Article

"On Language, Translation and Comparative Stylistics"

Hafedh Brini
Meta : journal des traducteurs / Meta: Translators' Journal, vol. 45, n° 3, 2000, p. 491-496.

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 On Language, Translation
and Comparative Stylistics

hafedh brini
Institut supérieur des langues, Tunis, Tunisie

RÉSUMÉ
Le but de cette étude est de démontrer les rapports complexes entre les trois composan-
tes : langue, traduction et stylistique comparée. Ces différentes matières ne devraient pas
être confondues ; elles devraient plutôt être conçues et organisées compte tenu de leurs
buts respectifs et de leurs objectifs collectifs, conformément aux progrès réalisés dans
ce domaine.

ABSTRACT
This paper aims to show the complex relations between three components: language,
translation and comparative stylistics in a context of teaching foreign languages. These
different subjects should not be confused; they should rather be designed and organized
according to their individual aims as well as their collective objectives, so that we may
keep pace with the progress made in these fields.

MOTS-CLÉS/KEYWORDS
interpreting, transcoding, cognitive, contrastive, communicative

I. Introduction
Teaching foreign languages gives rise to pedagogical and theoretical problems that
need to be solved to ensure continuous improvement of the ways of teaching, a bet-
ter acquisition of language as well as knowledge by the students, and to enhance
scientific research in this field.
Students learning English as a foreign language, for instance, encounter various
difficulties. In addition to language per se, such as reading and writing skills, they are
taught civilization and culture studies and are expected to develop personal opinions
and attitudes in these matters. They are also taught translation from English into
their mother tongue — Arabic — and vice versa; later on, they should take other
courses such as translation theory and comparative stylistics.
The curriculum of the English Master’s being so comprehensive and diverse,
difficulties do exist either on the part of the student or the teacher. As for the student,
his learning is often slow and his writing skill is usually below his reading, mainly
because of a neglect of reading, a lack of reading methodology, or a failure to find the
connections between different subjects, enabling better exploration of interchange-
able data, ideas, expressions or formulations. In fact, aren’t students’ shortcomings in
writing linked to their reading problems? As translation unveils students’ problems
in the comprehension of English texts, the course should help them to acquire a
good methodology in reading and understanding texts by stimulating conscious and
organized efforts.

Meta, XLV, 3, 2000

492 Meta, XLV, 3, 2000

Translation theory being at an early stage of development at the Arab level,

scholars and teachers conceive translation differently. They also hold opposing views
on translation theory and some even consider that comparative stylistics is simply
translation.
Drawing on the significant progress which is occurring in the West in these
branches of knowledge and on personal experience in teaching translation theory as
well as practice and research, I’ll try in this paper to dismantle the complex web
linking the three components: language, translation and comparative stylistics.

II. Language and translation

1. Language vs speech acts
One of the major issues that should be given careful consideration in teaching
English in an ELF context is the distinction between language and texts. In fact,
linguistic signs in any language are polysemous as they hold different significations
depending on whether they are used in a specific text or out of context.
Undergraduate students in particular tend to identify words with their most
potential meanings, ie their basic meanings. But while progressing in studying lan-
guage in various contexts and situations, they continuously discover that the mean-
ing of words and expressions is not so stable. It is only through hard work that they
may become aware of the fact that learning a foreign language is a hard endeavor
involving the acquisition of arbitrary and institutionalized differences.
When we move to another language, ideas are arranged and produced differ-
ently. To learn a foreign language is to make a trip to other habits, other forms of
thought and expression. The road is uneven and progress uncertain, since learning
“requires much initial submission” (Guénot 1971: 115) and builds up gradually as
the process organization is carried out.
To know a language is first and foremost to comprehend it; to comprehend is to
perceive and to perceive is to articulate. The more you perceive a language, the better
you speak it, and to speak it helps to perceive it… “As to meaning, it is felt before
being defined, attributed before being fixed” (Guénot 1971: 186).
Learners who persevere in this endeavor are really conscious of the distinction
between language and speech acts, while those who make the least effort and content
themselves with a minimum, delude themselves into believing that they have mas-
tered a foreign language. In brief, speech acts make language unlimited and our
knowledge of it always relative.

2. Translation vs linguistic interference

Linguistic interference occurs whenever a bilingual person uses in either language a
characteristic or a feature that is specific to the other language. So, linguistic interfer-
ence is usually produced spontaneously by the inevitable coexistence of two or three
different languages, especially among beginners. However, when teachers notice this
kind of error in the students’ writing, which is obviously due to interference from
Arabic or French, they very often call it “translation.” So, it is worthwhile to stress the
distinction between linguistic interference as a non deliberate phenomenon leading
 on language, translation and comparative linguistics 493

to a misleading “translation” or “transcoding,” on the one hand, and translation as a

linguistic and cognitive exercise revolving around interpretation and stimulating
conscious and organized efforts for a better command of English, on the other hand.
Some people might argue that this question of terminology does not matter; yet,
we are convinced that it makes all the difference, since terms, which are used to
express concepts, do not convey the same meaning to everybody as long as they are
not clearly and precisely defined.
Moreover, we strongly believe that the standardization of terminology in human
sciences can only improve understanding between teachers of different subjects and
enhance collaboration and interdisciplinary research.
Students can also benefit from this terminological issue. As far as a translation
course is concerned, students are initially sensitized to the connection of the course
with other courses, especially reading and writing. In addition to the prevailing no-
tion of translation, pertaining to the transmission of the author’s thought from one
language to another, students are acquainted with an equally important acceptance
of the process. It is translation in the same language, ie to express something in a
different, especially more concrete form, to judge or guess that something has the
specified meaning or intention.
Students are also invited to consult dictionaries to check the existence of this
second meaning in the three main languages they know: Arabic, English and French.
It is a simple way to explain to them that translation is embedded in any act of
communication, either in the same language or from one language to another, and
that a translation course is quite a remedy for linguistic interference.

3. The contribution of translation to language teaching

A translation course aims at helping students to acquire an efficient method in the
comprehension of texts, in order to translate them correctly into another language.
In fact, pedagogical translation consolidates the students’ ability to analyze texts in a
functional way enabling them to pinpoint the intended meaning, to acquaint them-
selves with their shortcomings or linguistic and cognitive problems, and acquire a
good methodology in dealing with such matters as word polysemy, context consider-
ation, dictionary consultation, language genius and usage…
Translation is overall a means of measure and check that helps students to acquire
a suitable degree of flexibility and accuracy in both comprehension and expression.

4. Translation theory
Given the communicative nature of translation, translation theory involves the gen-
eral principles that organize the procedure and explains the mental processes en-
abling the transfer of a text content from one language to another. It also covers the
most important issues raised in the field of translation, such as fidelity, the problem
of untranslatability, the relationship between translation and proximate disciplines
such as comparative stylistics, linguistics and terminology.
494 Meta, XLV, 3, 2000

III. Language and comparative stylistics

1. The objective of comparative stylistics

The objective of comparative stylistics is to study the stylistic characteristics of one
language in comparison with those of another one. This systematic study offers stu-
dents a better and deeper knowledge of the features that distinguish one language
from another.
Examples:
– To become penniless /aflasa/
– The Arabs have pioneered in many branches of science /kâna lilcarabi assabaqu fi:
Sattâ furuci al macrifati/
These are two cases of “transposition.”
In the first example, the verb /aflasa/ is expressed by a phrase in English, while in
the second example the verb “to pioneer” is replaced with a noun /assabaqu/ in Arabic.
– He was blown away /dhahaba adrâja arriyâhi/
This is a case of “modulation,” where each language describes the situation from
a different viewpoint. While English indicates the means (blown), Arabic does the
opposite: the result first /dhahaba/, then the means /adrâja arriyâhi/. Thus, we have a
“chassé-croisé”:
Means: blown /adrâja arriyâhi/
Result: /dhahaba/ away
– Give a pint of your blood /tabarrac biqali:lin min damika/
– Before you could say Jack Robinson /fi: tarfati cayn/
These are two cases of “equivalence” where two languages describe the same
situation by using quite different structural and stylistic means. In the first example,
the expression “to give a pint,” “pint” being a unit of measure for liquids equal to
about half a liter, is rendered into Arabic by the equivalent /tabarrac biqali:lin min/
which literally means “donate some of.”
In the second example, the English idiom “before you could say Jack Robinson,”
which means “very quickly or suddenly,” has an equivalent idiom in Arabic /Fi tarfati
c
ayn/ which means “in the twinkling of an eye.”

2. The scope and limits of comparative stylistics

According to Vinay and Darbelnet (1977), the three above-mentioned cases — trans-
position, modulation and equivalence — in addition to four others, which are bor-
rowing, tracing (“calque”), literal translation and adaptation, constitute the seven
techniques of translation. The authors of the book “Stylistique comparée du français
et de l’anglais” even consider comparative stylistics as a method of translation (notice
the expression, “méthode de traduction,” they put under the title on the first page).
It is undeniable that comparative stylistics is beneficial to students, since it en-
ables them to identify the characteristics which distinguish their mother language
from a foreign one, and hence to perceive the phenomena that endow each language
 on language, translation and comparative linguistics 495

with a peculiar genius. Yet, it is arguable that comparative stylistics can explain the
process of translation or set forth “laws valid to the two languages concerned” (Vinay
and Darbelnet 1977: 20).
Since the comparison of two languages requires primarily the performance of
translation, we can assert that comparative stylistics is subsequent to translation and
not prior to it. Therefore, the seven techniques are no more than means of comparison.
If we reconsider the example “he was blown away,” it appears that, to translate it
into Arabic, one would immediately look for its functional equivalent rather than
think of the “technique” to be used, whether it is transposition, modulation or
equivalence… As a matter of fact, if the translator fails to find the appropriate
equivalent in Arabic, /dhahaba adrâja arriyâhi/, it will be useless to know that this
kind of transfer is called “modulation” from a comparative viewpoint. The same
thing applies, of course, to the other techniques offered by comparative stylistics.
Moreover, comparative stylistics usually suggests only one equivalent among
several possible equivalents of a lexical unit or expression. In the previous example,
we can say in Arabic: /dhahaba adrâja arriyâhi/ as well as /casafat bihi arriyâhu/ or
/huwa fi: mahabbi arri:hi/, all of which are expressions with the same meaning.
Finally, it appears that comparative stylistics, which is mainly interested in estab-
lishing correspondences and equivalences in two languages, does not go beyond the
limit of language as a whole to reach the mobility of speech and usage.
Hence, it can neither foretell the most appropriate equivalents for expressions in
context nor embrace all potential cases of translation within the ever-renewable act
of communication. The field of translation is indeed far from being limited or con-
fined to linguistic facts, idiomatic expressions or correspondences that may consti-
tute the subject of a comparative study.

IV. Conclusion
It seems that “language” is an ambiguous notion holding a good many paradoxes.
Though it is naturally polysemous, it is being standardized in the various fields of
science; while it is unlimited because it is ceaselessly enriched by usage and speech
acts, one cannot draw on it to explain every linguistic process. It is our failure to
encompass it that generates such limits…
But at least one way out presents itself. Because language learning necessarily
involves several courses such as translation, translation theory and comparative
stylistics, these different subjects should not be confused; we should rather design
and organize them according to their individual aims as well as their collective objec-
tives, so that they contribute efficiently to the improvement of the students’ learning
of English as well as to the broadening of their overall knowledge.
In this paper, we have mainly explained that the function of comparative
stylistics is contrastive while that of translation theory and practice is communicative.

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