Trends in the development of translation theory

Translation theory has a long and rich history which bears out the elaboration of various concrete models and theories of translation in various conceptions. G. Steiner in the well-known book on translation “After Babel” singles out 4 periods in the history of translation studies:

(a) the 40-s B.C. – the begin. of the 19^th century – empirical approach with its focus on empirical observations. The adherents of this approach followed Cicero’s principle “sensus de sensu” (‘sense-for-sense’) instead of the principle of translation “verbum pro verbo” (word-for-word). At this time seminal analyses and pronouncements are believed to stem directly from the enterprise of the translator. This longest period in translation theory included polemics of Saint Jerome, the works by Luther, Montaigne, Chapman, Ben Johnson, Dryden and others. Major theoretical texts are written by Leonardo Bruni, Pierre Daniel Huet. This epoch of primary statement and technical notation may be said to end with Alexander Fraser Tytler’s “Essays on the Principles of Translation” (London, 1792).

(b) The begin. of the 19^th century – mid-fifties of the 20^th century – hermeneutic approach. Translation theory developed under a great influence of Schleiermacher, A.W.Schlegel and V.von Humboldt and had a philosophic aspect. This stage is a period of theory and hermeneutic inquiry when the question of the nature of translation is posed within the more general framework of theories of language and mind. The topic acquires a vocabulary and a methodological status of its own. Translation process was analysed in terms of a general model of meaning and understanding a piece of written and oral speech. The interchange between theory and practical need continued and the activity of the translator and relations between languages were discussed in the works by Goethe, Matthew Arnold, Paul Valery, Ezra Pound, Benedetto Croce, Walter Benjamin and many others, so it is also qualified as a philosophic-poetic age in the history of translation studies.

(c) Mid-fifties – the early 1960s – linguistic trend (linguistic translation theory – LTT). The first papers on machine translation circulate at the close of the 1940s. Russian and foreign scholars apply linguistic theory and statistics, information theory to translation. LTT was developed in several new directions: contrastive, literary, logical, semantic, comparative. Structural linguistics and information theory are introduced into the discussion of interlingual exchange. Professional translators constitute international bodies and start journals concerned with translation matters. Major books on translation often resulting from collaborative exploration were published in Russia and abroad. Among them: A.V.Fedorov, «Introduction to the Theory of Translation» (Vvedenie v teoriyu perevoda, M., 1953), J.R.Firth “ Linguistic Analysis and Translation ” (The Hague, 1956), T.H. Savoury “ The Art of Translation ” (L., 1957), R.O.Jakobson “ On Linguistic Aspects of Translation ” (Cambridge, 1959), E.Nida “ On the Science of Translation ” (Leiden, 1963), J.C.Catford “ A Linguistic Theory of Translation ” (Oxford, 1965), E.Nida and Ch.R.Taber “ The Theory and Practice of Translation ” (Leiden 1964). In 1954 an International Federation of Translators (FIT) was set up which published its own translators’ journal “Babel”. The most well known linguistic translation theories include the semantic, the situational, the denotational, the communicative, the transformational theories of translation. The fundamentals of new directions in translation studies, namely, contrastive, literary, semantic, comparative were set out in two influential books: On Translation (1959) edited by R.A.Brower and The Craft and Context of Translation: A Critical Symposium (1961) edited by W.Arrowsmith and R.Shattuck.

(d) The early 1960s – the late 1970s – a reversion to hermeneutic inquiries into translation and interpretation under the influence of M. Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer. The argument between ‘universalist’ and ‘relativist’ positions was brought back to the foreground of linguistic thought and translation studies. In these years, even more, than in the 1950s, the study of the theory and practice of translation became a point of contact between established and newly evolving disciplines. Translation studies draw upon the findings in the field of psychology, anthropology, sociology, ethno- and socio-linguistics. The idea that all communication is translation takes on a more technical, philosophically grounded force. Classical philology, comparative linguistics, lexical statistics, ethnography, the sociology of class-speech, formal rhetoric, poetics, the study of grammar are combined in an attempt to clarify the act of translation and the process of ‘life between languages’.

To conclude his classification, G.Steiner points out that despite the rich history and the calibre of those who have written about the art and the theory of translation, “the number of original, significant ideas in the subject remains very meagre” [Steiner 1977:238]. In fact, over some two thousand years of argument the beliefs and disagreements about the nature of translation have been almost the same.

Over thirty years have passed after the publication of G.Steiner’s influential work on translation which have seen dramatic changes in the development of linguistics. As before, translation offered a critical ground to test linguistic issues. In many ways translation studies still continue trends which were started in the third and fourth phases – logical, contrastive, literary, semantic, comparative. Yet certain differences in emphasis have occurred which makes it possible to single out a fifth stage in the history of translation that began in the 1980s and continues to the present day. The new approaches to translation were elaborated in modern translation science under the influence of several decisive factors in the theoretical study of language:

1) the theory of language is noted today for its polyparadigmatic character which means that different theoretical approaches to language should be viewed not as mutually exclusive, but complementary;

2) the study of language can be successful if it takes into account extralinguistic factors which are connected with its functioning;

3) a language should be looked upon as an integral part of culture within which it originates, takes its shape and functions;

4) a language serves as an important instrument of gaining, preserving and conveying information;

5) a language is a sort of analogue of a human being, it is dual in its nature as it combines substance and spirit and thus it serves to reveal uppermost secrets of human soul (see the works by Yu.D. Apresyan, A.N. Baranov, A.Ye. Kibrik, Ye.S. Koubryakova, V.A. Maslova,Yu.S. Stepanov, R.M. Frumkina etc).

New conceptions in linguistic studies have naturally brought about changes in views on translation which found their reflection in the following basic ideas:

1) a translation act is not only a bilingual process of communication, but it is also a process of bi-cultural intercourse, so its study raises the problems of cultural adaptation and linga-cultural acceptance;

2) a translation should be viewed not as a quest for ready dictionary correspondences, but an interpretative act which aims at rendering different kinds of information expressed in the original text;

3) a translation act is a verbal channel of expressing world views and ethnic mentalities of contacting nations which should overcome not only lingual, but also mental, cultural and ethnic barriers;

4) the notion of a translation text as wholly dependent upon the SLT is replaced by understanding it as “ the after-life of a text ”, so the translator is looked upon as a ‘co-writer, creative writer’;

5) the quest for differences between the SLT and the TLT with a view to estimating the quality of translation gives way to the search for reasons that account for those differences which may include both lingual factors, as well as conceptual and textual grids.

A great variety of translation theories that have appeared recently can roughly be qualified as interdisciplinary translation theories. The advocates of the new approach view translation in the framework of communication and rely on the findings of cognitive psychology, anthropology, sociology, ethnolinguistics and cultural studies, intertextual linguistics, semiotics. In modern translation studies linguistic and culturological theories develop side by side enriching each other. They look upon a TL text as the ‘after-life” of a SL text. The best known translation theories are cognitive, cultural, and those based on the idea of intertextuality. Mention should be made of the latest works on translation written along these lines: J.Holmes [Holmes 1988], Yu.M.Lotman [Lotman 1990], P.Torop [Тороп 1995; Torop 2002], G. Toury [2003], U.Eco [Eco 2002], V.I.Khairullin [Хайруллин 1995], N.M.Nesterova [Нестерова 2005], T.A.Fesenko [Фесенко 2002].

A translation text is qualified as a secondary one created on the basis of the SLT and it is analysed within the concept of metaliterature uniting into a single system all texts generated on the basis of one (see e.g. J. Holmes, Hans J. Vermeer). But viewed from this angle a translation text should be regarded as a special kind of secondary text which being the equivalent of the SLT possesses a number of ontological features making it different to related phenomena.

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An exhaustive analysis of the history of translation studies in Russia has not been made yet and questions that relate to it are usually discussed in respective sections of monographs and manuals [Фёдоров 1968; Алексеева 2004; Виноградов 2004; Тюленев 2004]. The first attempt to estimate the contribution of Russian translationists into the development of linguistic translation theory was made by V.N.Komissarov who wrote an overview of the findings and research into this field by the twelve major investigators of translation beginning with Ya.I.Retsker [Комиссаров 2002]. A comprehensive overview of translation studies both in this country and abroad was made in the book «The Science of Translation» (“Nauka o perevode”) by L.L.Nelyubin and G.T.Khukhuni [Нелюбин, Хухуни 2006].

V.S.Vinogradov singles out three main trends in the development of translation theories in Russia: literary, linguistic and mechanical (applied) [Виноградов 2001].

The literary approach is closely connected with the practice of artistic translation, so many well-known translators were themselves brilliant men-of-letters. In 1918 M.Gorky founded the Vsemirnaya Literatura publishing house and made the first step towards creating the theory by writing several sketches on literary translation. He gave his notes over to K.I.Chukovski and commissioned him with the task to prepare a scientific description of the principles of artistic translation, the first in the history of Russian translation studies. The book “ Principy khudozhestvennogo perevoda ” (1919) (“ Principles of artistic translation ”) with contributions from K.Chukovsky, F.Batyushkov and N.S. Gumilev was followed by major publications in this field: A.V.Fedorov “ Techniques and tasks of artistic translation” (“Priemy i zadachi khudozhestvennogo perevoda ”, Moscow, 1930); K.I.Chukovsky and A.V. Fedorov “The art of translation” (“Iskusstvo perevoda ”, 1930); M.P.Alekseev “Problems of literary translation” (“Problemy khudozhestvennogo perevoda”, Irkutsk, 1931), K.I. Chukovsky “ The High art ” (“ Vysokoye iskusstvo ”, M., 1941); A.V.Fedorov “Artistic translation ” (“O khudozhestvennom perevode”, M., 1941), B.Pasternak “ Translating Shakespeare” (M., 1958), B.Etkind “Poetry and translation” (“Poezija i perevod ”, Moscow and Leningrad, 1963).

Back in the 60s-70s of the XXth century when there was rigorous division between sciences the adherents to the literary approach to translation claimed that artistic translation has nothing to do with the study of language correlations and language adequacies which they considered as too formalistic and literal (G. Gachicheladze, I.A.Kashkin, A.A.Reformatsky and others).

History of translation bears out that scholars abroad also debated a lot whether translation is an art (skill) or science. E.Nida and C.Taber stressed that “translation is far more than a science. It is also a skill, and in the ultimate analysis fully satisfactory translation is always an art” [Nida, Taber 1969].

Ye.G.Etkind, one of the prominent Russian theoreticians of artistic translation, argued that a purely linguistic approach is incapable of obtaining convincing results in the analysis of artistic translation. In view of this he advanced a scientific philological analysis of artistic translation which should rely on aesthetics, psychology, ethnography, sociolinguistics, linguistics. From the point of view of modern translation theory which is divided into branches studying various aspects of translation process it is noteworthy that some of Ye.G.Etkind’s ideas are in tune with latest developments in this field, though his attempt to undermine the role and place of linguistics is justly criticized.

Literary critics of translation focused on the akseological aspects of translation and tried to evaluate translation from the point of view of its aesthetic equivalence to the original text. They studied the role of target language in developing spiritual culture. Analyzing particular translations of literary texts they showed their merits and demerits, made editor’s comment and offered more adequate variants of translation.

The linguistic approach to translation led to the creation in the mid-fifties of the 20^th century of the linguistic theory of translation which investigates various issues of the phenomenology and processes of translation between languages with the principal emphasis on modern linguistics. These years witness the appearance of fundamental works devoted to the study of linguistic regularities of translation which laid the basis of the linguistic theories of translation. Mention should be made of such prominent books and monographs as, J.R.Firth Linguistic Analysis and Translation (1956), J.A. Catford A Linguistic Theory of Translation (1965), M.A.K. Halliday Comparison and Translation (1966), R.O.Jakobson On Linguistic Aspects of Translation (1959), G.Mounin Les Problemes theoriques de la traduction (1963), A. Neubert Pragmatische Aspekte der Ubersetzung (1968), E. Nida Principles of Translation as Exemplified by Bible Translating (1959), E.Nida Toward a Science of Translating (1964), E.Nida and C.R.Taber The Theory and Practice of Translation (1964), A.V. Feodorov Vvedenie v teoriyu perevoda (1953), Ya.I.Retsker Teoriya i practika perevoda s angliiskogo yazyka na russki (1956), M.M. Morozov Posobie po perevodu russkoi khudozhestvennoy prozy na angliiski yazyk (1956), T.R.Levitskaya, A.M.Fiterman Teoriya i practika perevoda s angliiskogo yazyka na russki (1963), articles in the translators’ journals “ Tetradi perevodchika”, “Masterstvo perevoda”.

The fundamentals of the LTT in this country were laid down in the works by L.S.Barkhudarov, V.G.Gak, V.N.Komissarov, Ya.I.Retsker, L.A.Tchernyahovskaya, A.D.Shveitser, A.V.Fedorov and other prominent scholars.

Authorities in the linguistic theory of translation in this country (V.N.Komissarov, A.D.Shveitser, A.V.Fedorov) point out in their books several major reasons, both subjective and objective, accounting for the emergence of the linguistic theory of translation at this particular time.

The historical background in the years following the Second World War (the dynamics of immigration, international commerce, diplomatic, political, cultural and other links between nations) stimulated practice of translation which in its turn was an incentive to further theoretical translation studies.

The need to do much translation into a second language in the process of second language acquisition served as a stimulus and a methodological guide for further research.

A rapid growth of science and technology in different parts of the world brought about an ‘information explosion’ which resulted in a sort of translation boom. In these conditions the fast-growing demand for competent translators could be met only if mass training of well-qualified specialists including military, technical, diplomatic translators and interpreters rested on a solid theoretical basis.

Apart from external causes there were a number of internal changes in the field of translation. These changes were related, first of all, to the character of materials that had to be translated. Throughout centuries, the main kind of translation made was confined to fiction, while intense information exchange involved various other kinds of texts (scientific, business, technical, diplomatic). The linguistic peculiarities of different kinds and genres of texts had to be carefully studied and compared in different languages so that their correlations in SL and TL might be reflected in the form of translation rules to be taken into account and observed in the process of human translation. Such rules could as well be described as translation algorithms for machine translation [Catford 1967].

Besides, as has been noted above, translators of fiction were themselves talented writers and poets who did not require any special training and, as a matter of fact, were skeptical about any attempts to approach translation from a theoretical angle.

These years also witnessed great changes in the variety, scale and volume of translation work as alongside written translation there appeared new types of translation – different varieties of technical translation (synopsis, express-information, précis, patent translation, etc), oral interpretation including consecutive, simultaneous, over-the-phone interpreting, escort interpreting, sight translation, etc. It was necessary to elaborate criteria of adequacy of translation that could be applied to different translation output. Generations of translators and interpreters had to be trained that were capable of handling different types of texts and successfully coping with new translation challenges.

Machine translation (MT) is defined as the term used to describe translation performed by a computer software program, rather than by a human translator, which is known as HT (Human Translation) [Sofer1999:155]. Mechanical translation dates back to the fifties and early sixties, but much of the confidence in its scope has now ebbed. Supporters of machine translation connect it with the necessity to develop new models of the process of translation (see the works by I.I.Revzin, V.Yu.Rozetsveig, Yu.N.Marchuk, Yu.D.Apresyan, N.N.Leontyeva, N.K.Ryabtseva, etc). While traditional theoretical models of translation take into account three basic elements of translation process: a SL text – a translator – a TL text, that is they approach translation as a subjective process with human psyche as its central factor, adherents of computational theories of translation try to develop objective models of translation based on interrelation of language, information and communication. Modeling mental processes, including translation, by formal means requires definition of the objective link between thought, language and reality and establishing the place of language in cognition and communication.

In machine translation a text should be studied from the point of view of the three types of its functioning: a text (a) as an element of a certain information system, as (b) an object of study on the part of scholars of various disciplines including linguistics, and as (c) an object of various transformations and changes including compression, expansion, translation, reviewing, etc.

According to scholars who are rather sceptical about mechanical translation, the results of machine translation have been limited for two reasons: (a) while computers have a seemingly unlimited capacity for processing data, they are a long way from having the capacity to think creatively like human beings, and (b) human language is not a merely a collection of signs and symbols which can be easily programmed and computerized. As long as language communicates more than the literal meaning of words, as long as there are shades of meaning that keep changing all the time, as long as people have to make value judgements about the meaning and the intent of a text, it will be necessary to have a human translator in order to get the job done. Translation practice shows that when it comes to translating substantial texts machine-translated texts always require a lot of editing or doing the same work again from scratch.

Today the interest in MT has noticeably ebbed. According to V.N.Komissarov MT can be useful in 3 areas: 1) to translate specialist texts in particular branches, 2) to translate texts very fast in order to acquaint the target audience with their content, 3) to translate texts which have been previously edited to eliminate potential errors [Комиссаров 1999a].

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As the twenty-first century begins to unfold, the role of the translator once again becomes critical in shaping human history. Researchers point out two dominant linguistic phenomena at the close of the twentieth century: (1) the growing incursion of American English into the languages of the world through pop culture and high tech and (2) the emergence of national languages throughout the world. In conditions of linguistic diversity and the growing influence of one international language it is argued that we are standing on the threshold of a new golden age for translation. There is a new cultural openness in today’s world, brought about by the end of the Cold war, the incredible progress in global communications, including such technologies as satellite communication, computers, modem, fax, e-mail, the Internet, the fast-growing international trade, as well as new international awareness of many languages and cultures. Hundreds of new dictionaries are being published all over the world, language courses are being offered everywhere and the demand for competent translators is growing at a steady rate. Such diverse practical needs stimulate further translation studies and deepen insight into the overall mechanism of rendering in/from rare languages that should be treated with respect, studied and translated as valuable cultural assets.