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Equivalence and Strategies

Equivalence and Strategies. Lecture 2 Dr Jacob Blakesley jacob.blakesley@uniroma1.it. Practical things. Cognomi Testi Esame. Ferdinand Saussure. Language is made up of signs The signifier ( signifiant ): the phonic component of a word

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Equivalence and Strategies

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  1. Equivalence and Strategies Lecture 2 Dr Jacob Blakesley jacob.blakesley@uniroma1.it

  2. Practical things • Cognomi • Testi • Esame

  3. Ferdinand Saussure • Language is made up of signs • The signifier (signifiant): the phonic component of a word • The signified (signifié): the mental concept of the word • Arbitrariness of the sign • In language there are only differences

  4. Roman Jakobson • “Equivalence in difference is the cardinal problem of language andthe pivotal concern of linguistics’ • ‘There is ordinarily no full equivalence between code-units’ • ‘the code units will be different because they belong to different sign systems or languages, which partition reality differently’

  5. J. C. Catford • ‘The central problem of translation practice is that of finding target-language translation equivalents’

  6. Eugene Nida • Formal equivalence • Dynamic equivalence

  7. Formal equivalence Formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content … One is concerned that the message in the receptor language should match as closely as possible the different elements in the source language. (Nida 1964: 159)

  8. Dynamic equivalence …the relationship between receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message. (Nida 1964: 159) That is, it’s based on the principle of equivalent effect.

  9. Werner Koller Five types of equivalence: • Denotative equivalence • Connotative equivalence • Text-normative equivalence • Pragmatic equivalence • Formal equivalence

  10. Denotative equivalence The equivalence between SL and TL words is established on the basis that they refer to the same thing in the real world. Rabbit – Coniglio [Italian]

  11. Connotative equivalence The equivalence is established on the basis that the SL and TL words used trigger the same or similar associations in the minds of native speakers of the two languages. Bunny – Coniglietto [Italian]

  12. Text-normative equivalence The equivalence is established on the basis that the SL and TL words chosen are used in the same or similar contexts in their respective languages.

  13. Pragmatic equivalence The equivalence is established on the basis that the SL and TL words used have the same effect on their respective readers. It is similar to Nida’s dynamic equivalence.

  14. Formal equivalence The equivalence is related to the form and aesthetics of the text. It includes words plays and stylistic features of the ST. It is not to be confused with Nida’s formal equivalence. Equivalence is said to be achieved if SL and TL words happen to have similar orthographic or phonological features.

  15. Types of equivalence • One to one equivalence [Bread, pain] • One-to-many equivalence: More than one TL expressions are equivalent to a single SL expression [Bamboo -> trúc, nura, mai, vau (Vietnamese)] • One-to-part-of-one equivalence [Mouton (French) -> sheep; Mouton -> mutton]. • Nil equivalence [Privacy -> Privacy]

  16. Grammatical number • English: singular and plural • Singular – plural – trial – quadral – paucal – plural [Sursurunga, Papua New Guinea] • No distinction between singular and plural: Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese • My book: 我的書 [Chinese] and My books: 我的書 [Chinese]

  17. Gender • Some languages have gender distinctions • English – French/Italian/Spanish – Chinese

  18. Emily Dickinson Because I could not stop for Death –  He kindly stopped for me –  The Carriage held but just Ourselves –  And Immortality. -- Masculine – German (English) Feminine – Italian, French, Russian No gender – Chinese, Japanese, Turkish

  19. Familiarity • Different degrees of familiarity • Tu/vous [French] • Du/Sie [German] • Informal Spanish singular: tu [Spain] • Informal Spanish singular: vos [S. America] • Formal Spanish singular: usted [Spain] • Informal/formal plural: vosotros [Spain], ustedes [S. America]

  20. Tense (1/2) • In Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Hungarian,‘to be’ is sometimes not used in the present tense • English and other Germanic languages: no future tense. Future must be expressed through other words (will, etc.)  • Russian: no pluperfect (I had gone to the store before he came over to my house) • Chinese and Burmese: “tenseless languages”: tense given through adverbs • Lack of personal pronouns

  21. Tense (2/2): Hopi • Hopi (Arizona, USA): • 1) timeless truths: the sun is round • 2) known or presumed events: Paris is the capital of France • 3) uncertain events: They will arrive tomorrow

  22. Voice • Many languages have ‘passive forms’: • Latin, Greek, German, English, French • Some languages don’t have ‘passive forms’ • Tagalog; Oneida, Cree, other Native American languages

  23. Honorifics • In Javanese, there are three different ways of saying ‘house’ according to status level of the person spoken to. • In Korean, there are six different ‘speech styles’ with related grammatical specific forms: • 1) plain style (haerache) • 2) intimate style (haeche) • 3) familiar style (hageche) • 4) semiformal style (haoche) • 5) polite style (haeyoche) • 6) deferential style (hapshoche)

  24. Word Order • Word order • Strict (English, Chinese) • Less strict (Arabic, Eskimo, Finnish, German, Russian)

  25. Collocations • Dry cow • Dry bread • Dry wine • Dry sound • Dry voice • Dry county • Dry book • Dry humour • Dry run (from Mona Baker, In Other Words, 57)

  26. Non-equivalence • Culture-specific concepts • A concept unknown in target culture. • English term ‘privacy.’ • English term ‘Speaker’ (of the House of Commons). • Portuguese ‘saudade.’

  27. Non-equivalence • Source language concept is known, but not lexicalized in the target language • ‘savoury’ • ‘standard’ (e.g., ‘standard range of products) [not in Arabic] • ‘win by a landslide’

  28. Non-equivalence • The source-language word is semantically complex • Portuguese ‘arruação’: “clearing the ground under coffee trees of rubbish and piling it in the middle of the row in order to aid in the recovery of beans dropped during harvesting”

  29. Non-equivalence • The source and target languages make different distinctions in meaning • Indonesian makes a distinction between going out in the rain without the knowledge that it is raining (kehujanan) and going out in the rain with the knowledge that it is raining (hujanhujanan).

  30. Non-equivalence • The target language lacks a specific term -More categories of a word in one language than another (e.g., all the words in English for ‘house’ or ‘article’)

  31. Non-equivalence • Differences in expressive meaning • The source language word may be neutral – e.g., homosexual, while the target language word, e.g., in Arabic, is pejorative.

  32. Non-equivalence • Differences in form • Suffixes, prefixes • “translationese” • “boyish” (smile)

  33. Non-equivalence • Differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms • ‘ing’ form in English, which is less used in other languages.

  34. Non-equivalence • Loan words, false friends • College/colegio [Spanish] • Sympathetic/sympathique[French]

  35. Mona Baker’s taxonomy • ‘Translation by a more general word • Translation by a more neutral word • Translation by cultural substitution • Translation using a loan word • Translation by paraphrase using a related word • Translation by paraphrase using non-related words • Translation by omission’ • Mona Baker, In Other Words (Routledge, 1992), 26-42.

  36. Strategies against non-equivalence • Translation by a more general word • Orbit -> revolve [back translation in Spanish] • Shampoo -> wash [back translation in Arabic]

  37. Strategies against non-equivalence • Translation by a more neutral / less expressive word • Mumbles -> suggests [back translation in Italian]

  38. Strategies against non-equivalence • Translation by cultural substitute • Cream tea -> pastry [back translation in Italian]

  39. Strategies against non-equivalence • Translation using a loan word • Cornish Cream tea -> Cream tea [German]

  40. Strategies against non-equivalence • Translation using paraphrase • Creamy -> that resembles cream [Arabic]

  41. Strategies against non-equivalence • Translation by paraphrase using unrelated words • Affidavit -> written communication supported by an oath [Arabic]

  42. Strategies against non-equivalence • Translation by omission

  43. Andrew Chesterman’staxonomy of strategies (‘techniques’) • Syntactic strategies • Semantic strategies • Pragmatic strategies

  44. Andrew Chesterman’sSyntactic strategies • Literal translation • Loan, calque • Transposition • Unit shift • Phrase structure change • Clause structure change • Sentence structure change • Cohesion change • Level shift • Scheme change

  45. Syntactic strategies • Literal translation • ‘maximally close to the SL form, but nevertheless grammatical’ (Chesterman, 92) • Loan, calque Übermensch translated as ‘Superman’

  46. Syntactic strategies • Transposition (Vinay-Darbelnet) • ‘any change of word-class, e.g., from noun to verb’ (Chesterman, 93) • Unit shift (Catford) • When the ST unit is translated as a different unit in the TT; units are ‘morphemes, word, phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph’ (Chesterman, 93)

  47. Syntactic strategies • Phrase structure change • Changes at the level of the phrase, including number, definiteness and modification in the noun phrase, and person, tense and mood in the verb phrase. The unit itself may remain unchanged, i.e. an ST phrase may still correspond to a TT phrase, but its internal structure changes’ (Chesterman, 93) • Clause structure change • Active vs. passive, transitive v. intransitive verbs, etc.

  48. Syntactic strategies • Sentence structure change • Changes between main and sub-clause status, etc. • Cohesion change • Something that affects intra-textual reference, ellipsis, substitution, pronominalization, repetition, connectors.

  49. Syntactic strategies • Level shift • This includes phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexis. A phrase can become a sentence, for example • Scheme change • Parallelism, alliteration, metrical rhythm. Either kept, changed, eliminated, or added.

  50. Semantic strategies • Synonymy • Antonomy • Hyponomy • Converse • Abstraction change • Distribution change • Emphasis change • Paraphrase • Trope change • Other semantic changes

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