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Lecture 4. Main translations types

Plan

1. Principal unity of all types of translations

2. Main classifications of translations

3. Genre-stylistic classification

4. Psycholinguistic classification

5. Theoretical grounds of describing separate ways of translation

6. Main types of theoretical description of describing the types of oral translation

7. Relations between genre-stylistic and psycholinguistic classifications of translation types

1. Principal unity of all types of translations

Translation is a linguistic event taking place within the framework of interlingual communication. General characteristic of translation as being a correlated functioning of 2 language systems and all the conclusions that spring from this definition hold good for any act of translation.

Factual translation activity is performed by translators under various conditions; translated texts vary much in subject-matter, language, genre affiliation; translations are done in written and oral forms, different requirements are set for translators as to accuracy and completeness of translation, etc. Certain types of translation require special knowledge and skills.

All of these differences, no matter how considerable they might seem, do not change the essence of a translation process, i.e. the general linguistic foundation that underlies it. Any kind of translation remains first of all a translation with all its features defined by the correlation of languages.

2. Main classifications of translations

Besides general features, conditioned by the single linguistic mechanism of the translation activity, separate types of translation may have important specific peculiarities: modification of the translation process, emphasizing the achievement of the highest level equivalence or, on the contrary, allow for deviation from the maximum possible level of semantic similarity, include elements of adaptive transcoding, etc. These peculiarities make it necessary to create a scientific classification of the types of translation activity (types of translations) and to study the specific features of each type in detail.

There are two main classifications of translation types: according to the character of the texts being translated and the character of speech activity of the translator during the translation process. The first classification deals with the genre-stylistic peculiarities of the original, the other deals with the psycholinguistic peculiarities of speech activity in the written and oral forms.

Genre-stylistic classification of translations according to the genre-stylistic peculiarities of the original stipulates for the discrimination of two functional types of translation: artistic (literary) translation and informative (special) translation.

3. Genre-stylistic classification

LITERARY TRANSLATION is the translation of fiction. Works of fiction are contrasted to all other speech compositions, because dominant for all of them is one of the communicative functions, namely the artistic-aesthetic or poetic one. The main aim of any composition of that type is to attain certain aesthetic impact, the creation of an artistic image. This aesthetic orientation distinguishes the artistic style speech from other acts of speech communication, where informational content is primary and independent.

Accordingly, LITERARY TRANSLATION is the type of translation activity, the main task of which is to create in TL a speech composition that can exert an artistic-aesthetic impact on a TR.

Analysis of translations of works of fiction shows that it is typical for them to contain deviations from the maximum possible semantic accuracy in order to ensure the artistic nature of the translation.

The mountain tops were hidden in a grey waste of sky... (A. Cronin)

Вершины гор тонули в сером небе. (Пер. М. Абкиной)

Such changes may be viewed as a modification of equivalence relations under the influence of the dominant function, determined by the type of translation.

Literary works are known to fall into a number of genres. Literary translations may be subdivided in the same way, as each genre calls for a specific arrangement and makes use of specific artistic means to impress the reader. Translation of prose, poetry, plays, satire, lyrics are some of the subdivisions. This subdivision is relative and depends on how significantly the specifics of the genre influences the process and the result of translation. The great challenge to the translator is to combine the maximum equivalence and the high literary merit.

INFORMATIVE TRANSLATION is the translation of texts, the main function of which is not in the artistic-aesthetic impact on the reader, but in providing some information. Such texts are all the materials of scientific, business social and political, household nature, etc. Translation of many detective stories, travelogues, essays and suchlike works where informative narration dominates also belongs to this sphere. The subdivision into literary and informative translation points out only the main function of the original that needs to be reproduced in the translation. In fact, in the original that requires literary translation as a whole, there may be parts performing purely informative functions, and, on the contrary, there may be elements of literary translation in the translation an informative text.

In informative translation the subdivisions of translation are defined according to the functional styles of SL that the STs belong to. Making this subdivision it is necessary for the functional-stylistic features of the originals to determine specific features of translating these texts. According to this characteristic, there are such specific subdivisions as translation of scientific-technological texts, translation of official-business texts, translation of political-publicistic texts, translation of newspaper-informational texts, translation of patents, etc.

Film dubbing, commercials, comic strips, localization of software, etc.