Translation: Concepts And Critical Issues

Jun 21, 2017 - series of William James Lectures at Harvard University in 1967. Chapter ...... transfer, Faerch and Kasper (1980) and Odlin (2001) suggest that...

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ATI-Academic Publications, N° 8 As one of the aims of Arabic Translators International (ATI) is to build bridges of communication between world cultures and languages on the one hand and the ArabIslamic world with its varied and rich cultures on the other, ATI-Academic Publications and ATI-Arabic Literature Unvield are but a step in this direction. The series endeavours to introduce the world to the works of distinguished scholars, writers as well as translators of the highest caliber. It is part of our commitment to encourage and promote high quality works and academic research relating to Arabic Studies, literature, translation, and all other forms of intercultural communication. Series editors: Abied Alsulaiman & Ahmed Allaithy www.atinternational.org Also available: N° 1: What everyone should know about the Qur’an – Ahmed Al-Laithy N° 2: Arabesques – Ibrahim Mumayiz N° 3: Studies in Modern Arabic Literature – Mawasi Faruq N° 4: Cultures in Dialogue – Said Faiq N° 5: Pride, Prejudice and Ignorance – Muhammad Fahmy Raiyah N° 6: A Textbook of Translation – Said M. Shiyab (sold out) N° 7: Qur’anic Term Translation. A Semantic Study from Arabic Perspective – Ahmed Allaithy

Every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information in this book. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for any inconvenience due to possible inaccuracies which readers may encounter in this book.

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

Said M. Shiyab

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Second, revised edition: 2017 Former title: A Textbook of Translation. Theoretical and Practical Implications Said M. Shiyab Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues Antwerp – Apeldoorn Garant Second, revised edition: 2017 220 pp – 24 cm ISBN 978-90-441-3383-7 D/2016/5779/12 NUR 630 Cover design: Danni Elskens | Koloriet © Said M. Shiyab & Garant Publishers All rights protected. Other than exceptions specified by the copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or made public, in any way whatsoever, without the express, prior and written permission of the author and of the publisher.

Garant Publishers Somersstraat 13-15, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium www.garant-uitgevers.be [emailprotected] Koninginnelaan 96, 7315 EB Apeldoorn, The Netherlands www.garant-uitgevers.nl [emailprotected] Garant/Central Books 99, Wallis Road, London E9 5 LN, Great-Britain www.centralbooks.com [emailprotected] Garant/International Specialized Book Services (ISBS) 920 NE 58th Ave Suite 300, Portland, OR 9721311, USA www.isbs.com [emailprotected], [emailprotected] Garant/University Book House 130, Planning Street Box 16983, Al Ain, UAE www.universitybookhouse.com [emailprotected]

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD PREFACE

11 15

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT19 DEDICATION21 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8

Perspectives on Translation

Definition of Translation Translation: Past and Present What is a Translator? Methods of Translation 1.4.1 Word for Word Translation 1.4.2 Literal Translation 1.4.3 Free Translation Translation: Art or Science Why Do We Need Translation? Test Your Knowledge Text-Comprehension and Translation

23 24 28 29 30 30 30 31 32 33 33

CHAPTER 2 2.1 2.2 2.3

Fallacies of Translation

Introduction Misconceptions about Translation Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions

37 37 39

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6 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7

Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

Other Perceptions Ethics and Rules in Translation Test Your Knowledge Multiple Choice Questions

40 41 41 42

CHAPTER 3

Some Relevant Terms in Translation 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Linguistic and Translation Terms 3.3 Test Your Knowledge

45 45 45 52

CHAPTER 4

Translation Theory and Practice 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Translation Theory 4.3 Unit of Translation 4.4 Effect of Translation Theory 4.5 How to Assess Translation 4.6 Effective and Successful Translation 4.7 Test Your Knowledge

57 57 58 59 60 62 63 64

CHAPTER 5

Text and Context in Translation

5.1 Introduction 5.2 Text-Types and Text-Functions 5.3 Discourse, Text-Types and Translation 5.4 Text-Type Categorization 5.5 Translation and Factors of Success 5.5.1 Pragmatics 5.5.2 Semiotics 5.5.3 Communicative Context 5.6 Test Your Knowledge

65 68 69 70 76 76 77 78 78

CHAPTER 6

Translation: State of the Art 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Translation and Meaning 6.3 Translation and Culture 6.4 Translator’s Perception

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79 79 79 82 85

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Contents

6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8

Translating vs. Writing Translating is Personal Test Your Knowledge Analysis and Translation of Texts

87 88 90 90

CHAPTER 7

Punctuation and Translation 7.1 Introduction 7.2 What is Punctuation? 7.3 Importance of Punctuation 7.4 Punctuation in Arabic 7.4.1 The semicolon (;) 7.4.2 Colon (:) 7.5 Test your Knowledge 7.6 Analysis and Translation of Texts

93 93 93 94 96 98 99 101 102

CHAPTER 8

Translation and Literature 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Characteristics of Texts 8.2.1 Expressive 8.2.2 Denotative 8.2.3 Formal vs. Functional Characteristics 8.3 Nature of Literary Translation 8.4 Writer-Translator Relationship 8.5 Linguistic Context and Literary Translation 8.6 Test Your Knowledge 8.7 Analysis and Translation of Texts

105 105 106 106 106 107 107 108 109 112 112

CHAPTER 9 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4

Translation and Language Teaching

115

Introduction Translation and Language Teaching Strategies in Foreign Language Learning Test Your Knowledge

115 115 117 120

CHAPTER 10

Assessing Student Performance in Translation 10.1 Introduction

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121 121

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

10.2 Definition of Assessment 10.3 Process of Assessment 10.4 Types of Assessment 10.4.1 Objective Assessment 10.4.2 Subjective Assessment 10.4.3 Interactive Assessment 10.4.4 Common Exams 10.4.5 Peer Review Assessment 10.4.6 Class Participation 10.5 Other Types of Assessment 10.5.1 Holistic Assessment 10.5.2 Targeted Assessment 10.6 Flexibility of Testing and System of Teaching 10.7 Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge 10.8 Test Your Knowledge

121 123 124 124 125 125 125 125 126 126 126 127 127 128 130

CHAPTER 11

Translation and Pragmatics of Discourse 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Intercultural and Interpersonal Communication 11.3 Culture and Communication 11.4 Grice’s Maxims 11.5 Assessment 11.6 Pragmatic Variables and Interpreting 11.7 Test your Knowledge

131 131 131 133 134 136 137 139

CHAPTER 12

Translation and Synonymy 12.1 Introduction 12.2 What is Synonymy? 12.3 Types of Synonymy 12.4 Translation and Synonymy 12.5 Test Your Knowledge

141 141 141 143 144 147

CHAPTER 13

Translation and Scientific Texts

149

13.1 Introduction 13.2 Global Language and Science 13.3 Language of Science vs. Language of Literature 13.4 Test Your Knowledge

149 149 152 155

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Contents

13.5 Analysis and Translation of Sentences and Texts 13.6 Finding Equivalent Terms in the Target Language

155 158

CHAPTER 14

Translation and Legal Texts 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Legal Language vs. Legal Translation 14.3 Characteristics of Legal Texts 14.4 Problems in Translating Legal Texts 14.5 Strategies for Translating Legal Texts 14.6 Test Your Knowledge 14.7 Finding Target Language Equivalents 14.8 Analysis and Translation of Texts 14.9 Vending Service Agreement 14.10 Terms & Conditions BIBLIOGRAPHY

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177 177 177 179 180 180 182 182 204 210 210

213

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FOREWORD

Peter Newmark in his well-known A Textbook of Translation (Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall International, 1988) states unequivocally that a translator has to have a flair and a feel for his own language. He goes on: “There is nothing mystical about this ‘sixth sense’, but it is compounded of intelligence, sensitivity and intuition, as well as of knowledge” (1988: 4). Professor Said M. Shiyab not only has this sixth sense for his native language, Arabic, but he has also developed it for today’s number one international language, English. Shiyab is a specialist in linguistics and translation theory and application with vast teaching and research experience in the Middle East and the USA. With an outstanding flair and feel for both Arabic and English, he is the ideal author for this superb pedagogical work. Students as well as their instructors can look forward to many delightful hours of intellectual stimulation exploring the thought-provoking ideas in the textbook which follows. Translators and interpreters perform a very valuable service in every country in the world today. In fact, the 2005 acclaimed movie The Interpreter, starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, the first venture filmed at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, demonstrates the glamour, the splendor, and the crucial importance of translation work in today’s increasingly interconnected global marketplace. Translators have been around, however, long before the United Nations, practicing both an art and a science (here the author and I are in agreement that translation is both an art and a science). Witness the multilingual scribes of the ancient Near East who produced monuments such as the Rosetta Stone (a trilingual inscription long housed in the British Museum in London) and numerous other texts of various sorts. The student will find this textbook to be both lucid and enjoyable. The author has prepared a unique book for the next generation of translators, and if students carefully study its pages, they will come away with a fine appreciation of this academic, scholarly, and practical field where many of today’s linguists are earning their living by oral and/or written translation-interpretation endeavors. Professor Shiyab notes in his preface to the time that he has been involved in this exciting area of intellectual inquiry

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

since 1980. Chomsky was challenging for him, or as he writes, “provoked me at the beginning,” yet somehow lacked the fascination he would soon develop for systemic linguistics and discourse analysis. Indeed the author has succeeded in amalgamating the two aforementioned fields of systemic linguistics and discourse analysis with the theoretical and applied aspects of translation studies. His 23 years of teaching experience, vast reading in the field and allied areas, and personal research efforts resulting in numerous publications all combine to engage the student – to channel him or her into a stimulating journey into a wonderful specialization within the area of general and applied linguistics. The book, conveniently organized into a dozen chapters, is a thorough and comprehensive survey of a vibrant and exciting discipline with a rich bibliographical tradition (see the exhaustive bibliography at the end of the volume). Chapter 1, “Introduction: Perspectives on Translation,” looks at the history of the discipline from the point of view of leading 20th-century linguists, such as Roman Jakobson and John Rupert Firth. We certainly agree with Shiyab when he asserts: “... translating any text from one language into another yields a particular kind of ambiguity which cannot be clarified unless the intentions of the text-producer within his/ her own social, cultural, denotative, connotative, and rhetorical contexts have been accounted for” (pp. 27-28). Chapter 2, “Fallacies of Translation,” stresses that “one course in translation cannot and will not make the student a good translator” (p. 39). Shiyab paints a very vivid picture that translation is an intricate process and he is certainly speaking for the profession itself when he affirms that translation “entail[s] artistic strategies and scientific methods and processes” (p. 33). There is much food for thought to engage even the least curious of students into a real dialogue involving provocative essay and multiple-choice questions that force the students to come to grips with the most pertinent and significant issues. Chapter 3, “Some Relevant Terms in Translation,” presents the necessary tools of the trade – the relevant terminology of important concepts, among which are: back translation, borrowing and loanwords (Arabic kumbyuutar < English computer), calques (loan translations) such as haatif ‘telephone’, idiomaticity, and so on. Every scientific field has its jargon, so to speak, and translation studies are no exception. Chapter 4, “Translation Theory and Practice,” convincingly argues that translation work combines both theory and practice. A translator can thus be compared in many ways to a surgeon. Just as the M.D. studies human anatomy and the causes of diseases for many years, only then learning how to use a scalpel and cut into organs and tissues to assist in the eventual healing of the patient, so too the translator studies semantics and stylistics, e.g., before becoming a professional practitioner. Moreover, experience counts for a lot in both spheres. If having cataract surgery, a surgeon with 10,000 suc-

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Foreword

cessful operations is preferable to the novice surgeon just beginning a surgical career! So true for a translator as well! In other words, one gains experience on the job itself. Chapter 5, “Text and Context in Translation,” is a tribute to teaching total communicative competence over mere linguistic competence. Shiyab is right to argue that “translation is to be based on the interpretation of the contextual variables such as pragmatics, semiotics and the communicative contexts” (p. 65). In this regard, it should be emphasized that language is the symbolic system par excellence, which justifies considering linguistics as a part of semiotics in general. Chapter 6, “Translation: State of the Art,” makes the all-important point that translation “involve[s] conveying what is applied and not what is said” (p. 80). Using a Shakespearean example (Hamlet), Shiyab contrasts the implications of four published translations of the English word scholar: (1) faqiih, (2) faSHii 9aalim; (3) rajul muthaqqaf wa faSiiH; and (4) rajul muta9allim (p. 85). These real-life examples will stimulate productive student discussion yielding a real understanding of many tangential cultural issues. Chapter 7, “Punctuation and Translation,” examines the uses of the colon and semicolon, specifically, and other punctuation marks, such as the comma, in both English and Arabic. The author is correct to emphasize that the entire system of Arabic punctuation does not have well-established, universal rules in use throughout the Arab world today. “Therefore,” he rightly maintains, “much work needs to be done in order to identify what is considered to be the sentence in Arabic if one wants to establish a coherent system of punctuation” (p. 101). Chapter 8, “Translation and Literature,” is geared to be of service to the more advanced student who already has a solid command of translating newspaper and magazine articles. Translating literary works, such as Shakespeare or Naguib Mahfouz (the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1988), but especially poetry, drama, and religious works (e.g., the Bible, the Koran, etc.), is the most difficult and sophisticated material for a translator. A prose vs. a verse translation of an Arabic poem shows the beauty of the latter over the former. Chapter 9, “Translation and Language Teaching,” presents some good arguments that translation can provide a solid foundation for teaching foreign language structures as, e.g., collocational nominals in the two languages. For instance, the expression fish and chips collocates in English but not in Arabic, whereas xubz wa milH ‘bread and salt’ collocates in Arabic but not in English.

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

Chapter 10, “Assessing Student Performance in Translation,” identifies whether or not academic faculty possess the means of objectively assessing students’ language competency and knowledge of their skills. Chapter 11, “Translation and Pragmatics of Discourse,” looks at the crucial matter of “pragmatic variables in an intercultural and interpersonal context.” Here Shiyab introduces the importance of Grice’s pragmatic maxims, which were made famous in a series of William James Lectures at Harvard University in 1967. Chapter 12, “Translation and Synonymy” examines the intricate nature of synonymy in order to investigate its problematic nature in relation to translation. Finally, Chapters 13 and 14, “Translation and Scientific Texts” and “Translation and Legal Texts”, give marvelous examples in the arenas of translating scientific and legal texts – two of the most difficult foci. Many recent texts provide valuable training to achieve practice to attain competence and fluency, e.g. xabiith ‘malignant; cancerous’ and mujrim or mudhnib ‘criminal’ (depending on the context). Indeed the differences between Islamic Law (sharii9ah) and western (e.g. American) law are excellent pieces of evidence one may use to demonstrate the interrelationships between language and culture. Professor Shiyab’s translation textbook is an up-to-date and well-organized presentation of all the important linguistic, pragmatic, and cultural ramifications necessary for success as a working translator and/or interpreter. But keep in mind that as with all textbooks, student progress is often measurable by the amount of concentrated, focused study of the contents, which can be satisfying and enjoyable. Alan S. Kaye California State University, Fullerton (USA)

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PREFACE

I started my journey with translation in 1980 after which I started to look at language in a somewhat unique way. How do languages express various messages and what effect do such messages have on the audience? Every time I heard a politician talking, I got tuned to his/her tone, winks, gestures in an attempt to understand the many different implications behind such acts. It was those moments that enabled me to look further into how languages work. Indeed, languages always fascinated me since they represent human beings, their culture and traditions. Language is an important means of communication where communication at times and under certain circumstances does not take place in a verbal form. It was then that I realized that studying languages across cultures can be a rewarding experience. Languages, in the real sense of the word, manifest real people. Behind each piece of language, there is a vehicle of thought. Only those, I thought at that moment, who scrutinize or look deeply into language codes and symbols can understand the real meanings behind the uses of language. I have to admit that Chomsky’s syntactic structures provoked me at the beginning, but not to the extent where I see language in everyday work. Then I moved into systemic linguistics and discourse analysis, and there I started to see where I belong. What a fascination! The fascination of translation studies prompted me to look further into languages across cultures. I found that translation is not only a matter of decoding and re-encoding messages. In fact, it is the transmission of one culture into another. It is an approximation between two different people. In this book, I define many different theoretical and practical aspects of translation. My attempt is to enable translation students and translation teachers understand the real core of what translation is all about, minding the reader that a lot has been written about translation, and unfortunately such writings created more confusion about this important profession. With this modest work, I hope readers would discover what is translation, what are the different types of translation, what is translation theory

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

and what is its effect, translation in its linguistic and cultural contexts, and above all translation and its literary forms. This book not only explains and discusses all these aspects, but also presents real and live examples from everyday writings. Furthermore, I always thought that once I finish my teaching career, I will start writing books on translation. However, after 23 years of teaching linguistics and translation, I started to see many forgotten areas that are not accounted for. Therefore, this book explains many of these areas. In this book, I have included 14 chapters. Chapter one defines translation, provides readers with a background on translation: past and present. It also provides them with methods of translation, and explains whether translation is a science or an art. In chapter two, I tried to clarify some fallacies about translation whether they are student-teacher fallacies or communal fallacies. In order to familiarize the reader with translation, chapter three defines the most important concepts in translation. Some of these concepts may have to do with linguistics as well. In chapter four, I attempt to answer the dilemma whether translation is a theory or practice, followed by chapter five where I discuss the importance of context in translation. Translation as the state of the art is the main focus of chapter six. This chapter discusses different concepts that are interrelated to translation. These are translation and meaning, translation and culture, perception and translators and translation. This chapter also compares between translating and writing. Chapter seven explains the importance of using punctuation marks in translation. Although this chapter makes reference to the Arabic punctuation marks, most of the issues discussed in this chapter can be applied to other languages as well. Chapter eight discusses one of the important areas in translation and that is the translation of literature. The characteristics of literary texts, their nature, writer-translator relationship, and linguistic context and literary translation are all defined in this chapter. As for chapter nine, it demonstrates how translation can help learners enhance their second language. It introduces strategies for learning a foreign language, and the problems associated with it. Chapter ten examines the process of assessing student performance in translation; it also sheds light on whether or not academic faculty, who are teaching translation, possess the means of assessing students’ language competency and knowledge of their translation skills objectively. Chapter eleven examines the pragmatic variables in translation, and shows how such variables give rise to intercultural and interpersonal miscommunications. Grice’s maxims and how they are relevant to successful communication are also discussed. In chapter twelve, the notion of synonymy is investigated and its problematic nature in relation to translation is highlighted.

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Preface

Chapter thirteen introduces the process of translating scientific texts. Since not many textbooks included material on scientific translation, this chapter provides the missing link. Therefore, English as a global language and its relation to science is discussed. Also, a distinction is made between the language of science and the language of literature. This is followed by a list of scientific terms where students are asked to find their equivalence in the target language. Last but not least, chapter fourteen examines the link between language and law. It highlights the characteristics of legal texts and demonstrates how the construction of language can impact the interpretation of law. This chapter also defines the characteristics of legal texts and the problems associated with their translation. One of the important sections in this chapter is the discussion of the problems of translating legal texts. This is, of course, followed by a list of legal terms used in legal texts, along with some exercises. All in all, the fourteen chapters are all important in teaching any translation course, simply because they deal with both theoretical and practical aspects of translation. These chapters can also be used to teach any course introducing students to the field of translation. One other distinguished aspect of this textbook is that at the end of each chapter, there is a set of questions testing the student’s knowledge of the chapter. In addition, some relevant texts are provided for students to translate into the target language. This is something that is hardly ever found in textbooks on translation.

Some of the topics discussed in chapters six and nine were taken from two co-authored articles with Khanji, Lateef and Shiyab (2001).

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In addition to those who helped this textbook along its way, I would like to thank my colleagues Professors Alan Kaye, University of California Fullerton, Professor Ben Bannani, and Dr. Michel Lynch, UAE University for their valuable input and observations. I also would like to thank the Scientific Research Office at the United Arab Emirates University and the Office of Rare Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland (USA) for providing me with information used in this book. Grateful acknowledgment is also made to my family, particularly my wife, Tammy, who constantly supported me throughout my work. Without their insight and encouragement, this textbook would never have seen the light.

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all those who have contributed to its production, especially those who happen to read it, review it and write about it.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Perspectives on Translation 1.1

Definition of Translation

In this introduction, I will attempt to provide various perspectives on the term “translation”. What do we mean exactly by translation and how is it understood by linguists as well as translation professionals? First, let there be no doubt that translation is not a new act performed between two languages. It is as old as the history of our universe. The question that always arises is “what is translation?” To answer this question, numerous and various definitions come to the surface. Looking at translation from a semiotic perspective, Toury (1980: 12) believes that translation, in particular translation of literature, is a matter of transferring entities, underlying codes, and sets of relationships and signs from one language to another. Translation is the process of communication in which the translator is interposed between a transmitter and a receiver who use different languages to carry out code of conversation between them (Tanke 1975). This latter definition may seem applicable to almost all types of translation, simply because no attempt was made to identify the framework into which literary translation is used. In a different article, Tanke (1976: 22) provides a more complete definition of translation. He suggests that translation be viewed as the transfer of a text from a source language into a text in the target language, the objective being a perfect (my italics) equivalent of meaning between the two texts. However, this definition lacks clarification as to what constitutes “perfect equivalent of meaning.” Others define translation as that which preserves the meaning of the original in another language (Ross 1981: 9). Translation is always an interpretation (Bennani 1981: 135); it is the final product of problem solving and sign production of a receptor (Diaz-Diocretz 1985: 8). “Translation is the reproduction in the receptor language of the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning, and second in terms of style” (Nida & Taber 1969: 210). Newmark (1988: 5) defines translation as “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text.”

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

From a linguistic point of view, De Beaugrande (1978: 13) suggests several hypotheses to work with when it comes to the theory of poetic translation. De Beaugrande believes that translation should not be studied as a comparison and contrast of two texts, but as a process of interaction between author, translator, and reader of the translation. The act of translating is guided by several sets of strategies responsive to the directives within the text. Whatever definitions we come across, almost all of them can be subsumed under two definitions. The first definition is the replacement of one written text from one language to another in which the main goal of the translator is meaning. The second is the transference of a message communicated from one text into a message communicated in another, with a high degree of attaining equivalence of context of the message, components of the original text, and the semiotic elements of the text (i.e. social, connotative, addresser-addressee relationship, etc.). As for literary translation, it lies within these two definitions of translation. Sometimes it may even go beyond these two extremes, as the characteristics and the norms of literary translation are of a different nature. Literary translation is mainly concerned with text functions manifested in the text’s characteristics (Shiyab 1994: 234-235).

1.2

Translation: Past and Present

Despite the large amount of literature that has been produced on the process as well as the theory of translation, it can be said that translation is still viewed as a mysterious phenomenon that defies understanding (Bell 1991). There is, of course, a considerable variation as far as speculating on this process; this variation has made a small, but useful, contribution to the attempt of identifying the theoretical frameworks for doing such translation. In some respect, there is very little consensus among linguists, translation theorists, and translation practitioners regarding the principles, rules, and methods of translating. The best indication of such disparity of views is the fact that translation has many definitions. This reflects the fact that it involves many DIFFERENT strategies. Translation has been defined in many different ways. However, for the sake of clarity, these definitions, roughly speaking, will be classified into meaning-based definitions such as Nida & Taber (1969), Nida (1964), Rabin (1958), Newmark (1981, 1988), and semiotic-based definitions such as Jakobson (1959), Steiner (1975), Frawley (1984), etc. Meaning-based definitions are those which take meaning as the base for interpreting and then convey the meaning of the original text into that of the target. Here, meaning necessitates reference to linguistic characteristics such as lexical, grammatical, phonological, etc; it also necessitates reference to non-linguistic characteristics

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Introduction

such as thought, situation, knowledge, intentions, and use. Semiotic-based definitions, on the other hand, are those definitions which view translation as the study of signs, symbols, codes, etc. Within this semiotic approach, the cultural, social, rhetorical, and communicative patterns of human behaviors are studied. Also, all aspects of human communication are analyzed as systems of signals; they are the means by which semioticians interpret and analyze texts. The interrelation of these definitions is illustrated in the following table. The letter (M) stands for meaning based definitions, (S) stands for semiotic based definitions, and (S or M) stands for either one.

Nida & Taber (1969: 210)

Translation is the reproduction in the receptor language of the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning, and second in terms of style. (M)

Steiner (1975: 414)

Translation is the interpretation of verbal signs in one language by means of verbal signs in another. (S)

Rabin (1958: 123)

Translation is a process by which a spoken or written utterance taken place in one language which is intended and presumed to convey the same meaning as previously existing utterance in another language. It thus involves two distinct factors, a ‘meaning’, or reference to some slice of reality. (M)

Catford (1965: 20)

Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another (TL). (M)

Savory (1957: 11)

Translation, the surmounting of the obstacle, is made possible by an equivalence of thought which lies behind the different verbal expressions of thought. (M)

Jakobson (1959: 233)

Inter-lingual translation or rewording is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs of the same language. Inter-lingual translation or translation proper is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language. Inter-semiotic translation or transmutation is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems. (S)

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

Frawley (1984: 159)

Translation means re-codification. (S)

Firth (1968: 76)

The basis for any total translation must be found in the linguistic analysis at the grammatical, lexical, collocational, and situational levels. (M)

De Beaugrande (1978: 13)

Translation should not be studied as a comparing and contrasting of two texts, but as a process of interaction between author, translator, and the reader of the translation. (S or M)

Tytler (1979: 9)

Translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work. The style and manner of writing should be the same character with that of the original. Translation should have all the ease of the original composition. (M)

Newmark (1988: 5)

Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text. (M)

Ross (1981: 9)

The most natural view is that translation preserves the meaning of the original in another language or form. Translation is not a restatement, where differences are minimized, but highlights certain equivalence in the context of important dissimilarities. (M)

Diaz-Diocaretz (1985: 9)

Translation will be understood as the final product of problem-solving and sign production of a receptor-text (RT) functionally equivalent to a source text (ST), performed by a human being in a given language for a given group of text receivers. (S)

Table (1) Interrelation of Definitions of Translation

In fact, there are many other definitions and principles that give more or less the same information, and a full account of these definitions as well as their shortcomings is beyond the scope of this book. However, the existence of these various definitions suggests that translation is far from having a generally accepted theoretical framework. What is also clear is that different translation theorists have concentrated on different types and strategies of translation. For example, there are strategies or theories that

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Introduction

are mainly concerned with translation in a ‘literal sense’ (Vachon-Spilka 1968). These theories demand word-for-word translation. Other theories, on the other hand, are mainly concerned with the reproduction of equivalent lexical items of the original text (Nida 1964; Nida & Taber 1969). Different attempts have been made to look at translation from a pragmatic and semiotic view in which the essence of translation is treated as an interaction between text-producer and the message along with social and cultural contexts in which a particular piece of language is used (Jakobson 1959; De Beaugrande 1978; Mason 1982; Wilss 1982: 135; and Hatim 1987). What is meant by pragmatics here is the study of purpose for which the texts are used; it is the intentionality behind all the choices made (Newmark 1988). This includes the text-producer’s intentions and the intended function of the text. As for semiotics, it is the interaction of various elements in the text as signs; it includes the social, cultural and psychological reality of a particular community. In this component, the social, cultural, and the anthropological characteristics of a text are brought together to assess its meaning. The interaction of these signs with one another creates the semiotic meaning of a text. Although these context specifications illuminate the intentions of the text-producer and shed some light on the semiotic contexts in which the text is used, there is still some kind of uncertainty as to what constitutes these particular contexts. That is, it is very hard to always make accurate and complete predictions about the intentions of the text-producer. Even Halliday (1985: 345) seems skeptical of the possibility of studying the HOW and the WHY choices made by the text-producer. Also, it could be argued that there are some choices that are easily decoded by the writer and can therefore be more easily interpreted than others. All a translator can do is in fact speculate/make predictions on the communicative intent through the structure of the text. These contexts do in fact facilitate translation but do not make it adequate in all respects, because understanding the pragmatic and semiotic meaning of a text is not an easy task, since this involves more than changing the words of the original into that of the target. While the translator tends to ignore the function and style in a word-for-word translation, in a sense translation (i.e. one in which the translator relies on how the text feels by using his own senses), there is an imitation of the source text in terms of its function, style, semiotic and pragmatic values. By the same token, there is a tendency to stress on the aesthetic criteria of the target text. The above discussion is only brief. However, most writers on translation emphasize the importance of language within its own cultural context, as the meaning of words or lexical items is rooted in their text-producer’s intentionality and within his own culture. Lado (1957) argues that learning the structure of a language involves learning its culture. One cannot really understand a foreign language without taking into account

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the culture of which it is a part. This is why translating any text from one language into another yields a particular kind of ambiguity which cannot be clarified unless the intentions of the text-producer within his/her own social, cultural, denotative, connotative, and rhetorical contexts have been accounted for.

1.3

What is a Translator?

Many definitions have been proposed to illustrate the role and the function of a translator. While the majority of linguists and translation theorists define a translator as the one who transfers the meaning and the form of a text from one language to another, others look at the translator in a broader context. Adams and Thelen (1999), in The Journal of American History, beautifully argue that at a time when people and their cultures and ideas travel across the world, translation becomes the only possible way to interact. They argue that being a translator is not easy, simply because it involves making crucial choices on how to transfer the text across the barriers behind which cultures have developed characteristics and linguistic ways of seeing and thinking about things in other cultures. Adams and Thelen state that all throughout history, people can see the creativity of individual translators pushing their texts through filters of culture and language. Delisle and Woodsworth (1996), in Translators through History, highlight the importance of a translator by saying that the ancient Greek word for translator/interpreter is hermêneus, related to Hermes, the messenger of the gods, the god that presided over travel, trade, and communications. The verb hermêneuo means to interpret foreign tongues, translate, explain, expound, put into words, express, describe, write about. Other meanings of the Greek word for translator-interpreter (mediator, go-between, deal-broker, marriage-broker) suggest that interpreters almost certainly had to exist during prehistory – the period before writing was even invented. For more information, see Delisle and Woodsworth (1996). In ancient times, Delisle and Woodsworth suggest that ideas used to be primarily transformed into other civilizations and cultures through travelers and tradesmen. Slowly but surely, translation became a key factor in the growth and expansion of other world civilizations and cultures. One may point out the role translation played in transferring knowledge from Ancient Greece to Persia, from India to the Arab World, above all from Islam to Christianity and from Europe to China and Japan. In a nutshell, Delisle and Woodsworth (1996: 68) argue that: Translators have invented alphabets, helped build languages and written dictionaries. They have contributed to the emergence of national literatures, the dissemination of knowledge and the spread of religions.

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Introduction

Importers of foreign cultural values and key players at some of the great moments of history, translators and interpreters have played a determining role in the development of their societies and have been fundamental to the unfolding of intellectual history itself Along the same line, Robinson (2003: 162) makes a distinction between a novice and a translator. He states that the key term is experience. According to Robinson, a translator has experience, whereas a novice does not. Also, a translator talks, acts, and writes like a translator, a novice does not. A translator has certain professional assumptions about how language works and how translation is done, but a novice does not have any of these qualities. All these characteristics can clearly make the difference between a professional translator and a mediocre one. There are many instances in which translation played an important role in introducing one civilization to another. For example, translation helped introduce the Buddhist literature from different Indian languages into Chinese. Another example is the introduction of Greek philosophical works into Arabic, and in so doing it introduces them to the Islamic world. It is this constant exposition of ideas and values that made translation a key element in the development of cultures and societies. Robinson (2003: 35) eloquently elaborates on the fundamental assumptions underlying his approach to translation by saying: 1. Translation is more about people not words. 2. Translation is more about the jobs people do and the way they see the world. 3. Translation is more about the creative imagination than about rule-governed text-analysis. 4. The translator is more like an actor or a musician (a performer) than a tape recorder. 5. The translator, even of highly technical texts, is more like a poet or a novelist than a machine translating system.

1.4

Methods of Translation

Many different methods of translating a text have been proposed. In his book entitled A Textbook of Translation (1988), Newmark highlights the different methods of translating texts. These are word-for-word-translation, literal translation, faithful translation, semantic translation, communicative translation, idiomatic translation, free translation, and translation as adaptation. While Newmark’s classification of translation methods is undoubtedly helpful, his categorization of the types of translation methods is a bit confusing. In other words, which of his methods have no bearing on meaning? In fact all of them, otherwise the translation becomes incomplete or un-

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acceptable. What is the difference between semantic translation and free translation, if the ultimate goal of the translator is to capture meanings at different levels? Also, in reality, how is faithful translation different from semantic translation? Because of such overlapping, I believe Newmark’s classification of translation methods is a bit over exaggerated. Based on this, one can say that when we attempt to translate a text from one language to another, we understand that the translation is made from the source text (ST) into a target text (TT). The criterion for doing such translation is that the meaning for these two texts corresponds. Translation professionals generally agree that there are many types of translation, but one can sum up these types into three: 1.4.1

Word for Word Translation

This kind of translation involves translating a word in the source language to a word in the target language. Although this seems very much like literal translation, in fact it is not. The problem with this kind of translation is that the outcome may not be meaningful; it could be awkward and discomfited, simply because meaning was not the center of translation. 1.4.2 Literal Translation This kind of translation focuses on the linguistic structure of the source text. It actually ignores the semiotic, pragmatic and contextual connotations of text-structure, while taking into account the linguistic conventions of the target language. While literal translation is not commonly used in translating texts, it is fundamental for the study of language structures. It is not recommended for the casual reader where adequacy and clarity of meaning are involved. For example, in translating religious texts, adherence to the word order of the text and idiomatic expressions may make the translation difficult to understand. Therefore, interpreting or explaining the word may give rise to clarity of meaning. 1.4.3 Free Translation This kind of translation is sometimes called idiomatic translation. Other times, it is called elegant translation. What is involved in free translation is texts are translated into the other language based on their meaning not structure. Interpretation and paraphrasing are two ways of understanding and translating the text into the target language. This kind of translation is the best simply because the translation outcome is meaningful, clear and effective as in the source text. Taking the above three types of translation into account, it should be pointed out that the type of texts, skill of the translator, text context and cultural dimensions are all factors that can help determine successful and effective translation.

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Introduction

1.5

Translation: Art or Science

The status of translation whether it be an art or a science has been controversial for the last two decades. Only those who work in translation can envisage whether translation should be considered an art or a science. From my professional experience, I believe that translation is both an art and a science. Translation is not concerned mainly with finding words in the dictionary and replacing them with their equivalents in another language. This is not even called translation. Translation requires artistic skills and sometimes systematic and logical decisions. Apart from their grammatical differences, or differences in word-order or idioms, very few words may have one-to-one correspondence. However, some words may have many possible interpretations; others may have words that are replaceable by other words in another language. Therefore, knowing which words to utilize in a given text necessitates good understanding of the text. It also requires good mastery of the target language patterns of thinking, in addition to a long experience in text analysis and text rendition. The examples below may seem common to almost all languages. However, they entail different types of meaning when used in a specific context. Consider the following examples: Decor Honor Attachment Enclosures Department Director Scanner Chair Now, can you think of the equivalent words in your native language and compare them with those in the target? Have you discovered that they entail different lexical items? For example, the word vehicle in English could entail car, bicycle, bus, automobile, etc. Can one explain the different lexical items such words entail in another language? Any discussion of the equivalent meanings of such words may entail moving from the domain of science into the domain of art. Furthermore, do other languages use the same words for different concepts? What about the word “dating” as in Jane is dating John. Does the word dating contain an equivalent word in the other language? Sometimes, one may find the dictionary information confusing, simply because it does not provide the translator with good solutions. Even in similar languages, one may find that certain words may look or sound the same, but in actuality, they express different meanings. Therefore, whether the term is cultural, religious, linguistic, or literary, the artistic talent of the translator and his skills are a lifesaver here.

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

Peter Newmark, in his Textbook of Translation (1995), points out that translation should be looked at as a combination of art (applied) and a skill, a taste, and an exercise of choices and decisions. At the same time, others believe that translation is a scientific process of dealing with codes (Eco 2003). However, taking these two views into account, one may look at translation as a systematic way of looking at a particular thing. In medical science, for example, translation is used scientifically and systematically. In social sciences, particularly literature, it is used artistically. Also, all branches of scientific investigations of translation whether linguistic, stratificational, computational, or even machine translation describe translation as a science.

1.6

Why Do We Need Translation?

One of the most fundamental purposes of translation lies in its definition. That is, the purpose of translation is to transpose the meaning of the original text into the target text. Apart from this, translation is done for different reasons. Translation has an important role to play in the cultural life of a particular society. That is, translation of literature provides a society with information about its cultures, life habits, patterns of thinking, and above all its values. In another context, translation is important as it provides us with up-to-date information about the latest discoveries. One cannot imagine him or herself isolated from knowing what innovations and contributions other cultures or societies have if their work has not been translated. So transmitting knowledge through translation is a key component to the society’s development and progress. Within a pedagogical context, Kasmer (1999), in an article entitled “The Role of Translation in the EFL/ESL Classroom”, believes that there are useful aspects of translation when used in the ESL or EFL classroom. Translation can foster a student’s natural ability to learn a foreign language. It can also enhance a student’s confidence and security level through the usage of bilingual immersion, co-teaching, and bilingual text usage. Above all, consciousness raising helps the student’s ability to recognize similarities and differences between his mother tongue and the foreign language as far as culture, language structure, use of specific and general vocabulary, and the order of presentation of information are concerned.

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Introduction

1.7

Test Your Knowledge

1. Give two different definitions of translation. Illustrate your definitions with examples. 2. Define a translator, and show how a translator is different from a writer. 3. Draw a comparison between the three types of translation and demonstrate in what context each type will be used. 4. Do you think translation is an art or a science? Explain your answer. 5. Demonstrate how translation is important in everyday life. Can you think of ways translation has impacted your culture?

1.8

Text-Comprehension and Translation

To test your knowledge of the English language and to see how much meaning you can capture at the text level, read the following article on the Importance of Translation and Interpretation very carefully, and translate it into your native or target language using a summary method. The article is taken from the The Ukrainian Weekly, August 17, 1997, No. 33, Vol. LXV. Remember, a summary method focuses on the main ideas in the article. Therefore, literal translation is not recommended here.

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Importance of Translation and Interpretation by IRYNA KOVALSKA KYIV – Literary translation has always played a very important role in the cultural life of Ukrainians. In fact, it is a factor in nation-building. Almost all major Ukrainian writers have also been translators, being well aware that cultural isolation has always been dangerous. Thus, translators have been the enlighteners of their downtrodden people and fighters for their better life, having chosen literary translation as a weapon side by side with their original creativity. After the second world war – owing to the brilliant school of Ukrainian literary translation – Ukrainian translated literature developed as a kind of compensation for Ukrainian original literature whose development was being thwarted. It has also become a treasure-trove as an effective medium for creating, collecting and preserving expressive means (lexical, prosodic, structural), which now may be widely used by Ukrainian authors. Recently the importance of training translators and interpreters became evident in Ukraine. The country needs highly qualified interpreters and translators for the United Nations, UNESCO, Council of Europe, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, for embassies and a host of other organizations in Ukraine and throughout the world. Thus, discussing various problems of translation and interpreting became an urgent need in Ukraine. On May 29-30, Taras Shevchenko State University in Kyiv hosted the international conference “Translation on the Threshold of the XXI Century: History, Theory, Methods” (organized by the Common European Project TEMPUS – TACIS 85422-94: Ukraine – Spain – France – Italy). The program included over 80 reports, which covered various problems of modern translation studies. Issues in the history of translation were highlighted by Prof. Oleksander Cherednychenko, who gave a general overview of the development of literary translation in Ukraine and defined the main directions of Ukrainian translation studies, while Prof. Roksoliana Zorivchak discussed the legacy of Hryhoriy Kochur as a translator and a translation studies researcher. Among other speakers, Dr. Orest Zemlianyi spoke about Ukrainian translations of Irish literature. The researchers accentuated the role of translation as a factor important to the development of intercultural communication. Thus, Prof. Maryna Novykova underlined that translation is part of the spiritual legacy of a nation, a way of thinking that is developed in constant contact with other nations. The majority of the speakers dealt with the theory of translation, suggesting various approaches to the translation norm, methods of research, understanding the nature of the literary translation, etc.

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Introduction

Prof. Efim Etkind – not only a brilliant researcher but a fighter for human rights as well – shared his views concerning the notion of “metatranslation.” According to the researcher, the latter is an umbrella term for all texts presented as translations but actually created as something different (e.g. free rendering, transfusion, etc.). Thus, the word “translation” does not cover all the diverse types of contacts between language and literature. One of Prof. Etkind’s studies is titled “Poeziyai Perevod” (“Poetry and Translation”), but he considers that the German version “Dichtung and Nachdichtung” reflects the essence of this notion, better introducing the element of secondary creativity, and the involvement of a co-creator. Prof. Etkind analyzed different levels and types of metatranslation, providing examples from German, Italian and English literatures as interpreted by Russian classical writers. Methods of teaching interpreting and translating were discussed by Ion Chobanu, Nelli Kalustova, Zenoviy Partyko, Eduard Skorokhodko and many other researchers. In his report on “Information Technologies in Translators’ Training,” Prof. Viacheslav Karaban stressed the necessity of updating the process of translators’ training, helping them to develop computer skills, and teaching them how to use software and the internet. The participants of the conference had ample opportunity to listen to the outstanding Ukrainian lexicographer Mykhailo Balla, who spoke about his experience in compiling a great English-Ukrainian dictionary. The new two-volume edition comprising of about 120,000 words was published in Kyiv in 1996. It is an important contribution to Ukrainian lexicography. The first (rather small) English-Ukrainian dictionaries were published in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. The first rather substantial English-Ukrainian dictionary (comprising of 40,000 words) appeared in 1946. Its compiler, Mykhailo Podvezko, continued his lexicographic research in cooperation with Mr. Balla. In 1974 they produced a bigger English-Ukrainian dictionary (about 65,000 words). According to Mr. Balla, he started working on the newest edition of the dictionary almost immediately after 1974. The 1996 edition can be characterized as more convenient for users: proper names and geographical names are not given in the appendices but along with common words in alphabetical order, each derived word is supplied with a translation and listed as a separate item. The Kyiv conference contributed to the establishment of contacts among researchers in translation studies, helping them exchange opinions and share their experience. Conference participants passed a resolution on the need to organize a federation of translators and interpreters in Ukraine. The experience of such federations in other countries shows that such a body would be able to perform a number of significant functions: to arrange forums for discussions on controversial subjects and research; to protect the rights and privileges of

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translators and interpreters; to represent them at international conferences and seminars; to gain recognition for the important role translators play in modern Ukraine; to create more appreciation for the field of translation; and to improve the quality of translations. The resolution was passed unanimously. Thus, one can expect that the All-Ukrainian Federation of Translators and Interpreters will soon become a reality, and that through the organization Ukraine’s professionals will join the International Federation of Translators, uniting national societies of translators into a single international body.

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CHAPTER 2

Fallacies of Translation 2.1 Introduction This section is not intended to discourage students from majoring or studying translation, but to clarify misconceptions about translation. Unfortunately, translation was perceived as an easy task which requires only basic knowledge of the two languages involved. This erroneous assumption about translation has misled and is still misleading students about the profession of translation. Translation is like any other discipline; it requires hard work, good knowledge of other disciplines, awareness and good understanding of the cultures and traditions of the two languages, and above all an artistic talent in analyzing and synthesizing a message. As Gentzler and Tymoczko (2002) state, translation is not only a process of faithful reproduction; it involves deliberate acts of selection, construction, and omission. So, in this section, and based on my teaching experience, I genuinely want the translation students to be aware of translation and what it requires before they embark on this very important discipline.

2.2 Misconceptions about Translation In an article entitled “Knowing before Learning”, Rubrecht (2005) highlights ten concepts he believes translation students should know before they embark on any translation major. Rubrecht believes that in an age where media and fast communication have transformed the world into an interconnected community, the world is getting smaller and smaller. With the generation and dissemination of new technology, one is more likely to believe that there is a need to prompt global level thinking, and this can be accomplished only through institutions offering translation and interpreting courses. For foreign language specializations, minding you translation students, translation and interpreting courses are very fundamental simply because they are instrumental tools for language learning. Others make it clear that translation and interpreting courses are becoming more popular. I myself belong to the latter group. However, with

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the proper understanding, translation and interpreting courses are seen as valid literary pursuits for learning the literary language. They are also seen as important means for learning a foreign language. Whether such courses are part of a university curriculum or offered as a four year degree, universities as well as teachers must understand there is a mismatch between students’ expectations and what students can actually accomplish during these two or four year courses. Students as well as teachers have too many assumptions as to how these courses are taught and how much students can get out of this lecturing process. In many cases, these assumptions turn out to be false. Let there be no doubt that academic institutions are not professional translation and interpreting schools. No matter how experienced the teacher is and how well planned the syllabus is, there will always be a limit as to how much information the teacher can give, and by the same token how much students can learn, particularly under the limitations (i.e. time) imposed by a course spanning a period of only one or two semesters. It is extremely important for students to be aware of certain facts about translation and interpreting before they choose a major or enroll in a translation or interpreting course. As pointed out earlier, this is not to discourage students from embarking on translation or interpreting courses, or learning but rather provide them with the knowledge and understanding of the expectations of engaging in such courses. Newmark (1991) has outlined the responsibilities of instructors involved in teaching translation and interpreting courses. He believes that students should know important facts about translation and interpreting courses. These are: 1.

Like any other discipline, translation has difficulties and students should be aware of such difficulties before they engage in any translation and interpreting courses. 2. Students should be aware of their responsibility towards translation difficulties, not blaming other courses or teachers. 3. Students should have already been involved in some form of translation activities before they embark on a translation major. 4. Like physicians, translation teachers cannot cover all that is relevant to literature in one term. They can only cover some important works of literary figures such as Shakespeare. One course in translation cannot and will not make the student a good translator; it can only introduce him or her to the nature of the translation process and provide him or her with the methods and strategies on how to look at or approach a text. In order to help students understand the nature, responsibilities and requirements of taking translation and interpreting courses, and according to Rubrecht’s ten concepts, I believe students’ and teachers’ perceptions of each other are fundamentally significant.

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Fallacies of Translation

2.3 Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions One of the first perceptions students have about translation is that they can be familiarized with the techniques and methods of translating a text from one language to another in one course. This perception is really not true. Learning the two languages will not enable students to be professional translators, simply because translation requires a lot of practice and this will happen over a long period of time. Students, and sometimes teachers, erroneously believe that it is possible students can be acquainted with all relevant issues in translation or that they become good translators once they finish a semester or two. This, I believe, is something that is impossible to accomplish in one or two semesters. Let there be no doubt that translation students should undergo extensive training in translation activities; they should also be aware of the primary requirements behind any translation course. As for interpreting courses, students must have skills for immediacy of response, good overall knowledge of the subject-matter, and above all good memory. Students should also be equipped with computer skills. Ward (1992) and Chris (2000) believe that students cannot appreciate the fundamental effect such requirements have on translation students’ lives. Therefore, lack of students’ understanding with regard to these issues may have negative repercussions on their accomplishments. Second, from personal experience, I believe translation is a complex process. It requires that students have good mental capacity that is extremely important to do the work. There are in-class activities and homework assignments that are mentally and physically draining. One must imagine himself or herself sitting for hours checking all kinds of dictionaries, thinking of all possible meanings, writing and re-writing the text for hours. It is even more draining for students involved in interpreting as the demand on such students is high and they have to adapt themselves to stressful and fatigued environments. Interpreting students should get used to the idea of working without using dictionaries in a short period of time. As for good knowledge, students must have a working knowledge of the foreign language before getting involved in translation and interpreting courses. They should have good knowledge of the native countries of that language. Third, learning a foreign language and translating a text are two completely different things. Learning a foreign language is a prerequisite for translating a text; translation may partially help students learn a foreign language, but it will not be enough to make them good translators. There is very little overlap between learning a language and conducting translation and students should be aware of this fact. Students should also know that they should be willing to continue learning, as language changes over the years, and translators have to continuously update their knowledge. Fourth, the main objective of translating a text is to convey its similar meaning to another language. Translators or students of translation must worry about communi-

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cating meaning very accurately to the reader. Teachers should also teach students ways to communicate a message from one language to another. Communicating a message depends on context, and teachers must make students aware of the importance of context in translation. Without understanding the context, communicating a message will be impossible or even if it can be communicated, it will be erroneous. Here one can refer to Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) where they state that translation is a matter of equivalence. Translation should maintain the stylistic impact of the source language text in the target language text. According to them, equivalence is the ultimate method for the translation of proverbs, idioms, clichés, nominal or adjectival phrases and the onomatopoeia of animal sounds (ibid: 342). From a different perspective, Vinay and Darbelnet believe that there are three areas of translation: educational, professional and linguistic. Educational translation ensures reading and understanding a text to assess its accuracy. Professional translation ensures text quality and precision. As for linguistic translation, it is mainly concerned with how texts are rendered into the other language and what linguistic means are used to convey text meaning. All these areas of translation should be mastered before students take translation courses.

2.4 Other Perceptions There is a misconception among linguists and some translation teachers that having a bachelor degree in English language or literature makes you a good translator. This assumption, based on my personal experience and some studies (Chris 2000) turns out to be false. In order for translation students to be good translators, they have to master the translation skills, including fluency or near native fluency of both languages. This may not sound good for our translation students, simply because translation to them is not associated with mastering both languages to an acceptable level. At the same time, translation teachers should not expect to have students with a perfect command of both languages, particularly before they enroll in any translation or interpreting courses. Another misconception about translation fed to students by teachers who lack good knowledge of translation studies is the belief that translation is an easy discipline. Anyone teaching or majoring in translation knows very well that translation is a rigorous discipline. It is a problem-solving technique, entailing artistic strategies and scientific methods and processes. It is time consuming and requires a lot of hard work. Students must realize that doing well in translation helps them do well in other subjects. Therefore, disciplining and organizing their life and above all independency and self-discipline from the beginning of their study are key components to their success. As Ward (1992: 580) states: A translator must be a self-starter, an independent worker, with a good dose of perseverance and determination to see a project through with-

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Fallacies of Translation

out any guidance or supervision, and often without any help even with specialized terminology. The translator should also have solid integrity to do the very best job possible, to be absolutely accurate, to avoid any shortcuts or doing any fudging. As previously stated, translation should be taken seriously and sensibly if, and only if, the translator wants to avoid poor results. Also, education and training in translation are vital and translators must not only juggle languages, but also understand cultures, and the religious and political environment in which texts are produced. This is not an easy task, if translators or those embark on translation have thought about the ethics of translation.

2.5 Ethics and Rules in Translation Once scholars come to grips with reality, they will come to their senses that translation has rules and principles. Eco (2003) believes that translation is not about comparing two different languages, but an interpretation of a text in two different languages, thus involving a shift between cultures. He also states that irrespective of the fact that some linguists and philosophers claim that there are no rules on whether one translation is better than the other, translators have to use common sense based on their long experience of reading, editing, and translating. Within the field of translation, therefore, there is a crisis of ethics. Some might be pertinent to translation; others may be pertinent to interpreting. The question involving translation evolves around whether the translator is loyal or not, and whether he is competent or not. The comparison made by some Italian translators that “Translation is like women: the less faithful, the more beautiful, or the more faithful, the less beautiful”, highlights the quarrel translators had with such questions for many years.

2.6 Test Your Knowledge 1. Give four misconceptions students have about majoring in translation. 2. According to your understanding of this chapter, do you believe that mastering the two languages involved in the translation is sufficient for someone to be a good translator? Please explain your answer with exemplifications. 3. Argue whether or not you agree with the types of misconceptions outlined in this chapter.

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

2.7 Multiple Choice Questions Based on your understanding of Chapter (2), answer the following questions: 1.

The term “fallacy” means: a) something good b) something correct c) something false d) (a) & (b)

2. According to Chapter (2), if someone has a B.A. in English Language & Literature, he or she will be: a) a good translator b) unable to translate c) able to translate but will face many problems d) both (b) & (c) 3.

Most fallacies about translation studies were fed by: a) students b) teachers c) both students and teachers d) none of the above

4. According to this chapter, translators are ………….. perceived by the community. a) positively b) negatively c) not at all d) somewhat positively 5. Within the field of language learning and language acquisition, studies have shown that translation is a useful means for: a) learning a foreign language b) learning only one’s language c) enhancing both foreign and native languages d) only (c) 6.

Since translation deals with my native language, then it is: a) an easy subject b) a subject that does not need a lot of reading and writing c) a subject that only needs practice d) a subject that needs excellent knowledge of the two languages involved and good knowledge of other subjects with lots of translation practice

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Fallacies of Translation

Translation from one language to another can be acquired from: a) just one simple course b) two courses c) the more you practice, the better you become in translation d) just good knowledge of English

Ethics of translators have to do with: a) whether they are polite or not b) whether they lie or not c) whether they are loyal to the text or not d) both (b) & (c)

In order to translate effectively, the translator has to follow: a) his own feelings b) rules and principles c) what his friends tell him/her d) only (c)

10. In translation, there are: a) correct translations and incorrect translations b) poor translations and good translations c) well written texts and badly written texts d) both (a) & (b)

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CHAPTER 3

Some Relevant Terms in Translation

3.1 Introduction In this chapter, an attempt will be made to define concepts and terms in translation studies. While it is very difficult to survey and define all terms in the studies of translation, my attempt here is to identify terms that are relevant to the content of this book. For those who are interested in a more complete translation glossary, see Leman (2005).

3.2 Linguistic and Translation Terms Accuracy

It is a term that refers to maintaining the meaning of the source text. The term overlaps with the meaning of faithfulness, although the two concepts are somewhat different from one another. Consider the following words or expressions: jello he died two heads are better than one update me computer fax television mobile surfing

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While it is easy to provide an equivalent for the phrase “he died”, it is very difficult to provide an equivalent word for “jello”, simply because the word does not ring a bell in the mind of the reader. Even though the Arabic equivalent word for “jello” is hulam, it still makes no sense whatsoever to the common Arabic reader. In most cases, if not all, people use the word “jello” rather than hulam. The same applies to words such as “fax”, “computer”, “mobile”, etc. These words have equivalents in Arabic, but they are not used at all. What about the equivalent words or expressions in other languages? Do they have the same equivalents? In French, for example, the word “jello” is gelatine. Gelatine, however, is not used in the French culture; rather the English word “jello” is used. The same applies to the words “mobile” and “cellular”. Audience

This term involves those who read or hear a text. Translation practitioners must take into account the kind of audience. In order for the audience to clearly and effectively understand the meaning of the translated text, translators must use a language that conforms to the expectations of their audience. Back Translation

This kind of translation involves the process of translating a document that has already been translated into a target language back to the original language. The translation is usually done literally. The objective behind this kind of translation is to enable a translator or a translation consultant who speaks other languages to understand what a translated text means in the target language. Literality is fundamental here so as to enable the translation consultant to identify the rules and structure of the target text. Borrowing

This term involves the idea of taking a word from another language. The word that is taken is called a “loan word’. Calques

This term refers to a word that is created through loan translation. It involves translating the meaning parts of one language to the meaning parts of another. The process of translating such meaning parts creates what is called “neologism” (using new words in a language). Choppy

This is a term that refers to the quality of the translation. If the translation is clear, accurate and effective, it is called a clear translation; but if it is not, it is called a choppy

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Some Relevant Terms in Translation

translation. Therefore, a choppy translation means a translation in which the parts of the text are disjointed. Clarity

This is a term that refers to the quality of the translation. If the translation is clear, accurate and effective, it is called a clear translation. A clear translation has the quality of being easy to understand and free from any ambiguous or unnatural structures. Cohesion

Cohesion refers to the quality of the text and involves connectedness throughout the whole text. Cohesion also aims at preserving a smooth connection and internal unity among the sentences used in the text. Collocation

Collocation involves placing or associating two words with one another. These words are always used together and more likely in similar contexts. Collocation also involves the relationship between two words that frequently go together. These two words always co-exist with one another. Consecutive Interpreting

This is a strategy where the interpreter starts interpreting a spoken message after the speaker finishes the sentence. Consecutive interpreting is often used at smaller conferences, diplomatic talks, courtroom sessions, etc. It is usually carried out by one interpreter who accompanies the delegate or follows the speaker. Consecutive interpreting is less stressful, simply because there is no time pressure and the interpreter is often close to the speaker. Context

This is a term that refers to the environment in which sentences are used. Context also refers to the parts of a written or spoken discourse that precede or follow a specific word. Effectiveness

This term refers to the message communicated by the writer or translator. It refers to the highest level of achievement of a communicative function or objective.

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Equivalent

When two words have a similar meaning or function, they are called equivalent words. Equivalence involves two words or sentences having the same semantic value. Faithfulness

Faithfulness is a term that refers to the closeness and accuracy of the translated text to the original. It also refers to how much meaning is preserved in the target text compared to the source text. Free Translation

Free translation involves translating the text freely based on its meaning, not structure. Free translation aims at preserving the original meaning of the text and utilizes normal features of the target text. Interpretation and paraphrasing are two ways of understanding and translating the text into the target language. This kind of translation is the best simply because the translation outcome is meaningful, clear and effective as in the source text. Idiom

The word “idiom” is an expression which is exclusive to a particular language. Idioms cannot be understood by just analyzing their individual words; they have to be examined with reference to their figurative meanings. For example, when one says “It is time to hit the sack”, this expression does not involve hitting at all. Its figurative meaning involves going to bed. So what we do is actually translate its figurative meaning. Idiomatic Translation

Unlike literal translation, this type of translation is used where the meaning of the original text is translated into the forms of the target language. These forms should maintain the implicit and explicit meanings of the source language forms. Idiomatic translation is synonymous with other methods of translation such as free translation, dynamic translation and thought-for-thought translation. Inadequate Meaning

When we translate a text from one language to another we may end up conveying an inadequate meaning, simply because the meaning conveyed is wrong or partially expressed. Sometimes, inadequate meaning involves translating a text in which the translation outcome does not make sense, i.e. incoherent and incohesive.

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Intention

This term involves the intention of the speaker. It also involves the effect the speaker wants to impinge on his reader. It should be pointed out here that in the study of literature, critics avoid assuming an absolute knowledge of the writer’s intention. All readings of intention from a text are at best provisional. Interpretation

This term involves the process of determining the meaning of something. It refers to both written and spoken forms of language. Interpretation can also refer to reading the text to figure out its implicit and explicit meanings. Legal Translation

Legal translation is the translation of legal texts and binding documents. These texts are culture-dependent subjects, and this means they are embedded within the target language culture. Legal translation is not simple, because any misinterpretation or mistranslation of a legal text can lead to jail or lawsuits. Also, the language of legal texts is very precise and requires good understanding. Therefore, translators have to be familiar with the legal systems of both languages. They should also have good knowledge of the target language culture and good knowledge of the relevant disciplines and subject matters. Literal Translation

Literal translation focuses on the linguistic structure of the source text. It aims at preserving the forms of the source language. While literal translation actually ignores the semiotic, pragmatic and contextual connotations of text-structure it also takes into account the linguistic conventions of the target language. While literal translation is not commonly used in translating texts, it is fundamental for the study of language structures. It is not recommended for the casual reader where adequacy and clarity of meaning are involved. For example, in translating religious texts, adherence to the word order of the text and idiomatic expressions may make the translation difficult to understand. Therefore, interpreting the word and paraphrasing it may give rise to clarity of meaning. Loan word

A loan word is a word that is borrowed from another language. That is, a translator may create a word that does not exist in the target language, provided it conforms with the meaning of the source word. Consider the following examples:

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50 jello computer fax TV mobile

Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

Machine Translation

This is another means of translating a text where the text is translated automatically by a machine. The computer or any other machine made for this purpose does the translating. Of course, machine translations are faster and cheaper, but they are less accurate than human translators. Although machine translation is not used as often as human translators, it is still helpful when the main idea of a particular text needs to be expressed and done within a limited period of time. Meaning

When one wants to express a message, he expresses its meaning. That is, whatever is expressed by somebody, it involves the expression of meaning. Meaning is not only expressed in lexical items, but it is in how such lexical items relate to one another. Natural

When translation is natural, it means that the text is translated in a way where native speakers of that language feel that the patterns of constructing and translating the text, whether lexical or grammatical, match and conform with the patterns of the native language. Also, the text is natural when its sentences are clear and display the same normal discourse. Pragmatics

It is the relationship between language user and language use. Pragmatics is also understood as language in context. It can also refer to the implicit meanings expressed by the speaker. Simultaneous Interpreting

This is a strategy where the interpreter starts interpreting a spoken message before the speaker finishes the sentence. At conferences, simultaneous interpreting is often used to interpret seminars, conferences, and meetings. It is usually carried out by panelists using specific equipment. Simultaneous interpreting is a stressful act, simply because of time pressure, unfamiliarity of subject matter, voice and accent of speaker, and environment.

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Target Text

It is the language into which translation or interpreting is carried out. Telephone Interpreting

It is a kind of interpreting where the act is done over the telephone. Translation

Translation can be defined as the process of conveying the meaning of sentences from one language to another. Translation Theory

Translation theory involves an examination of the rules and principles of translation. It refers to how language functions and under what circumstances. Understanding how language works is a key element to all translators. Translating vs. Interpreting

Translating a text has to do with the written form whereas interpreting has to do with the spoken form. In both cases, we translate freely from the original. Unit of Translation

Unit of translation can be defined as the smallest entity in a text that carries a discrete meaning. It varies all the time, ranging from individual words through phrases and sentences right up to an entire paragraph. Word-for-Word Translation

Word-for-word translation involves translating a word in the source language by a word into the target language. Although this seems very much like literal translation, in fact, it is not. The problem with this kind of translation is that the outcome may not be meaningful; it could be awkward and discomfited, simply because meaning was not the center of translation. World Knowledge

World knowledge refers to whatever extra-linguistic knowledge is transported into the process of translation and brought into the mind of the translator. Sometimes, world

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knowledge is referred to as shared assumptions, or common ideas that people share with one another.

3.3

Test Your Knowledge

A. Questions 1. What is meaning? 2. Make a comparison between a cohesive text and a coherent text. How can coherence contribute to a successful translation? 3. What are your perspectives on “Natural Translation” or a “Natural Text”? 4. What is world knowledge, and how can it help the translator? 5. Discuss the differences between translating and interpreting. 6. What is translation theory? 7. Out of the linguistic terms and concepts listed in this chapter, name seven terms that are indicative of a good translation. For example, good translation must be natural, etc. 8. Compare between word-for-word translation and literal translation. 9. Why is idiomatic or free translation effective? 10. What is meant by the notion “equivalence”?

Texts for Translation

Translate the following texts into the target language. Show how world-knowledge is shared. You may also apply other terms or concepts to the text. Also, explain how context and text-structure play an important part in the translation of any text.

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Some Relevant Terms in Translation

What Determines Skin Color?

Text 1

Melanin is the substance that normally determines the color of the skin, hair, and eyes. It is the pigment produced in the cells called melanocytes. If melanocytes cannot form melanin, or if their number decreases, skin color will become lighter or completely white – as in vitiligo.

Text 2

Leukoderma is a general term that means white skin. Severe trauma, like a burn, can destroy pigment cells resulting in leukoderma. Vitiligo is just one form of leukoderma.

In this agreement, save where the context otherwise requires, the following expressions should have the following meanings: 1. State = the country in which this document is issued 2. Laws = laws of the country 3. Governor = governor of the country

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Text 3

Philip Morris Incorporated is a corporation organized and existing under the Laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia; it is a cigarette company in the United States of America, and its principal office is located in New York (USA).

Employees’ Satisfaction and Organization Prosperity

Text 4

The success of economic corporation is judged by the extent of their profit making abilities and by the power of developing their capabilities so as to enable them to go in sound harmony with the market conditions.

Translate the following expressions into the target language.

Text 5

He is the top dog around here.

He passed the buck.

He is beating around the bush.

She broke my heart.

It is raining cats and dogs.

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Some Relevant Terms in Translation

His eyes are bigger than his stomach.

He is still horsing around.

Adam spilled his guts.

She hit the nail on the head.

You are just pulling my leg.

He punched his lights out.

He fell off the wagon.

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CHAPTER 4

Translation Theory and Practice 4.1 Introduction During the past two decades or so, many views have been put forward towards the importance of teaching translation theory to students of translation. Other views advocate the idea that students of translation need only translation practices. In this chapter, I would like to first look at translation as an exercise. Second, I would like to argue that translation is a combination of theory and practice; it is neither a practical nor theoretical exercise, but rather a combination of both. The comments made here are not intended to be applied only to the process of translating a text from Arabic into English, but can also be applied to the process of translating texts in all languages. In his article “The Role of Translation Theory in the Translation Classroom”, Mason (1982) points out that graduate or undergraduate translation students, enrolling in a translation course, will definitely benefit from making themselves aware of the principles and rules of translation theory. Such rules involve different kinds of topics such as semantics, contrastive linguistics, communication strategies, and above all, the idea of equivalence. There may be some theoretical arguments students may capture, but these are at an abstract level. To this effect, translation students may not understand or perceive the link between these theoretical issues and the practical exercise of translation. Now, translation is taught as a language teaching exercise. The problem-solution technique involved in the process of reading the text and comprehending it inevitably encourages the learning of language. It also promotes learning the vocabularies, understanding syntax, idiom, and style. All these are to be captured from a close analysis of the source text which translation requires. The goal of the translation activities should not be limited to these issues; it should involve other modern language exercises at a professional level. For more information on this issue, see Mason (1982: 18-33). The objective of translation training, as Mason indicates, is to elicit, from students, activities which do not merely demonstrate the lack of source text comprehension, but which also indicate the appropriateness of the translation as a publishable work.

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The most important thing, however, is to demonstrate whether linguistics or, in more specific terms, translation theory, helps students in their translation training.

4.2 Translation Theory Translation theory involves studying the rules and principles of translation. It also evolves around how language functions. Translation theory identifies different languages as having different forms to encode meaning, although its function is to give translators insight on how to preserve meaning while maintaining the appropriate forms each language utilizes. In order for translators to produce good and effective translations, they have to explore the effect of translation principles on the actual text to be translated. In addition to this, the rhetorical effects and the notions of both cohesion and coherence should also be examined. Based on the above assumption, translators must have good knowledge of the two languages involved along with the subject-matter they are translating. Since translators explore meaning in its various forms, then understanding language in its multifaceted nature is a must for the translator if he/she wants to perform his/her job successfully. Larson (1984) believes that translators find meanings behind the forms of the source language. The translator’s attempt after that is to match it with the meaning of the target language. Such a matching process has to take into account that the two meanings in both languages are as close as they could be, including the effect and the intention of the authors/writers. In terms of the choices and decisions the translators make, Newmark (1988) believes that translators should utilize the contrastive linguistics approach simply because it is useful enough to deal with choices and decisions of the source language text (see Mason 1982 for more information on this topic). The contrastive linguistics approach, Newmark continues, is mainly concerned with the mechanics of the text, the technical aspects of the text. “Translation theory is concerned with choices and decisions, not with the mechanics of either the source language text (SL) or the target language text (TL)” (p. 19). In view of the above, the invalidity of the contrastive linguistics approach, as demonstrated by Mason (1982), is asserted simply because translation activity is an entirely different activity from contrastive linguistics. The purpose of the contrastive linguistics approach is to focus on the differences between one language and another especially in a language teaching context. It does not focus on establishing a set of rules, principles, and appropriate methods of handling a particular text. Furthermore, the contrastive linguistics approach is different from translation activity in the sense that

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Translation Theory and Practice

it is a text-oriented activity. That is, the contrastive linguistics approach focuses on language, whereas translation activity focuses on text (Newmark 1988). Along these lines, Widdowson (1980) views translation as an important pedagogical device, especially when a foreign language is being learned. He believes that translation is an effective means of learning a language. Taking this into account, one may consider the practicality of the contrastive linguistics approach in improving student’s performance in language learning. In other words, the contrastive linguistics approach is a technique for teaching languages and not for teaching translation activities. Despite what has been stated against the contrastive approach, Mason (1982) believes that this approach is not to be entirely avoided. At the language level, generalizations supporting translation principles and rules can be made. Any consideration of these rules is indeed helpful for making necessary changes in certain contexts. They are also helpful in demonstrating the necessary loss of information contained in structures whose constituent parts are not in a one-to-one correspondence. This can simply be manifested in the different grammatical categories of the two languages. For example, in an Arabic text where anta “you” and antum “you” (singular & amplified) are used, especially when taking place in a conversation between two people, there is an inevitable loss of information when translated into English. Both Arabic pronouns are translated as “you” in English. In the same way, when “you” in English is used, there is a gain of information when translated into Arabic, as it can be translated as anta (masc.), anti (fem.), antum (singular amplified), antum (plural), antuma (masc. dual) antunna (fem. dual). Other issues like gender (absent or present), etc. in various languages may give rise to the same problem. Having said so, languages, as Jakobson (1959) states, are not different in what they can convey; they are different in what they must convey. Therefore, the contrastive linguistics approach emphasizes these non-equivalences as such, and the theory of translation attempts to demonstrate how these issues are compensated for in certain situations. For more information on this issue, see Mason (1982).

4.3 Unit of Translation It should be made clear that, to the translator, the minimum unit of translation is not a word or a phrase, but a text. Any attempt to look at translation in terms of words or phrases would definitely yield unacceptable results. Some suggest an approach in which one can analyze words into their main components. This method is known as the ‘componential analysis’ method (Newmark 1988). Unfortunately, however, this method, as pointed out by Mason (1982), has some drawbacks, some of which are represented in its unsuitability to the training of translators. Second, this approach focuses on semantic distinctive features isolated from context. Also, this method is of

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limited applicability, simply because a word taken in isolation from its context is not a translation unit. In this connection, it has been suggested that the relevant language unit for translation is not the individual word, but rather the text (De Beaugrande 1978).

4.4 Effect of Translation Theory It was stated that a text is the minimum unit of analysis in translation. Any analysis of the source text consists of inducing information about form and content together with information regarding source, authorship, and aim. The relevant branch that focuses on the analysis as well as the description of texts is called pragmatics. Here, pragmatics refers to the relationship between the sender of the message, the message itself, and the receiver of the message. The relation is represented in Diagram (1).

Diagram (1) Sender-Receiver and Message Interaction

There is a constant interaction taking place between the sender, message, and receiver. The aim for which the text is written, and the readership for whom the text is addressed establishes the characters of any text. Here the translator should be able to know whether or not the text is religious, political, literary, journalistic, legal, or technical. Once the text is characterized, the translator is not only identifying the text subject matter, but also delimiting the social context in which the text is produced. Therefore, situating a text in a particular context, and familiarizing himself with the text in a particular context, and familiarizing himself with the text and its English equivalents is indeed the translator’s first priority.

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Translation Theory and Practice

After establishing the domain of the text, features such as tone, function, and feeling are to be taken into account. Awareness of these, as Mason (1982) points out, will have a great bearing on the translator’s rendition of the text. Emphasis should also be placed on the formal features that are significant to the make-up of the text. Such features are important in terms of the text-linguistic and text-function categorization, i.e. whether the text is persuasive, narrative, descriptive, etc. Within text-function, awareness of the referential meaning of lexes is also significant in determining the nature or domain of the text. Emotive and associative meanings, in Yule’s sense (1985), will partly account for text-function. Words put together are all means of indicating the field, function, and tone of the text. For example, the use of contracted forms is an indication to informal English. The use of infinitives is also indicative of instructional texts. These issues are pointers to the texture and structure of the text through which a number of ‘speech acts’ can be recognized. Understanding the conditions represented for an utterance may give insight into how language is used. In terms of the linguistic categories of text, a scientific text may exhibit a series of acts or definitions, classifications, generalizations, and/or qualifications, forming larger communicative units such as explanations, descriptions, and reports (Widdowson 1980). The translator may analyze a text in a way in which its formal features are demonstrated. However, an experienced translator may not need to do that; he may intuitively draw these conclusions. Therefore, a translation exercise should make the translator more aware of the multi-faceted nature of translation. It should also enable him to instinctively single out the text’s linguistic features. For more details, see Mason (1982). Based on the above, any analysis of a text may yield information relevant to text-structure. Once this is achieved, the text-message becomes very clear. It is this message that has to be rendered effectively and communicatively, simply because, according to Mason, it may lead us to a particular translation method. However, the question remains as to whether we should look at this message in terms of its literal vs. free sense, or formal or dynamic equivalence, or whether emphasis should be placed on form or function. For example, an Arabic translator may translate Ahmad kicked the bucket as tuwuffiya ahmad. Here the translator renders this expression functionally, making the ‘meaning of the message’ or its function his point of departure. If the translator adheres to form rather than function, his translation would be unacceptable or irrelevant. Sometimes the translator may resort to adherence to the form of the text. This is applicable to literary translation. In these texts, the main concern of the translator is to highlight the effectiveness of the same semantic and syntactic structures of the source text. Important features should be accounted for such as tone, rhyme, order, etc. because these are all essential elements to the make-up of literary texts.

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Within literary translation, the textual and contextual pressures are not only semantic. The visual or physical presence of the text and its international qualities are also significant. The non-correspondence between either prosodic or semantic structures does not necessarily imply the impossibility of translating a given unit (Diaz-Diocaretz 1985). On the contrary, it can be an opportunity to actualize the potential structures manifested in the original text and recorded in the translation of the text that will be semantically dependent and rhythmically independent. Furthermore, repeated lexical items, nominal vs. verbal sentences, etc., may not remain acceptable items or sentences when translated into English. This results from the fact that Arabic and English are linguistically and culturally remote languages. In order to produce some publishable work, the translator has to assess the text textually and structurally, and then find the best strategy and style that would yield adequate translation.

4.5 How to Assess Translation In his article entitled “The Role of Translation Theory in the Classroom Class”, Mason (1982) points out that assessing the final product of a particular text is the translator’s main concern. Such an assessment is manifested in what is called ‘a translated text’. Looking at a translated text, Mason tried to trace such a text from its authorship to its final product. One significant feature to be accounted for as a final product, he states, is its acceptability or readability. Acceptability and/or readability have to be assessed according to the text-producer’s intention. To increase the familiarity of significant aspects of translation, one has to view this along with the communicative theory, as this theory has an important role to play in bringing up the theoretical course. It also introduces the student translator to the information theory, i.e. what is important or what is not in a message. It is possible that some of the natural linguistic and cultural trivialities may be avoided if not lost in translation, thus bringing forth the important information. For an in depth analysis of this topic, see Mason (1982). The message Mason is trying to convey is that when evaluating a text, the translator should take into account the intention of the source text and its impact on the reader. The relationship between author and reader has to be checked. Also, does the translation aim at a reader or particular readers? In any kind of translation, the translator’s main aim is to produce a text that is equivalent in response to the source text. From a pedagogical point of view, the student translator may find comparing the original text and target text significantly useful. This activity does not involve finding the translator’s mistakes, but rather analyzing the problem and finding the solution. Similar exercises are also helpful in terms of enabling students to differentiate between important and unimportant information.

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Translation Theory and Practice

4.6 Effective and Successful Translation In order to attain an effective and successful translation one may ask the following questions: 1.

How long does a quality translation take?

Some translations can be completed within hours. Others may take longer. Translation depends on the length of the text and the type of text. If the text’s language/topic is complicated (i.e. scientific) it would take a long time. 2.

What does it mean to translate from one language to another?

To translate is to decode the meaning of the source language text and re-encode it in the target language text. Encoding requires that the translator recognizes the text’s main features. This is followed by interpreting, analyzing, and understanding the segments of the text (translation units). The process of decoding a text from one language to another requires good knowledge of the source language grammar, semantics, syntax, idioms, and those that are equivalent or similar in the target language. In addition, the cultures of both languages must be perfectly understood. 3.

How can we define a well and effective translation?

In order to guarantee effective translation, the translator has to ensure that both the source language and the target language texts convey the same message, taking into account the many different constraints placed on the translator. In almost all circumstances, a good and successful translation can be assessed according to two key factors: A. Was the translator faithful while translating the text? In other words, to what extent the translation accurately conveys and expresses the meaning of the source text, without adding to it or deleting from it, and without intensifying or weakening any part of the text’s meaning. B. Was the language of the translated text natural? That is, to what extent the translated text sounds natural to a native speaker of the target language to have originally been written in that language, and conforms to the language’s grammatical, syntactic and idiomatic conventions.

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4.7 Test Your Knowledge 1. Define translation theory and show how translation theory is important for the translator. 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a contrastive linguistics approach to the analysis and translation of a specific text? 3. Can translation be assessed? How? Explain your answer. 4. What is meant by “information theory”? 5. Define the term “pragmatics”, and show its relation to translation. 6. In evaluating a text, what criteria should the translator take into account? 7. Teacher should ask students to translate a text and see how understanding translation theory can contribute to successful and effective translation.

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CHAPTER 5

Text and Context in Translation 5.1 Introduction Various attempts have been made to look at translation in terms of words or sentences as the minimal units of translation (Newmark 1981: 140; Nida 1964: 12-24), but unfortunately, these attempts have achieved little since they ignored the situational elements in which words and sentences are embodied. In this chapter, I would like to argue that translation is a text-oriented activity; it involves the approximation of text function. Translation is to be based on the interpretation of the contextual variables such as pragmatics, semiotics and the communicative contexts; these are the basic components and the determining factors that can lead to successful and adequate translation. It should be pointed out that communication has two appropriate existing forms: linguistic and non-linguistic. If communication takes a linguistic form, then it appears in textual form (i.e. sentences, paragraphs, texts, etc.). In other words, it takes a form of written translation. If communication takes the non-linguistic form, then it appears in a non-textual form (i.e. sign, gesture, intention, movement, implication, etc.). Translation should combine both forms (linguistic and non-linguistic). Texts, therefore, are the basic form of linguistic and non-linguistic manifestations. They show various conditions or origins, structures and various functions. The following image is a representation of both forms of communication.

SMOKING IS NOT ALLOWED IN THIS AREA Representation of Forms of Communication

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To this effect, texts are designed for different types of text receivers; they are produced for a large spectrum of communicative purposes. From another perspective, texts have different forms and structures; they also perform different functions and have different purposes (i.e. entertaining, exposing, informing, persuading, etc.). Texts are written for various readers. Along these lines, Snell-Hornby (1995: 49) suggests that text, or what she sometimes calls “the concrete utterance”, is a real-life situation. It is a real reflection of the system of language. Texts are not neutral vessels only filled with information. They are actually a piece of writing that carries with it a section of the world view of the language users (Neubert 1988: 15). One may think of the following exchange as strange, peculiar or irrelevant, but in fact it represents an everyday exchange between parents and their kids. Father: Sara: Father:

How did you do in school, Sara? I got 3 out of 10 in the Math exam. Wonderful.

Now, one may look at these sentences as unrelated. However, within the context of family concerns, we can understand that the father was sarcastic. The word “wonderful” cannot be understood here as the father’s admiration of his daughter’s performance in the Math exam, but as a negative response showing the father’s feeling about his daughter’s low performance. Another example to show how context plays an important role in understanding a text is to look at a sentence as a whole, taking into account what comes before or what comes after. Examine the word “rose” in the examples below: People rose. This is a nice rose. As shown above, the word “rose” has been used in the three examples, indicating different meanings. First, the translator may have in mind the meaning of “rose” as the past tense of “to rise” or he/she may have in mind the meaning of “rose” as the adjective in “this is a beautiful rose”, to mean a flower. The translator here has to understand that a word is part of its multiword expression, and to render this word accurately and appropriately, he has to think of it as part of a whole, otherwise, his translation will be ambiguous, incomplete or unintelligible. Therefore, only context can determine whether the word “rose” means “to rise” or a sort of flower. Let us consider other examples where context has an important role to play in translation: Adam broke the record this year.

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Here, the word “record” cannot be understood unless it was treated as part of the expression “break the record”. If these two words are isolated from the context in which they are used (i.e. collocational or idiomatic contexts), then “break” means to shatter or smash and the word “record” means a “disc”. Of course there are other meanings for the word “record”, but to take it out of its collocational context may alienate or ambiguate its actual meaning with the phrase. So, “to break the record”, as an idiomatic or collocational expression, has nothing to do with “smashing a disc”. Its contextual or what is sometimes called collective meaning indicates that “break the record” has one unit of meaning, which indicates “the act of doing better than anyone else”. Taking all this into account, translation activities should deal with texts and not only words or phrases unless these words or phrases are preconditioned to meet certain communicative functions. That is, they are used in a specific way and denote one particular meaning. This, in turn, and in addition to real life language and the language system, activates the framework for the development of translation theory. These layers of meaning (i.e. denotative, preconditioned and implied) can be applied to translation simply because the translator is supposed to go beyond words or sentences, unless these words or sentences have a status of being texts (De Beaugrande & Dressler 1981: 19-21). Furthermore, texts are of great significance as the clearing-house for thoughts and ideas (Neubert 1988: 15); they should be regarded as the way in which society is structured; they should also be considered as a house where information gets sorted, classified and distributed. Texts bring together all kinds of transactions among words and sentences and exhibit the way in which they are organized. This is, in fact, how communication is carried out and how it provides accurate and deep understanding of a community within a particular society, particularly when it comes to the use of different symbols, the representation of its history, its aspects of life, and the way it divides its communicative labor. Also, the way texts are produced and received is regarded as an activity that has a bearing on the bonds that bring the society together. Robinson (2003: 75) believes that the setting in which things exist is fundamental to the association of meaning. He states that without context, words have no interlocking network of meaningful things. The physical and cultural contexts in which a learner learns can also help figure out the exact meaning of a specific word.

5.2 Text-Types and Text-Functions One of the important features of texts is that they should be understood within their specific contexts. To characterize texts as minimal units of translation, one has to examine texts in accordance with their communicative functions. That is, texts are supposed

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to perform several communicative functions, and it is in this particular context that texts can be categorized into text-types (argumentative, descriptive, narrative, etc.). As for translation, I have argued (Shiyab 1994: 7) that every text has its own writing strategy and this implies that it requires its own translation strategy too. In other words, the methods of transferring the original text into that of the target language are different from one text to another. For example, in transferring a literary text, does the translator use the communicative or the semantic approach? According to Newmark (1981: 52-53), communicative translation attempts to produce on its reader the same effect as close as possible to that obtained on the reader of the original. Semantic translation attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original. Also, in semantic translation, there is emphasis on the content whereas in communication translation, the emphasis is on the force of the message. To this effect, texts manifest different elements and require different strategies; each strategy tends to emphasize a particular element at the expense of another. For the translator, it is extremely important to understand the infrastructure of the text (i.e. the internal structures of texts); he should analyze and interpret the text in a way that enables him to understand the text’s syntactic, semantic, stylistic and pragma-semiotic dimensions. In the interpretation of texts, the recipient’s perception and the meaning of the text should ideally be in agreement with the intentions of the text. As Hlebec (1985: 130) suggests, interpretation depends on knowledge of language; it also depends on the cultural background and events in the community in which the text is produced. Hlebec believes that interpreting the text requires learning the facts about it that influence its interpretation; it also implies the identification of the significant codes in a text which require special attention in the reproduction of it. It is only in this particular way that the translator is able to translate a text from the source language and carry it over adequately into the target language. It follows from all this that translation requires combining linguistic, socio-linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of the language involved; it should also seek the aid of significant theoretical issues involved such as the definition of text, its delimitation, coherence, cohesion, textuality, inter-textuality, etc. Taking all this into account, it should be emphasized that while attention should be placed on contextual factors embodied within the texts, special emphasis should also be placed on the type of text. The fact that translation deals with different types of texts has led Neubert (1988: 123) to classify texts into types. The criteria taken for such classification is translatability. To this effect, Neubert suggests that text-types are never fixed once and for all; he classifies texts as follows: 1. 2. 3.

Easy texts. Intricate texts. Literary or dramatic texts.

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Neubert (1988: 123-125) argues that every text-type represents a degree of translatability. That is, texts can be classified into easily translatable texts (i.e. technical and descriptive texts), intricately translatable texts, and literary or dramatic texts. Texts that are easily translatable should display clear structure and texture while intricately translatable texts display textual as well as non-textual complexity that the translator may not find easy to convey into the target language. Therefore, each of these texts requires a different transferring method, a method that is incongruent with its surface structure as well as its deep structure. All these have an impact on the translation adequacy and translatability of texts.

5.3

Discourse, Text-Types and Translation

In the previous section, I examined texts in terms of their communicative functions. In order to understand the theoretical issues relevant to text-structure, an attempt will be made to investigate the interrelation between discourse, text-types, and translation. Since discourse is defined as a social phenomenon by which meaning is communicated and constructed, it follows that discourse relies heavily on the domain of sociolinguistics (i.e. the study of language in relation to society, Lyons 1981). The interrelation between discourse and translation is evident in the fact that translation involves the social function of discourse within a society, reference to its context of situation, the speaker’s role in constructing a text, (i.e. his intentionality), and its contextual configurations, (i.e. field, mode, and tenor), all of which make up the social reality of the text. These elements are unequivocally important components for translation. Translation is not mediation between two languages; it is not the use of one language to convey a message whose form and content were originally directed to different language users (Neubert 1988). Rather, it is the construction of the social reality, the linguistic and rhetorical patterns of thought that suit the target language and the community in which language is used. The history of translation, past and present, has many examples indicative of triumph and failure in terms of the way translation should be carried out. These examples reflect, in a way, the gap between the original and the target text. It is the talented translator who is unequivocally aware of the importance of bringing, as much as possible, the source and the target texts together. This involves the speaker’s intentionality, text function with reference to its semiotic components (i.e. social and cultural), and the context of situation. All these pragmatic, semiotic, and contextual elements may bridge the gap between the source text and the target text.

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Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues

5.4 Text-Type Categorization Having demonstrated the connection between discourse and translation, and that of translation, meaning and culture, an attempt will be made to show how text-categorization into text-types gives insight to the main components of a text. Such categorization helps us translate the text and convey it into the target language. It should be noted here that in the last decade or so, a considerable amount of material has been produced on methods of text-categorization (Longacre 1976, 1983; De Beaugrande 1980; De Beaugrande & Dressler 1981; Werlich 1983; Zydatiss 1982; Hatim 1983, 1984; and John 1988). These approaches have not been studied and developed relatively independently of each other. Bearing this in mind, this section is an attempt to compare three approaches: De Beaugrande & Dressler (1981); Werlich (1983); and Hatim (1984). Conclusions will be drawn and the similarities and differences will be noted. The above mentioned approaches lead to similar categorizations and definitions of text-types (i.e. argumentative beliefs). However, they are different in the way they look at and approach text-types. This is to say that they are different in terms of how they focus on a particular text. For example, De Beaugrande & Dressler’s model is different from that of Werlich’s (1983) in that De Beaugrande & Dressler differentiate texttypes along ‘functional lines’. Text-types are supposed to perform specific and intended functions and in so doing contribute to the process of human and social communication. De Beaugrande & Dressler adopt this analysis because they look at text-types as a linguistic product, whereas Werlich looks at text-types as a linguistic process occurring in the communicant’s mind (i.e. judging, planning, comprehension, etc.). In distinguishing between ‘text’ and ‘non-text’, Werlich takes the variables ‘completion’ and ‘coherence’ as the main determining factors. He believes that the categorization of texts, which is unequivocally significant for the translator, is mainly concerned with their underlying structures and how these connect or relate to specific contextual factors. In identifying a particular text, Werlich (1983: 21) believes that “texts distinctively correlate with contextual factors in a communication situation”. That is, texts focus attention on specific circumstances from the total set of factors. As a result, texts can be grouped together and classified on the basis of their dominant contextual focus. Such groupings are hypothesized in terms of the following five dominant contextual foci: 1. 2.

When the focus is on ‘factual phenomena’ such as persons, objects, and relations in the spatial context, texts are called Descriptive. When the focus is on ‘factual’ and ‘conceptual’ phenomena in the temporal context, texts are called Narrative.

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3. When the focus is on ‘de-composition’ (analysis) into constituent elements or ‘composition’ (analysis) from constituent elements of concepts, texts are called Expository. 4. When the focus is on ‘relations between concepts’, texts are called Argumentative. 5. When the focus is on the ‘formation of future behavior’, texts are called Instructive. Unlike De Beaugrande, Werlich maintains that contextual factors are not sufficient to determine text-types. Werlich believes that contextual factors and innate biological properties should be correlated for such a classification. Werlich (1983: 21) states: Texts do not only correlate distinctively with specific contextual factors but also appear to correlate with innate biological properties of the communicant’s mind. Werlich explains this in the following terms: A text grammar can be based on the hypothesis that texts, conceived of as assignable to text types, primarily derive their structural distinctions from innate cognitive properties. Accordingly, the five basic text types correlate with forms and range of human cognition. They reflect the basic cognitive processes of contextual categorization. These are: (1) Differentiation and interrelation of perceptions in space in the text type of description; (2) Differentiation and interrelation of perceptions in time in the text type of narration; (3) Comprehension of general concepts through differentiation by analysis and/or comprehension of particular concepts through differentiation by subsumptive synthesis in the text types of exposition; (4) Establishment of relations between and among concepts through the extraction of similarities, contrasts, and transformations from them in the text type of argumentation; (5) Planning of future behavior by subdivision or subsumption in the text type of instruction. Like Mason (1982), Hatim shares with De Beaugrande & Dressler, in general terms, the notion of ‘function’ (i.e. that a text may be known by its function). However, according to Hatim, this is not the whole story. Hatim believes that “it is a definition of text function which determines the efficiency, effectiveness, and appropriateness of textual occurrences (Hatim 1987: 104). Hatim also believes that, for translation purposes, variables such as pragmatics, semiotics, and communicative purposes should

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be introduced. These variables have to be presented to define the interface and the correlation between linguistic expression and categories from ‘social theory’. Pragmatics here refers to action on the environment; semiotics refers to interaction with the environment, and communicative purpose refers to the transaction which creates an environment in which ‘text-typological focus’ realizes the communicative purpose of a given text. Neither De Beaugrande & Dressler nor Werlich specify these variables. Hatim’s interest then may be due to the fact that his study was conducted at a later stage when there were a wide variety of approaches to text-typology that had been explained and developed. Unlike Werlich, Hatim adopts De Beaugrande & Dressler’s notion that a typology of texts must be correlated with typologies of discourse and situations. Unless the appropriateness of a text-type to its setting of occurrence is judged, participants cannot even determine the means of upholding the criteria of textuality. For De Beaugrande & Dressler, the demands for cohesion and coherence are less strict in conversation, whereas the demands in scientific texts are elaborately upheld. According to De Beaugrande and Dressler, one would at least be able to identify some ‘dominances’, though without a strict categorization for every conceivable example. The term ‘text-type’ according to De Beaugrande and Dressler (1981: 186) is: A set of heuristics for producing, predicting, and processing textual occurrences, and hence acts as a prominent determiner of efficiency, effectiveness, and appropriateness. Taking this wide perspective into account and the kinds of parameters each approach has, one can illustrate these three models diagrammatically as shown on the following pages. One other difference that needs to be analyzed between Werlich’s approach and Hatim’s is the notion of ‘context specification’. As shown in Diagrams (2) and (3), Hatim’s model is different from that of Werlich in that he takes context as an alternative to the commonly adopted notion of ‘register’. According to Hatim, the analysis of register, in practice, is very important but is not sufficient or explanatorily adequate. This analysis, he argues, produces the so-called “languages” such as the “language of science”, while ignoring the rich range of textual activities which characterize the communicative potential of “doing a science”. In commenting on Werlich’s model, Hatim (1984: 146) states: The analysis of context in terms of language use (field, etc.) and user (idiolect, regional register analysis, leaves important aspects of textuality unaccounted for. This inadequacy sums total of its constituent parts.

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Text and Context in Translation (1)

Functional Approach

73 Discourse and Situation

Subsuming Functional Speaker’s Intention

Give Rise To

Text-Types

describe objects or situations

arrange actions and events

promote acceptance of beliefs and ideas

Diagram (1) The interpretation of text-categorization according to De Beaugrande (1981)

(2)

Contextual & Psycho Analytical Approach

Contextual Factors Innate Biological Properties Give Rise To Text-Types

(focuses on fac- (focuses on fac(chooses contual phenomena tual phenomena stituent elements & relations in & relations in manifested in a space) time) term or a mental construct manifested in a text)

(purpose relations between concepts of phenomena)

(tells X what to do)

Diagram (2) The interpretation of text-categorization according to Werlich (1983)

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74 (3)

Translation: Concepts and Critical Issues Pragma-SemioCommunicative Approach

Context

Pragmatics Semiotics Communicative Purpose

Give Rise To Text-Types

(focuses on objects and relations In space)

(focuses on events and relations in time)

(focuses on concepts)

(can be overt (counter argument) or covert (propaganda tract))

(following future behavior)

Diagram (3) The interpretation of text-categorization according to Hatim (1984)

It is evident that there is a clear resemblance between Hatim’s text-typology and that of De Beaugrande & Dressler. Hatim is partially concerned with the fact that text-linguistics involves the setting up of a text-typology in which language is classified in terms of text-communicative purposes. It has also been argued by Zydatiss (1982) that the whole notion of text types is not a linguistic one, but that linguistic analysis must be supplemented and correlated with the analysis of ‘function’ of language in the process of communication. For Hatim as well as for De Beaugrande & Dressler, language users (writers, producers as well as receivers of language) approach texts by reacting and interacting with different kinds of contexts. This is done through a process of construction which identifies a number of contextual variables; these are called context-specifications and involve pragmatics, semiotics, and communicative purpose (as discussed above). Basing himself on context-specifications, Hatim (1983) goes further than De Beaugrande and Werlich to work out his own text-typology. In modifying Werlich’s model, for example, Hatim reduces Werlich’s five text-types to three (see Diagram 3). Hatim considers ‘Descriptive’ and ‘Narrative’ sub-text types as ‘Expository Texts’. This is due to the fact that both of these texts exhibit or provide similar information. Hatim also introduces another ‘sub-text-type’ within the expository text, and that is the ‘conceptual text’ (focuses on concepts). All these texts are subsumed under the category “Expository Texts”.

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Text and Context in Translation

Within these context-specifications, unlike Werlich, Hatim demonstrates that the user of language responds to a set of signals related to text or discourse. He argues that these signals constitute the most favorable conditions for the successful realization of texts. Hatim (1984: 147) says: It is this pragma-semio-communicative decision on the part of discourse users, and the acceptance of such a decision by discourse receivers, which constitute the optimum conditions for the successful realization of the text. To sum up, text-types are characterized or defined similarly by the three models presented above. However, they are different in terms of focus. In their functional approach, De Beaugrande & Dressler suggest that discourse actions or situation and the speaker’s intention (function of the text) appear to be the determining factors between text-types. In contrast, Werlich, using a psycho-analytical approach, believes that not only contextual factors but also innate biological properties in the communicant’s mind should be correlated in order to identify text-types. De Beaugrande & Dressler look at text-types as a linguistic product stemming from the function of process occurring in the speaker’s/hearer’s mind. Above all, De Beaugrande & Dressler view text-types from a theoretical perspective; they are not interested in structural analysis which is orientated towards applied linguistics. Hatim believes that contextual variables of pragma-semio-communicative/conceptual/spatial/temporal transaction give rise to text-types. These context-specification variables should be presented to define the interaction between linguistic expression and the categories from social theory. While Hatim’s text-typology is relatively useful, his definition of ‘context-specifications’ seems to be inconsistent. In defining ‘pragmatics’ and ‘semiotics’, Hatim proposes varying definitions. For example, Hatim (1984: 147) defines pragmatics as ‘action on the environment’; later, he defines it as ‘when language users react to signals’. Hatim (1987: 102) also defines it as ‘what the text-producers attempt to achieve’; and in Hatim & Mason (1990: 12), they define it as that ‘which attempts to account for the ways in which we perceive the underlying meaning on the basis of what we already know or assume to be the case’. At the same time, Hatim & Mason (1990: 51) propose a definition of ‘functional tenor’ as “what language is used for”. This kind of definition represents their definition of ‘pragmatics.’ As for ‘semiotics’, it is almost the same case; sometimes it is defined as interaction with the environment (Hatim 1984: 147); at other times, it is defined as when language users react to signals related to interaction with the environment; it is treating a communicative item as a sign within a system of signs (Hatim & Mason 1990: 57). This kind of inconsistency will reflect negatively on Hatim’s context of specification. As for Werlich’s shortcomings, John (1988) claims that one of the delinquencies of his approach, which is not realized by Hatim, is that he does not account for poetic texts

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(e.g. poems), although some poetic texts can be discovered which are congruous to at least some of the types of texts recognized by Werlich such as “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”. This poetic text can be identified as ‘narrative’. Despite these shortcomings, Werlich, De Beaugrande and Dressler, and Hatim’s models are helpful in terms of the process of text-categorization and analysis of text-typology. Basing myself on the text-typological model of Hatim in particular, I see text as the product of interaction of the producer/writer of the text and the expected reaction of the text receiver. For translation purposes, this is important for the receiver in order to understand the properties and the main purpose of the text. The text-producer’s interaction has to meet the text-receiver’s reaction in order for the text to be effective, appropriate, and meaningful.

5.5

Translation and Factors of Success

There are, of course, certain contextual factors that play an important role in conveying an adequate meaning of the original text into that of the target language. These are as follows: 5.5.1 Pragmatics Pragmatics evolves around the function of the text. What are the text producer’s intentions behind writing such a text? Is he trying to persuade, instruct, describe, or tell a story? These functions are what make text-types emerge. Understanding this contextual variable is indeed very significant. Within text function, the semantic, syntactic, stylistic, and the pragma-semiotic structure of the text are also important; these are what determine the translatability of a text. In other words, the content of a text, the thematic-rhematic structure and their position and function, the way the text producer initiates the text, and the chains or bonds utilized within the text are all basic characteristics of written texts (for more information, see Shiyab 1996). In understanding text function, the translator and/or interpreter should carefully consider the relationship of the text producer to the text receiver. In other words, does the text producer have something in mind he needs to deliver to the hearer? What is his personal relationship to him (i.e. status, rank, etc.)? Is the language used formal or informal? All these, while falling within the pragmatic function of texts, highlight the communicative presuppositions that are suggested and implied by the text producer.

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5.5.2 Semiotics Of equal importance as the pragmatic dimension is the semiotic one in which a text is represented as a sign. From a contextual point of view, signs can be classified in terms of the communicative functions they perform; this term is now taken to be implied within speech act theory (Austin 1962: Section 6.3). Austin argues that a text is a piece of language that depends on certain conditions in order to be adequately understood. These are represented through the signs inherent in the internal and external structure of texts.

(4)

Context Message Addressor

Addressee Context Code

Diagram 4 Constituents of Speech Event

Jakobson (1971: 703) points out that there are six constituent factors that make up any speech event; these are represented in Diagram (2). For Jakobson, any kind of communication is composed of a message that requires a contact between the addressor and the addressee; such a contact may take an oral, visual, electronic form or whatever. This form is manifested in a code, speech, number, writing, sound formation, etc. Also, the message should refer to a context understood by both interlocutors; it should also make sense through a context. It should be emphasized that Jakobson’s main focus here is that the message cannot fully provide the totality of the meaning of the transaction without interpreting various signs and their significance within the message. Jakobson believes that semiotics as the science of sign, evolves around understanding the structures of all signs, their utilization, and the specifics of the various sign system, all of which have a significant role to play in the interpretation of a message.

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5.5.3 Communicative Context It is the context which emphasizes the writer’s awareness of the formal patterning of his language as opposed to the formal patterning of the target language; this context helps the translator to be ascertained of the naturalness of the translation and of the totality of meaning of both texts. In this particular category, emphasis here is placed on the significant and functional appropriateness of language uses. This is in addition to the variables affecting all aspects of communication. Above all, the relationship between the communicative function and the natural forms and patterns of language may give insights into translation theory.

5.6 Test Your Knowledge 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What is context? Give examples to explain your definition. What is the role of context in translation? Define a text-type. What are they, according to Neubert (1988)? How does context give rise to text-types? Explain three factors that determine the efficiency of translation. Choose and explain three words or expressions that show how context helps translators produce more effective translation.

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CHAPTER 6

Translation: State of the Art 6.1 Introduction Scholars from all over the world have frequently discussed aspects of technical and grammatical translations from one language to another. However, I believe a significant aspect of translating texts creatively and artistically has been overlooked. The term “creative” is treated here as the process of translating texts expressively and artistically through the reader’s life experiences or through his own senses of the world. This does not mean the translator is completely free to do whatever he wants, nor should he be literal, but rather free to be creative and artistic in his work. Translation is believed to involve transferring thoughts behind words, sometimes between the words, or transferring the sub-text (Delisle, 1981, cited in Newmark, 1988: 76). This is a procedure that should be regarded as the heart or the central issue of translation.

6.2 Translation and Meaning Because of the fact that the connection between translation and meaning is very obvious, there is no need to elaborate. However, it should be pointed out that translation attempts to uncover all the potentialities of meaning in the two languages concerned. To this effect, meaning in all its linguistic and non-linguistic aspects has to be carefully considered in translation. Dummett (1993) argues that to grasp the meaning of a word is to understand the context and the occurrence in which the word is used, and this requires understanding the function this particular word performs in language. Meaning revolves around the notion of how language functions, and such function is itself derived from all aspects of meaning. Translation aims at using all aspects of meaning in such a way that the source text and the target text are approximated to one another from all linguistic aspects. Meaning in semantic or lexical terms has been thoroughly studied (Ogden & Richards 1923; Ullmann 1962; Lyons 1968, 1977, 1981), but it has been apparent, at least since Ogden and Richards, that semantic meaning cannot ac-

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count for all aspects of meaning relevant to the translator. For this reason, meaning in this study will be treated as the totality of the information conveyed – not simply that type of information which is treatable under a formal semantic theory (e.g. of a truth-conditional nature). This is so because meaning is not an abstract entity but an interaction between the translator and the text. Meaning and/or function of the text is the interpretation of a given message. This usage of meaning coincides with that of Halliday (1970, 1973), Leech and Short (1981), De Beaugrande (1978), and Mason (1982). Those views share the assumption that meaning is understood as action and interaction; it is a process and, at the same time, a product. The translator looks at meaning as the intention of the text-producer in the social and cultural environment in which the text is used. Here, Ogden and Richards (1923:187) state that meaning is: That to which the interpreter of a symbol a) Refers b) Believes himself to be referring c) Believes the User to be referring. When it comes to meaning, translation is believed to involve conveying what is implied and not what is said (Meyer 1974). This, according to Meyer, is the meaning behind meaning. However, in translating the implied meaning, i.e. the sub-text, the translator must word a sentence in such a way that the sub-text is equally clear in the target text. One cannot translate the following English sentence into Arabic, relying on the explicit wording of it as follows: English: When John died, his wife could not send his boy to Harvard. (cindama tuwuffiya John lam tastatic zawjatahu irsala ibnihi ila harvard) In the above sentence, the adverbial expression cindama (when) is translated as a time expression. However, a more appropriate and meaningful translation to this expression would be translating its prepositional meaning. Therefore, the best rendition to this term is bacda (after). It should be borne in mind here that “when” could be used in the first translation to refer to: at the time of John’s death, as soon as, during the time at which something happens, while, etc. However, the preposition “after” is used to refer to: subsequent in time to the event, at a later time, because of, afterward, etc. Furthermore, the word “Harvard” in the above sentence could also raise the same problem, particularly if one ignores its function (the most prestigious school in the United States). Therefore, relying on the explicit meaning of the word is not enough. Text-producers bring their own assumptions, presuppositions, and general world-view to bear on their processing of text at all levels. Individual lexical choices are also important. In

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such cases, the translator should go beyond the explicit meaning towards perceiving the potential meaning of particular choices within the cultural and linguistic community of the source text (Mason 1992: 23). The translator should carefully measure the thought behind meaning as the thought that is carried on by the word is its essential meaning. It is this kind of meaning that should not be tampered with. Based on the above example, it is axiomatic that translation is not a direct transference of a word in the original to a word in the target text. It is a careful analysis written with a good choice of words. Here, the translator is in a situation where he chooses from among several more or less equally acceptable target language versions. This, according to Gutknecht & Rolle (1996: 2), depends on the following factors: 1. 2. 3. 4.

The type of text to be translated. The extent to which the source language text bears stylistic markings. The intended target language audience. The extent to which the translator can comprehend the source language text and identify himself with. 5. The translator’s stylistic preference and his ability to recognize and handle stylistic register. Now the translator has to consider many things when translating a text. Among the situational factors stated above, translation should be performed in such a way that the essence, spirit, and sense of sentences are carefully maintained. It follows, therefore, that within the core of the translation process, there lies a choice, or a free will of the translator that, in one way or another, plays a significant role in the process of translation. The choice of the translator has to be made if things have to be accomplished, only because what the translator is confronted with is a text whose forms and functions have been creatively and expressively used by the writer. Regardless of the decision made, whether it is based on careful scrutiny, reconstruction or on the outcome of the translator’s trained instinct, the final decision that must be made has to come down to selecting the choice that the translator thinks is the closest equivalent to that of the target text. At the same time, the translator tries very hard to maintain the norms and functions of the source text; he also tries very hard not to add new shades of differing points or any of the values, norms, forms and functions that are not included within the text. Therefore, the translator works as a coordinator who is free to choose whatever but at the same time responsible for whatever he chooses.

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6.3 Translation and Culture There is almost a general consensus that conveying a message from one language to another does not only arise from the mere use of different words and symbols, nor from the arrangement of words together in a sentence, but rather how words, sentences and paragraphs are presented to the foreign reader. Also, it is universally well-acknowledged that languages have distinct realities in which each shapes and moulds its own. As a result, the culture of one language is bound to vary from another as speakers of a particular language have their own way of thinking. How a writer thinks, therefore, determines how he writes. These are the views of Sapir (1951) and Nida (1964).They argue that in different cultures, approaches to writing, particularly making a paragraph tend to be different and these approaches are culturally influenced by patterns of thinking. Such a rhetorical device has its real effect whentranslating atextfromone language to another across two different cultures, where the rhetorical form of the source language does not conform fully with the rhetorical form of the target language. This is not to say that the stylistic orrhetorical device ofparagraphing in one language is better than in another, but it only shows how languages adhere to theirown particular pattern of thought. In English, for example, sentences or paragraphs should actually be joined together, as they are complementary to each other. There is no benefit from paragraphs illogical division, for the reader gets confused while reading the text. It is common to all readers that every sentence or paragraph expresses one single theme, and within such paragraphs, there are signaling devices that inform the reader when to move from one point to another. Here is a representation of what the English language patterns of writing might look like compared to some other languages. English Language

Language X

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Two types of paragraphing according to Seale (1979: 5) Along the same lines, Brooks and Warren (1952, 1970), commenting on the paragraph as a ‘convenience to the reader’, argue that the paragraph is a division of composition which signals to the reader that the division which is set off constitutes a unit of thought; it also makes the divisions of the writer’s thoughts visible. Brooks & Warrengofurtherin saying that this division, for the reader, is a convenience. On the psychological reality of the paragraph, Koen, Becker, and Young (1969) compare the paragraph with the sentence; they argue that if the importance of grasping the underlying structure of the sentence contributes to its understanding, then the perception of the paragraph performs a similar function.Also, Kieras (1978) suggests that the role of the paragraph is to minimize memory load:the text reader does not have to burden his memory bythedifferent kinds of information presented in thetext. Kieras goes on to say that the function of the paragraph is to make it easy for the reader to digest the contents of the text. Therefore, common sense dictates that the lack of unified and coherent sentences or paragraphs in any language or if sentences or paragraphs were constructed inconsistently in relation to the language targeted by the translator, there is a possibility that the translated text will not meet the requirement of acceptability and naturalness demanded by the other language reader. Furthermore, it has been suggested that language is a reflection of culture (Jakobson 1985). These two concepts are intrinsically correlated and interconnected. Jakobson (1985: 103) argues that “language is a cultural phenomenon”, and culture according to him is: The totality of behavior patterns that are passed between generations by learning, socially determined behavior learned by imitation and instruction. Jakobson goes on to say that learning a language involves learning social conventions simply because language has cognitive and expressive aspects that are cultivated. Similarly, Kaplan (1966, 1983) and Jakobson (1971) stress the fact that language affects our conceptualization of reality; they argue that the linguistic categories that form the way we think are different from one language to another. Jakobson (1985: 107) says:

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Language is situated between nature and culture and it serves as a foundation of culture. We may go even further and state that language is THE [his emphasis] necessary and substantial foundation of human culture. In discussing the impact of culture upon language, Jakobson (1985), Sapir (1921, 1951, 1956), Hymes (1964), and Whorf (1956) suggest that each language exists within a particular culture and has its own particular lexicon which shapes the perception of its speakers. Languages reflect cultural differences, and these differences are manifested in the categorization of gender, number, color, etc. Within the process of translation, the awareness of the cultural as well as the socially equivalent frameworks in which a particular text is used is extremely significant, although perfect cultural equivalents are indeed unattainable. What is attainable is the approximation of the cultural and social context of the two languages, which makes the translated text functionally similar and relatively natural with respect to its original. Regarding this, Malinowski (1923: 309) states: Since the whole world of things to be expressed changes with the level of culture, with geographical, social and economic conditions, the consequence is that the meaning of a word must always be gathered, not from a passive contemplation of this word, but from an analysis of its function, with reference to a given culture. Nida shares this notion with Malinowski that any translation that excludes consideration of cultural elements is doomed to be inadequate. Nida (1964: 90) says: The person who is engaged in translation from one language into another ought to be constantly aware of the contrast in the entire range of culture represented by the two languages. These views indicate that the link between language and culture cannot be ignored, and that a community’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to create in a manner acceptable to its members. This is what makes translation a difficult task as the translator has to be aware that the text he is translating is not only formed by a linguistic capability but it also relates to things, people, cultural and social values, behaviors, and emotions. All these operate within the situational context of the text.

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6.4 Translator’s Perception It is to be noted that translators are different from one another; they differ conspicuously in their perception of the real world. They are also different in their capabilities and talents. It is axiomatic to point out therefore that in translating literature, for example, four translators would more likely produce four different versions or translations of the same text or expression. This is highly logical because each translator looks at the text or expression from his own perspective. For example, in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, one can see how the expression “Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horaito”, uttered by Marcellus in Act I, Scene I has been translated differently by four translators: Mutran, Jabra, Jamal, and Al-Khumyri. Because the word “scholar” is polysemous, each one of those four translators has translated it differently, reflecting their own personal talent or possible synonyms available to him/her. The four translations are listed below for the sake of exposition: (1) anta faqih (you are a jurisprudent) – Jabra (2) anta fashi alim (you are eloquent and knowledgeable) – Mutran (3) anta rajulun muthaggafun wa fasih (you are both a cultured and eloquent man) – Jamal. (4) anta rajulun muta’ allim (you are an educated man) – Al-Khmyri. Taking into account the religious context in which the word “scholar” was used by Marcellus, and because Marcellus looks at the addressee as a man of knowledge, we understand and agree with several literary critics, who favored the Arabic rendition of the above expression you are a jurisprudent simply because it is a more acceptable equivalent than all other words provided by other translators. It also gives the gist of the meaning in this context. However, the question always arises: can the idea that is expressed intelligently by the writer be maintained in the translation? To answer this question, we should note that translation is a matter of interpretation, and when we write about translation, we only write about it from a translator’s perspective. The translator generally sees things from his own subjective evaluation. He sees them from his untrammeled viewpoint. To him, words have a personal perception; they have different kinds of recognition. Therefore, it would be hard for the translator to express the words exactly in the same form and function of the target language. In such cases, the translator has to convey the idea according to his own perception. When the translator is confronted with a word that has to be conveyed into the target language, his choice makes all the difference in the world. The lexis he chooses may almost have the same meaning to that of the other language, paying his utmost attention to avoid contamination or not to allow translation nuances to interfere and distort the meaning of the original. For the sake of clarity, the translator digs for textual and situational resemblance. The search for resemblance and synonymity is what made some linguists and translation practitioners believe that translation is a form of synonymy.

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Graham (1991: 10) clearly and flatly comments on Quine’s idea of synonymy, stating that the natural alternative is to abandon the notion of two messages synonymous in all respects with one another and replace it with the requirement that similarity of meaning be attained in some particular respects, never all. From a philosophical point of view, Quine (1992: 57-62), while discussing the indeterminacy of translation, proposes that synonymy roughly consists in approximate likeness in effect on the hearer. Quine’s use of the word “synonymy” is not restricted. He points out that the word “synonymy” carries the full generality of “same in meaning”, whatever that is. Quine distinguishes between two types of synonymy: broad type and narrow type. Broad synonymy can be formulated in intuitive terms. That is, two sentences command assent concomitantly and dissent concomitantly. This kind of concomitance is due strictly to word usage rather than how things happen in the world. As for the narrow type, Quine believes that it is synonymy of parts and not synonymy of wholes. Quine (1992: 57-62) states: Synonymy of parts is defined by appeal to analogy of roles in synonymous wholes; then synonymy in the narrow sense is defined for the wholes by appeal to synonymy of homologous parts. Part-whole relationships always exist in synonymy. When two sentences have what is called by philosophers as sameness of confirming experience and of disconfirming experience (Grice & Strawson 1956), then we have wholly synonymous sentences; however, when two sentences partially confirm and disconfirm experience, then we have partially synonymous sentences. Here, one can argue, to this effect, that synonymy involves partial overlapping or whole overlapping. That is, the meaning of one message may partially or wholly overlap with the meaning of another and the idea of partial and whole overlapping is something inevitable in translation. In other words, the meaning of one word is wholly or partially covered by the other. The idea of partial and whole overlapping is represented in Figure (1):

A&B

Figure (1) Representation of Partial and Whole Overlapping

It is axiomatic to point out that total or complete overlapping, if it exists, does not cause any problem. However, for partial overlapping, one could look at A as the orig-

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inal word or even text whereas B is the target word of the target text. The relationship is that of a mirror image, i.e. one word in a text is mirrored to create the target image. Inevitably, this kind of overlapping cannot always be total, because of at least phonological differences. The most difficult part, however, is that one part is being partially or wholly covered and another part does the covering. There is a neutral part that is not covered in partial overlapping, and this is the area where the translator finds himself free to move. Here, portion X in the original occupies the accompanying meaning which is not encumbered in the meaning of word B. Also, portion Y holds a concomitant meaning that is not included in the meaning of A. Therefore, the translator, if possible, must target a total overlapping, a very complicated if not impossible task. It is to be noted that complete synonymy does not exist, and the translator seeks to preserve the meaning that is similar to the meaning of the original. Ross (1981: 12) states: The translator seeks to convey the same meaning in a new language as is found in the original. Not only must he choose among the various respects in which similarity of meaning is to be preserved; this is less sameness in any particular respect, and is more an equivalence satisfactory to the constraints, which govern his work. The translator here makes his choices with differing degrees of ease or sophistication. This actually depends on the subject matter he is dealing with. Furthermore, it often happens that one discovers that, upon looking over the printed copy of a translation, particularly when it comes off the press, he could, if given the choice and the chance again, introduce a different alternative. Hence, people/or some translators often dislike their translation of a particular subject-matter after it was published. It could be those translators feel that they have not done well in their translation. However, when one reads his own writing, he reads it with some satisfaction; he may not change a single jot. This is the difference between translating and writing. Translating, if not done intuitively, is interpretation. On the other hand, writing is an art. It is a creation of the mind. Therefore, translation is done through the creation of the individual’s mind, paying his utmost attention to the original message whereas writing is done intuitively based on the writer’s intellect and imagination.

6.5 Translating vs. Writing It is to be noted here that having the capability to write effectively and clearly should have a bearing on translating appropriately. After all, translating is writing creatively with the translator’s utmost attention to the meaning of the original text. The difference between the two activities (i.e. translating and writing), however, is a matter of

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perception. Writing, particularly in literature, is a matter of creation whereas translating is a matter of text-comprehension, as the idea of the text to be translated has already been determined by the writer. Therefore, writing focuses on creating the idea whereas translating focuses on choosing the closest natural equivalent to a particular lexis. Following is a manifestation of these two skills:

Writing

Translating

Text-Transference

Creation

Text-Comprehension

Figure (2) Writing- Translating Representation

In this regard, the translator must be modest; he should not be too creative nor should he be too literal. Being too creative may result in distorting the beauty and intricacy of the original text. Being literal may result in ambiguating the text. Therefore, the translator faces a dilemma. The solution to such information immoderation is to be accurate in such a way that the two texts are closely approximated.

6.6 Translating is Personal As the translator seeks to choose his closest natural equivalent, he looks backward and forward. He may see that words have changed and therefore he acts upon this. He may also discover that words have drifted, have disappeared over the years, and there is no reason to believe that they will not continue to do so. This implies that the translator has a sense of what is called “the other meaning” in relation to the text to be processed. He should experience the text in his own way, feeling words as mobiles, sensing all possible avenues. It is through his own perception that he is capable of changing text backwardness into likeness. After all, he is the “fixer” and the one who puts things into their proper perspective. He is the one who looks backward and forward into language for the purpose of understanding, making changes, maintaining text functions, etc. In this regard, one finds it relevant to refer to the concept of ‘moving in language’, and in this sense, translating would be a movement in the words used to make language along the context in which words or sentences are used. Bakhtin (1981: 15) states:

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The word is not a thing, but rather the eternally mobile, eternally changing medium of dialogical intercourse. It never coincides with a single consciousness or a single voice. The life of the word is in its transfer from one mouth to another, one context to another, one social collective to another, one generation to another. In the process, the word does not forget where it has been and can never wholly free itself from the domination of the contexts of which it has been a part. From a different perspective, some believe that translation is an imitation. In translating literature, for example, one often finds that Horace details the problems of rivaling Pindar (odes iv. ii) and proceeds to apply his precepts (odes iv. iv) on an essentially Roman theme. Horace’s work was an imitation of another, but it was an art that consisted of bending the technique of another author to his own subject and language. The many different translations of the Arabian Nights or the One Thousand Nights and One Night is another case in point where the style of the original work was imitated by translators although it was alien to them. Furthermore, translation can be viewed as an artistic activity. Kelly (1979: 44) argues that the translator attempts to create his own personal relationship with the text-producer. He follows this with grasping the inner significance of the text he studies. As for the relationship between the translator and the text, translators should know how to use their minds, not only in a rational way, but also in an intuitive and creative way. Panoulle (1993: 89) believes that translators are expected to be creative, because texts, particularly literary texts, use language creatively. Some believe that translation is an interpretation. The concept Gadamer (1975:10) refers to here is what is called the “hermeneutic circle.” This concept refers to knowledge as the lived-experience. Lived-experience is what gives meaning to language and thought. A compelling factor in support of translation as a personal lived-experience is the continual renewal of translating traditional texts. If the goal of the translator were to capture the intentions of the text-producer, one translation of The Iliad would be sufficient proof. Instead, one finds new and different translations for almost every poetic or literary work.

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6.7 Test Your Knowledge 1. How can the sense and intuition of the translator play an important part in the process translation? 2. What is the difference between being creative and being simplistic? 3. Are translators different in their perception of the world? How? Can you provide translation examples demonstrating this? 4. What is synonymy? Give examples. 5. Does “Complete Synonymy” exist? Give examples. 6. How is translating different from writing? 7. Is translation personal? How? Explain your answer.

6.8 Analysis and Translation of Texts Considering what has been discussed in this chapter, read the following text, examine it carefully, and then translate it into the target language. You should examine areas in the text where improvement and clarification must be made once the text is translated. You may also examine the word choices that are indicative of the writer’s personal judgments.

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Dear Dr Beast,

Text 1

Since the University is looking forward to becoming one of the top universities in the world through providing the appropriate support for its students and employees, and since we are aware of the educational programs your college offers, we would like to ask you to approve on nominating Dr. John Jane June to give an English course for the Department staff. The course will be given outside his official working hours in the college. The Department will give the lecturer a financial reward. We appreciate your cooperation. Wallace E. Stremming Director

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CHAPTER 7

Punctuation and Translation 7.1 Introduction This chapter attempts to describe the pragmatic and semantic functions of punctuation marks, particularly the most frequently used punctuation marks: semicolon (;) and the colon (:). The rationale behind describing these two punctuation marks is that no studies have provided a detailed description of the pragmatic and semantic functions of these marks, which are mostly used in Arabic for intonational or decorative purposes. It was found that the system of punctuation marks in Arabic is misrepresented as users do not specify rules for using such punctuation marks. However, in this study, it was found that punctuation marks have linguistic implications that are not recognized by linguists or by translators. The implications discussed here are the emphatic, additive, contrastive, and substantiative functions.

7.2

What is Punctuation?

Punctuation, though a non-verbal communicative process, is an important and cohesive device in all kinds of written discourse. It uses standard marks to separate words, phrases, clauses and sentences for the purpose of cohesion. Writers use such marks to signal the ends of sentences, express strong emotion, to separate closely related sentences or clauses, etc. Inadequate punctuation burdens the reader and forces him to go over the text several times to understand its meaning. At the same time, using too many punctuation marks, and in places where they are not supposed to be used, can confuse the reader. Understanding the uses and functions of punctuation marks, therefore, is extremely important for writers and teachers as well as translators, as their purpose is to clarify the meaning of a particular construction within the sentence and beyond the sentence level.

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In this chapter, I will try to show how punctuation marks fulfill specific semantic and pragmatic functions, i.e. substantiation, counter-argumentation, explanation, etc. These functions have a significant bearing on translating an expression or a text from one language to another. The marks this chapter attempts to investigate are limited to a couple of intra-sentential ones (Leggett et al. 1982). They are the semicolon and the colon. Marks like these are called ‘internal’, because they show the relationship of each word or group of words to the rest of the sentence. The reason for selecting these specific punctuation marks is that they are frequent in English written discourse and tend to be problematic when translating into other languages, particularly Arabic. To this latter effect, a questionnaire was distributed to 20 M.A. translation students in the English Department at Yarmouk University, Jordan. The sample was made up of students who had taken at least eighteen credit hours (theoretical and practical courses), to ensure that they had knowledge of translation practice and theory. Students were asked to translate sample texts from English into Arabic. Special attention was paid to their translations of the punctuation marks to see whether the students were aware of their semantic and pragmatic uses. The results were unexpected and illuminating: hardly any of the students were aware of the way in which these punctuation marks are or ought to be used. The mistakes and translations will be discussed in later sections.

7.3

Importance of Punctuation

Let there be no doubt that we all agree that punctuation is important in all kinds of written discourse; however, few people know the extent of its importance. If a writer neglects or pays no special attention to the functions and uses of punctuation, it is more likely that he will be misunderstood. Even when the sense of a particular construction is clear, a mispunctuated text may be deprived of its impetus, driving and persuasive force, spirit, and meaning. In spoken discourse, pauses and gestures have particular functions to perform. They are used to emphasize meaning and stress, pitch of our own tones and voices. They are used in a variety of ways to demonstrate the beginning and the end of a particular unit of meaning or a particular paragraph. In this respect, speech can be ‘punctuated’ as well as written discourse. For example, the following utterances can express different meanings although the same words are used.

(1)

Private. No parking allowed.

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(2)

Private? No. Parking allowed.

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It is to be noted here that example (1) indicates that no parking is allowed while example (2) indicates that parking is allowed. The difference between the two meanings is marked by the punctuation marks. Furthermore, through punctuation marks, one can signal different information units. Halliday (1985) and Baker (1994) point out that through punctuation marks, one can signal different information structures in written language. Baker states, for example, that using a comma can signal new information. She demonstrates this in the following examples: (1) He was waving to the girl who was running along the platform (DC). (2) He was waving to the girl, who was running along the platform (NDC). DC: Defining Clause NDC: Non-defining Clause The above two examples are similar in terms of wording. The difference is only realized through the use of the comma. If one carefully examines the implications created by the use of the comma, one will observe that the first clause does not add any new information; it presumes the reader already knows enough about the girl to identify her from this description. At the same time, if one examines the implications created in the second clause, one can observe that there is a particular information structure signaled by using the comma, and this structure represents new information. Consequently, a comma, as tiny as it appears, makes a big difference between two units of information worded similarly. Moreover, in the above examples, two linguistic functions have been established: defining clause (DC) and non-defining clause (NDC). These two functions are commonly realized through the use of the comma (Quirk 1985). In order to clarify the point further, here is another example: 1. A woman without her man is nothing. 2. A woman, without her man, is nothing. 3. A woman: without her, man is nothing. In the above three examples, one can see that meaning changes based on the specific use of punctuation marks. For example, in sentence (1), there is a general statement that a woman without her man is nothing. Prominence was given to man as the important one. In sentence (2), the meaning changes in relation to sentence (1), although we are still using the exact words. Here, prominence is still given to man, but with specific reference to a woman, as opposed to something else. In sentence (3), there is a complete shift of meaning. Prominence is given to the importance of the woman, as if man does not exist without the presence of the woman. All these

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meanings have been represented as a result of the different uses of the punctuation marks. From a different angle, discussing the meaning of punctuation requires paying special attention to the delimitation and boundaries between semantics and pragmatics. Almost all the studies that have been done on these two major fields of linguistics have associated the delimitation of the two terms with the delimitation of Chomsky’s competence and the performance or Saussure’s langue and parole (Hawkes 1986). The distinction between langue and parole, according to Hawkes (1986: 20) is more or less one that pertains to the difference between the abstract language system simply called in English ‘language’ and individual utterances made by the speakers of the language in concrete everyday situations called ‘speech’. According to Hawkes, langue is both a social product and a collection of necessary conventions that have been adopted by a social body to permit individuals to exercise that faculty. As for parole, it is the tip of the iceberg. Langue is the larger mass that supports parole, and it is implied by it, both in speaker and hearer (Hawkes 1986: 21). Thus, semantics is the input to pragmatics. However, in this book, semantics is used to relate to the language system whereas pragmatics is used to relate to utterances. Many definitions have been proposed for the notions of semantics and pragmatics (see Leech 1974: 319 and 1983; Levinson 1983). In order to show where punctuation lies, I shall adopt Leech’s complementary position in which he defines semantics as what something means. The weather is hot means The weather is hot (a statement), and pragmatics as what somebody means by something, i.e. The weather is hot means Open the window (a request). The former example is mainly concerned with meaning as a property of language whereas the latter example is mainly concerned with meaning as what the speaker intends by his utterance (his intention). From all of this, one can conclude that punctuation and its functions lie within the field of pragmatics. The meaning of a particular utterance has to be deduced from the speaker’s intention with reference to the context of situation in which the utterance is used. Context here is taken to mean the background knowledge which the speaker assumes to be known to the hearer at the time of speaking; it does not represent brute facts but rather institutional facts of text or context (Leech 1983: 341). In accordance with this view and for the sake of exposition, the semantic and pragmatic functions will be referred to together here as linguistic functions.

7.4 Punctuation in Arabic Williams (1982) believes that teachers must take into account the punctuation conventions when teaching composition if they are to forestall some of the problems which

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they face; he also believes that a consideration of punctuation may yield some useful clues to the large semantic units which users work with or see themselves working with. In his study of some of the differences between Arabic and English punctuation, Williams describes two systems of Arabic punctuation; the first system is a very simple one in which commas are used to delimit sentences and full stops are used along with the conventional line break to mark the ends of the paragraphs. The second system, as indicated by Williams (1991), contains a whole plethora of signs, 21 in all. They are as follows:

1. comma 2. double comma 3. semicolon 4. full stop 5. colon 6. dash 7. double dash 8. diagonal line 9. underlining 10. extended line 11. curved brackets 12. square brackets 13. hollow brackets 14. curly brackets 15. dots 16. question mark 17. exclamation mark 18. double quotation marks 19. equal sign 20. ditto sign 21. concluding sign

‘ “ ; . : -/ the ___ ( ) [ ] ( ) { } … … ‫؟‬ ! “ “ = ” ” ” ε

(To indicate a paradigmatic group) (To indicate words missed out)

For more detailed information on this subject, see Williams 1991.

Most of the above Arabic punctuation marks have their equivalents in the English punctuation system; however, there are differences when it comes to the uses of the colon and semicolon. These are problematic in translation. Therefore, the linguistic functions of punctuation will be investigated below and the problems associated with their uses will be highlighted.

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7.4.1 The semicolon (;) This punctuation mark indicates a close linkage between two clauses. Apart from the well-known functions of this mark, in Arabic as well as in English, it occasionally tends to express a contrastive relation between two clauses. Consider the following example: Text (1) – English The Nicaraguan people say that their families were taken away by members of the Security Forces; the Sandinists claim that the missing have joined the contras. The Economist (1983: 52) An inexperienced translator may read the English text and consider the relationship between the two clauses or sentences as that of addition; he may also not realize that the true relationship is significant for relaying the exact meaning of the original. Looking at the students’ translation, it was found that 12 students translated this punctuation mark as addition, and 6 of them did not even attempt to translate it. Only 2 students translated it correctly. The relationship expressed here is that of contrast, where two different points of view are being stated. Therefore, the translator should utilize the Arabic conjunctive ‘bayanama’ or ‘amma’ “however”. In a different context, the translator may sometimes fail in the opposite way to identify the exact or intended meaning of this punctuation mark; he may think that the semicolon is always used as above, to contrast between two clauses. However, the semicolon may indeed sometimes be used as an additive conjunctive. Here is an example taken from The Economist (1983: 105): Text (2) – English In America in the mid 1970s, the causes of several helicopter crashes were traced to bogus replacement parts; in 1977, 200 fake fire detection and control systems for Boeing aircraft were discovered. It is clear that the original text does not indicate grammatically or structurally whether or not the clause preceding the semicolon and the clause following it have similar values. The reader has to guess at the writer’s implication behind the semicolon. The relationship expressed between these two clauses is in fact that of addition. Looking at the students’ translations, it was found that 10 students expressed an addition relationship; none of them expressed a contrast relationship. At the same time, 3 students have not even attempted to translate it. It was observed that 7 students translated it as fa (causative), expressing a relationship that is not implied. There is another function which can be performed by the use of the semicolon. This function is

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its contrastive emphatic meaning. That is, the semicolon in English can be interpreted to mean emphasis, requiring a different mark in Arabic. This mark is the conjunction ‘bal’. It emphasizes the clause in which it is used in a prominent position, compared to the preceding clauses. Here is an example taken from Cary (1984: 64): Text (3) – English Loui must have gone to the police. What right had they to pursue him like this? He had done no wrong; he was trying to do the right thing, the sensible thing. It was found that only 3 students translated the semicolon correctly as emphatic; 2 translated it as an additive; 11 students did not translate it at all; 4 expressed a causative relationship. It should be pointed out that the way the semicolon is used in English, in the above three examples, is very clear to the native speakers of English. However, this punctuation mark tends to be problematic in Arabic. The students’ translation of examples 1, 2 and 3 shows that Arabs tend to treat the English semicolon as additive, as is the case with almost all punctuation marks in their own language. Sometimes it is not even looked into, and the semantic and pragmatic implications are completely ignored. This indicates that there is a language interference problem in the way this punctuation mark is used. 7.4.2 Colon (:) The colon is different from the semicolon in the fact that the colon is cataphoric (i.e. referring or pointing forward). From a semantic point of view, it is a way of marking the identity between what is being expressed and what is about to be expressed. For example, I said this: …, where the meaning of what follows the colon must be equivalent to this but more specific (see Quirk et al. 1985: Ch. 12 for more information on this topic). From a translation point of view, and according to Newmark (1981), when the sentence is viewed logically and not grammatically, or used in such a way that it requires clarification or illustration, it is normally punctuated with a colon. Therefore, the colon has a cataphoric function: it is always followed by an explanation or an illustration (Halliday 1985). That is, the clause following it is a substantiation of something in the one which precedes it. When it comes to translating the colon, the translator should account for it by marks that have the same semantic and pragmatic functions. These functions are represented in the following example taken from Cary (1984: 63): Text (4) – English Tom, without thought, answered: “My name is Stone,” and then, angry to see himself faced by a policeman, went on: “What do you want here? Why should I answer your questions?”

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It should be noted here that the translator has to interpret the uses of the colon carefully; he should account for the non-verbal uses of this punctuation mark during the process of translation. To provide an accurate translation of the above example, the translator should opt for equivalent words such as ‘fa’ (causative) or ‘id’ (substantative). In the students’ translations, it was found that 13 students translated the colon as an additive, and only 2 translated it expressing contrast. At the same time, 1 student translated it as emphatic and 3 students did not translate it at all. As the text above shows, the first colon has not been translated; it does not need to be translated simply because what follows after the verb ‘answered’ is axiomatically understood as substantiation. However, the second colon should have been translated because its presence in the sentence adds a temporal sequence. Thus, it can be seen how punctuation marks which need to be conveyed into the target language are not appropriately conveyed by translation students. This shows that students have only a vague idea about the specific semantic and pragmatic functions of punctuation marks. It also shows that students, when they attempt to translate punctuation marks, do not think of the distortion they may create from not conveying the correct meaning of this punctuation mark in the target text. The following are the results of students’ translations of the texts under discussion: Students’ Translation of the Semicolon and Colon Additive

Contrast

Causative

Emphatic

Not Translated

Text (1)

–

Text (2)

–

Text (3)

–

Text (4)

As the above table shows, students seem to be confused about the uses of the semicolon and colon; they also seem to be influenced by the writing patterns of their native language. It is, therefore, important for translators to be made aware of these functions and see to it that these punctuation marks are not misunderstood or simply overlooked. Based on their translations, we can observe that students are not only unfamiliar with the way most punctuation marks are used in English; they are also not familiar with the punctuation marks used in their own language. Therefore, it is to be expected that any attempt by them to translate an English text into Arabic will suffer so long as they

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have not captured the exact meaning (i.e. semantic and pragmatic implications) of these marks. To sum up, the purpose of this chapter has been to investigate the specific semantic and pragmatic functions of two important but problematic punctuation marks. These were the colon and semicolon. Emphasis was placed on how to maintain such implications in the translation process. It was noted that the system of punctuation in Arabic is inadequate because it does not have well-established rules for the use of specific punctuation marks. Therefore, much work needs to be done in order to identify what is considered to be the sentence in Arabic if one wants to establish a coherent system of punctuation. As for the semantic and pragmatic functions of the colon and semicolon, they include what is called rebuttal, emphasis, addition, substantiation, and contrast. Moreover, this chapter has illustrated that translating punctuation marks from English into Arabic is indeed very problematic to translators and translation students. This has been exemplified by the translations of the 20 Arab M.A. translation students. The results were disappointing: it was found that most of these students are not familiar with the semantic and pragmatic functions of punctuation marks in general and the specific punctuation marks discussed in this chapter in particular. Therefore, translation students need to be taught not to allow the source language punctuation marks to influence the punctuation marks in their translation, simply because languages have different systems of punctuating. Students should also dig deeper for implications springing from the use of a specific punctuation mark so as to maintain those implications in their translations. To enhance the student and working translators’ understanding of the essence of punctuation marks, more contrastive studies of the marks are needed, not only from a linguistic point of view but also from a translation point of view. Our hope is to make professional translators as well as students aware of this important yet problematic issue.

7.5 1. 2. 3. 4.

Test your Knowledge What is punctuation? How is it used in your own language? Are there rules by which speakers use punctuation marks? What are the semantic and pragmatic functions of punctuation? Give a few examples where misunderstanding the uses of punctuation marks can give rise to translation problems.

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7.6 Analysis and Translation of Texts Read the following text very carefully, and then rewrite it using correct punctuation marks where needed.

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*Translation Rules are Ethical Decisions

Text 1

Radical individualism should thus be taken with a large grain of salt if works like Luther’s Bible and the King James Version can legitimately be criticized for fantasy and inconsistence it nevertheless seems difficult to classify them as automatically second-rate because of group authorship such prejudice should quietly be absorbed by the more global principle that the collective profession provided the conditions necessary for the rise of the authoritative individual

Taken from Translation Rules are Ethical Decisions at .

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CHAPTER 8

Translation and Literature 8.1 Introduction The purpose of this chapter is twofold: (a) to show that translating literature is different from translating other kinds of texts (i.e. descriptive, journalistic, etc.). Emphasis will be placed on all literary forms, particularly poetry, and (b) to argue that literary texts contain words that are often unusual in some way and used to create a special effect on the reader. This special effect is manifested in plays, poetry, drama, novels, and other creative written works. Translating literature is problematic simply because it involves translating the metaphorical or figurative meanings utilized in texts. The spirit and text’s artistic qualities in such texts play an important role in the make up of what is called a literary text. In order to show the difficulty of translating literature, particularly poetry, an example will be taken from the works of Philip Freneau, an American poet, to demonstrate this point. This example will be translated into Arabic in two different ways: verse and prose. A comparison will be made between the two types of translations to show which type (verse or prose) can attain the highest degree of acceptability and equivalency. The example has been taken from Philip Freneau because he is known for his love of nature; his language is figurative and full of poetic images. Therefore, translating some of his work may give us insight on what is involved in literary translation. It may also give us insight on whether poetry is best translated through verse strategy or prose strategy.

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8.2 Characteristics of Texts According to Neubert (1988:123), text is not just a neutral vessel filled with information. It is actually a piece of writing that fulfills a particular communicative function. This text also carries with it a segment of the world’s view of the language users. It has certain characteristics. These are illustrated below. There are many different types of texts, and the following are examples of such classifications: 8.2.1 Expressive One of the main characteristics of a literary text is that it is expressive. Since text is language, then language can be expressive. The term expressive here is used to refer to works of art whether such art is manifested through the use of compositional elements or symbols. Both means aim at merely suggesting meaning. According to Newmark (1988: 39), the core of the expressive function is the mind of the speaker, the writer, and the originator of the utterance. Therefore, the translator, like a writer, expresses his own vision of the world; he gives his own realization of a specific reality he wishes to express. This is in addition to the fact that he speaks his own language, uses his own strategy, expresses his emotions about a specific object, and about his provocation and reaction. In writing poetry, however, the writer chooses his words with far more attention to their sounds than to what is customary or necessarily known in the writing of prose. This is encapsulated in the writer’s mental capacity through which he can write with emotions, rhythm and percipience. 8.2.2 Denotative This function is mainly concerned with the classification of meaning. It refers to the emotional associations (personal or communal) which are suggested by lexis (i.e. see Lyons 1977, Chapter. 7). A text may manifest emotive, rhetorical, seductive, and stimulative features. To this effect, a literary text is not mainly concerned with context or information; it is actually concerned with explicit and implicit meanings. For example, tone, melody, and sequence are essential components of any literary text. These represent the internal image (Frege 1960: 16) and essential components of the literary message in general, and poetry in particular. Therefore, the loss that may occur is when the original words contain something that is not explicitly stated. This “something” may manifest itself in the harmony between sense and sound. It may also manifest itself through a subtle alliteration, construction of metaphors, or in onomatopoeia or any figures of speech.

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8.2.3 Formal vs. Functional Characteristics A literary text is not only a means of communicating something to the reader. It is also a way of provoking the reader. The objective of literature, in particular poetry, therefore, is not to teach the reader but rather entertain him. In addition, the writer uses a special kind of language, a language of his own. The style of writing a text is actually a reflection of his own character. Therefore, the writer uses metaphors, creates images, and uses collocations that are not frequently used in ordinary texts. The writer does this as he intends to manifest the nature and function of the text in a way that we see the image provoked or intended as something never seen before or at least as something different. The attitude of the literary translator is also of considerable importance. Unlike translators of other texts, a translator of a literary text should be self-expressive; he should leave traces of his own character just as an artist leaves his own impressions in his paintings. To this effect, the literary text translator has a high degree of freedom in transferring a text from one language to another. This is contrary to translators of other texts in which accuracy and faithfulness to the original texts may be the basic prerequisites. One can imagine, for example, what a wrong translation of a heart surgery procedure can do. Also, the kind of effect a wrong translation can have on how a particular machine works. These wrong translations can have serious effects on people. However, in literary translation, the translator is relatively free in his interpretation of a text, as long as he adheres to the overall meaning. As a result of the translator’s freedom, one can realize that it is this particular kind of freedom that translators are capable of adapting, borrowing, arabicizing, and familiarizing Arab readers with new words. All of these are translation processes in which words are approximated in terms of their target equivalents. This is exactly what made Al-Manfaluti arabicize a novel for the writer De Saint Pierre, whose title is transformed into “Virtue”. Also, Hafiz Ibrahim translated a novel for Victor Hugo entitled “Al-Bu’asa” (The Wretched People). All these are being arabicized or translated as a result of the free activity of literary translation.

8.3 Nature of Literary Translation Features that are relevant to the translation of literary texts are reflected in the aesthetic values and their implied underlying meanings. A literary text is written in a way that a translator is sometimes incapable of handling. The language of the literary texts is far from the ordinary language and its common form. Poetry, for example, is never written with simple language. Therefore, the translator should be intelligent and capable of feeling and understanding the poetic text. Also, the translator should be acquainted

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with the literary works in terms of the way sounds, words, imagery expressions, and sentences are conveyed or relayed. They should be conveyed carefully, conforming to the writer’s original work. For an excellent translator, it is not enough to convey literary works from one language to another, but such conveyance should be creative, profoundly imaginative and talented. The translator can limit or identify the kind of work contemplated and the literary flavor manifested in it. This is why translating poetry is different from translating novels. Also, translating both poetry and novels is different from translating theatrical texts. The way theatrical texts are written conforms with the feature of ‘speakability’ (Wellwarth 1981: 140), i.e. the text is written to be read aloud so the writer can have access to the kind of rhythm or projection so as to help the actor perform his role. The writer of a theatrical dialogue is also an artist. He has to sense the word, and see whether it suits the actor or not. He feels the text to see whether or not it has a persuasive effect on its audience, particularly if one takes into account that in translating literary works, one deals with feelings, emotions, melodies, senses, and above all, the writer’s own experiences of the world.

8.4 Writer-Translator Relationship One of the characteristics of a good translator is his capability of writing well. There is a difference between a writer and a translator. A person only translating other people’s work is not a translator, he is a conveyer or a text presenter, as he is only reading the text (not his own) and presenting it to another reader who belongs to a different culture. If the translation of a literary text arises out of the reading process, then the writer is the translator of that text. The relation between the two (i.e. writer and translator) is reflected in what is called “creativity”. This may be represented in the following diagram: Writer

Translator

Transference

Creative Writing

Proper Reading

Diagram (1) Writer-Translator Relation

To this effect, some believe (see Diaz-Diocretz 1985: 33-37) that translation is a process of creation. The writer does not write his text at one time, but at different times. First he reads it, then writes a draft, and then rewrites it again and again. The distinc-

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tion between writing and translating is therefore a matter of creativity. However, both are creative works, but the difference between them is that the translation process is less creative in the way that it is less imaginative. In more specific terms, in writing, the writer has to come up with an original idea or thought whereas in translation, the translator has to base his translation on an idea that has already been formulated. Therefore, the writing process is more creative, as it requires more imagination. Within the literary translation process, a good translator is not the one who remains faithful and close to the original text, but the one who is close to the mentality and thinking as well as the experience of the writer. Being faithful and close to the original involves translating the text whereas being close to the mentality and thinking of the writer involves creating the text. As for faithfulness, a given message can be perceived from quite a different perspective (Jakobson 1960: 353). This depends very much on the text’s readership. Therefore, the text varies according to its readers. Creative translation creates and reforms the text in a way that the writer and the translator are in full harmony and conformity.

8.5 Linguistic Context and Literary Translation Within the framework of literary translation, the linguistic context is regarded as raw material to the translation process. Literary texts have a more sophisticated context, which implies the approximation of two cultures, two different ways of thinking, two different methods of realization and above all, two different mentalities. For example, in the Arab world, one always hears words such as ird. This word cannot be translated as just honor, since the word has different connotations not common in English. The word ird evolves around a woman’s dignity, family reputation, chastity, etc. These kinds of connotations are not applicable when it comes to its English counterpart. Therefore, it cannot be understood and translated just by relying only on its linguistic context, without taking into account the general context in which the word is used. The following diagram illustrates the two kinds of context: Co-text Linguistic Context

Language-specific Linguistically interpreted

Contex Linguistic context General Context

Culture-specific Culturally interpreted

Diagram (2) Types of Context

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Another example is the English word dating. This word is used freely and frequently within the English culture. In Arabic, however, it has no exact equivalent. Therefore, relying only on the linguistic context would provide an unacceptable translation, as the English word implies connotations that are not implied in the Arabic culture (i.e. intimate relations). To this effect, translating literary texts requires understanding paralinguistic features. Translators should possess the capability of analyzing, sensing and feeling the literary text. A mastery of the foreign language and its culture and the translator’s own language and culture would form a good base for the translator. However, only mastering the foreign language itself is not good enough for making a good translator of literature, as he needs to be more familiar with the effects of sounds and the rhythmic setting of the text, particularly in poetry. As for poetry, it is the art of employing words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the senses: the art of doing by means of words what the painter does by means of colors (Savory 1957: 76). Savory also points out that poetry has certain features such as rhythm, metrical rhythm, emotion, sensuous emotion, increased figure of speech, conventional word-order, and above all imagination. The ability to see features as an object or in a particular situation which another might miss is one of the necessities the translator of literature should possess. Full mastery of both languages and cultures enables the translator to at least produce the form as well as the manner or the style of the original text. As for the strategy of translating poetry, some believe that poetry is translatable either through “prose strategy” or “verse strategy”. Tytler (1979: 107) believes that by using “prose strategy”, some of the sweetness and melody of the versification of the poem may perish. Therefore, it is believed that verse strategy is close to the original form of the text than that of prose. Verse strategy gives us an opportunity to enjoy and experience figures of speech. It also allows us to utilize any word-order that may prove to be suitable. To this effect, the translator may opt for verse strategy in translating poetry, simply because it has the power of stirring the emotions of readers better than that of prose. To make these remarks more convincing, the following example, taken from the work of an American romantic poet, Philip Freneau, demonstrates how verse strategy in translating English poetry into Arabic is more effective and provocative than that of prose. In describing his love of nature, Freneau (1970: 149) wrote: Faire flower, that dost so comely grow, Hide in this silent, dull retreat, Untouched thy honey’d blossoms blow, Unseen thy little branches greet:

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No roving foot shall crush thee here, No busy hand provoke a tear. If the translator opts for prose translation, the translation in Arabic should look like this: Translation (1):

Below is a literal translation of the above Arabic text. You are the beautiful flower that grows elegantly. You are hidden in this calm and boring retreat. Your honeyed blossoms blow without someone touching you, and your little branches greet without being seen. There will not be a foot that will crush you, nor will be a hand that fools around with you. Compare the above prose translation with the following verse translation, in which the focus and preference are given to the form of the original text. Translation (2):

You beautiful flower that does comely grow, Hidden in this solitude and dull retreat, Untouched, your honeyed blossoms blow, Unseen, your little branches greet, No roving foot will crush you here, No busy hand will provoke a tear. The comparison clearly shows that translation (2) is more effective than translation (1), simply because it stirs the emotions and provides us with an accurate and precise meaning. Verse translation provides us with something that is similar to the way in which these verses in their original context are constructed. Another literary form that should be accounted for is drama, which has three main features: speakability, style, and tension (Wellwarth 1981: 140). Speakability is the way

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words are enunciated and style is how words are expressed and reformed on stage. As for tension, it is an easy suspense. A good translator is the one who is able to create the tension of dramatic situations without misrepresenting the playwright’s intention of dramatic credibility within the new context.

8.6 Test Your Knowledge 1. What is your definition of literary translation? 2. Explain the most fundamental function of literature. 3. What are the forms of literature? Which form is the most difficult to translate? Why? 4. Why is translating a literary text difficult? How is it different from other kinds of translation? 5. What are the characteristics of texts? Can you think of other text categorizations? 6. It is well known that literary texts are very expressive. Do you agree? Explain your answer. 7. Explain how “general context” is different from “literary context”. 8. Is there a difference between a literary context and a linguistic context? Explain your answer.

8.7 Analysis and Translation of Texts Read the following texts very carefully, analyze their connotative and or figurative meanings, and then translate them into the target language.

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* The Ebony Horse

Text 1

Once upon a time there was a great and powerful king of Persia named Sabur, whose wealth and wisdom surpassed all other monarchs. He comforted those whose spirits were broken, and he treated those who fled to him for refuge with honor. He loved the poor and was hospitable to strangers, and he always sought to defend the oppressed against their oppressors.

King Sabur had three daughters as beautiful as flower gardens in the full moon and a son as handsome as the moon. And it was his custom to celebrate two holidays during the year, the New Year and the Autumnal Equinox. On both occasions he threw open his palace, gave alms to the people, made proclamations of safety and security and prompted his chamberlains and viceroys. The people of his realm came to him, saluted him, and celebrated these holy days with joy, and they also brought him gifts, servants, and eunuchs.

* Arabian Nights, Burton (1997: 70)

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Text 2

Translate the following sonnet written by William Shakespeare into the target language. You must translate it in two ways: one through prose translation, and the other through verse translation. After you finish, compare the two translations.

Sonnet 130 My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red, than her lips red: If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound: I grant I never saw a goddess go,– My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare, As any she belied with false compare.

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CHAPTER 9

Translation and Language Teaching 9.1 Introduction Since we are discussing the status and role of translation in the teaching of a foreign language, it is important to distinguish between translating into the native language and translating into the second language, i.e. the foreign language. According to Barhoudarov (1983), there is an important difference between translating into the native (mother tongue) language and translating into the second or foreign language. In translating into the native language, the foreign text to be translated is the point of departure. That is, the foreign text is the first thing the translator deals with and accounts for. Here, the translator runs into the problem of analysis. That is, the translator analyzes the text for the purpose of understanding it and perceiving the implicit and explicit shades of meaning behind it. In translating into the second language, the foreign text is the targeted one. That is, the translator aims at producing a foreign text not native to him. Here, the translator runs into the problem of synthesis. That is, the translator goes into the process of reconstruction and production. The text to be reconstructed or produced should express all aspects of the intricate meanings (explicit and implicit) manifested in the original.

9.2 Translation and Language Teaching The issue of using translation as a means of teaching a foreign language remains a controversy. Some believe that translation could be utilized as a means of developing language within learners; others have some suspicions about this. Kopczynski (1983) summarizes these for and against arguments on the use of translation by saying that translation should not be used in foreign language teaching because it causes lan-

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guage interference. Translation can inhibit thinking in the foreign language and can produce compound bilingualism rather then coordinate bilingualism. Besides, using translation in foreign language teaching can interfere in attaining automatic habits. It also makes the learner assume that there is one-to-one-correspondence of meaning between native language and foreign language. Using translation directs the learner’s attention to the formal properties of foreign language items rather than their communicative functions. From a different perspective, translation is extremely important for foreign language teaching simply because it allows conscious learning and control of the foreign language, and as a result, it reduces native language interference. It is to be noted here that conscious learning does not preclude automatic habits. Driving a car and tying a tie can be thought of as an example. Using translation can make learning meaningful because the learner is an active participant in the process. Learning a foreign language is not like acquiring a native language, as learning a language involves conscious learning (i.e. through grammar books, etc.) whereas acquiring a language involves unconscious learning. The fact that children acquire a language and become native speakers in it is an example of unconscious learning. Linguists and translators agree to the fact that translation, since it is done consciously, is an excellent exercise for language learning, but the pity in it is that most translators only have a partial understanding of the text they read. In learning a native language, the learner is there to fall back on prior knowledge. Such knowledge is extremely important for learning new knowledge. Here, one has to assume that the learner makes use of the prior knowledge that exists within him and, in that, there is a process of mental translation going on throughout the process of language learning. It could be, in this respect, that the use of translation is helpful even more for advanced learners. For beginners, of course, it is useful simply because it expounds grammar and teaches vocabularies. It should be noted that the above pro or against arguments for using translation have been made by different scholars such as translation practitioners, linguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, etc. More than likely, those scholars have linguistic and behavioristic backgrounds. However, one attraction towards using translation as a means of teaching foreign language has to do with the teacher, and that is, whether or not the teacher wants language learners to use translation for learning a foreign language. Teachers and university professors, in particular, know this fact very well. They know, whether they like it or not, that language learners indirectly and unconsciously use the translation method for learning a language. Harris and Sherwood (1978) claim that a child is conscious of his bilingualism and freely switches from one language to another while learning a language. Harris and Sherwood call this “natural translation”, i.e. translation which is done by people who have not had special training in translation. This kind of language learning led Harris and Sherwood to believe that translation is co-extensive with bilingualism.

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Other studies have touched upon the subject of translation and bilingualism, indicating that from the earliest stages of bilingualism, the two languages are compounded. That is, they are made up from one another. Therefore, it is impossible to avoid native language interferences while learning a foreign language (Harris and Sherwood 1978: 10-12).

9.3 Strategies in Foreign Language Learning There are of course strategies in which learners can learn a foreign language and communicate with it effectively. One of these strategies is called “code-switching.” According to Bolinger and Sears (1981) and Crombie (2004), code-switching is a linguistic behavior in which speakers may switch between one language and another; it also means switching between standard forms and regional forms of the same language. Code switching is mixed discourse. That is, when a word or phrase is used occasionally in a host language, the user is inserting or using that word in a way that it becomes part of his way of using his own language. Foreignizing is another strategy used in foreign language learning, namely the invention or creation of a word or phrase that does not exist in the learner’s second language, particularly when applying his native language morphology of second language lexical items. Transliteration and interlingual transfer are other strategies used in learning a foreign language. According to Bialystok and Frolich (1980) and Izzy (2005), transliteration is a literal rendition of the native language word or phrase. As for interlingual transfer, Faerch and Kasper (1980) and Odlin (2001) suggest that interlingual transfer is rewording the text and interpreting verbal signs by means of some other languages. Interlingual transfer has to account for total and full translation. There are common questions that should be asked when considering the role of translation in foreign language teaching. These questions are represented in the type of translation, the function of translation, for whom we translate, and at which phase of language should we introduce translation. First of all, according to Odlin (2001) interlingual translation is the type of translation that should be fully taken into account in teaching translation for the purpose of leaning a foreign language. In this approach, translation is looked upon as a series of operations of which the point of departure and the end product are functions within a given culture. Interlingual transfer of information has to account for total and full translation. Total or full translation refers to the translation of language at all levels. It should not be restricted to some partial analysis or analysis at some specific levels. Although the word-for-word translation and the grammar-translation methods are the earliest types of translation, one should note that interlinear translation is used in the grammar-translation method, whereas wordfor-word and literal translations are used in contrastive analysis.

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As for the function of translation, it is to be remembered that expounding and interpreting a text is not only a matter of providing equivalence but, in fact, it is a translation of the grammatical and lexical aspects of the text. For example, at the phonological level, students should be made aware of the different and similar sounds between the two languages, the native language (NL) and the foreign language (FL). In Arabic, for example, there are glottal and palatal sounds such as [c], [kh], [h], and [gh] that do not exist in English and are pronounced with difficulty by non-native speakers of Arabic. At the same time, other sounds such as [a], [b], [d], [e], [f], [j], [t], [s], [z], [m], [n], [k], [l], and [r], among other sounds, are pronounced the same in English. Therefore, making students aware of the two phonological systems of the two languages is extremely significant and undoubtedly useful. It is indeed useful in the sense that it makes them familiar with the different pronunciations of the sounds of the two languages. The other translation approach through which students can learn a foreign language is the semantic approach. Semantics, in its simplest form, is defined as the study of meaning (Ogden & Richards 1923; Saeed 1997). Through semantics, students become acquainted with the relations connecting sentences compared with equivalent sentences in their native language. They also become acquainted with the fact that the vocabulary of a particular language is not simply a listing of independent items, but is organized into areas or fields with which words interrelate and define each other in different ways (Bolinger & Sears 1981). Furthermore, semantization of foreign language meanings is known to be the oldest use of translation (Kopczynski 1983). That is, teachers within this field are mainly concerned with translating words, phrases and sentences into the native language to explicate their meanings. This approach was developed later as the contrastive linguistic approach by Fries (1999), Lado (1957, 1968), Granger (2003) and later by Stockwell and Bowen (1965), Di Pietro (1971), Fisiak et al. (1981), and James (1980). Fries, cited in Kopczynski (1983: 10), states: The most efficient materials are those that are based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner. Along the same line, Kuchlwein, Wilss and Thome (1981) suggest that one of the important techniques of comparing two languages is translation. Although contrastive linguistics has been through its ups and downs, it has become an established science and a necessary component in preparing teaching materials. Even nowadays, according to Kopczynski (1983), it is hard to find a pedagogic grammar which would not make contrastive statements. Furthermore, translation has also been used to teach grammar structures (Marton et al. 1976). Here, teachers can show students equivalent and non-equivalent structures. For example, the sentence Adam goes to college can be explained in terms of its grammatical equivalents. Adam is equivalent to (subject) as in English and goes can be

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explained in terms of its grammatical equivalent (prepositional phrase). In terms of non-equivalent structures, the focus in the sentence Adam is a good student should be on comparing adjectives. In English, adjectives precede nouns (S+V+ADJ+N) whereas in Arabic, adjectives follow nouns (S+V+N+ADJ). Making students aware of these grammatical structures will benefit them significantly in understanding both foreign and native languages. Translation has also been used for teaching the lexis of a foreign language. Lexis is used here in a variety of technical phrases. It could incorporate a unit of vocabulary (lexical item or lexeme) or a complete inventory of lexical items of a language (lexicon). It could also incorporate items that are cited in a lexicon as a set of lexical entries (for more information, see Crystal 1986). As for the translation method of teaching foreign language lexis, Marton (1977) suggests that an example of translation, as an important factor in teaching lexis, is the teaching of what is called conventional syntagms as words that are bound in advanced level of learning. Syntagms are words that are bound in collocation relationships. He rightly states that the problem of learning new vocabulary items at the advanced level is not learning the items themselves, but it is the conventional collocation, which they enter. In a foreign language, there are fixed expressions which are different from expressions in the native language. They differ in the fact that their meanings are conclusive from their component parts. For example, in English, one can say fish and chips as an English collocant whereas the same expression cannot collocate in Arabic. That is, in Arabic, fish does not collocate with chips. The expression khobs and malh (bread and salt) are an Arabic collocant but not in English, as bread does not collocate with salt. These collocations and their importance can be put in focus through translation. It is to be noted that translation can also develop language skills at an advanced level. An experimental project, conducted at Poznan University, Poland, Skowronski (1982), confirms that student groups in the English Department, trained using translation techniques, had better results in developing the skill of speaking and writing than the groups that did not use translation techniques. This shows that using translation is indeed significant in the teaching of foreign language skills.

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9.4 Test Your Knowledge 1. 2. 3. 4.

Explain how translation contributes to learning a foreign language. What is the difference between language and language acquisition? What are the strategies for learning a foreign language? One of the methods of learning a foreign language is the “Semantic Approach”. Explain this method with exemplifications. 5. What is collocation? Give examples from your native language.

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CHAPTER 10

Assessing Student Performance in Translation 10.1 Introduction Assessing the quality of translation in the classroom, whether done through testing or regular exercises, is a fundamental issue in the field of translation. One of the most problematic issues in teaching translation is appraising the students’ knowledge of translation skills and their competency in translation. Many academics, though competent in teaching translation, find it difficult to objectively assess students’ performance in translation simply because they lack didactic or pedagogical knowledge. Competency and the pedagogical knowledge of translation should always be top priorities for professional academics. One of the objectives of this chapter is to identify whether or not academic faculty, particularly those who teach translation, possess the means of objectively assessing students’ language competency and knowledge of their translation skills. Would testing students and assessing their translations be an ideal method of making judgment about their language proficiency and their knowledge of translation skills? What kind of knowledge should academic faculty possess before they go into the classroom? How can academic faculty guarantee that their methods of assessment are good enough to warrant qualified translators and interpreters? Is there a way where academic faculty members can enhance students’ translation experience and make their assessment of students’ work more valuable and inspiring? These issues, among other related topics, will be explored along with some recommendations for further studies.

10.2 Definition of Assessment Assessment is a concept that involves evaluating a person’s performance, be it academic or non-academic. It attempts to classify the work with respect to its merit. In

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translation, for example, evaluating students’ performance is one the most perplexing tasks, simply because it sometimes involves dogmatic or obdurate assessment. That is, if a particular translated text is acceptable for one professional translator, it does not mean that other professional translators agree with such an assessment. The reason is often attributed to different standards or criteria teachers of translation use. The fact that most translation courses are taught by non professional academic teachers of translation adds salt to injury. Translation courses are currently being taught by linguists, literary critics, journalists, language specialists, etc. While there is no objection to such scholars to teach translation courses, the fact that they have not gone through practical, theoretical and professional training in the field of translation and interpretation is a serious problem. Assessment criteria or evaluation standards differ from one discipline to another, and lack of pedagogical standards or criteria of a specific discipline (.i.e. translation) will definitely impact the learning outcome. The same applies for testing. Teachers of translation should possess the pedagogical means and methods of testing students of translation to determine if their translation communicates the meaning of the source text accurately, clearly and naturally (i.e. natural feel of the source text) as Larson (1998) demonstrates in the diagram below.

Overview of the translation task Source language

Receptor language

Text to be translated

Translation

Discover the meaning

Re-express the meaning Meaning

Diagram (1) Translation Task Overview

One cannot imagine a medical doctor diagnosing a case and performing surgery on a patient without going through schooling or professional training. One cannot also imagine that a medical doctor prescribes medication without diagnosing the disease or the illness. It all comes in one package. For a medical doctor, theory is vital, as it equips him or her with the tools and principles, not only to enable him or her to do the job, but also to avoid problems when they arise and provide solutions. The same thing applies to translation teachers. One may reflect on what Larson (1991: 1) conjectures that good translation theory is based on knowledge acquired from practice. However, good practice is based on carefully worked-out theory.

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10.3 Process of Assessment There are three areas involved in the assessment process. There is the original text, the translated text, and the translator’s role. Assessment of translation always depends on the teacher’s performance. The problem arises here only when there is a difference between students’ performance and teachers’ expectations. Both have different assumptions about how the task should be done. This gap between students of translation and teachers reviewing the work raises many questions about teachers’ approaches to translation assessment. Here is a manifestation of the assessment process:

Teacher’s Role

Diagram (2) Process of Assessment (OT → Original Text TE → Teachers’ Expectations TT → Translated Text)

It is worth mentioning here that teaching translation is one thing, but grading or assessing students’ performance (i.e. exam, project, essay, or paper) is another. One of the tight spots of assessing students of translation is quantifying their performance by putting a grade. Of course teachers of translation would like to see their students perform well, simply because they feel good about it. However, if students do not do well on their work, they feel frustrated and perplexed as to the reasons why their students have not done well. At this stage, teachers may question themselves whether or not they have used well defined objective standards and processes when examining students’ work. At times they may wonder if their assessment was based on personal preference. Of course this is not an ideal world and unfortunately many things come into play. However, in the final analysis, as Plotkin (2004) puts it, how can one determine the quality of the finished translation? While one can understand that students can develop a fear of taking an exam, an area we are all familiar with, one area teachers of translation should account for is whether

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they have re-assessed the objectives of the whole course. I believe it is very helpful that teachers of translation re-evaluate what they are doing in the classroom, particularly if students work quality is poor. After all, students’ poor performance could be attributed to the fact that course objectives are not objective. It is only through re-evaluation of course objectives that teachers of translation can understand and explain the defects in students’ translations. For more on these issues, please see Goff-Kfouri (2002).

10.4 Types of Assessment Before we go into the University of Michigan’s (2007) types of assessment, I should note that there are generally two types of assessment that teachers of translation and other disciplines use to measure up students’ performance and learning. These are informative assessment and summative assessment. Informative assessment involves measuring up students’ learning through the constant interaction between teachers and students. This involves questioning, group discussions, peer evaluation, students’ presentations, detailed exams, projects, etc. Through informative assessment, teachers attempt to gain a better understanding of what students know and learn through the teaching process. If and when utilized correctly and appropriately, informative assessment can help students better understand the subject-matter and help teachers adjust their teaching strategies if and when needed. Summative assessment however involves measuring up students’ learning at the end of a course using more likely similar tools of assessment. It focuses on students’ outcomes at the end of a course, not on assessing students’ performance gradually through the process of teaching or through the level of interactions taking place among students and teachers. One of the disadvantages of summative assessment is that it provides feedback information to students and teachers too late and therefore is detached from actual classroom practices. For more information on this topic, please see Black & Wiliam (1998a). Other types of assessment used in the field are pre-test, objective assessment, subjective assessment, interactive assessment, practice exams, participation, and other kinds of assessment that are outlined by the University of Michigan (2007). In this chapter, I would like to focus on five types of assessment, simply because they are relevant to assessing translation students in the classroom. The other types that are left out are more likely relevant to freshmen students. 10.4.1 Objective Assessment Despite the fact that objective assessment identifies students’ levels of translation skills, their interest and aptitude to work, it is discouraged among teachers of translation, simply because it does not measure whether or not students have acquired the tools and skills to be good translators and/or interpreters. Objective assessment involves

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multiple choice questions, true and false, and short answers. Although objective assessment can help students bring to mind the facts, answering such questions relies heavily on guessing and speculation. 10.4.2 Subjective Assessment In this type of assessment, teachers should introduce short or long essay exams in which they can measure students’ grasp and understanding of translation concepts. Examples of this form of assessment include, but are not limited to, definition of translation terms, matching exercises, short answers, fill in the blanks, etc. 10.4.3 Interactive Assessment Here, teachers of translation are encouraged to use this form of assessment more frequently. It simply involves performing certain tasks, i.e. translating short texts in class, revising the translation, pointing out to text ambiguities and ill-structured sentences. It may also involve text coherence and cohesion. Interactive assessment can stimulate students by allowing them to think on their own; it also allows them to monitor their own progress and development. This form of assessment can teach and test students at all levels. One very significant advantage of using this type of assessment is that it allows students to make their own decisions about where to search, how to get the appropriate term, and what to look for. 10.4.4 Common Exams These kinds of exams are popular among college and university teachers. They involve practice exams (i.e. homework assignments, practice exercises, simulating real exams). Students of translation find practice exercises useful, simply because they give them an idea about what real exams will be about. Teachers should draw the connection between practice exercises and real exams (i.e. quizzes, midterm and final exams, essays, etc.). 10.4.5 Peer Review Assessment In this form of assessment, students are asked to review each other’s work. Every so and often, they are asked to grade their classmates’ translations and make positive or negative comments on the translation. This kind of assessment can sometimes be a source of pride for the students as they feel they are responsible for their actions. This approach does not only allow students to learn from other students’ work, but also to boost their self confidence.

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10.4.6 Class Participation Class participation can be as important as any other form of assessment. It involves answering reflective questions about a certain lesson or homework assignment, taking part in a weekly class discussion, and exchanging views about students’ projects and presentations. Class participation facilitates students’ engagement in classroom arguments and discussions. It helps them improve their communication skills. After all, translation involves not only reading and writing, but also speaking in the case of interpreting. One thing teachers have to be aware of is that class participation should be encouraged and be made as part of the overall course grade. It helps students to come to class and get involved in its various arguments and discussions.

10.5 Other Types of Assessment Teachers of translation must understand that assessing translation is different from assessing other disciplines, simply because translation is a profession, and students who graduate will be subjected to all kinds of tests before they are hired. Such forms of assessment are relevant mainly to translators or interpreters. 10.5.1 Holistic Assessment Holistic assessment refers to the process where overall students’ performance is measured against a set of standards. Such assessment includes translation theory, tools and skills. Questions that may arise here include whether or not students have a good grasp of the translation theory. It also includes students’ understanding of the translation tools and skills used in translation. The holistic form of assessment can be measured through theoretical questions about the course, definitions, filling spaces, matching, etc. How often teachers assess students holistically is a question that needs to be investigated, as not many teachers of translation use this form of assessment. Opponents may argue that teaching translation mainly focuses on practice, and theoretical concepts may not add a whole lot to the students’ understanding of the translation process. However, and by the same token, one may ask whether or not a driver who knows the technical and mechanical aspects of the car is tantamount to another who only knows how to drive. I believe there is a disparity between the two drivers as one knows what he or she is doing, whereas the other has no clue. It can be logically concluded here that teachers who have didactic or pedagogical knowledge of translation assessment are far more competent than those who lack it.

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10.5.2 Targeted Assessment Targeted assessment involves examining certain aspects of the course. While the theoretical concepts of translation are fundamental, emphasis should also be placed on assessing group or individual assignments, portfolios, students’ presentations, their research papers, etc. Targeted assessment allows teachers to observe students’ oral, writing and research skills. Sometimes, it is very difficult for teachers to see how students are progressing, simply because they may have no recollection of students’ performance in previous work. This requires teachers to keep a record of students’ performance in these areas. In order for the assessment process to be fair, tasks have to be interesting and attractive. They should incite students to do the work. Only those inspiring kinds of activities would be a true reflection of students’ performance and progress across the years. One may argue that teachers should use one form assessment or another. However, using both forms will definitely guarantee authentic assessment. Reliance on one form of assessment may put teachers and students at a disadvantage. It is only logical then to assume that students’ performance relies heavily on teachers’ knowledge of teaching strategies and methods of testing.

10.6 Flexibility of Testing and System of Teaching While motivation is very pivotal to students success, it should be noted that a more flexible and creative teaching system is badly needed. I believe that assessment methods have to be measured against attuned curriculum, teaching and testing methodologies. One area that needs to be emphasized is that teachers should acclimatize students to a communicative form of testing. As clarified by Boddy and Langham (2000), a communicative approach to testing is intended to provide the tester with knowledge and information about the testee’s ability to perform in the target language in certain context-specific tasks. Tests, therefore, need to be context-specific. If, for example, the objective is to test students to determine whether their work performance is adequate to pass a course, the tasks included in the test should be a fair reflection of the type of tasks they will be required to perform as part of the course itself. As Weir (1990:12) points out, inauthentic tasks may interfere with the measurement of the construct which we seek. “Tests of communicative language and translation ability should be as direct as possible (attempt to reflect the ‘real life’ situation) and the tasks students have to perform should involve realistic discourse processing”. Weir advocates the use of genuine texts and that care should be taken with regard to task length and processing in real time. No matter what methods teachers of translation use, the effect of using such methods, according to Schmidt & McCutcheon (1994: 118), lasts forever on the students’ learn-

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ing experience, their attitudes, and teachers’ enthusiasm. However, customary testing is still fundamental in assessing translation and students who are exposed to frequent tests may perform better in their course. Performing well in the course may not always be attributed to the frequent tests students are subjected to, but to the fact that tests have educational values, and when they are didactically thought out, they can be very useful and helping exercises toward good achievements. One may recall from past experiences that students who failed the exam may insist on taking it again simply because they feel they understood the teacher’s strategy of assessment. They may also feel that they got acquainted with the testing procedure and feel they will do much better. However, the fact of the matter is that testing creates some kind of understanding between student and teacher; it also enables the student to understand what is significant or not significant in the teacher’s mind. Such understanding sends a signal to the students about the kind of knowledge the teacher is seeking. Sometimes students’ performance can be assessed by other individuals, i.e. chair of department and exam moderator for the sake of ensuring quality. If they see that tests were thought out and manifest teachers’ understanding of testing strategy, they continue to be followed. However, if they realize that tests were not thought out and do not reflect the teacher’s efficiency in preparing the test, they will be replaced. Teachers in such circumstances will be asked to reexamine their syllabi and make sure that they meet course goals and requirement and students’ background and expectations. The objective behind this is that teachers who possess the knowledge of effective testing, and request the highest quality from students will definitely raise the level of student’s performance. This, I believe, is very significant for employability purposes and the institution’s high quality standards. At a different level, institutions request that teachers should be efficient in preparing the test, and the test should conform to the course goals and objectives. Some institutions request that faculty members should submit copies of midterm and final exams, just to see if students have reached the course objectives. These two exams can indicate whether or not teachers have planned their course goals and their tests are good enough to measure such goals. Teachers should also know the meaning of assessment, test validity, evaluation, and reliability, as these terms are key element in measuring students’ performance.

10.7 Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge I want to assume here that all teachers of translation from other disciplines (i.e. linguistics, literature, journalism, law, etc.) believe that the content of pedagogical

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knowledge of translation is vital. However, I wonder how many of them possess such knowledge. This is a question for pondering. According to Shulman (1987), knowledge on subject matter is vital if teachers need to help students relate one idea to another. He states: To teach all students according to today’s standards, teachers need to understand subject matter deeply and flexibly so they can help students create useful cognitive maps, relate one idea to another, and address misconceptions. Teachers need to see how ideas connect across fields and to everyday life. This kind of understanding provides a foundation for pedagogical content knowledge that enables teachers to make ideas accessible to others. According to Shulman (1986, 1992), teachers need to be acquainted with two types of knowledge: (a) content, or sometimes he calls it deep knowledge of the subject itself, i.e. translation, linguistics, English, philosophy, etc., and (b) knowledge of the curricular development. Shulman believes that content knowledge includes the structure of knowledge, which encompasses here theories, principles, and concepts of a specific discipline. Paramount to this is content knowledge that deals with the teaching process, including the most useful forms of representing and communicating content and how students can best learn the specific concepts and topics of a subject. Grossman (cited in Ornstein, Thomas, & Lasley, 2000, p. 508), flatly asserts that if teachers, particularly those who are just starting out in the profession, are to be successful, they must be acquainted with the issues of pedagogical content or knowledge as well as general pedagogy or generic teaching principles. As for assessment, Glatthorn (1990) believes that teachers need to think about testing and evaluation as an extension to instruction, not separate from the instructional process. According to Glatthorn, assessment encompasses examining students understanding and misunderstanding during interactive teaching as well as examining students’ understanding at the end of a course. Assessment also deals with reviewing one’s own performance and making whatever changes are deemed necessary for different circumstances. Whether or not we assess students’ work based on a valid theory, which measures the degree of accuracy of the work translated with respect to the semantic, pragmatic and syntactic functions of the source language text, it all depends on the validity assumption instilled in the assessor’s mind. In most if not all probabilities, one can assume that the assessor has a set of criteria in which he can measure the efficiency and accuracy of the translation. If such criteria include awareness and understanding of pedagogical knowledge, then an objective and accurate assessment of students work will be guaranteed. However, if the criteria used for assessing students’ work lack pedagogical

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knowledge and based on random and arbitrary assessment, then a skewed and subjective assessment will prevail.

10.8 Test Your Knowledge 1. What is your definition of translation assessment? 2. What type of assessment is used in your classroom? Explain your answer with examples from classroom activities. 3. Compare between informative assessment and summative assessment and argue as to whether or not teachers of translation should use these strategies. 4. What are the types of assessment discussed in this chapter? 5. One of the types of assessment is called “holistic” assessment. Explain this process and argue as to whether or not teachers should use this kind of assessment. 6. Do you think teachers should be aware of pedagogical knowledge of translation? Explain you answer and compare between a teacher with pedagogical knowledge and another who has no knowledge of how translation should be taught or even assessed.

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CHAPTER 11

Translation and Pragmatics of Discourse 11.1 Introduction This chapter has three objectives: first, it examines the pragmatic variables in an intercultural and interpersonal context. Second, it argues that the use of a common language across cultures does not always guarantee mutual understanding. Third, it highlights areas where miscommunication is likely to occur as a result of intercultural and interpersonal differences. Finally, this chapter provides implications for interpreters in terms of how to eliminate factors giving rise to intercultural/interpersonal misunderstanding.

11.2 Intercultural and Interpersonal Communication In the last two decades, approaches have been gaining grounds in intercultural and interpersonal communication (Gumperz 1982; Antaki 1994). These approaches do not only seek to examine the differences in the verbal behaviors of any linguistic communication, but rather the intercultural and interpersonal communication as well. Intercultural and/or interpersonal communication is understood here as a strategy used to create meaning in cross-cultural communication. Such an interactional view is also known as the theory of pragmatics, as it solely depends on a specific situation at hand. Furthermore, theories developed within what has become known as pragmatics in recent years are directly relatable to the oral mode of interpreting speakers do all the time. In order to help the theory and the practice to meet as well as possible, one has to look at pragmatics from the end of the oral mode of spoken language, which we call interpreting. I have chosen the oral mode of spoken language because it is easier to perceive the pragmatic variables at work in the oral mode than it is in the written

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mode. This is simply due to the many contextual variables such as facial expressions, hand movements, tone and quality of voice, etc. These variables may not really be ubiquitous in the written mode of discourse. This does not mean that such variables are not all equally present in the written mode of translation, but they tend to be easily manifested in the oral mode of language, i.e. interpreting. Although spoken and written languages in cross-cultural communications are viewed as if they were two separable entities, one has to take into account the fact that in both activities, there is a transference and/or conversion of meaning from one language system to another and from one community to another. However, this particular transference can be done in speech and in writing. It can also be done through subtitling below a television screen or a film screen. In all of this, speaking and writing involves meaning transference or conversion. There is no need to go into the controversy of what constitutes meaning. However, one needs to point out that meaning is generally understood here as the totality of the information conveyed in a particular message, whether stated or implied (Shiyab 1990). To this effect, what is called ‘meaning’ in the oral mode of language, i.e. interpreting, is what this chapter is going to investigate. To relate theories of pragmatics to writing in an intercultural/ cross-cultural context, one has to understand the relationship between the addressor and the addressee. What was the message and for whom was it destined? Unless these issues are taken into account, understanding will be obscure and murky. One can imagine, for instance, that when speakers have words on a printed page, they (words) are, in a sense, disassociated from the people who produce those words and from the people for whom those words are destined. For example, look at a particular message written on a page; one sees the words on the page; however, no one sees who wrote those words in the first place. It might have been the speaker or somebody also. Who knows? In a sense, since we have seen the message, then we are the people whom it is destined for, but we should be aware that it is a message that was not originally destined for us; it was destined for somebody else. It is axiomatic that in a large number of, but not all, situations of speaking, the text-producer and text-receiver are both present in one situation, in one moment in time, and in one place; therefore, it is easy to observe communication happening. One can reflect on the fact that during meetings, whether political or social, one might think of the position of chairs and tables in the meeting room before the meeting even starts. The point here is that this particular preparation might have taken minutes or even hours. The question: why is that? I think that when people put a great deal of thought into exactly where they place the tables and chairs, it hardly matters, although there might be a particular configuration of tables and chairs which perhaps may not be an entirely symmetrical one and might have its significance, but nevertheless, for such a meeting, it took minutes and hours.

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My second example is a stylized form of an exchange that took place between two people coming from two different cultures. These people were speaking English to each other and it was the opening exchange of these two businessmen who had a task to negotiate a business deal, which they failed to negotiate. The meeting was unsuccessful and the difficulty can be traced back to the very first words they spoke to each other and these are the first words in a largely stylized form. Here is the conversation that took place between these two people: A: B: A: B: A:

‘Hello!’ ‘Hello,’ he replied as he turned around to see who was talking to him. ‘It has been a long time since we have seen each other.’ ‘Yes. Too long, I am afraid,’ he replied. ‘Well, that depends on what you mean by a long time,’ he remarked.

Here one can realize that at this stage of the conversation, something has already gone wrong. There is already something not working properly in terms of communication and the questions are: can one identify what has gone wrong here and where does it start? The point is, that by the end of this short exchange, a very competitive atmosphere is being created because (A) is saying “it has been a long time” and (B) is saying “well, that is your fault, not mine, etc…” and for people who are trying to work out a successful business deal, they got off on the wrong foot. Things have already started to go wrong, and instead of being cooperative, they are finding themselves competing with each other.

11.3 Culture and Communication Based on the above observations, one can relate this to two important points that have been observed when people negotiate with each other. The first point is that there is a constant need to foster good relations between the people speaking to each other. All of us know that this is not specific to any particular culture in the sense that it is experienced in all cultures; however, it finds its way out linguistically in different forms. When people try to negotiate or even converse with someone, they are aware that there is a constant need to ensure that the relations between the two people speaking to each other are taking place on the right terms; they do things linguistically with language to ensure that happens. The second point, which is relatable to this and other exchanges, is that in different cultures, there are unwritten rules for when it is someone’s turn to speak (Wells 1981; Gumperz et al. 1981; Gumperz 1982). One might have observed this in some cultures and/or in some linguistic cultures. In some languages, Arabic for example, it is more acceptable to interrupt the person one is speaking with than it is in other cultures. English is a case in point. But if one is going to interrupt, there are ways of doing it linguistically; there are ways when one should not do it linguistically. These

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rules, incidentally, are among the most difficult problems facing language learners at all times. We are all familiar with the kind of difficulty we face when we learn a foreign language. We actually commit, in one way or another, a number of verbal and non-verbal offences, which are either very aggressive towards the person we are speaking to or not aggressive enough.

11.4 Grice’s Maxims At this point, one has to introduce Grice’s (1975) maxims. Until the 1970’s, more or less, not a great deal of attention had been paid to the way in which people used language to achieve their own ends and to the rules which people implicitly obeyed when conversing with other people. It was this that led Grice to talk about what he calls “the cooperative principle”. Grice (1975: 45) states the principles as “Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage of which it occurs, by the accepted purpose and direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged”. What Grice is saying here is that when you talk to someone and someone is talking to you, it is a natural assumption in the first instance, unless you have evidence to the contrary, that the person talking to you is trying to be cooperative. He is not deliberately trying to mislead you; he is not deliberately going to try and bore you; he is not going to talk to you about a lot of things that are not relevant to you, and so on. This is the basic assumption that people make. Here, Grice formulated these assumptions into a number of what he called “maxims”: quality, quantity, relation, truthfulness, and manner. The first maxim is quality. This maxim means that the speaker or writer should include all information that the audience requires to understand the message. In other words, speakers should be truthful and say nothing that lacks adequate evidence. If the speaker or writer leaves out significant information, there is a possibility that there will be a breakdown in communication or at least a necessity on part of the speaker to provide further information. The second maxim is quantity, which has to do with the notion that when people speak to each other, they go on long enough to make their point. They should be brief and should not include unnecessary information. There is no need, on part of the speakers, to keep rambling on without providing new information. When they feel they have made their point, they stop talking. In other words, speakers should not be more or less informative than required. The point is that when you are having an ordinary conversation with someone, you know that time is limited, because when you are talking, the other person cannot really talk. You know that there is joint cooperation whereby the conversation time is shared to a certain extent. Therefore, you will not go on longer than you feel necessary. If someone asks you a question like, Can you show me the way to the White House?, you will try to give him/her instructions on how to reach the White House, which will be as short and explicit as possible. You

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would not say, “Well, in America, as a whole, there are many white houses. There are small white houses and large white houses. I assume the one you want to go to is the one where the President resides. On the other hand, if you got a taxi, you could take X street, but if you do not have one, you could take Y street.” No one would do that because they know time is limited. Grice (1975: 47) states that the maxim quantity is to “make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purpose of the exchange” and “not to make your contribution more informative than required”. The third maxim is the maxim of relevance or relation. It is very simply stated “be relevant”. Let us consider the previous example: Can you show me the way to the White House? You would not normally expect a response such as: I saw a nice woman walking down the street. The above would not be a relevant reply. Therefore, the maxim indicates that if we assume that the person speaking to us is being cooperative, which is the underlying assumption if he/she is being cooperative, then he/she will give us a reply which is in some sense relevant to what we have said in the first place. The fourth maxim is the maxim of truthfulness. Grice states “Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence” (Grice 1975: 48). In other words, do not lie, but then why should that be a normal maxim of talk exchanges. One can see that this maxim is very closely related to the maxim of quality, and Grice receives a lot of criticism about the overlapping of both maxims. However, this maxim, as well as the other quality maxim, relates back to this cooperative principle that when someone is talking to you, your first assumption is that they are not telling you a pack of lies. You may have other evidence, which would lead you to the conclusion that perhaps they are telling you a pack of lies. However, the first natural (my italics) assumption is that when you go up to someone and ask Can you show me the way to the White House?, they are not going to show you the way to a white house instead, otherwise their response will be untruthful. The last maxim is manner and is stated as “be perspicuous. Avoid obscurity of expression. Avoid ambiguity. Be brief. Be orderly.” Perhaps “be orderly” is important because what we normally expect, when one asks somebody a question, is that the answer that comes back to us will be in a sequence and the elements which are used will be in a certain order. This will make it easy for us to understand what has been said. This is the normal assumption. Grice (1975: 51), in trying to show how these maxims work, gives this little exchange:

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A: I am out of petrol. B: There is a garage around the corner. Now Grice says on the face of it if we just look at this as a sequence of linguistic elements, people could say, if they knew nothing about the way the world works, in general, that (B) is not being relevant. (A) says “I am out of petrol” and (B) starts talking about something that is around the corner. The point here, however, as Grice says is that “the normal assumption is the person that we say this to “I am out of petrol” is, in fact, being cooperative. Therefore, rather than assuming that (B) is being uncooperative, we start looking at the words that (B) says to see if there is some meaning. In other words, there are contextual variables in the utterance that would enable the audience to make a connection between the real world and the implication behind uttering that statement. According to Grice (1975: 45-51), this is called implicature. This particular maxim is one that has had a lot written about since it is certainly something essential for interpreters and translators.

11.5 Assessment Grice’s maxims are very useful in the semantic analysis of texts. Such usefulness, however, is reduced by the generality, not to say vagueness, with which they are formulated (Lyons 1977). According to Lyons, evaluating utterances is far more difficult than quantifying the amount of semantic information in an utterance. Taking this into account, i.e. conversation between people, one can say that what is interesting about a breakdown in communication is that the people who are experiencing the breakdown do not even notice that communication has broken down until much later when things start to get aggressive. At this point, one needs to add bi-cultural dimension to Grice’s Cooperative Principle, because Grice is talking about it in relation to all people everywhere. So, what should the interpreter do in cases where the interpreter notices that something is going wrong in the interpreting act or feels that the speaker has lost his way in the conversation? The dilemma is whether the interpreter can intervene and say, “you have got this wrong; you are not understanding each other. This is not intended as a criticism. It is intended to be cooperative, etc.” Conversely, do the interpreters have this right?

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11.6 Pragmatic Variables and Interpreting One can make the proposal that conference interpreters should be given the right and the duty to actually stop the proceeding in an international conference if they know that some talk exchange is based on a misunderstanding, however slight. They should not be criticized for actually intervening. There is a linguistic problem, although it is likely to be cultural as much as linguistic. Here one can see two objections: first, this problem places an intolerable burden on the interpreter himself/herself. If interpreters intervene in an international conference halfway through a speech from a delegate from Jordan or Canada or wherever, they are not going to be appreciated at all for it. What they say had better be right and had better be demonstrably right as well. The second objection is that in negotiations, people very often will deliberately misunderstand the person they are talking to as a negotiating policy. As a strategy in argument, one deliberately fails to hear something or one deliberately takes the wrong sense of something. It happens all the time and consequently, how is the interpreter going to deal with this? This is a very controversial issue and it is certainly true, not so much for conference interpreters, but for liaison interpreters. There is a real need for a systematically arranged and comprehensive collection of rules for professional liaison interpreters, stating what interpreters should do and what they should not do in these situations. At the moment, there is no code of practice and consequently interpreters get criticized for whatever happens. If interpreters allow the miscommunication to continue, they are criticized. People may not like the idea that interpreters did not clear it up and stop it, then they may find themselves more subject of criticism than if they had said nothing. So, it is an unsolved problem. Consider the following extract between two people coming from two different cultures. Speaker (A) is a Jordanian whereas speaker (B) is an American. A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B: A: B:

‘Excuse me. What is your name?’ ‘My name is Adam, he replied, with the sound of curiosity in his voice.’ ‘How long have been in this city?’ ‘Well, I’ve been here for only two years,’ he answered. ‘Two years,’ huh. ‘What do you do for a living, he asked? ‘I work in a supermarket,’ replied the American after some hesitation. ‘How much money do you make monthly?’ he asked boldly. ‘I don’t know exactly,’ he replied with a frowned face. ‘You don’t have to say exactly how much,’ he recommended. ‘If you will excuse me, please. I’ve got to go,’ he replied with astonishment as he turned and walked away suddenly.

In this conversation, there is a problem that is traceable back to the fact that (A) kept on asking (B) very personal questions, and (A) finally interpreted this as an attempt

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to undermine his respect, his position, etc. As a result, both speakers did not get on very well with each other. However, it should be pointed out that this is a finding which comes via social-psychology that we all have what is known as ‘close group’ and ‘neutral group’. Your ‘close group’ is those people in your immediate surrounding with whom you identify, with whom you have close relations (i.e. your family, your close friends, etc.). In different cultures, these are defined in different ways and there are different norms. There are such things as ‘close group’, although we never meditate or think of who is or is not in the ‘close group’ or in the ‘neutral group’. Nevertheless, we instinctively feel this. Of course, there is the ‘neutral group’ which is everyone else. Another complexity in cross-cultural communications is that which results from differences in the perception of one’s cultural and linguistic elements (Noss 1986). For example, in the Jordanian culture, it is considered polite to welcome strangers from a foreign country by treating them immediately as part of your ‘close group’. Therefore, at times you ask them some personal questions. It is a way of welcoming people, or getting close to them, trying to make him/her feel at home. However, this is not so for the Americans and consequently one gets these misinterpreted intentions which are a source of difficulty. Now, in going on about that, one may talk about the different kinds of difficulties which people are observed to have, and the sources of intercultural communication difficulties. There are four kinds: first, people’s language behavior; secondly, peoples’ non-verbal behavior; thirdly, the basis on which we make attributions about other people; and fourthly, the inside/outside group bias. When it comes to language behavior, people may fail to understand each other because they do not understand the language (i.e. cultural aspects) that each other speak. The point here is that people are behaving linguistically in a proper manner within their own language community, but misinterpreted within another language community due to cultural differences. A similar point to be made here, which concerns different races and cultures, is that it so happens that the socio-economics of a particular country, Britain for example, are such that the people who serve food in many establishments are largely of Pakistani or Indian origins. The people receiving the food, in this case, are mostly British. The language of exchange between these two groups is English. When we all speak a foreign language very often, one of the last things to change is our intonation patterns. We might get the grammar right, but we do not always perceive that intonation patterns carry meaning. In certain languages (i.e. Hindi, Urdu, etc.), people ask questions with falling intonation which might be interpreted as an insult, uncooperative, impolite, and rude in other languages. English is an example. This may give rise to breakdowns in communication and may result in unpleasant encounters due to cultural barriers (for more information on this subject, see Gumperz et al. 1981 and Gumperz 1982). To relate breakdown in communication back to the business of interpreting, court interpreting is one of the situations where this is most difficult. It is a well observed fact that in a courtroom where there is one interpreter representing what the judge

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is saying to the witness and what the witness is saying to the judge, the pressures on that interpreter are very great. Sometimes interpreters feel uneasy about what they do because, for the witness or the accused person, they are agents of the court, employed by the court for the court’s purposes and therefore potentially an enemy or hostile. The accused person tends to treat interpreters as distant people, very much like ‘out group’ people. Conversely, the judge and the magistrates in the court will tend to think people may ask for interpreters because they want to erect a smoke screen; they want to make everything very indirect and “to stop us getting them”. Therefore, they distrust interpreters because they regard them as an ally of the accused person. So, interpreters are halfway in between and have this problem of loyalties. Under those circumstances, the interpreter, for whom the accused person is, by definition, part of the ‘inside-group’ (may have the same nationality, same age, same cultural background, etc.), has to assume a neutrality which is very difficult to maintain. To sum up, I would like to conclude at this point that there is a need for interpreters to have very explicit training in the pragmatics of discourse and the way in which they operate particularly in an intercultural context. This unfortunately is not explicitly part of the interpreter’s training. Moreover, what I have stated about interpreting, (i.e. the oral mode of using language), is equally applicable to the written mode of using language. However, the pragmatic variables of discourse in written languages (translating) are more difficult to perceive than in spoken languages (interpreting).

11.7 Test your Knowledge 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

What are the main ideas you have learnt from this chapter? Define the term “pragmatics” and explain how it can effect communication. What are Grice’s maxims? Compare between the maxim of “relevance” and the maxim of “quality”. Are there any codes of ethics in interpreting? Why do you think so? What is Grice’s main principle? Look through this chapter again, and explain the term “Implicature”. Give two factors that contribute to the breakdown in cross cultural communication.

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CHAPTER 12

Translation and Synonymy 12.1 Introduction In this chapter, an attempt will be made to examine the intricate nature of synonymy in an attempt to investigate its problematic nature in relation to translation. Emphasis will be made on whether or not translation is a form of synonymy. Types of synonymy will be analyzed and then examples from both English and Arabic will be provided to examine the overlap between one form of synonymy and another. Conclusions will be drawn at the end of the analysis and implications will be provided for further studies.

12.2 What is Synonymy? Although the notion of synonymy has been regarded in the past two decades as one of the most significant linguistic phenomena that influenced the structure of the lexicon, not much attention has been paid to this notion in the fields of lexicography, psychology or even computational linguistics (Edmonds and Hirst 2002). Whatever the reason, whether it be philosophical, practical or of expedience, synonymy was thought of as a non-problematic issue in linguistics or translation, because we have either synonyms with meanings that are completely identical and hence easy to deal with, or we have non-synonyms, in which case they can be treated as just different words (ibid: 106). The notion of near-synonyms, Edmonds and Hirst argue, shows that it is just as complex as the notion of polysemy, and that it inherently affects the structure of the lexical knowledge. So what is this notion that is called synonymy? Synonymy is a kind of semantic relation among words. Technically, it occurs when two or more linguistic forms are used to substitute one another in any context in which their common meaning is not affected denotatively or connotatively. For example, words such as healthy and well, sick and

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ill, quickly and speedily, quickly and rapidly may be viewed as examples of synonymy, simply because they share most of the characteristics with one another. In an article entitled Translating Cultures: a Light-Hearted Look at the Pitfalls of Communication through Translation, Shaw (2003) states that human beings can differentiate between the nuances and/or fine distinctions of meanings between one object and another. Shaw exemplifies this by saying that, within our own language, a show can be a play, a drama, a musical, or a movie. The word show can even be a display of talent, i.e. a talent or a variety show. Shaw argues that, later on in life, we learn the real significant differences between angry, upset, bothered, ticked off, furious, and ballistic (as in “he went ballistic when they criticized his friends”). This same distinguishing process takes place as we learn a second language and, at the same time, learn that words have values and such values have unique and different semantic units. Along the same line, Hjorland (2007) believes that synonymy is a kind of semantic relation. That is, words or phrases are synonymous only if they have the same meaning. However, there are cases where words or phrases may have subtle meanings and may therefore give rise to different word associations. For example, the Word Net database (2006) differentiates between different kinds of meanings for the word “computer” (cited in Edmonds and Hirst 2002:107). The first meaning is given as a “machine for performing calculations automatically”. Here is a list of the different meanings the word computer entails: Computer Computing machine Computing device Data processor Electronic computer Information processing system From a non-contextual point of view, Merriam-Webster’s New Dictionary of Synonyms (1984: 24) provides the following accurate definition of synonymy: A synonym, in this dictionary, will always mean one of two or more words in the English language which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning. Synonyms, therefore, are only such words as may be defined wholly, or almost wholly, in the same terms. Usually they are distinguished from one another by an added implication or connotation, or they may differ in their idiomatic use or in their application. The above definition is a bit loose, as it does not distinguish between full or complete synonymy and near or partial synonymy. Synonymy has been defined as both full

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and partial synonymy, ignoring the subtle differences between one word and another. This inadequate definition, or rather the way some may regard synonymy, is a bit confusing to translators, particularly those who believe translation to be a form of synonymy.

12.3 Types of Synonymy Since many linguists believe that true or complete synonymy does not exist in any language (Quine 1951; Cruse 1986: 270), attempts were made to classify synonymy into types. According to Quine (1951), there are two kinds of synonymy: complete synonymy and partial synonymy. Complete synonymy is regarded as words having identical meaning components. In more specific terms, words are complete synonyms if and only if they share all ingredients with one another. According to Quine, this kind of synonymy does not exist simply because it is impossible to define, and the meanings of words in monolingual or multilingual settings are constantly changing. Therefore, words may share most of the constituents with one another, but not all the constituents. As for partial synonymy, it is when words share most of the necessary components or constituents. For example, the words finish and terminate may share most of the characteristics with one another, but they are still different in some respects. The word finish suggests the final stage of doing something, whereas terminate suggests reaching a limit. It may suggest an end to a previous formal rendezvous. Since complete synonymy does not exist in monolingual settings, let alone across languages, partial synonymy has been emphasized. This dichotomy between complete and partial synonymy has added salt to injury in dealing with the notion of equivalence in translation or whether or not translation is a form of synonymy. Based on the above discussion, I believe there is clear confusion as to what constitutes synonymy. That is, some treat synonymy as words sharing several characteristics with one another (Nida 1969: 73). Others suggest that this is regarded as a form of partial synonymy (Edmonds and Hirst 2002:107). I would like to suggest here that in order to be reasonable and clear, synonymy should be classified as follows:

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Synonymy

Complete (full) Synonymy

Near (partial) Synonymy

No Synonymy

Figure (1) Classifications of Synonymy

The above diagram shows that, for two words to be synonymous, they have to be identical and share all essential components and thus capable of being used to substitute one another in all contexts without any noticeable difference in their meanings. This kind of synonymy does not exist, without any doubt, between two text versions of the same language or source texts, let alone texts across languages.

12.4 Translation and Synonymy My point of departure here is to suggest that translation is not a form of synonymy, simply because words may have semantic values that are not translatable into other languages. For example, although words such as lie, falsehood, untruth, fib, and misrepresentation may be used to substitute one another in most contexts within the same language, they cannot be used to substitute one another in all contexts. According to Edmonds and Hirst (2002: 107), these are regarded as near or partial synonyms. The explanation given by Edmonds and Hirst is as follows: Indeed, near-synonyms are pervasive in language; examples are easy to find. Lie, falsehood, untruth, fib, and misrepresentation, for instance, are near-synonyms of one another. All denote a statement that does not conform to the truth, but they differ from one another in fine aspects of their denotation. A lie is a deliberate attempt to deceive that is a flat contradiction of the truth, whereas a misrepresentation may be more indirect, as by misplacement of emphasis, an untruth might be told merely out of ignorance, and a fib is deliberate but relatively trivial, possibly told to save one’s own or another’s face (Gove 1984). The words also differ stylistically; fib is an informal, childish term, whereas falsehood is quite formal, and untruth can be used euphemistically to avoid some of the derogatory implications of some of the other terms.

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From a different angle, the Arabic words hisaan, faras, jawaad, agarr stand for the English word horse. Although these words can be used interchangeably in most contexts (since they all refer to the word horse), they are not interchangeable in all contexts. If we take the words for horse, we may find the following meanings that are synonymous and used in a context related to that word: 1. 2. 3. 4.

The word hisaan has the components of horse and male. The word faras has the components of horse and male or female. The word jawaad has the components of a particular horse, which is fast, male or female. The word agarr has the components of a particular horse, which has a white patch on its forehead and male or female.

The plural form of any of these forms is khayl (horses), though (1) and (2) can have their distinct plurals as hisaan/ahsina and faras as furus/afraas, respectively. The above synonymous words have more than one semantic component in common. All of them have the component horse and male and female components. Only (1) has the component male alone, while (2) and (4) share the component male or female. We can also find that (1) and (2) have no distinctive qualities as horses, other than the components mentioned. However, (3) is characterized by agile movement and fastness and (4) by a special white patch on the forehead, which naturally contrasts with the overall dark color of the horse. How can the translator render these words in translation with their shared meanings into other language, without any loss or gain of meaning? This is an area where more research needs to be done. In actuality, however, (1) and (2) can be used to substitute one another, without posing serious syntactic or semantic difficulties. I believe translators will have no difficulty transferring any of these two forms into English as horse since the words denote species and gender. Although (3) denotes a race horse, it can also be used to refer to horse in the general sense, with some loss of meaning in its associative meaning, i.e. fast horse. As for the word in (4), translators have to make it clear when transferring the meaning of this word into English as horse, that it denotes a horse of a particular color. If translators choose to be more faithful to the (SL) text, they can resort to a paraphrase, in which case the word jawaad can be translated as a race horse, and agarr as a horse with a white patch on the forehead. If one agrees with Nida that, when dealing with synonymous words, we must look at the different componential features of the meanings of these synonyms and “select only those meanings which compete in the same semantic fields” (Nida 1969: 64), then we can be sure that the Arabic words for horse mentioned above are near synonyms. Such words show certain overlapping areas of meaning which ‘compete in the same semantic field.’ Also, Arabic words such sayf, muhannad, husaam, among other words or expressions, stand for the English word sword. The word sayf is a neutral word, denoting the English

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word sword. Although the words muhannad and husaam share all the characteristics with the word sword, they connote additional characteristics. For example, the word muhannad refers to a sword in its sheath, scabbard, or case, indicating that the sword has not been used yet. The word husaam refers to a sword that is pointed or sharp. It also suggests meanings of straightforwardness or uprightness. The neutral Arabic word sayf does not allude to such connotations. The question now is whether or not these words can be used to replace one another in all contexts without any loss or gain of meaning. In other words, are all these synonyms substitutable for one another in all contexts? From a linguistic perspective, Nida (1969: 73) defines synonymy in language as “words which share several (but not all) essential components and thus can be used to substitute one another in some (but not all) contexts without any appreciable difference of meaning in these contexts, e.g. love and like.” Peter Newmark (1981: 101) takes a position similar to that of Nida declaring very clearly “I do not approve of the proposition that translation is a form of synonymy.” Susan Bassnett-McGuire explains synonymy and the complexities associated with it in more detail. She points out that even apparent synonymy does not yield equivalence, “hence a dictionary of so-called synonyms may give the word perfect as a synonym for ideal or vehicle as a synonym for conveyance but in neither case can there be said to be complete equivalence, since each unit contains within itself a set of non-translatable associations and connotations” (Bassnett-McGuire 1980: 15). Furthermore, Bassnett-McGuire (1980:29) argues that “equivalence in translation should not be approached as a search for sameness, since sameness cannot even exist between two (TL) versions of the same text, let alone between the (SL) and the (TL) versions. Anna Wierzbicka, on the other hand, examines the problem of synonymy and translatability by analyzing the deep structures of a language in terms of what she calls semantic primitives. Discussing the problems involved in translating the English color words and kinship terminology into other languages, she arrives at the conclusion that utterances in various languages differ, not only in their surface structures, but in their deep structures as well. Wierzbicka (1980: 67) maintains that “those different deep structures are always expressible in languages, which are mutually isomorphic; they are all isomorphic with respect to the universal lingua that is to the language of semantic primitives. For this reason, deep structures of sentences in different languages (different as they may be in themselves) are always mutually translatable.” To sum up, synonymy does not mean sameness, as this form of synonymy does not exist in monolingual or multilingual settings. Synonymy can be described in terms of exact replacement and interchangeability. That is, words can be described as synonymous if and only if they replace each other in all contexts without any change in either the cognitive or emotive import.

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Moreover, equivalence may be regarded as an appropriate criterion that proves to be an adequate form of translation. What is meant by equivalence here is the fact that every linguistic unit (below the level of the sentence) has a characteristic distribution. If two (or more) units occur in the same range of contexts, they are to be distributionally equivalent (or have the same distribution). It is extremely important however to make sure that these two equivalent lexical items are synonymous if and only if there is no change in the meaning within the whole text.

12.5 Test Your Knowledge 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What is synonymy? What are the two types of synonymy discussed in this chapter? Is synonymy problematic in translation? Explain your answer with examples for your native language. Is translation a form of synonymy? If, no, explain your answer. Select the longest paragraph in this chapter and, after reading it carefully, identify all forms of synonymy.

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CHAPTER 13

Translation and Scientific Texts 13.1 Introduction In this chapter, an attempt will be made to examine why scientific translation is more important today than it was yesterday. Could it be the fact that translation is linked to everyday technology or the impact technology has on translation? Could it be a combination of both? Could it be due to the fact that English, as a global language, is important? What are the factors that give rise to problems in scientific translation? Can we reduce the gap between the language of science and the language of art? These questions, I believe, have a lot to say about translation and science.

13.2 Global Language and Science David Crystal (2003), in an article entitled “English as a Global Language”, asks many questions about the status of the English language. As he asks, what does it mean for a language to be global? What are the advantages or disadvantages of a global language? Such questions inspired many linguists to debate the prominent role of English as an international language. Witt (2000) states that although English is not the language with the greatest number of native speakers, in Europe for example, its importance for communication is growing. One may find that the English language plays an important role in many fields such as media, foreign language teaching, business, etc. It is the key to access the western modern sciences and technological advances (Shaobin 2002). Researcher, Graddol (1997), argues that two billion people will be learning English as it becomes a truly “world language”. All this points to the fact that since there is a close link between language dominance and economics, technological and cultural power (Crystal 2003: 7), then one expects to see that acts of translation across languages will flourish. Translation has and will continue to play a significant role in human interaction and in the transference of knowledge (ibid: 11); this unquestionably will put a greater demand on translation. With the dissemination of information, whether

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it be internet or computer information, medical terminologies, technological and scientific discoveries, the demand on transferring this knowledge from one language to another will definitely increase, simply because the world progresses scientifically, and many lexical items emerge by the minute. Therefore, translators have to find ways to render these new items into other languages. At the present time, translators unfortunately have little to say about newly scientific terms, and this may hinder the translator from translating effectively. I assume people as well as linguists have to develop a sense of appreciation of what translators go through before they read a translated scientific text. Words such as bolt, gaskets, stave sheet, tank chime, all have their own translation problems, resulting either from the lack of such terms in one language or another or the difficulty of approximating between target language and source language terms. In any act of translation, an engineering project, for example, translators do not only deal with linguistic terminology, but also with terms that are relevant to building projects. That is, translators working on an engineering project may work on translating non-existing terminology related to project foundation, grounding, drainage, external paving, electric systems, multimedia communication systems, doors and windows, glazing, pluming, tiling, paintwork, wall covering, carpeting, false ceiling, lifts, air conditioning, fittings and fixtures of all kinds, etc. This is only one kind of environment translators may choose to work in. Other areas of scientific translation may include new discoveries, internet and computer technology, new species or disease discoveries, space and aviation worlds, etc. People may think at times that translation skills are homogeneous, but a cursory look at a simple scientific text will prove the contrary. Translators have to develop skills to translate scientific texts, but such skills are not the same to translate literary or journalistic texts. Here is a text that manifests one level of difficulty in scientific translation: Notched Panel Installation Supplement Colombian TecTank (2005) Care must be used in erecting a notched panel tank. The tank must be protected from wind damage at all times. Rings should be stable before attempting to use an inside drive-out ladder. Installation of the notched panel tank proceed as outlined in the Liquid Erection Manual for the floor and bottom chime connection. The following procedures are for preparation of the tank panels (gasket and bolts) and installation of tank panels. Tank panels generally consist of a bottom panel, (figure 1) and intermediate panel, (figure 3) and a top panel (figure 6). Panels can be one row vertically punched without a notch, two rows and three rows vertically punched with a notch. A cursory look at this text indicates that this text is loaded with scientific terms. I wonder how many of these words can be found in other languages. This is a question worth

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pondering. Also, words such as fax, steering wheel, car switch, sandwich, and any other borrowed words from English have their roots in all cultures that it becomes very hard to come up with an equivalent. So based on this, there must be some requirements for a translator to be a good translator for scientific texts. Nida (1964), in his book entitled Toward a Science of Translating, elaborates on the difficulty of translating scientific texts. Apart from describing the fundamental elements of translating and setting translation into the context of historical changes in principles and procedures over the last two centuries, and with his emphasis on texts being understood within their cultural contexts, he believes that translating a scientific text entails familiarity with sciences in different languages. He believes that if translating scientific material from a language contributing to the progress of science is difficult, then translating scientific material from a language that is outside the domain of science would be extremely difficult. Nida (1964: 223) states: If, however, the translation of scientific texts from one language to another participating in modern cultural development is not too difficult, it is not surprising that the converse is true-that translating scientific material from a modern indo-European language in a language largely outside the reach of western science is extremely difficult. This really is one of the pressing problems confronting linguists in Asia today. Having said so, translating scientific material requires different skills and familiarity with scientific material regardless of its source. Whether a specific language contributes to the progress of technology and science or receives technology and science, translating material will contribute in either way. In an article entitled Aspects of Scientific Translation, Al Hassnawi (2004) states requirements that are necessary for scientific translation. According to the London Institute, Al Hassnawi points out that to be a scientific translator one should have the following: 1. 2.

broad knowledge of the subject-matter of the text to be translated; a well-developed imagination that enables the translator to visualize the equipment or process being described; 3. intelligence, to be able to fill in the missing links in the original text; 4. a sense of discrimination, to be able to choose the most suitable equivalent term from the literature of the field or from dictionaries; 5. the ability to use one’s own language with clarity, conciseness, and precision; and 6. practical experience in translating from related fields. In short, to be a technical translator, one must be a scientist or an engineer, a

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linguist or a writer (see Gasagrade 1954: 335-40; Giles 1995; Latfipour 1996 cited in Al Hassnawi). Along the same line, Ilyas (1989: 109) describes scientific translation as being difficult since its language is direct and technical. He believes that scientific texts do not express views or opinions, but rather facts, experiments and hypotheses. Therefore, it does not accrue emotional association and implications. This, according to Ilyas, explains why a scientific text is more direct and free from alternatives. A scientific text is also less artistic, and its language is characterized by an impersonal style and a precise signification. Ilyas believes that the difficulty of translating scientific material emerges when one translates from a language spoken by a developed nation into the language spoken by a developing or underdeveloped nation. One wonders then how the following examples (taken from Ilyas) can be rendered into other languages: Bismuth Nadir Alcazar Borax Sherbet Algebra Cipher Elixir Alembic Alkali Alcohol Carburetor

The question here is whether or not such terms have equivalents in other languages. Translators, therefore, have to resort to methods of extraction or derivation, loanwords or borrowing, coinage, innovation or creation.

13.3 Language of Science vs. Language of Literature In an attempt to differentiate between the language of science and the language of literature, Al Hassnawi (2004) highlights some language details pertaining to both types of languages. Al Hassnawi successfully demarcates the defining features and characteristics between a scientific language and a literary language in the following table:

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Scientific Texts

Literary Texts

–– Logicality

–– Lack of argumentative progression

–– Precision

–– Vagueness

–– Reason

–– Emotion

–– Truth to particular reality

–– Truth to the ideal

–– Generalization

–– Concretion

–– Referential meaning

–– Emotive meaning

–– Denotation

–– Connotation

–– Lexical affixation

–– Grammatical affixation

–– Idiomatic expressions are rare

–– Idiomatic expressions are frequent

–– Use of abbreviations, acronyms, and registers

–– Very few abbreviations, acronyms, and registers

–– Standard expressions

–– Almost all varieties

–– Use of scientific terminology, specialized items, and formulae

–– No use of scientific terminology, or formulae

–– No use of elements of figurative language

–– Expensive use of figurative language

Table (1) Differences between Science and Literature According to Al Hassnawi (2004)

Like some other disciplines, science has specialized terminology. It has its own jargon and its own writing style. Jones (1965) presents the following ten stylistic characteristics as a summary of good scientific writing: 1) It presents facts. It deals with the application of scientific generalizations to specific situations. 2) It is accurate and truthful. It does not guess. It tells the whole truth. 3) It is disinterested. Its purpose is to inform, not to achieve selfish purposes or to persuade a reader. Facts alone do not make writing scientific. 4) It is systematic and logically developed. 5) It is not emotive. Its appeal is to reason and understand, not feel. When it generalizes, it does so in accordance with the laws of in-

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6) 7) 8) 9)

10)

ductive reasoning. It avoids high-level abstraction with emotional appeal. It excludes unsupported opinions. It is sincere. It tells the truth and avoids language that would make a reader question its sincerity. It is not argumentative. It reaches its general conclusions on the basis of facts. It is not directly persuasive. It is concerned with facts, with the general laws that may be derived from the study of facts, and with the application of general laws to specific problems. If it persuades, it does so by logical reasoning. It does not exaggerate. Because it is disinterested, it does not distort facts.

It should be pointed out here that while the above differentiation between the language of science and language of arts is extremely significant, in the end it all boils down to the translator’s experience in this particular field. I believe experience with capacity to visualize the scientific term, and invention and creativity along with the requirements of a scientific translator are key elements to translation, particularly scientific translation. As Robinson (2003) states that experience is everything. While experience is important, he flatly asserts that some experiences are richer and more memorable than others (ibid 136).

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13.4 Test Your Knowledge 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What constitutes scientific translation? Provide exemplifications. Describe the language of science. How is the language of science different from the language of literature? What are the problems associated with scientific translation? What method can be used for scientific translation?

13.5 Analysis and Translation of Sentences and Texts Read the following sentences/texts very carefully, and then translate them into the other language: 1.

As the ship moves along, its specially designed hull shape forces any oil it encounters underneath the boat past the holes.

The standard way of mopping oil spills starts by containing the slick, using large floating booms and then the salvage team uses skimming equipment to scoop up the oil.

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Text 1

Prevention and Management of Diabetic Foot Ulcers (Taken from Research, Vol.5, Issue 2, 2003) An unwelcome consequence of the dramatic changes in life style and eating habits that have occurred in the United Arab Emirates in recent times has been the rise of Type II diabetes (formerly known as maturity onset diabetes or non-insulin–dependent diabetes). It is believed that among the urban population of UAE nationals, the incidence of Type II diabetes is about 20% – 30%, which is among the highest in the world.

Foot ulcers are a major problem for patients with diabetes and statistics indicate that at least 15% of such patients have suffered at one time or another from this condition. Several factors place diabetic patients at high risk for ulceration of the foot. These include foot deformities such as bunions, corns and calluses, peripheral neuropathy (damage to nerves supplying the feet), micro or macro angiopathy (damage to blood vessels leading to decreased blood flow to the feet) and obesity leading to high pressure on the foot. Other risk factors include poor glucose control, duration of diabetes over 10 years and smoking.

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A Slicker Way to Clean up Oil Tanker Spills (Research, Vol.5, Issue 2, 2003)

Text 2

Giant fuel tankers spewing oil into the sea are an all too familiar sight. When an oil spill accident occurs within a marine environment, it usually leads to serious environmental and economical impacts on the whole society. Oil spill mitigation techniques are complex and evolving. In this research project, the research team headed by Dr. Mamdouh Ghannam has investigated the possibility of developing a new technique based on the density difference between crude oil and water as well as the energy of the injected air bubbles to move the crude oil spill towards a recovery unit. The Unit has been designed and built (see Graphic) by a team of female students, Nadia Saleh, Nada Naser and Fatima Khaliefa, as part of their graduation project during the first semester of the academic year 2002/2003.

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13.6 Finding Equivalent Terms in the Target Language The following terms are scientific terms. Many of the terms are in the fields of medicine, engineering, biology, physics, etc. Some of these terms were taken from the National Institute of Health (2003), University of Kansas Medical Center (USA); others were taken from Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia (2006b). Study the scientific terms or concepts below and find equivalents in the target language.

Scientific Terms

Definition

Acceleration

Acceleration is the rate at which the velocity vector changes.

Acquired mutations

Gene changes that arise within individual cells and accumulate throughout a person’s lifetime; also called somatic mutations.

Adenine (A)

A nitrogenous base, one member of the base pair A-T (adenine-thymine).

Acupuncture

It is the practice of inserting very thin needles in specific acupuncture points or combinations of points on the body to improve health and well-being.

Alleles

Variant forms of the same gene. Different alleles produce variations in inherited characteristics such as eye color or blood type.

Allopathy

The term “Allopathy” was coined by Samuel Hanemann. The term “Allopathy medicine” is used most frequently in the context of critiques of conventional medicine.

Alpha-fetoprotein (AEP)

A protein excreted by the fetus into the amniotic fluid and from there into the mother’s bloodstream through the placenta.

Amino acid sequence

The linear order of the amino acids in protein or peptide.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Amniocentesis

Prenatal diagnosis method using cells in the amniotic fluid to determine the number and kind of chromosomes of the fetus and, when indicated, perform biochemical studies.

Autosome

Any of the non-sex-determining chromosomes. Human cells have 22 pairs of autosomes.

Bates Method

The Bates Method is an alternative approach to eyesight improvement and maintenance.

Bone marrow transplantation

A procedure in which doctors replace marrow destroyed by treatment with high doses of anticancer drugs or radiation.

Breathing Meditation

Deep breathing involves slow, deep inhalation through the nose, usually for a count of 10, followed by slow and complete exhalation for a similar count.

CAM

CAM is an acronym for complementary and alternative medicine. It also includes the recent addition of integrative medicine.

Carrier

An individual heterozygous for a single recessive gene.

Catheter

A thin plastic tube.

Chelation therapy

Chelation therapy is the use of chelating agents such as EDTA to remove heavy metals from the body.

Chiropractic medicine

Chiropractic is a popular form of alternative medicine whose physical mode of action is spinal manipulations that allegedly unblock nerve signals sent by the brain so that the body can heal itself.

Clone

A group of identical genes, cells, or organisms derived from a single ancestor.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Cloning

The process of making genetically identical copies.

Codon

A sequence of three nucleotides in messenger mRNA that specifies an amino acid.

Colonoscopy

Examination of the colon through a flexible, lighted instrument called a colonoscope.

Consanguinity

Genetic relationship.

Conserved sequence

A base sequence in a DNA molecule (or an amino acid sequence in a protein) that has remained essentially unchanged throughout evolution.

CT or CAT scan

Detailed pictures of areas of the body created by a computer linked to an x-ray machine. Also called computed tomography scan or computed axial tomography scan.

Current

Current is the rate of flow of electrical charge.

Diploid

A full set of genetic material, consisting of paired chromosomes one chromosome from each parental set. Most animal cells except the gametes have a diploid set of chromosomes. The diploid human genome has 46 chromosomes.

Distance

One of the undefined qualities of physics, it measures the separation of two points.

DNA

The substance of heredity; a large molecule that carries the genetic information that cells need to replicate and to produce proteins.

DNA hybridization

A technique for selectively binding specific segments of single-stranded (ss) DNA or RNA by base pairing to complementary sequences on ssDNA molecules that are trapped on a nitrocellulose filter.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

DNA probe

Any biochemical used to identify or isolate a gene, a gene product, or a protein.

Domain

A discrete portion of a protein with its own function. The combination of domains in a single protein determines its overall function.

Double helix

The shape that two linear strands of DNA assume when bonded together.

E. coli

Common bacterium that has been studied intensively by geneticists because of its small genome size, normal lack of pathogenicity, and ease of growth in the laboratory.

Electrophoresis

A method of separating large molecules (such as DNA fragments or proteins) from a mixture of similar molecules. An electric current is passed through a medium containing the mixture, and each kind of molecule travels through the medium at a different rate, depending on its electrical charge and size. Separation is based on these differences. Agarose and acrylamide gels are the media commonly used for electrophoresis of proteins and nucleic acids.

Enzyme

A protein that facilitates a specific chemical reaction.

Erythrocytes

The hemoglobin-containing cell found in the blood of vertebrates, red blood cells.

Euchromatin

The chromatin that shows the staining behavior characteristic of the majority of the chromosomal complement.

Eugenics

The improvement of humanity by altering its genetic composition by encouraging breeding of those presumed to have desirable genes.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Eukaryote

Cell or organism with membrane- bound, structurally discrete nucleus and other well- developed subcellular compartments. Eukaryotes include all organisms except viruses, bacteria, and blue- green algae.

Exogenous DNA

DNA originating outside an organism.

Exons

The protein- coding DNA sequences of a gene.

Fecal occult blood test (FEEkul-o-KULT)

A test to check for hidden blood in stool. Fecal refers to stool. Occult means hidden.

FISH

Florescent in situ hybridization: a technique for uniquely identifying whole chromosomes or parts of chromosomes using florescent tagged DNA.

Flower essence therapy

Flower essence therapy is a sub-category of homeopathy which uses homeopathic dilutions of flowers. This practice was begun by Edward Batch with the Baxch floweer remedies but is now practiced much more widely, utilizing flowers all over the world. There are numerous makers of flower essences, using the flowers that are local to their region.

Flow karyotyping

Use of flow cytometry to analyze and/or separate chromosomes on the basis of their DNA content.

Gamete

Male or female reproductive cell (sperm or ovum) with a haploid set of chromosomes (23 for humans).

Gene

A unit of inheritance; a working subunit of DNA. Each of the body’s 50,000 to 100,000 genes contains the code for a specific product, typically, a protein such as an enzyme.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Gene expression

The process by which a gene’s coded information is translated into the structures present and operating in the cell (either proteins or RNAs).

Genetic linkage map

A chromosome map showing the relative positions of the known genes on the chromosomes of a given species.

Genome

All the genetic material in the chromosomes of a particular organism; its size is generally given as its total number of base pairs.

Genotype

Genetic constitution of an organism.

Golden Age of Quackery

Eighteenth-century England is remembered as the Golden Age of Quackery, since Queen Ann patronized and gave credibility to myriad swindlers and frauds.

Grahamism

Grahamism recommended hard mattresses, open bedroom windows, chastity, cold showers, loose clothing, pure water and vigorous exercise.

Haploid

A single set of chromosomes (half the full set of genetic material), present in the egg and sperm cells of animals and in the egg and pollen cells of plants. Human beings have 23 chromosomes in their reproductive cells.

Hardy-Weinberg Law

The concept that both gene frequencies and genotype frequencies will remain constant from generation to generation in an infinitely large, interbreeding population in which mating is at random and there is no selection, migration or mutation.

Hereditary mutation

A gene change in the body’s reproductive cells (egg or sperm) that becomes incorporated in the DNA of every cell in the body; also called germline mutation.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Heterogeneity

The production of identical or similar phenotypes by different genetic mechanisms.

Heterozygosity

The presence of different alleles at one or more loci on homologous chromosomes.

Heterozygote

Having two alleles that are different for a given gene.

Homeobox

A short stretch of nucleotides whose base sequence is virtually identical in all the genes that contain it. It has been found in many organisms from fruit flies to human beings. In the fruit fly, a homeobox appears to determine when particular groups of genes are expressed during development.

Homologies

Similarities in DNA or protein sequences between individuals of the same species or among different species.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy is an alternative medical practice founded on resemblances. The underlying theory is that diseases are cured by remedies which produce, on a healthy person, similar effects to the symptoms of the patient’s complaint. For example, someone suffering from insomnia may be given a homeopathic dose of coffee. Administered in diluted form, homeopathic remedies are derived from many natural sources, including plants, metals, and minerals. Numbering in the thousands, these remedies have been used to treat a wide variety of ailments including seasonal allergies, asthma, influenza, headaches, and indigestion.

Homozygote

Having identical alleles at one or more loci in homologous chromosome segments.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Hormones

Chemicals produced by glands in the body. Hormones control the actions of certain cells or organs.

Housekeeping genes

Those genes expressed in all cells because they provide functions needed for sustenance of all cell types.

HUGO

Human Genome Organization.

Hybridization

The process of joining two complementary strands of DNA or one each of DNA and RNA to form a double- stranded molecule.

Imaging

Procedures that produce pictures of areas inside the body.

Immune system

The complex group of cells and organs that defends the body against infection and disease.

In situ hybridization

Use of a DNA or RNA probe to detect the presence of the complementary DNA sequence in cloned bacterial or cultured eukaryotic cells.

In vitro

Outside a living organism.

Inborn errors of metabolism

Inherited diseases resulting from alterations in genes that code for enzymes.

Incomplete penetrance

The gene for a condition is present, but not obviously expressed in all individuals in a family with the gene.

Informatics

The study of the application of computer and statistical techniques to the management of information. In genome projects, informatics includes the development of methods to search databases quickly, to analyze DNA sequence information, and to predict protein sequence and structure from DNA sequence data.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Interferon (in-ter-FEER-on)

A type of biological response modifier (a substance that can improve the body’s natural response to disease). It slows the rate of growth and division of cancer cells, causing them to become sluggish and die.

Interleukin-2 (in-ter-LOOkin)

A type of biological response modifier (a substance that can improve the body’s natural response to disease). It stimulates the growth of certain disease-fighting blood cells in the immune system.

Introns

The DNA base sequences interrupting the protein- coding sequences of a gene; these sequences are transcribed into RNA but are cut out of the message before it is translated into protein.

Iridology

Iridology is the study of the iris to determine health.

Journaling

Journaling is a technique for reducing stress by writing about stressful events in your life.

Karyotype

A set of photographed, banded chromosomes arranged in order from largest to smallest.

Kilobase (kb)

Unit of length for DNA fragments equal to 1000 nucleotides

Kinetic Energy

Notice that this energy of motion is proportional to the square of the speed. The unit of Joule may also be expressed as kg(m/sec)(m/sec).

Ligase

An enzyme that functions in DNA repair.

Local treatment

Treatment that affects the tumor and the area close to it.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Localize

Determination of the original position (locus) of a gene or other marker on a chromosome.

Locus (plural is loci)

The position on a chromosome of a gene or other chromosome marker; also, the DNA at that position. The use of locus is sometimes restricted to mean regions of DNA that are expressed.

Lod score

Logarithm of the odd score; a measure of the likelihood of two loci being within a measurable distance of each other.

Lymph (limf)

An almost colorless fluid that travels through the lymphatic system and carries cells that help fight infection and disease.

Lymph nodes

Small, bean-shaped organs located along the channels of the lymphatic system. Bacteria or cancer cells that enter the lymphatic system may be found in the nodes.

Macrorestriction map

Map depicting the order of and distance between sites at which restriction enzymes cleave chromosomes.

Malignant (ma-LIG-nant)

Cancerous.

Mammogram (MAM-o-gram)

An x-ray of the breast.

Mass

One of the undefined qualities of physics, mass is the measure of inertia.

Megabase (Mb)

Unit of length for DNA fragments equal to 1 million nucleotides and roughly equal to 1 CM.

Meiosis

The doubling of gametic chromosome number. Meiosis results in four rather than two daughter cells, each with a haploid set of chromosomes.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Melanoma

Cancer of the cells that produce pigment in the skin. Melanoma usually begins in a mole.

Metaphase

A stage in mitosis or meiosis during which the chromosomes are aligned along the equatorial plane of the cell.

Metastasis (mehTAS-ta-sis)

The spread of cancer from one part of the body to another. Cells in the metastatic (secondary) tumor are like those in the original (primary) tumor.

Missense mutation

A change in the base sequence of a gene that alters or eliminates a protein.

Mitochondrial DNA

The mitochondrial genome consists of a circular DNA duplex, with 5 to 10 copies per organelle.

Mitosis

The process of nuclear division in cells that produces daughter cells that are genetically identical to each other and to the parent cell.

Molecule

A group of atoms arranged to interact in a particular way; one molecule of any substance is the smallest physical unit of that particular substance.

Monoclonal antibodies

Substances that can locate and bind to cancer cells wherever they are in the body. They can be used alone, or they can be used to deliver drugs, toxins, or radioactive material directly to the tumor cells.

Moxa

Moxa is an herbal preparation of mugwort dried and rolled into a pole which resembles a cigar. It is not smoked, but used for warming regions on the body including acupunturepoints. The use of moxa is called moxibustion.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Mutation

A change in the number, arrangement, or molecular sequence of a gene.

Newborn screening (for genetic disorders)

Examining blood samples from a newborn infant to detect disease-related abnormalities or deficiencies in gene products. There are other purposes for, and methods of, screening newborns.

Nitrogenous base

A nitrogen containing molecule having the chemical properties of a base.

Nucleic acid

A large molecule composed of nucleotide subunits.

Nucleotide

A subunit of DNA or RNA, consisting of one chemical base plus a phosphate molecule and a sugar molecule.

Oncogenes

Genes that normally play a role in the growth of cells but, when over expressed or mutated, can foster the growth of cancer.

Oncologist (on-KOL-o-jist)

A doctor who specializes in treating cancer.

Pap test

Microscopic examination of cells collected from the cervix. It is used to detect changes that may be cancer or may lead to cancer, and it can show noncancerous conditions, such as infection or inflammation.

Parthenogenesis

The development of an individual from an egg without fertilization.

Pedigree

A diagram of the heredity of a particular trait through many generations of a family.

Pelvic

Having to do with the pelvis, the lower part of the abdomen, located between the hip bones.

Penetrance

A term indicating the likelihood that a given gene will actually result in disease.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Phage

A virus for which the natural host is a bacterial cell.

Phenotype

Observable characteristics of an organism produced by the organism’s genotype interacting with the environment.

Plasmid

Autonomously replicating, extrachromosomal circular DNA molecules, distinct from the normal bacterial genome and nonessential for cell survival under nonselective conditions. Some plasmids are capable of integrating into the host genome. A number of artificially constructed plasmids are used as cloning vectors.

Pleiotropy

The phenomenon of variable phenotypes for a number of distinct and seemingly unrelated phenotypic effects.

Plum blossom

Plum blossom is the name of a tool (also called “Seven Star”) and a technique in traditional Chinese medicine, as well as a metaphor used by several different Chinese martial arts.

Polygenic disorders

Genetic disorders resulting from the combined action of alleles of more than one gene (e.g. heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers). Although such disorders are inherited, they depend on the simultaneous presence of several alleles; thus the hereditary patterns are usually more complex than those of single- gene disorders.

Polymerase

Any enzyme that catalyzes the formation of DNA or RNA from deoxyribonucleotides or ribonucleotides.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Polymerase, DNA or RNA

Enzymes that catalyze the synthesis of nucleic acids on preexisting nucleic acid templates, assembling RNA from ribonucleotides or DNA from deoxyribonucleotides.

Position

The position of an object is its distance from zero. The position depends on the zero (origin) of the measurement.

Predisposition

To have a tendency or inclination towards something in advance.

Primer

Nucleotides used in the polymerase chain reaction to initiate DNA synthesis at a particular location.

Proband

Individual in a family who brought the family to medical attention.

Probe

Single-stranded DNA labeled with radioactive isotopes or tagged in other ways for ease in identification.

Promoter

A site on DNA to which RNA polymerase will bind and initiate transcription.

Protein

A large, complex molecule composed of amino acids. The sequence of the amino acids, and thus the function of the protein, is determined by the sequence of the base pairs in the gene that encodes it. Proteins are essential to the structure, function, and regulation of the body. Examples are hormones, enzymes, and antibodies.

Purine

A nitrogen-containing, single- ring, basic compound that occurs in nucleic acids. The purines in DNA and RNA are adenine and guanine.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Pyrimidine

Oigong is an increasingly popular aspect of Chinese medicine. Qigong is mostly taught for health maintenance purposes, but there are also some who teach it, especially in China, for therapeutic interventions.

Radionuclide scanning

An exam that produces pictures (scans) of internal parts of the body. The patient is given an injection or swallows a small amount of radioactive material. A machine called a scanner then measures the radioactivity in certain organs.

Recessive

A gene that is phenotypically manifest in the homozygous state but is masked in the presence of a dominant allele.

Recombination

The natural process of breaking and rejoining DNA strands to produce new combinations of genes and, thus, generate genetic variation. Gene crossover during meiosis.

Reiki

Reiki purports to be an energy healing therapy, which is claimed to help the body’s ability to heal itself through the flow and focusing of healing energy (Reiki means universal healing energy).

Remission

Disappearance of the signs and symptoms of cancer. When this happens, the disease is said to be “in remission”. Remission can be temporary or permanent.

Reproductive cells

Egg and sperm cells. Each mature reproductive cell carries a single set of 23 chromosomes.

Resolution

Degree of molecular detail on a physical map of DNA, ranging from low to high.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

RNA

Ribonucleic acid, a chemical similar to DNA. The several classes of RNA molecules play important roles in protein synthesis and other cell activities.

Sanger sequence

“Plus and minus” or “primed synthesis” method; DNA is synthesized so it is radioactively labeled and the reaction terminates specifically at the position corresponding to a given base.

Sarcoma

A type of cancer that starts in the bone or muscle.

Screening

Looking for evidence of a particular disease such as cancer in persons with no symptoms of disease. Checking for disease when there are no symptoms.

Sequencing

Determination of the order of nucleotides (base sequences) in a DNA or RNA molecule or the order of amino acids in a protein.

Shotgun method

Cloning of DNA fragments randomly generated from a genome.

Side effects

Problems that occur when treatment affects healthy cells. Common side effects of cancer treatment are fatigue, nausea, vomiting, decreased blood cell counts, hair loss, and mouth sores.

Sigmoidoscopy (sig-moy-DOSko-pee)

A procedure in which a doctor looks inside the rectum and the lower part of the colon (sigmoid colon) through a lighted tube. The doctor may collect samples of tissue or cells for closer examination.

Single-gene disorder

Hereditary disorder caused by a mutant allele of a single gene (e.g. Duchenne muscular dystrophy, retinoblastoma, sickle cell disease).

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Somatic cell hybrid

Hybrid cell line derived from two different species; contains a complete chromosomal complement of one species and a partial chromosomal complement of the other; human/hamster hybrids grow and divide, losing human chromosomes with each generation until they finally stabilize, the hybrid cell line established is then utilized to detect the presence of genes on the remaining human chromosome.

Southern blotting

Transfer by absorption of DNA fragments separated in electrophoretic gels to membrane filters for detection of specific base sequences by radiolabeled complementary probes.

Syndrome

A recognizable pattern or group of multiple signs, symptoms or malformations that characterize a particular condition; syndromes are thought to arise from a common origin and result from more than one developmental error during fetal growth.

Tandem repeat sequences

Multiple copies of the same base sequence on a chromosome; used as a marker in physical mapping.

Tantra

The word Tantra emphasizes the connection with the old Indian cultural background where the body is seen as the temple of the soul. The tantric tradition used sexual rituals for spiritual development – a concept which is far away from todays experience. For example in tantramassage as a spriritual approach to sexual blockade. Used in various groups and massage sessions.

Telomere

The ends of chromosomes. These specialized structures are involved in the replication and stability of linear DNA molecules.

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Scientific Terms

Definition

Transferase

Enzymes that catalyze the transfer of functional groups between donor and acceptor molecules.

Translation

The process of turning instructions from mRNA, base by base, into chains of amino acids that then fold into proteins. This process takes place in the cytoplasm, on structures called ribosomes.

Vector

A self-replicating DNA molecule that transfers a DNA segment between host cells.

Velocity Vector

The “length” of the velocity vector is the speed. The direction of the motion (Ø) is also part of the velocity vector.

Voltage

Voltage is an energy measure, the energy carried by one coulomb of electrical charge. The voltage between two points in a circuit is the amount of energy available for pushing each coulomb of charge from one of these points to the other.

Western blotting analysis

A technique used to identify a specific protein; the probe is a radioactively labeled antibody raised against the protein in question.

Wholeness

Wholeness has come to connote more than mere completeness or fullness. It implies a reality, system or truth in which all parts or aspects are present in right and healthy relationship with each other.

Wilms’ tumor

A kidney cancer (tumor) that occurs in children, usually before age 5.

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CHAPTER 14

Translation and Legal Texts 14.1 Introduction Many studies have been conducted on translation, but very few have been conducted on legal translation. Translators find it hard to venture into the field of legal translation simply because it involves awareness and familiarity with the two legal systems of the two languages involved in translation. This is not easily attainable since familiarizing oneself with the two legal systems takes lots of time, effort and perseverance. Also, legal translation is difficult due to the diversity of the legal systems pertaining to the two languages. Furthermore, in an age where the world is becoming a small community, legal translations or legal translators are in demand. International treaties, communal and world conflicts, international trade and joint ventures are all in demand, and so too legal translators. So what is it that puts legal translation at the forefront of this emerging discipline? Is it the subject-matter itself or the distinctive language quality? Could it be the collaboration and cooperation between countries? Perhaps it is all of these. I believe legal translation is on the rise since we live in a changing world where technology and economics affect the world community.

14.2 Legal Language vs. Legal Translation There is a correlation and direct link between language and law. If language provides the form which determines its meaning, then this form has a great bearing on how legal language is interpreted. According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2016), language plays a significant role in the make up and interpretation of law. So those who are mainly concerned with the language of law (i.e. philosophers of law) have to come up with their theory of understanding law and how it is used. The use of language, according to Stanford Encyclopedia, is:

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The use of language is crucial to any legal system, not only in the same way that it is crucial to politics in general, but also in two special respects. Lawmakers characteristically use language to make law, and law must provide for the authoritative resolution of disputes over the effects of that use of language. While language has a huge impact on the interpretation of the law, it is sometimes littered with vagueness and ambiguity. Some philosophers of law believe that vagueness is a must in legal language, and vagueness is an inescapable attribute of language (see Christie 1964: 886). Christie believes that the exploitation of vagueness in language reaches maximum utilization when groups in control of the legislators and those in control of the courts are antagonistic to each other. It seems that common people are excluded from this language as if legal language was destined for only those who utilize the law. It is no wonder that the layman has no capacity to interpret the legal language, and he resorts to lawyers for legal language interpretation. The way legal language was vaguely construed makes it hard for the ordinary man to understand. As Christie (1964: 889) states: Vagueness has some uses in law which permits men, through the use of language, to achieve more sophisticated methods of social control, for example, the use of vague language in legal directives to postpone ultimate decisions. Such postponement may be desired for a variety of reasons that are often interconnected. As for legal translation, it is understood here as the translation of binding documents such as marriage or business contracts, birth certificates, agreements, etc. From a different angle, legal translation is the translation of texts within the field of law (Wikipedia 2006a). The word “law” comes from the late old English Lagu of probable Germanic origin. According to Wikipedia, law in politics or jurisprudence is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, prescribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of /for those who do not follow the established rules of conduct. There are different kinds of law: legal law, civil law, religious law, customary law, common law, etc. Also, within the body of law, there is private law, public law, procedural law, international law, philosophical law, anthropology of law, history law, etc. For more information on these types of law, see Wikipedia (2006a). It is really too hard to appreciate what is involved in legal translation, unless one is familiar with legal language. However, like literary translation, many translation theorists and practitioners believe that legal translation is hard to handle simply because its language is embedded within its culture. De Leo (1999) believes that legal translation is “littered” with a series of different obstacles that makes the translator’s job extreme-

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ly difficult. Capellas-Espuny (1999) rightly states that terminological problems are among the problems posed by legal translation. Therefore, legal translators have to be professional translators. They should also be aware of the two legal systems involved.

14.3 Characteristics of Legal Texts Legal texts are texts that are written for describing a specific law. They are not written to entertain or to inform, but to explain what a word means and entails. Therefore, legal texts can inform, communicate and describe language. It is this multi faceted nature that makes it hard to handle. Sager (1988) believes that any form of translation must be based on the type of text. The objective behind classifying texts into types is to delimit their communicative, social and informative functions. Legal texts subjected to translation can therefore be classified into different categories. Such categories are outlined by Szabari (1996) as follows: 1. Statutes (e.g. constitutions, laws, decrees), whose source language texts are primarily directive and whose target language texts are informative. 2. International and particularly bilateral treaties and agreements, in which case both source and target language texts are binding upon the audience. Often the two texts are articulated simultaneously, so there is in fact no point to differentiating between the source and target texts. A good example is the European Union, which drafts statutes binding upon member states in all twelve official languages and working languages. 3. General texts in the field of jurisprudence which examine the elements of a particular national legal system from a broad perspective, on a high level of abstraction, or by comparing them to other legal systems. Having classified legal texts into categories, one may realize that the problem of translating legal texts results from the lack of finding equivalent items in the target language. I wonder if words such as invoice, agreement, contract, white paper, back-up documents, and scripts are all having one to one correspondence. Also, some legal documents can also give rise to some translation problems. For example, words such as draft, original, proof are all types of documents. Can any two languages involved in the translation have exact equivalents?

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14.4 Problems in Translating Legal Texts In most normal cases, translating legal documents poses many problems for translators. Some of these problems may result from the nature of the two legal systems of the two languages involved. Culture-specific terminology is an additional problem, and legal translators have to overcome the conceptual differences between the two languages involved. Newmark (1988) clearly states that if a word is denoting an object or referring to an institution but does not exist in the target language, it becomes extremely difficult to add a psychological characteristic alien to that language. Therefore, translators have to come up with a solution, particularly for terms that are non-exis tent in the target language.

14.5 Strategies for Translating Legal Texts It is axiomatic that law does not entail passion, and therefore, cannot be emotive as the case with literary texts. The language of law is very precise, although it is subject to semiotic restrictions. However, legal language has a distinctive quality that marks it off from ordinary language (Grazone 2000). The distinctive quality, according to Grazone, has been pigeonholed by jurists and jurilinguists, particularly those who have pointed out that the legal translator has to deal with problems that are dissimilar to those encountered in other fields. Some of these problems are: 1.

Fidelity

This term refers to whether or not translation is accurate. Although fidelity is exchangeable with the term faithfulness, it can sometimes be differentiated from faithfulness in the sense that faithfulness refers to how closely the translation acknowledges the target language structure. In legal translation, preserving the letter of the law is hard and traditionally, translators were bound to fidelity of the source text. Therefore, the legal translator’s ultimate goal is to re-enact and recreate the form and substance of the text as closely as possible. Word-for-word translation or literal translation used to be the only acceptable method of translating a legal text. While there are variations as far as the methods of translating legal texts are concerned, the literal method is still in use. Sarcevic (2002) cites Didier (1990: 280) stating that translating legal documents depends on the kind of text. For example, the method of translating a legislative document is different from translating a judgment document. According to Didier, the translation of legislation and other informative texts requires absolute literalness. At the same time, judgments, he continues, can be translated more freely, thus reorganizing that text type also plays an important role in determining the strategy of a legal translation.

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Sense Translation

There is still controversy whether legal translation should be literal or free. As indicated above, translating legal binding documents can be literal, but at other times they can be translated with some form of freedom. The translation strategy used will depend on the type of text. Free translation focuses on meaning or content whereas literal translation focuses on form. From a practical perspective, methods and techniques of translating legal binding texts vary from one institution to another. Weisflog (1987) cited by Sarcevic (2002) asserts that authenticated translations must be comprehensible. Substance must prevail over form. This is contradictory to what other legal translations have advocated (see Didier 1990). Koutsivitis (1988) believes that legal texts must be translated freely, and the sense of the word in legal texts has to be completely understood otherwise the translated text will be littered with ambiguity. Koutsivitis believes that the translator’s ultimate task is to transfer the sense of the original. So what are the ways in which legal texts can be translated? Altay (2002), in an article entitled “Difficulties Encountered in the Translation of Legal Texts”, suggests ways of translating concepts that do not exist in the target language and culture as follows: 1. Paraphrase: This method is used to explain the SL concept that is alien or peculiar to the target reader. Such peculiarity results from the fact that this concept has no equivalent concept in the target culture. 2. Functional Equivalence: Here the legal translator uses the closest equivalent concept. It happens that providing functional equivalents of a legal SL term becomes very difficult as the two legal systems have nothing in common. 3. Word-for-Word Translation: This method is sometimes exchangeable with literal translation, although there is a slight difference between the two methods. Word-for-word translation involves translating a lexical item for a lexical item in the target language. The translator may make some linguistic adjustments to the text when needed. Adjustments include prepositions, endings, grammatical features, etc. Regardless of what method or strategy legal translators use in translating legal documents, I believe it all boils down to the kinds of texts and the constraints surrounding its production. In some parts of the world, legal texts have been adopted from other western countries (Syria, Lebanon and France are a case in point). Within these countries, translators may find the same legal terminology unless there is a legal institution that does not exist in one country or another. In this case, translators have to extract terminology relevant to the target culture. Capellas-Espuny (1999) maintains that the translation of certain technical terms is impossible because institutions and legal systems in one country may differ from those in another country due to social, cultural

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and historical differences. In such cases, functional equivalence is the ideal translation for such technical terms. According to Wikipedia (2006a), when translating a legal text, translators have to keep in mind that the legal system of the source language is structured in a way that suits the culture, and this is reflected in the legal language. Therefore, the target text is to be read by someone who is familiar with the legal systems of the two languages involved.

14.6 Test Your Knowledge 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What is a legal text? Explain three characteristics of a legal text. What makes legal texts difficult to translate? Give three examples. Explain three methods of translating legal texts. Give two examples of “sense translation”. Is vagueness a characteristic of legal texts or does it pertain to all kinds of text? Explain your answer with exemplifications.

14.7 Finding Target Language Equivalents Read the following table very carefully, and translate the legal terms into the target language. The table below is an example of how some legal terms and concepts in one language may not have the same or similar equivalents in the target language. Some of the terms were adopted from the United States District Court –District of Idaho (1997), prepared by Parker (1997). Others were adopted from Her Majesty’s Court Service, HMCS, (2005). Very few terms were adopted from the encyclopedia AllRefer.com, listing U.S legal terms and concepts.

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Legal Term

Definition

Accused

The person charged. The person who has allegedly committed the offence.

Acknowledgement of service

Form of reply to, or confirmation of, service of process.

Acquittal

Discharge of defendant following verdict or direction of not guilty.

Act

Law, as an act of parliament.

Adjudication

Judgment or decision of a court or tribunal.

Administration order

An order by a County Court directing a debtor to pay a specified monthly installment into court in respect of outstanding debts. The court retains the payments made and at intervals distributes it between the creditors on a pro-rata basis.

Adoption

An act by which the rights and duties of the natural parents of a child are extinguished and equivalent rights and duties become vested in the adopter or adopters, to whom the child then stands in all respects as if born to them in marriage.

Adultery

Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and another person who is not the spouse, while the marriage is still valid. This is common fact relied on for divorce.

Advocate

A barrister or solicitor representing a party in a hearing before a court.

Affidavit

A written statement of evidence confirmed on oath or by affirmation to be true and taken before someone who has authority to administer it.

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Legal Term

Definition

Affirmation

Declaration by a witness who has no religious belief, or has religious beliefs that prevent him/her taking the oath, that the evidence he/she is giving is the truth.

Alternative dispute resolution

An alternative method by which parties can resolve their dispute – could be arbitration.

Ancillary relief

Additional claims (e.g. in respect of maintenance) attached to the petition for divorce/judicial separation/nullity.

Annul

To declare no longer valid

Appeal

Application to a higher court or authority for review of a decision by a lower court or authority.

Appellant

Person who appeals.

Appellate Court

A court of appeals which hears appeals from lower court decisions.

Applicant

Person making the request or demand, e.g. person who issues an application.

Application

The act of applying to a court.

Appraisement or appraisal

Valuation of goods seized under warrant of execution prior to sale.

Attachment of earnings

An order that directs an employer of a debtor to deduct regularly an amount, fixed by the court, from the debtor’s earnings and pay that sum into court.

Award

Result of an arbitration hearing or the amount of damages assessed by a court.

Bail

Release of a defendant from custody, until his/her next appearance in court, subject sometimes to security being given and/or in compliance with certain conditions.

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Legal Term

Definition

Bailiff

Officer of the county court empowered to serve court documents and execute warrants.

Bankrupt

Insolvent – unable to pay creditors and having all goods/effects administered by a liquidator or trustee and sold for the benefit of those creditors; as a result of an order under the Insolvency Act 1986.

Barrister

A member of the bar; the branch of the legal profession which has rights of audience before all courts.

Bench Warrant

A warrant issued by the judge for an absent defendant to be arrested and brought before a court.

Brief

Written instructions to counsel to appear at a hearing on behalf of a party prepared by the solicitor and setting out the facts of the case and any case law relied upon.

Case Conference

Usually the first hearing in a multi track claim and an opportunity to take stock and consider the way forward.

Case number

A unique reference number allocated to each case by the issuing court.

Caution

Notice given to the Land Registry by any person with an interest in particular land to ensure that no action is taken in respect of the land without the person’s knowledge.

Caveat

A notice given to the registrar that effectively prevents action by another party without first notifying the party entering the caveat.

Certificate of Legal Aid Costs

A certificate of costs allowed following taxation by a judicial or taxing officer.

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Legal Term

Definition

Cessate

A grant of representation of limited duration which has ceased and expired.

Chambers

Private room or court from which the public are excluded in which a District Judge or Judge may conduct certain sorts of hearings.

Charge

A formal accusation against a person that a criminal offence has been committed.

Charging Order

An order directing that a charge be registered at the Land Registry on property owned by the debtor. This is also a form of enforcing civil debt. An order preventing the sale or disposal of a property until the charge has been cleared.

Circuit Court

The circuit court is the trial court with the broadest powers in a state. It handles all civil cases with claims of.

Circuit Judge

A judge who sits in the County Court and/ or Crown Court.

Civil

Matters concerning private rights and not offences against the state.

Civil Justice

The result of the access to justice report by Lord Woolf. The aim is to provide more effective access to justice through quicker, cheaper and more proportionate justice for defended cases. It introduced a unified set of Rules and Practice Directions for the County and High Courts, and Judicial Case Management The reforms came into effect on 26 April 1999.

Claim

Proceeding issued in the County or High Court.

Claimant

The person issuing the claim.

Claim form

The form that a claim is issued on.

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Legal Term

Definition

Codicil

An addendum signed and executed which amends or adds something to a will.

Commissioner of Oaths

Solicitors authorized by the Lord Chancellor to administer oaths and affirmations to a statement of evidence.

Committal

Committal for trial: following examination by the magistrates of a case involving and indictable or either way offence, the procedure of directing the case to the Crown Court to be dealt with.

Common Law

The law established, by precedent, from judicial decisions and established within a community.

Compensation

Sum of money to make up for or make amends for loss, breakage, hardship, inconvenience or personal injury caused by another.

Concurrent Sentence

A direction by a court that a number of sentences of imprisonment should run at the same time.

Concurrent Writ

A duplicate of the original writ bearing the same date and expiring at the same time as the original.

Conditional Discharge

A discharge of a convicted defendant without sentence on condition that he/she does not re-offend within a specified period of time.

Conduct Money

Money paid to a witness in advance of the hearing of a case as compensation for time spent attending court.

Consecutive Sentence

An order for a subsequent sentence of imprisonment to commence as soon as a previous sentence expires. Can apply to more than two sentences.

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Legal Term

Definition

Contempt of Court

Disobedience or willful disregard to the judicial process.

Contributory

Partial responsibility of a claimant for the injury in respect of which he/she claims damages.

Co-respondent

A person named as an adulterer (or third person) in a petition for divorce.

Corroboration

Evidence by one person confirming that of another or supporting evidence, for example forensic evidence (bloodstain, fibers, etc.) in murder cases.

Counsel

A Barrister.

Count

An individual offence set out in an indictment.

Counterclaim

A claim made by a defendant against a claimant in an action. There is no limit imposed on a counterclaim, but a fee is payable according to the amount counterclaimed.

County Court

Sometimes inaccurately referred to as the Small Claims Court, county courts deal with civil matters including all monetary claims up to ₤15,000. Many county courts have extra powers which enable them to deal with divorce and other family proceedings, bankruptcy actions, matters relating to children and cases involving ships and boats known as admiralty actions. Some county courts are also branch offices of the High Court known as District Registries.

Court

Body with judicial powers.

Court of Appeal

Civil and Criminal divisions and hears appeals: from decision in the High Court and County Court and, against convictions or sentences passed by the Crown Court.

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Legal Term

Definition

Court of First Instance

It is a generic term for a trial court of original or primary jurisdiction. It hears employment disputes brought by employees.

Court of Limited Jurisdiction

It refers to courts that are limited in the types of criminal and civil cases they may hear. For example, traffic violations generally are heard by limited jurisdiction courts.

Court of Protection

The branch of the High Court with jurisdiction over the states of people mentally incapable of handling their own financial affairs.

Court room

The room in which cases are heard.

Covenant

A formal agreement or a contract constituting an obligation to perform an act.

Creditor

A person to whom money is owed by a debtor.

Criminal

Person who has been found guilty of a criminal offence.

Crown Court

The Crown Court deals with all the crime committed for trial by Magistrates Courts. Cases for trial are heard before a judge and jury. The Crown Court also acts as an appeal court for cases heard and dealt with by the Magistrates. The Crown Court can also deal with some civil and family matters.

Damages

An amount of money claimed as compensation for physical/material loss, e.g. personal injury, breach of contract.

Debtor

Person owing money to another party.

Decree

An order of the court in proceedings commenced by petition.

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Legal Term

Definition

Decree Absolute

A final certificate, resulting from an application, dissolving a marriage.

Decree Nisi

Order for divorce unless cause to contrary is shown within a set period.

Declaration

Court order setting out the rights of a party in the form of a statement.

Deed

A legal document which sets out the terms of an agreement, which is signed by both parties.

Default Judgment

Obtained by the claimant as a result of the failure of a defendant to comply with the requirements of a claim, i.e. reply or pay within a 14 day period after service of the claim.

Defendant

Person sued; person standing trial or appearing for sentence.

Deponent

Person giving evidence by affidavit.

Deposition

A statement of evidence written down and sworn on oath, or by affirmation.

Designated Civil Judge

A judge designated to deal with the Civil Justice Reforms for a group of courts.

Detailed Assessment

Where costs are dealt with by the drawing of a bill of costs.

Determination

Act of scrutinizing a bill of costs in criminal proceedings to see if the work done and amount claimed is reasonable.

Devi

Person to whom freehold land is given by a will.

Disability

The inability of a person to handle their own affairs (e.g. through mental illness or a minor under 18 years of age) which prevents involvement in civil legal proceedings without representation.

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Legal Term

Definition

Discovery of documents

Mutual exchange of evidence and all relevant information held by each party relating to the case.

Discontinuance

Notice give by the court, on instruction by the claimant that they no longer wish to proceed with the case.

Dismissal

To make order or decision that a claim be ceased.

District Judge

A judicial officer of the court whose duties involve hearing applications made within proceedings and final hearings subject to any limit of jurisdiction previously known as Registrars.

Divisional Court

As well as having an original jurisdiction of their own, all three divisions of the High Court have appellate jurisdiction to hear appeals from lower courts and tribunals. The Divisional Court of the Chancery Division deals with appeals in bankruptcy matters from the County Court.

Divorce

Dissolution or nullity of marriage.

Dock

Enclosure in criminal court for the defendant on trial.

Enforcement

Method of pursuing a civil action after judgment has been made in favor of a party.

Estate

The rights and assets of a person in property.

Execution

Seizure of debtors goods following non payment of a court order.

Executor

A person or persons specified to carry out the provisions of a will.

Exempt

To be freed from liability or allegiance.

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Legal Term

Definition

Exhibit

Item or document referred to in an affidavit or used as evidence during a court trial or hearing.

Expert Witness

Person employed to give evidence on a subject in which they are qualified or have expertise.

Federal Courts

The court system which handles civil and criminal cases based on jurisdictions enumerated in the Constitution and Federal statutes.

Fee

Monies payable on issue of a claim or subsequent process.

Fiat

A decree of command.

Garnishee

A summons issued by a plaintiff, against a third party, for seizure of money or other assets in their keeping, but belonging to the defendant.

Guarantor

Someone who promises to make payment for another if payment is not made by the person responsible for making the repayments of a loan or hire purchase agreement.

Guardian

A person appointed to safeguard/protect/ manage the interests of a child or person under mental disability.

High Court

A civil court which consists of three divisions: i) Queen’s Bench (can be known as King’s Bench Division if a King is assuming the throne) – civil disputes for recovery of money, including breach of contract, personal injuries, libel/slander; ii) Family- concerned with matrimonial maters and proceedings relating to children e.g. wardship; iii) Chancery – property matters including fraud and bankruptcy.

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Legal Term

Definition

Indictable Offence

A criminal offence triable only by the Crown Court. The different types of offence are classified 1, 2, 3, 4. Murder is a class 1 offence.

Injunction

An order by a court either restraining a person or persons from carrying out a course of action or directing a course of action be complied with. Failure to carry out terms of the order may be punishable by imprisonment.

Insolvency

The condition of having more debts (liabilities) than total assets.

Inspection of Documents

Following disclosure of each parties documents by discovery, the arrangements made by the parties to allow mutual exchange and copying of documents.

Interlocutory

Interim, pending a full order/decision, e.g. interlocutory judgment awarded an entered as final judgment.

Intestate

Without leaving a will.

Issue

To initiate legal proceedings in pursuit of a claim.

Judge

An officer appointed to administer the law and who has authority to hear and try cases in a court of law.

Judgment

Final decision of a court. A monetary judgment requires the payment of a sum of money by one party to another.

Judicial/Judiciary

i) Relating to the Administration of justice or to the judgment of a court. ii) A judge or other officer empowered to act as a judge.

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Legal Term

Definition

Jurat

A statement contained at the conclusion of an affidavit which states the name of the person giving the evidence, the name of the person before whom and the place where the oath or affirmation was taken.

Juror

A person who has been summoned by a court to be a member of the jury.

Jury

Body of jurors sworn to reach a verdict according to the evidence in a court.

Justice of the Peace

A lay magistrate – person appointed to administer judicial business in a Magistrates Court. Also sits in the Crown Court with a judge or recorder to hear appeals and committals for sentence.

Jurisdiction

The area and matters over which a court has legal authority.

Juvenile

Person under 17 years of age.

Law

The system made up of rules established by an act of parliament, custom or practice enjoining or prohibiting certain action.

Lease

The letting of land or tenements, e.g. rent, for property for a prescribed period.

Legal Personal Representative

The person to whom a grant of probate of letters of administration has been issued.

Legatee

Person to whom personal estate is given by will.

Levy

A duty carried out by a bailiff or sheriff under the authority of a warrant or writ of fi-fa, for a sum of money whereby goods of value belonging to the debtor are claimed with a view to removal and sale at a public auction in an attempt to obtain payment.

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Legal Term

Definition

Libel

A written and published statement/article which infers damaging remarks on a person’s reputation.

Licence

Permission to carry out an act that would otherwise be considered illegal.

Lien

A legal right to withhold the goods/property of another until payment is made.

Listing

This form is used to ensure that all issues resolved and that the parties are ready for trial.

Litigation

Legal proceedings.

Lord Chancellor

The cabinet minister who acts as speaker of the House of Lords and oversees the hearings of the Law Lords.

Lord Chief Justice

Senior judge of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) who also heads the Queens Bench Division of the High Court of Justice

Lord Justice of Appeal

Title given to certain judges sitting in the Court of Appeal.

Magistrates Court

A court where criminal proceedings are commenced before justices of the peace who examine the evidence/statement and either deal with the case themselves or commit to the Crown Court for trial or sentence.

Master of the Rolls

Senior judge of the Court of Appeal

Matter

Proceedings commenced by way of originating application.

Minor

Someone below 18 years of age and unable to sue or be sued without representation, other than for wages. A minor sues by a next friend and defends by a guardian.

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Legal Term

Definition

Mitigation

Reasons submitted on behalf of a guilty party in order to excuse or partly excuse the offence committed in an attempt to minimize the sentence.

Mortgage

A loan of money advanced to purchase property. The transfer of the property is withheld as security for payment.

Mortgagor

The party obtaining the loan.

Mortgagee

The party that advances the loan.

Motion

An application by one party to the High Court for an order in their favor.

Non-Molestation

An order within an injunction to prevent one person physically attacking another.

Non-Suit

Proceedings where the plaintiff has failed to establish to the court’s satisfaction that there is a case for the defendant to answer.

Notary Public

Someone who is authorized to swear oaths and certify the execution of deeds.

Notice of Issue

Notice sent by a court to the claimant giving notification of the case number allocated to their action and details of fees paid. Confirms date of service.

Nullity

Application to the court for a declaration that a marriage be declared ‘void’ or be annulled, i.e. declared never to have existed or to have subsisted until the court dissolved it.

Oath

A verbal promise by a person with religious beliefs to tell the truth.

Official Solicitor

A solicitor or barrister appointed by the Lord Chancellor’s Department. The duties include representing, in legal proceedings, people who are incapable of looking after their own affairs, i.e. children/persons suffering from mental illness.

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Definition

Oral Examination

A method of questioning a person under oath before an officer of the court to obtain details of their financial affairs.

Order

A direction by a court.

Originating Application

A method of commencing proceedings under the authority of a specific act of parliament, e.g. Landlord and Tenant Act, whereby the applicant asks the court to grant an order in their favor.

Ouster

An order within an injunction to force a person to leave a property.

Particulars

Details relevant to a claim.

Party

Any of the participants in a court action or proceedings.

Penal Notice

Directions attached to an order of a court stating the penalty for disobedience may result in imprisonment.

Petition

A method of commencing proceedings whereby the order required by the petitioner from the court is expressed as a prayer, e.g. the petitioner therefore prays that the marriage be dissolved (divorce proceedings).

Petitioner

A person who represents the petition.

Plaintiff

See CLAIMANT.

Plaint Note

See NOTICE OF ISSUE.

Plaint Number

Old-fashioned term for Claim Number.

Plea

A defendant’s reply to a charge put to him by a court, i.e. guilty or not guilty.

Pleading

Documents setting out claim/defense of parties involved in civil proceedings.

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Legal Term

Definition

Possession Proceedings

Legal proceedings by a landlord to recover land/property i.e. house, flat, garage etc.

Power of Arrest

An order attached to some injunctions to allow the police to arrest a person who has broken the terms of the order.

President of the Family Division

Senior judge and head of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice.

Pre-trial Review

A preliminary appointment at which the District Judge considers the issues before the court and fixes the timetable for the trial.

Probate

The legal recognition of the validity of a will.

Probate Court

A court found in some jurisdictions which is primarily concerned with the proper distribution of the assets of the deceased.

Prosecution

The institution or conduct of criminal proceedings against a person.

Prosecutor

Person who prosecutes.

Public trustee

A person (usually a barrister or solicitor) appointed by the Lord Chancellor as i) Trustee for trusts managed by the Public Trust Office; ii) Accountant General for Court Funds; iii) Receiver (of last resort) for Court of Protection patients (Pronounced Puny) High Court judge. Any judge of the High Court other than the heads of each division. The word puisne means junior and is used to distinguish High Court judges from senior judges sitting at the Court of Appeal.

Putative Father

The alleged or supposed father of an illegitimate child.

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Legal Term

Definition

Quash

To annul, i.e. to declare no longer valid.

Quantum

In a damages claim the amount to be determined by the court.

Queen’s Council

Barristers of at least ten years standing may apply to become members in the Queen’s Council. The Queen’s Council undertakes work of an important nature and are referred to as ‘silks’ which is derived from the courts gown that is worn. Will be known as King’s Council if a king assumes the throne.

Receiver

Person appointed by the Court of Protection to act on behalf of a patient.

Recognisance

An undertaking before the court by which a person agrees to comply with a certain condition, e.g. keep the peace/appear in court. A sum of money is normally pledged to ensure compliance.

Recorder

(also Assistant Recorder) Members of the legal profession (barristers or solicitors) who are appointed to act in a judicial capacity on a part time bases. They may progress to become a full time judge.

Redetermination

An application by a solicitor or counsel for amounts assessed by determination to be reconsidered.

Remand

To order an accused person to be kept in custody or placed on bail pending further court appearance.

Respondent

The person on whom a petition or originating application is served.

Right of Audience

Entitlement to appear before a court in a legal capacity and conduct proceedings on behalf of a party to the proceedings.

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Legal Term

Definition

Service

Delivery by post or personal service of the claim, or other court documents.

Sheriff

An officer of the Crown whose duties, amongst other things, consist of the enforcement of High Court writs of execution.

Silk

Queen’s Council, a senior barrister sometimes referred to as a leader or leading counsel.

Slander

Spoken words which have a damaging effect on a person’s reputation.

Small Claims Track

The path that defended claims of no more than ₤5000 (and Personal Injury and Housing Disrepair claims of no more than ₤1000) are allocated to.

Solicitor

Member of the legal profession chiefly concerned with advising clients and preparing their cases and representing them in some courts. May also act as advocates before certain courts or tribunals.

Specified Claim

A type of claim which is issued for a fixed amount of money allegedly owing. Previously known as a liquidated claim.

Squatter

A person occupying land or property without the owner’s consent.

Statement

A written account by a witness of the facts of details of a matter.

Stay of Execution

An order following which judgment cannot be enforced without leave of the court.

Stipendiary Magistrate

A legally qualified and salaried Magistrate.

Subpoena

A summons issued to a person directing their attendance in court to give evidence.

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Legal Term

Definition

Suit

Legal proceedings commenced by petition.

Suitor

Person bringing a suit before the courts.

Summary Judgment

Judgment obtained by a plaintiff where there is no defense to the case or the defense contains no valid grounds.

Summary Offence

A criminal offence which is triable only by a Magistrate Court.

Summing-up

A review of the evidence and directions as to the law by a judge immediately before a jury retires to consider its verdict.

Summons

Order to appear or to produce evidence to a court.

Summons (Jury)

Order to attend for jury service.

Summons (Witness)

Order to appear as a witness at a hearing.

Superior Court

It is a basic county trial court.

Supreme Court

The highest court in the United States, which has the ultimate power to decide constitutional questions and other appeals based on the jurisdiction granted by the Constitution, including cases based on federal statutes, between citizens of different states, and when the federal government is a party.

Supreme Court of Judicature

Collective name encompassing – High Court of Justice, Crown Court and Court of Appeal.

Surety

A person’s undertaking to be liable for another’s default or non-attendance at court.

Surrogate Court

A court where a surrogate/ an officer especially in some states of United States, presides the probates of wills and estates, and which has jurisdiction over such probates.

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Legal Term

Definition

Suspended Sentence

A custodial sentence which will not take effect unless there is a subsequent offence within a specified period.

Territorial Courts

A court in an administrative territory of the United States that has local and federal jurisdiction.

Testor

A person who makes a will.

Tipstaff

An officer of the Supreme Court whose duties involve the enforcement of High Court arrest warrants.

Tort

A civil wrong committed against a person for which compensation may be sought through a civil court, e.g. personal injury, negligent driving, libel, etc.

Trial Window

A period of time within which the case must be listed for trial.

Tribunal

A group of people consisting of a chairman (normally solicitor/barrister) and others, who exercise a judicial function to determine matters related to specific interests, e.g. VAT tribunal appeals against the amount of duty levied by Customs and Excise Lands tribunal – appeals against the valuation of land.

Trust

Property legally entrusted to a person with instructions to use it for another person.

Trustee

A person who holds or administers property in a trust for another.

Verdict

The finding of guilty or not guilty of a jury.

Vice Chancellor

Senior judge and head of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice (although the Lord Chancellor is the nominal head).

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Legal Term

Definition

Walking Possession

A signed agreement by a debtor not to remove goods levied by a bailiff under the authority of a warrant of execution and to allow the bailiff access at any time to inspect the goods, in consideration of which the bailiff leaves the goods in the possession of the debtor.

Ward of Court

The title given to a minor who is the subject of a wardship order. The order ensures that custody of the minor is held by the court with day to day care of the minor being carried out by an individual(s) or local authority. As long as the minor remains a ward of the court, all decision regarding the minors upbringing must be approved by the court, e.g. transfer to a different school, medical treatment, etc.

Warrant of Committal

Method of enforcing an order of the court whereby the penalty for failing to comply with its terms is imprisonment; the bailiff is authorized to carry out the arrest and deliver the person to prison (or in some instances the court) from the debtor and return them to the creditor.

Warrant of Delivery

Method of enforcing a judgment for the return of goods (or value of the goods) whereby a bailiff is authorized to recover the goods (or their value) from the debtor and return them to the creditor.

Warrant of Execution

Method of enforcing a judgment for a sum of money whereby a bailiff is authorized, in lieu of payment, to seize and remove goods belonging to a defendant for sale at public auction.

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Legal Term

Definition

Warrant of Possession

Method of enforcing a judgment for possession of property whereby a bailiff is authorized to evict people and secure against re-entry.

Warrant of Restitution

A remedy available following illegal re-entry of premises by person’s evicted under a warrant of possession. The bailiff is authorized to evict all occupants found on the premises and redelivers the premises to the plaintiff.

Will

A declaration of a person’s intentions to distribute his/her estate and assets.

Winding Up

The voluntary or compulsory closure of a company and the subsequent realization of assets and payment to creditors.

Witness

A person who gives evidence in court.

Writ of Summons

A writ directing a person to appear in court to answer a complaint.

TL Equivalent

14.8 Analysis and Translation of Texts Read the texts carefully, analyze their distinctive features and translate them into the target language.

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Minutes of Regular General Meeting A.B.C. Company (Limited Liability Company)

Text 1

On this day of 19 at 10:30 a.m., the regular meeting of A.B.C. Company (Limited Liability Company) was held at the company’s head office at , upon an invitation served by registered mail by the company’s chairman to partners, companies’ department and the company’s auditor. The meeting was attended by partners representing 100% of the company’s total capital stock.

The meeting was presided over by Mr. , the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. was appointed a secretary of the meeting. Mr. and Mr. were appointed as vote counters and their appointment was approved by the attendants. The attendance list showed that the attendants represented 100% of the total capital stock of 1000.

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Text 2

Articles of Partnership Articles of Agreement, made , 19 1- 2-

by:

The said parties hereby agree to become copartners, under the firm name of , and as such partners to carry on together the business of buying and selling all sorts of dry goods, at street, in the city of

The said agrees to contribute Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000) to the capital of said firm; and the said agrees to contribute One Thousand Dollars ($1,000) to the same; the sum of Twenty-Five Hundred Dollars ($2,500) of said capital to be expended in the purchase of a stock in trade. The said shall have exclusive charge of all the buying for the firm.

Passage adopted from Hugo Sonnenschein. New Webster’s Law for Everyone. New York: Crown Publishing Company, 1982, pp. 333.

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Civil Registration Office Governorate

Ministry of Interior

Civil Registration Dept.

CERTIFICATE of BIRTH Date of Birth

Name of Infant

In Nos.

Sex

Place of Birth

Name

In Words

PARENTS Full Name

First Name

Father’s Name

Family Name

Religion

Nationality

Father’s Name Mother’s Maiden Name

No. of Register

Family Civil Registration Office

Date of Registration

Infant Registered in Office

Date of Certificate

Volume Serial No.

Name of Clerk

Name of Registrar

Signature

Signature and Stamp

Fees Paid

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State of Indiana Original

Marriage Certificate I, , hereby certify that on the

day of

, one thousand

nine hundred and at in the County of

, State of Indiana,

Groom of County, State of

and Bride of County, State of

were by me united in

Marriage as authorized by a marriage license issued for that purpose by the Clerk of Circuit Court of County, And State of Indiana, dated the Day of

Signed Official Designation Witnesses:

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52788

VANDERBUGH COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT Evansville, Indiana

CERTIFICATE OF BIRTH This Certifies, THAT ACCORDING TO THE RECORDS OF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT NAME WAS BORN IN INDIANA, ON YEAR CHILD OF

BIRTHPLACE OF FATHER

BIRTHPLACE OF MOTHER

RECORD WAS FILED CERTIFICATE NUMBER OR VOLUME AND PAGE DATE ISSUED

NOT VALID UNLESS SIGNED & SEALED

, M.D. VANDERBURGH COUNTY HEALTH OFFICER

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14.9 Vending Service Agreement This agreement made on

2012 by and between:

First Party : Jackson Trading Co. L.L.C. Address : P.O. Box 59133, Al Ain Represented by : Waiel Mansoor In Capacity of : Managing Director Second Part : Abu Dhabi Health Service Co. (Al Ain Hospital) Address : P.O. Box 1006, Al Ain Represented by : xxxxxxxxxxxxxx In Capacity of : xxxxxxxxxxxxxx • • • • •

This agreement implicates installation of vending machine(s) by first party. Installation of machine(s) is governed by the terms and condition listed below and agreed upon by both parties. Machine(s) to be installed at the second party’s site/property. Installation of machine to be done within one week after both party signing the contract. Description of machines and their respective locations are specified in attached Annexure-2.

14.10 Terms & Conditions 1) The first party is to deliver and install the machines at no cost to the second party, provided the second party ensures the availability of power with safety electric socket. 2) The second party shall have the right to increase and/or decrease the number of machines specified in Annerxure-2 as per hospital requirements. 3) The second party grants the first party the right to sell all agreed dispensed products contained only in the vending machines at the specified locations. 4) The first party must take previous approval from the second party for any products supplying through the vending machines. 5) The first party undertakes to provide the best quality products and services at all times and to undertake full responsibility on expiry products from the machines concerned.

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6) The second party permits the first party access to all machines during business hours for the purpose of providing ‘Service’ and ‘Maintenance’ to the machines. The first party is to abide by the Hospital Security Regulations. 7) The term ‘Service’ shall include refilling and cleaning machines on a regular basis according to the hospital requirements. 8) Services: a. The first party shall perform cleaning services on the machines, as further detailed in the Scope of Services, to the hospital, at the sites, at all times specified herein, for the term of this agreement, in accordance with the standards. b. First party must follow HACCP/JCIA/ADFCA (standard & regulation) for the service including transportation. c. First party must provide AAH with monthly report for cleaning and maintenance for all machines. d. First party must provide 24 hour maintenance for all vending machines. e. First party have to keep all space in good condition, all liquidation damages outside storage any time without any notes. f. Second party has the right to make inspection for machines and inside and outside storage any time without any notes. g. First party must send monthly updates on the number of machines at AAH locations. 9) One signed copy of this agreement is in possession of each party Parties have read and agreed to all terms herein, have signed the agreement on 2012.

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