WHAT IS TRANSLATION?
Translation is the process of transferring a written text from a Source Language (SL) to a Target Language
(TL). It functions in a specific socio-cultural CONTEXT.
Translation is not word for word, BUT it is about keeping the MEANING.
EXAMPLE: It’s raining cats and dogs.
This cannot be translated word for word:
It means it is raining a lot.
! Complete equivalence is not fully possible !
The word translation comes from latin: translatio.
LEVELS OF LINGUISTIC ORGANIZATION
SEMANTICS: it studies the MEANING of words, and the RELATIONSHIP between meanings. It
studies the relation between a WORD AND CONCEPT.
PRAGMATICS: it studies the CHOICES of the speaker, and the EFFECT of that choice on other
people.
The sum of the meaning of the single words doesn’t correspond with the meaning of the sentence.
EXAMPLE: Can you pass the salt?
Can means be able to do an action, BUT
here it is an actual request.
Pragmatics studies LANGUAGE USE. It deals with this question: How do we understand each other?
TEXT/DISCOURSE LINGUISTICS: it studies the correct SEQUENCE of sentences to create a
COHERENT text.
OVERVIEW OF PRAGMATICS
CONTEXT is fundamental to understand the meaning of a sentence:
EXAMPLE: You make great coffee.
It can mean: a person prepares a good
coffee to drink at home, OR the producer
Lavazza is good at making coffee.
EXAMPLE: There is a bookstore over there!
It is implicit that the person wants to go
in the bookstore.
When we speak, we MEAN MORE than what we say.
LINGUISTIC CONVENTIONS: they exist because people can’t read the mind of each other. It is:
• a regularity in behavior (producing sounds)
• partially arbitrary:
• a common ground in a speech community
HISTORY OF PRAGMATICS:
MORRIS, a philosopher, studied SEMIOTICS (it is the study of SIGNS, among which also the linguistic
signs). He divided semiotics into:
• sintax: it is the relation between signs, the structure of the sentence
