The Libyan Academy

MA program In Translation
First Semester
Introduction To Translation

"Main Issues In Translation"

Submitted by:

Ferial Ali ISshayt Amani Aboulqassim Alsulouqi

Supervisor Dr. Sabri Elkateb

Academic year 2019/2020

An introduction

It is undoubtedly right that translation is important to disseminate

information. In line with this premise, the numbers of translation professionals are

getting higher. Etymologically, translation evokes an act of moving or carrying

across from one place or position to another, or of changing from one state of

things to another. This does not apply only to the words of different languages, but

also to human beings and their most important properties. They too can be moved

across all sorts of differences and borders and so translated from one place to

another, for instance from one cultural and political condition to another. Thus, one

can culturally translate people for a political purpose and with existential

consequence.

1.1 The concept of translation

The foremost aim of presenting this topic is to introduce major concepts and

understanding of translation studies. As in the modern time of linguistics`

development, the field of translation is now excessively extreme. For many causes

of consistency the focus is on written translation rather than the oral translation

which is modernly identified as interpreting. Although, the connection between the

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two terms makes it dramatically doubtful to make an obvious clarification. Otto

Kade defined interpreting as “a form of translation in the wider sense in which the

source language text is presented only once and cannot be reviewed or the target

language text is produced under time pressure with little chance for correction and

revision”. The English term of translation was first declared around 1340 derived

directly from Latin “tranlatio”. In the modern premise of language, translation

today has served meanings beyond to “transfer” or to “carry over”. In a further

explanation it conveys the meaning of:

 The general subject field or phenomenon.

 The product or material to be translated.

 The process of producing translation.

In a generalized mode, the process of translation principally involves changing

of an original text “the source text or ST” in the original verbal language “the

source language or SL” into written text “the target language”.

Source target (ST). Target text (TT).

Source language (SL). Target language (TL).

However, internationalization practices intended that this long-established

concept must be extended the fact that there could not be a clear defined source

text. This could be because there are multilingual versions of the same text, each

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estimated to be legitimate, or the source text itself is subject of updating or

adaptation. On this premise, the structurlist Roma Jakobson in his paper on

linguistic aspects of translation (1959/2012; 127), categorized translation into

three classes:

 Intralingual translation: or rewording, an interpretation of verbal signs by

means of other signs of the same language. It basically occurs when

producing a summery or rewriting a text in the sale language. For an

example, a children version of a certain material.

 Interlingual translation: or translation proper, which is an interpretation of

verbal signs by means of some other language. It has always been about the

traditional concern of translation studies which is essentially about two

different verbal sign systems.

 Intersemiotic translation: this is an interpretation of verbal signs by means

of non verbal signs systems. When the literal explanation of the word

semiotic is the communication since theory or study of signs and symbols as

means of language, thus which declares the fact that semiotic is significant

because translation is not always limited to the verbal production of

language. Interrsemiotic for example appears in the case of translating into a

different mod such as music or film.

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 Sandra Halerson (1999) claims that translation can be better considered

as a prototype classification. By contrast, Maria Tymoczko (2005.2007):68-

77) was concerned with the cultural aspect of translation. However, there are

many other terms that could logically define translation such as; adaptation,

version, transcreation, and localization. Deciding what we deeply mean by

“translation” has always been challenging and controversial.

1.2 Translation studies

Translation has always occupied an essential part in total human

communication. It has provided full admission to vital texts for scholarship and

religious purposes. It is a basic element in interhuman understanding. This

internationalization of translation and interpreting service has developed

dramatically in the recent years. Global, important and governmental

organizations had already spent a fair budget on translation services. However, the

academic recognition of translation has only begun in the second half of the

twentieth century. It is official in the English speaking world this discipline is

generally known as (Translation Studies) thanks to the scholar James.S.Holmes

(1942-1986) as described “translation studies” with “ the complex of problems

clustered round the phenomenon of translating and translations” (Holmes

1986/20.4:181).

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 Due to the progressive demanding of translation, there has been expand in the

field on which there are four ways translation studies has been established.

 First, specialized translating and interpreting programs; both

undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These programs are originally

concerned with training future professional translators and interpreters and

served as valued level qualification and professions. These types of

translation are varied; they may include MAs in applied translation studies,

scientific and techniqual translation, conference interpreting, and audiovisual

translation.

 Second, conference, books and journals translation, in many languages.

As the online accessibility is increasing, the significant series of translation

studies of this particular type has increased as well with the process.

 Third, general and analytical instrument that came out of the increased

numbers of publications. Such instrument would include databases,

encyclopedias, textbooks, and introductory texts.

 The fourth and final type, international organizations that brought together

national associations of translators. International conferences on a wide

variety of themes are held in an increasing number of countries.

In short, translation studies have now become one of the most demanding

systematic study areas with dynamic developments.

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1.3 An early history of the discipline

It goes without saying that the necessity for translation services is as old as

language itself. There is no other way for people who speak different languages to

communicate with other. Translation is the bridge to cross by means of

communication led by a translator. While the practice of translation is long

established in early stages of civilization escalation such as the translation of

religious books, development o the study field only took place in the twentieth

century. Earlier before that, translation used merely in language learning such as in

the known method of grammar translation, but that method quickly fell into failure

due to its disadvantages. While an alternative aroused such as the direct method

and the communicative approach from the 1960s and 1970s (Cook 2010:6-9,22-

26). Those latter approaches led to a partial neglecting of translation in language

learning. As pointed above, Translation Studies have become an academic

interdiscipline in the second half of the twentieth century, which includes many

fields of study, such as the comparative literature, history, linguistics, semiotics,

terminology, and computational linguistics. Students and scholars of inters are also

in a position to choose a specialty, whether legal, economic, technical, scientific or

literary translation in order to be trained accordingly. However, the scientific

investigation of translation where the names of the emerging discipline developed,

some translators still want to be compared to artists, not only for their precarious

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life, but also for the craft, knowledge, dedication and passion they put into their

work.

1.4 The Holmes/Toury ‘map’

The framework of translation studies has been provided by James S Holmes
and Gideon Toury(1972). It is called the “Holmes/Toury Map”. Translation
Studies is mainly divided into two main branches “Pure” and “Applied”.

The objectives of the “pure” area of translation are:

1- To describe the phenomenon of translation.

2- To construct general principles as to explain and predict the phenomenon of
translation.

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 The ‘theoretical’ branch is divided into general and partial theories.

1- General theoretical studies refer to those writings that seek to describe every
type of translation and to make generalizations that will be relevant for
translation as a whole.
2- Partial theoretical studies are restricted according to those parameters
(medium, area ,rank, text-type, time and problem ).

The descriptive branch of ‘pure’ is known as descriptive translation studies

DTS. It may examine: (1) the product; (2) the function; and (3) the process. The
partial theories of translation studies are related to them.

1- Product-oriented DTS
Examines, existing translations. This can involve the analysis of a
single ST-TT pair or a comparative analysis of several TTs of the same ST
(in to one or more TLs). These smaller-scale studies can build up into a
larger body of translation analysis looking at a specific period, language or
text/discourse type. Larger-scale studies can be either diachronic (following
development over time) or synchronic (at a single point or period in time).

2- function-oriented DTS
The description of the function of translations in the recipient
sociocultural situation: it is a study of contexts rather than texts which
Holmes terms ‘‘sociotranslation’’ studies which was less researched at the
time of Holmes ‘s paper but is more popular in current work on translation
studies.

3- Process-oriented DTS
Is concerned with the psychology of translation. It is concerned with
trying to find out what happens in the mind of a translator. Work from a
cognitive perspective including think-aloud protocols (where recordings
are made of translators’ verbalization of the translation process as they
translate).

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Partial theories of translation

1- Medium-restricted theories
Are subdivided according to translation by machine and humans,
with subdivisions according to whether it is automatic machine or as an
aid (computer-assisted translation), to whether the translation is written
or spoken or whether consecutive or simultaneous.

2- Area-restricted theories are restricted to specific languages

or groups of languages and/or cultures.

3- Rank-restricted theories are restricted to a specific level of

the word or sentence.

4- Text-type restricted theories analyze specific discourse

types or genres e.g. literary texts, technical writings, etc.

5- Time-restricted theories refer to theories limited to specific

time frames and periods (the history of translation).

6- Problem-restricted theories refer to specific problems such

as equivalence or … whether universals of translated language exist.

The ‘applied’ branch of Holmes’s framework concerns

applications to the practice of translation:

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

design.
2- Translation aids: such as dictionaries and grammars.
3- Translation criticism: the evaluation of translations, including the
marking of student translations and the reviews of published
translations.

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 Another area Holmes mentions is translation policy. The task of the translation
scholar in this area is to render informed advice to others in defining the place and
role of translators, translating, and translations in society at large: questions what
works need to be translated in a given socio-cultural situation, what the social and
economic position of the translator is and should be, or what part translating should
play in the teaching and learning of foreign languages. The relation between these
three branches (descriptive, theoretical, and applied) is a dialectical one, and they
do influence one another. The divisions are still subject to incorporate
developments such as the technological advances of recent years.

Holmes himself wanted to overcome the split between theory and practice of
the discipline. Some scholars think that Holmes should not include interpreting as a
subcategory of translation in medium restricted theories. Toury identifies that there
should be a discourse-type restricted theory as well as text-type restriction. Pym
points out that Holmes map omits any individuality of style, decision making and
practice of translation and he points to the absence of historical research on the
map.

1.5 Developments since Holmes

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 Since Holmes, there have been different areas of the map come to the fore.
Contrastive linguistics has been resurfaced by the advances in machine translation
and corpus-based studies. The linguistics-oriented ‘science’ of translation has
continued strongly in Germany, but the concept of equivalence associated with it
has been questioned and reconceived. The Hallidayan influence of discourse
analysis and systemic functional grammar, which views language as a
communicative act in a sociocultural context, came to prominence in the early
1990s, especially in Australia and the UK. The late 1970s and the 1980s also saw
the rise of a descriptive approach that had its origins in comparative literature and
Russian Formalism. Itamar Even-Zohar and Gideon Toury pursued the idea of the
literary polysystem in which, among other things, different literatures and genres,
including translated and non-translated works. A key volume was the collection of
essays edited by Hermans, The Manipulation of Literature: Studies in Literary
Translation which gave rise to the name of the ‘Manipulation School’. After
History and Culture (1990) the ‘cultural turn’ was introduced .The 1990s saw the
incorporation of new approaches and concepts: Canadian-based translation and
gender research led by Sherry Simon, the Brazilian Cannibalist School promoted
by Else Vieira, and postcolonial translation theory. Research activity, as well as the
practice of translation, has also been revolutionized by new technologies. These
new areas include machine and automatic translation, audiovisual and multimodal
translation, localization and corpus-based translation studies.

1.6 The van Doorslaer ‘map’

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 Doorslaer (2007) explained that to deal with such a breadth of work, a new
conceptual tool was developed.

A distinction is drawn between ‘translation’ and ‘the translation studies’ in the

new map which is subdivided into:

1- Lingual mode (interlingual, intralingual )

2- Media (printed, audiovisual, electronic)
3- Mode (covert/overt translation, direct/indirect translation, mother
tongue/other tongue translation, pseudo-translation, retranslation, self-
translation, sight translation, etc.)
4- Field (political, journalistic, technical, literary, religious, scientific,
commercial).
5- Approaches (e.g. cultural approach, linguistic approach)
6- Theories (e.g. general translation theory, polysystem theory)
7- Research methods (e.g. descriptive, empirical)
8- Applied translation studies (criticism, didactics, and institutional
environment).

Translating process consists of strategies, procedures/ techniques, ‘errors’,

rules/norms/conventions/laws/universals and translation tools.

1-Translaton strategies; a strategy is the overall orientation of a translated text

(e.g. literal translation).

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2-Translation procedures; a procedure is a specific technique used at a given
point in a text (e.g. borrowing, claque).

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 The distinction is important even if it is sometimes blurred in the literature.
Linguistic transfer still occurs within a sociocultural and historical context and
institutional environment that place their own constraints on the process.

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1.7 Translation as a discipline, interdiscipline, or
multidiscipline?

All in all, due to the huge expansion of translation, now it is considered as a

multidiscipline. Although, it has the site for a principal link with disciplines such

as; linguistics (in particular, semantics, pragmatics, applied and cognitive

linguistics), modern languages studies, comparative literature, and cultural studies,

the relationship of translation studies is with other disciplines is not fixed.

Considering translators as specialized each in different translation specialties,

makes translation studies more than an interdisciplinary field. All of which

contributes to the difficulties in translation fulfillment. Translation studies has

moved, developed beyond the study of words, to texts to sociocultural context, to

the working field of translators themselves. Over time, this fact illustrated the

diversity of translation studies to be more than just a discipline, or an

interdiscipline but in more ways must be considered a multidisciplinary field.

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References

- Abend-David, D. (ed) (2014) Media and Translation: An Interdisciplinary

Approach, London and New York: Bloomsbury.

- Aijmer, K. and C. Alvstad (eds) (2005) New Tendencies in Translation

Studies: Selected Papers from a Workshop, Göteborg 12 December 2003.

Göteborg: Göteborg University, Department of English.

- Jeremy Munday (2016) fourth edition Introduction to Translation Studies.

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