Global Translation Strategies / Translation Methods

GLOBAL TRANSLATION STRATEGIES / TRANSLATION METHODS


You have to make the choice between imitative translation and functional translation – the first striving to retain as much of the purely formal aspects of the source text, and the latter aims at getting the message of the source text across, even if it takes drastic changes in the formal aspects of the text.
Newmark lists thefollowing translation methods, which essentially fall along a cline of focus, one extreme being total focuses on the source text/language and the other extreme being total focuses on the target text/language:


• ST/SL FOCUS (IMITATIVE TRANSLATION)
◦ Word-for-word translation: preservation of word order and as literal translation as possible of individual words, including culturalwords.
◦ Literal translation: apart from as literal as possible translation of individual words grammatical structures are converted into the nearest target language equivalents.
◦ Faithful translation: stays, if possible, within the constraints of the grammatical structures of the target text, but draws on certain contextual factors.
◦ Semantic translation: more emphasis onnaturalness than in faithful translation, and Translation of certain cultural words into neutral equivalents in the TL.
◦ Communicative translation: aims at reproducing the exact message of the source text content-wise and context-wise but with emphasis on naturalness and acceptability/comprehensiveness to the target text readership.
◦ Idiomatic translation: makes use of idioms andcolloquialisms that are not present in the source text.
◦ Free translation: focuses on the content of the target text rather than the form, which means that the same content is expressed in the target text but with very different grammatical structures if need be.
◦ Adaptation: the freest form of translation and more of a target language/culture based interpretation of the source textthan a translation as such, this is sometimes called document design.
• TT/TL FOCUS (FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION).
LOCAL TRANSLATION STRATEGIES / TRANSLATION PROCEDURES
Lundquist lists seven translation procedures, while Newmark lists a whole bunch of them. Here is an overview which integrates the Lundquist's and Newmark's procedures into one list:


• DIRECT PROCEDURES:◦ Literal translation: word-for-word translation.
◦ Transference / loan: transference of a word or expression from the source language/text directly into the target text without translating it at all.
◦ Translation loan: retention of syntactic construction, but translation of the words in it.
◦ Through translation: literal translation of collocations and combinations –the difference between this and translation loans is that in through translation, you strife for literal translation and a higher degree of formal retention.
◦ Naturalization: basically transference in which you apply target language spelling and morphology (and pronunciation) to the expression or word in question.


• INDIRECT PROCEDURES:
◦ EQUIVALENCE: here, you focus onequivalence in meaning in the perspective of the reader of the target text – this means that you may sacrifice equivalent in form, or you may have to choose something which is not exactly the same thing as in the source text, but which is the closest get to it in the target language.
▪ Cultural equivalent: translating a culturally rooted word in the source text/language with a roughlyequivalent culturally rooted word of the target language/text – note, this is what Lundquist calls “tilpasning”.
▪ Functional equivalent: translating a word in the source language/text with a functionally equivalent target language word (i.e. a word which has the same meaning).
▪ Descriptive equivalent: translating a source language/text word using a description of the concept it refers...