Lecture 1.

The Development of
Translation Studies
[Link] Studies as a Discipline
[Link] of TRANSLATION. Kinds of
translation
[Link] process
[Link] of translation
[Link] and Linguistics
[Link] as the basics of
translation.
1. Translation Studies as a Discipline
Translation studies is the new academic discipline
related to the study of the theory and phenomena of
translation.
it is multilingual and also interdisciplinary, encompassing
languages, linguistics, communication studies,
philosophy and a range of types of cultural studies.
TS as a field of scholarly activities was defined by the
Dutch-based US scholar James Holmes in 1972.
Eugene A. Nida (1914 –2011), an American linguist who
developed the dynamic-equivalence Bible-translation
theory and one of the founders of the modern discipline
of translation studies.
The main concern of translation theory is to determine
appropriate translation methods for the widest possible range
of texts and to give insight into the translation process, into
the relations between thought and language, culture and
speech.

There are several aspects of TT:

General theory of translation,
Specific theory of translation that deals with the regularities
of translation characteristic of particular languages - for
example, translation from English into Ukrainian and vice
versa.
Special theory of translation that pays attention to texts of
various registers and genres.

.
 Four general areas of interest of TT (Susan Bassnett)
• the History of Translation (the role and function of
translations in a given period)
• Translation in the TL culture (absorbtion of the norms of
the translated text into the TL system)
• Translation and Linguistics (comparative arrangement of
linguistic elements between the SL and the TL text with
regard to phonemic, morphemic, lexical, syntagmatic
and syntactic levels. The problems of linguistic
equivalence, of language-bound meaning, of linguistic
untranslatability, of machine translation
• Translation and Poetics (problems of translating poetry,
theatre texts or libretti and the problem of translation
for the cinema, dubbing or sub-titling)
• the question of evaluation (a play should be playable and
a poem should be readable)
2. Definition of TRANSLATION
Translation (written and oral)
interpretation (consecutive and simultaneous)
SEMIOTIC APPROACH: translation is language code
switching
Roman Jakobson: 1– Intralinguistic translation, or
rewording ( interpreting verbal signs through other signs
of the same language);
2– Interlanguage translation (substituting verbal signs of
one language by verbal signs of another language,)
3 – Intersemiotic translation (substituting signs of one
semiotic system by signs of a different semiotic system)
In semiotic approach Translation is “the replacement of
textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent
textual material in another language (J. Catford)
COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
Translation is a special type of communication intended to
convey information between the participants speaking
two different languages.
Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language
the closest natural equivalent of the source-language
meaning and style (E. Nida)
The ideal translation should be
Accurate: reproducing as exactly as possible the meaning of
the source text.
Natural: using natural forms of the receptor language in a
way that is appropriate to the kind of text being
translated.
Communicative: expressing all aspects of the meaning in a
way that is readily understandable to the intended
audience.
3. Translation process
Thus, the process of translation may be represented as
consisting of three stages:
analysis of the source text, situation and background
information,
synthesis of the translation model
verification of the model against the source and target
context (semantic, grammatical, stylistic), situation, and
background information resulting in the generation of
the final target text.
Translation should be specified against
Context (book)
Situation (at the railway station / at the library)
background information
Translation invariant is semantic and pragmatic
equivalence of the source and the target texts

Customer: I’d like to try on the dress in the shop window.

Salesgirl: You are welcome. But we have a fitting room.

Therefore, the invariant of translation is based not only

on semantics (meaning), but also on pragmatics
(communicative intention).
4. Methods of translation ([Link])
1- literal translation (administrator, director, region,
rendering proper and geographical names)
2- Verbal (calque) translating is also employed at
lexeme/ word level (used in dictionaries): correct
правильний, incorrect неправильний
3- Word-for-word translation (consecutive verbal
translation though at the level of word-groups and
sentences)
4- interlinear (rendering of sense expressed by word-
groups and sentences at the level of some text)
5- Literary (literary proper or literary artistic.)
[Link] and Linguistics
Translation first became the subject of research of
contrastive analysis. This is the study of two
languages in contrast in an attempt to identify general
and specific differences between them on the system
levels.
Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet produced their
Contrastive Stylistics of English and French (1958), a
contrastive approach that categorized what they saw
happening in the practice of translation between
French and English.
Although useful, contrastive analysis does not, however,
incorporate sociocultural and pragmatic factors, nor
the role of translation as a communicative act.
Differentiation of Contrastive linguistics and Science of
translation
Field Contrastive linguistics Science of translation
Research area Correspondence Equivalence
phenomena and phenomena,
conditions, describing describing
corresponding hierarchy of
structures and utterances and texts in
sentences in the SL SL
and TL systems and TL according to
equivalence
criteria
Knowledge Langue Parole (speech)
Competence Foreign language Translation
competence competence
4. Information as the basics of translation
The information of the original is the invariant basis
which should be kept unchanged in translation.
Information is “a set of knowledge, images, sensations in
human consciousness or artificial intelligence which is
processed and used in the process human life and the
work of computer systems” (O.Селіванова)
Translation process may be defined as “transfer of
information contained in the text, by means of
another language, and functional-communicative
equivalence is the optimal balance of semantics and
form, denotative, connotative, stylistic, cultural and
pragmatic information of original and translated texts.
Under information V.S. Vinogradov understands all the
meanings, both semantic and stylistic, evaluative,
emotional expressive, functional, genre, aesthetic,
enshrined in the original text that must be transmitted
during translation into another language.
I.R. Galperin notes that information is a category of
speech, and meaning is a language category. The
word realizes its specific meaning only in the context,
therefore, in translation studies it is important to talk
not only about the word information, but also about
textual information.
Attention in Theory of translation is given to the
comparative defining of the amount of information
contained in the original and translation.
In the informative structure of the word Vinogradov
distinguishes two main types of information:
extralinguistic, reflecting the concept of and ideas about
phenomena, and linguistic, manifested in the so-called
grammatical categories (gender, number and cases,
some categories of pronouns, etc.)

Based on the content of information, it is natural to

distinguish such types of information:
❖ denotative,
❖ connotative,
❖ pragmatic.
Denotative information (conceptual-logical, semantic)
includes propositional and associative-metaphorical
information.
Propositional information is true, objective and
transmitted by words in literal meanings (socks, shirt).
Direct full equivalents are used for the transfer of
propositional information in translation;
in their absence, translators resort to transformations:
synonymous, co-referential, metonymic (hypero-
hyponymic, hypo-hyperonymic) substitutions

Associative-metaphorical information is represented by

metaphors.
Ukr. час летить / Eng. time is running
Connotative information
Connotations are additional components of the meaning
of a language unit, especially from its systemic or
speech (functional) nature

Types of connotative information:

• Emotional-evaluative,
• expressive,
• stylistic
• cultural.
Emotional-evaluative, expressive types of information
express evaluation, feelings, emotions of the speaker or
writer, and make emotional impact on the recipient.
It is important for the translator to maintain this
influence on the reader of the translated text.

“You old fool,” said Mrs. Meade tenderly… (Mitchell) –

“Ах, ти, дурнику,’ – ніжно сказала місіс Мід…The
word tenderly shows positive emotions expressed in the
first words, which makes a translator choose a
diminutive form of address in Ukrainian and reduce the
adjective old (compare the opposite meaning of the
phrase “Ах, ти,дурню”).
Stylistic includes functional-stylistic and figurative-
stylistic information.
Functional-stylistic information conveys functional
stylistic features: stylistic , sociolect, temporal
characteristics of lexical units.

Stylistic characteristics of lexical units reflect the

affiliation of lexical items to a certain style (bookish,
colloquial);
Sociolect information indicates the sociosphere of
functioning of the word, informs about social affiliation
and local distribution. It includes:
✓ professional words;
✓ slang vocabulary (mouse (синяк під оком), rat
(донощик);
✓ dialect words (Ukr. пательня, шалик, когут,
кульчики, морелі).
Temporal information is associated with outdated
(archaisms, historicisms) and new (neologisms)
vocabulary.
For the translator knowledge of such characteristics of
the original words is extraordinary important for the
correct understanding and perception of the text and the
correct selection of lexical equivalents in translation.
Figurative-stylistic information is used to create different
stylistic effects of humor, irony, sarcasm, satire, etc.

e.g. Modal verbs can contribute to rendering irony.

This is typical of the modal verbs would, could and might:
“And then Harry got drunk.” “He would do, wouldn’t he!”
– “Потім Гаррі напився.” “Це так на нього схоже”
Among the most frequently used techniques for
obtaining the text expressive function in translation
are compensation and substitution:
He just got a jaguar. One of those little English jobs that
can do around two hundred miles an hour. It cost him
damn near four thousand bucks. He’s got a lot of
dough, now (“The Catcher in the Rye” by J. Salinger) –
Купив собі недавно «ягуар». Англійська штучка,
може долати двісті миль за годину. Виклав за неї
ледве не чотири тисячі. Грошей у нього тепер
купа.
Some of the expressive words (damn, dough) are lacking
in this translation. But their expressiveness is
compensated by other words (виклав, штучка, купа)
and elliptical Ukrainian sentences.
Cultural information is a set of marked knowledge and
ideas of the bearers of a certain ethnic culture”
(O.Селіванова)
Subtypes of cultural information: cultural-symbolic,
mythological, archetypal, stereotypical.
Cultural-symbolic information includes realia, cultural
constants and symbols which become corner stones
for translators.
Realia - units of the national language, denoting unique
referents, inherent to one linguistic culture and absent
in another
Symbols are “aesthetically canonized, culturally
significant conceptual structures e.g. Black horse – an
unexpectedly revealed talent
When transmitting cultural information, the translator
uses different strategies:
• universal, which eliminates or minimizes the
discrepancy of ontologies and cultures to the level of
the competent reader's ability to understand these
differences (attitude to invariance): Ми маємо дачу у
селі // We have a house in the village
• ethnocultural, which determines the adaptation
(domestication) by the addressee of the translation to
another culture and ontology by switching ethnocultural
dominant to another, close to the reader's
ethnoconsciousness and his perception of the pragmatic
influence of the text (attitude to fullness and adequacy):
We have a cottage in the suburbs;
strategy of foreignization completely immerses the
reader into culture, life and even speech (while
preserving the syntax of the source text) and allows the
recipient to freely adapt to them by using comments,
notes, explanations of the translator (setting for
equivalence) (Селіванова): We have a dacha in the
village
Pragmatic information renders purpose and intention of
communication. It includes:
✓ intentional information - knowledge about the
purpose of the author of the text and her /his aim;
✓ strategic, which determines the main strategies and
tactics of the text;
✓ genre, which indicates the genre specifics of the text;
e.g.
[Form: question] Well, would you listen to that!
[Function: exclamation] (= That's really something to
listen to.)
Translation: ???????
Pragmatic equivalence can be achieved only by means of
interpreting extra-linguistic factors (context, situation,
etc).