TÀI LIỆU THI HỌC PHẦN LÝ THUYẾT DỊCH (EHOU)

ĐẠI HỌC MỞ HÀ NỘI ĐỀ CƯƠNG THI HỌC PHẦN LÝ THUYẾT DỊCH HÀ NỘI, 2022 The concept of translation (Khái niệm dịch thuật) Often, though not by any means always, it is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text Common sense tells us that this ought to be simple, as one ought to be able to say something as well in one language as in another On the other hand, you may see it as complicated, artificial and fraudulent, since by using another language you are pretending to be someone you are not Hence in many types of text (legal, administrative, dialect, local, cultural) the temptation is to transfer as many SL (Source Language) words to the TL (Target Language) as possible The pity is, as Mounin wrote, that the translation cannot simply reproduce, or be, the original And since this is so, the first business of the translator is to translate A text may therefore be pulled in ten different directions, as follows: (1) The individual style or idiolect of the SL author When should it be (a) preserved, (b) normalised? (2) The conventional grammatical and lexical usage for this type of text, depending on the topic and the situation (3) Content items referring specifically to the SL, or third language (i.e not SL or TL) cultures (4) The typical format of a text in a book, periodical, newspaper, etc., as influenced by tradition at the time (5) The expectations of the putative readership, bearing in mind their estimated knowledge of the topic and the style of language they use, expressed in terms of the largest common factor, since one should not translate down (,or up) to the readership (6), (7), (8) As for 2, and respectively, but related to the TL (9) What is being described or reported, ascertained or verified (the referential truth), where possible independently of the SL text and the expectations of the readership (10) The views and prejudices of the translator, which may be personal and subjective, or may be social and cultural, involving the translator's 'group loyalty factor', which may reflect the national, political, ethnic, religious, social class, sex, etc assumptions of the translator Needless to say, there are many other tensions in translations, for example between sound and sense, emphasis (word order) and naturalness (grammar), the figurative and the literal, neatness and comprehensiveness, concision and accuracy Translation as a profession has to be seen as a collaborative process between translators, revisers, terminologists, often writers and clients (literary works have to be checked by a second native TL reviser and desirably a native SL speaker), where one works towards a general agreement Nevertheless, finally, only one person can be responsible for one piece or section of translation; it must have the stamp of one style The principle with which this book starts is that everything without exception is translatable; the translator cannot afford the luxury of saying that something cannot be translated Translation is an instrument of education as well as of truth precisely because it has to reach readers whose cultural and educational level is different from, and often 'lower' or earlier, than, that of the readers of the original - one has in mind computer technology for Xhosas 'Foreign' communities have their own language structures and their own cultures, 'foreign' individuals have their own way of thinking and therefore of expressing themselves, but all these can be explained, and as a last resort the explanation is the translation No language, no culture is so 'primitive' that it cannot embrace the terms and the concepts of, say, computer technology or plainsong But such a translation is a longer process if it is in a language whose culture does not include computer technology If it is to cover all the points in the source language text, it requires gn ter space in the target language text There-fore, whilst translation is always possible, it may for various reasons not have the same impact as the original Translation has its own excitement, its own interest A satisfactory translation is always possible, but a good translator is never satisfied with it It can usually be improved There is no such thing as a perfect, ideal or 'correct' translation A translator is always trying to extend his knowledge and improve his means of expression; he is always pursuing facts and words He works on four levels: translation is first a science, which entails the knowledge and verification of the facts and the language that describes them - here, what is wrong, mistakes of truth, can be identified; secondly, it is a skill, which calls for appropriate language and acceptable usage; thirdly, an art, which distinguishes good from undistinguished writing and is the creative, the intuitive, sometimes the inspired, level of the translation; lastly, a matter of taste, where argument ceases, preferences are expressed, and the variety of meritorious translations is the reflection of individual differences As a means of communication, translation is used for multilingual notices, which have at last appeared increasingly conspicuously in public places; for instructions issued by exporting companies; for tourist publicity, where it is too often produced from the native into the 'foreign' language by natives as a matter of national pride; for official documents, such as treaties and contracts; for reports, papers, articles, correspondence, textbooks to convey information, advice and recommendations for every branch of knowledge Its volume has increased with the rise of the mass media, the increase in the number of independent countries, and the growing recognition of the importance of linguistic minorities in all the countries of the world Its importance is highlighted by the mistranslation of the Japanese telegram sent to Washington just before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, when mokasutu was allegedly translated as 'ignored' instead of 'considered', and by the ambiguity in UN Resolution 242, where 'the withdrawal from occupied territories' was translated as le retrait des territoires occupls, and therefore as a reference to all of the occupied territory to be evacuated by the Israelis Translation has been instrumental in transmitting culture, sometimes under unequal conditions responsible for distorted and biased translations, ever since countries and languages have been in contact with each other Thus the Romans 'pillaged' Greek culture; the Toledo School transferred Arabic and Greek learning to Europe; and up to the nineteenth century European culture was drawing heavily on Latin and Greek translations In the nineteenth century German culture was absorbing Shakespeare Translation is not merely a transmitter of culture, but also of the truth, a force for progress It could be instanced by following the course of resistance to Bible translation and the preservation of Latin as a superior language of the elect, with a consequent disincentive to translating between other languages The Analysis of a Text before doing the translation (Phân tích văn trước dịch) READING THE TEXT You begin the job by reading the original for two purposes: first, to understand what it is about; second, to analyse it from a 'translator's' point of view, which is not the same as a linguist's or a literary critic's You have to determine its intention and the way it is written for the purpose of selecting a suitable translation method and identifying particular and recurrent problems Understanding the text requires both general and close reading General reading to get the gist; here you may have to read encyclopaedias, textbooks, or specialist papers to understand the subject and the concepts, always bearing in mind that for the translator the function precedes the description - the important thing about the neutrino in context is not that it is a stable elementary particle, preserving the law of conservation of mass and energy, but that now the neutrino has been found to have mass, the Universe is calculated to be twice as large as previously thought 'Chair', chaise, Stuhl, Sessel, sedia, silla, stul- they all present somewhat different images, lax bundles of shapes that differ in each culture, united primarily by a similar function, an object for a person to sit on plus a few essential formal features, such as a board with a back and four legs A knife is for cutting with, but the blade and the handle are important too - they distinguish the knife from the scissors Close reading is required, in any challenging text, of the words both out of and in context In principle, everything has to be looked up that does not make good sense in its context; common words like serpent (F), to ensure they are not being used musically or figuratively (sly, deceitful, unscupulous) or technically (EEC currency) or colloquially; neologisms - you will likely find many if you are translating a recent publication (for 'non-equivalent' words, see p 117); acronyms, to find their TL equivalents, which may be non-existent (you should not invent them, even if you note that the SL author has invented them); figures and measures, converting to TL or Systeme International (SI) units where appropriate; names of people and places, almost all words beginning with capital letters - 'encyclopaedia' words are as important as 'dictionary' words, the distinction being fuzzy (Words like 'always', 'never', 'all', 'must' have no place in talk about translation - there are 'always' exceptions.) You can compare the translating activity to an iceberg: the tip is the translation - what is visible, what is written on the page - the iceberg, the activity, is all the work you do, often ten times as much again, much of which you not even use THE INTENTION OF THE TEXT In reading, you search for the intention of the text, you cannot isolate this from understanding it, they go together and the title may be remote from the content as well as the intention Two texts may describe a battle or a riot or a debate, stating the same facts and figures, but the type of language used and even the grammatical structures (passive voice, impersonal verbs often used to disclaim responsibility) in each case may be evidence of different points of view The intention of the text represents the SL writer's attitude to the subject matter A piece about floors may be 'pushing' floor polishes; about newspapers, a condemnation of the press; about nuclear weapons, an advertisement for them -always there is a point of view, somewhere, a modal component to the proposition, perhaps in a word - 'unfortunately', 'nevertheless', 'hopefully' What is meant by 'That was clever of him'? Is it ironical, openly or implicitly? (In a text showing that BBC Radio is a pale imitation of commercial radio, the irony may only be implicit and obscure to a non-British reader, and the translator may want to make the point more explicitly.) 'Clemente, notre justice repressive?', writes a journalist meaning 'Our repressive judicial system is far from lenient', or is it a bluff, mainly nonsense, for amusement? It may be 'iceberg' work to find out, since the tone may come through in a literal translation, but the translator has to be aware of it Again, in a detailed, confused piece about check-ups on elderly patients who may have to undergo chemotherapy the author's intention is to show that patients must have a thorough physical check-up before they start a course of drugs: if physical problems are cleared up first, there may be no need for psychiatry A summary of this nature, which uses only a few key words from the original, appears to be isolated from the language, simply to show what happens in real life, and it is indispensable to the translator But he still has to 'return' to the text He still has to translate the text, even if he has to simplify, rearrange, clarify, slim it of its redundancies, pare it down THE INTENTION OF THE TRANSLATOR Usually, the translator's intention is identical with that of the author of the SL text But he may be translating an advertisement, a notice, or a set of instructions to show his client how such matters are formulated and written in the source language rather than how to adapt them in order to persuade or instruct a new TL reader- ship And again, he may be translating a manual of instructions for a less educated readership, so that the explanation in his translation may be much larger than the 'reproduction' TEXT STYLES Following Nida, we distinguish four types of (literary or non-literary) text: (1) Narrative: a dynamic sequence of events, where the emphasis is on the verbs or, for English, 'dummy' or 'empty' verbs plus verb-nouns or phrasal verbs ('He made a sudden appearance', 'He burst in') (2) Description, which is static, with emphasis on linking verbs, adjectives, adjectival nouns (3) Discussion, a treatment of ideas, with emphasis on abstract nouns (concepts), verbs of thought, mental activity ('consider', 'argue', etc.), logical argument and connectives (4) Dialogue, with emphasis on colloquialisms and phaticisms THE READERSHIP On the basis of the variety of language used in the original, you attempt to characterise the readership of the original and then of the translation, and to decide how much attention you have to pay to the TL readers (In the case of a poem or any work written primarily as self-expression the amount is, I suggest, very little.) You may try to assess the level of education, the class, age and sex of the readership if these are 'marked' The average text for translation tends to be for an educated, middle-class readership in an informal, not colloquial style The most common variety of 'marked' error in register among student translators tends to be 'colloquial' and 'intimate', e.g use of phrases such as 'more and more' for 'increasingly' (deplus en plus), 'above all' for 'particularly' (surtout); 'job' for 'work'; 'got well' for 'recovered' and excessively familiar phrasal verbs ('get out of, 'get rid of) The other common error, use of formal or official register (e.g 'decease' for 'death'), also shows signs of translationese These tokens of language typify the student- translators instead of the readership they are translating for; they may epitomise their degree of knowledge and interest in the subject and the appropriate culture, i.e how motivated they are All this will help you to decide on the degree of formality, generality (or specificity) and emotional tone you must express when you work on the text SETTING You have to decide on the likely setting: Where would the text be published in the TL? What is the TL equivalent of the SL periodical, newspaper, textbook, journal, etc?, or Who is the client you are translating for and what are his requirements? You may have to take account of briefer titles, absence of sub-titles and sub-headings, shorter paragraphs and other features of the TL house-style You have to make several assumptions about the SL readership From the setting of the SL text, as well as the text itself, you should assess whether the readership is likely to be motivated (keen to read the text), familiar with the topic and the culture, and 'at home' in the variety of language used The three typical reader types are perhaps the expert, the educated layman, and the uninformed You then have to consider whether you are translating for the same or a different type of TL readership, perhaps with less knowledge of the topic or the culture, or a lower standard of linguistic education Finally, if you are translating a poem or an important authoritative statement, should you consider the TL reader at all, apart from concessions or cultural 'scraps' to help him out (e.g translating 'a half- holiday' as un apres-midi libre)? THE QUALITY OF THE WRITING You have to consider the quality of the writing and the authority of the text, two critical factors in the choice of translation method The quality of the writing has to be judged in relation to the author's intention and/or the requirements of the subject-matter If the text is well written, i.e., the manner is as important as the matter, the right words are in the right places, with a minimum of redundancy, you have to regard every nuance of the author's meaning (particularly if it is subtle and difficult) as having precedence over the reader's response - assuming they are not required to act or react promptly; on the contrary, assuming hopefully that they will read your translation at least twice Deciding what is good writing is sometimes criticised as 'subjective' but it is a decision, like many others, not subjective but with a subjective element (the area of taste) which you have to make, using any experience of literary criticism you may have had but bearing in mind that the criterion here is meaning: to what extent does the web of words of the SL text correspond to a clear representation of facts or images? If a text is well written, the syntax will reflect the writer's personality - complex syntax will reflect subtlety (Proust, Mann) - plain syntax, simplicity Words will be freshly used with unusual connotations A badly written text will be cluttered with stereotyped phrases, recently fashionable general words and probably poorly structured Note that language rules and prescriptions have nothing much to with good writing What matters is a fresh reflection of the reality outside language or of the writer's mind The authority of the text is derived from good writing; but also indepen- dently, unconnectedly, from the status of the SL writer If the SL writer is recognised as important in his field, and he is making an ex-cathedra or official statement, the text is also authoritative The point is that 'expressive' texts, i.e serious imaginative literature and authoritative and personal statements, have to be translated closely, matching the writing, good or bad, of the original Informative texts, statements that relate primarily to the truth, to the real facts of the matter, have to be translated in the best style that the translator can reconcile with the style of the original Nida, Eugene A - Contexts in Translating Contexts in Translating combines elements of contextual analysis with areas such as culture and language Eugene Nida, author of Towards a Science of Translating, and Componential Analysis of Meaning explains how strict adherence to context creates a satisfactory translation The book has a fragmentary, though concise, format, placing each topic in easily identifiable categories and subcategories The chapters include: “What is Translating?” “Language and Culture,” “Words in Context,” “Relations Between Words,” “Translating Texts,” “Representative Treatment of Translating,” and “Three Major Types of Translation Theories.” The book also contains a complete glossary, bibliography, and index Of these seven chapters, chapters three and seven best define Nida’s ideas Chapter three, “Words in Context,” focuses strongly on context in translation It explains how words are used in diverse contexts, a reference to cultural and geographical origins Nida summarizes the ways in which words hold different meanings and levels of significance between distinct cultures and regions, emphasizing that a word’s origin determines its exact definition Nida believes that words are strongly linked to their contexts and proposes that it is the responsibility of the translator to determine what is being addressed in order to produce a valid translation The subsection in chapter three entitled, “Contexts involving Cultural Values,” demonstrates how a word may take on a completely different definition or value from one region or culture to another Therefore, the translator must realize these differences to create a meaningful translation According to Nida, “Correct technical terminology serves to mark a statement as reliable and the writer as knowledgeable.” This is evident in professional language as well as in street language and slang, all of which Nida incorporates in his study This knowledge helps to protect the translator from insulting the culture or group being “decoded.” Nida states that a translator shouldn’t need a dictionary, for if he/she does, then it is evident that he/she is not a master of the other language and therefore is not an efficient translator Translating a work, first and foremost, believes Nida, respects cultural context and value In chapter three, Nida discusses how the setting and purpose of discourse define a word’s capacity to assume different degrees of seriousness How the word is presented determines the way it is perceived For Nida, the contextual perception of a culture is essential to producing an adequate translation from that culture’s perspectives Chapter seven, “Three Major Types of Translation Theories,” is divided into three sections: “Theories Based on Philological Insights,” “Theories Based on Linguistic Insights,” and “Theories Based on Sociosemiotics.” Philological insights are the primary basis for discussing translations theories and practice and are concerned with the study and evaluation of written texts, including all aspects from form to cultural influences Cicero, Horace, Catullus, and Quintilian are noted for their theories of free translation vs literal, which reflect written texts in different manners He also mentions the analyses that have stemmed from these and other translators, including the theory of free translation defended by Matthew Arnold This section then makes reference to the philological insights of the 20th century, a time when language is looked upon as an integral part of culture as a kind of code For a variety of reasons, many philologists have felt that the act of translating is impossible Linguistic insights consider the differences between the source and target texts Nida refers to Vinay and Darbelnet’s consideration of French and English as a basis for translating Nida presents Goodnough’s work on Trukese semantic categories as an example of how cultural anthropology can provide insights into translation The “communication theory”, which describes the importance of interlingual communication also appears in this section For an in-depth look at linguistic orientation in translating, Nida notes the research of Labov and Hymes Theories based on sociosemiotics respect the rules of all systems of signs used by different societies It is, in Nida’s words, “the most pervasive and crucial contribution to an understanding of translation” The ideas of Plato and Aristotle are important antecedents to this line of thought Nida gives a great deal of attention to associative and designative meanings because signs of all types must be recognized in relation to all other verbal signs within a text or associated expressions Nida advises translators to seek the advice of Hofstadter’s concept of isomorphs when problems arise in symbol translation Nida finishes this section by stating that the most effective way to learn how to translate is through studying what expert translators have already accomplished Nida is concerned with context in regards to effective translating His principle ideas in Contexts in Translating are contained in chapters three and seven: chapter three provides insights into Nida’s theory of the importance of contextual analysis in translating; chapter seven addresses the concepts of translation, in general, and the influences they may have on each other Contexts in Translating presents a wide range of sophisticated, though sometimes overly anecdotal, ideas concerning the role of contexts in the process of translation This text is probably most appropriate for use in a graduate college course specializing in translation studies Eugene Nida, on the other hand, used Chomsky's transformational generative grammar in translating He claimed that generative grammar was the most effective way to deal with translation problems, provided that such a grammar made full use of transformations His approach to translation can be summarized as follows: a) to reduce the source text to its structurally simplest and most semanticaUy evident kernels; b) to transfer the meaning from source language to receptor language on a structurally simple level; and c) to generate the stylistically and semantically equivalent expression in the receptor language (1964: 68) In fact, he devised a back-transformation model, consisting of the procedures of analysis, deep-structure transfer, and restructuring, identifying model kernel sentences as the transitional stage between SL and TL structures to explain the process of translating Nida's theory of translating consists of the three procedures of analysis, deep structure transfer, and restructuring His refined theory (1969) includes one more stage, namely testing Analysis consists essentially in back-transformation to a near-kernel level In this stage, the SLT must be read and studied carefully, and meaning must be extracted Nida devises several stages of analysis, though in practice they overlap They are: (1) lexicogrammatical features of the immediate units, (2) discourse context, (3) communicative context, (4) cultural context of the SL, and (5) the cultural context of the receptor language After analysing the SLT into its basic kernels, the result of The analysis is transferred into the TL This stage is not as simple as it seems to be In actual practice, the transfer of messages from the SL into the TL takes place at various sub-surface levels depending on the extent to which the two languages under consideration have corresponding semantic and grammatical structures In fact, in the stage of transfer, the translator continually fluctuates between the stage of analysis and that of restructuring That is to say there is no clear-cut division between these stages in the actual process of translating Preserving the meaning of the SL message is of top priority to the translator Nida underlines this point by saying that transfer is not merely the transference of individual, disconnected kernels, but occurs at a point where these kernels are connected into meaningful series: This means that we must modify slightly our diagram, so that after having analyzed the basic components into their simplest relationships within kernels, we 'back up' to the point where these kernels are carefully and properly related to each other (Nida and Taber 1969) Restructuring the message involves adjustments at different levels: grammatical and semantic In this stage, the translator should pay attention to the divergences of the two languages in terms of voice, word classes, connectors, etc Other adjustments are required in terms of language varieties or styles Metaphorical expressions and idioms must also be modified to fit in with the TL culture The final stage in the process of translating is testing It includes accuracy of rendering, readability, stylistic equivalence, etc But in Nida's view, it is dynamic equivalence rather than verbal correspondence which should be the focus of attention The length of the translation compared to the original is also important According to Nida (1969: 163), 'there is a tendency for all good translations to be somewhat longer than the originals.' Cultural and linguistic redundancies are ascribed by Nida to the desire of the translators to include all information stated in the original communication Nida applied certain methods to test ease of comprehension, predictability and readability One such method is the Cloze technique where the degree of predictability, i.e to guess the right word in the appropriate context, and readability of texts are measured, a concept derived from information theory Nida also suggested other practical tests such as: reaction to atternatives, explaining the contents, reading the text aloud, and the publication of sample material, all of which proved to be very helpful and easy to apply Nida concludes that the ultimate criterion in distinguishing good translations from bad translations is dynamic equivalence In translations which use the Dynamic Equivalence Method, on the one hand, the form is structured to preserve the same meaning by deploying different syntax and lexicon In bad translations which use formal correspondence, on the other hand, the form is preserved by sticking to the same word classes and word order while the meaning is lost or distorted Bad translations also result from using techniques like paraphrase by addition, deletion, or skewing of the message Nida (1976) classifies theories of translating into three main categories: 1- Philological 2- Linguistic 3- Sociolinguistic The three main categories of Nida’s Theories of Translating Philological Theories of translating: Philological theories of translating (also called 'pre-linguistic) evolved before the development of modern linguistics, approximately before the Second World War They were formulated at a time when philology was the discipline that shouldered the responsibility of studying language Philological theories of translation focus primarily on literary texts taking no interest in other fields such as science and technology, commerce, and law Philological theories of translating deal with the problem of the equivalence of literary texts by comparing and contrasting the SL and the TL They also focus on the literary quality, i.e the form of the text and its stylistic features and rhetorical devices One of the major preoccupations of philological theories of translating is the discussion of literary works of high quality such as Shakespeare's works Another major issue in philological theories of translating is the problem of equivalence of literary genres between the SL and the TL The question whether poetry should be translated as poetry or prose or whether an epic in the SL should be rendered as such in the TL was one of the main obsessions of such theories One can safely include here all the old controversies on translation, e.g whether translation is an art or a science, whether it should concentrate on the form or the content of the message, and the aims of translation In fact, traditional rules and directives for translators were on a philological basis Nida lists a number of works as representative of philological theories of translation Nida also regards most articles published in Babel as philological in perspective Linguistic Theories of Translating: According to Nida: Linguistic theories of translation are based on a comparison of linguistic structures of source and receptor texts rather than on a comparison of literary genres and stylistic features (1976: 69) These theories developed as a result of the great development in modern linguistic theories, and the tendency to study language scientifically The findings of these linguistic theories were applied to other related areas such as language teaching and translating However, little benefit came out of these theories, since they were confined to the study of idealized constructions, with meaning left out of account One major difference between linguistic theories of translating and philological theories of translating is that linguistic theories are descriptive rather than prescriptive They demonstrate how people translate rather than how they should translate This does not imply that all linguistic theories are the same, or there would be one standard theory only They differ in terms of focus or perspective According to Nida: The principal differences between various linguistic theories (or semi-theories) of translation lie in the extent to which the focus is on surface structures or corresponding deep structures Theories based on surface-structure comparisons involve the use of more-orless elaborate sets of rules for matching roughly corresponding structures (1976) Sociolinguistic Theories of Translating: Sociolinguistic theories of translating emerged out of the dissatisfaction with linguistic theories of translating, and the growing interest in communication Such interest resulted from the work of anthropologists who recognized the role of text recipients in the process of translating Those changes are demonstrated in Nida (1964) Generally speaking, some linguistic theories of translating have demonstrated sociolinguistic influences by referring to the context of communication Sociolinguistic theories of translating relate linguistic structures to a higher level where they can be viewed in terms of their function in communication When discussing a text, the sociolinguist is concerned particularly with its author, its historical background, the circumstances involved in its production, and the history of its interpretation, for such elements figure in the social setting of communication Nida and Taber (1969), for example, have pointed out that the old focus on the form of the message in translating has shifted to the receptors, i.e the readers Therefore, it is the reader's response to the translated message that determines the correctness of that message They set the average reader as the only criterion for measuring correctness in translating Correctness, in their view, is not only the possibility of understanding the message by readers but rather the impossibility of misunderstanding it In their The Theory and Practice of Translation (1969: 12fl, Nida and Taber are fully aware of certain social factors such as age, sex, educational levels, occupation, social class, and religious affiliation Such factors affect linguistic variation and need to be accounted for in translating Drawing on Martin Joos's distinction of different styles, Nida and Taber produce a similar list which comprises the following: technical, formal, informal, casual, and intimate Formal style, for example, is designed for a relatively wider audience than that of technical style Technical style, on the other hand, is used among specialists; hence it is intended for a restricted audience, because it utilizes complicated vocabulary and complex grammatical constructions Therefore, when translating, one should be aware of the fact that there are several styles at work which must be rendered into the TL In observing different styles in translating, the translator is achieving a near dynamic equivalence Accordingly, 'lyric poetry should sound like poetry and not like an essay; letters should sound like letters and not like some technical treatise on theology.' (Nida and Taber 1969:129) Similarly, to measure this dynamic equivalence, in Nida and Taber's view: We can only rightly compare the equivalence of response, rather than the degree of agreement between the original source and the later receptors, for we cannot presume that the source was writing for this 'unknown audience' or that the monolingual receptors in the second language have enough background to understand the setting of the original communication One difference between sociolinguistic theories of translating and linguistic ones is that in sociolinguistic theories lan g ue the language system, is as important as parole the actual use of language Like linguistic theories of translating, sociolinguistic theories are descriptive 'The response of the receptors must be in terms of the actual response to similar types of texts, and in terms of what might be regarded as judicial or legal norms.' (Nida 1976: 77) Nida concludes that such classification of theories of translating does not exist in actual practice The translator selects the theory and method of translating that he regards most appropriate to the kind and type of text he is dealing with This does not imply that he cannot change to other theories or methods if that is necessary For a prospective theory of translating, Nida (ibid.: 78) believes it should be primarily sociolinguistic 'because translating always involves communication within the context of interpersonal relations' Such a comprehensive theory will be reliable, and will be able to deal with all the factors that are involved in and influence the nature of translating It might be useful to mention that Nida's classification of theories of translating is general, since the labels he has adopted to describe these theories cover many theories For example, linguistic theories subsume all theories which focus on both deep and surface structures The majority of modern linguistic theories have a communicative dimension (e.g Catford) By the same token, sociolinguistic theories have a bearing on linguistic theories External Factors on Translation activities Bởi ThS Nguyễn Thế Hóa - Thứ sáu, 3/09/2021, 3:21 PM Sender “The sender of a text is the person (or institution, etc.) who uses the text in order to convey a certain message to somebody else and/or to produce a certain effect, whereas the text producer writes the text according to the instructions of the sender, and complies with the rules and norms of text production valid in the respective language and culture” (Nord, 1991, p 43) As it has been said before, the categories of sender and text producer often overlap The translator then finds himself in a situation comparable to the one of the 10 Basel/Blackwell, 1991 LADMIRAL,J.R Traduire Théorèmes pour la traduction Paris, Payot, 1979 MALONE The Science of Linguistics in the Art of Translation.New York,Albany State University of New York, 1988 MOUNIN,G Los problemas teóricos de la traducción Madrid, Gredos, 1971 NIDA,Eugene A Toward a Science of Translating.Leiden, E J Brill, 1964 OSGOOD,C «Language universals and psycholinguistics» En J.H GREENBERG (ed.) Universals of Language Cambridge,MIT, 1963 SNELL-HORNBY,Marym Translation Studies, An Integrated Approach Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 1988 TOURY,G In Search of a Theory of Translation.Tel Aviv, Porter Institute of Poetics and Semantics, 1980 VEGA, Miguel Ángel (ed.) Textos Clásicos de la Teoría de la traducciún.Madrid, Cỏtedra, 1994 VINAY,J.P.and DARBELNET,J Stylistique comparộe du franỗais et de l’anglais Paris, Didier, 1958 ✺✺✺ RESUMEN Teorías de la Traducción Partiendo de una serie de errores que existen sobre la disciplina y teniendo en cuenta que la traducción consiste en un ejercicio que cualquier persona que conozca los idiomas puede llevar a cabo, el autor señala un conjunto de varios principios que pueden ayudar a los traductores en el desempeño de su trabajo.Ante la dificultad de establecer una única teoría general de la traducción, estos principios salados dan forma a las diferentes teorías de la traducción existentes, y que nunca pueden distanciarse excesivamente de las propias culturas y sociedades en que se lleva a cabo la traducción En la versión electrónica de Pliegos de Yuste (http://www.pliegosdeyuste.com) se hallará la versión castellana de este artículo 14 E UGENE A N IDA Pliegosde Y uste Nº 4, I, 2006 How important the context is in translation? Bởi ThS Trần Thị Anh Thơ - Thứ ba, 21/09/2021, 12:31 AM Hi class, Read the article (by By Liraz Postan) below and you have better understanding of how important the context is in translation A language is a way to see and understand the world It is the vehicle of our ideas, thoughts, and perspectives of our world However, since a human being is essentially a social animal we perpetually interact with our environment 125 This interaction with the environment is a factor of time and space When and where we are interacting determines what actually we are meaning For example ‘March’ is an act as well as a month The meaning depends on when, where and how The translation is understood as an act of carrying the meaning of a text from one language to another This process involves the interpretation of the meaning of the source text and producing the same meaning in another language Text however cannot exist out of context By context what is meant is the entire environment in which the word or sentence is expressed or stated So a translator has to go into the background of the text to understand the text Thus translator first decontextualizes the original text and re-contextualizes it for the target text This forms a good contextualized translation While seeking the context of a text there may be two categories of factors that may influence the meaning of the text-linguistic context or the situational context Linguistic context cites the linguistic factors influencing the meaning of the text Any word in the text is not present in isolation but interacts with other words in the text and with the whole text at large This interaction among words determines their meaning rather than its isolated meaning For example see the use of word ‘press’ in these sentences A) Press my shirt B) I work in a press C) Press the button Linguistic context too can either be immediate or remote Immediate context refers to the words or sentences that make the context evident then and there through the whole text Remote context pertains to the existence of a word or sentence somewhere else It may refer to the author using the word somewhere else or there may be special reasons to use that word or phrase Situational context refers to the factors of situations and circumstances influencing the meaning of a text These factors are little harder to be recognized than linguistic ones The situational factors may pertain to the facial expressions, gestures and stances at micro level and the social, political and economical milieu and the culture at large Conventions and the whole value system differ from one culture and society to another What is ‘right’ and what is ’wrong’ differs Ideologies may also be a factor to refer to the context Language therefore should be considered a part of the culture and understood in its context The translator must be giving over-the-top stress to understand the context so as to produce a good contextualized translation Good luck to you all Gv Tho Differences in Nature between Functional Grammar and Traditional Grammar Bởi ThS Trần Thị Anh Thơ - Thứ ba, 21/09/2021, 12:31 AM Hi class, Here are some differences in Nature between Functional Grammar and Traditional Grammar As a new model of grammar, functional grammar is quite different from traditional grammar Functional grammar focuses on the way language is put together so that meaning is communicated for particular purposes, and looks at a language as a system of meaning, while traditional grammar is concerned with the ways words are organized within sentences and looks at a language as a set of rules In other words, functional grammar is different from traditional grammar in that it focuses on language as a meaning-making resource rather than as a set of rules Also, functional grammar provides us with tools for describing how language is used in varying, real-life contexts, and for understanding why a text is the way it is It respects speakers’ rights to make up their own minds about how they choose to talk, and it makes speakers explicitly aware of the choices they have available On the other hand, traditional grammar is a prescriptive one, telling you what you can and cannot say and provides rules for correcting what are often referred to as grammatical errors In addition, functional 126 grammar is concerned with how the various bits of language in a text work together as part of a larger system in order to construct meaning, while traditional grammar is concerned with identifying the functions of words and word groups within sentences, without demonstrating how they contribute to the overall meaning in a text At the same time, functional grammar is concerned with how language is used in a range of cultural and social contexts, while traditional grammar is mainly concerned with how to use language correctly in writing and speech In analyzing sentence and word, traditional grammar stops at the sentence and there is a sense in which this does form an upper bound However, for functional grammar, in terms of rank, there is no fixed upper limit It treats the clause as the basic unit, while traditional grammar regards the sentence as the basic unit Besides the above analyzed differences between functional grammar and traditional grammar, there are still great differences between them, including the areas they cover, and terminology they use However, the fundamental difference is that functional grammar is a meaning-based, descriptive one, and traditional grammar is a form-based, prescriptive one In the field of language teaching and learning, their purposes and applications are thus quite different Hope the information is helpful Regards, Gv Tho What devices can create cohesion? Bởi ThS Trần Thị Anh Thơ - Thứ ba, 21/09/2021, 12:32 AM    Hi class, There are two referential devices that can create cohesion: Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refers back to someone or something that has been previously identified, to avoid repetition Some examples: replacing "the taxi driver" with the pronoun "he" or "two girls" with "they" Another example can be found in formulaic sequences such as "as stated previously" or "the aforementioned" Cataphoric reference is the opposite of anaphora: a reference forward as opposed to backward in the discourse Something is introduced in the abstract before it is identified For example: "Here he comes, our award-winning host it's John Doe!" Cataphoric references can also be found in written text There is one more referential device, which cannot create cohesion: Exophoricreference is used to describe generics or abstracts without ever identifying them (in contrast to anaphora and cataphora, which identify the entity and thus are forms of endophora): e.g rather than introduce a concept, the writer refers to it by a generic word such as "everything" The prefix "exo" means "outside", and the persons or events referred to in this manner are never identified by the writer Halliday and Hasan considered exophoric reference as not cohesive, since it does not tie two elements together into in text Hope the information helps SOCIOLINGUISTICS AS A CRUCIAL FACTOR Bởi ThS Nguyễn Thế Hóa - Thứ hai, 27/09/2021, 11:04 PM SOCIOLINGUISTICS IN TRANSLATING EUGENE A AS A CRUCIAL AND INTERPRETING FACTOR NIDA1 In writing some years ago about translating as an «ethnolinguistic endeavor» I may have been one of the first to speak about the broad cultural factors of interlin 127 gual communication , but I failed at that time to realize the full implications of sociolinguistics as a crucial factor in all translating and interpreting I also mista kenly described translating to the Linguistic Society of America as a «comparative linguistic undertaking", entirely too narrow a view It is true that in all translating and interpreting the source and target languages must be implicitly or explicitly compared, but all such interlingual communication extends far beyond the mecha nics of linguistic similarities and contrasts In order to appreciate fully the role of sociolinguistics in translating and interpreting, it is essential to recognize two basic realities First, the meaning of verbal symbols on any and every level depend s on the culture of the language community Language is a part of culture, and in fact, it is the most complex set of habits that any culture exhibits Language reflects the culture, provides access to the culture, and in many respects constitutes a model of the culture through its taxonomic hierarchies of words representing tokens and types on every level from viruses to galaxies And like culture, a language is also a nonlinear system : open-ended , essentially unpredictable, constantly changing, and with fuzzy boundaries of classes and cons tructions Wh o would ever have thought a couple of decades ago that a happy little word like «gay» would be so radically altered in meaning , or that the generic Spa nish verb coger, traditionally meaning «to take», would have to be deleted from a recent revision of the Spanish Bible because of its present association with sexual relations? Second, translating and interpreting are communicative processes that produce a «text», whether on paper or in the air As producers of a product, translating and interpreting constitute technologies, not sciences They must, of course , employ insights from a number of scientific disciplines : psychology, cultural anthropology , linguistics, and communication theory, and as I A Richards has said, they probably constitute «the most complex event yet produced in the evolution of the cosmos.» ' La asistencia del Prof Eugene A Nida a los V Encuentros Complutenses fue posible gracias a la colaboración de la Embajada de los EE UU Desde aquí reiteramos nuestro agradecimiento, y, en especial, a su Agregado Cultural Adjunto, Sr Seward V ENCUENTROS COMPLUTENSES Eugene A NLDA Sociolinguistics as a crucial factor in translating and i - Page Internal communication involves a whole set of culturally significant compo nents : source, message , media, target audience, setting, feedback, and noise (both physical and psychological), all of which need to be viewed from the perspective of their cultural roles Perhaps the most relevant parallel can be found in architecture, which must also draw on a number of scientific disciplines, e.g physics, chemistry, space engineering, systems analysis, etc., as well as reflect concern for the audience that will use the building and for an aesthetic component to make the building a 128 source of visual and tactile pleasure Definitions of linguistics and sociolinguistics may be useful in understanding more precisely the distinctive roles of these two complementary ways of viewing language Linguistics consists essentially in the investigation of the classes and structures of language and their interrelations on all levels from phonology to discourse But sociolinguistics is concerned with the uses of language and the values associated with such uses Therefore, sociolinguistics analyzes levels or registers of language (from highly ritual to decidedly intimate), competition between dialects and between languages, the growth and death of languages, the roles of jargons , slang, and verbal innovations, gender differences, and the abuse of langua ge, especially by advertisers and politicians At present, some of the most valuable insights about language are the result of research in the sociolinguistic aspects of verbal communication There are, however, two serious errors about language that significantly impede real progress in understanding the nature of translating and interpreting : a) the naive idea that languages consist merely of words and grammar and b) the distorted view that the primary, or even the only, role of language is to communicate information These two misconceptions are serious roadblocks to grasping the true significance of what languages and how they accomplish their functions Instead of a language being a single code consisting of words and grammar , it is actually a bundle of related codes The verbal code never occurs in isolation, but is alway s associated with paralinguistic and extralinguistic codes, as well as with supplementary and competing codes, each with its own designative (or denotative) and associative (connotative) meanings The paralinguistic oral features of language consist of distinctive tone of voice, intonation, pitch, rapidity of utterance, and quality of enunciation A growling tone of voice can change «1 love you» into an expression of hate or contempt, while a slight shift in intonation can transform a straightforward statement into cynical irony Excessive speed of utterance may signal nervousness or perhaps a cover-up, while high pitch often indicates aggression And sloppy enunciation can convince listeners that the speaker couldn't care less about an audience's reactions Paralinguistic features also occur in written texts, e.g orthographical correctness, the style of type, the system of writing, and format Misspellings are a poor recom mendation for a secretary seeking employment, and an article filled with bold-face type gives an impression that the writer is not content to argue his case but feels obliged to gesticulate graphically on every page Some scholars insist that Greek and Hebrew words must always occur in their traditional letters and accents rather V ENCUENTROS COMPLUTENSES Eugene A NLDA Sociolinguistics as a crucial factor in translating and i - Page than be transliterated, but this can also reveal a kind of intellectual snobbery , espe cially when the forms of the letters are not germane to the discussion The format 129 can also convey a great deal of information In fact, some people refuse to buy a Bible if it has a single rather than double column format, because, as they say , they don't want their Bible to look like any other book The communicative importance of format can be easily confirmed by taking a prose text and dividing it up into poetic lines or by taking a poem and writing it out as prose Almost inevitably the response of readers will be radically altered by the change in format Extralinguistic oral features constitute an amazing set of codes The gestures of hand, face, mouth , and especially eye contact are not only distinctive of various languages but carry very important messages So closely related are gestures to verbal language in Italy that it is not strange to see people in a phone booth holding the phone between the shoulder and the cheek in order to free the hands to gesticu late Stance can also be part of the bundle of extralinguistic codes Tense body stance can signal keen personal commitment to what is being said, while a lackadai sical attitude can greatly reduce an audience's appreciation for the verbal message But perhaps the distance between conversationalists is one of the most wrongly perceived parts of the bundle of codes In the Mediterranean countries and in Latin America most speakers stand about half an arm's length from one another, while in Northern Europe and North America most people stand about an arm's length apart When a North American and a Latin American are conversing, the Latin American is likely to come closer, but the North American usually interprets this as aggres sion, and so he move s back But to the Latin American this retreat is interpreted as being standoffish and lacking in a capacity for friendship There are even important extralinguistic features in written communications Some years ago an enterprising representative of the Bible Societies made the grave mistake of binding in pigskin an Arabic translation of the New Testament , essen tially an act of sacrilege Even the color of binding communicate s in many areas of the world In the United States a book bound in yellow normally sells poorly, but one in gold is regarded as very attractive In China, however, anything in yellow is much appreciated because this color is still associated with imperial grandeur In the tropical parts of the world green is not very popular the people have too much green around them all the time, but in the desert areas of the world green is a favo rite color, and books bound in green are regarded as particularly appropriate and acceptable Part of the meaning of any text depends greatly on the reputed source To firm this extralinguistic aspect, select a more or less neutral statement with political implications and give the same text to three different sets of students, but indicate to each group a different source, e.g Thoma s Jefferson, Karl Marx, and Adolph Hitler It will soon be clear how much the presumed writer or speaker influences the understanding of the text Even the setting of an utterance influences the meaning For example , the words «damn» and «hell» have quite different meaning s depending on whether they are uttered on the golf course or in a church Supplementary and competing codes often result in significant alterations in the form of the verbal code For example, in songs the words may be arranged in an V ENCUENTROS COMPLUTENSES Eugene A NLDA Sociolinguistics as a crucial factor in translating and i - Page 130 unnatural order so that word stresses will match the accented notes of the music In drama the words must fit the action, and in dubbing the lip synchronization must closely parallel the mouth movements In opera both music and acting are involved, and the required adjustments are so acute that most translators despair of ever being able to produce satisfactory translations Multimedia productions also have the problem s of coordinating background sound, visual images, and words , and as a result the content is too often sacrificed to the more spectacular visual images Bilingual and multilingual contexts are rich environments for competing codes When a woman in southeastern Arizona explains to her neighbor about the noisy play of children as los niđos están monkeyando, «the children are monkeying around», one can readily see the effects of multiple codes In such circumstances , one language is likely to lose out to another, but in some cases there may be a rebirth of a long suppressed language, as in the case of Catalan But rather than a conflict between languages on a wide front, the change may be only a subtle one A century ago the prestige oral style in New York City was close to New England speech, but now in New York City the pronunciation of postvocalic r typical of the central part of the United States is winning out over the Bostonian centralized vowel Many people have assumed that bilingualism and multilingualism are a special feature of Europe, where more than fifty languages are employed in education and book production But in Africa there is far more multilingualism In fact, it is difficult to find people who speak only one language Truck drivers can usually communicate in four or five languages, and most persons with a high-school educa tion speak a local language, a trade language, and a school language, often a former colonial language The second major mistake made by most people is to assume that languages are used primarily to relay information Although it is true that the informative function of language exists to some extent in all uses of language, it probably doe s not represent more than 20 percent of what takes place in verbal communication The other sociological functions of language are in many respects far more crucial than the informative one For example , the imperative function is designed to influence behavior, but not necessarily by the use of imperative forms of the verbs An appro priate jok e or a meaningful story may be far more effective for altering behavior The perfonnative function is especially relevant in changing the social status of people , for example , in sentencing criminals, in blessing and cursing, and in marria ge ceremonies The statement «I now pronounce you man and wife» may cost a bridegroom less than twenty dollars, but having the statement undone may cost him thousands The emotive function is especially important for changing the emotional attitudes of people, something politicians and humorists are usually quite skilled at and for which they often receive high financial rewards But probably the most important sociological function is interpersonal, because it has to with establi shing and maintaining interpersonal relations Whether a person is addressed or spoken of as «the honorable George W Waddington III», or «Judge Waddington», or «George», or «Waddie» (his wife's favorite name for him) depends largely on the setting and the social proximity of the persons in question The interpersonal factors 131 V ENCUENTROS COMPLUTENSES Eugene A NLDA Sociolinguistics as a crucial factor in translating and i - Page determine whether one uses the fixed formulas of ceremony or ritual, the formal language employed in speaking to people that one does not know , the informal language used by colleagues, the casual language of parties and picnics, or the intimate language of the family Failure to respect these sociological functions of language can completely nullify even the most sensitive attention to the purely linguistic factors The psychological functions of language are often overlooked The intellectual emancipation that come s with the discovery of names for objects and events is one of the great discoveries of childhood, and the capacity to combine topics and com ments into meaningful utterances is a psychological triumph for both children and second-language learners The modeling of a speaker's world by mean s of language does provide a sense of belonging But the most commonly used psychological function of language is in thinking Although some thinking may occur without the immediate use of language, all complex thinking does involve internal verbalization There is, however, a function of language that overlaps both psychological reactions and sociological interaction, namely, the expressive function For example , a person may use words such as «ouch», «damn», «oh» without any intention to communicate anything to anyone, but an expressive urge may be an important factor in using language for aesthetic purposes In fact, even in the aesthetic use of language there may be no intent to communicate to others, as in the case of Emily Dickinson, whose remarkable poems were published only after her death But most person s who use language to express inner thoughts and drives wish to share their insights and aesthetic concerns with others Having once overcome the mistake of thinking of language as merely words and grammar and after having recognized the wide range of functions that language performs, a translator or interpreter is in a much better position to understand how the sociolinguistic features become relevant for the entire range of communication : phonology , lexicon, syntax, and discourse Ideophones, the phonologically marginal combinations of oral sounds , e.g «psst» (calling attention), «shsh» (asking people to quiet down) , and «brrr» (to signal how cold it is), are essentially verbal gestures, but they may have very different mea nings in different cultures In Latin America «psst»is a perfectly proper way to get the attention of a waiter in a restaurant, but the same ideophone is certainly not acceptable in a restaurant in New York City unless a person wants to get into trou ble Punning is also on the borderline between sounds and words, in which similari ties in sound suggest alternative meanings In some societies punning is a particu larly common phenomenon that people cultivate and thoroughly enjoy This is particularly true of the Kuna speakers living on the San Bias islands along the east coast of Panama In Brazilian Portuguese there is a special type of punning that consists in combining the last syllable or so of one word with the first syllable of the following word to form still another word-often a word with a pejorative or 132 vulgar meaning Not only languages differ in the way in which they construct new words, e.g compounding in German and Chinese in contrast with borrowing in English, but V ENCUENTROS COMPLUTENSES Eugene A NLDA Sociolinguistics as a crucial factor in translating and i - Page they all experience important changes in the meanings of standard terms For exam ple, the term «regularity» is so frequently mentioned in American radio and televi sion advertising about food and pills to prevent constipation, that a speaker must usually avoid the word completely in order not to suggest unwanted nuance s of meaning And there are often very subtle semantic associations with words A recent translation of the New Testament has been compelled to use such phrases as «to miracles» or «to work miracles» rather than «to perform miracles " so as to avoid the impression of putting on a show, something typical of some television evangelists Because of the sociolinguistic aspects of lexicography, a new lexicon of the Greek New Testament vocabulary has been designed to reflect more accurately the cultural contexts of word usage Instead of listing words in alphabetical order, the meanings are arranged in semantic domains For example, all the words referring to body parts are in the same domain, all the meanings of words relating to thinking are together, and so on for commercial activities, emotions, ethical behavior, com munication, etc This has been done because the different meanings of a single word are generally farther apart in semantic space than the related meanings of different words Furthermore, by arranging meanings in major and minor semantic domains , it is possible to highlight more readily and accurately the diversities of contexts in which the terms occur Recent research in neurophysiology has also indicated how the brain has certain special regions for meanings belonging to related semantic domains A special number of Scientific American (September, 1992) on mind and brain reported on how the brain categorizes information so that related events and concepts can be reactivated together Furthermore, there seem to be three separate but closely related parts of the brain concerned with language, one network encodes and decode s sounds, words , and grammar, while a second acts as a transfer mechanism , and a third is a conceptual area, in which concepts are not images, but traces of synaptic connections that can be readily reactivated These neurological aspects of the brain provide a basis for Danica Seleskovitch's principle of «grasping the concepts and forgetting the words " But there is much more to translating than this somewhat overly simplified formula The fact that we translate concepts instead of words was poignantly illustrated for me when checking a translation of the New Testament in the More language of West Africa In the Gospel of Mark 35 the Greek text speaks about Jesus getting up early before sunrise and going out alone to a desert place, but in the More text there were just two words : «Jesus» and an accompanying verb Accordingly, I asked 133 the translator, «Where is the rest of the sentence", word mean s to get up early in the morning and to all there in one word" If the concept is conveyed by to add words Consider, for example, the remarkable single English word such as «heir», which can be will receive something of value, presumably after the gift.» but she replied, «That second go out to a desert place alone It's a single word, there is no need combination of meaning in a defined as «a person who has or the death of the person making V ENCUENTROS COMPLUTENSES Eugene A NLDA Sociolinguistics as a crucial factor in translating and i - Page A sociolinguistic approach to lexicography also implies much greater attention to the role of contexts in determining meaning Instead of speaking about thirteen different meaning s of English «run», it seems much better to speak about the occu rrence of «run» in thirteen different types of contexts Furthermore, definitions need to be much more sensitive to marginal or peripheral meanings , which are not excep tions, but should be part of the definitions For example, the most common meaning of «run» is usually given as «movement in space by use of the limbs such that at alternating instances no limb is in touch with the supporting surface" This is all right for bipeds and quadrupeds , but what about such expressions as «the spider ran across the table», «the crab ran up the beach», and «the snake ran across the lawn»? For spiders and crabs the statement about no limb touching the surface is simply wrong, and for a snake there are no limbs Compare also two more sets of expres sions: «the clock is running", «his heart is running", «the motor is running", and «the water is running", «the faucet is running", «his nose is running" In these three kinds of «running» we recognize the differences simply because of the words that accom pany «run» The meaning we attribute to «run» is actually a composite or combined meaning of «run» and the context If we are to take seriously 1) the principle that the meaning of a word in any context is the minimal amount that the word contributes to the meaning of the whole and 2) the principle that any semantic system maximizes the context and minimizes the role of the individual items, our approach to meaning will be much more attuned to the cultural contexts in which words occur Furthermore , in linguis tics there is also a fundamental principle of "conditioned variation" That is to say, if alternative forms are completely conditioned by context, they are structurally irrelevant It is for this reason that in English we not write the phonetic differen ces between aspirated and nonaspirated voiceless stops in «pill»/«spill», «till»/«still», and «kill»/«skill» because these differences are conditioned by the absence or occu rrence of the initials The application of this principle to lexical semantics would certainly provide a more accurate and ultimately more intuitively satisfying approach to meaning Since syntax is so automatic, we should let our brains a lot of the mental work for us by concentrating on a clear understanding of the concepts As a result our translations and interpretations will usually be far more satisfactory Geronimo Martin, a blind Navajo Indian, was justly famous as a remarkable interpreter, but he 134 was hopelessly literal when he translated the Bible with his fingers following an English Braille text In order for him to translate well, someone had to read the text to him Then after he had accurately grasped the concepts, he could produce a remarkably idiomatic Navajo equivalent During a recent experience in translating and adapting some five hundred pages of Study Bible notes from Spanish into English, I found that if I paid too much attention to the words of the Spanish text, I almost inevitably used English word s that represented a much higher academic level than the words of the English Bible for which I was preparing the notes The reason for this is not difficult to unders tand, because Latin cognates in English are generally on a much higher register than V ENCUENTROS COMPLUTENSES Eugene A NLDA Sociolinguistics as a crucial factor in translating and i - Page they are in Spanish Similarly, one of the principal reasons why machine translation has proven to be so inadequate is that the rules are tied too closely to words rather than to concepts Sociolinguistics is particularly important in matters of discourse structure In the Western world a discourse of serious content normally begins with a statement of the major thesis or theme, and what follows is usually a series of reasons or data that substantiate the principal point of the discourse In the Orient, however, spea kers or writers often begin with a series of observations or experiences that are designed to lead listeners or readers to recognize the purpose or theme of the dis course In other words , the big idea comes last, and in fact may not even be expli citly mentioned For many people in the Western world, this way of organizing ideas seem s like beating around the bush and avoiding the real issue, while many people in the Orient insist that their approach is much more polite and effective because it encourages an audience to recognize gradually the significance of what has been said and therefore to accept the conclusions more readily and gratefully The crucial problems of effective interlingual communication are not primarily linguistic, but sociolinguistic, because it is in the blend of language and culture, of words and concepts, and of semantics and pragmatics that the real significance of translation and interpretation can be best understood and the principles of sociolin guistics can be most usefully employed V ENCUENTROS COMPLUTENSES Eugene A NLDA Sociolinguistics as a crucial factor in translating and i Chủ đề thảo luận 01: Ambiguity matter in translation Bởi ThS Trần Thị Hương Lý - Thứ năm, 2/09/2021, 12:19 AM Ambiguity rarely occurs in discourse, but it remains a source of problems for automatic comprehension Ambiguity is an inherent property of any natural language, particularly fostered by synthetic languages like English because of the loss of most of the endings We all know that when a word has more than one meaning, it is said to be lexically ambiguous When a phrase or sentence can have more than one structure it is said to be structurally ambiguous Ambiguity is a pervasive phenomenon in human languages It is very hard to find 135 words that are not at least two ways ambiguous, and sentences which are (out of context) several ways ambiguous are the rule, not the exception This is not only problematic because some of the alternatives are unintended (i.e represent wrong interpretations), but because ambiguities ‘multiply’ The matter is that it is very easy for some of the third-year students ( English major learners in the on-thejob or distance classes ) to form ambiguity in translation and they don’t know how to deal with this Ambiguity always happens and it is out of their control What should they now to reduce ambiguity to the minimum as much as possible ? Question What is ambiguity in translation ? Question What are the types of ambiguity ? Question Why does ambiguity always happen in students’ translations? Question What are the possible ways to reduce ambiguity that may arise in translation? Answer to Question Ambiguity in main aspect is the property of words, terms, notations,signs, symbols, and concepts (within a particular context) as being undefined, indefinable, multi-defined, or without an obvious definition, and thus having a misleading, or unclear, meaning A word, phrase, sentence, or other communication is called “ambiguous” if it can be interpreted in more than one way Ambiguity is distinct from vagueness, which arises when the boundaries of meaning are indistinct Ambiguity is in contrast with definition, and typically refers to an unclearchoice between standard definitions, as given by a dictionary, or else understood as common knowledge If opposed to ‘clarity’, ambiguity would be considered a fault Answer to Question There are four major types of ambiguity: lexical, categorial, grammatical and referential The reason why we have limited the focus of our interest to these four types to the detriment of others no less important is the fact that these types of ambiguity tend to occur more frequently in both fictional and non-fictional discourse, and therefore are more likely to create difficulties for translators Answer to Question There are plenty of things that leads or causes "Ambiguity" either in a sentence ,in word or in others here are some of them : * Using a pronoun without making clear who or what the referent is English ambiguity is embodied in four aspects interms of linguistics i.e., phonology, lexicology, syntax and pragmatics Grammatical ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure People are said to be ambiguous on occasion in how they use language This can occur if, even when their words are unambiguous, their words not make what they mean uniquely determinable Strictly speaking, however, ambiguity is a semantic phenomenon, involving linguistic meaning rather than speaker meaning Answer to Question Language cannot exist without ambiguity; which has represented both a curse and a blessing through the ages Since there is no one "truth" and no absolutes, we can only rely on relative truths arising from groups of people who, within their particular cultural systems, attempt to answer their own questions and meet their needs for survival Language is a very complex phenomenon Meanings that can be taken for granted are in fact only the tip of a huge iceberg Psychological, social and cultural events provide a moving ground on which those meanings take root and expand their branches Chủ đề thảo luận 02: Equivalence in translation Bởi ThS Trần Thị Hương Lý - Thứ ba, 21/09/2021, 12:43 AM 136 There are probably five types of equivalence which differ as to the volume and character of the information retained in each Each subsequent type of equivalence retains the part of the original contents which includes the information preserved in the previous types Each level of equivalence is characterized by the part of information the retention of which distinguishes it from the previous level The list of levels includes: 1) the level of the purport of communication; 2) the level of (the identification of) the situation; 3) the level of the method of description (of the situation); 4) the level of syntactic meanings; 5) the level of word semantics It is really complicated and difficult for many students to master the use of equivalence in translation Especially for the new learners who begin to study “Translation Theories”, they always get confused Equivalence is of various levels and it often leads to translation failure What should they to get rid of nonequivalence in translation ? Question What is the concept of equivalence? Question What are the possible types of equivalence ? Question What are the reasons for non-equivalence in translation ? Question What are the possible ways deal with non-equivalence in translation? - Answer to the question : When a word or phrase means exactly the same thing in both languages, we call that an equivalence, and it’s understandably one of the first things professional translators look for This requires a deep understanding of both cultures, not just the language You can speak both languages fluently, but if you don’t understand the idiom and culture behind them, your translations will be, in a word, terrible A literal translation is a useless translation – you have to understand the meaning behind the words Equivalence is a powerful tool in service of that goal, but it only works when you have a deep, comprehensive understanding of the process Answer to the question : According to Bassnett ( 2002 ), there are types of equivalence: linguistic equivalence, where there is homogeneity on the linguistic level of both SL and TL texts, paradigmatic equivalence, where there is equivalence of “the elements of a paradigmatic expressive axis”, stylistic (translational) equivalence, where there is “functional equivalence of elements in both original and translation aiming at an expressive identity with an invariant of identical meaning”, and textual (syntagmatic) equivalence, where there is equivalence of the syntagmatic structuring of a text, i.e equivalence of form and shape According to Kenny (2001), there are three kinds of equivalence They are : referential or denotative equivalence, connotative equivalence, and text-normative equivalence Chủ đề thảo luận 03: Cohesion Analysis in Translation Bởi ThS Trần Thị Hương Lý - Thứ sáu, 1/10/2021, 12:57 PM In doing the translation, some students believe that they should take advantage of cohesive devices to understand the text It is necessary to look into all the aspects of cohesion analysis The most common ones are grammatical and lexical cohesion Cohesive devices can help readers understand texts better Some other students have quite different thinkings that cohesive devices are unimportant they need to pay more attention to the semantic aspects The meaning of sentences requires understandings both the meaning of individual words and the syntactic context in which the words are embedded Words can denote a literal or core meaning and connote a halo of associative meanings Question 137 What you know about the concept of cohesion analysis in translation ? Question What are the kinds of cohesive devices ? Question Why are cohesive devices important ? Question Why is it better to use cohesive devices than to use semantic aspects in understanding the text ? Answer to Question 1: Cohesion refers to the relation of meaning that exists within the text and defines as the text Cohesion occurs when the interpretation of some elements in the discourse Meanwhile, coherence is semantic property of discourse which is formed by interpretation of each relative sentence to other sentences The coherent text is meaningful, unified, and gives the impression Therefore, a discourse becomes coherent through the cohesion Answer to Question 2: Cohesion is generally described with regard to two broad categories: ‘gram-matical cohesion’ and ‘lexical cohesion’ These categories reflect a view onlanguage that treats grammar and lexis along separate lines Grammatical cohesion consist of : Reference ( anaphoric, cataphoric, exophoric, personal, demonstrative, comparative, ), substitution(nominal, verbal, clausal, ), ellipsis (nominal, verbal, clausal, ) conjunction (adversative, additive, causal, temporal) Lexical cohesion consist of : a, reiteration: repetition, synonymy, antonymy, superordinate, meronymy, general words, b, collocation ( resultative, modificational, contextual ) Answer to Question 3: Cohesive devices tell the readers what we are doing in a sentence and help to guide them through our translated text They signal to the readers what the relationships are between the different clauses, sentences and paragraphs We need to use these elements to connect ideas in our sentences Instead of writing long sentences, we can write shorter ones In addition, we must remember that there should only be one main point being made in a sentence However, we should cleverly insert cohesive devices, also known as connectors, to make links between our points and bring about cohesion in your writing sentences As such, this will enable your points to flow fluently within your text Answer to Question : A semantic rule for English might say that a simple sentence involving the word ‘can't’ always corresponds to a meaning arrangement: For instance, ‘I can't dance’ means that I'm unable to dance; it doesn't mean that I'm able not to dance To assign meanings to the sentences of a language, we need to know what they are It is the job of another area of linguistics, called syntax, to answer this question, by providing rules that show how sentences and other expressions are built up out of smaller parts, and eventually out of words The meaning of a sentence depends not only on the words it contains, but on its syntactic makeup: the sentence (S) That can hurt you, for instance, is ambiguous it has two distinct meanings These correspond to two distinct syntactic structures In one structure ‘That’ is the subject and ‘can’ is an auxiliary verb (meaning “able”), and in the other ‘That can’ is the subject and ‘can’ is a noun (indicating a sort of container) Because the meaning of a sentence depends so closely on its syntactic structure, linguists have given a lot of thought to the relations between syntactic structure and meaning; in fact, evidence about ambiguity is one way of testing ideas about syntactic structure 138 We would expect an expert in semantics to know a lot about what meanings are The nature of meaning, and the nature of time, are foundational questions that are debated by philosophers Chủ đề thảo luận 04: The Role of Contextual Analysis in Translation Bởi ThS Trần Thị Hương Lý - Thứ ba, 12/10/2021, 1:51 PM Text analysis is an important step in understanding a passage before doing the translating Analysis is of several kinds and among them most students nowadays choose to put emphasis on the Contextual Analysis In the past, researchers, teachers and students always relied on Grammatical Analysis or Cohesion Analysis before they did their translating on a certain text A number of students now are in the middle of the road They can not make a right choice for their method of doing the translation Question What is the Importance of Context in Translation ? Question What is cultural context ? Question What you know about Halliday’s Model of context ? Question What are the strata of context ? 139 ... style The principle with which this book starts is that everything without exception is translatable; the translator cannot afford the luxury of saying that something cannot be translated Translation... material phenomenon; it does not consist of things, people, behavior, or emotions It is rather an organization of these things It is the forms of things that people have in mind, their models... culture, these things and events are also signs signifying the cultural forms or models of which they are material representation." It can be summarized that this definition suggests three things: •