The Problem Of Equivalence In Translation Works

The Problem Of Equivalence In Translation Works

Translation is the act that renders knowledge, whether literary or scientific, a mobile form of culture. Such mobility, in turn, is what gives human understanding a deep and lasting influence beyond the borders of its original setting. Discussions related to the theory, practice, and history of translation have tended to focus on literary and holy texts. Yet translation has been a central determinant in the history of scientific knowledge as well, therefore a crucial element in its intellectual history, and continues to be so today.
Despite such importance, science and medical translation has been a topic of only sporadic scholarly study. The so-called "invisibility" of the literary translator, whose labor and worth tend to be ignored in favor of the original author, doubly applies to the scientific translator, who has been neglected even by the field of translation studies, with a few important exceptions. These exceptions for example, concerning the transmission of ancient Greek and medieval Islamic science reveal an interesting truth: no less than with literary works, translators of science and medicine have often imposed new elements upon the texts they have rendered, enriching and expanding them by adaptation to new cultural contexts. Just as the world has benefited greatly from the translation of scientific and medical knowledge into many languages, so has this knowledge been advanced by translation in turn.
At base, a physics paper in German cannot be perfectly copied into Chinese or Russian for the same fundamental reasons that this cannot be done for novels: differences in grammar, syntax, usage, etc. Interpretation is always involved in translation, and this includes scientific material. The scope of such interpretation has changed over time, for several reasons. One reason, for example, relates to the evolving character of scientific discourse itself, which, as noted, was quite diverse for most of its history.
As translation theory evolved, however, the consensus view expanded to include cultural, interpretive, interpersonal, cognitive, and even technical factors as well. With the advent of the functionalist approach in translation theory, the function or purpose of translated texts as communicative tools moved into the center of attention, where it remains today.
Although this article lacks space to even outline the great variety of factors that have been investigated to date, it is fair to say that translation studies as a field has moved radically in the direction of embracing an integrative approach to translation that sees itself as a multidiscipline with virtually no aspect of the communicative process being outside its scope of reference. Perhaps one of the most overriding shifts in translation theory has been from the static to the dynamic: from seeing the translation process as one of establishing equivalence between original and translated texts to seeing it instead as one of cognitive, social, and communicative action. Results of think-aloud studies on the mental processes involved in translation, focusing primarily on the interplay between intuitions and strategies, suggest that mental process research can be a fruitful source of knowledge about how experts and novices translate differently.
Such research may well make valuable contributions to translation pedagogy in the future, for example in specifying a role for strategy and creativity training. In any event, against the backdrop of the modern understanding of translation, translation pedagogy can no longer be reduced to a simplistic performance magistrale, where a teacher can be expected to transmit the knowledge necessary to achieve linguistic equivalence. As in all other domains of human activity, the skills and knowledge needed to act need to be developed through the authentic practice of that professional domain.
Partly as a result of the equivalence-to-action shift in translation theory, there is an ever-increasing awareness that translation experts must be actively engaged in the development of individually adapted skills for dealing with the myriad unforeseeable combinations of factors that they will definitely face in their professional work. features a buyin . Tags: translation, English translation Brussels, Brussels translationOutsource Or In-house Spanish Translation Services? By: Tracy Dixon | May 2nd 2012 - Professional agencies and corporations that see an even high volume of dictation and a necessity for translation can typically resort to hiring one or a lot of in-house personnel to trot out the Spanish language translation. Tags: translations in belgium translator, translations in brusselsCheap Louis Vuitton By: hanlan | May 2nd 2012 - It was suggested that the outlet store and check the goods found there. Tags: vertaling spaans engels, traduction, vertaling nederlands spaansAdvantageous Approach To Engage Customers By: hehe336 | Apr 19th 2012 - Most modern marketers know how important the mobile marketing platform is with the astounding growth of people using mobile devices, how could you not?Tags: Application, Management SystemGet Yourself A Fine Quality English To French Translator By: Tracy Dixon | Apr 17th 2012 - Do you need to have documents or websites translated from English to French? If yes, then you must be aware of variety of factors that are concerned in such a process, and influence the tip result significantly.