ALLA BOLSHAK

THEORY OF TRANSLATION

Lectures and Seminars

Krasnodar

2013

Table of contents

Lecture 1

Main Issues of Theory of Translation

1. The Concept of Translation: a Brief History

2. Is translation an art or a craft?

3. Theory of Translation as a Linguistic Science vs. Translation Studies as an Academic Discipline

4. Classification of the Types (Methods) of Translation

5. Ethics of Translation and Translator’s Competence

Lecture 2

Translation Process

1. Translation Strategy

2. Stages of Translating Process

3. The Problem of the Unit of Translation (UT)

Lecture 3

Equivalence and Adequacy in Translation

1. A Brief Outline of Approaches to Defining Equivalence in Translation

2. Types of Meaning: Lexical and Grammatical

- grammatical meaning;

- lexical meaning

a) types of lexical meaning:

- referential meaning;

- linguistic meaning;

- emotive meaning.

b) the degree of preservation of meaning:

- complete correspondence;

- partial correspondence;

- absence of correspondence.

3. Translation of Internationalisms and the Problem of False Friends

a) internationalisms (borrowings);

b) false friends of a translator.

Lecture 4

Translation of Word Combinations

1. The Translation of Free Word Combination

a) the translation of attribute groups;

b) the translation of three-member word combinations;

c) the translation of multinuclear nomial combinations.

2. The Translation of Bound Word Combinations

a) the translation of set-expressions;

b) the translation of idioms.

Lecture 5

Grammatical Aspects of Translation

1. Ways of Translating the Passive Voice

2. Ways of Translating the Subjunctive Mood

3. Ways of Translating Modal Verbs

4. Ways of Translating the Non-Finite Forms of the Verb

• the functions of Participle I in the sentence

• the functions of Participle II in the sentence

• Predicative Constructions with the Participle

• the functions of the Gerund in the sentence

• the Predicative Constructions with the Gerund

• the functions of the Infinitive in the sentence

• the Objective-with-the-Infinitive Constructions

• the for-to-Infinitive Constructions

• the Subjective Infinitive Constructions

Lecture 6

Translation and the Problems of Style

1. Definition of style

2. Classification of functional styles:

a) the belles-lettres style;

b) the publicist style;

c) the style of official documents;

d) the language of scientific literature:

- the main ways of translating terms;

- the main ways of translating abbreviations.

e) the peculiarities of the newspaper style:

- the structure of a newspaper item;

- newspaper headlines;

- the translation of cliché

3. Translation Problems of Lexical Stylistic Devices

4. Translation Problems of Syntactical Stylistic Devices

a) translation of inversion;

b) translation of negative emphatic constructions;

c) translation of elliptical constructions;

d) some other means of expressing emphasis and prominence.

Lecture 7

Classification of Translation Techniques

1. Lexical translation techniques

2. Contextual Replacements

a) lexico-semantic modifications;

b) lexico-grammatical transformations.

3. Grammatical transformations

Lecture 1

Main Issues of Theory of Translation

1. The Concept of Translation: a Brief History

The term translation has several meanings: it can refer to the general subject field, the product (the text that has been translated) or the process (the act of producing the translation, otherwise known as translating).

The process of translation between two different written languages involves the translator changing an original written text (the source text or ST) in the original verbal language (the source language or SL) into a written text (the target text or TT) in a different verbal language (the target language or TL). (Introducing Translation Studies, p. 5)

Throughout history, written and spoken translations have played a crucial role in interhuman communication. The first traces of translation date from 3000 BC during the Egyptian Old Kingdom, where inscriptions in two languages were found. The practice of translation was discussed by, for example, Cicero and Horace (first century BCE) and St Jerome (fourth century CE). Their writings were to exert an important influence up until the 20-th century. For example, St Jerome’s approach to translating the Greek Septuagint into Latin would affect later translations of the Scriptures. Indeed, in Western Europe the translation of the Bible was to be the battleground of conflicting ideologies. In China, it was the translation of the Buddhist sutras that inaugurated a long discussion on translation practice.

It should be mentioned that in academic circles translation was previously relegated to just a language-learning activity. But today thanks to cross-cultural communication translation got enhanced importance and we see the rapid growth in this area, particularly over the last decade.