2025/1 Translation

There seems to be countless methods or procedures to translate. Each theorist seems to have his / her own procedures. This unit will explore some of the procedures proposed by prominent experts. Nida (1964) describes the translating procedures as follows: 

 I. Technical procedures introduce: A. analysis of the source and target languages; B. a through study of the source language text before making attempts translate it; C. Making judgments of the semantic and syntactic approximations. (pp. 241-45) 

 II. Organizational procedures introduce: constant reevaluation of the attempt made; contrasting it with the existing available translations of the same text done by other translators, and checking the text's communicative effectiveness by asking the target language readers to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reactions (pp. 246-47).

Newmark (1988b) mentions the difference between translation methods and translation procedures. He writes that, "[w]hile translation methods relate to whole texts, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of language" (p.81). He goes on to refer to the following methods of translation: 

  Word-for-word translation: in which the SL word order is preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context. 

  Literal translation: in which the SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents, but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context. 

  Faithful translation: it attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures.

 Semantic translation: which differs from 'faithful translation' only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text. 

  Adaptation: which is the freest form of translation, and is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten. 

 Free translation: it produces the TL text without the style, form, or content of the original. 

 Idiomatic translation: it reproduces the 'message' of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original. 

 Communicative translation: it attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership (1988b: 45-47).