Translation Studies

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Translation Studies

• 14. Transfer operations 2
• Krisztina Károly, Spring, 2006
• Source Klaudy, 2003

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1. Transfer operations from the point of view of
the translator
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Classification of TOs was so far based on

• the technical performance of the operation
  (omission, addition, narrowing, broadening,
  etc.),
• linguistic (lexical, grammatical, stylistic)
  extra-linguistic (cultural, historical,
  geographical, etc.) differences

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Present focus

• translation as a special bilingual speech
  activity (characteristics of code switching ?
  natural losses, the role of redundancy, the role
  of the channel, etc.)
• the translator as a professional L mediator

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The main principles followed by translators as
professional L mediators in their everyday work
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(1) The principle of following the TL norm

• aim facilitate communication between two
  communities who speak different languages (
  mediator role) ? translators develop certain
  characteristic forms of behaviour
• the translator follows certain general
  translation principles
• - to take into consideration the TL reader.
• - to must follow the TL norms
• - to respect the SL text

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(2) The principle of cooperation

• translators tend to opt for the more explicit
  alternative
• explicitation (Blum Kulka 1986 Klaudy 1998a)
  expressing something in the TL text in a clearer
  and more open manner, and possibly with the help
  of more words than in the SL text
• in seeking explicitation, the translator is
  guided by the principle of cooperation (? Grice
  (1975), because in translation the receiver is
  absent)
• the translator generally relies less on the
  readers' imagination than authors of original
  texts do, preferring to "play it safe" ? one
  means is by using the strategy of explicitation

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(3) The principle of following the translation
norm

• the translator is not only a mediator, but also a
  professional one ? he/she has a profession/trade,
  with its own rules
• the immense translational experience of previous
  generations has always been handed down from one
  generation of translators to the next
• the principle of following tradition is also a
  principle that can guide translators in their
  decisions
• tradition is sometimes more highly valued by
  translators than the TL norm ? existence of a
  translation norm beside the target language norm

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General, specific and individual transfer
strategies
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I. General transfer strategies

• the general principles (following the target
  language norm, the principle of cooperation,
  following the translation norm) imply certain
  general transfer strategies
• particular series of transfer operations
  carried out consciously to transform the ST into
  the TL text

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EXPLICITATIONas a general transfer strategy

• a process which consists of introducing
  information into the TL which is present
  implicitly in the SL, but it can be derived from
  the context or the situation (Vinay and
  Darbelnet, 1995, p.352)

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Explicitation cont.

• Explicitation (implicitation) strategies are
  generally discussed together with addition
  (omission) strategies
• 3 main views
• some regard "addition" as the more generic and
  "explicitation" as the more specific concept
  (Nida 1964)
• others interpret "explicitation" as the broader
  concept which incorporates the more specific
  concept of "addition" (Seguinot 1988, Schjoldager
  1995)
• the two are treated as synonyms by Englund
  Dimitrova who uses the terms "addition-explicitati
  on" and "omission-implicitation" (Englund
  Dimitrova 1993).

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Blum-Kulka (1986)

• examined explicitation systematically ?
  introduced the term "explicitation hypothesis"
  (1986)

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Blum-Kulka cont

• she explored discourse-level explicitation (
  explicitation connected with shifts in cohesion
  and coherence i.e., overt and covert textual
  markers in translation
• shifts in cohesive markers can be partly
  attributed to the different grammatical systems
  of languages, and partly to the differences in
  stylistic preferences for various types of
  cohesive markers
• Blum-Kulka suggests that shifts on the level of
  cohesion may change the general level of the
  textual explicitness in the target text

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Blum-Kulka cont. (citation)

• The process of interpretation performed by the
  translator on the source text might lead to a TL
  text, which is more redundant than SL text. This
  redundancy can be expressed by a rise in the
  level of cohesive explicitness in the TL text.
  This argument may be stated as "the explicitation
  hypothesis", which postulates an observed
  cohesive explicitness from SL to TL texts
  regardless of the increase traceable to
  differences between the two linguistic and
  textual systems involved. It follows that
  explicitation is viewed here as inherent in the
  process of translation. (1986, p.19)

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Critical remarks on Blum Kulka's explicitation
hypothesis

• Seguinot (1988)
• finds the definition too narrow states that
  explicitness does not necessarily mean redundancy
• argues that "the greater number of words in
  French translation, for example, can be explained
  by well-documented differences in the stylistics
  of English and French." (ibid.) She would reserve
  the term "explicitation" for additions, which
  cannot be explained by structural, stylistic or
  rhetorical differences between the two languages.

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II. Specific transfer strategies
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(1) Language specific transfer strategies

• the translator is not only a professional
  mediator but also a language mediator ? has
  developed his/her own individual strategies to
  overcome difficulties resulting from the
  differences between the two languages
• language pair specific transfer strategies
• the facile and routine-like application of these
  transfer strategies distinguishes translators
  from simple monolingual speakers or from
  bilingual speakers who are not professional
  mediators.
• The basis of language specific transfer
  strategies is the routine-like use of transfer
  operations developed to overcome difficulties
  resulting from differences between languages.

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(2) Culture specific transfer strategies

• translators are not only linguistic but many
  times also cultural mediators
• it is also part of the translators professional
  competence that they know two cultures, and can
  compare and assess the geographical, historical,
  social, and cultural aspects of two language
  communities.
• The routine-like use of transfer operations
  developed by the translator to bridge cultural
  gaps serves as the basis for culture-specific
  transfer strategies.

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III. Individual transfer strategies

• during their translation practice, translators
  develop their own individual strategies as well.
• E.g., chop up the sentences, augment lexical
  elements (e.g., reporting verbs), verbalise
  structures.

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2. The framework of an Indoeuropean-Hungarian
transfer typology

• comparison of four Indo-European languages
  (English, French, German, and Russian) with
  Hungarian (a Finno-Ugric language)
• despite the systemic differences inside the IE
  group, they are treated together in relation to
  Hungarian based on
• (1) the literature on language typology,
• (2) experiences of practising translators,
  editors of translations and translator trainers,
• (3) the evidence of the corpus

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Language-typological reasons

• The lexical and grammatical systems of the four
  IE languages under investigation differ in
  similar ways in their basic features from the
  lexical and grammatical system of Hungarian

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Language typological reasons cont.

• IE analytical morphological and lexical
  structuring H synthetic morphological and
  lexical structuring,
• synthetic sentence structuring in IE languages
  vs. analytical sentence structuring in Hungarian
• dominantly SVO basic word order in IE languages
  vs. dominantly SOV basic word order in Hungarian
• the complementation of nominal structures to the
  left in Hungarian vs. their complementation to
  the right in IE languages,
• subject-prominence in English vs.
  topic-prominence in Hungarian, etc.

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Experience as a practising translator

• Intuitive, experience-based witty observations
  of translators strongly resemble one another.
• Differences between Hungarian and IE languages

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Intuitive observations cont.

• (1) " Hungarian likes to use verbs when IE
  languages use nouns."
• (2) " Hungarian likes to use active when IE
  languages use passive."
• (3) "When you translate from IE languages into
  Hungarian you have to begin the translation from
  the end of the sentence."
• (4) "Hungarian cannot manage the long chains of
  complements in preposition to the nouns."
• (5) "IE languages force Hungarian to use this
  long nominal chain, but we do not like it."
• (6) "IE languages cannot evoke the whole richness
  of Hungarian verbs."
• (7) "When translating form Indo-European
  languages an impoverishment of the Hungarian
  language takes place ? against which translators
  have to fight etc."

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Evidence of the corpus

• The data collected confirmed the assumption that
  the four Indo-European languages in many aspects
  contrasted with Hungarian in a similar way.
• E.g., first page of a Budapest travel guide
  published by Corvina Publishing Company
• Hol is kezdjük? (lit Where shall we start?)
  (Bart 1)
• Where shall we begin our journey? (Gorman 1)
• Par ou commencer notre flanerie? (Chehádé 1)
• Wo sollen wir unseren Spaziergang beginnen? (Dira
  1)
• Otkuda nachat nasu progulku? (Voronkina 1)

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The sources of the examples

• five languages (English, French, German, Russian
  and Hungarian)
• eight directions of translation (English ?
  Hungarian, Hungarian ? English, French ?
  Hungarian, Hungarian ? French, German ?
  Hungarian, Hungarian ? German, Russian ?
  Hungarian, Hungarian ? Russian)
• texts
• - approx. 50 English, 50 French, 50 German, and
  50 Russian literary works and their Hungarian
  translations
• - about 100 Hungarian literary works and their
  25 English, 25 French, 25 German, and 25 Russian
  translations
• - ? 600 literary works have been examined
• authors Dickens, Balzac, Thomas Mann, Pasternak,
  Mikszáth, Krúdy, Örkény