Translation procedures and methods.

The translating procedures, as depicted by Eugene A. Nida, well-known American linguist, are as follow:
Technical procedures:
- analysis of the source and target languages;
- a through study of the source language text before making attempts translate it;
- Making judgments of the semantic and syntactic approximations.
Organizational procedures:
constant reevaluation of the attempt made; contrasting it with the existing available translations of the same text done by other translators, and checking the text's communicative effectiveness by asking the target language readers to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reactions.

We can defines translation strategy as translator's potentially conscious plans for solving concrete translation problems in the framework of a concrete translation task. There are at least three global strategies employed by the translators: translating without interruption for as long as possible; correcting surface errors immediately; leaving the monitoring for qualitative or stylistic errors in the text to the revision stage.

Loescher defines translation strategy as "a potentially conscious procedure for solving a problem faced in translating a text, or any segment of it." As it is stated in this definition, the notion of consciousness is significant in distinguishing strategies which are used by the learners or translators.

Newmark mentions the difference between translation methods and translation procedures. He writes that, "while translation methods relate to whole texts, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of language". He goes on to refer to the following methods of translation:

• Word-for-word translation: in which the SL word order is preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context.
• Literal translation: in which the SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents, but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context.
• Faithful translation: it attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures.
• Semantic translation: which differs from 'faithful translation' only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text.
• Adaptation: which is 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.
• Free translation: it produces the TL text without the style, form, or content of the original.
• Idiomatic translation: it 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.
• Communicative translation: it 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 (1988b: 45-47).

Newmark writes of a continuum existing between "semantic" and "communicative" translation. Any translation can be "more, or less semantic—more, or less, communicative—even a particular section or sentence can be treated more communicatively or less semantically." Both seek an "equivalent effect." Zhongying, who prefers literal translation to free translation, writes that, "[i]n China, it is agreed by many that one should translate literally, if possible, or appeal to free translation."

In order to clarify the distinction between procedure and strategy, the forthcoming section is allotted to discussing the procedures of translating culture-specific terms, and strategies for rendering allusions will be explained in detail.