scholarly journals Information Entropy in Translation: Psycholinguistic Aspects

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-113
Author(s):  
Маргарита Дорофеєва ◽  
Тетяна Андрущенко
Keyword(s):  
Translation Method ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Informational Entropy ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Incorrect Choice ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
Research Procedure ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Universal Nature ◽  
Contextual Meaning

The article deals with the category of informational entropy in the source text as a matter of translation psycholinguistics. The informational entropy of the lexical units on different levels in the source text refers to subjective factors that reduce the translation quality. Lexical units-carriers of the source text’s informational entropy cause informational deficits in the translator’s consciousness. The aim of the search is to consider the category of informational entropy from the standpoint of psycholinguistics and cognitive translation theory, identify the causes of informational entropy, establish linguistic and genre-stylistic markers of the lexical entropy units in the source text, identify ways to minimize entropy in the specialized translation. The research procedure involves a psycholinguistic experiment with the participation of 85 informants with semi-professional translation status. The participants produced a German-Ukrainian translation of a specialized text, in which the number of lexical units contained informational entropy as a percentage of the total words’ number was 17.9%. The results of the translation’s comparative analysis indicate similar psycholinguistic mechanisms for understanding lexical units with informational entropy, leading to false translation solutions in the target texts. Such mechanisms include an incorrect choice of the translation method and a lack of attention to the extralinguistic information in the source text. The conclusions of the psycholinguistic experiment confirm the universal nature of the informational entropy, resulting in translation quality degradation. The psycholinguistic factor for the false translation solutions is an automatic suppression the contextual meaning of the source text’s lexical item by its subject-logical meaning in the translator’s mind, realized in the incorrect choice of the translation method.

Immersed in the source text

Babel ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-285
Author(s):  
Beatriz Naranjo Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Emotional Engagement ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Narrative Transportation ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract This study aims at exploring the phenomenon of psychological transportation in translation from an experimental approach. Firstly, we investigate whether the emotions depicted in source texts may influence the level of transportation experienced by translators. Secondly, we try to determine whether different levels of transportation in the texts can make a difference in terms of translation performance. Based on previous work about narrative transportation in products of fiction, as well as the phenomenon known as the “paradox of pleasurable sadness”, we depart from the hypothesis that sad texts lead to a higher degree of psychological transportation than happy texts (H1). Taking into account previous theories and empirical results about the benefits of visualization and emotional engagement in translation, we also predict that highly-transported participants will render higher-quality (H2) and more creative translations (H3) than low-transported participants. For this purpose, a pilot study was conducted consisting of two literary translation tasks with opposing-valence texts (happy vs. sad). Lack of statistically significant differences for our hypothesis suggests that some adjustments in the methodology would be needed to achieve conclusive results; however, we believe that further research on the impact of transportation in translation quality and creativity is still worthwhile.

scholarly journals جوانب نصية في دراسات الترجمة الحديثة / Textual aspects in Modern Translation Studies

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Majdi Haji Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Text Linguistics ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
Traditional Language

ملخص البحث: يهدف هذا البحث إلى عرض بعض الجوانب النصية المستقاة من لغويات النص في دراسات الترجمة الحديثة على المستويين النظري والتطبيقي. ويبدأ بتقديم أهم الأسباب والدوافع وراء تحول دراسات الترجمة الحديثة من الاعتماد على النظريات اللغوية التقليدية إلى الاعتماد على النظرية التأويلية التي تدعو إلى اعتماد النص وحدة الترجمة الأساسية، ثم ينتقل إلى الحديث عن أنماط النص في الترجمة للتأكيد على ضرورة استيعاب كمالية النص الأصلي من أجل خلق كمالية النص المترجم. وأخيراً، يقدم البحث المعايير النصية التي اعتمدها روجر بيل من أجل قياس جودة الترجمة. وجدت الدراسة أن النظرية التأويلية في دارسة الترجمة اليوم أثبتت جدارتها وتفوقها على النظريات اللغوية التقليدية، من منطلق أن الترجمة لا توجد قبل النص، وعلى هذا الأساس فإن النص في عملية الترجمة يجب أن يكون وحدة الترجمة، وليست الكلمات والجمل المنفردة، وأن نظرية الترجمة بحاجة إلى ماسة إلى النظرية التأويلية.   الكلمات المفتاحية: المدخل التأويلي- أنماط النصوص-القصد- المقبولية – البينصية.   Abstract: The paper aims to present theoretically and practically some of the textual aspects derived from text linguistics in modern translation studies. It points out the impetus that led translation studies to turn to textual unit as the focus after relying sometimes on traditional language theories. It discusses text types in translation to ensure the absorption of every aspects of the source text to produce its reflection in the target text. Another textual aspect touched by the paper is the standards of textuality which became a foundation in Bell’s assessment scheme for translation quality. The paper concludes that the hermeneutic theory had managed to gain considerably solid footing in translation studies over the traditional linguistic theories, since there will not be a translation without a text, therefore text should become the focus of translation theory no single words or phrases.   Keywords: Hermeneutic approach – Text types – Intentionality – Acceptability – Intertextuality.   Abstrak: Kajian ini menumpukan secara teoretikal dan praktikal terhadap beberapa aspek tekstual yang dirumuskan daripada bidang teks linguistik dalam kajian penterjemahan moden. Ia menjelaskan tentang sebab yang mendorong kajian penterjemahan moden untuk berpaling kepada teks sebagai unit tumpuan kajian setelah beberpa ketika memberikan perhatian kepada dapatan teori-teori bahasa tradisional. Ia membicarakan jenis-jenis teks dalam terjemahan untuk memastikan pencernaan setiap aspek tekstual teks asal untuk dilahirkan semula dalam teks sasar. Aspek tekstual lain yang dibicarakan dalam kajian ini ialah piawaian tekstual yang menjadi asas kepada skima penilaian kualiti terjemahan yang dicadangkan Bell. Kajian ini merumuskan bahawa teori takwili telah diberikan tumpuan yang lebih penting dalam kajian penterjemahan daripada teori bahasa tradisional memandangkan terjemahan itu sendiri tidak akan terhasil tanpa teks. Ini memberikan satu sebab untuk memberikan keutamaan kepada teks dalam terjemahan dan bukan perkataan atau frasa.   Kata kunci: Pendekatan takwili – Jenis-jenis teks – Tujuan teks – Penerimaan teks – Hubungan antara teks.

scholarly journals Psycholinguistic Fundamentals of Non-linearity in Translation

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-112
Author(s):  
Marharyta Dorofeieva ◽  
Anatolii Kotsur
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Report ◽  
Informational Entropy ◽  
Verbal Reports ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
Research Procedure ◽  
Group 3 ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
Expert Status ◽  
Group 1

The article is devoted to the psycholinguistic factors of translation non-linearity, realized in the multiple translation solutions. Multiple solutions are caused by the use of translator’s different translation strategies in the same translation situation. The aim of the study is to identify mechanisms for making translation solutions and to determine psycholinguistic tools to improve the quality of specialized translation. The research procedure includes a psycholinguistic experiment with the participation of 36 respondents, divided into three groups: the first group 1 – translators with expert status; groups 2, 3 – novice translators with semi-professional translation status. The experiment participants translated a specialized text from German into Ukrainian, in which the number of 13 units carrying informational entropy in relation to the total number of words was 68,0%. According to the experiment conditions, the participants in group 3 had to additionally perform a pre-translation text analysis (PTA) and a retrospective verbal report (RVR) of their translation solutions. The results of studying multiple translations of groups 1, 2, 3 and retrospective verbal reports of respondents from group 3 made it possible to establish strategies for translation behavior and ways of making translation solutions according to the procedural scheme. The experimental data showed that translation results of the group 3 in terms of the number of adequate versions (AV) and partially acceptable versions (PAV) were only 6,7% lower than in the group of professional translators 1. In terms of the number of erroneous versions (EV), group 3 showed only 6,8% lower translation quality compared to group 1. In group 2, a significantly lower quality of translation was notified. According to the experiment results, in group 2 33,4% less AV / PAV was registered, and 35,8% more EV than in group 1. The conclusions of the experiment indicate the importance of the psycholinguistic factor of translation solutions’ deautomatization at the stages of analysis, synthesis and translation product revision. The psycholinguistic tools of PTA and RVR contributed to improving the specialized translation quality due to the awareness of mental processes by translators.

scholarly journals Assessing the Quality of Persian Translation of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four Based on House's Model: Overt-covert Translation Distinction

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-42
Author(s):  
Hossein Heidani TABRIZI ◽  
Azizeh CHALAK ◽  
Amir Hossein TAHERIOUN
Keyword(s):  
Target Language ◽  
Target System ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
System Errors ◽  
Persian Translation ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Do So

This study aimed to assess the quality of Persian translation of Orwell's (1949) Nineteen Eighty-Four by Balooch (2004) based on House's (1997) model of translation quality assessment. To do so, about 10 percent of the source text was randomly selected. The profile of the source text register was produced and the genre was realized. The source text profile was compared to the translation text profile. The result of this comparison was dimensional mismatches and overt errors. The dimensional mismatches were categorized based on different dimensions of register. The overt errors which were based on denotative mismatches and target system errors were categorized into omissions, additions, substitutions, and breaches of the target language system. Then, the frequencies of occurrences of subcategories of overt errors along with their percentages were calculated. The dimensional mismatches and a large number of major overt errors including omissions and substitutions indicated that the translation was not in accordance with the House's view stating that literary works needed to be translated overtly. Mismatches on different levels of register showed that the cultural filter was applied in translation and the second-level functional equivalence required for overt translation was not reached. Therefore, the Persian translation of Nineteen Eighty-Four did not fulfill the criteria to be an overt translation.

The Selection of Children's Books Translated from Spanish to Galician, Basque and Catalan (1940–80)

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-258
Author(s):  
Mónica Domínguez Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Intercultural Relations ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Source Text ◽  
The Status ◽  
Castilian Spanish ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Selection Of

This study deals with children's literature translated from Castilian Spanish into Galician, Basque and Catalan by a different publisher from that of the source text, between 1940 and 1980, and with the criteria used to choose books for translation during that period. It compares the different literatures within Spain and examines the intersystemic and intercultural relations that the translations reflect. Following the polysystems theory, literature is here conceived as a network of agents of different kinds: authors, publishers, readers, and literary models. Such a network, called a polysystem, is part of a larger social, economic, and cultural network. These extra-literary considerations play an important role in determining the selection of works to be translated. The article suggests that translations can be said to establish transcultural relations, and that they demonstrate different levels of power within a specific interliterary community. It concludes that, while translations may aim to change the pre-existent relationships, frequently they just reflect the status quo.

scholarly journals Equiprosodic translation method in Estonian poetry

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 447-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria-Kristiina Lotman
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Translation Method ◽  
Quantitative Structure ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Artificial System ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Prosodic Structures ◽  
Estonian Language

Equimetrical translation of verse, which conveys the metre of the source text, should be distinguished from equiprosodic translation of verse, which conveys the versification system of the source text. Equiprosodic translation of verse can rely on the possibilities of natural language (for instance, when presumably Publius Baebius Italicus created the Ilias Latina, he made use of the quantitative structure in Latin), but it can also employ an artificial system (cf., for example, the quantitative verse in Church Slavonic or English). The Estonian language makes it possible to convey the syllabic (based on the number of syllables), accentual (based on the number and configuration of accents) and quantitative (based on the configuration of durations) versification systems. In practice, combined types are most frequent, for instance, the ones in which both the syllable count and the configuration of accents is relevant; in Estonian, versification systems with the participation of all three principles are possible as well. Despite the contrast of quantity in Estonian, the transmission of the quantitative structure of ancient metrics still involves a number of difficulties which result from differences in the prosodic structures. The transmission of purely syllabic versification system has also been problematic: it is hard to perceive such structure as verse in Estonian and therefore it has often been conveyed with the help of different syllabic-accentual or accentual-syllabic verse metres. Although equiprosodic translation is not necessarily equimetrical, in actual translation practice it usually is so.

scholarly journals Strategies to Overcome Translation Losses in the Novel “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck to Achieve Adequacy in Translation

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
Konul Khalilova ◽  
Irina Orujova
Keyword(s):  
John Steinbeck ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Grapes Of Wrath ◽  
Thought Patterns ◽  
Translation Techniques ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The Given ◽  
Different Levels

The current article involves the issues of losses, gains, or survivals contributing to literature in the process of translation. It represents a thorough study based on the novel “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck from English and, respectively, its translation into Azerbaijani by Ulfet Kurchayli. It investigates the problematic areas or challenges emerging from the source-text discrepancies. Furthermore, this article also concentrates on the issue of cultural non-equivalence or the losses occurring in translating English literary texts into Azerbaijani. The paper identifies the translation techniques adopted by the translator of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Adopting certain techniques rather than others has led to many losses on different levels. The translator’s important role as a cultural insider is also emphasized. The wide gap, distance, or the differences between the cultures, languages, and thought patterns of the English and Azerbaijani language speakers are the main factors resulting in various losses in the process of translation. Coping with these extra-linguistic constraints is harder than the linguistic ones as the translator has no choice in the given situations, deleting these elements from the TT or replacing them with elements that do not fit the context. This article aims at determining translation losses and gains, defining ways that the translator employs for compensating losses, through the analysis of John Steinbeck’s style in The Grapes of Wrath. The article concludes that there are some situations where the translation of a certain text from the SL into the TL embraces alteration in the whole informational content of the text, in the form of expressions or words.

scholarly journals A HYBRID TRANSLATION THEORY FOR EU TEXTS

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilelmini Sosoni
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Discourse Community ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Cultural And Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Textual Features ◽  
To Come ◽  
Neutral Ground

EU texts are produced by way of multilingual negotiation in a supranational multicultural discourse community, where there is no linguistically neutral ground and where the internationalisation of concepts and ideas is a sine qua non. As a result, they are idiosyncratic texts, reflecting specific textual features. Their translation in the current 23 official EU languages is equally idiosyncratic and challenging, to say the least, especially since it is shaped under the EU’s overwhelming cultural and linguistic diversity, the constraints of its policy of multilingualism, and the subsequent policy of linguistic equality which states that all languages are equal, or ‘equally authentic’ (Wagner, Bech, Martinez 2002, 7), and that translations are not really translations but language versions. In other words, in the framework of EU translation, the terms source text (ST) and target text (TT) cease to exist, while the prima facie illusory notion of ‘equivalence’ seems to resurface—though altered in nature—and dominate the translation practice. It thus goes without saying that in the case of EU texts and their translation a tailor-made theoretical framework is required where many classic concepts of Translation Studies (TS), such as ST, TT and equivalence need to be re-evaluated and redefined, and at the same time functionalist approaches and the postmodernist concepts of intertextuality, hybridity and in-betweenness need to come to the fore. The proposed translation theory for EU texts flaunts the feature inherent in their production, it is—just like them—hybrid.

Vertaalcompetentie en Vertaaltheorie

2001 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 75-83
Author(s):  
Miranda van Dam ◽  
Jacqueline van Baardewijk-Rességuier
Keyword(s):  
Dutch Text ◽  
First Language ◽  
Training Programme ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
German Studies ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
French Studies ◽  
Translation Quality ◽  
The Third ◽  
The One

This paper describes the results of a study on the influence of two rather different factors on the quality of a translation: L2 proficiency on the one hand and familiarity with translation theory on the other. Three groups of Dutch university students were asked to translate a French advertisement text on tourism into their first language: two groups (students of French studies en students of German studies) attended the translator's training programme; the third group studied only French. The model for translation quality assessment used here is based on a functional concept of translation: a translation is an independent text functioning in the target culture. The analysis revealed that students from the first two groups, who had reflected on translation processing, had better results than the third group: they made less functional errors beacause they were trained in taking the function of the translation into account and produced a Dutch text that was more adequate. L2 proficiency had only a secondary positive effect on the translation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document