To-take-note

for exam:
1. Format for definitions: definition-example-own opinion
2. Chinese = min 8 lines, English = min 5 lines
3. Max 1 side of a page, no need to leave line

Week 3
Technical SL – Source Language ; ST – Source Text
terms TL – Target Language ; TT – Target Text
* there are still: Source/target audience/society/culture etc. SA/TA; SS/TS; SC/TC etc. [Non-official short hand]
James Holmes’ Translation Studies
= founding scholar of the study=
=started only in the recent decade=
Pure [theoretical] Applied [practical]
1. description of the phenomena of translation
2. establishment of general principles to explain and predict such
phenomena
Descriptive Translator Translation Aids Translation
Training Criticism
Product oriented Teaching Tools for translation: - Evaluation of
- A theory where translators examine existing translations, by methods, translations
describing or analysing a single ST-TT pair, or do a comparative testing 1. Dictionary, grammars - Marking
analysis of several TTs of the same ST. techniques, 2. Expert informants of student
- E.g. One can refer to Tagore’s “Stray birds” (ST), then analyse the TTs curriculum 3. IT application: translations
by , and . design CAT tools, online - Reviewing
- These smaller-scale studies can build up into a larger body of databases, internet published
translation analysis looking at a specific period, language or searches, corpora, translations
text/discourse type. machine translation

Process Oriented
- Process oriented studies focus on the psychology of translation i.e.
what is happening in the translator’s mind
- To study this, researchers had to record translators who abide to the
“think-aloud protocols” during their translating process.

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 - Other new methods to track the translators’ thoughts include eye-
tracking, which can reflect the translator’s object of attention with
perfect spatial accuracy and perfect temporal precision.

Function Oriented [sociology/historiography of translation]
- Function oriented studies is also referred to as the “sociology” or
“historiography” of translation, where researchers study the context of
the text rather than the text itself.
- For instance, the researchers may look into when and where the TT
was translated, and what where the influence exerted on TT to make it
the way it was.
- E.g. the study of the translation and reception of Shakespeare into
European languages

Theoretical
General
Writings that seek to describe or account for every type of translation and to make generalizations that will be relevant for translation as a
whole
Partial
Translation theories that focus on examine some aspects of translated texts, with the aid of various scopes and filters.

1. Medium restricted:
- Human translation vs. Machine translation vs. mixed/machine-aided translation
- Human translation = oral translation, interpreting and writing
E.g. Machine translation and translation theory / edited by Christa Hauenschild, Susanne Heizmann.


2. Area restricted:
- When the translators choose to focus on writings restricted to specific languages or a group of languages/ culture
E.g. ST & TT of Bengali literature

3. Rank restricted:
- Linguistic theories that are commonly restricted to a level of words or sentence, though there are more focus on passage/chapter restricted

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study now. E.g. translation theories that focused on looking at the level of only words, or only sentences. If one looks at the sentence “
”, he/she cannot look at each individual word.
- Theories that deal with discourse or texts as wholes but concern themselves with lower linguistic ranks or levels.
- Traditional writings on translation focus on the rank of words, but these people decided to focus on rank of sentences.

4. Text-type restricted:
- looks at discourse types and genres E.g. literary, business, the Bible and technical translation.

5. Time restricted:
- theories limited to a specific time frame/period E.g. 1990 -2000

6. Problem restricted:
- tackles a specific problem that seems to have occurred rather universally in translation e.g. equivalence

* Several different restrictions can be applied at any one time.
E.g. Time and text-type restricted ~ a look on literary translations between 1990-2000s
à A look on the literary poetries [text type] by Chinese immigrants [area] during the Japanese occupation in Singapore (1942-1945) [time]
Problems of Homles’ Study: Merits:
- the separation between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ is not as distinct as it is - Clarifies the different theories and components within translation,
shown in the chart, as they tend to influence each other in real life. which was formerly often confused
Yan Fu
=Chinese translator/ philosopher=
Accuracy/
faithfulness/ fidelity

Fluency/ TT must be understood by the readers, while maintaining the .

expressiveness

Beauty/ elegance

Word based Translation made based on the sound of individual words

à Guzheng

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Meaning based Translation based on the meaning of the words.
à Chinese zither
Vinay & Darbelnet’s Procedures

Direct translation Oblique Translation

Borrowing: Transposition:
- Refers to the transfer of a SL word to TL, usually notating the sound - Refers to a change of grammatical structure of TL, due to the
of SL word with TL word. grammatical differences between TL and SL. Some of the changes
E.g. Realpolitik. Chocolateà . Microphoneà、 . Café à Cafe. include shifting singular words to plural, and moving the order
à Judo. between verbs, nouns, and adjectives.

Problem: E.g. Blue sky à ciel bleu
While this procedure ensures the preservation of the SL and source the French cuisine à La cuisine française
culture, the borrowed word stand-alone will not be understood by the The couple are very elegant à le couple sont très élégants
receptors unless it is an already well-known term. à Stupid bird flies first
E.g. à Guzheng (without further explanation) = whut?
Either that, or we will have multiple versions of the borrowed term Potential confusion in terms of “noun-number” à some languages
from the same SL word. might not need to express the plural form but others do
E.g. Trump à or E.g. à I look at the fruits in the shop .
borrowing should be used with caution [ ] [ ]
both calque and borrowing need time for the TA to adapt to I will go to the library [to] borrow books at one o’clock.

Calque: Modulation:
- To transfer a SL word into TL using a literal or word-for-word - Refers to the variation of TT through change of viewpoint,
translation. perspective and thoughts without changing the meaning expressed
- Brings the language expression, structure, culture and characteristics in the ST.
of SL into TL. e.g. Maybe you are right à Tu n’as peut-être pas tort.
- Helps to diversity the expressions of TL This is difficultà ce n’est pas facile/ .
Both “ce n’est pas facile” and “Tu n’as peut-être pas tort” are more
E.g. à lose face. Sweet heart à . Black market à . common expressions in French.
Sour grapesà . Packed like sardines à .
Happy birthday à . à tiger mom. à to rein in The Song dynasty poet Su Shi ( ) wrote an article titled
on the brink of the precipice (remembering the Chao Ran pavilion) (or sth liddat). In the first

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Problem: paragraph, he spoke about the pleasures of finding joy and being satisfied
Target audience might not be able to understand the new term in small things. He ended the paragraph with a rhetorical question: “
initially, as such expression did not exist in the target culture before. ”
à there might be confusion if we translate the to “unhappy” à
“what place makes me unhappy?” /doesn’t sound that rhetorical
liao/
à can focus on translating the only à “what place doesn’t make
me happy?”

Literal Translation: Equivalence:
- Translating from word for word, to sentence for sentence. To substitute a SL statement with a TL statement. Although the two
E.g. un beau gardin à a beautiful garden. statements have no formal semantic equivalence between each
other, they express similar meanings. One common situation is the
Problems: translation of idioms:
- Sometimes results in awkward sentence structure in TT, due to the
TL’s inability to accommodate the structure expressed in SL. E.g. à he has no penny to his name.
E.g. à stupid bird first fly. à no such structure or expression in à give it your all.
English à I blew up my top.
à What millions died that Caesar might be great.
- Misinterpretation of the original intended meaning, thus creating à Save your breath to cool your porridge.
another unrelated meaning out of it:
à the burnt child dreads the fire/ once
E.g. à global sex problem. à F*ck vegetables.
bitten twice shy.
。 à four delighted roasted husbands. [vegetarian dish]
à to put a fifth wheel to the car.

à spring up like mushrooms.
- Literal translation will not be effective in expressing the intended
meaning when there are cultural references expressed beyond the à To have a hair-breadth escape.
lines. à never make 2 bites out of a cherry.
E.g. John eats no fish and play the game. à a word spoken is past recalling.
à Pros of equivalence:
Real meaning: “ ” One can translate the meaning expressed in ST without having
awkward syntax and weird expressions. Receptor audiences can
- To understand this, we have to trace back to the history: relate better to something from their own culture too. Avoid
In the 16th Century, the Church of England broke away from the Roman situations like this:

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Catholic Church because the former disagreed with some of the
existing rules made between the latter and the government. One of the à despite three times seven being twenty one
rituals that the RCC abide to is to refrain from eating fish on Fridays, in ~ regardless of right or wrong or how and why~
order to show their loyalty towards the government and their religion.
So as a way to express their disagreement, the followers in the COE did Problem:
not abide to that rule. So from the Catholics’ point of view, those who - The difficulty lies in finding an accurate and equivalent substitution
do not eat fish will be those who are loyal to the government, hence that can be comprehended in TL. One has to be careful of errors in
the phrase “eats no fish” became a metaphor for loyalty. understanding the original phrase.
- “Play the game” comes from the idiom “play by the game”, which - Phrase in SL not preserved/ transferred to TT.
means abiding the rules of the ‘game’.
E.g. Eat your tea à , not . Adaptation:
In this case, ‘tea’ refers to the meal served between 5pm-6pm, not the Something specific to the source language or culture is expressed in a
drink. Yet in chinese, “ ” means “ ”, so the translator needs to completely different way in the target language or culture, because
be careful and know the right meaning. the cultural reference in SL does not exist in TL. Often found in title
of books, movies, and characters.

E.g. France: Metro à Singapore: MRT.
Everywhere: Football, but in US: Soccer [to differentiate from the
American Football]
Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain à .
à Soul Mate. à The Menu.

Eugene Nida’s Five correspondences

=Different levels of correspondence between a ST and a TT=
Phonological Correspondence to the phonology level. Phonology in SL is substituted with phonology in TL.
E.g. Eugene Nida à • . Singapore à . * transliteration
Morphological Morpheme: minimal formal element of meaning in language. E.g. inconceivable: in-conveive-able
Correspondence to the morpheme level. E.g. à chienchien *chien = dog*
à kitten, not cats. à kitty. ß???

Syntactical [ ] Correspondence between ST and TT on the level of words and phrase structure

E.g.

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 American poet Erza Pound translated it to:
“Drawing sword, cut into water, water again flows/ raise up, quench thirst, sorrow against sorrow”.
Yet: Translationese~ awkward and .

Problem/ limitation:
SL and TL can never correspond fully, due to differences such as grammar and word order.
E.g. She married the wrong man à . English focuses on the man being wrong vs. Chinese focuses on the
act of marrying being wrong
‘I love you’ corresponds to ‘je’ ‘aime’ and ‘te’ in French respectively, but the translated phrase should be “je t’aime”.
[‘e’ in the ‘te’ removed as it is placed beside the vowel ‘a’].

TT is also limited if the TL are grammatically gendered:
E.g. Novel Rebecca by English author Daphne du Maurier: the protagonists, Maxim and his wife, have invited some
relatives to their once-deserted manor in the English countryside. After dinner, Maxim's brother-in-law expresses
his admiration for the meal by saying:
Same cook I suppose, Maxim?
Translate into French, where the nouns are gendered, it will be confusing because the ST did not explicitly state if
the cook is male or female, so the TT can either be “La meme cuisinière” or “Le meme cuisinièr”.
E.g. “Go to the baker” à ‘Chez le boulanger’ or ‘à la boulangerie’
Lexical [ ] Correspondence between ST and TT based on words or vocabulary of the language.

1. Complete lexical correspondences: rare, and often fall under the translation of names, geographical locations,
date, numerical digits and scientific terms.
- E.g. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday à Isnin, Selasa, Rabu in Malay.
Even so, the complete-ness varies according to different TLs might be affected:
E.g. Sundayà
If the TL is grammatically gendered:
- E.g. The cook is here à . But in French, nouns are gendered so “the cook” can either be “le cuisinièr” or
“la cuisinère” à this decreases the degree of “complete” correspondence.

2. Partial lexical correspondences: more common, word in the SL corresponds to multiple words in TL.
Translator needs to choose appropriate words from TT to suit the overall context of the ST.
- E.g. Look à etc.

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 - E.g. play….chess/tennis/football/truant à

Wrong choice of words leads to wrong interpretation:
E.g. •
“ ”à “ ” refers to , or the ‘galaxy’. But English sinologist Arthur Waley (1889-
1966) misinterpreted “ ” to be “The Han River”.
Dynamic The translator seeks to translate the meaning of the original text in such a way that the TL wording will trigger the
same impact on the TC audience as the original wording did upon the ST audience.

“This response can never be completely identical, for the cultural and historical settings are too different, but there
should be a high degree of equivalence of response, or the translation will have failed to accomplish its purpose.”
(Nida, 24)
Aka. TA and SA respond in identical ways when reading TT and ST respectively.

E.g. à he has no penny to his name. à give it your all. à I blew up my top.
* refer to examples under “equivalence”

But there are still phrases that are difficult to translate, like phrases involving puns etc.
E.g. In Chinese, certain messages can be expressed by removing and regrouping parts of the radical:
à the man who has been a monk cannot become a Buddha
à the girl who is a bond maid may be called a slave.

There’s also the use of Palindrome: , which an be difficult to translate
Able was I ere I saw Elba à by
Was it a cat I saw?
Madam, I’m Adam. à

Eugene Nida’s Five techniques

=Techniques to translate=
Transliteration, literal translation, free translation, mixed translation and communicative translation.
Addition Translator adds a word/ word combination to specify meaning expressed in ST.
E.g. I am looking forward to the holidays à

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 Histories make men wise; poets witty; mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; morality grave; logic and rhetoric able to
contend. à
.
Subtraction Translator removes a word/ word combination to specify the meaning expressed in ST
E.g. A book is useful à .
As it happens, we did not meet there à
Sunday is the day when I am least busy à

Alteration Refers to the variation of TT through change of viewpoint, perspective and thoughts without changing the meaning expressed
in the ST.
e.g. Maybe you are right à Tu n’as peut-être pas tort.
This is difficultà ce n’est pas facile/ .
* similar to modulation
Footnote Using footnote to explain/ supplement the intended meaning expressed in ST, that was unable to be carried forward to TT due
to the lack of such a language or cultural reference present in TL/TC.
E.g. A quick glance at the book by and one could observe many of such techniques.
Untitled
Li Shang-yin
To meet is hard, to part as hard to fare.

The East Wind being faint, all flowers sear.
Spring silkworm, dead at last, stops yielding silk*;
Wax candles, burned to ash, dries then its tear.
In night chant, brunt of moonlight chill she’d beard.
Blue bird, be kind to visit oft my dear!

* The word “silk” in Chinese language is a pun which sounds
also like the word ‘longing’.
There is a double meaning in the line “ ”——“ ”and “ ”are both pronounced as sī or [sʅ ]55 so the

sentence is not just saying that the silkworm has stopped yielding silk, but the imagery is also used to express how the longing
thoughts of the protagonist has been cut off. The English translation can only account for the literal meaning, but the
translator managed to include the underlying meaning with the use of footnotes.
Adjustments Translator needs to consider the target audience and target culture, and then adjust the ST to fit TT, so that the TA can
of language understand the TT, or change and replace when appropriate.
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to - E.g. . For US vs. UK audiences, US: Fall came. UK: Autumn came
experience - à for chinese culture = purity. But in western mythology, the plant, like it’s name Narcissus, is named after the
vain Greek God Narcissus. If the translator does not wish to supplement additional information to prevent
misunderstanding, he can replace with maybe “lilies”, “daisies” or gardenia” idk.
- To express timidity, chinese use “mouse”, angmo use “chicken”
- à wolf in a sheep’s clothing
- E.g. Eat your tea à , not . In this case, ‘tea’ refers to the meal served between 5pm-6pm, not the
drink. Yet in chinese, “ ” means “ ”, so the translator needs to be careful and know the right meaning.

Liu Miqing’s Four levels of Equivalence
Correspondence ~ Close to a 100% correspondence between ST and TT. Both meaning and structure are largely transferred.
Mostly under the following few categories:
1. Pronouns
2. Numbers and functions
3. Scientific and professional terminologies
4. Names of people, things and places etc.
5. Conventional greetings

E.g. I love music à . He is a Canadian à .

Similarity e.g. abandon. Wording and structure of TL has to be sacrificed to embrace ST, but the similarity can still be seen.
sacrifice one’s own interest for the sake of others.
[80%] To ensure readability, translators have to:
1. adjust TT according to ST, SL and demands of TL
2. regard the contextualization of readers
3. only disregard equivalence when there is absolutely no way to translate using that way.

Approximity Faint shadow of equivalence. Refer to V&D’s modulation
[40%] Red – rust, pink, ruby, cognac, tiger lily, rosy, mahogany.
-
Non- Arises from the clash between SL and TL, where the TT is of no similarity in terms of the word or structure to the ST, but
equivalence in meaning is still transferred. Similar to idiomatic translations. Refer to V&D’s equivalence.

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form

Context à Strategy à Procedure
Localisation in Adapting the TT from ST to the context of the Target Culture, by varying both the cultural and function content.
translation
E.g. In Tagore’s poem collection “Stray birds”, there is a poem titled “the champa flower”. A champa is an Indian sacred
tree that blossoms golden flowers. Having this context in mind, when translate this poem, he gose to translate the
flower to , following the fruit of the flower, instead of a transliteration (borrowing) to terms such as “ ”or
something. He then explained the context of the in the footnotes.
Cultural content: Functional content:
1. Colors, shapes, sizes, styles 1. Date and time format, telephone numbers
2. Societal codes: Myths, etiquettes, rituals, humor 2. Weights, measurements, geographical references
3. Societal values: power, relationships, beliefs
E.g. Coca Cola Share a coke campaign: In other countries à printed first names [personal names] on coke labels e.g. “John”
“Mary” “Lucie”. But in China, since the combination and variation of first names is way to diverse and complicated to be
printed on coke canes, this system was replaced with popular catchphrases such as

E.g. in English, “you” represents both formal and informal usage, but in French, it varies between “tu” and “vous”, in
mandarin it varies between and .

E.g. in other parts of the world they use “Degree Celsius”, but in US they use “Fahrenheit”, so when one translates it, they
have to alter the numeric temperature too.
E.g. Soccer vs. Football. vs. .

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