CONDITIONAL SENTENCES 1 INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION Truong Van Anh Sai Gon University, HCMC E mail truongvananh@cvseas edu vn Lesson 4 Semantic and communicative translation Semantic translation This[.]
INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION Truong Van Anh Sai Gon University, HCMC E-mail: truongvananh@cvseas.edu.vn Lesson 4: Semantic and communicative translation Semantic translation This kind of translation tends to be dependent on the source language, so it usually sounds unnatural It includes literal and faithful translation methods Semantic translation attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the source language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original Ex: Tôi hai để Tây Ninh I lost two hours to go to Tay Ninh (Semantic translation= Syntactic structure) It took me two hours to go to Tay Ninh Ex: Tôi uống thuốc hai lần ngày I drink the medicine twice a day (Semantic translation) I take the medicine twice a day Ex: Qua phà Hậu Giang, Tây Đô trước mắt Taking Hau Giang ferry, Tay Do appears in front of our eyes (Semantic translation= Syntactic structure) Taking Hau Giang ferry, we see Tay Do appear in front of our eyes Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership Communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original Communicative translation is used for “informative” and “vocative” texts, while semantic for expressive texts Ex: Good morning Chào buổi sáng (Semantic translation) Xin chào/Chào bạn Thưa … (chú, bác, ông, bà, cô, anh, chị) (Communicative translation) Chúc mừng ngày Phụ nữ! Happy Women’s Day! (Communicative translation) Congratulations on Women’s Day! (Semantic translation) Happy New Year! The same to you! Chúc ông bà sống lâu trăm tuổi! I wish you to live until one hundred years old! (Semantic translation) I wish you every longevity! (Communicative translation) Eve New Year Eve, On the Eve of the Revolution COMMUNICATIVE AND SEMANTIC TRANSLATION TRANSLATION SOURCE LANGUAGE BIAS TARGET LANGUAGE BIAS Literal Free Faithful Idiomatic Semantic / Communicative The following is an example of semantic and communicative translation: • 'I never hear or read the name of Yarmouth but I am reminded of a certain Saturday on the beach ' (extracted from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens) • Semantic translation: Tơi khơng nghe đọc đến tên 'Yarmouth' (tên thị trấn) mà lại khơng nhớ đến sáng thứ bảy bãi biển ( không mà lại khơng ) • Communicative Translation: Cứ lần nghe đọc đến tên 'Yarmouth' tơi lại nhớ đến sáng thứ bảy bãi biển (Cứ lần lại ) • Not …until: He is not married until he is forty years old Không … Mãi khi…mới Good luck!