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W. BENJAMING
THE TASK OF THE TRANSLATOR
According to Benjamin:
1 a translation do not give readers an understanding of the meaning or information of the original;
2 it is not the highest praise of a translation to say that it
reads as if it had originally been written in the target language;
3 the new role of the translator is to keep all the foreignness of
the original text,
4 the literary translator is not a mere cipher of codes: he or she is a co-creator with the author,
5 true translator is closer to the act of creation than to any
passive attempt at transmission;
6 a literary work has a pure language,and the task of the translator i sto release this pure language which is under the
spell of another, to liberate the language imprisoned in a work in
his re-creation of that work,
7 translation exists separately but in conjunction with the
original, coming after it, emerging from its afterlife, but also
giving the original;continued life. This recreation assures survival of the original work.
A real translation is transparent; it does not cover the original,
does not black its light, but allows the pure language, as though
reinforced by its own medium to shine upon the original all the more fully
VINAY AND DARBELNET
METHODOLOGY FOR TRANSLATION
The different methods of translation can be considered just 7,
each one corresponding to an higher degree of complexity. In
general, translators can choose between to different methods of
translation, a literal translation, and an oblique one. Sometimes is possible to transpose the SL message, element by element, into
TL: using parallel categories or concepts, when there is a
structural or metalinguistic parallelism. Other times, to fill a
lacuna, because of linguistic differences, we need to change
syntactic order or lexis, using oblique translation methods.
BORROWING
To overcome a metalinguistic lacuna , borrowing the simplest method , but translators can use it also in order to create a
stylistic effect and to introduce the flavour of SL language in TL
message. In English, for instance, words like menu, dejavu …. Are words taken from French. They are so widely used that are no
longer considered like borrowings but which have became part of
TL. Sometimes using borrowing is better than translate trying to find a less satisfying equivalent in TL.
CALQUE
A calque is a special kind of borrowing , where a language borrows
an expression from another language translating each of its elements. A lexical calque respects the syntactic structure of
TL , a structural calque introduce new costruction into TL. ex:
compliments de la saison becomes compliments for the season. There are many fixed calques which became part of TL , but they may have
undergone a semantic change.
LITERAL TRANSLATION
Literal translation the direct transfer of SL message into a
grammatically and idiomatically appropriate TL text. It’s most
common when you translate between two languages of the same family
(FR-IT) even more when they share the same culture. We can use , in certain cases , literal translation between English and French
too , because of periods of bilinguism. Literal translation
involves the possibility of translating scientific tests by machine.
If after this work the translator considers the translation
unacceptable because it gives another meaning , has no meaning , is structurally impossible , has a corresponding expression but
not in the same register ; translators have to find an adequate
alternative by using oblique translation.
TRANSPOSITION
It consist of replacing one word class with another one , without
changing the meaning. A subordinate proposition can became a
noun. For ex : ha annunciato il suo ritorno\ ha annunciato che sarebbe tornato in English is better translated by the expression
he announced his return. The first is a based expression the
Swiss are all types of cheese. Without the word cheese, or a description thereof, the group doesn’t exist]. For us, the meaning of any linguistic sign is its translation into some further, alternative sign, especially a sign “in which it is more fully developed”. We distinguish three ways of interpreting a verbal sign: 1.Intralingual translation or rewording is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs of the same language. 2.Interlingual translation or translation proper is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language. [ other theorists may know this as a ‘version’. notably the replacement of lexical items by other equivalent items that are considered more suited to the target audience. ] 3.Intersemiotic translation or transmutation is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems.
On the level of interlingual translation, there is ordinarily no full equivalence between code-units. translation from one language into another substitutes messages in one language not for separate code-units but for entire messages in some other language. Such a translation is a reported speech; the translator recodes and transmits a message received from another source. Thus, translation involves two equivalent messages in two different codes.
Equivalence in difference is the cardinal problem of language and the pivotal concern of linguistics.
A faculty of speaking a given language implies a faculty of talking about this language. Such a “metalinguistic[1]” operation permits revision and redefinition of the vocabulary used. The complementarity of both levels—objectlanguage and metalanguage—was brought out by Niels Bohr: all well-defined experimental evidence must be expressed in ordinary language, “in which the practical use of every word stands in complementary relation to attempts of its strict definition.”
All cognitive experience and its classification are conveyable in any existing language. Whenever there is a deficiency, terminology may be qualified and amplified by loan-words or loan-translations, neologisms or semantic shifts, and finally, by circumlocutions.
No lack of grammatical device in the language translated into makes impossible a literal translation of the entire conceptual information contained in the original. If some grammatical category is absent in a given language, its meaning may be translated into this language by lexical means.
As Boas observed, the grammatical pattern of a language (as opposed to its lexical stock) determines those aspects of each experience that must be expressed in the given language: “We have to choose between these aspects, and one or the other must be chosen.” Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and
not in what they may convey (due to compulsories in their verbal code). The richer the context, the smaller the loss of information.
language in its cognitive function is minimally dependent on the grammatical pattern because the definition of our experience stands in complementary relation to metalinguistic operations—the cognitive level of language not only admits but directly requires receding interpretation, i.e., translation. Any assumption of ineffable or untranslatable cognitive data would be a contradiction in terms. But in jest, dreams, magic, briefly, in what one would call everyday verbal mythology and in poetry above all, the grammatical categories carry a high semantic import. In these conditions, the question of translation becomes much more entangled and controversial. Especially in literature, Gender plays a huge role. Some words are grammatically feminine and others are masculine, and more interesting is the fact that these genders are different from language to language. In poetry, verbal equations become a constructive principle of the text.
Phonemic similarity is sensed as a semantic relationship. The pun, or to use a more erudite, and perhaps more precise term— paronomasia, reigns over poetic art, and whether its rule is absolute or limited, poetry by definition is untranslatable. Only creative transposition is possible. [ Jakobson’s discussion on translation centers around certain key questions of linguistics, including equivalence between items in SL and TL and the notion of translatability ]. So, this article was a summary of On Linguistic Aspects of Translation by Roman Jakobson from our introducing translation studies portal. We strongly suggest you to follow this portal and its study guide if you want to be an academic translator. You can also help us develope this portal faster than ever. [1] Metalinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies language and its relationship to other cultural behaviors. It is the study of dialogue relationships between units of speech communication as manifestations and enactments of co-existence.
