The conversion of one language into another; often used specifically with reference to written texts, as opposed to the interpretation of spoken language. There are various types of translation: word-for-word translation, in which each word is found an equivalent, carrying over the grammatical and lexical features of the original, often makes little sense, because it breaks the structural rules of the target language; for example, Welsh Mae hi yn bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn would translate as Is she in rain old women and sticks. Literal translation adheres to the linguistic structure of the original, but transposes it into the appropriate grammatical conventions of the target language; the above example would give She is raining old women and sticks. Free translation translates the sense of the text, relaxing the shackles of strict linguistic equivalence, and seeks an idiomatic equivalent for the Welsh expression, giving something like It is raining cats and dogs.
Traditionally, translation has been a human activity, although attempts have been made to automate and computerize the translation of natural-language texts — machine translation — or to use computers as an aid to translation — computer-assisted translation.
The goal of translation is generally to establish a relation of equivalence of intent between the source and target texts (that is to say, to ensure that both texts communicate the same message), while taking into account a number of constraints.
The term and the concept of "translation"
"Translation" is, etymologically, a "carrying across" or "bringing across": the Latin translatio derives from the past participle, translatus, of transferre (trans, "across" + ferre, "to carry" or "to bring"). Additionally, the Greek term for "translation," metaphrasis (a "speaking across"), has supplied English with "metaphrase," meaning a literal, or word-for-word, translation, as contrasted with "paraphrase" (a "saying in other words," from the Greek paraphrasis).
Common misconceptions
Many newcomers to translation wrongly believe it is an exact science, and mistakenly assume a firmly defined one-to-one correlation exists between the words and phrases in different languages which make translations fixed, much like cryptography. In that vein, many assume all one needs to translate a given passage is to decipher between the languages using a translation dictionary.
There is also debate as to whether translation is an art or a craft. Literary translators, such as Gregory Rabassa in "If This Be Treason" argue that translation is an art, though he acknowledges that it is teachable.
Translation vs.
Although interpreting can be considered a subcategory of translation in regard to the analysis of the processes involved (translation studies), in practice the skills required for these two activities are quite different. Translators receive extensive practice with representative texts in various subject areas, learn to compile and manage glossaries of relevant terminology, and master the use of both current document-related software (for example, word processors, desktop publishing systems, and graphics or presentation software) and computer-assisted translation (CAT) software tools.
Translation process
The translation process, whether it be for translation or interpreting, can be described as:
Decoding the meaning of the source text;To decode the meaning of a text, the translator must first identify its component "translation units," that is to say, the segments of the text to be treated as a cognitive unit. To decode the complete meaning of the source text, the translator must consciously and methodically interpret and analyze all its features.
The translator needs the same in-depth knowledge to re-encode the meaning in the target language.
In recent years, studies in cognitive linguistics have provided valuable insights into the cognitive process of translation.
Measuring success in translation
As the goal of translation is to ensure that the source and the target texts communicate the same message while taking into account the various constraints placed on the translator, a successful translation can be judged by two criteria:
Faithfulness, also called fidelity, which is the extent to which the translation accurately renders the meaning of the source text, without adding to it or subtracting from it, and without intensifying or weakening any part of the meaning; and Transparency, which is the extent to which the translation appears to a native speaker of the target language to have originally been written in that language, and conforms to the language's grammatical, syntactic and idiomatic conventions.A translation meeting the first criterion is said to be a "faithful translation"; a translation meeting the second criterion is said to be an "idiomatic translation".
The criteria used to judge the faithfulness of a translation vary according to the subject, the precision of the original contents, the type, function and use of the text, its literary qualities, its social or historical context, and so forth.
The criteria for judging the transparency of a translation would appear more straightforward: an unidiomatic translation "sounds" wrong, and in the extreme case of word-for-word translations generated by many machine translation systems, often result in patent nonsense with only a humorous value (see round-trip translation).
Nevertheless, in certain contexts a translator may knowingly strive to produce a literal translation. Likewise, a literary translator may wish to adopt words or expressions from the source language to provide "local colour" in the translation.
The concepts of fidelity and transparency are looked at differently in recent translation theories.
In recent decades, the most prominent advocates of non-transparent translation modes include the Franco-Canadian translation scholar Antoine Berman who identified twelve deforming tendencies inherent in most prose translations (L’épreuve de l’étranger, 1984), and the American theorist Lawrence Venuti who called upon translators to apply "foreignizing" translation strategies instead of domesticating ones (see, for example, his 'Call to Action' in The Translator’s Invisibility, 1994).
Many non-transparent translation theories draw on concepts of German Romanticism, with the most obvious influence on latter-day theories of foreignization being the German theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher. In his seminal lecture "On the Different Methods of Translation" (1813) he distinguished between translation methods that move "the writer toward [the reader]", i.e. If one looks into the words used for translation in Indian (either Aryan or Dravidian) languages, the freedom given to the translators is evident.
Translation problems
General problems
Translation is inherently a difficult activity. Translators can face additional problems which make the process even more difficult, such as:
Problems with the source text: Changes made to the text during the translation process Illegible or difficult-to-read text Misspelled or misprinted text Incomplete text Poorly written text (ambiguity or incomprehensibility) Missing references in the text (for example the translator is to translate captions to missing photos) The source text contains a translation of a quotation that was originally made in the target language, and the original text is unavailable, making word-for-word quoting nearly impossible Obvious inaccuracies in the source text (for example "prehistoric Buddhist ruins", when Buddhism was not founded during prehistoric times) Language problems Dialect terms and neologisms Unexplained acronyms and abbreviations Proper names of people, organizations, places, etc. - often there are already official target-language translations for such, but if not supplied by the client they can be difficult to find out Obscure jargon Obscure idioms Slang Stylistic differences, such as redundant phrases in a source language, when redundancy is frowned upon in the target language Differences between languages with respect to punctuation conventions Other Rhymes, puns and poetic meters Highly specific cultural references Humour Insider information (insider references not knowable to a third party or outsider) Words that are commonly known in one culture but generally unknown by the layperson in another culture, such as Chinese 芬多精 (fen1 duo1 jing1) meaning phytoncide: these generally require the addition of an explanation Subtle but important properties of language such as euphony or dissonanceThe problem of "untranslatability"
The question of whether particular words are untranslatable is often debated, with lists of "untranslatable" words being produced from time to time. It translates quite neatly however as "sorrowful longing", but does have some nuances that are hard to include in a translation;
Cultural aspects can complicate translation, as people from England, France or China would likely describe or draw "bread", du pain or 面包 (miàn bāo) as their culturally common bread — an idea best expressed by their word for bread, rather than another language's word which comes pre-loaded with its cultural referrent.
Specialized types of translation
Any type of written text can be a candidate for translation, however, the translation industry is often categorized by a number of areas of specialization. An incomplete list of these specialized types of translation includes:
Commercial translation
The translation of commercial (business) texts. This category may include marketing and promotional materials directed to consumers, or the translation of administrative texts.
Computer translation
The translation of computer programs and related documents (manuals, help files, web sites.)
The notion of localization, that is the adaptation of the translation to the target language and culture, is gaining prevalence in this area of specialization.
(Note that the term "computer translation" is sometimes used to refer to the practice of machine translation, using computers to automatically translate texts.)
General translation
The translation of "general" texts.
Legal translation
The translation of legal documents (laws, contracts, treaties, etc.).
A skilled legal translator is normally as adept at the law (often with in-depth legal training) as with translation, since inaccuracies in legal translations can have serious results.
(One example of problematic translation is the Treaty of Waitangi, where the English and Maori versions differ in certain important areas.)
Sometimes, to prevent such problems, one language will be declared authoritative, with the translations not being considered legally binding, although in many cases this is not possible, as one party does not want to be seen as subservient to the other.
Literary translation
The translation of literary works (novels, short stories, plays, poems, etc.)
If the translation of non-literary works is regarded as a skill, the translation of fiction and poetry is much more of an art.
Translation of sung texts — sometimes referred to as a "singing translation" — is closely linked to translation of poetry, simply because most vocal music, at least in the Western tradition, is set to verse, especially verse in regular patterns with rhyme.
Translation of sung texts is generally much more restrictive than translation of poetry, because in the former there is little or no freedom to choose between a versified translation and a translation that dispenses with verse structure. One might modify or omit rhyme in a singing translation, but the assignment of syllables to specific notes in the original musical setting places great challenges on the translator. There is the option in prose, less so in verse, of adding or deleting a syllable here and there by subdividing or combining notes, respectively, but even with prose the process is nevertheless almost like strict verse translation because of the need to stick as close as possible to the original prosody. Other considerations in writing a singing translation include repetition of words and phrases, the placement of rests and/or punctuation, the quality of vowels sung on high notes, and rhythmic features of the vocal line that may be more natural to the original language than to the target language.
Whereas the singing of translated texts has been common for centuries, it is less necessary when a written translation is provided in some form to the listener, for instance, as inserts in concert programs or as projected titles in performance halls or visual media.
Medical translation
The translation of works of a medical nature.
Like pharmaceutical translation, medical translation is specialization where a mistranslation can have grave consequences.
Pedagogical translation
Translation practiced as a means of learning a second language.
Pedagogical translation is used to enrich (and to assess) the student's vocabulary in the second language, to help assimilate new syntactic structures and to verify the student's understanding. Unlike other types of translation, pedagogical translation takes place in the student's native (or dominant) language as well as the second language. Another difference between this mode of translation and other modes is that the goal is often literal translation of phrases taken out of context, and of text fragments, which may be completely fabricated for the purposes of the exercise.
Pedagogical translation should not be confused with scholarly translation.
Scientific translation
The translation of scientific research papers, abstracts, conference proceedings, and other publications from one language into another. The specialized technical vocabulary used by researchers in each discipline demand that the translator of scientific texts have technical as well as linguistic expertise.
Scholarly translation
The translation of specialized texts written in an academic environment.
Scholarly translation should not be confused with pedagogical translation.
Technical translation
The translation of technical texts (manuals, instructions, etc.).
Translation for dubbing and film subtitles
Dialogs and narrations of feature movies and foreign TV programs need to be translated for the local viewers. In this case, translation for dubbing and translation for film subtitles demand different versions for the best effect.
History
Translation of religious texts
The translation of religious works has played an important role in world history. For instance the Buddhist monks who translated the Indian sutras into the Chinese language would often skew the translation to better adapt to China's very different culture.
See also: Chinese Translation TheoryOne of the first instances of recorded translation activity in the West was the rendition of the Old Testament into Greek in the third century B.C.E.; this translation is known as the Septuagint, alluding to the seventy translators (seventy-two in some versions) that were commissioned to translate the Bible on the island of Paphos, with each translator working in solitary confinement in a separate cell.
Saint Jerome, the patron saint of translation, is still considered one of the greatest translators in history for his work on translating the Bible into Latin. The Catholic Church used this translation (known as the Vulgate) for centuries, but even his translation met much controversy when it was released.
The period prior to and contemporary with the Protestant Reformation saw the translation of the Bible into the local languages of Europe, an act that had a great impact on the split between Protestantism and Catholicism, owing to the divergences between the Protestant and Catholic translations of particular words and passages of the Bible.
See also: Bible translation and Translation of the Qur'anTrends in translation
Machine translation
Machine translation (MT) is a form of translation where a computer program analyses the source text and produces a target text without human intervention.
In recent years machine translation, a major goal of natural language processing, has met with limited success.
Tools available on the Internet, such as AltaVista's Babel Fish, and low-cost translation programs like Babylon, have brought machine translation technologies to a large public. These tools produce what is called a "gisting translation" — a rough translation that gives the "gist" of the source text, but is not otherwise usable.
However, in fields with highly limited ranges of vocabulary and simple sentence structure, for example weather reports, machine translation can deliver useful results. Alternatively, the use of a controlled language in combination with a machine translation tool typically results in largely comprehensible translations, as Uwe Muegge's website demonstrates.
Engineer and futurist Raymond Kurzweil has predicted that by 2012, machine translation will be powerful enough to dominate the translation field.
Computer-assisted translation
Computer-assisted translation (CAT), also called computer-aided translation, is a form of translation where a human translator creates a target text with the assistance of a computer program. however, the term is normally used to refer to a range of specialized programs available for the translator, including translation memory, terminology management and alignment programs.
Cultural translation
This is a new area of interest in the field of translation studies. Cultural translation is a concept used in cultural studies to denote the process of transformation, linguistic or otherwise, in a given culture.
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