Diapositiva 1

The unit of translation

Saussures _ Linguistic sign : Vinay & Darbelnets _ Lexicological Unit or Unit of Thought

Word?Morpheme ?Signifier?Signified ?Theme?Rheme ?

Segment of the utterance ?Prelude to analysis ?Levels of translation ?

Because of the difficulty of analysing the translation process, there is no full agreement as to what the unit of translation is. As is clear for some theorists to stress that the major unit must be the text itself, that it is impossible to translate well unless the significance of the whole text has been established. Vinay and Darbelnets Comparative Stylistics of French and English first appeared in 1958. The authors define their unit of translation as the smallest segment of the utterance whose signs are linked in such a way that they should not be translated individually. Unit of translation refers to the linguistic level at which ST is recodified in TL :. In other words, the element used by the translator when working on the ST. It may be the individual word, group, clause, sentence or even the whole text. The famous Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure invented the linguistic term sign that unifies signifier (sound-image or word) and signified (concept). Importantly, Saussure emphasizes that the sign is by nature arbitrary and can only derive meaning from contrast with other signs in the same system (language).

Thus, the signifier tree recalls the real-world signified plant with a trunk; it can be contrasted with signifiers such as bush, a different kind of plant. But the selection of tree for this designation is arbitrary and only occurs in the English-language system. In French, the signifier arbre is used for this plant.

The units of translation we postulate here are lexicological units within which lexical elements are grouped together to form a single element of thought. It would be more correct to say: the unit of translation is the predominant element of thought within such a segment of the utterance.

There may be superposition of ideas within the same unit. For example, to loom conveys both the idea of a ghost hanging in mid-air and, at the same time, that of imminence or threat, but, whether seen as a single lexical item in a dictionary or from the point of view of the morpho-syntactic structure in which the word might occur, the two ideas cannot be separated. They are superimposed. It is what Bally refers to as an accumulation of meanings. In such cases the translation may be able to retain only one signified, preferably that which in the context has priority. This is the reason why it is almost impossible to fully translate poetry. 3The lexicological units described by Vinay and Darbelnet contain lexical elements grouped together to form a single element of thought. Illustrative examples they provide, to show the non-correspondence at word level between French and English, are: simple soldat = private (in the army) and tout de suite = immediately. Of course, the traditional structure of dictionaries, which divides a language into headwords, means that individual words do tend to be treated in isolation, being divided into different senses. Below is an adapted entry for the Spanish word brote in the Oxford Spanish bilingual dictionary (third edition, 2003):Example A 3.1brote ma. (botanical) shoot; as in: echar brotes = to sprout, put out shootsb. (of rebellion, violence) outbreakc. (of an illness) outbreakThe bracketed descriptors, known as discriminators, summarize the main use, field or collocation for each translation equivalent. Thus, sense c is the illness sense, with the corresponding translation outbreak. On the other hand, sense a is the botanical sense, with the translation shoot, of a plant. The example in sense a, echar brotes, is an example of a strong collocation in Spanish. This two-word unit may be translated in English by a single verb, sprout, or by a phrasal verb plus object, put out shoots,which demonstrates how the translation unit is not fixed to an individual word across languages. This is brought out even more strongly in the entry for outbreak on the English side of the dictionary:Example A 3.2outbreak n = a. (of war) estallido m; = b. (of hostilities) comienzo m; = c. (of cholera, influenza) brote m; (above word level) 1. at the outbreak of the strike = al declararse or al estallar la huelga . . .; 2. there were outbreaks of violence/protest = hubo brotes de violencia/protestaExample A3.3 Spanish ST---Segn OM n 4295 de 2 de marzo de 2001DEBIDO AL BROTE DE FIEBRE AFTOSA, ROGAMOS A LOS SEORES PASAJEROS DE LOS VUELOS CON ORIGEN EN EL REINO UNIDO O FRANCIA, DESINFECTEN SU CALZADO EN LAS ALFOMBRAS.[Due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, we ask ladies-and-gentlemen passengers of flights with origin in the United Kingdom or France, that they disinfect their footwear on the carpets.]Example A3.3b English TTDUE TO THE OUTBREAK OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE, ALL PASSENGERS ARRIVING FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM OR FRANCE ARE KINDLY REQUESTED TO DISINFECT THEIR FOOTWEAR ON THE SPECIAL CARPETS PROVIDED.

If we focus on the first line of the ST, our particular interest is in the expressions brote, fiebre aftosa and rogamos. The first two have established equivalents in this scientific context, outbreak and foot-and-mouth disease respectively. Note that fiebre aftosa must be considered as a separate translation unit, a multi-word lexicological unit, and translated accordingly as foot-and-mouth disease and not aphtose fever, for example.

When it comes to the word rogamos it can clearly be seen that it is impossible to translate the word individually. A translator needs to consider the whole structure rogamos a los seores pasajeros . . . desinfecten su calzado (request-we ladies-andgentlemen passengers . . . they disinfect their footwear . . .) and its politeness function in context before translating. It is in such instances that restructuring is most likely to occur. In this case, the English politeness formula prefers a passive (are requested) and the addition of the adverb kindly in order to reduce any abruptness that might be caused by a literal translation from the Spanish: all passengers . . . are kindly requested to disinfect their footwear. While a word such as calzado may be a lexicological unit which can be translated with its normal equivalent footwear, the phrase as a whole is a unit of thought and needs to be treated as such in the process of translation. Translation units, therefore, will vary according to the linguistic structure involved.

THE UNIT OF TRANSLATION AS A PRELUDE TO ANALYSIS

Division of ST and TT into the units of translation is of particular importance in Vinay and Darbelnets work as a prelude to analysis of changes in translation. Example A3.4a, a poster located by the underground ticket office at Heathrow airport, London:Example A3.4aTravelling from Heathrow?There are easy to follow instructions on the larger self-service touch screen ticket machines.- imagine you have been asked to translate this poster into your first language - Write down your translation and make a note of the translation units you use- A translator approaching this short text will most probably break it down into the title (Travelling from Heathrow?) and the instructions in the second sentence. While that sentence will be taken as a whole, it might also in turn be sub-divided more or less as follows:There are/[easy to follow/instructions]/ [on the/larger/self-service/touch screen/ticket machines]

Here, the slashes (/) indicate small word groups with a distinct semantic meaning that might be considered separately, while the brackets ([. . .]) enclose larger units that a practised translator is likely to translate as a whole. The actual French TT on the poster indicates how this operates in real life:Example A3.4bVous partez de Heathrow?Les distributeurs de billets cran tactile vous fourniront des instructions claires et simples en franais.[You leave from Heathrow?The distributors of tickets with screen touchable to-you provide-will some instructions clear and simple in French.]

The title is translated as a question, but with the grammatical subject filled out (You leave from Heathrow?) . The second sentence has been restructured to produce an instruction that functions in French. The different STTT elements line up as follows, with O standing for an omission or zero translation:There are / [easy to follow / instructions] / on / [the / larger /[vous fourniront] / [claires et simples / des instructions] / / [les / /

self-service / touch screen / ticket machines ]/ / cran tactile / distributeurs de billets] / en franais

It is clear that the French has translated the larger self-service ticket machines as a single unit (les distributeurs de billets), with the solid-sounding distributeurs incorporating by implication not only the concept of self-service but also perhaps the comparator larger from the ST. Note also how the definite article the has necessarily been considered as part of the same translation unit as ticket machines, giving the plural form les in les distributeurs de billets in the French. Easy to follow has been rendered by two adjectives linked by an additive conjunction, claires et simples (clear and simple). There are two additions in the TT: en franais (in French), to reassure the reader that the instructions will be easy to follow for them in their own language, and vous fourniront (to you will provide), which has taken over the function of the English existential verb form there are.

This simple text indicates how, in practice, the translation unit will typically tend to be not individual words but small chunks of language building up into the sentence, what the famous translation theorist Eugene Nida calls meaningful mouthfuls of language.

TRANSLATION AT DIFFERENT LEVELSIn his Textbook of Translation (1988), Peter Newmark discusses translation using in part a scale that has become well established in linguistics with the work of Michael Halliday . It should be noted that Hallidayan linguistics also informs much of Mona Bakers influential In Other Words (1992), which, too, examines translation at different levels, although in Bakers case it is levels of equivalence (at the level of the word, collocation and idiom, grammar, thematic and information structure, cohesion and pragmatics). Hallidays systemic analysis of English grammar is based on the following hierarchical rank scale, starting with the smallest unit morpheme word group clause sentence Word and group are the ranks that we have discussed most so far in this unit. But Hallidays focus is on the clause as a representation of meaning in a communicative context and Newmarks is on the sentence as the natural unit of translation. Newmark states that transpositions and rearrangements may often occur, but that a sentence would not normally be divided unless there was good reason. He is careful to insist that any rearrangements or recastings must respect Functional Sentence Perspective.

Briefly, the unit of translation is normally the linguistic unit which the translator uses when translating. Translation theorists have proposed various units, from individual word and group to clause and sentence and even higher levels such as text and intertextual levels (e.g. Beaugrande 1978, see Unit 9).

Importantly, Newmark (1988: 667) makes the crucial point that all lengths of language can, at different moments and also simultaneously, be used as units of translation in the course of the translation activity. While it may be that the translator most often works at the sentence level, paying specific attention to problems raised by individual words or groups in that context, it is also important to take into account the function of the whole text and references to extra-textual features. Of course, texts themselves are not isolated but function within their own socio-cultural and ideological environment.

In Albanian burrIn English can

According to the particular role they play in the message, several types of units of translation can be recognised:a. Functional units, i.e. units whose elements have the same syntactic function, e.g.:Il habite He livesSaint-Sauveur, at Saint-Sauveur,a deux pas, a short distance awayen meuble, in furnished roomschez ses parents. with his parents

b. Semantic units, i.e. units of meaning, e.g.:le grand film the main featureprendre placeto sit (or: to stand)

c. Dialectic units, i.e. expressing a reasoning, e.g.:en effet reallypuisque, aussi, bien since, however, also, well

d. Prosodic units, i.e. units whose elements have the same intonation:You dont say! Ca alors!Youre telling me! Vous ne mapprenez rien!The last three categories constitute units of translation. Unless they are very short, functional units may contain more than a single unit of thought. If we now look at the relationship between units of translation and words within a text, three different cases can arise:

a. Simple unitsThese units correspond to a single word. It is obviously the simplest case and listed here in first place because it is widely used and also because it enables us to give a better definition of the remaining two. In the following sentences there are as many units as there are words and each word can be replaced individually without changing the sentence structure.Il gagne cinq mille dollars. He earns five thousand dollars.Elle recoit trois cents francs. She receives three hundred francs.

b. Diluted unitsThese units extend over several words which together form a lexicological unit, because the whole group of words expresses a single idea. We take our examples from both languages:simple soldat privatetout de suite immediatelyc. Fractional unitsThese units consist of only a fraction of a word, which means that the speaker is therefore still aware of the constituent elements of the word, e.g.:Two units One unitrelever quelquun qui est tombe relever une erreur [spot, point out]re-cover [recouvrir] recover [recouvrer]In English, wordstress can reveal the difference between single and multiple units, e.g.black bird vs black-bird.

The identification of units of translation also depends upon another classification in which the degree of cohesion between the elements is taken into account. Unfortunately, this involves a variable criterion and the categories we shall try to establish are, above all, fixed points between which we may expect to find intermediary cases which are more difficult to classify.

a. Unified groups, in contrast to one-word units, refer to highly coherent units of two or more words such as idioms. The unity of meaning is very clear and is often marked by a syntactic characteristic such as the omission of an article before a noun. In general, even the least experienced translators can detect this kind of unit without any difficulty.a bout portant point-blank

b. Affinity groups are units whose elements are more difficult to detect and in which the cohesion between the words is less evident. We identify five separate types:i. Phrases of Intensityfocused around a noun:une pluie diluvienne a downpourfocused around an adjective, a past participle, or a verb:grievement blesse seriously injuredreflechir murement to give careful considerationSuch groupings exist in both languages, but they can only rarely be translated literally. For example, English has its own special tendency to reinforce an adjective, e.g.:Drink your coffee while it is nice and hot. Buvez votre cafe bien chaud.He was good and mad. Il etait furieux.The reinforcement of big by great is reminiscent of childrens language. Certain English adjectives are intensified by another adjective, e.g.:stone deaf sourd comme un potii. Verbal phrasesIn these cases a verb followed by a noun (e.g. faire une promenade) corresponds, in principle, to a simple verb (e.g. se promener) of the same family as the noun:faire une promenade to take a walkpousser un soupir to heave a sighThe simple verb without its associated complement may be quite rare, e.g. the case of heave, or not occur at all. Groups formed by a noun and verb with a single meaning within the sentence should also be considered as units of thought. The verb does not necessarily have a literal correspondent.passer un examen to take an examMany simple English verbs correspond to French verbal phrases, e.g.:mettre en danger to endangerfermer a clef to lockiii. Many French adjectival and adverbial phrases form units in the same way as their English counterparts do in the form of single words, e.g.:sans condition unconditionally

iv. Many units consist of a noun and an adjective, but without the intensification noted above. The adjective is often an everyday word which acquires a more technical meaning, e.g.:les grands magasins department storesun haut fourneau a blast furnacev. Beyond these easily defined units, translators are faced with a maze of phrases in which they have to try and identify the lexicological units. Dictionaries give numerous examples of these, but there are no complete lists, and all for good reason. The following examples have been selected at random to illustrate the variety of these units.le regime des pluies the rainfallmettre au point to overhaul, perfect, clarifyThe translation of a word usually depends upon its context. A unit of translation provides a limited context; it forms a syntactic unit where one element determines the translation of the other. For example, in rgime des pluies, rgime corresponds to fall. On the other hand, the context is created by the usage, and it is unlikely that these words should recur in the same order with a different meaning association. At the same time, the unit of translation is anchored in the system of the language, for it is also a memory association.