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CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION THEORY Three main types of translation: Intralingua (rewording): interpretation of verbal signs by means of different verbal signs of the same language. Common: essays (author persuading), rephrasing, audiovisual translation (subtitling same language). Interlingual (proper): interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of some other language. (THIS BOOK) Intersemiotic (transmutation): interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of non-verbal systems. Examples: a composer gets inspired by a narrative creates a musical piece; choreographer reads a novel  dance piece. Roman times, Cicero wrote about the need to translate not word-for-word but sense for sense. Translations were used to enrich the people’s own cultural, linguistic and literary systems. After the Romans, Saint Jerome translated the Bible into Latin and his role was key because he made the distinction between word-for-word (for sacred texts) and sense for sense (other types of texts). Middle Ages, translation changed from being the task of a poet to the theologian/philosopher. Most translations were from Latin, Greek or Arab. They started to be used in education to help improve style and rhetorical skills. Greatest change: raise of vernacular literatures (and addition of vernacular glosses to Latin translations). Vernacular translations began to be crucial in instruction and in the progress of literary translation (Chaucer’s Canterbury tales). Two types: vertical (from a prestigious language into the corresponding vernacular one) and horizontal (between languages of a similar status). Roger Bacon (C13 th) lack of qualified translators; absence of foreign-language training  difficult to draw a line between translation and imitation (originality wasn’t highly considered: plagiarism). Renaissance, greatest change C15th: invention of the printing press. The political relevance of vernacular languages grew as a symbol of growing state nations. Early translation theorists appeared. William Caxton: 1st English printer; translated the Aeneid which included a discussion on the problems of translating dialects. Martin Luther translated the Bible and the New Testament into German and cared about the reader’s perception of the translated text. He explained how translations should be written using correct forms that sound natural in the TL. Juan Luis Vives contributed to didactics of translation and its pedagogical uses. Etienne Dolet: greatest advance towards a serious theory of translation, five principles of Translation Theory: 1. The T must understand the sense and material of the original author and feel free to clarify obscurities. 2. The T should have perfect language knowledge of SLandTL,so as not to lessen the majesty of the language. 3. The translator should avoid word-for-word renderings. 4. The translator should avoid Latinate and unusual forms. 5. The translator should assemble and liaise words eloquently to avoid clumsiness. The 17th century, brought the need to the establishment of a lingua franca. Scientists had to decide in which language they printed their works (most opted for both Latin and vernacular language). Literary translations became popular and author and translator were seen as equal. The poet Sir John Denham started to talk about translation as an art but his view was pessimistic. This line of thought started to lead to freer translations where the essence and spirit of the literary work were seen as more important than the language. Abraham Cowley, in the Preface of his translation of The Pindarique Odes, claimed that he had taken, left out and added what he had pleased. John Dryden (playwright and literary critic) is considered as the first translation theorist and made a distinction between three translation types (main translation methods at the time): o Metaphrase, or turning an author word by word, and line by line, from one language to another. o Paraphrase, or translation with latitude, where the author is kept in view by the translator, so as never to be lost, but his words are not so strictly followed as his sense; and it’s admitted to be amplified, but not altered. Imitation, where the translator assumes the liberty, not only to vary from the words and sense, but to forsake them both as he sees occasion; and taking only some general hints from the original, to run division on the ground-work, as he pleases. Dryden opted for the second type and he conceived the translation as an artist (as a painter). o

In the 18th century, a few authors reacted against this idea of paraphrase. Alexander Fraser Tytler wrote “Essay on the Principles of Translation” and put forward three general rules: 1. The translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work. 2. The style and manner of the writing should be of the same character with that of the original. 3. The translation should have all the ease of the original composition. Tytler (and Dryden) discussed the idea of recreating the spirit and nature of the original text. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was the representative of a current of thought that argued that if the translator wanted to keep the spirit of the ST literary was the only choice, but with the consequence of an unnatural TT in linguistic terms; but if the translator wanted to write a natural text in the TL, the spirit of the text would be lost. This is said to be at the origin of the opposition between foreignization and

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domestication. August Wilhelm von Schlegel viewed translation as either a mechanical or a creative task and saw the translator as a genius.

Romantic period, Friedrich Schleiermacher analysed the concept put forward by Schlegel by contrasting two translation methods: reader-to-author (accurate and correct, stays close to the SL keeping elements that are alien to the target readers, who read the TT as a translation) and author-to-reader (brings the text closer to the TL readers, naturalising elements). Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote about the idea of untranslatability departing from the linguistic conception of reality: since languages divide reality in different ways, ideas could never be transferable; however, he put forward the relevance of translation as a universal tool of communication among cultures. The 19th century, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley showed a pessimistic view on the near impossibility of good literary translations, which contrasted with the literary critic Matthew Arnold’s views who addressed learned individuals and defended the pre-eminence of the ST over the TT versions, producing literal translation to be read by a minority of cultivated readers. This, put together with the stronger nationalistic feelings of the time of the Industrial Revolution, relegated the translator to the position of a technician. The first half of the 20th century, the philosopher Walter Benjamin argued that languages have a common core and the translator’s task is finding and reproducing it. In his essay “The Task of the Translator” defends the role of translation as a form of artistic writing at the level of poetry or drama. He is considered an example of the conceptualisation of translation as an art VS Eugene Nida who established the role of translation as a science in his book “Towards a Science of Translation”. For him, the translated message should be perceived by the TT reader as it is by the ST reader. He made the distinction between two possible approaches to translation practice: o Formal equivalence, related to the linguistic content and forms themselves. Implies few changes between the source and the target texts; ST oriented and helps establish accuracy and correctness in the translation. o Dynamic equivalence, considers the necessary changes that need to be made in order to transfer the messages behind the signs; it is a reader-oriented approach that considers grammar, lexical and cultural adaptations acceptable if needed, so as to achieve naturalness in the translated text. Nida was in favour of dynamic equivalence and wrote about how translation should back-transform (go from the surface structure to the deep structure in the SL, and from there go to the deep structure and the surface structure in the TL). Nida’s decoding and recoding concepts are the precedent for considering translation as a science. Benjamin’s and Nida’s approaches should be merged so translation is considered both science and art. It was the time of great linguistic figures and theories. Roman Jakobson’s division (interlingual, intralingua and intersemiotic). The product/process distinction was also relevant for translation since traditional approaches had focused on the product, the significance of the process was considered in this century (translation strategies and techniques, translator’s subjectivity…). The science of psycholinguistics applied to translation was also introduced, trying to decipher the translation process and see what goes on in the translator’s mind. End of the 20th century, the communicative and functional approaches marked the end of the century, relating languages to their contexts and underlining the significance of the world circumstances of the utterances that condition translators’ choices. The functionalist views and the idea of the communicative purpose redefined translation as a communicative process which takes place within a social context. In the relationship between translation and cultural studies, translation helps to shape the target culture, mirroring or distorting the source culture and either bridging or separating both worlds; it is a weapon that plays an important role in cultural, social and political progress. The modern philosophical approaches have looked at the essence of translation. George Steiner’s After Babel is the first systematic investigation of the theory and processes of translation since the C18th. He reintroduced the concept of hermeneutics which looks at the translator’s desire to understand the activity of translation itself. The term hermeneutic motion explores the act of translation in its entirety, considering translation not as science, but as an exact art. He defines translation as a hermeneutic activity that consist of four parts: 1. Trust represents the initial confidence of the translator on the value of the ST. Without it, no point in tr. 2. Aggression, second step, the translator invades the ST to take something (words and meaning) away. The translator “invades, extracts and brings home”. 3. Incorporation (or embodiment): the translator’s action of assimilating the ST into the TL and culture, conforming to target norms completely, eliminating any trace of the ST.

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4. Restitution is the stage where the translator tries to restore the balance his intrusion has disrupted. He needs to give energy back to the original to compensate for the previous aggression and incorporation. Twoway interaction between the translator and the ST.

Translation Studies (TS): the approaches to translation in the C20th pointed towards the need for a discipline. Following Nida’s reference of translation as a science other authors continued defending this path, which led to the emergence of TS, having its origins in the third International Congress of Applied linguistics (Copenhagen, 1972), where James S. Holmes presented his paper “The Name of Translation Studies”, where defined TS as a scientific discipline that would deal with a whole complex of problems clustered round the phenomenon of translating and translations. In the Holmes’ Map he divided the TS into: Pure, divided in two sub-branches: descriptive (describing the phenomena of translation) and theoretical (explaining and predicting such phenomena through the establishment of general principles). Applied, concerning translator training, translation aids and translation criticism. He maintained that TS should be considered as an empirical science. Since the 80s TS has acquired status to be at the same level as other established linguistic disciplines. Translation is a transversal science that involves other disciplines (sociology, philosophy, history, psychology, Cultural Studies) and the boundaries are difficult to set. He considered three possible orientations in terms of Descriptive Translation (DTS): a) Product-oriented: descriptive analysis of existing translations (general history of translations). b) Function-oriented: the function of translation in the target socio-cultural situation, a study of contexts. c) Process-oriented: the task of the translation itself. The findings of DTS allow for the formulation of coherent rules, which define the inherent relationships existing between all the variables that are relevant to translation, and the formulation of these rules maybe incorporated to the theoretical branch Theoretical Translation Studies (TTS). Gideon Toury applied methodological and theoretical changes to Holmes’ model and introduce the notion of norms (which are the translation of general values or ideas shared by a community into performance instructions appropriate for and applicable to concrete situations. These instructions specify what is prescribed and forbidden, what is tolerated and permitted in a certain behavioural dimension.

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CHAPTER 2: CONTRASTIVE FEATURES ENGLISH-SPANISH OF NON-ESPECIALIZED TEXTS Bottom-up approach: words  collocations/idioms/fixed expressions  grammar  text  pragmatics. Word level Types of lexical meaning: 1. Propositional meaning, arises from the relation between the word and what it refers/describes ( ballet refers to a type of dance, not to a meal). It can be described as true or false. 2. Expressive meaning, relates to the speaker’s feelings/attitude. Words can have only propositional (car), expressive meaning (ghost) or both (hell). Removing words with only expressive meaning doesn’t alter the information content of the message, only the attitude (‘a hell of a brilliant idea’) (Foxface  Comadreja). 3. Presupposed meaning, arises from restrictions on what other words/expressions we expect to see before/after a lexical unit. The restrictions can be selectional (connected to the propositional meaning of a word: delicious + food) and collocational (linked to usage, tap + dance, shoes, dancer). 4. Evoked meaning, relates to dialect (geographical, temporal, social) and register (field, tenor, mode) variation (chips/fries (geographical), pal/friend (social), grandpa/grandfather (tenor)). Strategies to deal with non-equivalence at word level: STRATEGIES Translation by a more general word (superordinate) Translation by a more specific word (hyponym) Translation by explanation Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word Translation by word category change Translation by cultural substitution

EXAMPLES ‘lap dance’ – baile. ‘colour’ – rojo. ‘Bonfire Night’ – el 5 de noviembre, fiesta en RU ‘exhausted’ – cansado. ‘Be warned’ – Una advertencia. ‘Easter pudding’ – torrijas. ‘bullying’ – bullying; ‘iTunes’ – iTunes, una aplicación de música. ‘a gap year’ – un año de descanso antes de la universidad ‘line dance’ – baile country americano. ‘a unique and utterly satisfying experience’ – una experiencia gratificante única.

Translation by using a loan word (+ explanation) Translation by paraphrase using (un)/related words Translation by omission

Collocations, Idioms and Fixed Expressions Collocation, tendency certain words occur together frequently in a language. When translating we need to consider: o Collocation range: set of words which are typically associated with a particular word. Specificity and the number of senses a word may have determine its collocation range. The more general and polysemous the word is, the wider its range. o Collocation markedness: how common the collocation is. A collocation that features an unusual combination of words is described as marked. COMMON PITFALLS The engrossing effect of source text patterning Misinterpreting the meaning of a SL collocation Tension between accuracy and naturalness Culture specific collocations Marked collocations in the ST

EXAMPLES Translators transfer the collocation form the ST to the TT instead of looking for a natural equivalent. This is sometimes the case in dubbing, normally to match the characters’ mouth movements. ‘take a shower’ – *tomar una ducha. There is a similar collocation in the TL and the SL is misinterpreted. ‘make room’ – hacer la habitación. Translation a collocation in the ST by an equivalent one in the TT should be accurate and natural (not always possible). ‘He got the sack’ – le despidieron; natural, but the collocation (& some accuracy) is lost. Involve the need for a certain degree of information expansion or a total adaptation to the TL cultural equivalent. ‘break a leg’ – mucha mierda. If possible, they should also appear in the TT as marked collocations. The movie From Dusk till Dawn – Toda la santa noche, is marked, but not natural enough for a film title.

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An idiom is a fixed lexical pattern in which one cannot change the order of the words, delete words, add words, replace a word with another or change its grammatical structure (‘separate sheep from goats’); fixed expressions are similar lexical patterns that allow no variation in form, but often have clear meanings derived from their components (‘given the circumstances’, ‘for the record’, behind someone’s back’, ‘happy New Year’). In translation, idioms are more challenging than fixed expressions because the translator may not recognise the idiom. Baker, two cases in which idioms can be misinterpreted: misleading idioms that look transparent but are not what they seem (‘to get the first base’) and cases in where there is a very close counterpart in the TL with a different meaning (‘be tickled pink’ ≠ ‘ponerse rojo’). The main difficulties appear when there is a lack of equivalent or when an idiom is used both literal and idiomatical at the same time. Translation strategies to deal with idioms (Baker): STRATEGIES Using an idiom of similar meaning and form Using an idiom of similar meaning, but dissimilar form Translation by paraphrase Translation by omission of the play of the idiom Borrowing the source language idiom Translation by complete omission of the idiom

EXAMPLES ‘All in the same boat’ – Todos en el mismo barco ‘A piece of cake’ – Es pan comido. ‘No pain, no gain’ – Sin esfuerzo no se consigue nada. ‘Get under your skin’ – Poner de los nervios Hard Candy (film). Accompanied by compensation at other point.

Grammar Grammar is the set of rules which governs the way in which words and phrases are put together so the main grammar-related categories (morphology and syntax) need to be considered. Morphology refers to the form of words that carry grammatical structure. Syntax refers to functional elements involved in the linear sequence of words in a sentence. In grammar we can speak of formal and functional (non-)equivalence. Main grammar concepts: o Number expresses the countability of language and it adopts different forms and conventions across languages. Many present a distinction between one and more than one by adding a suffix to the latter (-s). On other occasions it may be represented differently in the SL and in the TL or may be number distinction in one language but not in another (adjectives in Spanish/English). o Gender, grammatical distinction according to which a noun/pronoun may be classified as masculine or feminine. There are differences across languages: Spanish marks nouns, adjectives, pronouns and determiners, English lacks marked category of gender, jus differentiates pairs of nouns. New gender marks are starting to appear to counteract the masculine dominant linguistic forms. Inanimate beings are problematic because they carry a culturally accepted gender distinction (ship, car). o Person is related to the role the various agents and participants of the actions included in a text have. A closed system of pronouns is organized: first, second and third person. Spanish and English have similar systems and they differ in three specific ways: pronoun usted, a mark of formal register that doesn’t exist in the English system; the use of pronouns (much more common in English than in Spanish) and the...