J. King Saud Univ.,Vol. 12,Lang.& Transl.,pp.35 -43 (AH.1420 12000).

Translation:Theoryor Practice?

SaidEI-Shiyab

AssociateProfessor,DepartmentofEuropeanLanguagesand Translation,CollegeofLanguagesand Translation,

King SaudUniversity,Riyadh,SaudiArabia

(ReceivedA H. 20/2/1419;acceptedA H. 10/2/1420)

Abstract. Writing on translationtheory and the way it shouldbe taughtin schoolsoruniversitiesstillappearsto be dominatedbyrulesfonnulateda longtimeagoonwhatis mainlytypifiedasadescriptionofagood translation. It is unfortunatethat sometranslationtheoristshave takenthe stanceto declarethattranslationis a craft, ignoringthe potentialityof creatinga comprehensivetheoryof translation. In thispaper,translationtheory is not to be regardedonly as an exercisefocusingonlanguagelearning;it is adisciplinein its own right. This paperarguesthattranslationtheoryis anaidtothetranslator.It helpshimcapturethe senseand thespiritof verbalandnon-verbalelementsintexts.Any attempttoteachtranslationwithout resortingto translationtheorywould fail to producecertain elements,whichareessentialtotheeffectivenessand efficiencyof a text. Therefore,agoodtranslatoris onewhocanlinkbetweentranslationtheory and translationpractice. Translationtheory enrichesthe translator'sknowledgeof the text. Itprovidesinsightsinto cross-culturalsemanticsand pragmatics. Above all, it equipsthetranslatorwithadequateknowledgeandunderstandingof thetechniquesandwaysof approachingatext.

Introduction

Duringthepasttwodecadesorso,manyviewshavebeenputforwardtowardstheimportanceof teachingtranslationtheorytostudentsoftranslation.Otherviewsadvocatetheideathatstudentsoftranslationneedonlytranslationpractices.In thispaper,I wouldliketolookfirstattranslationasanexercise.Second,I wouldliketoarguethattranslationis a combinationof theoryandpractice;it is neitherapracticalnortheoreticalexercise,butratheracombinationofboth.Thecommentsmadeherearenot intendedtobeappliedonlytotheprocessoftranslatingatextfromArabicintoEnglish, butcanalsobeappliedtotheprocessoftranslatingalltexts.

It is to be notedthatgraduateor undergraduatetranslationstudents,enrollingin a translationcourse,will definitelybenefitfrommakingthemselvesawareoftheprinciplesandrulesoftranslationtheory.Suchrulesinvolvedifferentkindsoftopicssuchassemantics,contrastivelinguistics,communicationstrategies,andaboveall, the ideaofequivalence.Theremaybesometheoreticalarguments

35

36 SaidEI-Shiyab

studentsmay capture,but theseareat an abstractlevel[1].To this effect,translationstudentsmay not understandor perceivethe link betweenthesetheoreticalissuesandthepracticalexerciseoftranslatingdifferent,non-nativetextsinto theirown.Now, translationis taughtasalanguageteachingexercise.Theproblem-solutiontechniqueinvolvedin theprocessof\e!!dingthetextandcomprehendingit inevitablyencouragesthelearningof language.It alsopromoteslearningthevocabularies,understandingsyntax,idioms,andstyle.All thesearetobe capturedfromacloseanalysisofthesourcetextwhichtranslationrequires.Thegoalof thetranslationactivitiesshouldnotbe limitedtotheseissues;it shouldinvolveothermodernlanguageexercisesataprofessionallevel.

The objectiveof translationtrainingis to elicit, fromstudents,activitieswhich donotmerelydembnstratethelackofsourcetextcomprehension,butwhichalso indicatetheappropriatenessofthetranslationasapublishablework.Themostimportantthing,however,istodemonstratewhetherlinguisticsor,inmorespecificterms,translationtheory,helpsstudentsin theirtranslationtraining[I].

TheoryofTranslation

Definitionsof translationarenumerous.Somelook atit fromasemioticperspective[2].Otherslook at it fromacommunicativeperspectiveinwhichthetranslatoris interposedbetweena transmitteranda receiver[3].For others,translationis alwaysaninterpretation[4].It isthefinalproductofproblem-solving[5]. All theseviewsattempttolookattranslationasanactivity,notasatheory.

Otherviewsareput forwardwhichlookattranslationasatheory,asetofrulesandprinciplesthatarehelpfulin theanalysisoftexts.Forexample,thetheoryof translationisaformofcomparativelinguistics.Translationis"thereplacementof textualmaterialin onelanguage(SL)byequivalenttextualmaterialin anotherlanguage(TL)." The equivalenceofgrammaticalcategoriesinthe(SL)and(1L)becomesabasisforestablishingtranslationcorrespondents[6].

Basing translationtheory on transformationalgenerativegrammar,translatorsmustgobeyondexplicittext-structure[7].Theyshouldnotlookatatextas a merecomparisonof correspondingstructures.The viewof languageasagenerativedeviceis important;itprovidesthetranslatorfirstwithatechniqueforanalyzinga text.It is not onlya techniqueusedin theprocessofdecodingthesourcetextbutalsoa procedurefor describingthemanyandsuitablegeneratedcorrespondingstructuresin theTL.

From a pragmaticperspective,whatis calledatranslationtheoryis notascientificand/orsystematicwayoflookingataparticulartext.It isan'ology'.Itis not onlya frameworkof principlesandstrategiesbut alsoabackgroundfor

Translation:Theory or Practice? 37

problemsolving.Translationtheory'smainconcernis~odetermineappropriatetranslationmethodsforthewidestpossiblerangeoftexts017textcategories[8].

iI

The approachofcontrastivelinguisticsisusefulerl.oughtodealwithchoicesanddecisionsof thesourcelanguagetext.Thecontra~J:ivelinguisticsapproachis

mainlyconcernedwith themechanicsofthetext,the)echnical~spe6tsofthetext."Translationtheoryis concernedwith choices anddecisions;-notwith themechanicsof eitherthesourcelanguagetext(SL)orthetargetlanguagetext(TL)(myunderlining)[8]. \

In viewoftheabove,theinvalidityofthecontrastivelinguisticsapproachisasserted,simplybecausetranslationactivityis anentirelydifferentactivityfromcontrastivelinguistics;thepurposeof thecontrastivelinguisticsapproachistofocusonthedifferencesbetweenonelanguageandanotherespeciallyinalanguageteachingcontext.It doesnot focuson establishingasetofrules,principles,andappropriatemethodsofhandlingaparticulartext.

Furthermore,the contrastivelinguisticsapproachis differentfromtranslationactivityin thesensethatit is a text-orientedactivity.That is,thecontrastivelinguisticapproachfocuseson language,whereastranslationactivityfocusesontext[8].

Along theselines,translationhasbeenviewedasanimportantpedagogicaldevice,especiallywherea foreignlanguageis being learned.Translationis aneffectivemeansof learninga language[9].Takingthis intoaccount,onemayconsiderthe practicalityof the contrastivelinguisticsapproachin improvingstudent'sperformancein languagelearning. In otherwords,thecontrastivelinguisticsapproachis a techniquefor teachinglanguagesandnotforteachingtranslationactivities.

Despitewhathasbeenstatedagainstthecontrastivelinguisticsapproach,itshouldbe pointedout that thisapproachis nottobeentirelyavoided[1].At thelanguagelevel,generalizations,supportingtranslationprinciplesandrules,canbemade.Any considerationof theserulesis indeedhelpfulformakingnecessarychangesin certaincontexts.Theyarealsohelpfulindemonstratingthenecessarylossofinformationcontainedin structureswhoseconstituentpartsarenotinaone-to-onecorrespondence.Thiscansimplybemanifestedin thedifferentgrammaticalcategoriesof the twolanguages.Forexample,inanArabictextwhereanta"you"and antum"you"(singular& amplified)areused,especiallywhentakingplaceina conversationbetweentwopeople,thereisaninevitablelossofinformationwhentranslatedinto English. BothArabicpronounsaretranslatedas"you"inEnglish.In thesameway,when'you'inEnglishisused,thereis againofinformationwhentranslatedinto Arabic,as it canbetranslatedasanta(masc.),anti(fern.),antum

38 SaidEI-Shiyab

(singularamplified),antum(plural),antuma(masc.Dual),andantunna(fern.Dual). Otherissueslike gender(absentorpresent),etc.invariouslanguagesmay

giverisetothesameproblem. )Along theselines,languages-arenotdifferentinwhattheycanconvey;they

are differentin whattheymustconvey[10].Therefore,thecontrastivelinguisticsapproachemphasizesthesenon-equivalencesassuch,andthetheoryoftranslationattemptstodemonstratehowtheseissuesarecompensatedforin certainsituations.

UnitofTranslation

It shouldbe madeclearthat,to thetranslator,theminimumunit oftranslationis not awordoraphrase,butatext.Anyattempttolookattranslationin termsof wordsor phraseswould definitelyyieldunacceptableresults.Somesuggestan approachinwhichonecananalyzewordsintotheirmaincomponents.This methodis knownasthe'componentialanalysis'method[8].Unfortunately,however,this methodhassomedrawbacks,someofwhicharerepresentedin itsunsuitabilityto thetrainingof translators.Second,thisapproachfocusesonsemanticdistinctivefeaturesisolatedfromcontext.Also, thismethodis oflimitedapplicability,simplybecausea wordtakenin isolationfromitscontextisnotatranslationunit.In thisconnection,it hasbeensuggestedthattherelevantlanguageunitfortranslationisnottheindividualword,butratherthetext[11;12].

ImpactofTranslationTheory

It wasstatedthat textistheminimumunitofanalysisin translation.Anyanalysisofthesourcetextconsistsofinducinginformationaboutformandcontenttogetherwith informationregardingsource,authorship,andaim. Therelevantbranchthatfocuseson theanalysisas well as the descriptionoftextsis calledpragmatics.Here,pragmaticsrefersto therelationshipbetweenthesenderofthemessage,themessageitself,andthe receiverof themessage.The relationisrepresentedinFig. 1.

Sender message--.. receiver

~

pragmatics

Fig. 1. Representationof sender-message-receiverrelation.

Translation:Theory or Practice? 39

Thereis a constantinteractiontakingplacebetweenthesender,message,andreceiver. The aimforwhichthetextiswritten,andthereadershipforwhomthetextis addressedestablishesthecharactersof anytext.Herethetranslatorshouldbe ableto knowwhetheror not thetextis religious,political,literary,journalistic,legal,ortechnical.Oncethetextischaracterized,thetranslatorisnotonly identifyingthetextsubjectmatter,butalsodelimitingthesocialcontextinwhichthetextisproduced.Therefore,situatingatextinaparticularcontext,andfamiliarizinghimselfwith thetextand its Englishequivalentsis indeedthetranslator'sfirstpriority.

After establishingthedomainof the text,featuressuchastone,function,andfeelingareto be takenintoaccount.Awarenessof thesewill haveagreatbearingonthetranslator'srenditionofthetext.Emphasisshouldalsobeplacedontheformalfeaturesthataresignificanttothemake-upofthetext.Suchfeaturesareimportantin termsof thetext-linguisticandtext-functioncategorizations,i.e.,whetherthetextispersuasive,narrative,descriptive,etc.[1].

-

Within text-function,awarenessof thereferentialmeaningoflexesisalsosignificantin determiningthenatureordomainofthetext.Emotiveandassociativemeanings,in Yule's sense[13],will partlyaccountfor text-function.Thewaywordsareput togetherareallmeansofindicatingthefield,function,andtoneofthetext.Forexample,theusesofcontractedformsarepointerstoinformalEnglish.The useof infinitivesis alsoindicativeof instructionaltexts.Theseissuesarepointersto thetextureandstructureofthetextthroughwhichanumberof 'speechacts' canberecognized.Understandingtheconditionsrepresentedforanutterancemaygiveaninsightintohowlanguageis used.

In termsof the linguisticcategoriesofJext,ascientifictextmayexhibitaseriesof actsor definitions,classifications,gen~lizations,and/orqualifications,forminglargercommunicativeunitssuchasexplanations,descriptions,andreports[9]. The translatormayanalyzea textin awayinwhichitsformalfeaturesaredemonstrated.However,anexperiencedtranslatormaynotneedtodothat;hemayintuitivelydrawtheseconclusions.Therefore,atranslationexerciseshouldmakethetranslatormoreawareofthemulti-facetednatureoftranslation.It shouldalsoenablehimtoinstinctivelysingleoutthetext'slinguisticfeatures.

Basedon the above,anyanalysisoftextmayyieldinformationrelevanttotext-structure.Oncethisisachieved,thetext-messagebecomesveryclear.It isthismessagethathastoberenderedeffectivelyandcommunicatively,simplybecauseitmayleadus toaparticulartranslationmethod.However,thequestionremainsasto whetherwe shouldlook atthismessagein termsofitsliteralvs.freesense,orformalor dynamicequivalence,orwhetheremphasisshouldbeplacedonformor

40 SaidEI-Shiyab

function. For example,an ArabictranslatormaytranslateAhmadkickedthebucket, as tuwuffiyaahmad.The translatorhere rendersthis expressionfunctionally,makingthe 'meaningof themessage'or its functionhispointofdeparture.If thetranslatoradherestoformratherthanfunction,histranslationwouldbeunacceptableorirrelevant.

Sometimesthetranslatormayresortto adherencetotheformofthetext.This is applicableto literarytranslation.In thesetexts,themainconcernofthetranslatoris to highlighttheeffectivenessof thesamesemanticandsyntacticstructuresof the sourcetext.Importantfeaturesshouldbeaccountedforsuchastone,rhyme,rhythm,order,etc.becausetheseareall essentialelementstothemake-upoftexts.

Within literarytranslation,thetextualandcontextualpressuresarenotonlysemantic.The visual orphysicalpresenceofthetextanditsintonationalqualitiesarealsosignificant.Thenon-correspondencebetweeneitherprosodicorsemanticstructuresdoesnot necessarilyimply theimpossibilityoftranslatingagivenunit[5].On thecontrary,it canbeanopportunitytoactualizethepotentialstructuresmanifestedin theoriginaltext,andrecordedin thetranslationofthetextthatwillbesemanticallydependentandrhythmically.independent.

Furthermore,repeatedlexicalitems,nominalvs.verbalsentences,etc.,maynot remainacceptableitemsorsentenceswhentranslatedintoEnglish,andthisisdueto thefactthatEnglishhasaparticularstylethatdoesnotsometimesconformto Arabic.WhatseemstobeacceptableinArabicmaynotbeacceptableinEnglish.This resultsfrom thefactthatArabicandEnglisharelinguisticallyandculturallyremotelanguages.In ordertoproducesomepublishablework,thetranslatorhastoassessthetexttextuallyandstructurally,andthenfindthebeststrategyandstylethatwouldyield'adequatetranslation.

I)

OutputAssessment

Assessingthefinal productof a particulartextis the translator'smainconcern.Suchan assessmentis manifestedin whatis called'atranslatedtext'.Lookingatatranslatedtext,I havetriedtotracesuchtextfromitsauthorshiptoitsfinal product.One significantfeatureto beaccountedforasafinalproductis itsacceptabilityor readability.Acceptabilityand/orreadabilityhavetobeassessedaccordingtothetext-producer'sintention.To increasethefamiliarityofsignificantaspectsoftranslation,onehastoviewthisalongwiththecommunicativetheory,asthis theoryhasan importantrole toplayinbringingupthetheoreticalcourse.Italso introducesthestudenttranslatorto the informationtheory,i.e.,whatisimportantor whatis not in a message.It is possiblethat someofthenatural

Translation:Theory or Practice? 41

linguisticandculturaltrivialitiesmaybe avoidedif notlostin translation,thusbringingforththeimportantinformation[1].

Whenevaluatingatext,thetranslatorshouldtakeintoaccounttheintentionof theSTanditsimpactonthereader.Therelationshipbetweenauthorandreaderhasto bechecked.Also,doesthetranslationaimata readerorparticularreaders?In anykind of translation,thetranslator'smainaimistoproduceatextthatisequivalentin responsetotheST.

Fromapedagogicalpointofview,thestudenttranslatormayfindcomparingtheoriginal textandtargettextsignificantlyuseful.Thisactivitydoesnotinvolvefinding the translator'smistakes,but analyzingtheproblemandfindingthesolution.Similar exercisesarealsohelpfulin termsof enablingstudentstodifferentiatebetweenimportantandunimportantinformation.

Conclusion

I havetriedto arguein thispaperthatteachingthetheoryoftranslationtostudentsoftranslationis extremelyimportant.If theorystopsshortatstudyingthesemantic,syntacticanalysisof language,studenttranslatorsmayfindthemselvesunableto rendera texteffectivelyandcommunicativelyintothetargetlanguage[1]. Those whoareawareofthetheoryoftranslationmayenvisageandappreciatethe link betweentheoryof translationandpractice.Any attemptto avoidapplicationof theoryto actualtextsmayyieldunacceptableresults.Theoryandpracticemustbe linkedtogetherin any translationexercisesimplybecauseonecontributessignificantlyto the otherin thesensethattheoryoftranslationmakesstudentsof translationawareof languagecomplexities;itgivesthemasenseofcreativityandintellect.

References

[1]

[2][3]

Mason, 1. "The Role of TranslationTheory in theTranslationClass." Quinquereme,5,No. 1(1982),18-33.Toury, G. In Searchof a Theoryof Translation. Jerusalem:AcademicPress,1980.Tanke, E. "Electronic Data Processing in the Serviceof Translators,TenninologistsandLexicographers."Phi lips TerminologyBulletin,4,No. 2/3(1974),3-19.Ben Bannani,Ben. "TranslatingArabic Poetry: An Interpretive,IntertextualApproach." InTranslating Spectrum,editedby Marilyn G. Rose. Albany: StateUniversityof New York Press,1981,~135-39.

Diaz-Diocaretz,Myriam.TranslatingPoeticDiscourse.Amsterdam!Philadelphia:John Benjamins,1985.

Catford,J. A Linguistic Theoryof Translation. London:OxfordUniversityPress,1965.Nida, E. Towardsa Scienceof Translation, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1964.Newmark,P. Approachesto Translation. Oxford:PergamonPress,1980.Widdowson,H.G. Explorationsin AppliedLinguistics. Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,1980.Jakobson, R "On LinguisticAspectsof Translation."In On Translation,editedby RA Brower.Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress,1959.

[4]

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42 SaidEl-Shiyab

[11][12][13]

El-Shiyab,S. "Translationof TextsandTheirContexts."Babel, 40,No. 4 (1992),232-38.De Beaugrande,R. Factors in a TheoryofPoetic Translation. Assen: Van Gorcum,1978.Yule, G. TheStudyofLanguage. Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1985.

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Translation:Theory or Practice? 43

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