Translation theory: object and objectives

CHAPTER1.

Translation is a means of interlingual and intercultural communication. The translator makes possible an exchange of information between the users of different languages by producing in the target language (TL or the translating lan­guage) a text which has an identical communicative value with the source (or original) text (ST). This target text (TT that is the translation) is not fully identical with ST as to its form or content due to the limitations imposed by the formal and semantic differences between the source lan­guage (SL) and TL. Nevertheless the users of TT identify it, to all intents and purposes, with ST — functionally, structurally and semantically. The functional identification is revealed in the fact that the users (or the translation receptors — TR) handle TT in such a way as if it were ST, a creation of the source text author. The translation is published, quoted, criticized, etc. as if it really belonged to the foreign Source. A Ukrainian may find in a paper the phrase “ The American President made the following statement yesterday ” and then read the statement in quotation marks. He is sure that he has read what the American President really said which is cer­tainly not true to fact since the President spoke English and what is cited in the paper is not the original text but something different: a Ukrainian text produced by some translator who passes his statement for the American statesman's.

A book in Ukrainian may bear the title: “Д.Френсіс. Фаворит.” and the readers are convinced that they are reading a novel by Д.Френсіс no matter how close it actually is to the original text. They may make judgments on its merits, say, “ I like D.Francis detective stories” or “ D.Francis' style is somewhat simple ” or “ D.Francis' vocabulary is rich ”, etc. as if they have really had access to the author's work.

The functional status of a translation is supported by its structural and semantic similarity with the original. The translator is expected to refrain from any remarks or intrusions in his text. He is expected to avoid interference with the process of communication between SL and TR.

The structure of the translation should follow that of the original text: there should be no change in the sequence of narration or in the ar­rangement of the segments of the text. The aim is maximum parallelism of structure which would make it pos­sible to relate each segment of the translation to the respective part of the original. It is presumed that any breach of parallelism is not arbitrary but dictated by the need for precision in conveying the meaning of the original. The translator is allowed to resort to a description or interpretation, only in case “direct translation” is impossible.

Structural parallelism makes it possible to compare respective units in the original text and in the translation so as to discover elements which have equivalents and those which have not, elements which have been added or omitted in translation, etc. In other words, similarity in structure is preserved in respect to the smallest segments of the text.

Of major importance is the semantic identification of the transla­tion with ST. It is presumed that the translation has the same meaning as the original text. No exchange of information is possible if there is discrepancy between the transmitted and the received message. The pre­sumption of semantic identity between ST and TT is based on the various degrees of equivalence of their meanings. The translator usually tries to produce in TL the closest possible equivalent to ST.

As a kind of practical activities translation (or the practice of transla­tion) is a set of actions performed by the translator while rendering ST into another language. These actions are largely intuitive and the best results are naturally achieved by translators who are best suited for the job, who are well-trained or have a special aptitude, a talent for it. Masterpieces in translation are created by the past masters of the art, true artists in their profession. At its best translation is an art, a creation of a talented, high-skilled professional.

As any observable phenomenon, translation can be the object of scien­tific study aimed at understanding its nature, its components and their in­teraction as well as various factors influencing it or linked with it in a meaningful way. The science of translation or translatology is concerned both with theoretical and applied aspects of translation studies. A theoreti­cal description of the translation phenomenon is the task of the theory of translation. Theoretical research is to discover what translation is, to find out what objective factors underlie the translator's intuition, to describe the ways and methods by which the identity of the communicative value of ST and TT is achieved.

The theory of translation provides the translator with the appropriate tools of analysis and synthesis, makes him aware of what he is to look for in the original text, what type of information he must convey in TT and how he should act to achieve his goal. In the final analysis, however, his trade remains an art. For science gives the translator the tools, but it lakes brains, intuition and talent to handle the tools with great proficiency. Translation is a complicated phenomenon including linguistic, psychological, cultural, literary, ergonomical and other factors. Different aspects of translation can be studied with the methods of the respective sciences. Up to date most of theoretical research of translation has been done within the framework of linguistics. The basis of this theory is linguistics in the broadest sense of the word, that is, macrolinguistics with all its new branches, such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, text linguistics, com­municative linguistics, etc., studying the language structure and its func­tioning in speech in their relationship to mind, culture and society. Lan­guage, which makes possible communication between people, is part of all human activities, of life itself.

The core of the translation theory is the general theory of translation which is concerned with the fundamental aspects of translation inherent in the nature of bilingual communication and therefore common to all trans­lation events, irrespective of what languages are involved or what kind of text and under what circumstances was translated. Basically, replacement of ST by TT of the same communicative value is possible because both texts are produced in human speech governed by the same rules and implying the same relationships between language, reality and the human mind. In any language communication is made possible through a complicated logical interpretation by the users of the speech units, involving an assessment of the meaning of the language signs against the information derived from the contextual situation, general knowledge, previous experience, various associations and other factors. The general theory of translation deals, so to speak, with translation universals and is the basis for all other theoretical study in this area, since it describes what translation is and what makes it possible.

An important part of the general theory of translation is the theory of equivalence aimed at studying semantic relationships between ST and TT. It has been noted that there is a presumption of semantic identity between 6 the translation and its source text. At the same time it is obvious that there is, in fact, no such identity for even a cursory examination of any translation reveals inevitable losses, increments or changes of the in­formation transmitted. Let us take an elementary example. Suppose we have an English sentence “ The student is reading a book ”. Its Russian translation will be “ Студент читает книгу ”. This translation is a good equivalent of the English sentence, but it is not identical in meaning. It can be pointed out, for example, that the Russian sentence leaves out the meaning of the articles as well as the specific meaning of the Continuous Tense. In Russian we do not get explicit information that it is some definite student but not some particular book or that the reading is in progress at the moment of speech. On the other hand, the Russian sentence conveys some additional information which is absent in the source text. We learn from it that the student is a male, while in ST it may just as well be a fe­male. Then the translation implies that the student in the case is a college undergraduate, while in ST he may be a high school student or even a scholar, to say nothing of the additional grammatical meaning conveyed by the grammatical aspect of “ читает ”, the gender of “ книга ” and so on. Part of this information, lost or added in the translating process, may be irrele­vant for communication, another part is supplemented or neutralized by the contextual situation, but it is obvious that translation equivalence does not imply an absolute semantic identity of the two texts. The theory of equivalence is concerned with factors which prevent such an identity, it strives to discover how close ST and TT can be and how close they are in each particular case.

The general theory of translation describes the basic principles which hold good for each and every translation event. In each particular case, however, the translating process is influenced both by the common basic factors and by a number of specific variables which stem from the actual conditions and modes of the translator's work: the type of original texts he has to cope with, the form in which ST is presented to him and the form in which he is supposed to submit his translation (oral or written), the period of time within which the translation is to be done (in simultaneous or consecutive interpretation), the specific requirements he may be called upon to meet in his work.

Each type of translation has its own combination of factors influencing the translating process. The general theory of translation should be supple­mented by a number of special theories of translation identifying major types of translation activities and describing the predominant features of each type: of translation equivalence, theory of translation which is concerned with the translating process itself, that is, with the operations re­quired for passing over from ST to TT, particular methods of translation, the theory of translation which deals with the pragmatic aspects of the trans­lating process, etc.