Translation and Communicative Theory

• A communicative act has three dimensions: SPEAKER-message-AUDIENCE

• In the process of translation this scheme becomes more complicated:

• SPEAKER-message-TRANSLATOR-message-AUDIENCE

• Appearance of a translator raises the problem of adequacy and equivalence of the process of rendering.

• Translation as a communicative act deals with codes – a system of signs and rules of their combination which is designed for rendering a message.

• Linguistic units (sounds, letters, syllables, words, phrases) make a communicative channel between a speaker and a recipient.

• Language is a code of verbal exchanging of information.

Different languages = different codes

 

In the process of interlingual communication people used different codes. Translation is the process of decoding of the signs of SL and recoding them into the signs of TL

 

Theory of translation is divided into two parts:

1) General theory: basic rules which may be applied irrespectively of specific languages, genres, historical and cultural context.

2) Particular theories: special rules for specific

-Genres (prose, poetry, journalistic texts, etc.)

-Types (oral, writing, simultaneous, etc.)

-Languages (from Spanish into Ukrainian, from Arabic into French, etc.)

 

To be successful in both interpreting and writing translation the translator must:

• have sufficient word stock in SL as well as in TL

• know the grammar of TL

• use the syntax of TL properly

• be skilled in the translation technique and use dictionaries efficiently

• be aware of the material which he / she translates (have a notion about the field of knowledge)

A translator needs to have two kinds of knowledge:

1) Factual knowledge:

-Special terminology

-Resources available

-Foreign languages

2) Procedural knowledge:

-Methodology of translation

-Special approaches

Examples of wrong translations

• Translation of the name of the novel of Elena Tregubova from Russian into French in the newspaper “Le Courrier de Russie”: «Байки кремлевского диггера» (2004) Les velos d’un digger

• Translation a phrase from the Ukrainian sound-on-film (documentary):

He brought him to baptism. «Він привів його до баптизму».

Correct translation: «Він підвів його до хрещення (= прийняття християнства)».

 

Theory of translation is closely connected with:

• Contrastive linguistics

• Sociolinguistics

• Psycholinguistics

• Textual linguistics

• Semiotics

 

Translation and contrastive linguistics

• Contrastive linguistics is a practice-oriented linguistic approach that seeks to describe the differences and similarities between a pair of languages (hence it is occasionally called " differential linguistics"). Introduced by Robert Lado (1915-1995).

• Contrastive linguistics, which investigates correlations between functional elements of SL and TL, creates foundation for the theory of translation, but cannot be identified with it.

Translation and sociolinguistics

• Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of society (including cultural norms, expectations, and context) on the way languages used, and the effects of language use on society. Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of language: the focus of sociology of language is the effect of the society on the language, while the sociolinguistics focuses on language's effect on the society.

• Introduced by Luis Gauchat (1866-1942) and Thomas Callan Hodson (1871-1953)

Sociolinguistics consider translation as:

• reflection of the social world

• communicative process which is determined by society

• social norms for translation

Translations from other languages have an influence on the norms of TL (for example, vocabulary and phraseology of the biblical translations).