The Linguistic Approach to Translation
Different languages give different ways to look at the world but translation provides us the
opportunity to explore and interact with these different views of the world. Translation refers to
carrying the meaning of a text from one language to another. This process involves interpretation
of meaning of the text and producing the same meaning in another language. Translation as an
activity is actually as old as written language or text itself. However as a discipline of study it is
comparatively new.
Since all word of one language may or may not have a corresponding word in the other language,
Linguistic study becomes crucial for the purpose of translation. Linguistics pertains to scientific
study of language. Linguistic approach to translation focuses primarily on the issues of meaning
and equivalence (same meaning conveyed by a different expression). Linguistics thus tries to
discover ‘what’ the language actually means. It is then the work of the philosophy of linguistics
to understand ‘how’ the language means.
Language has certain features like meaning, reference, truth, verification, speech acts, logical
necessity etc. it is through these feature that the linguists try to understand the ‘what’ and the
‘how’ of the text. Any language uses a particular set of signs and symbols to convey a particular
meaning or idea. These signs and symbols are ‘signifiers’. The meaning or idea that is being
conveyed by these ‘signifiers’ is called ‘signified’. All languages are used in a particular social
and cultural context. So the ‘signified’ for a particular ‘signifier’ may change from culture to
culture and society to society. For example, for signifier ‘yellow’ in America, the signified is
cowardice (“yellow bellied”- a popular saying) for Japan yellow signifies courage whereas for
Indians it signifies joy. Thus the translator has to understand what the author of the original text
actually wants to convey.
Beyond doubts language is the most vital component in translation. Translation can actually be
understood as transferring the meaning or the idea from one language to another. It thus becomes
imperative for a translator to understand the meaning of the source text (text to be translated) in
the context in which they are said or written.
Language is formed of grammar, words, syntax etc. this form the structure of the language and
pertains to structural linguistics. However beyond the structural approach the context also
becomes important as said before. This aspect of linguistics approach is termed as functional
linguistics.
There has been a historical debate in the field of translation between ‘word to word’ (literal) and
‘sense to sense’ (free) translation. Linguistic approach can enter both these aspects of
translation. However the ‘sense to sense’ translation is understood to actually carry to the same
meaning as of the source text. So the translator is expected to maintain a linguistic equivalence
between the source and the target text. Doing so involves an understanding of grammar,
convention, idioms, etc in the social, political, economic and cultural context in which the text is
written.
Thus it can be concluded that a Linguistic approach to translation covers all forms of translation.
It is the right way to move forward towards better language translation.
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The Role of Linguistics in Translation
04/05/13
Linguistics plays an important role in the translation of a document from one language to
another. Translating information includes more than just changing each word from the original
language to another. One must also decode and decipher all the facets and functions of the
original language into the new language. This is where the study and understanding of linguistics
comes into play in translation.
The study of linguistics is essentially the study of human language. It can be broken down into
several sub-categories.
Grammar: the study of language structure and the system of rules it uses. It includes
several fields as follows.
Morphology: the study of the formation of words.
Syntax: the study of the formation and composition of these words into phrases and
sentences.
Phonology: the study of sound systems. (Phonetics is a related field concerned with the
properties, production, and perception of speech and non-speech sounds.)
Semantics: the study of word meaning.
Historical linguistics: the study of language evolution over time.
Sociolinguistics: the study of how language is used in society.
Psycholinguistics: the study of language is processed within the mind.
Neurolinguistics: the study of the actual encoding of language in the brain.
Computational linguistics: the study of natural linguistics by using the techniques of
computer science.
Accurate translation of one language to another requires addressing all the functions of
linguistics. One must determine the grammar being used, the meaning of the words as individual
components, as well as the phrases and sentences they create, how those phrases are placed in
time and history, and so forth.
Each language differs in its linguistic functions but there are commonalities among languages as
well. An accurate translation must determine where the similarities and differences lie. Relying
on only one area, grammar for example, will not produce an optimal translation. It may, in fact,
be lacking in vital information if the other functions are not fully realized.
A careful use of the tools provided by linguistic study will improve the quality and accuracy of a
translated document.
6 Contemporary Theories to Translation
Today we’re going to get a little theoretical…after all, the blog of a translation agency should
also venture into the drylands of translation theory. Right? There are six main approaches within
contemporary translation theory: the sociolinguistic approach, the communicative approach, the
hermeneutic approach, the linguistic approach, the literary approach, and the semiotic approach.
Are you ready? Here we go…
1. The sociolinguistic approach
According to the sociolinguistic approach to translation, the social context defines what is and is
not translatable and what is or is not acceptable through selection, filtering and even censorship.
According to this perspective, a translator is inevitably the product of his or her society: our own
sociocultural background is present in everything we translate. This approach is associated with
the School of Tel Aviv and figures such as Annie Brisset, Even Zohar and Guideon Toury.
2. The communicative approach
This perspective is referred to as interpretive. Researchers like D. Seleskovitch and M. Lederer
developed what they called the “theory of sense,” mainly based on the experience of conference
interpreting. According to this perspective, meaning must be translated, not language. Language
is nothing more than a vehicle for the message and can even be an obstacle to understanding.
This explains why it is always better to deverbalize (instead of transcoding) when we translate.
3. The hermeneutic approach
The hermeneutic approach is mainly based on the work of George Steiner, who believes that any
human communication is a translation. In his book After Babel he explains that translation is not
a science but an “exact art”: a true translator should be capable of becoming a writer in order to
capture what the author of the original text “means to say.”
4. The linguistic approach
Linguists like Vinay, Darbelnet, Austin, Vegliante, and Mounin, interested in language text,
structuralism, and pragmatics, also examined the process of translating. According to this
perspective, any translation (whether it’s a marketing translation, a medical translation, a legal
translation or another type of text) should be considered from the point of view of its
fundamental units; that is, the word, the syntagm and the sentence.
5. The literary approach
According to the literary approach, a translation should not be considered a linguistic endeavor
but a literary one. Language has an “energy”: this is manifested through words, which are the
result of experiencing a culture. This charge is what gives it strength and ultimately, meaning:
this is what the translation-writer should translate.
6. The semiotic approach
Semiotics is the science that studies signs and signification. Accordingly, in order for there to be
meaning there must be a collaboration between a sign, an object and an interpreter. Thus, from
the perspective of semiotics, translation is thought of as a way of interpreting texts in which
encyclopedic content varies and each sociocultural context is unique.
