5. Describe equivalence-based theory, types of equivalence.

Equivalent is the key idea of equivalence based theory of translation.Equivalent means equal in value, amount, volume, etc. The principle of equivalence is based on the mathematical law of transitivity that reads: if A is equal to С and В is equal to C, then В equals A.

As applied to translation, equivalence means that if a word or word combination of one language (A) corresponds to certain concept (C) and a word or word combination of another language (B) corresponds to the same concept (C) these words or word combinations are considered equivalent (connected by the equivalence relation).

It is this relationship that allows the target text to be considered a translation of the source text. However, the principle that a translation should have an equivalence relation with the source language text is problematic. There are three main reasons why an exact equivalence or effect is difficult to achieve. Firstly, it is impossible for a text to have constant interpretations even for the same person on two occasions. Secondly, translation is a matter of subjective interpretation of translators of the source language text. Thus, producing an objective effect on the target text readers, which is the same as that on the source text readers is unreal. Thirdly, it may not be possible for translators to determine how audiences responded to the source text when it was first produced.

Because the target text can never be equivalent to the source text at all levels, researchers have distinguished different types of equivalence.

Nida suggests formal and dynamic or functional equivalence. Formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content. It requires that the message in the target language should be as closely as possible the different elements in the source language.

Dynamic equivalence is based on the principle of equivalent effect, where the relationship between the receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message. Newmark makes a distinction between communicative (dynamic) and semantic (formal) translation.

What is more essential here is that translation equivalent means to be equal by the similarity of meanings. This simple idea is very important for the understanding of translation: the words that you find in a dictionary as translations of the foreign language word are not the universal substitutes of this word in your language. These translations (equivalents) are worth for specific cases which are yet to be determined by the translator. Translation equivalents in a dictionary are just the prompts for the translator. One may find a proper equivalent only in speech due to the context, situation and background knowledge.

The idea of translation equivalence is strongly related to that of the unit of translation, i. e. the text length required to obtain proper equivalent. The general rule of translation reads: the longer is the source text, the bigger is a chance to find correct translation equivalent. Traditionally and from practical viewpoint the optimal length of text for translation is a sentence.