2025/1 Translation

Only when a form is used in its primary meaning or function is there a one-to-one correlation between form and meaning. The other meanings are secondary meanings or figurative meanings. This characteristic of ‘skewing’, that is, the diversity or the lack of one-toone correlation between form and meaning, is the basic reason that translation is a complicated task. If there were no skewing, then all lexical items and grammatical forms would have only one meaning; and a literal word-for-word and grammatical structure-forgrammatical structure translation would be possible. But the fact is that a language is a complex set of skewed relationships between meaning (semantics) and form (lexicon and grammar). Each language has its own distinctive forms for representing the meaning. Therefore, in translation the same meaning may have to be expressed in another language by a very different form. To translate the form of one language literally according to the corresponding form in another language would often change the meaning, or at least result in a form which is unnatural in the target language. Meaning must, therefore, have priority over form in translation. It is meaning which is to be carried over from the source language to the target language, not the linguistic forms. Literal translation: A ‘word-for-word’ translation which follows closely the form of the source language. Idiomatic translation: a translation which has the same meaning as the source language but is expressed in the natural form of the target language. The goal of a translator is to keep the meaning constant. Wherever necessary, the target language form should be changed in order that the source language meaning not be distorted. Since a meaning expressed by a particular form in one language may be expressed by quite a different form in another language, it is often necessary to change the form when translating.