The map of translation

Pure Applied

Theoretical Descriptive

General Partial Product Process Function Translator Translation Translation

Oriented Training Aids Criticism

Medium Area Rank Text- Time Problem

Restricted Restricted Restricted Type Restricted Restricted

Restricted

Thus, the comparison of different points of view shows that there was a shift in modern translation studies in the 80-es from a prescriptive to a descriptive / diagnostic approach to translation. Translation studies as a self-contained discipline began to be regarded as a fundamental science in the framework of which all the three branches – theoretical, descriptive and applied – are equally important, interconnected and complementary.

1.4. The object of investigation, aims and tasks
of linguistic translation theory. Methods of analysis

Like any other scientific discipline linguistic translation theory has its own object of analysis, tasks and aims of research, as well as methods of investigation.

According to A.D.Shveitser, the object of LTT is the process of translation as a special kind of speech communication viewed in a broad socio-cultural context with account taken of social, cultural and psychological determinants [Швейцер 1988:8]. V.N.Komissarov considers the object of investigation in regard to different facets of translation activity studied in different branches of translatology: psychology of translation, the theory of literary (or artistic) translation, ethnographic translation theory, linguistics of translation, etc. He argues that LTT is the theoretical part of linguistics of translation which is concerned with the study of translation as a linguistic phenomenon viewed as a specific means within the framework of interlanguage communication [Комиссаров 1990: 34; 1999a: 41]. Prof. L.S.Barkhudarov stresses a very important aspect in the object of LTT which presupposes a contrastive study of SL and TL speech events, that is a SLT and a TLT, underlying a scientific description of translation process viewed as an interlanguage transformation [Бархударов 1975].

As is seen from the quoted definitions of the object of investigation of LTT, they differ in some important features which is due to the fact that the authors have elaborated their own models and theories of translation that differ considerably. In our opinion, the conception of translation as a two-way speech act in intercultural communication may be specified by shifting accent onto the ethno-cultural aspect of the object of studies. In keeping with this approach we can define the object of translation studies viewed as a fully-fledged discipline as an act of verbal inter-lingual and inter-ethno-cultural communication which is mediated through a translator/interpreter.

The aim of LTT is to reveal and describe the most common, typical and repetitve objective regularities of translation process which make it different from other forms of human intercourse. As translation is viewed as a transfer of meaning across cultures, LTT aims at analyzing and synthesizing meaning, both while understanding the source text and creating the target text. With account taken of the object and the subject matter of investigation, the aims of LTT analysis are varied and depend on its division into several branches: (a) general LTT which is aimed at studying the most general linguistic regularities of translation; (b) particular LTTs which have three varieties with their particular goals of research:

a) LTTs concerned with the study of translation problems that arise when dealing with particular genres and types of texts;

b) LTTs devoted to the investigation of different problems of oral and written translation;

c) LTTs confined to the study of translation issues that arise in relations between a particular SL and a particular TL.

The tasks of general LTT are manifold and varied, but the most important are as follows:

1) to bring to light the essence of translation as a special kind of interlanguage and intercultural human interaction, reveal its linguistic basics;

2) to elaborate the principles of classifying different kinds of translation activity;

3) to reveal the essence of translation equivalence and adequacy;

4) to work out criteria for evaluating the quality of translation;

5) to establish types of interlanguage correlations and classify translation correspondences of various levels;

6) to describe translation techniques and procedures;

7) to determine the role of translation in the development of culture;

8) to study the influence of pragmatic and socio-cultural factors on translation process;

9) to define the notion of translation norm.

The methods of investigation used in LTT are numerous as it draws upon findings of other disciplines. Various theories of translation proposed within different approaches to translation make most of a number of methods of analysis, cf. componential analysis, transformational analysis, the method of filters, the method of sense-analysis, etc.

The oldest and time-tested method of investigation is the comparative method which is based on comparison of texts which provides essential information about the nature of translation. According to V.N.Komissarov, modern translatology employs four procedures of such an analysis:

1) target text is compared with the original text which enables to gain valuable data about the degree of proximity in the content and structure of a SLT and a TLT, discover various means used to achieve equivalence, regular translation techniques and transformations and some other important features of translation process;

2) several target versions of the same source language text which have been made by different translators are compared in order to reveal common regularities of translation process that do not depend upon the competence and individual peculiarities of the translators;

3) translation texts are compared with original texts created in target language in order to discover what changes in TL are brought about under the influence of translation texts. It is argued that translators broaden communicative capacities of TL by resorting to borrowings, loans, word-for-word translation which helps them more fully convey the content of a SLT and its peculiarities. In the author’s opinion such deviations from the TL norm may be justified in translation and can be regarded as a kind of translation norm;

4) various SL texts and their TL translations which are related in their content and belong to the same functional style and genre are compared to bring to light differences between the two languages in the use of language means and devices in respective texts which can be further taken into account in the process of stylistic adaptation of the SLT in translation [Комиссаров 1999a: 23-24].

Since comparative analysis of a SLT and a TLT presupposes establishing similarities, differences and correlations not only on the level of texts as linguistic and speech entities, but also on the level of their parts and fragments it is obvious that translation theory employs other methods of investigation including componential analysis, methods of transformational analysis and the method of statistical studies.

Componential analysis initially used in semasiological investigations to decompose word-meaning into elementary semantic components or features (semes) allows to get results which are vitally important for the theory and practice of translation. The description of lexical meaning of correlated words in SL and TL in terms of their componential structure helps to establish the degree of their semantic proximity and look for means to overcome their difference. For example, the English verb clamber has the following semantic structure, to climb slowly, using your hands and feet (LDCE). In the following passage it is used to characterize an old woman who moves with difficulty, so in translation this important component of meaning is rendered by means of a word-combination, A woman clambered out with a basket (E. Blyton). – С трудом сошла со ступенек какая-то женщина с корзиной (В.Исакович).

Transformational analysis which is understood in linguistics as repatterning of various distributional structures in order to discover difference or sameness of meaning of practically identical distributional patterns (N.Chomsky, E.Nida) has two-fold uses in the translation practice. First of all, as the definition suggests, it is a reliable procedure to verify the content expressed in a TLT because the surface structures may seem to be misleading and ambivalent at first sight. Cf.

He will make an excellent house – He will build an excellent house.

He will make an excellent teacher -- *He will build an excellent teacher.

The impossibility of the second transform proves the difference in the meanings of the verb make in the two structures which affects its translation, cf.

Он построит отличный дом.

Из него получится отличный учитель.

Besides, transformational analysis is difficult to overestimate if we understand translation process itself as a sort of interlanguage transformation, that is changing lexical and syntactical structures of the original texts into TL structures following certain established rules of their transference.

In theoretical translation studies an important role is played by the method of linguistic modeling, i.e. constructing theoretical models of the process of translation. Such models try to reveal mental processes that take place in a translator’s mind which are hidden from direct observation. They are built by linguists that stick to various linguistic theories and reflect their understanding of the nature of human language and the process of interlingual communication. The most well known models of translation include the situational (denotative) model (J.Catford, V.G.Gak, A.V.Fedorov, etc), the transformational theory of translation (N.Chomsky, E. Nida, I.I. Revzin and V.Yu. Rozentsveig, etc), the componential method of translation (J.J. Katz, A.D.Shveitser), the semantic model (C.J.Fillmore, A.K.Zholkovsky, M.A.Melchuk), the communicative model (O. Kade, V.N. Komissarov) and some others. Various models of translation are discussed in more detail below.