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Translationese

This document discusses the concept of "translationese" which refers to language in a translation that sounds stilted or unnatural in the target language due to overly literal translation from the source language. It provides examples of translationese, such as a translation between closely related languages like Spanish and Catalan being nearly identical, versus more distant languages where a literal translation is less common. Translationese can occur when source language lexical or syntactic patterns are directly translated without adjusting for the target language. The document prompts the reader to analyze examples of translated texts that seem difficult to comprehend and identify features that seem odd, in order to recognize characteristics of translationese.

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54 views1 page

Translationese

This document discusses the concept of "translationese" which refers to language in a translation that sounds stilted or unnatural in the target language due to overly literal translation from the source language. It provides examples of translationese, such as a translation between closely related languages like Spanish and Catalan being nearly identical, versus more distant languages where a literal translation is less common. Translationese can occur when source language lexical or syntactic patterns are directly translated without adjusting for the target language. The document prompts the reader to analyze examples of translated texts that seem difficult to comprehend and identify features that seem odd, in order to recognize characteristics of translationese.

Uploaded by

atbin
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© © All Rights Reserved
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SECTION Introduction

A
Catalan and TT Spanish. It is easy to see that the lexical and syntactic structures are
almost identical:

Example A2.1

ST Des de 1912, el Ferrocarril de Sóller uneix les xiutats de Palma i Sóller


TT Desde 1912, el Ferrocarril de Sóller une las ciudades de Palma y Sóller
[Since 1912, the Railway of Soller joins the towns of Palma and Soller
conservant encara el seu caràcter original.
conservando su carácter original.
preserving still the its character original.]

Such a literal translation is not so common when the languages in question are
more distant. Or, to put it another way, the term ‘literal’ has tended to be used with
a different focus, sometimes to denote a TT which is overly close or influenced by
the ST or SL. The result is what is sometimes known as ‘translationese’.

Concept Box Translationese

A pejorative general term for the language of translation. It is often used


to indicate a stilted form of the TL from calquing ST lexical or syntactic
patterning (see Duff 1981). Translationese is related to translation universals
(see Section A Unit 1) since the characteristics mentioned above may be due
to common translation phenomena such as interference, explicitation and
domestication. In Unit 13, we shall see how an alternative name, translatese,
is employed by Spivak to refer to a lifeless form of the TL that homogenizes
the different ST authors. Newmark (2003: 96) uses another term, ‘trans-
latorese’, to mean the automatic choice of the most common ‘dictionary’
translation of a word where, in context, a less frequent alternative would be
more appropriate.

To illustrate this, let us consider some typical examples of translated material


(the English TTs of Arabic STs) which seem to defy comprehension. As you read
through these TTs, try to identify features of the texts that strike you as odd, and
reflect on whether problems of this kind are common in languages you are familiar
with. For example, what are we to make of the request for donations in this welfare
organization’s publicity leaflet?

12

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