what is translation

Waleed Othman

What is translation?

Generally, translation is a process of rendering meaning, ideas, or messages of a text

from one language (source language/SL) to another language (target language/TL).

This is no easy task, especially when the source text (ST) and the target text (TT)

belong to two different cultures, such as those of English and Arabic.

Translated texts vary according to the method of translation, translators skills and

abilities, as well as other factors involved in the process of translation. The following

translators principles can be regarded as a summary of contradictory qualities of a

translated text:

1. A translation must give the words of the original.

2. A translation must give the ideas of the original.

3. A translation should read like an original work.

4. A translation should read like a translation.

5. A translation should reflect the style of the original.

6. A translation should possess the style of the translation.

7. A translation should read as a contemporary of the original.

8. A translation should read as a contemporary of the translation.

9. A translation may add to or omit from the original.

10. A translation may never add to or omit from the original.

11. A translation of verse should be in prose.

12. A translation of verse should be in verse. (Lev, 33-34, transl. J.Ch.).

The choice of one or more of the abovementioned principles to follow depends on

several factors. These include the type of the ST, the distance between the two

languages and the two cultures, the aim of the translation, the translator's level of

experience, and the target audience, among other factors.

The nature of the translated text is a result of the type or method of translation

adopted, as well as the translation strategies or techniques employed in the translation

process. The principles above correspond with several translation types and

techniques that will be considered in detail below. Before that we need to consider a

very important issue; i.e. types of meaning.

Baker (???) claims that every lexical unit has something that is individual and makes

it different from other words. There are four main types of meaning that deal with

words and utterance:

Conceptual or Denotative Meaning (also known as propositional, literal, logical, or

dictionary meaning): This type of meaning provides the speaker of a particular

language a description of a particular word or utterance in a real or imaginary world.

According to Cruse this type of meaning provides the basis on which one can consider

the utterances as a true or a false.

Example: Woman = human + female + adult )(

Examples: (owl ); (

Connotative meaning: Connotative meaning is the communicative value of an

expression over and above its purely conceptual content. It is something that goes

beyond mere referent of a word and hints at its attributes in the real world. It is

something more than the dictionary meaning. Thus purely conceptual content

of 'woman' is 'human + female+ adult', but the psychosocial connotations could

be gregarious, having maternal instinct or typical attributes of womanhood such as babbling, experienced in cookery, skirt or dress wearing' etc. Still further connotative meaning can embrace putative properties of a referent due to

viewpoint adopted by individual, group, and society as a whole. So in the past woman

was supposed to have attributes like frail, prone to tears, emotional, irrigational,

inconstant , cowardly etc. as well as more positive qualities such gentle, sensitive,

compassionate, hardworking etc. Connotations vary age to age and society to society.

Connotations can be general or personal. General connotations refer to what a word or

concept means to a large group of people.

Example: owl = bad omen

Personal connotation: associative meaning:

A meaning that is unique to the user; the emotions or feelings a word creates in you or

in any one individual

Example: cat = playful, spiteful, etc.

Under personal connotations, we can also speak of expressive meaning: This type of

meaning is related to the speaker's feelings and attitudes rather than to what a word or

an utterance refers to. For instance, the difference between Dont complain and Dont

whinge is not in the propositional meaning but it lies in the expressiveness of the

latter mentioned which shows a certain degree of the speakers annoyance. Expressive

meanings cannot be judged as true or false.

With this type of meaning we can explain differences between synonyms like:

Unkind, cruel (disapproval is stronger in cruel)

Famous in English = Well-known (neutral)

Fameux in French = ill-reputed (negative)

presupposed meaning: This meaning results from co-occurrence of restrictions.

There are two types of restrictions to be distinguished: selectional and collocational.

Cruse defines selectional restrictions as a function of the propositional meaning of a

word. Regarding to these restrictions, it can be expected what kind of words can occur

before and after a certain lexical unit as for instance a use of particular types of

adjectives with a human subjects and subjects that are inanimate. Nevertheless, these

rules can be broken when figurative language is considered yet in all other cases they

should be strictly observed.

Examples:

Studious ( an adjective for a human being);

a studious person

Geometrical (an adjective for a shape)

A geometrical shape

On the other hand, collocational restrictions do not follow logically from the

propositional meaning of a word. For instance, teeth are brushed in English, they are

polished in Italian and washed in Polish. It means these restrictions are semantically

arbitrary and it should be bear in mind that there are differences among languages in

this arbitrary use.

Break the law =

Evoked meaning. It arises from dialect and register variations. Depending on the

origin, three types of dialect are distinguished:

geographical (e.g. American compared to British English lift and elevator)

- temporal (e.g. words and structures used by members of different age groups

within a community as well as words used at different periods in the history of a

language verily and really)

social ( e.g. words and structures used by members of different social classes scent

and perfume).

B- Register: A variety of language that a language user considers appropriate to a

specific situation

(1) Field: What is going on (football match, political speech) (2) Tenor: The relationship between speaker and listener/ writer and reader (mother/child; doctor/patient)

(3) Mode: speech, essay, lecture, instructions, written

The problem of non-equivalence

Non - Equivalence at Word Level

Non - equivalence at word level means that the target language has no direct

equivalence for a word that occurs in the source text. There are many factors to cause

the problems of non equivalence. Baker (1992) lists the following problems of non equivalence at word level:

1. Culture specific concepts

The source-language word may express a concept which is totally unknown in

the target language (abstract or concrete; it may relate to a religious belief, a social

custom or even a type of food).

eg. English concept difficult to translate: Speaker (of the House of Commons)- it has

no equivalent in many languages, such as Russian, Chinese and Arabic, among others.

It is often translated into Russian as Chairman, which does not reflect the role of the

Speaker of the House of Commons as an independent person who maintains authority

and order in Parliament.

e.g.

2. The source language concept is not lexicalized in the target language

eg. Landslide

3. The source language word is semantically complex

eg: arruao, a Brazilian word which means clearing the ground under the coffee

trees of rubbish and piling it in the middle of the row in order to aid in the recovery of

beans dropped during harvesting

e.g.

4. The source and target language make different distinctions in meaning

eg. Indonesian makes a distinction between going out in the rain without the

knowledge that is it raining (kehujanan) and going out in the rain with the knowledge

that it is raining (hujanhujanan). English does not makes that distinction, with the

result that if an English text referred to going out in the rain, the Indonesian translator

may find it difficult to choose the right equivalent.

5. The target language lacks a superordinate term

The target language may have specific words (hyponyms) but no general word

(superordinate)to head the semantic field.

eg. Russian has no ready equivalent for facilities, meaning any equipment, building,

services, etc. that are provided for a particular activity or purpose. It does, however,

have several specific words and expressions which can be thought of as types of

facilities, for example sredstva peredvizheniya (means of transport), naem (loan),

neobkhodimye pomeschcheniya (essential accommodation) and neobkhodimoe

oborudovanie (essential equipment).

6. The target language lacks a specific term (hyponym)

More commonly, languages tend to have general words (superordinates) but

lack specific ones (hyponyms).

eg. under house, English again has a variety of hyponyms which have no equivalents

in many languages, for example bungalow, cottage, croft, chalet, lodge, hut, mansion,

manor, villa and hall.

7. Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

Physical perspective has to do with where things or people are in relation to

one another or to a place, as expressed in pairs of words such as come/ go, take/ bring,

arrive/ depart, etc. Perspective may also include the relationship between participants

in the discourse (tenor).

eg. Japanese has six equivalents for give, depending on who gives to whom: yaru,

ageru, morau, kureru, itadaku and kudasaru (McCreary, 1986).

8. Differences in expressive meaning

There may be a target-language word which has the same propositional

meaning as the source-language word, but it may have a different expressive meaning.

If the target-language equivalent is neutral compared to the source-language item, the

translator can sometimes add the evaluative element by means of a modifier or adverb

if necessary, or by building it in somewhere else in the text.

eg. the rendering of the English verb to batter (as in child/ wife battering) by the more

neutral Japanese verb tataku, meaning to beat plus an equivalent modifier such as

savagely or ruthlessly.

9. Differences in from

There is often no equivalent in the target language for a particular form in the

source text.

eg. English makes frequent use of suffixes such as ish (e.g. boyish, hellish, greenish)

and able (e.g. conceivable, retrievable, drinkable). Arabic, for instance, has no ready

mechanism for producing such forms and so they are often replaced by an appropriate

paraphrase, depending on the meaning they convey (e.g. retrievable as can be

retrieved and drinkable as suitable for drinking).

10. Differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms

11. The use of loan words in the source text

Words such as au fait, chic and alfresco in English are used for their prestige

value, because they add an air of sophistication to the text or its subject matter. This is

often lost in translation because it is not always possible to find a loan word with the

same meaning in the target language.

eg. dilettante is a loan word in English, Russian and Japanese; but Arabic has

no equivalent loan word. This means that only the propositional meaning of dilettante

can be rendered into Arabic; its stylistic effect would almost certainly have to be

sacrificed.

12. Differences in propositional meaning

Types of Translation:

These refer to the methods you apply to a text as a whole the primary choice you

have to make here is how close to the source text you want your target text to be.

Newmark refers to the following translation methods.

Word-for-word translation: The SL word order is preserved and the words are

translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context. Cultural words are

translated literally. The man use of word-for-word translation is either to understand

the mechanics of the source or to construe a difficult text as a pre-translation process.

When you are in Rome do as the Romans do.

.

Literal translation: The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest

TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context. As a

pre-translation process, this indicates the problems to be solved.


.

Faithful translation: A faithful translation attempts to produce the precise contextual

meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures and to

be completely faithful to the intentions and the text-realization of the SL writer.


.

Semantic translation: Differs from 'faithful translation' only in as far as it must take

more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text. The distinction between faithful

and semantic is that the first is uncompromising and dogmatic, while the second is

more flexible.


.

Adaptation: 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.

For example the adaptation of Shakespeares play {King Lear} into an Arabic

Play called : " "

Free translation: Produces the TL text without the manner, content or form of the

original. Usually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original.


.

Idiomatic translation: 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.

.

This is like carrying coal to Newcastle.

Communicative translation: 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 (Textbook of translation 45-47). Communicative, in

comparison with literal translation, is clearer and more direct and aims at making the

reader understand the ST message often by over-translation. The TT becomes more

specific than the original. The translator has the right to correct or improve the logic,

remove obscurities and reduce repetitions in the ST to help the reader comprehend

the ST fully. Yet, this manipulation needs to be clarified when necessary.

Communicative translation is applied in translating various types of texts including

proverbs, metaphors, standard notices, colloquialisms and ordinary language.


. /

Some Translation Techniques

The types of translation mentioned above, except the literal one, require certain

common strategies, since they aim at making the TT as comprehensible as possible to

the TL reader.

Borrowing (Arabization): A word taken directly from another language, e.g.,

Calque (through translation): A foreign word or phrase translated and incorporated

into another language, e.g.,

Cold war

Air to air missile -

Transposition: A shift of word class, i.e., verb for noun, noun for preposition e.g.,

Upon arrival

Modulation. A shift in point of view. Whereas transposition is a shift between

grammatical categories, modulation is a shift in cognitive categories. Vinay and

Darbelnet postulate eleven types of modulation: abstract for concrete, cause for effect,

means for result, a part for the whole, geographical change, etc., e.g., the geographical

modulation between encre de Chine and Indian ink.

Abstract for concrete:

Cause for effect: He cleared his throat. Means for result:

A part for the whole: workers Geographical change:

Space for time:

Immediate aim vs. ultimate aim:

Negated contrary: Remember to lock the door. . Active for passive:

Reordering or changing form: As if he owned the house /

Equivalence. This accounts for the same situation using a completely different phrase,

e.g., the translation of proverbs or idiomatic expressions like, Comme un chien dans

un

jeu de quilles and Like a bull in a china shop.

You're welcome. Like father, like son.

Adaptation. A shift in cultural environment, i.e., to express the message using a

different

situation, e.g. cycling for the French, cricket for the English and baseball for the

Americans.

He had bread and butter for breakfast.

Compensation. An item of information, or a stylistic effect from the ST that cannot be

reproduced in the same place in the TT is introduced elsewhere in the TT, e.g., the

French translation of I was seeking thee, Flathead. from the Jungle Book Kipling used

the

archaic thee, instead of you, to express respect, but none of the equivalent French

pronoun

forms (tu, te, toi) have an archaic equivalent, so the translator expressed the same

feeling by using the vocative, O, in another part of the sentence: En verit, cest bien toi

que je cherche, O Tte-Plate.

Your honor

Grammaticalization: A man in blue. Lexicalization: A man in blue:

Generalization: front window Particularization: front window

Explicitation: The patient: / Reinforcement: He called for a taxi. Amplification: Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting

Reduction: Ramadan

Substitution: Put your hand on the Quran Description: optional pilgrimage to Mecca at any time other than the pilgrimage time.

Modulation: You are going to have a child.

Descriptive Strategy

Rain forest

Many other translation theorists have discussed the issue (e.g. Fawcett, 1997:34-41)

and some have come up with their own classifications.

For example, Newmark in his book Approaches to Translation (1981: 30-32)

discusses seventeen translation techniques, that differ in importance according to the

contextual factors of both the ST and the TT.

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: transferal 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 on equivalence 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 note 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 roughly equivalent 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 to in the target language

(Near) synonymy: translating a source language/text word or expression with a

target language expression that is nearly, but not completely, functionally equivalent

Reduction/expansion: adding or removing elements in translation (essentially a type

of shift)

Paraphrase: amplification or explanation of meaning in target text

Compensation: making up for the loss of something in the source text, by adding

something else in the target text

Shifts: this is when you

Transposition: translation of a source language/text expression into a target

language expression which involves change in grammatical structure or in word

class

Modulation: change of viewpoint or substantial conceptual concept in the

translation, for instance, using the name of a category for a specific member of the

category, using a part for the whole (and vice versa), active for passive, changing

polarity etc.

Componential analysis: splitting up a lexical unit into meaning atoms and

translating those

Others:

Recognized translation: using a well-known accepted target language translation for

a a

specific source language institutional term

Translation label: provisional target language translation of a source language term

that

does not have any conventional translation in the target language

Equivalence in Translation

Another key term in translation theory is Equivalence. ST and TT can be

formally equivalent, functionally equivalent, or ideationally equivalent. The

following examples illustrate this point:

.

Formal equivalence: I love her and she loves me. My he-camel loves her she-camel.

Functional equivalence: Love me, love my dog.

Ideational equivalence: If you love me, you have to love the people I love as well.

Discuss the three types of equivalence with your classmates and teacher.

Now try to translate the following formally, functionally, and ideationally.

Which translation do you think causes the least loss?

.

Formal equivalence:

Functional equivalence:

Ideational equivalence:

.

Formal equivalence:



Formal equivalence:



.

Formal equivalence:



.

Formal equivalence:



.

Formal equivalence:



.

Formal equivalence:



Natural translation

?cibarA ni larutan dnuos kniht uoy od gniwollof eht fo hcihW

. 1

. 2

. 3

. 4

. 5

. 6

. 7

. 8

. 9

. 9

. 01

11

. 21

. 31

. 41

. 51

Discuss the examples above with your classmates and teacher.

The examples above prove how important, in fact essential, naturalness is.

Therefore when you translate into English, you have to make every effort to

produce natural translations. But how can this be achieved?

To render a text naturally, you need to opt for the correct words, collocations,

and structures. You also need to be aware of other factors at the text and

discourse levels. These will be discussed below:

First, Words:

Consider the following example:

.

The first thing you should do is to think about the meaning of the word intra-

lingually (i.e. in Arabic). Only the words "" could be problematic here. If

an Arabic-English dictionary does not have the word as an entry, you need to

look it up in an Arabic-Arabic dictionary (Al-Wasseet is a good one). In Al-

Mawrid Arabic-English dictionary, you can find the following:

: To carry, support, bear, sustain, hold up, prop (up), shore up, stay,

brace, pillar

: To undertake, take upon oneself, assume, carry (the burden of),

shoulder, bear

:)( To harbor, entertain, cherish, conceal, hide, secrete

: To incite, prompt, spur on, induce, move, actuate, impel, drive,

motivate, stimulate, inspire, cause, make

: : )( To attack, assail, assault, launch or make an attack on, charge, raid,

bear down upon, fall upon

Which row in the table should you resort to in order to translate the Arabic

example above? Translate and discuss.

More examples:

1 .

2 .

3 .

4 .

You must have noticed that the dictionary entries provided above were not of

use for you in translating sentences 3 & 4. So what should you do if your

Arabic-English dictionary does not help?

Consult an English-English dictionary. In example 3 above, the word "" could

be your starting point. What does "" mean in English? Seriousness, serious,

seriously. You would opt for "seriously" as " " has an adverbial

function in the Arabic sentence. Now look up "seriously" in your English-

English" dictionary. (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Oxford Advanced

Learner's Encyclopedic Dictionary, and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary

English are good choices.) Here is the entry "seriously" as found in the Oxford

Advanced Learner's Encyclopedic Dictionary:

Seriously adv 1 in a serious way: speak seriously to her about it

seriously ill, injured, etc. 2 (infml) (used at the beginning of a sentence

when turning to a serious matter): Seriously though, you could really

hurt yourself doing that. Usage at HOPEFUL. 3 (idm) take sb/sth

seriously regard sb/sth as important and worth treating with respect:

You can't take her promises seriously: she never keeps her word. I

take this threat very seriously.

You can see that English has an idiomatic expression that conveys the

meaning we are seeking. Now translate sentence 3 above.

Which word in sentence 4 would take as a starting point? Discuss and

translate.

How did you decide among the English senses of the word "" in example 2

above? ) (.

Here are the English senses of " " again:

: : )( To attack, assail, assault, launch or make an attack on, charge, raid,

bear down upon, fall upon

There are nine English senses here. What should you do? The English-English

dictionary is your guide in this case. You need to look up each and every word

to find the one that can naturally be used in a similar context in English.

Second, Collocations:

Collocation is the way words combine in a language to produce natural-

sounding speech and writing. For example, in English you say strong wind but

heavy rain. It would not be normal to say *heavy wind or *strong rain.

Language that is collocationally rich is also more precise because most single

words in a language (say, English) embrace a whole range of meanings. The

precise meaning in any context is determined by that context: by the words

that surround and combine with the core word by collocation.

Collocations

Collocative meaning is the meaning which a word acquires in the company of certain

words. Words collocate or co-occur with certain words only e.g. Big business not

large or great. Collocative meaning refers to associations of a word because of its

usual or habitual co-occurrence with certain types of

words. Pretty and handsomeindicate good looking. However, they slightly differ from each other because of collocation or co-

occurrence. The word pretty collocates with girls, woman, village, gardens, flowers, etc.

On the other hand, the word handsome collocates with boys men, etc.

so pretty woman and handsome man. While different kinds of attractiveness,

hence handsome woman may mean attractive but in a mannish way. The

verbs wander and stroll are quasi-synonymous- they may have almost the same

meaning but while cows may wonder into another farm, they dont stroll into that

farm becausestroll collocates with human subject only. Similarly one trembles with

fear but quivers with excitement.

Sample Collocations

There are several different types of collocation. Collocations can be adjective +

adverb, noun + noun, verb + noun and so on. Below you can see seven main types of

collocation in sample sentences.

1. adverb + adjective

Invading that country was an utterly stupid thing to do.

We entered a richly decorated room.

Are you fully aware of the implications of your action?

2. adjective + noun

The doctor ordered him to take regular exercise.

The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage.

He was writhing on the ground in excruciating pain.

3. noun + noun

Let's give Mr Jones a round of applause.

The ceasefire agreement came into effect at 11am.

I'd like to buy two bars of soap please.

4. noun + verb

The lion started to roar when it heard the dog barking.

Snow was falling as our plane took off.

The bomb went off when he started the car engine.

5. verb + noun

The prisoner was hanged for committing murder.

I always try to do my homework in the morning, after making my bed.

He has been asked to give a presentation about his work.

6. verb + expression with preposition

We had to return home because we had run out of money.

At first her eyes filled with horror, and then she burst into tears.

Their behaviour was enough to drive anybody to crime.

7. verb + adverb

She placed her keys gently on the table and sat down.

Mary whispered softly in John's ear.

I vaguely remember that it was growing dark when we left.

Collocations Lists

Exercise

have a bath

have a drink

have a good time

have a haircut

have a holiday

have a problem

have a relationship

have a rest

have lunch

have sympathy

Exercise

annual turnover

bear in mind

break off negotiations

cease trading

chair a meeting

close a deal

close a meeting

come to the point

dismiss an offer

draw a conclusion

draw your attention to

launch a new product

lay off staff

go bankrupt

go into partnership

make a loss

make a profit

market forces

sales figures

take on staff

Collocation covers the following types, among others:

Noun + adjective 1

Quantifier + noun 2

Verb + noun 3

Verb + noun 4

Noun + noun 5

Preposition + noun 6

Verb + adverb 7

Verb + preposition 8

Adjective + adverb 9

Adjective + preposition 10

Noun + of + noun 11

Culturally established collocations

Established sequence of elements

Borrowed collocations

Text-type relevant collocations

Do you think a bilingual dictionary can be of much use here?

What you need is a good English-English dictionary that provides plenty of

examples. Let's consider the expression " " using the Oxford

Advanced Learner's Encyclopedic Dictionary. Which word would you look up?

"lecture"? OK.

Lecture n 1 (to sb) (on sth) talk giving information

.:give/deliver/read a lecture a course of lectures on Greek

philosophy [attrib] a lecture tour. 2 long reproach or scolding: The

policeman let me off with a lecture about speeding. give sb a lecture,

i.e. scold sb.

Discuss the entry above with your classmates and teacher, and then suggest a

translation of " " .

An even better resource to check is the Oxford Collocations Dictionary. Let's

consider " " as an example: We are going to look under the entry of

"light" in the Oxford Collocations Dictionary:

Lecture noun

1 talk given to a group of people

ADJ. fascinating, interesting | boring | formal | illustrated |

impromptu | guest A two-day event of guest lectures, seminars and

workshops. | popular, public | annual | inaugural ,

QUANT . course, program, series

VERB + LECTURE deliver, give, present | hold, put on The society is

putting on a series of lectures on the subject next term. | attend, go

to, hear (formal), listen to | miss, skip | prepare, write

Lecture + NOUN course, programme, series | hall, room, theatre |

notes | tour | circuit a familiar figure on the international lecture

circuit

PREP. At a/the --She wasn't at the lecture.

Discuss the dictionary entry above.

Third, Structure:

What makes the following sentences unnatural in Arabic?

1 .

2 .

3 .

4

5 .

6 .

7 .

8 .

Discuss the sentences above with your classmates and teacher, and

then rephrase them into natural-sounding Arabic and translate

them into natural English.

Fourth, Cohesion:

By cohesion we mean the explicit and transparent linking of sentences and

larger sections of text by the use of overt linguistic devices, such as

edulcni osla secived evisehoC .arohpana lacitammarg ro snoitcnujnoc

.srehto gnoma ,ymynonys dna ,sispille ,noitutitsbus

evisehoc erom a otni ti etirwer ,ton fI ?evisehoc txet cibarA gniwollof eht sI

:noisrev

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:

... .

hcus kniht uoy oD ?evoba txet eht ni dnif uoy nac serutaef rehto tahW

?txet eht etalsnart ot tluciffid ti ekam dluow serutaef

The Translator's Resources

Dictionaries:

There are different types of dictionaries, including bilingual, multilingual, historical,

biographical, and geographical dictionaries.

2.1.1 Information Found in Dictionaries

Monolingual dictionaries, and some bilingual dictionaries, provide various

kinds of information about the lexical items, such as phonological, syntactic

and semantic information, that give the translator an insight into the meaning

and usage of the word. For instance, the entry for the word boy in the Oxford

Advanced Learners Dictionary gives the following information:

/b/ n 1. Male child up to the age of 17 or 18. 2. Son (colloq. of any age): He has two boys and one girl.

The first piece of information given in the dictionary is the phonological

information (phonemic transcription) that helps the user in pronouncing the

word correctly with the correct stress and syllabication; e.g.

en-thus-iasm /njuzaz()m

The second kind of information given in the dictionary is syntactic. It indicates

the part of speech of the word ; whether it is a verb, noun, adjective or

adverb etc. It also shows whether the verb is transitive or intransitive. The

verb enthuse, for example, is followed by the letters vi which means that the

verb is intransitive. Syntactic information also shows what preposition goes

with the verb, and the irregular forms of the past, past participle and,

sometimes, the present participle. Other types of grammatical information

are often given such as the plural form, especially if it is irregular e.g.

data/ deit/ n pl. (pl. of Latin datum).

The semantic information follows. It is the basic meaning of the word as in the

meaning of boy above. Then we get the other sense or senses of the word

boy, son in this case.

Most college-size dictionaries, such as the Oxford Advanced Learners

Dictionary provide the user with illustrative sentences which show how the

word is used.

Finally, some larger monolingual dictionaries give brief information about the

origin of the word whether it is Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, French etc.

As shown above, monolingual dictionaries, in general, provide the user with

valuable information and help him/her to have access to all the shades of

meanings of the words and the way each is used.

How to use a dictionary for translation purposes

All the following are translated literally. Think of a better translation if you

think the literal translation is not successful. Justify your decision.

ST TT Hint

1. The football match

was cancelled because

of the heavy rain.

. Subject verb order

2. Charity begins at home.

. Culture-bound expression

3. The President

delivers a speech at 8

p.m. tonight.

8 .

Collocation

4. The committee is to hold a meeting tonight.

. Tense

5. John works at the Bundestag.

. What is 'Bundestag'?

6. Please, do not disturb.

. Unclear message

7. This is the Voice of America.

. What is 'the Voice of America'?

8. A bird in the hand is

worth two in the bush.

.

Not natural

9. He is in black mood today.

. Collocation

10. Are you really interested in yellow magazines?

What are 'yellow magazines'?

11. This is the British Home Office.

. Cultural Substitution

Baker, Mona. In other words: A course book of translation. London:Routledge

1992.Print

Newmark, Peter. A Textbook of Translation. Hemel Hemptstead: Prentice Hall

International, 1988. Print.

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