Translation Strategies
Ways of dealing with structural and
lexical differences between English
and Italian.
Malone’s Strategies
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Equation
Substitution
Divergence
Convergence
Amplification
Reduction
Diffusion
condensation
Reordering
By referring to these strategies translators can
justify adjustments of form depending on the
semantic, stylistic and communicative
requirements of the TT.
Equation: the soft translation option
• Equation: refers to some form of automatic equivalence.
• Loan words are the most obvious example, when the loan word
has the same referent in both languages: software, rap.
• Sometimes loan words can achieve equation even when the
equivalent term exists in two language.
e.g. rucola
• Calques:
e.g. dribblare, crossare, faxare
• Equation is, however, considered to be the default position. An
item should be translated by it’s clear one-to-one equivalent, unless
there is asemantic, pragmatic, culturally motivated or stylistic
reason for doing so.
• E.g. ‘man’ in Taylor (p.49)
Further reasons for abandoning
Equivalence
e.g. Lorenzo fermò la macchina e si voltò verso il giovane: ’Allora tu vieni su o vuoi restare qui?’
Lorenzo stopped the car and turned towards the youth: ‘Well, then, are you coming up or d’you want to
stay here?’
The continuous tense replace the simple present to express the imminent nature of the event.
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False cognates are the most well known examples of lexical items that require substitution because
despite their morphological similarities their meanings diverge.
e.g. editore/ editor (publisher).
Partial cognates can be translated with equation or substitution, depending on context:
(Taylor p.50)
e.g. direttore
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Abstractions
e.g. realtà Taylor (p.50-51)
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However it is important to remember that equation and word-for-word translation is justified where
cognates match in terms of meanings as well as morphology.
Literal translation should where possible be adopted, but in most translations others strategies are
needed.
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Substitution
• The implementation of a translation that bears
little or no morphological resemblance or
semantic relation to the ST.
• Often a feature of grammar (certain aspects of
verbs); prepositional phrases instead of Saxon
genitive.
• At a semantic level rather than a morphosyntactic one, proverbs, sayings and idiomatic
expressions often require substitution, songs (in
which rhyme and scanning plays a part). Taylor 53
Divergence
• Divergence consists in choosing a suitable
translation from a potential range of alternatives,
• e.g. girare
• Sempre/niente (see taylor p.53-p54)
• Grammatical paradigms:
e.g. dovesse succedere/ you’d better go early/
non serve lamentarsi (Taylor 54)
• As always contextual and co-textual clues help
translators in making the right use of divergence.
convergence
• Rendering a range of alternatives with a
single lexical item:
e.g. tu,Lei voi, Loro with ‘you’
commercialista, ragioniere, contabile, with
‘accountant’.
Amplification
• Requires the translator to add some element to the ST to facilitate
comprehension.
e.g. translator’s notes,
Though many additions are structural:
e.g. collocation gaps. When a single lexical item in one language requires a coselected collocate.
e.g. hanno interesse a tenere il prezzo basso/ a vested interest (Taylor p-55).
• Amplification often is required to decode certain ST items whose linguistic,
semantic, or cultural components may not be immediately clear.
• It is especially typical of proper nouns.
e.g. County lost four none/ (Taylor 55)
dopo Courtrai/ after the Battle of Courtrai
• It is also fairly frequent in technical and academic texts as an aid to
comprehension.
Reduction
• Reduction consist of omitting an element in
the TT text because it is regarded as
redundant, or even misleading.
e.g. carta geografica/ maps; globo terrestre/
globe /esporre in modo visibile/ display.
Diffusion
• While amplification and condensation refer to addition or subtraction of
elements to a lexical item, diffusion refers to providing elaboration to
bring out its meaning.
e.g. Magari!/ If only I could/ would that it were/ I wish that were the case.
e.g. Perfect conditional
La banda avrebbe rapinato altre tre banche
Requires use of the allegation form:
e.g. The gang is alleged/ said/ thought/ reported to have robbed three
other banks.
• The common imperfect form of dovere, in sentences like ‘doveva saperelo’,
needs diffusing to: he should have known that.
The same principle is at work when tackling certain Italian lexemes which
are count nouns in English and often require premodifying determiners
and prepositional phrases.
condensation
• This entails producing a more economic text in the TT.
e.g. A buon prezzo/ cheaply
far vedere/show
• When Italian is the TT, prepositional verbs are regularly condensed.
to make up for/ compensare
• A noted example of condensation is the use of compounding and
noun strings and univariate strings to translate corresponding
Italian sentences marked by verbs, adjectivals, and adverbial or
prepositional phrases.
e.g. Environmental Department Air Pollution Report Findings
scandal/ Lo scandalo suscitato dai risultati del rapporto del
Ministero dell’Ambiente sull’inquinamento dell’aria.
(see Taylor pp 58-59 for commonest types of compounds).