Module 02
Basic Concepts Relating to Translation
What’s Inside
Basic Definition and Concepts in Translation
Websters New World Dictionary
From Latin, translatus, transferred; used as a past
participle of transferre.
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To change from one place to another
- to change from one position, condition, transfer
To put into words of a different language.
To change into another medium or form (to translate
ideas into action)
To put into different words; rephrase or paraphrase in
explanation.
To retransmit (a telegraphic message) by means of an
automatic machine.
The Art of Translation
[Translation] is an exacting art that demands
creative expression, philosophical precision,
minute knowledge of historical and cultural
contexts, and a nuanced sense of style in both
the source and target languages.”
American Literary Translators Association, “Promotion and Tenure.”
Four Dimensions of Translation
“ Texts are not written in a vacuum. Like language,
literature pre-exists it practitioners. Writers are born into
a certain culture at a certain time. They inherit that
culture’s language, its literary traditions (its poetics), its
material and conceptual characteristics (microwaves and
the ideas of Freud in twentieth century American culture;
chamber-pots and the ideas of the Enlightenment in
eighteenth century England) – in a word its universe of
discourse – and its standards”
Andre Lefevere (1992): Translating Literature: practice and theory in
a comparative literature context. New York: Modern Language
Association of America, p. 86.
Culture:
“Culture is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, custom, and any
other capabilities and habits acquired by man as
a member of society.”
Edward B Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1871. Cited by. E.L. Schusky and
T.P Culbert (1978): Introducing Culture, Prentice-Hall, Englewood
Cliffs NJ, P. 5.
Ideology
“ An Ideology…derives from the taken-for-granted
assumptions, beliefs and value-systems which are
shared collectively by social groups. And when an
ideology is the ideology of particularly powerful social
group, it is said to be dominant. Thus, dominant
ideologies are mediated through powerful political and
social institutions like the government, the law and the
medical profession. Our perception of these institutions
moreover, will be shaped in part by the specific linguistic
practices of the social groups who comprise them.”
P. Simpson (1993), Language, Ideology and Point of View. London:
Routledge, p. 5.
Poetics
“A poetics can be said to consist of two
components: one is an inventory of literary
devices, genres, motifs, prototypical
characters and situations, and symbols:
the other a concept of what the role of
literature is, or should be, in the social
system as a whole”
Andre Lefevere (1992): Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of
literary Fame. London: Routledge, p. 86.