GRAPHIC EQUIVALENCE IN TRANSLATED TEXTS:
A STATISTICAL APPROACH
Ljuba Tarvi
Abstract. This paper presents a model of measuring equivalence between a source text
and its translation(s), which makes possible their comparison without resorting to
subjective impressions and prescriptive practices. The model, tentatively termed
Graphic Equivalence Method (GEM), is a systematic measuring of the ST – TT(s)
equivalence based on the use of simple statistics. The approach could be seen as
‘positive statistics’ as it is based on looking not for what is lost but for what is retained
in translation(s). The method will be used here to demonstrate the evolution of Vladimir
Nabokov’s translation strategy by comparing his three translations of the same poetic
text made at various periods of time. The method has been devised as a means of
comparative analysis of the English translations of Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse
Eugene Onegin for my post-graduate research work. This paper is the first attempt to
present the model, and, doubtless, the idea needs further elaboration.
1. Introduction
When examining both critical reviews and theoretical surveys aimed at unifying
various approaches to assessing and comparing translated texts (e.g. James S. Holmes
[1988], André Lefevere [1975, 1992], George Steiner [1975, 1989], Robert Wechsler
[1998], Douglas Hofstadter [1997]), one gets an impression that the only commonly
employed systematic approach might be termed ‘studying the patterns of
error-making’, and it consists of (1) creating a corpus of translators’ errors and ‘shifts’,
(2) discovering categories of the latter, and (3) converting the obtained abstractions into
a theory (Hofstadter 1996: 414). The approaches to the comparative analysis of several
translations of one text seem to share the same drawbacks, well described as follows:
Though there are many critical comparisons of original source language text and
one target language translation, no formalized means exists for assessing the
relative merits of two or more translations of the same poetic text, and of
presenting that assessment to readers of the target language who are not familiar
with the source language. Without such a means judgements — including many
publishers’ judgements — remain acts of faith; debate is limited to the translators
themselves and conducted often in largely subjective terms; the uninitiated must
judge translated poems for their intrinsic artistic merit alone and not for their
‘closeness’ to the original. (Cook et al. 1989)
In my view, the basic problems of comparing translations cluster around the following
‘centers of gravity’: (1) selecting material for analysis; (2) framing, or choosing a unit
of comparison and a systemic frame of reference to compare translations; (3) profiling,
or summarizing the obtained results; and (4) subjectivity and value judgements.
Below I shall briefly consider each of the above problems and offer my ideas for
overcoming the difficulties outlined. As counter-argument material, I will use
quotations from a recent work in comparative translation studies of poetic texts, Efim
Etkind’s “Wine or Vinegar (On the Translatability of Poetry)” (1997).
(1) Selecting, one of the biggest challenges in comparative studies, means reducing the
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amount of the material to be compared to a manageable size. The problem to solve is:
Which portion of the linguistic data of the ST is to be selected for solving the
problem(s) posed? On the one hand, the selected section should be small enough to
allow its analysis; on the other hand, it should be representative of the text as a whole.
Etkind, for instance, selected one stanza of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, the dedication to
the novel, nowhere in the text indicating his reasons for the choice. I believe that any
part of an integral translated work can be selected for analysis provided the reasons for
the choice are made explicit, otherwise there is a temptation to select those excerpts
which would ensure that pre-planned results are obtained.
(2) Framing concerns selecting analytical tools and parameters of comparison. The
problem to solve is: What is the correct structure for representation of the chosen ST
portion so that its relevant comparison with its TT counterpart is ensured for solving the
problem(s) posed? In his comparative study, Etkind starts with a detailed description of
the ‘architecture’ of the seventeen-line stanza from the viewpoint of its semantic,
semantic-syntactic, prosodic, and rhyme/sound segmentation (1997: 269-270). As a
frame of reference, the description seems to be systematic and multi-faceted.
An essential preliminary step is determining the basic entity with which to operate.
Since in this case study I have to do with a poetic text, I have to monitor not only the
semantic but also the poetic side of the matter. I choose, therefore, the two frames of
comparison, hereafter referred to as content and form frames, each built on its own unit
of comparison. Following Vinay & Darbelnet, who believe that translators have to be
concerned more with semantics than structure, the unit of translation I postulate here for
content framing is a lexicological unit, i.e. a word as a graphic unit, viewed here as a
section of a written text flanked on both sides by empty spaces or punctuation signs,
hereafter referred to as a ‘token’. The unit of translation I postulate here for poetic form
framing is a poetic line.
In an attempt to be systematic in framing, I have borrowed from Vinay & Darbelnet the
idea of ‘segmentation’, or numbering the ST and TT units, which makes it possible to
verify that every unit has been translated. Therefore, I start my way of measuring the ST
– TT(s) equivalence by consecutively numbering every graphic unit, or token, in the
original text, following the strict policy ‘one token, one number’.
‘Equivalence’ is a loaded term in translation studies, one of those ubiquitous notions
“roughly understood as a translation’s capacity to be received as if it were the source
text” (Pym 1998: 156) that have become well-worn through overuse. (For a concise
overview of the concept of equivalence in translation studies see Chesterman 1998:
16-27.) Time and again, translation theorists, philologists and philosophers have tried
to oppose terminology like similarity, analogy, adequacy, invariance and congruence,
only to go on to redefine ‘equivalence’ for their own concepts. In my approach, my goal
is to estimate the relative distance between a set of TTs and their original by finding the
position of each TT on a certain ‘continuum of fidelity’ as regards the ST.
One of the advantages of the method I propose is its modular design, which allows one
to include any number of aspects (modules) of comparison, each calculated as a
proportion per hundred. If several frames are used to monitor one linguistic plane, the
general result is expressed as the arithmetic mean of the percentages of the
corresponding modules.
(3) Profiling is the comparison proper, which is carried out after the framework has
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been outlined. The question to solve is: How much of the representation model of the
chosen ST portions overlaps with those of its translated counterpart? Etkind, having
presented his frame of reference, proceeds to compare some translations of the selected
stanza into German (by Commichau, Brown, Bush, Keil), French (by Perot), and
English (by Arndt, Johnston). His comments, however, are unevenly distributed among
the compared translations and reduced to remarks like “the segmentations noted in the
original are recreated” (274), “[the translation] limps a bit” (275), “the translation is
clumsy and can be read only with difficulty” (275), etc. Therefore, the systematic
approach for comparison outlined in the introductory part of his article remains
unrealized in his paper.
Within the Graphic Equivalence approach, the profile obtained when comparing any
frame of reference with that of its translated counterpart(s) is expressed in terms of
figures. The idea of employing figures for monitoring the ST – TT(s) equivalence was
prompted by Nabokov’s remark: “Promoters and producers of what Anthony Burgess
calls ‘arty translations,’ carefully rhymed, pleasantly modulated versions containing,
say, eighteen per cent of sense plus thirty-two of nonsense and fifty of neutral padding
…” (1966: 80). Presenting the obtained results in terms of figures, which express what
share of the elements has been retained, makes it possible to compare translations in an
objective way.
(4) No critic of translated texts can be impartial. Some bitter remarks on certain
drawbacks of particular translations sometimes turn into prolonged critical battles, such
as, for instance, Matthew Arnold’s carping at Francis Newman’s rhymed translation of
Homer in his Lectures on English Literature (1860), or Edmund Wilson’s attack on
Nabokov’s literal Eugene Onegin in “The Strange Case of Pushkin and Nabokov”
(1965).
If we return to Etkind’s analysis, one of his typical conclusions goes: “Busch’s
translation has many weaknesses, and is vastly inferior to Keil’s. Nevertheless, in spite
of everything, it possesses more vitality, and even more similarity to the original, than
Braun’s prosaic ‘treatise’” (276). I would again like to quote Thomas, who expressed
what seems to be a rightful claim of the translator who spent years “weighing every
word, every phrase, in terms of its sense and its place in the rhythmic structure of the
poem” (1982: 23). This is how the translator concludes his ‘defense’ against the critic:
“[Simon Karlinsky] has every right to dislike my translations and to say so; he has no
right to question my integrity on the basis of that dislike. One part of his denigration is
based on a value judgement; the other part is based on nothing at all …” (1982: 24).
In contrast, the Graphic Equivalence method, systematic not only in its framing but also
in its profiling stage, works without evaluative words. As will be shown below, its
results can be presented as simple graphs or tables.
2. The Graphic Equivalence Method
When elaborating my theoretical framework, I followed the commonsensical approach
of the following kind: “The basic ideas are these: if one wanted to be somewhat
simple-minded about linguistic communication, one would perhaps describe it as
involving two things: (1) picking out some entity in the world; (2) saying something
about that entity” (Allwood et al.: 132). As applied to translation studies, the problem
can be reformulated as follows: if one wanted to be somewhat simple-minded about an
ST-TT comparison, one would perhaps describe it as involving four things: (1) picking
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out some entity in the ST; (2) finding its TT counterpart; (3) describing them both
within the same framework; (4) comparing the resulting ST and TT descriptions.
Having determined my goals, I start framing the chosen text (2.1.1) in terms of two
basic units of comparison, a graphic unit, or a token (2.1.2) and a poetic line (2.1.3).
The first step is a consecutive numbering of all the ST tokens. The next step is to look
for their TT counterparts in terms of semantics, which, if found, get the numbers of
their ST counterparts. There are few cases when, in a given context, a word has an exact
counterpart in another language, i.e. when there is one signified for two signifiers, as,
for instance, knife and couteau in the context of table knife (Vinay & Darbelnet 1995:
12-13). Within the basic frame of comparison based on semantic equivalence, there can
be various relations between a single ST token and its TT counterpart. In this case
study, there are, in terms of Vinay & Darbelnet, simple units (a single ST token
corresponds to a single TT one, e.g. strasti > passions), and diluted units (a single ST
token corresponds to more than one TT token, e.g. nozhki > little feet) (for a detailed
classification of such correlations see Vinay & Darbelnet 1995: 22-27).
When both ST and its TTs have been compared semantically and their counterparts, if
retained in translation, have been labeled with the corresponding ST numbers, we can
proceed to the comparison proper. The source text, in all the totality of its numbered
tokens, is always 100%, while the results for every TT are calculated in terms of
percentages of their overlapping with the ST. The approach does not imply that more
retained elements means a better translation, but rather that the more elements coincide,
the closer, or more equivalent, the translated text is to the original in terms of the chosen
linguistic level.
2.1 Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin and Vladimir Nabokov
As Nabokov once famously noted, “Onegin has been mistranslated into many
languages” (1955: 505). The first complete authorized edition of the novel in verse
Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin (1799 – 1837) was published in 1837, shortly
before the author’s untimely death in a duel. The first complete English translation
appeared in 1881, and since then the novel has been translated into English eighteen
more times, with every translation but the one by Vladimir Nabokov (1964) preserving
the poetic form of the original. In 1975, Nabokov published a revised version of his
literal translation, having emphasized his determination to violate the poetic form of the
original to an even greater extent in order to make the sense clearer. But Nabokov had
not always been a staunch defender of the literal way of translating Eugene Onegin. In
1945, he had published his rhymed translation of three stanzas of Chapter One,
XXXII-XXXIV.
2.1.1 Selecting
For the present study, I selected the last six lines (9-14) of Stanza XXXIV as Nabokov
translated them in 1945, 1964, and 1975. The choice is prompted by the considerations
of space and by a richer rhyme pattern at the end of the Onegin stanza structure. The
aim of the study is to demonstrate the working of the Graphic Equivalence method by
monitoring, albeit on the limited material of the selected lines, the dynamics of
Nabokov’s evolution as translator.
2.1.2 Content equivalence
‘Meaning’ is, of course, a problematic term. In the present analysis, I neither
distinguish among different levels of a word meaning, nor consider whether a word has
4
been translated well, but first simply check if the word (token) has been translated at all.
To this end, in my first frame (Column I), I start with a consecutive numbering of all the
25 tokens of the chosen lines of the original, which allows me to accomplish two tasks:
(1) to make a complete inventory of my linguistic material and (2) to use the same
numbers for denoting the TT counterparts, if the tokens in question have been retained
in translation.
As I have mentioned earlier, depending on the purposes, frames of any kind can be used
in comparative analysis within the model. Since the goal of this paper is to demonstrate
the abilities of the method, I will build another frame to depict the degree of the
linguistic ‘make-up’ preserved in the retained tokens, i.e. such grammatical features as
their word class and syntactic function (column II). There are, therefore, the following
two aspects to be considered in the present analysis.
Token equivalence (TE): column I in the frame below indicates if any given numbered
token has been retained in translation at all. If it has, irrespective of the way it has been
done either stylistically or grammatically, its number is presented in the column.
Formal equivalence (FE): column II indicates which of the retained tokens preserve the
same grammatical features as their original counterparts, irrespective of their stylistic
peculiarities. For instance, both Nabokov’s translations of the word strasti, i.e. passions
and emotions, are considered retained because grammatically they are plural forms of
nouns, as in the original. Translation by a singular noun or conversion into a verb would
mean non-appearance of the code for strasti in column II. If, therefore, the retained
token is rendered by the same part of speech expressed in the same grammatical
category, its number is presented in the column.
Next I present the frames of the original and of Nabokov’s versions of 1975, 1964, and
1945, framed in the way described above. If in one of the TTs below, more than one
English word is used to retain a single Russian token, the English counterpart is
underlined: ‘Tis enough to render the Russian pólno which is a shortened form of the
adjective pólnyi meaning full; haughty ones to translate the Russian substantivized
adjective nadménnye; are (not) worth for the Russian expression (ne) stóyat; and little
feet to render the Russian nózhki, since in Russian nogá is both a leg and a foot, while
nózhka is a diminutive to refer to a finely shaped woman’s foot.
One: XXXIV (9-14) (Alexander Pushkin)
9. (1)No (2)pólno (3)proslavlyát’ (4)nadménnykh
10. (5)Boltlívoj (6)líroyu (7)swoéj;
11. (8)Oni (9)ne (10)stóyat (11)ni (12)strastéj,
12. (13)Ni (14)pésen, (15)ími (16)vdokhnovénnykh:
13. (17)Slová (18)i (19)vzór (20)volshébnits (21)síkh
14. (22)Obmántchivy … (23)kak (24)nózhki (25)íkh.
Nabokov (1975)
I (TE)
II (FE)
9. (1)But (2)‘tis enough (3)extolling
(4)naughty ones
1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4
10. with (7)my (5)loquacious (6)lyre:
7, 5, 6
7, 5, 6
5
11. (8)they (9)are (10)not worth (11)either
the (12)passions
8, 9, 10, 11, 12
8, 9, 10, 11, 12
12. (13)or (14)songs by (15)them
(16)inspired;
13, 14, 15, 16
13, 14, 15, 16
13. the (17)words (18)and (19)gaze of
(21)these (22)bewitchers
17, 18, 19, 21,
20
17, 18, 19, 21,
20
14. (22)are as deceptive (23)as (25)their
(24)little feet.
22, 23, 25, 24
22, 23, 25, 24
25 (out of 25)
25 (out of 25)
100%
100%
Nabokov (1964)
I (TE)
II (FE)
9. (1)But (2)‘tis enough (3)extolling
(4)naughty ones
1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4
10. with (7)my (5)loquacious (6)lyre:
7, 5, 6
7, 5, 6
11. (8)they (9)are (10)not worth (11)either
the (12)passions
8, 9, 10, 11, 12
8, 9, 10, 11, 12
12. (13)or (14)songs by (15)them
(16)inspired;
13, 14, 15, 16
13, 14, 15, 16
13. the (17)words (18)and (19)gaze of
(21)the said (22)charmers
17, 18, 19, 21,
20
17, 18, 19, 20
14. (22)are as deceptive (23)as (25)their
(24)little feet.
22, 23, 25, 24
22, 23, 25, 24
25 (out of 25)
24 (out of 25)
100%
96%
Nabokov (1945)
I (TE)
II (FE)
9. (1)But really, (7)my (5)loquacious (6)lyre
1, 7, 5, 6
1, 7, 5, 6
10. (3)has lauded (4)haughty belles too long
3, 4
11. – for (8)they (10)deserve (11)neither the
(14)song,
8, 10, 11, 14
8, 10, 11
12. (13)nor the (12)emotions (15)they
(16)inspire:
13, 12, 15, 16
13, 12
13. (19)eyes, (20)words – all their
(22)enchantments cheat
19, 17, 22
17
6
100%
100%
14. as much (23)as do (25)their (24)pretty
feet.
23, 25, 24
23, 25, 24
20 (out of 25)
14 (out of 25)
80%
56%
68%
I will now explain the way I calculate the results using the example of the last frame
above, that for Nabokov (1945). Column I, called Token Equivalence (TE) above, lists
the tokens which are retained semantically, i.e., irrespective of their stylistic, syntactic,
morphological, etc. features. By this parameter, Nabokov has lost five ST tokens: 2, 9,
18, 20, and 21. Token 20 is retained in both later versions, as charmers in Nabokov
(1964) and as bewitchers in Nabokov (1975), but in the rhymed version, the translator
changes the doers of the action, charmers, into an instrument, enchantments, which
substitution results in the loss of token 21, which is the determiner of token 20,
translated as their in 1945 and turned later into the said (1964) and these (1975). Token
9, which is a grammatical negation in the ST fully retained in both later versions, is lost
in the rhymed version because here Nabokov uses the lexical negation neither … nor,
which in English precludes, unlike the case in the Russian language, the use of the
second negation, not. Token 18 is the connector and, omitted to preserve the syllable
count in the line. Finally, token 2, rendered in later versions as ’tis enough is translated
here as really which does not, at least in my view, convey the semantic value of the
token. Thus, Nabokov retained 20 tokens out of 25, which results in 80% of semantic
faithfulness.
Let us now have a closer look at column II, called Formal Equivalence (FE) above,
which lists those of the retained tokens which preserve the grammatical features of the
original, e.g., part of speech, gender, number, etc. In this frame, Nabokov loses six
more tokens: 3, 14, 15, 16, 19, and 22. Tokens 14 and 19, song and eyes (1945), are in
the two later versions rendered in the same number as in the original, as songs and gaze,
respectively; tokens 15 and 16, they inspire (1945) are rendered in both later versions in
the passive voice, as in the original, by them inspired; token 3, has lauded, has later
been replaced with extolling, like the ST impersonal form; token 22, cheat, is later
rendered, as in the original, as are deceptive. Therefore, in the formal frame, Nabokov
retained 14 tokens out of 25, which comprises 56% of the original.
2.1.3 Form equivalence
Since the analyzed text is poetic, it has to be examined as regards its poetic form as
well. In this kind of analysis, the focus of attention is such structural elements of the
whole text as its segmentation into lines and the endings of the lines, the rhymes. I first
examine how closely the translator has been able to retain the components of the
Onegin stanza, which is an intricate sonnet form characterized by strict laws of
construction. The selected lines are described in terms of the most common prosodic
parameters: rhyme pattern (RP) and syllable count (SC), which are characterized
below.
Column I (rhyming pattern, RP). Each Onegin stanza has a fixed pattern of feminine
(female or double) rhymes designated here by capital letters, which terminate in one
unstressed syllable (lyre / inspire), and masculine (male) rhymes, designated here by
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small letters, which terminate in a stressed syllable (long / song). The part of the Onegin
stanza considered here has the following rhyme scheme: AbbA cc, displaying a
sandwiched pattern for a quatrain (AbbA), crowned by a closing couplet (cc).
Column II (syllable count, SC). Each full stanza consists of alternating eight- or
nine-syllable lines. In the six lines of the ST excerpt, the selected lines exhibit the
following regularity: 9889 88. The table below presents the frames of the chosen six
lines in the original and as translated by Nabokov in 1975, 1964, and 1945, starting
from his latest and most exact version.
One: XXXIV (9-14) (Alexander Pushkin)
I (RP)
II (SC)
9. No pólno proslavlyát’ nadménnykh
A
9
10. Boltlívoj líroyu swoéj;
b
8
11. Oní ne stóyat ni strastéj,
b
8
12. Ni pésen, ími vdokhnovénnykh:
A
9
13. Slová i vzór volshébnits síkh
c
8
14. Obmántchivy … kak nózhki íkh.
c
8
6 (100%)
6 (100%)
Nabokov (1975)
I (RP)
II (SC)
9. But ‘tis enough extolling naughty ones
a
10
10. with my loquacious lyre:
B
7
11. they are not worth either the passions
C
9
12. or songs by them inspired;
B
7
13. the words and gaze of these bewitchers
D
9
14. are as deceptive as their little feet.
e
10
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
Nabokov (1964)
I (RP)
II (SC)
9. But ‘tis enough extolling naughty ones
a
10
10. with my loquacious lyre:
B
7
11. they are not worth either the passions
C
9
12. or songs by them inspired;
B
7
13. the words and gaze of the said charmers
D
9
14. are as deceptive as their little feet.
e
9
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
8
Nabokov (1945)
I (RP)
II (SC)
9. But really, my loquacious lyre
A
9
10. has lauded haughty belles too long
b
8
11. – for they deserve neither the song,
b
8
12. nor the emotions they inspire:
A
9
13. eyes, words – all their enchantments cheat
c
8
14. as much as do their pretty feet.
c
8
6(100%)
6(100%)
When comparing the frame of every translation with that of the original, one can, for
instance, see that the zero result in columns I (rhyme type) and II (syllable count) in
Nabokov (1964, 1975) means that neither rhyme type nor syllable count have been
retained there in a single line, while in his earliest version of 1945 Nabokov preserved
both parameters in every line, which amounts to 100% of faithfulness.
3. Discussion
The table below presents the obtained results, expressed in percentages and arithmetic
means (totals), scored in the three Nabokov versions in all the categories considered.
FORM (%)
TOTAL
I (RP)
II (SC)
Nabokov (1945)
100
100
Nabokov (1964)
0
Nabokov (1975)
0
TOT
AL
CONTENT (%)
I(TE)
II(FE)
100
80
44
68
0
0
100
96
98
0
0
100
100
100
To profile Nabokov’s changing translation strategy graphically, the obtained results
can be presented as the scheme below. The translator moves from 100% of form (based
on line comparison) and 68% of content (based on token comparison) retention in 1945
to a dramatically different result in both literal versions, where 0% of the poetic form is
retained, but the content retention increases from 98% (1964) to 100% (1975).
FORM (LINE)
CONTENT (TOKEN)
9
Pushkin (1837)
100%
100%
Nabokov (1945)
100%
68%
Nabokov (1964)
0%
98%
Nabokov (1975)
0%
100%
In his striving to bring Pushkin closer to the Anglophone reader, Nabokov not only
changed the basic mode of translation from literary (1945) to literal (1964), but he also
found ways of perfecting his literal mode, which resulted in a somewhat closer fit in
terms of content (1975). During the heated polemics around his version of 1964,
Nabokov once remarked, “I have often been asked to allow the reprinting of my old
verse translations (such as the three stanzas in the Russian Review, 1945 [...]) and have
always refused since they are [...] lame paraphrases of Pushkin’s text” (Nabokov 1964:
16). Judging by the figures (68%), Nabokov’s paraphrases are not so ‘lame’.
Nonetheless, “a choice between rhyme and reason”, as Nabokov called his vacillations
between the modes of translation (1955: 505), was made in favor of ‘reason’. Guided
by the following two principles: (1) “I take literalism to mean ‘absolute accuracy’”
(1955: 510), and (2) “It is possible to translate Onegin with reasonable accuracy by
substituting for the fourteen rhymed tetrameter lines of each stanza fourteen unrhymed
lines of varying length, from iambic dimeter to iambic pentameter” (1955: 512),
Nabokov raised his semantic score from 68% (1945) to 98% (1964).
But the translator remained unsatisfied with his work: “My EO falls short of the ideal
crib. It is still not close enough and not ugly enough. In future editions I plan to
deflower it still more drastically” (1966: 80). And so he did. In his revised version of
1975, he set himself a double task: to achieve a closer line-by-line fit, and to refine the
vocabulary to clarify the difference between the same Russian words used in various
meanings (1975 (I): xiii). Even the present study, meant to demonstrate the Graphic
Equivalence method on the limited material of the selected lines, has revealed an
increase in the quantitative correspondence to the original from 98% to 100%.
4. Conclusion
To present the obtained results, I do not have to resort to any kind of evaluative
remarks, as the figures and tables are self-explanatory. One might argue that had the
selected parameters been different, the result could have been different too. True, but in
this case the compared texts would again have been considered under equal conditions
so as to reveal their correlation with a different frame of reference of the same original
text.
By choosing a printed word as a basic unit of comparison I facilitate easier handling of
the linguistic material, as this choice ensures both complete inventorying through
simple coding and presentation of the obtained results in percentages. The Graphic
Equivalence method, where ‘graphic’ denotes the way of presenting the results, and
‘equi-’ denotes a measure of ST-TT distance, might prove a useful, though not
all-embracing, tool for analyzing translated texts. The simplicity of the method, its
modular flexibility and high sensitivity make it suitable for solving both theoretical and
practical problems.
I would like to conclude with Nabokov’s words, “My method may be wrong but it is a
method, and a genuine critic’s job should have been to examine the method itself
instead of crossly fishing out [...] some of the oddities [...]” (1966: 84).
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E-mail: ljuba.tarvi@pp.inet.fi
REFERENCES
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From: The Electronic Journal of the Department of English
at the University of Helsinki (ISSN 1457-9960), Volume 1 (2001) Translation Studies
© 2001 Ljuba Tarvi
http://blogs.helsinki.fi/hes-eng/volumes/volume-1-special-issue-on-translation-studies/graphic-equivale
nce-in-translated-texts-a-statistical-approach-ljuba-tarvi/
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