Language Translation as a Process

Translating goes well beyond the mere univocal conversion of terms between two languages. A translator’s art is to transpose meaning from one culture to another, with a skillful choice of linguistic tools. A translator’s aptitude is rigorously measured on the basis of knowledge of the subject matter, ability to identify with the contents, accuracy and adherence to the source text. Translation memories, glossaries and style guides are essential work tools and are tailored for each client.

Trans-Edit Group has formalized and certified the translation process with the authority of its ISO 9001:2008 certification, organizing it into the following sequential steps: Pre-translation layout, translation by mother-tongue language experts, specialist editing, proofreading, post-translation layout and final quality control.

Depending on the type of text, further services include post-editing and stylistic rewriting, scientific review, localization, typesetting, printing or supply of multimedia supports.

Translation as a product is a written text in a target language as the end result of a translation process for a source-language text.

Get quality help now
WriterBelle
WriterBelle
checked Verified writer

Proficient in: Certification

star star star star 4.7 (657)

“ Really polite, and a great writer! Task done as described and better, responded to all my questions promptly too! ”

avatar avatar avatar
+84 relevant experts are online
Hire writer

The translator is mainly a “message conveyor. ” Thus a translation may be understood as the process whereby a message which is expressed in a particular source language is linguistically transformed in order to be understood by readers of the target language. Actually, the translator is conveying the meaning expressed by the original writer so the end reader gets a translated text that is faithful to the source text in meaning.

What is translation? Describe brief history of translation. Definitions of translation: * The process of translating words or text from one language into another: "Constantine's translation of Arabic texts into Latin".

Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper
Topic
Number of pages
Email Invalid email

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

"You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy"
Write my paper

You won’t be charged yet!

* A written or spoken rendering of the meaning of a word, speech, book, or other text, in another language. Term translation refers to several meanings: * It refers to general subject field * The text that has been translated * process What is translation? Translation is the transmittal of written text from one language into another.

Although the terms translation and interpretation are often used interchangeably, by strict definition, translation Refers to the written language, and interpretation to the spoken word. Translation is the action of interpretation of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent text, also called a translation, that communicates the same message in another language. The text to be translated is called the source text, and the language it is to be translated into is called the target language.

Translation must take into account constraints that include context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms. A common misconception is that there exists a simple word-for-word correspondence between any two languages, and that translation is a straightforward mechanical process. A word-for-word translation does not take into account context, grammar, conventions, and idioms. History of translation The practice of translating is long established, the study of the field developed into an academic discipline only in the second half of the twentieth century.

Before that, translation had normally been merely an element of language learning in modern language courses. In fact, from the late eighteenth century to the 1960s, language learning in secondary schools in many countries had come to be dominated by what was known as the grammar-translation method. This method, which was applied to classical Latin and Greek and then to modern foreign languages, centered On the rote study of the grammatical rules and structures of the foreign Language.

In the USA, translation - specifically literary translation - was promoted in universities in the 1960s by the translation workshop concept. Based on I. A. Richards's reading workshops and practical criticism approach that began in the 1920s and in other later creative writing workshops, these translation workshops were first established in the universities of Iowa and Princeton. They were intended as a platform for the introduction of new translations into the target culture and for the discussion of the finer principles of the translation process and of understanding a text. Comparative literature:

Where literature is studied and compared transnationally and transculturally, necessitating the reading of some literature in translation. Contrastive analysis: Another area in which translation became the subject of research was contrastive analysis. This is the study of two languages in contrast in an attempt to identify general and specific differences between them. Conclusion: The practice of translating is long established but translating studies is a new academic discipline related to the study of the theory and phenomena of translation. This new discipline was established almost 50 years ago.

Sometimes the translator finds it necessary to reconsider the original wording for better understanding of the source text in order to render it in the target language. When dealing with a translation, one of the processes included in the work is the analysis of the ST. This analysis, called TOSTA (Translation Oriented Source Text Analysis), helps us discover the function of the text, the target readers (with different levels of knowledge and different ages), as well as “ST elements that need to be preserved or adapted in translation” (Nord 1991: 21). The translation process is of twofold:

  • The translator needs to detect possible modifications and flaws in the original text and understand the meaning they intend to convey. To do this, the translator often needs to be familiar with the contents of the text in order to clarify the ambiguities he has come across.
  • The translator will unwrap the syntactic structure of the original text and then formulate the corresponding message in the target language, thus giving the original text added value in terms of both wording and impact.

Phases of Translation

  • The First Phase: Analysis of the source text.
  • The Second Phase: Transfer of the text into the target language.
  • The Third Phase: Revision of translation.

Analysis of the source text

The goal of this stage is complete understanding of the SL text. This may include a number of steps:

  1. General Reading of the source text.
  2. Underlining the difficult words.
  3. Looking up the difficult words in a dictionary.
  4. Close reading of the source text after understanding the difficult words.

Transfer of the text into the target language

At this stage, the translator tries to write a draft translation following certain steps:

  1. Writing a draft translation of the text in the target language.
  2. Paying special attention to the grammar and spelling of the target text.
  3. Including all the details mentioned in the source text.
  4. Trying to make the target text as original as possible and sound natural not translated.

Revision of the translation

This stage aims at giving a correct and final translation as a target text. Revising of the translation when it is completed and trying to make it better by editing it:

  1. Make sure that all the details of the source text are found in the target text.
  2. Check the spelling and grammar of the target text.
  3. Try to make the translated version sounds natural in its target language form.
  4. Read the translation after finishing the corrections without referring to the source text to emphasize the naturalness of the target text.

Levels of the Process of Translation

In fact, Newmark asserts that the process of translation operates in four levels:

  • source text level: the source text itself and its immediate impression on the translator.
  • Referential level: the level of content of the text (technically the level of the conceptual representation) .
  • Cohesive level: the level where you aim at making a cohesive target text (and analyze the cohesion of the source text).
  • level of naturalness: the level of constructing a natural target text in an appropriate language.

The textual level

At this level, you translate, or transpose, the syntactic structures of the source text into corresponding structures in the target text. Often you will find that, for a variety of reasons, you will have to change these structures into something quite different further down the line to achieve target language naturalness.

The referential level

As mentioned above, this is the level of content, so here you operate primarily with the message (or information) or semantics of the text. This is where you decode the meaning of the source text and build the conceptual representation. This is where you disambiguate polysemous words and phrases and where you decode idioms and figurative expressions. This is where you figure out whether what the locution(s) and illocution(s) of the source text are and what the perlocution might be.Once you have decoded the word or expression in question, you encode it into an appropriate target language expression. Note that there will be cases, like idioms and metaphors, in which you will have to use literal expressions in the target language, because it does not have any corresponding idioms or metaphors. The referential level and the textual level are, of course, closely intertwined, as the nature and texture of the source text convey the message, and, of course, you also encode the message, using language, into the target text.

The cohesive level

The cohesive level links the textual and the referential levels in that it deals with the structure/format of the text and information as well as with what Newmark calls the mood of the text. At the structural sublevel, you investigate how various connectors, such as conjunctions, enumerations, repetitions or reiterations, definite articles and determiners, general category labels, synonyms, punctuation marks, simple or complex conjuncts, link sentences and structure the text and what Newmark calls its train of thought – which is basically its underlying information structure. You establish its tone by finding so-called value-laden and value-free passages, such as subjective and objective bits, euphemisms, and other framing devices, framing being the strategy of linguistically presenting something in the perspective of one's own values and worldview, in a way promoting these. All of this will have to be somehow transferred into the target text so you achieve maximal equivalence at this level .

The level of naturalness

This level is target text oriented, focusing exclusively on the construction of the target text. Random, unpredictable things that just seem unnatural in the target language makes things more complicated as naturalness often depends on the situation, such that something might seem natural in one context but unnatural in another. Perhaps, the only way, to ensure naturalness is to read through your translation and spot unnaturally sounding parts and change them into something that sounds more natural. This is something that most people skip when they do translations.

References

  1. Kim Ebensgaard Jensen, Basics of Translation, The process of translating– spring 09. Newmark, Peter,1988
  2. A textbook of translation. Prentice-Hall International (New York).
  3. Nord, C. (1991). Text analysis in translation: Theory, methodology and didactic application of a model for translation-oriented text analysis.
Updated: Jul 07, 2022
Cite this page

Language Translation as a Process. (2016, Sep 18). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/language-translation-as-a-process-essay

Language Translation as a Process essay
Live chat  with support 24/7

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

get help with your assignment