COLLETTIVO STRIKELAB

INGLESE I
A cura di Elvira Bruschi
 La traduzione: teorie e metodi
1. Translation
1.1 Introduction to the term “translation”
Translation is a very ancient activity: it has been used since the birth of civilization . Since the
beginning of Western culture, Greeks used translation specifically for practical purposes
considering they were not culturally interested in the languages of other peoples who were
defined barbarians. Based on that, terminology around translation wasn’t so precise nor technical
but a division is found between oral translation “ermeneuo” and written translation “metafero”.
Terminology became more rich and complex with Latins: translation was crucial to establish
relationship for economical and political reasons. For oral translation, words like “interpretatio”
can be found, based on Greek’s “ermeneuo”. A more complicated terminology is to be found for
written translation that was intended as a rhetorical exercise. The translation process was divided
into two operations mainly referred to “elocutio” (choice of words) and “dispositio” (order and
combination of words). Cicero, roman lawyer, writer and philosopher, was the first to understand
the difference between interpretes, that gives a word for word translation, and orator, that gives a
more original translation. According to Cicero, a word for word translation is unnecessary and
what’s really important is to reproduce the sense of the original text. Another great roman poet,
Horatius stated that a translation can be considered a work of art when it can grasp the meaning
of the text, enriches the language and it can be understood in the cultural context to which is
intended. He also understood the changeability of language and its continuous renovation (words
like leaves falling from trees). With Quintilian, roman educator and rhetorician, the most used
term for translation is “transferre”, a verb form which “translatio” comes.
With the advent of Christianity, theories behind translation increased thanks to the need to
spread the word of the Lord. The translation of the Bible was fundamental to the rise of vulgar
languages. The first translation of the Old Testament was by Saint Jerome. He distinguished two
ways of translating: interpretive translation for laic texts and literal translation for sacred texts to
preserve the mystery of faith contained in the order and choice of words.
In the Middle Ages, thanks to the spread of culture and exchanges and the phenomenon of
evangelization, the number of translations into vulgar languages increased.
The etymological process came to an end with the term “traducere”. It generated the family of
words “traducere, traductio, traductor” that spread all over the world.

1.2 What is translation?

A neutral definition of “translation”, formulated by the European Translation Platform, is: the
transposition of a message written in a source language into a message written in the target
language. Translating is the process of transforming one text (PROTOTEXT) into another text
(METATEXT) that has been written to interact with a culture other than the one in which it was
produced. This definition could be considered as optimistic, said George Steiner, well known
scholar of translation, because it’s impossible to give a precise answer to this question. To answer
this question, it’s necessary to shift from “what is translation” to “how to translate”, taking into
consideration the variety of aspects and actors involved in translation. Speaking of which, Peeter
Torop, semiotic scholar, states that any act of understanding is translation. He adds that is any
culture is written in a form of text and every text is a translation of that culture, every translation
from a language to another, it’s a translation from a culture to another.
[Roman Jakobson from Prague School of linguistic distinguished three types of translation:

• Intra-linguistic translation or reformulation: interpretation of linguistic signs by means of

other signs of the same language (same linguistic system of speaker and listener)
• Interlinguistic translation or proper translation: interpretation of linguistic signs by means
of another language (different language systems)
• Intersemiotic translation or transmutation: interpretation of linguistic signs by means of
non-linguistic systems (e.g., from a linguistic work of art to a non-linguistic one, like a book
to its film version)
What these three types of translation have in common is the impossibility of achieving complete
equivalence between the cultural and linguistic systems of the source text and the target text
because they are conditioned by extra-linguistic factors that are sometimes irreconcilable.]
Translation, as it is described by Torop, is a more complex cultural act and translators have to take
responsibility for not only linguistic mediation but also psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic,
philosophic and anthropologic mediation. In the translation process, the translator is located in
between the two languages with the task of capturing the information in the prototext and
transforming it into the metatext.

1.3 The translation process

Translation is the product of a creative act because it is the result of a series of decoding and
recoding operations at semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic levels. The translation process can be
divided in phases: first of all, there’s reading, followed by analysis which consists in the perception
of the text by the reader/translator; the third is the interpretation phase in which the translator is
called to make choices. The translator is called to give priority to certain aspects of the prototext
and leave others in the background. Because of this choices, there is no equivalence between the
original text and its translation: while it loses some elements form the prototext, the metatext also
gains some new meanings and solutions in another language and culture.
[The concept of “the dominant” is fundamental in the theory of translation. What is called “the
dominant” is the component on which the work is based and it’s the dominant that determines if
the original is interpreted and translated properly.]
Umberto Eco states that it is necessary to find the intention of the text, that is, what a work
expresses in itself beyond the intentions of those who produce it and those who read it. The
translator, in between this two culture, chooses the translation strategy, how the metatext is
going to adapt to the receiving culture and how the culture will receive it. Excluding any possibility
of equivalence, the translator can be oriented towards the principle of adequacy or principle of
acceptability theorized by translator Gideon Toury.
[Principle of adequacy: the translator concentrates on the distinctive features of the original text
adapting the metatext to the prototext. In this way, the translator does not take into account the
needs of the model reader.
Principle of acceptability: the translator produces an understandable text in which the language
and style are in full harmony with the linguistic conventions of the receiving culture. In this way,
the translator takes into account the needs of the model reader and adapts the prototext to the
metatext.
One principle does not exclude the other.]
The author must envision a possible model reader by projecting the prototext onto the reader.
The success of a text depends on the ability of the empirical translator to develop a textual
strategy suitable for many empirical readers, a text is incomplete without the intervention of a
reader who fills in the blanks with his inferential activity. In conclusion, the translation process is
very subjective: the translator can be seen as a negotiator between two culture and the result of
that negotiation is very creative and personal but the most important thing throughout the
process is coherence of methods.

2. Theory and history of translation

2.1 The Ancient’s ars vivendi
Since Ancient times, translation is important to the survival of work of art. The figures of the
interpreter and the translator are already present in the archaic civilizations. Many remains of
linguistic and plurilinguistic lists were discovered such as Rosetta stone. The role of the translator
in ancient Greece was not taken into great consideration because other languages of were learned
for commercial or practical purposes. After the death of Alexander, the Great, translation
flourished in the conquered lands and mostly in Alexandria.
With the conquest of Egypt by the Roman Empire, the cultural centre was moved to Rome. By
conquering and coloizing, the Roman empire hade the necessity to learn languages and to
promote plurilinguism: the imbalance between written and spoken Latin gave birth to Romance
language. Romans considered themselves as the heirs of Greeks. Latin works were based on
imitatio (imitation), contaminatio (contamination) and eamulatio (emulation). Major Latin authors
had their upbringing in Greece, in close relationship with translation activities. Two of the most
important theorists on translation were Cicero and Horatius, both against strict word for word
translation (cap.1 par.1.1). Other important theorist was Saint Jerome, translator of the Old
Testament. He distinguished laic from sacred translation, one meant to be more free and the
other more faithful to the original choice and order of words.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, political, economic and also linguistic unity was lost
and the vulgar language were born, initially in their oral form then as literal languages. The Church
had a fundamental role in protecting the diffusion of sacred text and also transcribing latin and
greek works. Another important step towards a more extended diffusion of knowledge would be
the invention of encyclopedia.

2.2 Vulgarize and translation in the Middle Ages

The translation activity improved in the Middle Ages thanks to “transmission studies” from greek
and latin works to medieval works: Cicero’s, Horatio’s and Jerome’s theories on translation were
rediscovered. The spread of Christianity also gave great impetus to all culture.
In Toledo, Spain, the first school of translation is born, around Ptolomeo’s and Averroè’s theories.
The Bible remained the most important text for written translation. The rising importance of
vulgar languages resulted in the necessity to translate more content in the most precise and
proper way. More than translation, it was a “vulgarization” of the original text.
With “vulgarization”, the distance between interpreter and author is reduced and translation goes
form word for word to imitation to actual transformation to the point where the two are two
different text.
Italy is the country in which it’s translated most of the classical and traditional works. It was
during these years that Dante wrote “De vulgari eloquentia” in which he praises vulgar language
and considers latin as an old and fixed way of writing. He also wrote during these years “Convivio”
that was impossible to translate word for word without losing the beauty of the language and that
poetry is untranslatable. For Dante, the entanglement of metric and music has a fundamental
value and, as it is, it’s difficult to translate without losing something in the process.

2.3 Humanism’s interpretactio recta

Humanism focused on the rediscovery of the classics and the activity of translation, ancient works
are read trying to understand the point of view of the writers. Humanist translator allowed us to
rebuild the history of translation and its terminology. Theories and routines on how to translate
properly are also developed in these years.
Many intellectuals in these period are led to move towards west and Hellenic cultural heritage
arrived in Italy. The first assay on modern translation is “De interpretactio recta” by Leonardo
Bruni, in which he talks about the role of the translator and the goals of the translation itself. In
his work, he stated that a good translator has to possess a prefect knowledge on both language
and to sink in deeply in the author’s style and spirit.

Translation, especially in protestant country, became a political weapon to attack the massive
power of the church. The use of Latin was progressively lost and the rising of national state
enabled the birth of national languages and literatures. Translations of the Bible were written to
make the word of God understandable, but they will all be condemned for heresy and put on the
index with public burning. An important translation of the Bible wold be the Luther’s translation
that began the schism of the Church. Luther’s goal was to “germanise” sacred text translating into
a version of the language that was close to the one that was spoken but distant to the dialect. This
translation allowed the development of the German language and the overall linguistic unity of
the region.

2.4 Imitation and translation in the Renaissance

the concept of imitatio dominates the culture of the Renaissance. Translations become imitations
and free adaptation made to demonstrate and show off the author's inventiveness through a new
language that can bring ancient texts back to life as if they were something new, for a new public.
Translation was then considered as a high exercise of style.
One of the first assays on Italian translation is “Dialogo de modo de lo tradurre” by Sebastian
Faustus de Longiano. He refused to choose between translation by meaning and word for word
translation.
Elizabethan translation was found on “naturalization” of the source text to make it appealing to
the modern readers. The poet Etienne Dolet, in short assay on translation named “La maniere de
bien traduire d’une langue en autre”, argued that the translator must be able to comprehend the
sense and spirit of the text and the topic involved. He also affirms that the translator is a
competent linguist who must follow rules such as not translating word for word and ordering
words appropriately to get the right tone.
Dolet’s theories are re-proposed by George Chapman who believed that translating a text word
for word was mortifying for the work itself and it was necessary to get the creativity of the
translator flow. He also asserted that the way to avoid making translations that are too free is to
study analyse previous versions by comparing them.

2.5 Interpreting in the 17th century (600)

France in the 17th century was the country in which translation had his most intensive activity.
Translators aimed to bring clarity to the division of positions: the target was clarity, harmony and
elegance to the form. They also brought to life the so called “belles infedeles”, translation in which
loyalty to the source text was not the priority while style and elegance should emerge. These
translations were in fact author’s presumption of improving the source text.
Another important figure in translation studies is Pierre Daniel Huet who opposed to the belles
infedeles in favour of a middle ground between loyalty to the sense and style and literary/poetic
licence. He also criticised the excessive narcissism of translators and anticipated some of later in
time themes like word’s ambiguity.
Speaking of English translation, the English poet Drydem enunciated his three types of translation:
metafrasi, meaning word for word translation, paraphrase, that is the translation by meaning, and
imitation in which the translator pulls away from the source text.
In this period, we witnessed the linguistic modernization of some classic work.
 2.6 Translation and genie des langues in the 18th century (700)
While the theories all remained the same, in the 18th century the first copyright law is created
and, thanks to that, all translations are recognized as independent works.
In France, Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d’Alembert pointed out the model to follow: an equal distance
must be maintained between excessive literalism and excessive freedom. Fundamental in his
theory is the genie of every language, which is the creativity that every language shows in relation
to his nation. According to Alembert, poetry is untranslatable.
Another leading figure in translation in the 18th century was Melchior Cesarotti who explained the
beneficial effects of translation that enables languages to evolve and be more dynamic and also
explained what he believes to be the impossibility of maintaining accuracy, words and spirit of the
opera at the same time when translating from a language to another.
A central place is occupied by the “Essay on the principles of translation” by Alexander Fraser
Tytler. In his work, Tytler summarized the long tradition of translation and the various positions on
it in time. The essay was not just a theoretical work: it contained applied theory, critics and
training for translators. Essential for Tytler was the comprehension of the author’s style and the
ability to express it fully using the principle that he defines as “easiness” (modern “fluency”): the
translator must be invisible in his translation just like a painter who doesn’t use the same colours
in recreating a painting but has to convey the same impact as the original one. This concept is
what we call target oriented, projected on the readers.
2.7 The esprit des traductions that is the Romantic turn
Innovation in romanticism can be found in the idea for which translation is an independent form
of art and a creative act to all intents. Principles on romantic translation are given by poets like
William Coleridge, William Wordsworth and Percy B. Shelley.
According to Coleridge, human language was a creative force able to mimic the divine language
and poetry was the highest form of language.
Wordsworth, just like Coleridge, recognized the dynamic force of language and the fact that words
are not instrument but powers linked to the mind. While he didn’t leave us any sort of written
theoretical work of his, he translated avoiding any rough language and trying to write in a way that
is close to the reader and enhance syntax and sonority of the original text
More radical is the position of Shelley in his “Defence of poetry” in which he declared the
untranslatability of rhythm and sound but this doesn’t preclude the possibility of dialogue
between the two languages.
The notion of Weltliteratur (universal literature) based on the idea of interaction between
nations. Goethe recognized the central role of translation in this communion of nations. He also
believed that the translator works not only for his country, but also for the language from which
he translated the work because it gives his own language a new energy and prospective.
Translation is an art that allows for the fullness of relationships between individuals and nations
through which they then construct their identities and their relationships with the stranger.
Universality and cosmopolitism characterized the German way of thinking in this specific period of
time.
German philosopher and poet Novalis distinguished three types of translation: the grammatical
one, where the focus is reporting the content, the transforming one, able to poetically enhance
the source text and the mythic one that transforms the text into a symbol, elevating it to a
mystery state (peculiar to the romantic view of literature).
Other preeminent consideration born in these particular years is the methodology birthed by
Friedrich Schleiermacher. This methodology revolves around two main concepts: translation can
be carried out by the alienation process, in which the reader is led in the linguistic context of the
original text or by the adaptation process that eliminates the differences between the two
cultures by depowering the source text.

2.8 Translation’s theories in the twentieth century (‘900)

The twentieth century began with Benedetto Croce’s analysis on the ontological impossibility of
translation to which it followed Luigi Pirandello’s theory on the inevitable involvement of the
necessary interpretative act. Pirandello believed that, in opposition to what Giovanni Pascoli said
about translation “the soul stays the same, the body changes”, any translation detracts or damage
because if the body is changes, the soul of the text also goes through some changes. Prague school
of translation came to the conclusion that translation, considered as a linguistic act revolved on
searching equivalence between languages, can only be considered as basically impossible.
This is the century in which translation and linguistic studies flourished.
In the 50’s we assisted at the appearance of definition of “science” related to the word translation
as a result of the focus on automatic translation made by computers. This led to the rise of the
“prescriptive translation studies”, a series of studies that bring the focus on establishing universal
criteria and norms on translation. This is a rigorously scientific approach and can be defined
“source-oriented” because of its interest on the original text and language. About this studies, the
linguist Eugene Nida introduced two principles: “formal equivalence” in which the attention is
focused on form and content and “dynamic equivalence” in which is favoured the communicative
value of the text.
Right at the beginning of the 60’s, prescriptive translation studies were already considered as
obsolete and not enough to resolve the complexity of language. A new approach on translation is
given by the structuralist Jakobson. He recognised the necessity of the passage of meaning from a
word to another in another language proposing what is called “equivalence in difference”, which is
the individuation of the main core of the text and its transposition in the translation.
In the 70’s and 80’s the prescriptive phase is already outdated. From the prescriptive translation
studies we passed to the descriptive translation studies, based on which there’s no distinction
between accurate and inaccurate translations, therefore considered only as independent works.
The importance of the original text is reduced and the prospective is switched from source-
oriented to target-oriented.
 An important work of the 70’s is “After Babel” by Steiner, a book that rebuilt translation theories
and translation activities in western culture. When Seiner wrote “After Babel” started to appear
the first studies that would later be called “translation studies” until now. Overcoming the concept
of difference between original work and translation, we speak of a translated work as an original
cultural product that has taken its inspiration from a source text.

3. Problems and form of translation

3.1 Translation of a literary work
One of the recent discussion on translation was centred on the untranslatability of literary text,
mainly poetic ones. According to Giovanni Gentile, words are linked to emotions and replacing
word means replacing that emotion with another emotion. This happens even in translation in the
same language because every writer, and person in general, gives a different emotion and accent
to every word so translation is basically impossible without changing the sense of the original text.
Berman stated that untranslatability is one of the ways a text affirms itself because being
untranslatable gives it his own value. The act of translating is arbitrary but necessary and is useful
even in cases of misunderstanding because even misreading is beneficial in bringing cultures
together and making them grow.
According to Susan Bassnett McGuire, the prejudice of untranslatability comes from researching
equivalence: if, when translating, the original text is placed in a position of superiority compared
to the translated one, it gives it the characteristic of being sacral and untouchable. Therefore,
original text must be placed in a relationship of chronological anteriority, in terms of difference
and not equivalence.
Form and content are inseparable and therefore the translator must try to entangle the meaning
of the original poem in a network of linguistic and formal correspondences that are peculiar to the
target language. Translation is an endless decision-making process, a choice between several
alternatives each of which influences what follows. The translation of poetry presents greater
difficulties because words can be neither mobile nor interchangeable. The translator has the task
of unlocking the pure language contained in the text, the hidden meaning of the words, and which
is not made explicit by the author.
We can distinguish some ways of translating poetic text such as:
1. LITERAL TRANSLATION: WORD-FOR-WORD translation of source text. Through this process,
translator can understand the general meaning of the text.
2. METATEXTUAL TRANSLATION: the aim is to clarify the semantic values of source text, providing
the necessary cultural references.
3. AUTHOR TRANSLATION: it is a translation of high quality done by another poet but there could
be an excessive creative work of the poet that can bring his own meaning to it.
4. CULTURAL TRANSPOSITION: which is the strategy that consist in finding a cultural counterpart of
poetic forms from one culture to another one, but there is the risk that the translation’s meaning
is different from the original text.
 5. PHONEMIC TRANSLATION: it is the process in which the translated text tries to reproduce the
sound of source text.
6. METRIC TRANSLATION: which is reproduction of the original metric, adding the rhymed
translation.
7. PROSE TRANSLATION: the aim of translator is to reproduce the meaning of original text.
8. INTERPRETATION: the meaning of original text is the same, but the form changes.
9. INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION: it is a word-for-word translation, placed in the line spacing. It is
considered the most alienating translation, but capable of expressing the “pure language”.

3.2 Translation and adaptation

According to Gideon Toury, there are minimum requirements for a text to qualify as a translation:
a. The source text postulate: there must be a source text
b. The transfer postulate: the translated text must have been generated by a transference
operation
c. The relationship postulate: there must be some kind of relationship between the source text
and the translation (target text)
But translation must not be a falsification, a parody or an adaptation. So, there are limits that must
not be exceeded. Umberto Eco, in this regards, said that the translator must come to an
agreement between translating and adapting, without exaggerate with the adaptation and
intentional manipulation of the text.
The Adaptation is indeed needed and can be done by adaptation of the reader to the text, a
technique in which all the information needed to decode the meaning of the text are provided to
the translator in notes, prefaces etc. and by adapting the text to the reader, modifying the text to
meet the reader’s needs.
The reasons that lead a translator to adopt a translation strategy that brings the text closer to the
reader can be many: the prototext is too long, the text is addressed to children so violence and
hard to read part must be cut, cultural characteristics of the audience are different, etc.

3.3 Translation and receipt

Modern translation theories focus on the context in which a text is received, and therefore on the
target culture rather than on the author's intention in the source text. Translated texts form another
subgroup in the literal tradition of a country. Studying how translated text are received in a country
can tell us about the level of receiving and the evolution of taste of a country.
For a good translation is necessary not only a great knowledge on both languages but also
knowledge on interdisciplinary fields like philosophy, sociology, literature, arts, history etc. The
translator must deal with linguistic as well as cultural mediation. The translator is called upon to
make certain translation choices that must consider the receiver of the work, that hypothesized
model reader, to whom the work is addressed. Speaking of how a translation is received, we can’t
ignore some conditions that are outside of the translator’s choice like cultural policy of the society
or market policy of the receiver.

4. Studies and recent prospective on translation

4.1 Translation studies
Holmes was the first to use the definition of translation studies: a discipline that describes the
phenomenon of translation according to the praxis that derives from the experience of the subject
(descriptive translation studies) on one hand, and on the other, establishes the norms through
which these phenomena can be explained (theoretical translation studies).
Translation studies, according to this definition, are not to be considered a science anymore but a
descriptive process which aims to describe the phenomena that occur during a translation. The
interest of those who move within translation studies focuses not so much on the product, but on
the process itself, to clarify what determined the translator's choices.
Susan Basset McGuire has begun working on a new prospective of translation finding the
relationship between translation and other fields of knowledge. She considered translation as a
creative and independent act. Indeed, it is a rewrite of the source text so, translators must know
the relationship between original text and the target cultural system. She is the promotor of the so
called “cultural turn”, by which translation studies and cultural studies can combine their work.
The translation act needs to establish connections between sociology, ethnology, history
attempting to analyse texts with the transfer process that is translation.
Christiane Nord stated that the best strategy for the study of conventions is the comparison of
translations of the same original.
Translation became an independent act through the years of studies and trying to confirm so, the
schola Venuti takes up the romantic concepts theorising two translation’s strategies:

• Domesticating translation: an attempt is made to facilitate the reader's reading of the text
in the target language by cancelling cultural differences. All linguistic and cultural
characteristics will be annulled in the translation to achieve the fluency of the text making
the translator invisible.
• Foreignizing translation: the objective is to maintain the cultural distance to let the reader
know the source culture, introducing in the translated text elements that are little known
and culturally different from the reader. The translator becomes visible. The goal is not
fluency but to bring diversity to the surface, confronting something different.

4.2 Translation and post-colonial world

According to Bassnet-McGuire, “Colonialism and translation went hand in hand”- Translation is
particularly important in these cultural realities because it is a linguistic act linked to a position of
inferiority. Translating goes beyond being a simple transfer of meaning and it’s seen as a violent
act against the native culture because it is used as an instrument of dominance. Translation was a
mean of asserting the supremacy of the dominant European culture over the native one. Recent
studies are focused on question the authority of European and north American culture.
The use of Western languages by non-European authors qualifies as an attempt to affirm their
own indigenous culture and, at the same time, to use the language of power instrumentally to
achieve autonomy. Translation is considered by post-colonial translation studies as an act of
objective enrichment and diversity, as a treasure to be preserved. From outdated traditional
western translation, modern studies are trying to substitute a new concept of an in-between
cultural reality, a dialectic “frontier” in between cultures.
Parallel to the attempt to delete traditional distinctions between countries, studies on the need of
protection of diversity can be found. Lotman sees the relationship between one's own culture and
the culture of others, realized by translations, as the valorisation of cultural differences. This can
be seen as an enrichment and regeneration of both culture, more effective than erasing
differences.

4.3 Translation and woman and gender studies

Women and gender studies deal with the sexual category, its meanings and with sexual identity
and difference in a feminist dimension. In this new field, sexual role and universal value models
are questioned. According to Luce Irigaray, the male thought has imposed itself as a universal and
neutral subject, around which it has built the model taking away from the feminine sexual being
the ability of self-meaning. To evaluate this theory, Irigaray showed that every female term in
translation studies is referred to a something subordinate similar to what is considered to be the
role of females in society.
What woman and gender studies aim to do is deconstruct the male dominant point of view,
imposing a new view based on valuating the differences between genders.
Therefore, according to what has been said before, the realization of a feminine translation can
emerge only through the birth of a feminine writing. Institutional knowledge has never placed the
emphasis on the sexual nature of the subject, therefore, women who do not recognize themselves
in it found the project of a female knowledge, based on difference.
 Christopher Taylor: Language to Language
Introduction
Translation is not a straightforward process. It is focused on three phases:
1. source text: which is the original text, the text to be translated is seen to unfold in interim
versions as the results.
2. virtual text: which is a liberal and partial translation that needs a finishing touch open to re-
interpretation, reformulation, it’s the middle state between source and target text.
3. target text: which is a translation that reproduces the meaning of source texts end social
reality of the source language.
A text has layers of meaning such as:
a. Semantics: denotation and connotation
b. Pragmatics: force that original writer might have intended
c. Stylistic conventions: register and genre
Some text requires:
a. Contrastive lexicogrammatical skills (studying difference between how the text changes
between translation in two languages)
b. Specific technical terminology
c. Attention to discourse structure
d. Attention to phonological features
e. Semantic words of play
f. Wide knowledge of the world
g. Sensitivity to the pragmatic content
A text, as we have seen, is an amalgams of different linguistic components. A text does need to be
analysed before it is translated so translators need to “read between the lines”. Some translators
may be able to work on all seven layers previously cited simultaneously but others may work in
stages.
Translation typology explained by J.R. FIRTH are:
a) INTERLINEAR WORD-FOR-WORD: literal transposition
b) BIT-FOR-BIT: flexible method involving large chunks of a text
c) FREE: a much freer approach based on the semantic message of the discourse .

Chapter one
1. LANGUAGE STRUCTURE (and organization of information):
The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the most important early exponents of modern
linguistic, made a major contribution in describing the horizontal nature of structure in terms of
joining of words in longer units known as syntagms to form meaningful clauses and sentences. The
logical and grammatical order of words results in a syntagmatic sentence. Then he compered this
with the vertical nature of the system that is the choosing of linguistic options available to the
speaker/writer. The relationship between the competing linguistic options is referred as
paradigmatic and every word chosen must be combined syntagmatically to create meaning.
Example: “He leaves tomorrow”

Horizontal nature Pronoun+ verb + temporal adverb

He+ leaves+ tomorrow
Vertical nature Different choice of: pronoun+ verb + temporal adverb
You/She/I…+ go/stay…+today/next week…

STUCTURALISM: Structurialist is the name given to a particular group of American linguists who
analysed the constituent parts of the sentence structure and developed the parsing technique that
consisted in splitting sentences, clauses and clauses constituents in their component part.
Translation rarely need to parse deeply into singular word units: it is sufficient for them to
recognise the autonomous units, that are stretch of language that can be translated as a unit and
can be understood alone, regardless of the context. The translator should find the autonomous
units and translate them separately and then fit the pieces together according to syntactic rules of
the target language. Of course units can be adjusted and rearranged from a language to another.
Example: “the meeting/ broke up/ at midnight” can be easily translated but we can’t do the same
with “the/meeting broke/ up at/ midnight”. Sentences such as idioms or jokes can’t be translated
as well using the parsing technique.

2. UNIVERSAL STRUCTURE:
The idea of a universal structure common in all language has been an ongoing theme in linguistic
theories. Linguistic Noam Chomsky divided grammar in deep grammar, an overtime stable
structure of language, and surface grammar that changes overtime. While Chomsky didn’t relate
this theory to translation, translation scholar Eugene Nida brought up the concept of kernel
sentences, minimal structures on a language (subjective+verb/ article+ noun etc.) from which the
rest can be derived through omission and addiction. If every sentence can be transformed in a
kernel sentence, it will be easier to translate everything from whatever language to any other.

3. THE PRAGUE SCHOOL:

The Prague school left us two concepts that later have proved to be their legacies: functional
sentence perspective (FSP) and communicative dynamism (CD). The FSP theory sees clauses
divided into theme and rheme. The theme contains the information related to the context and it is
somehow known because it was previously mentioned: it is an anchor to the previous clauses and
the following information. It is generally found near or at the very beginning of the sentence and
prepares the ground for the rheme. The rheme contains “context-independent” information, is
the new information, generally found at the end of the clause. According to communicative
dynamism, the theme has low communicative dynamism because it is a repetition of a previously
known information and the rheme has a high communicative dynamism for the opposite reason.
Example: “The English have no respect for their language…”

Theme Rheme
The English (we talked about before) (also) have no respect for their language…”
Low communicative dynamism High communicative dynamism

4. THEME IN HALLIDAY:

M.A.K. Halliday developed his own concept around theme and rheme. According to Halliday, the
theme is invariably found in initial position and may consist of either given or new information as
may the rheme.
ADVERBIAL EXPRESSION could be found in theme position as well as NEW INFORMATION. How
information is presented in typical English construction:
1. PASSIVE VOICE Only the best tennis is played at Wimbledon
2. INTERROGATIVE PRE-POSITIONING OF THE OPERATOR Do you play tennis?
3. THE CLEFT SENTENCE It was Rush who scored the goal.
4. THE PSEUDO CLEFT SENTENCE What Rush did was galvanise the rest of the team.
5. AN EMBEDDED CLAUSE AS A SUBJECT That Rush would come back to Liverpool was never
in doubt
6. THE THEMATISATION OF ADVERB. Against all the odds, Liverpool managed to win.

5. COHESION AND COHERENCE:

Cohesion is another concept of major importance in the analysis of the text organisation and
means the connection of ideas at the sentence level. Cohesion is created in a number of ways
within a text and refers to the links that exists within the discourse. The cohesion in writing
focuses on the grammatical aspects of writing.
It is based on interlocutors’ knowledge of linguistic code shared by the language users and active
and semantic link pairing and chaining together.
The cohesion techniques are tools that help the text to be cohesive and to stand together.
Cohesion is achieved in various ways: through conjunction, reference (back of ahead), anaphoric
reference (repetition of a word), cataphoric reference (referring to something that will be cited
further ahead), ellipsis, repetition of words, synonyms, antonymys, hyponymys, part/whole
relationships…
Cohesion links are used to:

• Reference (exophoric, extra linguistic context, and endophoric, internal linguistic context
divided in cataphoric, subject at the end, and anaphoric, subject at the beginning, personal,
demonstrative and comparative)
• Substitution (normal, verbal and clausal)
 • Ellipsis (normal, verbal and clausal)
• Conjunction (additive, adversative, causal, temporal)
• Lexical cohesion (reiteration and collocation)

Coherence means the connection of ideas at the level of general meaning. It refers to the
rhetorical aspects of writing, which includes developing and supporting your argument, organizing
and clarifying ideas. Coherence gives a sense of stability and continuity to the text and it is related
to interlocutors’ experience of the world.

Reading process: the process of reading is an active skill, not passive and perceptive. What the
writer means is passed automatically in the reader’s mind and the reader has to build up the
overall meaning. Every text has a sender and a receiver and the text is always coded (linguistic
text) and the reader must decode it to receive the meaning. The process of reading requires two
different kind of knowledge: linguistic knowledge (explicit) and extra linguistic knowledge (implicit,
cultural meaning).
The role of writer involves personal experience and linguistic experience. They can communicate
their ideas by including details and explanation choosing the proper words in awareness of
reading’s experience.
The role of the reader also involves personal and linguistic experience. They improve their reading
by broadening their experience. The reader can choose two form of reading: bottom up
processing, building up the meaning by linguistic input, text, clues, and top down processing,
relying to the personal, non said information, to build and make personal scenarios.
A text/paragraph can be read inside, developing a chronological and logical order of sentence, and
across, developing the centre ideas and gathering up the rest through logical connection.

A text is a piece of writing it could be a letter an email exc. There are five text types:

• DESCRIPTIVE TEXT the focus is on the people, objects, and relation in space. It can be
objective (if it focuses on the main features of something concrete) or subjective (if it is a
writer’s personal impression)
• NARRATIVE TEXT The focus is on people, objects, relation in time. The sequence of the
events in this text can be: a) chronological; b) climatic; c) cause and effect; d) general to
particular.
• EXPOSITORY TEXT The focus is on analytic exposition (exposition of constituent elements
of a work) or synthesis of concepts (shorter formulation of a work)
• INSTRUCTIVE TEXT The focus is on a future behaviour (of the writer or of the reader).
Generally, it contains imperatives.
• ARGUMENTATIVE TEXT The focus is on relations between concepts and his procedures can
be deductive (conclusion from general laws to a particular case); Inductive (conclusion
from cases to a general law); dialectic (we have two contrasting views, the thesis and
antithesis, and a common conclusion, synthesis).
Analysing written text, we can find elements as:

• Sentence: largest structural unit in which the grammar is organised

(subject+verb+object+other elements)
• Text: unit of meaning, not structures, and can be also one word. (”Help/Stop!”)
• Phrase: single element of structure with more than one word (in Italian is “locuzione”)
• Clause: group of words part of a sentence (in Italian is “periodo”)
• Paragraph: composite of several units with sentences kept together with definable
communicative intention.
Some paragraphs have a specific function like:
- Paragraph introducers
- Paragraph developers
- View point or context modulator
- Paragraph terminators
• Key words and sentences: important to understand the meaning of the text. Content word
carry the lexical meaning (noun, verb, adjective…) and function word carry grammatical
meaning (articles, auxiliaries, prepositions…)
Phrases, clauses and sentences are linked to structure and text and paragraph are linked to
meaning.

Malone’s strategies
According to the scholar Kemp Malone, there are nine strategies that the translator can apply
during his translation:
1. EQUATION
There are different forms of equation such as: loan word (ex. Pizza, rugby etc), loan word
with singular-plural/countable-uncountable changes (spaghetti, software), loan word with
a change of word class (relax form verb to Italian noun), calques when the translation
adapts a term of a source language to the grammar of the target one (as skippare), one-to-
one equivalence including common collocation (white bread and white snow have an
equivalence in another language but not always. Example of that can be white lies or white
death) or false friends that can in some context be equivalence (abuse of power is abuso di
potere but abuse alone is violence)

2. SUBSTITUTION
If there is not an equivalence understandable, substitution is used. Example of this can be
Saxon genitive translated in “di”, infinitive translated as subjunctive and proverbs that are
impossible to translate word for word.
3. DIVERGENCE
It is the strategy of choosing a suitable term from a potential range of alternatives (such as
figli instead of bambini for children because it suits better in the overall context).

4. CONVERGENCE
It is the strategy in which alternatives in the source text are all translated by one word in
the target text (tu, voi, loro in you, nephew and niece in nipote ect.).

5. AMPLIFICATIONS
Through this process the translator adds some elements to the source text to allow for
greater comprehensibility. This because sometimes there are cultural differences between
the two which the target reader could not understand without some explanation.

6. REDUCTION
It is the strategy of omitting elements in the target text because they are not needed and
could be redundant and misleading. (example of this could be the omission of “years old”
because in English that is not needed and implied in the number of ages “he is 12”)

7. DIFFUSION
It is an art of amplification, but without adding extra information. Diffusion and
condensation are concerned with the phenomenon of slackening (allentamento) and
tightening (rafforzamento) source text expressions. We use it when there is a term which
needs to be processed in a counter part for the target language.
(an example would be “Magari” in Italian that translates in “if only I could/ I wish it was the
case.”)

8. CONDENSATION
“In the case of condensation, the target text is more economic”, Taylor said.
Opposite to the diffusion, we use it to translate phrases that can be translated using one
term only, so we find a more economic counterpart. In this case, the translator counteracts
the target text expression (for example: fare le valige has his counterpart in to pack)
Condensation is fundamental when translating multivariate strings where each element
before the noun has a different function in adding description and when translating
univariate strings where each element before the head noun has the same function that is
modifying the noun that follows. Both strings are characterized by brevity and condensation
is used. (m.s.: three intelligent university students / u.m.: state school teacher relocation
protest- a specific protest)

9. REORDERING
This is the strategy that requires a thorough knowledge of the lexicogrammatical rules of
both languages because it consist in comprehending the best reordering needed in the
passage from a language to another. An example could be “high pressure” that has two
possible translation based on the order chosen such as pressione alta, as a medical term,
and alta pressione, as a meteorological term, so the translator must be careful in his choice
and order of words. Another example could be the position of adjective from English and
 Italian (white horse to cavallo bianco). English words order is usually less flexible that Italian
word order, formally speaking.

FALSE FRIEND: a false friend is a word that is often confused with a word in another language with
a different meaning because the two words look or sound similar. (actually is not attualmente)

Collocations
Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (LGSWE) made important innovations in the
method of grammatical study basing his study on balanced corpus of spoken and written text
electronically analysed for a better understanding of what is possible and what is more or less
probable in English grammar.
A corpus (plural: corpora) is a large systematic collection of authentic texts stored on computers.
Any collection with more than one text can be called a corpus (body in Latin). Through its
computer analysis, a corpus helps understanding more the language and how people use it.
The corpus linguistics is the study of the language through the use of corpora and the observation
of the language.
How a text is read vs. how a corpus is read

Read whole Read fragmented

Read horizontally Read vertically
Read for content Read for formal patterning
Read as unique event Read for repeated events
Read as an individual act of will Read as a sample of social practice
Coherent communicative event Not a coherent communicative event

A corpus is visualized in concordance lines or strings, using key word in context (KWIC). A
concordance line or string is a single line of text, often with words cut off at the beginning and at
the end of the line. With the individuation of a key word through the corpus, we can learn how
words combine (collocations: such as make-/do-), recurrent semantic patterns (ex. a verb usually
referred to people), pragmatic features (the register), recurring syntactic patterns (colligations:
verb followed by the –ing form), textual features or use of words (ex: more used in question than
answer, more in titles than in the body etc.).
A collocation is a predictable combination of words; the way words tend to occur or belong
together. For example, it is make friends not do friends; do homework not make homework).
The role of collocations: Language collocations are mainly a matter of convention, and they are
not necessarily based on compatibility of meaning. Words are not normally used in isolation and
therefore there is no use in learning single words. Talking efficiency, it is more efficient to learn
the whole and break it into parts and it is more difficult to learn the parts and then put them
together.
Collocations are arbitrary: they are only decided by linguistic conventions Learning collocations
will help effective communication, thinking more quickly, focusing attention on the larger
structure of discourse, developing fluency based on the acquisition of a large store of fixed and
semi-fixed, prefabricated chunks.
Types of collocations: As a collocation is the way words co-occur together, we are considering a
very wide area. It would be better to narrow down the kind of words we are looking at. There are
different kinds of collocation, that is ways words co-occur together (chunking), considering the
different combinations of parts of speech:

• Adjective+ noun (plain chocolate, plain food)

• Verb+ adverb (live dangerously, drive carefully)
• Noun+ noun (a phone number)

Collocations are also characterized by their strength.

STRONG COLLOCATIONS MEDIUM COLLOCATIONS WEAK COLLOCATIONS

Few words quite generic and used words Very large number of words
“Scrupulous …” “Make a mistake” “A red car”

this word collocates with a The verb make and the noun The adjective “red” and the noun
very limited numbers of mistake are quite generic words, car can collocate with a very large
words. express a very specific idea that is number of words.
“Scrupulous attention” is a largely used when we
rare collocation to find communicate

Pros and cons by using corpora:

- Choosing a corpus is not easy, theory and practical experience are needed to analyse a
corpus, students lack native speaker intuition and experience, concordances do not
offer explanation.
+ Collocations must not be seen as lists but as instances of languages and should encourage
research.

On dictionaries
What can be found in a dictionary is:
o Entry: any of the items recorded in the dictionary (initial word before the explanation)
o Headword: a keyword placed at the beginning of a list of entries (keyword on top of the
page)
o Idioms: words or phrases or expressions that are unusual either grammatically or there is a
meaning that cannot be derived from its first meaning (it’s raining cats and dog!)
o Definitions: concise statements of meaning of the headword and their entries. Different
meanings are separated according to the frequency of usage.
o Compounds: word which are formed from two or more words functioning as a single unit.
o Synonym: a word that has the same or almost the same meaning of another word.
Synonyms are not always interchangeable because of collocations, usage in different
registers, usage in different countries (Britain and America could have different usage for
the same word), etc.
o Antonyms: a word that has the opposite or almost the opposite meaning of another word.
- Opposite such as large/small, wet/dry, that do not refer to an absolute quality, are called
gradable antonyms.
- Opposite such as single/married, alive/dead, that are not gradable opposites (one way are
the other, without any middle ground), are called complementary antonyms.
- Opposite such as wife/husband, buy/sell, that are co-dependent (there cannot be one if
there’s not the other), are part of a type called converseness, formed by the converse terms
o Homographs: words that have the same spelling but different meaning (mean as an
adjective and mean as a verb)
o Homophones: words that make the same sound but have different spelling (pear and pair)
o Hyponyms: a word that refers to the more particular term (a daffodil is a kind of flower)
o Hypernyms: a word that refers to the more general term (a daffodil is a kind of flower)
o Part-Whole relations: words that are related by being the part of a whole or vice versa. The
relationship is not always obvious (door is part of a house; a house is a part of a village but it
would be strange to say that a door is a part of a village)
o Lexical phrases: prefabricated form/ function composites, such as proverbs, aphorism,
semifixed expression (a … ago, as far as I …), sentence builders (I think that…) and formulas
of social interaction.
o Abbreviations: shortened forms for words (dr. for doctor), now common in messaging
o Acronyms: groups of letters made up by the first letters of the shortened sentence (VIP as
very important people).
o Usage notes: covers important areas such as words sets that explain the different shades of
meaning between synonyms or similar words, difficult points of grammar and style and
differences between British and American usage.
o Pragmatics: the way words are used in conversation with different meaning than the literal
one, in particular context.
o Register: style of language in a particular situation (formal, informal, written, slang, etc.)
determined by the writer-reader relationship, the king of writing, the purpose or the subject.
The register can be labelled as not polite, old fashioned, spoken, written, taboo ect.
o Cross references: special notes that direct us to the related entries to the dictionary, to other
words that have a connection with the searched one. (opposites, antynoms, synonyms,
adjective, noun, verb etc.)
o False Friends: word that is often confused with a word in another language with a
different meaning because the two words look or sound similar
o Examples: used to further understand how the word can be used, often written in italics.
 TRANSLATING SONGS
Singable translation differs considerably from other kinds because the translator must respect the
rhythm of the song. So, translator has to find a song to help the meaning of source text and at the
same time he has to find a way to conserve the metric and the sound of the song.
Five points must be respected:
a) SINGABILITY it is the criterion based on phonetic suitability of target text. So, translation
could be singed.
b) SENSE the criterion is based on the real aim of translation; on helping the meaning of the
source text.
c) NATURALNESS this criterion answers to the question ‘’how natural is the style of the target
text?’’
d) RHYTM it is an important element because in this case target text has to fit with music
e) RHYME this is the metric criterion because it focuses on the ending lines of the target texts.