TRANSLATION STUDIES

TOPIC:

• INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION
• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• HISTORY OF TRANSLATION
• TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE
• OPPOSING VIEWS ABOUT THE TRANSLATION OF THE CLASSICS
• MACHINE TRANSLATION
 INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION

WHAT IS TRANSLATION?
Translation is a process of giving meaning, ideas or messages of a text from one
language to another language?
Translation is a process which is intended to find meaning equivalence in the
target text.
 Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source of a language text
by means equivalent target language text.
It is necessary to understand the concept of transaction as mentioned by many
translation theorist to obtain an overall picture of the transaction process.
 Different definitions of translation
• Newmark (1981) indicates that transaction is rendering the meaning of a text into
another language in the way that the writer intended the text.
• Hatim and Munday (2004) define translation as “the process of transferring a
written text from source language to target language.
• (Meethan and Hudson, 1972-713) Translation is the replacement of a text in one
language by a replacement of an equivalent text in a second language.
• (Catford, 1965-20) Translation is the replacement of textual material in one
language (Source Language) by equivalent textual material in another language
(Target Language).
 CHARACTERISTICS OF TRANSLATION

• Translation consists of studying the lexis, grammatical structure, communication

situation and cultural context of the source language, all these are analyzed in order
to determine its meaning.
• This same meaning is then reconstructed using the lexicon and grammatical
structure which are appropriate in target language.
• For example: If we use Urdu as a source language and English as the target
language, “Ma alk larki hon, becomes the source text whose lexicon, grammatical
structure, communication situation and cultural context are analyzed in order to
determine the meaning.
• The meaning is then reconstructed using the lexicon and grammatical structure
which are appropriate in the target language.
i.e. “Ma alk larki hon” into “I am a girl”
 TYPES OF TRANSLATION

1. Semantic Translation
2. Literal Translation
3. Literary Translation
4. Free Translation
5. Descriptive Translation
6. Functional Translation
7. Official/Technical/Administrative Translation
8. Back Translation
9. Machine Translation
1. SEMANTIC TRANSLATION
- Semantic translation is a type of translation that tries to preserve the
semantically and syntactical structures of the second language.
- It is a method of sense for sense relation.
- Semantic Translation is the process of using semantic information to aid
in the translation of data in one presentation or data model to another
representation or data model. Semantic translation takes advantage of
semantics that associate meaning with individual data elements in one
dictionary to create an equivalent meaning in a second system.
Semantic Translation requires that data elements in the source and destination
system have “semantic mappings” to a central registry or registries of data
elements. The simplest mapping is of course where there is equivalence. There
are three types of Semantic equivalence:

• Class Equivalence- indicating that class or “concepts” are equivalent. For

example: “Person” is the same as “individual”
• Property Equivalence- indicating that two properties are equivalent. For
example: “Person Given Name” is the same as “First Name”
• Instance Equivalence- indicating that two individual instances of objects are
equivalent. For example: “Dan Smith” is the same person as Daniel Smith”
2. LITERAL TRANSLATION
Literal translation is also known as word-for-word translation that
tries to find out exact equivalent of the source language.
Literal Translation is the translation of text from one language to
another “word for word” rather than giving the sense of the original. For
this reason, literal translation usually mis-translate idioms.
For example: a literal translation of German word “kindergarten”
would be “garden of Children” but in English the expression refers to the
school year between pre-school and first-grade.
Literal Translation, direct translation or word- to- word translation, is a
translation of a text done by translating each word separately, without
looking at how the words are used together in a phrase or sentence.
Example:
Source language(Spanish): “Voy a la tienda a comprar pan”
Literal Translation: “I go to the store to buy bread”
In this example, the literal translation preserves the individual words but fails
to capture the natural flow and meaning of the original Spanish sentence.
A more idiomatic translation would be: “I'm going to the store to buy some
bread.”
4. LITERARY TRANSLATION
Translation of literary works (novel, short stories, plays, poems, etc.) is
considered a literary pursuit in its own right.
5. FREE TRANSLATION
Translating loosely from original . Contrasted with word for word or
literal translation, this may be the best method depending on the most
appropriate unit of translation involved. I personally would
incorporate journalistic translation under this type because it contains
editing, rewriting and combining different sources of the same news
item into one story.
 6. DESCRIPTIVE TRANSLATION

One must bear in mind that it is the notional meaning of the source language unit and
not always morphological nature or structural form that is to be rendered in the target
language. As a result, the target language unit, which equivalent/faithfully conveys
the denotative/connotative meaning of the corresponding source language unit may
not necessarily belong to the same language stratification level. Depending on the
notion expressed by the source language word/lexeme, it may be conveyed in the
target language sometimes through a word combination or even through a sentence,
i.e., descriptively. Descriptive translating/interpreting is very often employed to
render the sense/meaning of idioms/phraseologisms, which have no equivalents in
the target language. Descriptive translation is also employed in foot-notes to explain
obscure places in narration.
6. FUNCTIONAL TRANSLATION

-While semantic translation tries to preserve the essence of the language,

functional translation simply conveys the general meaning by usually
translating the text.
-It attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible.
- It gives the appropriate the message that source text wants to convey.
 7. TECHNICAL TRANSLATION
1. It is a type of translation which pertains to the professional
requirements and through knowledge of the subject.
2. A technical translation has broad meaning. It usuallyrefers to certain
fields such as IT or manufacturing and deals with texts such as manuals
and instruction.
3. Technical translation is more expensive than general translation as they
contain a high amount of terminology that only a specialist translator
could deal with.
8. BACK TRANSLATION

If one text translation to another, a back translation is translation of

the translated text back into the language of the original text, made
without reference to the original text. In the context of machine
translation, this is also called “round trip-translation” Comparison of
a back translation to the original text is sometimes used as a quality
check on the original translation, but it is certainly far from infallible
and reliability of this technique has been disputed.
9. MACHINE TRANSLATION

Is automotive translation, in which a computer takes over all the work

of translating. Obviously a computer will work much faster(and is
cheaper) than a human being. It can be a useful method if the purpose
of the translation is a limited one; for example, to gain a rough idea of
what a text contains(gisting) and/or to process large numbers of
documents very rapidly.
SKILLS NEEDED TO BE A GOOD TRANSLATORS

• Translators are expected to be professional writers, so they need to

be knowledgeable about grammar, vocabulary and style of two
languages at least.
• Translators may get very different texts to translate from one day to
the next, so they have to research as much as possible.
• They must read widely about foreign language and understand not
only what it says, but what it really means.
 HISTORY OF TRANSLATION STUDIES

The word ‘’translation’ ’was derived from a Latin phrase that means ‘’to bring
or carry across.’’ Second another explaining phrase is ‘’metaphrasis,’’which was
derived from Ancient Greek, meaning ‘’to speak across.’’ Finally, from the word
metaphrasis, the word metaphrase was derived to mean ‘’word for word
translation. These terms have been at the heart of theories relating to translation
throughout history and have been used throughout the ages.
It is known that translation was carried out as early as the Mesopotamian era
when the Sumerian poem, Gilgamesh was translated into Asian languages.
This dates back to around the second millennium BC. Other ancient
translated Indian documents into Chinese . In later periods, Ancient Greek
texts were also translated by Roman poets and were adapted to create
developed literary works for entertainment. It is known that translation
services were utilized in Rome by Cicero and Horace and that these uses
were continued through to the 17th century, where newer practices were
developed.
It is argued that the knowledge and findings of Greek academics was
developed and understood widely thanks to the translation work of Arabic
scholars. When the Greeks were conquered, their works were taken in by
Arabic scholars who translated them created their own versions of the
scientific, entertainment and philosophical understandings. These Arabic
versions were later translated into Latin, during the Middle Ages, mostly
throughout Spain and the resulting works provided the foundations of
Renaissance academics.
The need for translation became greater with the development of religious
texts and spiritual theories. As religion developed, the desire to spread the
word and encourage faith means that religious texts needed to be available
in multiple languages.
One of the first translated religious texts known to have been that of the
Old Testament which translated into Greek in the 3rd century BC. This
translation refers to the “Septuagint” which was a translation of the Hebrew
bible into Greek, with Septuagint coming from the Latin word
“Septuagint,’ which means seventy.
This text is therefore often referred to the ‘Greek Old Testament”. Without
the use of our modern practices and tools, this translation was carried out
by no less than 700 scholars who painstakingly converted the text into
Greek and this became the basis for future translations of the bible in
multiple languages.
Religion played such a critical role in translation development that the
church even names Saint Jerome as the patron saint of translation. Saint
Jerome created a Latin bible in 4th century AD. This bible became the
predominant text used by the Roman Catholic Church. With the
introduction of Protestantism, need to translate the bible and other religious
text into European languages heightened. Through the rapid translation and
distribution of the bible during the Protestant Reformation. Christianity had
two clear paths-Roman Catholicism or Protestantism. One of the most clear
differences between these two forms of the religion was the disparity in
texts and the differences between crucial words and passages of the bible.
In some cases, working as a translator was incredibly dangerous and some even lost their
lives because of their work. This included famous translators such as William Tyndale, who
was executed in Holland in 1536 because he worked on translating the bible into English.
Other famous translators include:
Chinese Monk Xuanzang who in 645 AD was credited with having translated volumes in
Indian Buddhist scripts into Chinese.
Constance Garnett was British Translator who translated Russian classics including Tolstoy,
Chekhov, Turgenev and Gogol into English towards the end of the 19th century.
Rabassa was an American literary translator who translated numerous Latin documents into
English throughout the 20th Century.
Modern Translation Practices and Understanding

Following on from the Industrial Revolution, the economy developed

rapidly and evolved into machine with the potential for global success.
New machinery allowed for swifter production of texts and business related
materials and this means that more time could be invested in evolving a
company and translating material to enter foreign markets. Since the 18 th
century, businesses have benefitted from formalized translation services but
the dawn of modern practice some with the widespread introduction of the
internet.
The internet has revolutionized the ability to access translate and
understand texts and documents from all over the world, whether they be
contemporary or historical places. Crucially, the need to understand the
culture of the original country and that of the target audience is further
enhanced by modern tools and practices. Although some instant translation
(literal word-for-word translation), specialist firms, platforms and
translators are able to translate texts and spoken word into multiple
languages whilst observing the relevance and culture of the target receiver.
BIBLE TRANSLATION

Bible is divided into two parts

1.) The Old Testament- consists of 39 books
2.) The New Testament- 27 making in all 66 in the entire Bible.
The Old Testament deals with the narrative history of Jewish civilization
and the primary history of creation. The New Testament with the Gospel of
Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John glorifies the life and preaching of Jesus
Christ. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew language while the New
Testament in Greek Language.
he Old Testament is a collection of 39 books in the
Christian Bible. These books are divided into several
categories, including the Pentateuch, the Historical
Books, the Wisdom Literature, and the Prophets.

The Pentateuch, also known as the Torah, consists of the

first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These books
contain the creation story, the history of the Israelites,
the Ten Commandments, and other important religious
and moral teachings.
The Historical Books include Joshua, Judges, Ruth,
1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1
Ch ro ni cle s, 2 Ch roni cles, Ez ra , Ne hem iah, an d
Esther.

The Wisom Literature includes Job, Psalms, Proverb,

Ecclesiastes, and Songs of Songs.

Th e Pro ph ets includ e Isa iah , Jeremiah , La mentatio ns,

Ezekial, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amus, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zekariah, and
Malachi.
The New Testament of the Christian Bible consists of 27 books, divided into four main
sections: the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the Book of
Revelation.

* The four gospels

 Matthew
 Mark
 Luke
 John
*The Act of Apostles
* The Epistles
• Romans, 1 Corinthians , 2 Corinthians , Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon
* General Epistles
• Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John , 3 John, Jude, Revelation
Translators of Bible- It was St. Jerome who made the first translation of
Bible in the 4th century A.D. This was in Latin and called ‘vulgate’. During
the O.E. Period Bede had translated a portion of the gospel of St. John.
Wycliffe (1320-84) took a great initiative in completing two versions of
Bible.
Tyndale, made a wholesome attempt at this task and translated directly from
the Hebrew and Greek originals and not from the Latin ‘vulgate.
Subsequently Miles Coverdale brought a complete English Bible which was
printed in 1535. After Tyndale, attempts were made at numerous translations,
the chief of them being Cranmer's Great Bible(1568), and the Bishops
Bible(1568).It
The greatest and the most popular version of the Bible King James is
Authorized version of Bible (1611, a works of 47 recognized biblical
scholars for four years. They complied the Hebrew, the Greeks, the Latin
vulgate and many translations into new excellence.
PROVERBS AND PHRASES
Ever since the publication of the first translation of the Bible by Wycliffe to
the publication of the Authorized Version in 1611. Many proverbs and
phrases, which are in common use in modern English, are the gift of the
Bible. Quotations from the Bible are given profusely. English language has
been enriched by the Bible so much that are proper assessment is
practically impossible. Some illustrators of Biblical phrases are given
below: ‘arose as one man,’ ‘broken reed’, wash ones hands off’ and many
other familiar scriptural phrases are illusions. From Tyndale we owe ‘long
suffering,’ ‘peacemaker,’ ‘stumbling block,’ ‘mercy seat’, ‘day spring’ and
scapegoat.’
Thought and Style
The influence of the Bible spreads all over English literature, particularly
the thought and style of great English prose writers. This Holy book
Ignited Bunyan a lot to pen down his magnum opus, Pilgrims Progress.
The historian Clarendon and Fuller, catch some measure of the
stately rhetoric of the Old Testament.
Influence of Bible on the Poets and Playwrights.
In the world of English poetry Milton, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats,
Shelley, Pope, Dryden, Tennyson, Browning were highly charged
light of the Bible.
Miracle and Morality plays of the middle Ages originated from Bible.
Playwrights like Marlowe, Shakespeare, T.S. Elliot, G.B. Shaw owed
much to bible. Among other writers Cromwell, Wesley, Richards, George
Fox, Emerson, Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and also Mahatma
Gandhi were under the influence of it that changed their outlook out
sharpened their imagination.
Translation and Opposition is a must-read for anyone interested in the issues of
agency, censorship and power.

Dimitris Asimakoulas is the Programmed Director for the MA in Audiovisual

Translation and the MA in Translation Studies with Intercultural
Communication at the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of
Surrey. He has published in leading translation journals, focusing on
sociological approaches to translation. He is a member of the editorial board for
New Voices in Translation.
Margaret Rogers is Professor of Translation and Terminology Studies and
Director of the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Surrey.
She initiated the Terminology Network in the Institute of Translation and
Interpreting, UK, and is a founder member of the Association of
Terminology and Lexicography. She is a member of the Advisory Boards
of Terminology, LSP and Professional Communication and Fachsprache as
well as being a member of the Executive Board of the International
Institute for Terminology Research.
MACHINE TRANSLATION

Machine translation is use of computational techniques to translate text or

speech from one language to another, including the contextual, idiomatic and
pragmatic nuances of both languages.
Machine translation used a method based on dictionary entries, which means
that the words were translated as they are by a dictionary
David G. Hays "wrote about computer-assisted language processing as early as
1957" and "was project leader on computational linguistics at Rand from 1955
to 1968.
1960–1975
Researchers continued to join the field as the Association for Machine
Translation and Computational Linguistics was formed in the U.S. (1962)
and the National Academy of Sciences formed the Automatic Language
Processing Advisory Committee (ALPAC) to study MT (1964). Real
progress was much slower, however, and after the ALPAC report (1966),
which found that the ten-year-long research had failed to fulfill
expectations, funding was greatly reduced.[13] According to a 1972 report
by the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E), the
feasibility of large-scale MT was reestablished by the success of the Logos
MT system in translating military manuals into Vietnamese during that
conflict
1975 and beyond

SYSTRAN, which "pioneered the field under contracts from the U.S. government"[14] in
the 1960s, was used by Xerox to translate technical manuals (1978). Beginning in the
late 1980s, as computational power increased and became less expensive, more interest
was shown in statistical models for machine translation. MT became more popular after
the advent of computers.[15] SYSTRAN's first implementation system was implemented
in 1988 by the online service of the French Postal Service called Minitel.[16] Various
computer based translation companies were also launched, including Trados (1984),
which was the first to develop and market Translation Memory technology (1989),
though this is not the same as MT. The first commercial MT system for Russian / English
/ German-Ukrainian was developed at Kharkov State University (1991).
By 1998, "for as little as $29.95" one could "buy a program for translating in one
direction between English and a major European language of your choice" to run
on a PC.
MT on the web started with SYSTRAN offering free translation of small texts
(1996) and then providing this via AltaVista Babelfish, which racked up 500,000
requests a day (1997).The second free translation service on the web was
Lernout & Hauspie's GlobaLink.Atlantic Magazine wrote in 1998 that "Systran's
Babelfish and GlobaLink's Comprende" handled "Don't bank on it" with a
"competent performance."
Franz Josef Och (the future head of Translation Development AT Google)
won DARPA's speed MT competition (2003).[19] More innovations during
this time included MOSES, the open-source statistical MT engine (2007), a
text/SMS translation service for mobiles in Japan (2008), and a mobile
phone with built-in speech-to-speech translation functionality for English,
Japanese and Chinese (2009). In 2012, Google announced that
Google Translate translates roughly enough text to fill 1 million books in
one day
• Transfer-based machine translation was similar to interlingual machine translation in
that it created a translation from an intermediate representation that simulated the
meaning of the original sentence. Unlike interlingual MT, it depended partially on
the language pair involved in the translation.
• Interlingual machine translation was one instance of rule-based machine-translation
approaches. In this approach, the source language, i.e. the text to be translated,
was transformed into an interlingual language, i.e. a "language neutral"
representation that is independent of any language