Translation strategies

Inglese per il giornalismo e l’editoria a.a. 2009/10

Lesson 2

Translatability

The translatability of a text depends on many aspects.

1. It depends on the degree to which the source text is embedded in its own culture. The more culture-bound a text is, the more difficult it is to translate. The less culture bound a text is, the less it needs to be adapted to suit the TL readership. We should speak of a sliding scale of translatability, largely depending on the degree to which a text is embedded in SL culture.

2. The translatability of a text is deeply connected with the communicative function of the text. Promotional leaflets, business letters and poetry are meaningful examples of different degrees of translatability.

Poetry

Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient MarinerThe fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,The furrow followed free;We were the first that ever burstInto that silent sea.

La ballata del vecchio marinaio (trad. T. Tommaso Pisanti)Soffiava il buon vento, volava la bianca spumaseguiva libera la scia;I primi fummo che irrompemmoIn quel tacito mare.

Technical translations

Translation Strategies (Malone)

In 1988 Malone introduces a list of ninetranslation strategies, that is nine differentprocedures adopted by translations in order tocope with the lexical and syntactical differencesbetween Source Language and Target Language

1. Equation

One of the most well-known traps associated with the word-for word equation if that of false friends, where the meanings of deceptively similar terms do not match across languages (Actual/attuale; editor/editore)

Some lexical items have a particularly high frequency in Italian (much higher than their English equivalents)

ex. Realtà) reality: the English lexical item has too high a level of abstraction

L’arte come imitazione della realtà/Art as imitation of natureLa realtà è dura/Life is hardLa sua malattia è una realtà/Her illness is genuineProgetti che diventano realtà/plans which are realisedSpesso la realtà ci sfugge/Often we don’t see things as they really areHa il senso della realtà /He is realisticBisogna tenere il senso della realtà locale/We must keep local needs in

mindLa realtà economica/the economic situation

2. Substitution The antithesis of equation: the translation has little or

no morpho-syntactic or semantic relation to the source text.

Ex. The Italian subjunctive replaced by an English infinitive

Farò in modo che si convinca a venireI’ll try to get her to come The straw that broke the camel’s backLa goccia che fa traboccare il vaso

3. Divergence:

The strategy of choosing one possible solution from a potential range of alternatives

3. Divergence: The strategy of choosing one possible solution from a potential

range of alternatives

Creampanna

Cremaglass

vetro

bicchiere

Se dovesse succedere

Were it to happen

If it were to happen

should it happen

If it should happen

• She saw a beautiful dress in the window• She opened the window• She lowered the window

Non ho niente da dire

Niente male

Niente scherzi

Non hanno un bel niente

NIENTE

I have nothing to say

Not bad

No messing about!

They have nothing at all

4. Convergence

Commercialista

Contabile

RagioniereAccountant

Tu

Lei

Voi

You

5. Amplification

• Swansea is the birthplace of Dylan Thomas

•Swasea è il luogo natale del famoso scrittore e poeta Dylan Thomas

6. Reduction

Carta geografica

Map

7. Diffusion

• A source text item or utterance is expanded without adding any extra layer of meaning

Cheap A buon mercato

Weatherwise Per quanto riguarda il tempo

The nineteen century sex role system

La divisione dei ruoli in base al sesso nel XIX secolo

8. Condensation

• A source text item or utterance is contracted without omitting any layer of meaning

To look at guardare

To fall in love innamorarsi

To run after inseguire

9. Reordering

• It occurs when various procedures are introduced to the syntactic units into the most familiar patterns of the target language

Black and white Bianco e nero

Non è ancora giunto il tempo

The time has not yet come

È successauna disgrazia

Something terrible has happened

HIGH PRESSURE

• Pressione alta: high blood pressure

• Alta pressione: in the meteorological sense

The very small percentage of works trnaslated by us compared to the total number of works imported per year is clear from these lists.

Da questi elenchi apparirà evidentissima la minima percentuale delle opere da noi tradotte in confronto al totale annuo delle opere importate.

The hands which, on the 25 th of April 1953 picked the apple from the Biblical tree of knowledge belonged to a rather eccentic English physicist.

A cogliere la mela del biblico albero della conoscenza furono, il 25 aprile 1953, le mani di un bizzarro fisico inglese