TRANSLATION METHODS/STRATEGIES VS.

TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES/PROCEDURES

Translation method is applied globally, at the level of the whole text, and it refers to the way a particular translation process is
carried out in terms of the translator’s objective, the translator’s plan of action on a given text (how close to the ST you want your
TT to be).
Techniques/procedures are applied locally, in the translation of individual words, phrases, clauses, sentences of the ST.

TYPES OF TRANSLATION/EQUIVALENCE (METHODS/STRATEGIES)

Nida, Eugene. 1964. Towards a Science of Translating

Formal equivalence – orientation towards the structure of the ST, prefered translation technique = word for word
Dynamic equivalence – orientation towards the meaning/message of the ST, preferred translation technique = ‘thought for
thought’

Newmark, Peter. 1981. Approaches to Translation

Newmark, Peter. 1988. A Textbook of Translation

Semantic translation – focus on the meaning of the ST, the translator attempts at rendering the exact contextual meaning of the
original, using the lexical and grammatical resources of the TL (very close to faithful translation, which, however, does not pay
that much attention to the aesthetic value of the SL text)
Communicative translation – focus on the effect of the ST, the translator attempts at obtaining an effect on the target readers
that is as close as possible to that of the ST on its readers.
Adaptation – the ‘freest form of translation’. It is used for translating drama and poetry mainly. The theme, the plot and the
characters are usually preserved, the SL cultural elements are replaced by TL cultural elements. Adaptation frequently results
into the rewriting of the original texts.
Free translation – reproduces the content, but not the form of the ST. Usually, it is a paraphrase that is much longer than the
original (some do not even consider this method one of translation proper).
Idiomatic translation – reproduces the message of the original, but it tends to distort nuances of meaning, by employing
colloquialisms and idioms where these are not present in the ST.

Nord, Christiane. 1991. Text Analysis in Translation. Theory, Methodology and Didactic Application of a Model for
Translation – Oriented Text Analysis
Nord, Christiane. 1997. Translating as a Purposeful Activity. Functionalist Approaches Explained

Documentary translation – aims at producing in the target language a kind of document of a communicative interaction in
which a source-culture sender communicates with a source-culture audience via the source-text, under source-culture conditions;
Instrumental translation – aims at producing in the target language an instrument for a new communicative interaction
between a source-culture sender and a target-culture audience, under target-culture conditions, using (certain aspects of) the
source text as a model.

TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES/PROCEDURES
Sources:
Newmark, Peter. 1988. A Textbook of Translation
Vinay, Jean-Paul and Jean Darbelnet. 1973. Stylistique comparée du français et de l'anglais (A Comparative Stylistics of
French and English)
Jean Delisle et al., ed. 1999. Translation Terminology.

Newmark:
- word-for-word translation (close translation)
- one-to-one translation (close translation)
- literal translation
- through translation
- transference
- naturalization
- synonymy
- transposition
- recasting
- cultural equivalent
 - functional equivalent
- descriptive equivalent
- expansion
- paraphrase
- reduction
- omission

Vinay and Darbelnet

- Direct translation procedures: loan transfer, loan translation (calque), literal translation
- Indirect translation procedures: transposition, modulation, equivalence, adaptation

Delisle
- literal translation
- calque
- borrowing
- direct transfer
- recategorization
- denominalization
- equivalence
- cultural equivalent
- compensation
- amplification
- paraphrase
- explicitation
- concentration
- omission

WORD-FOR-WORD TRANSLATION (CLOSE TRANSLATION)

Transferring SL grammar and word order as well as the primary meanings of all SL words (this is normally effective only for
brief, simple, neutral sentences)
He works in the house now.
El lucreaza in casa acum.
The trees in the garden are very tall.
Copacii din gradina sunt foarte inalti.
ONE-TO-ONE TRANSLATION (CLOSE TRANSLATION)
Each SL word has a corresponding TL word, but their primary (isolated) meanings may differ. The two verb couplets below (to
take – a da) may be said to correspond to each other, but out of context, they are not semantic equivalents.

to take an exam - a da un examen

LITERAL TRANSLATION (CLOSE TRANSLATION)

Literal translation ranges from one word to one word, to group to group (a beautiful garden- o grădină frumoasă), collocation to
collocation (make a promise – a face o promisiune), clause to clause (when he said those words – când el a spus acele cuvinte), to
sentence to sentence (The man was in the street which was brightly lit – Onul era pe strada care era puternic iluminată)

THROUGH-TRANSLATlON/CALQUE
The literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations, the components of compounds, and perhaps phrases;
obtained by transferring a SL word or expression into the TL, using a literal translation of its component elements.

to keep the front page – a ține prima pagină

to have buterflies in one’s stomach – a avea fluturi in stomac

TRANSFERENCE/LOAN TRANSFER/BORROWlNG (it may include transliteration = the conversion of different

alphabets, eg. Chinese or Cyrillic into English)
Transferring a SL word to a TL, either because the TL does not have a lexical correspondent, or for stylistic or rhetorical reasons
coup d'état; noblesse oblige!,
Perestroika
ad hoc, ad infinutum, ex catedra

Obs. When a culturally-loaded word is transferred from the SL to the TL, the translator may choose to complement the transfer
with a second translation procedure (e.g. explicitation, double-gloss). The two translation procedures in harness are referred to
as a ‘couplet’ (Newmark).

NATURALlSTATlON/DIRECT TRANSFER
Adapting a SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then to the normal morphology of the TL.
leader – lider
manager (pronounced in Romanian as [manadjer])

SYNONYMY
The use of a near TL equivalent to a SL word in a context, where a precise equivalent may or may not exist. This procedure is
used for a SL word when there is no clear one-to-one equivalent, when literal translation is not possible, and the word is not
important in the text (adjectives, adverbs of quality).

Personne gentile > kind person

TRANSPOSlTlON/SHIFT (Catford)/RECATEGORlZATlON
A change in the grammar from SL to TL (singular to plural; passive for active; changing the word class or compensating for
grammatical elements that are not available in the TL, etc.)

advice – sfaturi
luggage – bagaje
This book was written by Dickens. – Dickens a scris această carte.
Working with you is always a pleasure. – Munca cu tine este întotdeauna o plăcere. (gerund – noun)
Our foreign trade has shown continuous improvements. – Comerțul nostru extern s-a ameliorat continuu (adjective+ noun –
verb+adverb)
Do come at the party! – Insist să vii la petrecere!
It is snowing. – Ninge.

DENOMINALIZATION (particular case of transposition)

The transformation of a noun or nominal structure in the ST into a verbal structure in the TT.

After the birth of their first daughter…. – După ce s-a născut prima lor fiică…(noun – clause)

The opposite of denominalization is <deverbalization> or <nominalization>, which presupposes the change from a verbal
structure into a nominal one or a noun.

Numai când a intrat în casă, și-a amintit… - Only at the entrance, did he remember…

RECASTING
The modification of the order of the units in a ST in order to conform to the syntactic or idiomatic constraints of the TT

a blue dress – o rochie albastră

MODULATlON
Variation through change of viewpoint, of perspective, and very often of category of thought

 POSITIVE FOR (DOUBLE) NEGATIVE/(DOUBLE) NEGATIVE FOR POSITIVE

He is no coward. – E foarte curajos.
He did not spare a moment before he acted. – A acționat imediat/foarte rapid.
He acted at once – Nu a ezitat deloc.
shallow waters – ape nu prea adânci

 PART FOR WHOLE

Workers are well paid in France. – Mâna de lucru e bine plătită în Franța.

Obs. Vinay and Darbelnet’s definition of this procedure is rather misleading. What they seem to actually mean by it is what
Newmark calls “familiar alternatives”.

Sărbătoarea națională a Franței – the 14th of July

The concert in a club in Bucharest on the occasion of which 45 people died in a fire – tragedia de la „Colectiv”

 ABSTRACT FOR CONCRETE

a dormi sub cerul liber - sleep in the open
a dormi lângă șemineu - sleep by the fire

 CAUSE FOR EFFECT

Nu v-am întâlnit niciodată. - You're quite a stranger.
 ONE PART FOR ANOTHER
from cover to cover > de la prima la ultima pagină
 REVERSAL OF TERMS
assurance maladie – health insurance
I bought this car from him two weeks ago. – Mi-a vândut această mașină acum două săptămâni.

 INTERVALS AND LIMITS

I haven’t seen you for ages. – Nu te-am văzut de un secol.
EQUIVALENCE
The substitution of a TL statement for a SL statement which accounts for the same situation, even though there is no formal or
semantic correspondence between the two languages / The rendering of a set phrase (idiom, cliché) from the SL with a set phrase
in the TL which expresses the same idea, although in a different way.

The early bird catches the worm. - Cine se scoală de dimineață departe ajunge.
Once bitten, twice shy. - Cine s-a ars cu ciorbă, suflă și-n iaurt.
Thank you! You are welcome! – Mulțumesc! Cu plăcere!
I would like a cup of coffee. Black or white? – Aș dori o ceașcă de cafea. Cu lapte sau fără?

ADAPTATlON/CULTURAL EQUIVALENCE
The replacement of a situation of the SL by an analogous situation of the TL (when communicative situations are difficult to
understand in the culture of TL, when the situation of the SL does not exist in the TL - a cultural gap - and therefore another
equivalent situation has to be created)/ The replacement of a socio-cultural reality in the SL with a reality specific to the Target
Culture in order to accomodate for the expectations of the Target Audience.
Dupont et Dupond (characters in Tinin) > Thomson and Thompson > Hernández y Fernández > = A cultural SL word is
translated by a TL cultural word (Newmark)
baccalauréat - the French 'A' level'
tea break – pauză de cafea

FUNCTlONAL EQUIVALENCE
The neutralization or generalization of a SL cultural word by using a culture-free equivalent

baccalauréat - French secondary school leaving exam

Sejm – the Polish Parliament – Parlamentul polonez

DESCRIPTIVE EQUIVALENCE [related to EXPANSION or AMPLIFICATION]

The neutralization or generalization of a SL cultural word by using a description
Samurai - Japanese aristocracy from the eleventh to the nineteenth century whose function was to provide officers and
administrators.

RECOGNlSED TRANSLATION
The use of the official or generally accepted translation of an institutional term

Ombudsman – Avocatul Poporului

Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara – The West University of Timisoara

COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS
In linguistics – splitting up the sense of a word into sense-components.
In translation – comparing a SL word with a TL word which has a similar meaning, but it is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent,
by demonstrating first their common and then their differing sense components; usually, the SL word has a more specific
meaning than the TL word and the translator needs to add some SL word sense components to the TL word to obtain a closer
approximation of meaning.

slender vase – vază înaltă și subțire, de o delicatețe deosebită

gracefully slim and delicate

COMPENSATlON
It occurs when loss of meaning, sound-effect, metaphor or pragmatic effect in one part of a sentence is compensated for in
another part, or in a contiguous sentence.

I would like to respectfully draw your attention on…. – Aș dori să Vă atrag respectuos atenția asupra…
EXPANSION/AMPLIFICATION
The use of more words in the TT in order to re-express an idea or to reinforce the sense of a ST word because its correspondent in
the TL cannot be expressed as concisely or is clearer if expressed in an expanded variant.

penalty (in football) – lovitură de pedeapsă

Yorkshire > comitatul Yorkshire
PARAPHRASE
The amplification or explanation of the meaning of a segment of the text. Paraphrase is the result of amplifying a TT by replacing
a word from the ST with a group of words or a phrasal expression that has an equivalent sense (Delisle).

EXPLICITATION
The introduction of precise details into the TT for clarification
the basic questions of delegation > problemele fundamentale legate de delegarea de putere

REDUCTION/CONCENTRATION (resulting in CONCISION and in ECONOMY)

The same meaning is rendered in the TT in less words than in the ST.
computer science - informatică
science linguistique – linguistics - lingvistică

OMISSION
The suppression of elements of the SL text
The committee has failed to act > Comitetul nu a acționat.

IMPLICITATION
A translation procedure intended to increase the economy of the TT, achieved by not explicitly rendering elements of information
in the ST in the TT when they are evident from the context or from the described situation and can be readily inferred by the
readers of the TT

Be sure the device is unplugged from the electrical outlet before opening the cover. > Deconectați aparatul înainte de a deschide
capacul.
NOTES, ADDITIONS, GLOSSES
The employment of additional information in the form of footnotes, endnote, glossaries at the end of the text, or within the text