rapprochement or there have been periods of bilingualism in which there is mutual influence, imitation conscious or unconscious due to intellectual and political vestige.
Transpose
It consists of changing one grammatical category for another without changing the meaning of the message. In this procedure, there is a change from one grammatical structure to another.
- Original in English: After I've eaten back.
- Verbatim translation in Spanish: After he comes back.
- Transposed Spanish translation: After his return.
The dependent clause (he comes back) is translated with a noun phrase ("su regreso").
Fidelity and transparency
Fidelity (or loyalty) and transparency are ideals of translation, but they are commonly opposed to each other. A 17th-century French critic coined the phrase "les belles infidèles", suggesting that translations, like women, can be either faithful or beautiful, but not both.
Fidelity can be understood as the extent to which a translation accurately expresses the meaning intended by the source text, without distorting it. Transparency is then the extent to which a translation appears to have been originally written in the native language of the person reading it, adjusting to their grammar, syntax, and language. A translation that meets the first criterion is called "faithful"; a translation that meets the second criterion is called "idiomatic." Both qualities are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
The criteria for judging the fidelity of a translation vary according to the subject, the type and use of the text, its literary qualities, its historical and social context, etc. The criteria for judging the transparency of a translation is apparently clearer: a non-idiomatic translation "sounds bad"; and, in the extreme case of "word-to-word" translations made by machine translation systems, they generally turn out to be inconsistent.
However, in some contexts the translator may consciously perform a literal translation. Translators of literary, religious or historical texts stay as close as possible to the source text, stretching the limits of the target language as much as possible, thus producing a non-idiomatic text. A translator may adopt expressions from the source language with the intention of giving the translation a "local color", that is, making it foreign or exotic to the reader of the translated text.
In recent decades, leading advocates of "non-transparent" translation have referred to the French scholar Antoine Berman, who identified twelve distorting tendencies inherent in most prose translations, and the American theorist Lawrence Venuti, who called translators to apply the translation strategy of «foreignization» rather than «domestication». Berman insists on the need to carry out a translation project in order to later exercise translation criticism.[citation required]
Translation specialists
The translation specialist studies translation sciences (also known as translation studies), which is the discipline that systematically studies the theory, description and application of translation and interpretation, as well as the same as a whole.1 In this sense, it is important to distinguish it from translation or interpretation as an activity (properly speaking) and from translation or interpretation as a product (translated text or translation, interpreted speech). Below we will mention some translation specialists:
- Chesterman, Andrew
- Toury, Gideon
- Pym, Anthony
- Roberts, Isabelle
- Berman, Antoine
- Arrizabalaga, Maria Inés
- Hurtado Albir, Amparo
- Chaia, María Claudia Geraldine
- Cagnolati, Beatriz
- Holmes, James
Equivalence
Equivalence means the correspondence in meaning of a word in one language versus another language. Two words are equivalent if they have the same meaning.
In translation studies, equivalence has several conceptions. Some scientists consider as equivalence any correspondence of the words or phrases of the source text with those of the translation text in a specific context. But the other conception of equivalence is considered more correct, according to which equivalences are permanent and equivalent correspondences, which do not depend on the context.
The role of equivalences is very important especially during oral translation. Precisely these translation units, which always have correspondences in the translator's native language, appear in the translator's mind more quickly and help the translator to understand the general context and the idea of the entire translation text, even if it contains words unknown to the translator.
Then, the words or concepts that appear in dictionaries as permanent, stable and context-independent correspondences are equivalent.
Equivalence types
Between the source text and the translation text there must be semantic, stylistic and pragmatic equivalence. The semantic equivalence supposes a correspondence between the original text and the target text with its semantic content, that is, with its denotative-meaningful content.
The stylistic equivalence supposes a correspondence of the source text with the target text with the stylistic value, that is, with the stylistic nuance, expressive-appreciative value and also with its belonging to the same functional style.
And finally pragmatic equivalence assumes that the content of the source text is transmitted in such a way that the reaction of the foreign language receiver corresponds with all its essential features to the reaction of the receiver who speaks the language source. In other words, the reaction of the receiver must correspond to that of the sender.
Although all these types of equivalence play a very important role in the translation process, we have to verify that the most important of these is semantic equivalence, because each translation first supposes an exact reproduction of the semantic content. If we do not observe the stylistic or pragmatic equivalence between the source text and the target text, this translation will be incomplete and not equivalent, but if the idea of the text is altered, in this case the translation will be completely incorrect.
Types of translation
Informative translation
It consists of the translation of informative texts, such as journalistic texts.
Literary translation
Literary translation is the translation of texts that are considered literary works, be they prose, poetry, etc.
Scientific-technical translation
Scientific translation is dedicated to health and scientific texts, as its name suggests. For its part, technical translation is that dedicated to technical texts, such as engineering, automotive or computing. In this last field we talk about software localization, that is, the translation of software from one language to another, adapting the program to the culture of the destination country.
Judicial translation
It is carried out before a court of justice. It should not be confused with the sworn translation, which is described below.
Legal-economic translation
Legal translation refers to legal texts. It should not be confused with the sworn translation, which is described below.
For its part, economic translation consists of translating financial-themed texts.
Sworn translation or sworn translation
Official translation of titles, documents, certificates, etc. that require legal validity or validation. This type of translation can only be carried out by a translator accredited for it (see sworn translation), known as a sworn translator or certified translator or expert translator.
Website translation or multilingual translations
During the last few years, there has been an increase in the need to publicize more and more products and services on websites with different languages, both to increase the target of national consumers, (see websites translated into co-official languages which, Basque, Catalan, Galician), which in different international languages. Website translations or multilingual web page translations have also contributed more directly to the hiring of web and digital marketing professionals.
Translations in the medical and healthcare field
Translations of reports, studies and other similar medical documents, as well as technical medical texts (such as auxiliary devices for surgical use) or pharmaceutical texts, must be carried out by specialized medical or pharmaceutical translators or those who have previous training in the field of medicine or healthcare. They are divided into: medical translations, pharmaceutical translations, translations for general healthcare, translations of medical and surgical devices.
Translation tools
Some professional translators use Computer Aided Translation Tools (CATs) to facilitate the translation process. These tools retrieve translations that have been made before using a database system called translation memory. Some of the most popular assisted translation tools are: SDL Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast, Memosource
ISO 2384:1977
ISO standard, published in 1977, which establishes standards to ensure that translations are presented in a standardized format that simplifies their use by different categories of users. It applies to the translation of all documents, whether complete, partial or summarized. Four types of documents are distinguished: books, periodicals, articles and patents.
Translator's Day
In many countries, such as Spain, Mexico, Argentina, among others, International Translator Day is celebrated on September 30. It is the same day as the patron saint of translators: Saint Jerome.
Effects of the pandemic
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual events (conferences, book presentations, etc.) were suspended, and even the payment of royalties for translations or interpretations was greatly affected. On the other hand, the activities of many translation professionals were modified, as they found themselves obliged to start working in other ways, in other rhythms, in other physical spaces and, of course, on other topics. For the rest, the The right to information about health in general and about the pandemic in particular increased interest in translating documents, articles and news.
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