scholarly journals Transitivity System as a Tool for Producing (In)accurate Mental Images through Translation

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Ali Almanna

The ultimate objective of this study is to show some of the contributions of Halliday’s transitivity model to the actual act of translating between two languages that are culturally distant, such as Arabic and English. To this end, I have analysed the translation of a short story, and then compared it with its source text, based on Halliday’s (1994) transitivity model. Halliday’s transitivity model has been adopted in the current study as it offers effective toolkits to analyse and describe the original text. It produces a repertoire of features of the original text, which can be compared to the corresponding profiles of the target text with the aim of identifying a) the similarities and differences between the source text and the target text and b) whether the translators have produced an accurate mental image or not. Added to this, this study intends to determine whether this model can be used as a theoretical framework for analysing certain socio-cultural experiences encoded linguistically in a text, regardless of the language itself. It has been shown from the discussion of the data that this model does not confine itself to English only, but can be applied to other languages such as Arabic. Further, the processes along with their participants and circumstances utilized by the writer in the current study lend themselves easily to equivalent processes in the target language. Again, it has been shown that in order to produce an accurate mental image, it is not enough to pay extra attention to the process itself along with its participants and circumstances, but adequate consideration should also be given to the interaction between the participants of the process and the flow of energy, force dynamics, scope of attention, time lapse and metaphorization.

Author(s):  
أكمل خزيري عبد الرحمن (Akmal Khuzairy Abd. Rahman)

ملخص البحث:   تحاول هذه الدراسة تحديد الملامح العامة لترجمة القرآن الكريم إلى اللغة الملايوية من خلال تاريخ نشأتها وتطورها، وتركز على خصائص تلك الترجمات والأساليب اللغوية التي أثرت في اللغة الهدف نتيجة الترجمة. لقد ترجم القرآن الكريم اللغة الملايوية منذ القرن السابع الميلادي ومرت بمراحل تنوعت وتغيرت فيها أساليب المترجمين، وطرقهم في التعامل مع القرآن الكريم، ورغم هذه التطورات التي طرأت على أساليب اللغة الهدف فقد لوحظ بأن هؤلاء المترجمين اشتركوا في بعض المبادئ التي تخص بكيفية تعاملهم بالنص القرآني، ولمثل هذه الدراسة أهمية لوضع الملاحظات العامة بشأن ترجمة القرآن الكريم إلى إحدى لغات المسلمين. وجدت الدراسة بعض النتائج المهمة في مجال الترجمة إلى الملايوية، وهي كما يأتي: الاستفادة من التاريخ والخصائص والأساليب لترجمات القرآن الكريم إلى اللغة الملايوية، وأن وجود مراحل متعددة في ترجمات كاملة باللغة الملايوية دليل ساطع على استمرارية تواصل مسلمي المنطقة وتعاملهم مع القرآن الكريم الذي نزل بلغة قريش (العربية الفصحى أو الفصيحة)، وأن اعتمادهم على الترجمات لم يهدف إلى تبديل النص القرآني بما لديهم من الترجمات، وأنها لا يمكن أن تكون بدائل للأصل لديمومة تطور اللغة الملايوية التي في حد ذاتها تذهب بعنصري الثبات والإقرار من تلك الترجمات الملاوية، أن المترجمين للقرآن الكريم إلى الملايوية التزموا بالترجمة التي تميل إلى النص الأصل، وتمسكوا بجعل ترجماتهم في خدمة معاني القرآن الكريم.الكلمات المفتاحية: ترجمة القرآن الكريم– اللغة الملايوية– الخصائص الأسلوبية– مبادئ الترجمة– أساليب ملايوية جديدة. Abstract:This study attempts to determine the general characteristics of the translation of the holy Koran into Malay language through its history and development. It focuses on the characteristics of those translations and language styles that influenced the target language as well. The holy Koran had been translated since the seventeenth century and went through the periods of time that witnessed the change in the styles of the translators and their approaches in dealing with its verses. Notwithstanding these developments that were brought upon the target language, the translators did share some common grounds in dealing with the sacredness of the holy Koran. The study is important as it tries to come up with general observations on how the holy Koran was translated in one of the biggest language of the Muslims. It concludes that the various stages of translation indicated the continuity of the efforts to translate the holy Koran and the Muslims interaction with the holy revelation in this part of the world. Their dependence on the translation is not with the purpose of substituting the original as these translations will never be able to replace the original due the constant development of the target language that deny the stability of language style. Finally the translations were carried out under the shade of the original text and with the source text orientation. Keywords: Translation of the Holy Koran– Malay Language– Characteristics of Styles– Principles of Translation– New Malay Language Styles. Abstrak:Kajian ini berusaha untuk menentukan sifat-sifat umum bagi proses penterjemahan al-Quran kepada bahasa Melayu iaitu dengan menumpukan kepada sejarah perkembangannya. Kajian ini turut memfokuskan kepada ciri-ciri penterjemahan tersebut dan penggunaan gaya bahasa yang mempengaruhi bahasa sasaran. Hakikatnya, al-Quran telah diterjemah ke dalam bahasa Melayu sejak kurun ketujuh. Proses penterjemahan ini telah melalui beberapa peringkat yang menyaksikan perubahan pada penggunaan gaya bahasa dan pendekatan para penterjemah dalam menterjemahkan al-Quran. Namun demikian, para penterjemah berkongsi pandangan yang sama dalam menggunakan prinsip-prinsip berkaitan dengan penterjemahan al-Quran. Kajian ini penting kerana menonjolkan pemerhatian umum tentang bagaimana ayat-ayat al-Quran diterjemahkan ke dalam salah satu bahasa yang digunakan secara meluas oleh orang Islam. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa proses penterjemahan yang telah melalui pelbagai peringkat menunjukkan kesinambungan usaha dalam menterjemahkan al-Quran dan wujud interaksi antara orang Islam dan al-Quran. Kebergantungan mereka dalam proses penterjemahan bukan bertujuan untuk menukar maksud yang terkandung dalam ayat-ayat al-Quran, bahkan hasil terjemahan tidak akan sekali-kali boleh menggantikan keaslian ayat al-Quran yang bersifat kekal dan tetap. Justeru, para penterjemah dilihat lebih memelihara bahasa asal, namun dalam masa yang sama masih menjaga maksud yang terkandung dalam ayat al-Quran supaya kesucian al-Quran terpelihara.Kata Kunci: Penterjemahan Ayat-ayat al-Quran- Bahasa Melayu- Ciri-ciri Gaya Bahasa- Prinsip Penterjemahan- Gaya Bahasa Melayu yang Baru.          


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (17) ◽  
pp. 68-73
Author(s):  
Maryna Volkova

The role of S. Leacock as a representative of English-Canadian literature and peculiarities of his creative works are given in the article. The peculiarities of the literary translation which aim is to reflect ideas, feelings transforming the author’s images with the help of another language material, the main features that make it different from a classical one were stated. The scholars who scrutinize the problems of a literary text translation in the contemporary linguistics was found out. The differences between the original text of S. Leacock’s short-story «The Man in Asbestos: an Allegory of the Future» and the text of translation and its translation by A. Yevsa were analyzed in the article. The translation can be called adequate as some change of content of the original text by the target language means did not impact into general perception of the short-story in its translation. The translator conveys the author’s ideas provoking reader’s reaction to the story. A. Yevsa preserved its content, the system of images and the author’s style, emotional atmosphere and plot identity of the original text and the choice of linguo-stylistic devices used in the original text. General peculiarities of the translation into Ukrainian, main grammar and lexical transformations used by A. Yevsa were marked, among which are generalization, concretization, compensation, semantic development and combination of sentences prevail.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies ◽  
Mohsine Khazrouni

The present study aims to highlight the importance of adaptation in translation. To convey the message, translators need to take into account not only the text, but also extra linguistic factors such as the target audience. The present paper claims that adaptation is an unavoidable translation strategy when dealing with texts that are heavy with religious and cultural themes. The translation task becomes even more challenging when dealing with children’s literature as the audience is children whose comprehension, experience and world knowledge is limited. The study uses the Arabic translation of the short story “Christmas Every Day” by William Dean Howells (1837- 1920) as a case study. The short story will be translated and the pragmatic problems involved will be discussed. The focus will be on the issue of adaptation. i.e., the source text should be adapted to the target language audience`s social and cultural environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
Eka Yunita Liambo

<p class="Abstract">ABSTRACT</p><p class="IsiAbstrakabstractcontent"><em>The process of meaning realization to the target language may involve the change of meaning. This change leads to the variation of meaning depth, breadth, and height. This is caused by the differences of linguistic features between the target language and source language. Therefore, the difficulties of finding equivalent words in target language may force translators to use other words which do not have the exactly similar meaning. However, this becomes a phenomenon in translation studies. This research aims to know the variation of interpersonal meaning breadth of a bilingual text. The primary data of this research is the sentences of first bilingual text taken from Seribu Kunang-Kunang di Manhattan translated into A Thousand Fireflies in Manhattan. There were 281 sentences are analysed. The result shows that those sentences found to have different variations. The most frequently variations found in this short story are the first variations in which element functions in the source text and target text have one difference. First variation has 28,82% then followed by zero variation  with 23,48%. Whereas other sentences is classified as the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth variation of interpersonal meaning breadth with percentage of 18,14%, 4,62%, 3,20%, 14,23% and 7,47%. These variations occurring in the first bilingual text Seribu Kunang-Kunang di Manhattan translated into A Thousand Fireflies in Manhattan seems to be done to maintain the correspondence in the target language.</em></p><strong>Keywords: </strong>bilingual, breadth meaning, interpersonal, translation, variation of meaning,


Author(s):  
Svitlana Maslova

The choice of an essay as the object of analysis presents significant difficulties for the researcher, since even the definition of the genre in the theory of literature is still not set; there is no integral concept of the genre, the views of literary scholars on essays are extremely contradictory. Unlike existing theoretical and practical studies on various literary genres, the essay seems to be an insufficiently studied object of analysis in the linguistic and translation perspectives, which determines the relevance of the paper. The objective of the study is to determine the features of the translation of a publicist essay on the example of the translation of the literary work of I. Brodsky “Reflection on a Spawn of Hell” from Russian into English. To achieve this objective, the following tasks are to be solved: 1) to identify the main stylistic features of the essay by I. Brodsky; 2) to determine the specifics of its translation into English. The dominant function of the essay is the influencing one. It is implemented by referring to the emotional-figurative way of the addressee’s perception of the world. The stylistic features of I. Brodsky’s publicist essay, characterizing it as a resource of stylistic expressiveness, fully agree with the influencing function of the type of the text under study: syntactic constructions with inverted word order, rhetorical questions, quotations, complex sentences with a number of homogeneous members, elliptical constructions, gradation, stylistically coloured vocabulary, a combination of stylistically reduced and colloquial vocabulary aimed at achieving maximum expressiveness. The translator renders the stylistic features of the source text by selecting functional analogues in the target language. Difficulties arise when reproducing the cultural realities of the original linguistic culture. The appellative type of the text, which an essay is, requires significant linguocultural adaptation of the realities of the source language to the socio-cultural background of the target language. The translation under study tends to reproduce only the outer shell of definite lexemes and phrases, which are bearers of factual information and have a significant pragmatic potential in the original text. Despite the complexity and cultural richness of the text itself, with its specific words and conceptual system, the translator does not fully pragmatically adapt the significant elements of the source text, which affects the adequacy of its translation. In our opinion, translation errors prevent reproduction of the author’s communicative intentions in full. We consider the prospects for further developments in the expansion of research materials in order to obtain general conclusions regarding the peculiarities of the translation of an essay as a genre and the specifics of rendering the individual author’s style in translation.


Target ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stig Johansson

This paper reports on a study of syntactic changes in alternative translations of a short story and a scientific article, each translated by a group of ten professional translators. The subject is kept in approximately nine cases out of ten, with a somewhat higher degree of change in the scientific article. Where changes occur, they can very often be traced to differences between the languages on the lexical or syntactic level, but absolute differences signalled by identical behaviour of a whole translator group are as good as non-existent. After more features have been studied, it may be possible to identify profiles for the individual translators—and the two translator groups—showing to what extent their choices are guided by adequacy in relation to the source text vs. acceptability in relation to the target language.


Author(s):  
Mutahar Qassem ◽  
Lamis Ali ◽  
Nabil Muhayam

Translation of tourist texts engenders textual, linguistic and cultural hurdles before achieving translation quality, which has not been given due account in translation studies. To bridge this gap, this study aimed to assess postgraduates' performance in translation of tourist texts from English to Arabic and vice versa, using a translation task (Arabic and English tourist texts) and a questionnaire. The questionnaire took a form of a 5-point Likert scale in which the students rated the texts they translated. Further, it retrieved information about translation time and postgraduates' translation experience. Findings revealed low translation quality and inappropriate use of translation procedures in rendering the tourist texts into English and Arabic. The postgraduates encountered hindrances in formulating the main ideas of the source text (ST), composing the target text (TT) and communicating the TT to the target language (TL) readers. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications have been discussed.


Author(s):  
Елена Викторовна Иванова ◽  
Екатерина Владимировна Оботнина ◽  
Марина Юрьевна Евпак

Введение. Проанализированы способы передачи стилистической конвергенции при переводе с русского языка на английский. Явление конвергенции стилистических приемов недостаточно подробно изучено ни стилистикой с точки зрения ее языковой реализации, ни переводоведением в плане передачи в переводе всего объема семантической, стилистической и прагматической информации, транслируемой автором с использованием указанного феномена. В научных исследованиях нередко рассматривается проблема передачи того или иного стилистического приема, но не их совокупности, что, несомненно, усложняет работу переводчика. Постановка такой проблемы в рамках данного исследования необходима для определения наиболее эффективной переводческой стратегии передачи конвергенции стилистических приемов в тексте перевода. Цель статьи – выявить и проанализировать способы передачи конвергенции стилистических приемов с языка-источника на язык перевода в плане сохранения ее прагматической функции. Материал и методы. Материалом исследования послужил роман Л. Толстого «Анна Каренина» и его перевод на английский язык, выполненный Маргарет Ветлин и опубликованный изданием Progress Publishers в 1978 г. Объектом исследования является конвергенция стилистических приемов, предметом – способы ее передачи с русского языка на английский. В работе нашли применение общенаучные и лингвистические методы исследования, в том числе описательный и сравнительно-сопоставительный. Результаты и обсуждение. Выявлено, что полное сохранение конвергенции в переводе встречается редко в силу лексических и структурных особенностей двух языков. Из 70 выявленных единиц текста 24 % составляют те, в которых стилистическая конвергенция была полностью сохранена при переводе. Передача стилистической конвергенции методом замещения или добавления некоторых ее элементов при переводе также встречается довольно редко (12 и 17 % соответственно). Наиболее частотным является способ передачи стилистической конвергенции с опущением при переводе тех или иных стилистических приемов оригинала (47 %). Что касается прагматических функций стилистической конвергенции, то они, в большинстве своем, сохраняются при переводе, при этом усиливая или, наоборот, ослабляя стилистический эффект текста оригинала. Заключение. В работе дан краткий обзор истории изучения явления стилистической конвергенции и приведены основные определения данного феномена. В ходе анализа материала исследования рассмотрены стилистические приемы, формирующие стилистическую конвергенцию в художественном тексте, проведен сопоставительный анализ текстовых единиц с применением конвергенции стилистических приемов в тексте оригинала и тексте перевода, выявлены наиболее частотные способы передачи стилистической конвергенции с русского языка на английский. Кроме того, проанализированы прагматические функции стилистической конвергенции и рассмотрены возможности их сохранения при переводе. Introduction. This article carries out the analysis of the ways the stylistic convergence is rendered from Russian into English. The phenomenon of convergence has been thoroughly studied neither by the stylistics as far as its speech implementation is concerned, nor by the theory of translation taking into account all the semantic, stylistic and pragmatic information expressed by the author by means of convergence that needs to be rendered in translation. Quite often, scientific research studies the problem of transferring a particular stylistic device rather than their converged group which obviously complicates the translator’s work. The problem thus stated is aimed at revealing the most effective translation strategy for rendering the stylistic convergence in the target text. Aim and objectives. The aim of the article is to single out and analyze the ways the convergence of stylistic means is rendered from the source language into the target language maintaining its pragmatic function. Material and methods. The material for the study is the novel “Anna Karenina“ by L. Tolstoy and its translation in English by Margaret Wettlin published by Progress Publishers in 1978. The object of the research is convergence of stylistic means, the subject is the ways of its transference from Russian into English. The basis of the methodology lies in the scientific and linguistic methods including the descriptive and comparative ones. Results and discussion. The research has shown that the complete transference of the convergence is rather rare due to the lexical and structural peculiarities of the two languages. Having analyzed 70 text units we have come to the conclusion that 24 % of them are those in which the stylistic convergence is preserved in the target text. The stylistic convergence is rendered by substituting or adding some of its components in 12 % and 17 % of units respectively. The most frequent (47 %) are the cases when some of the converged stylistic means of the source text are omitted in translation. As for the pragmatic functions of the stylistic convergence, they are in most cases retained in the target text enhancing or, on the contrary, weakening the stylistic effect of the original text. Conclusion. The article gives a short historical overview of studying stylistic convergence and covers its main interpretations. The analysis of the research material includes the study of stylistic means that form the stylistic convergence in the literary text, the comparative analysis of the text units containing the stylistic convergence both in the source text and in the target text. We revealed the most frequent ways of rendering the stylistic convergence from Russian into English. In addition, we analyzed the pragmatic functions of the stylistic convergence as well as the ways they can be retained in translation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-117
Author(s):  
Marie-Christine Aubin

Literary translation is tricky. Hardly ever do you hear a critic say that the translation of a book is “good”. In the best of cases, people pretend that, even though they have been reading a translation, they were in fact reading Balzac, or Dostoevsky, or any other author of universal renown. For those who are able to read the original text, the translation is more often than not rejected as “inaccurate”, “stylistically inadequate”, “loose”, “overly free”, “not doing justice to the original”, or simply “bad”. James Payn even claimed that Balzac “is not translatable, or when translated is not readable” (67). Yet Balzac was translated and retranslated many times in a variety of languages and in many ways. In this paper, the word retranslation will be used for the realisation of a new translation from the original source language into a target language in which a translation already exists, and relay translation for translations done from a translated source. As for the term translation, it will be extended, in the sense that Patrick O'Neill gives this term (6), to include adaptations such as movies, TV series, or even graphic novels, in any language, because adaptations, whatever the medium, are subjected to the same constraints as translations, creating effectively a new “language” to transfer the author’s story and message. Thus this paper will focus on how Balzac's novels have been extended when translated and/or adapted to other media, taking in consideration Roulet’s Discourse Analysis parameters (2001 44), that is, the hierarchical constraints related to the text structure; the linguistic constraints related to the syntactic or lexical norms of the language or linguistic variety that is being considered; and the situational constraints of the receiving culture. To do so, an analysis of the hierarchical constraints of translating, retranslating or adapting Balzac’s La Cousine Bette will be carried out, as well as of the linguistic constraints related to the translation of gender in Balzac’s short story Sarrasine, or to the translation of accents and other oral features in various novels; and finally of the situational constraints related to translating Balzac into English in the Victorian era, and into Chinese at the turn of the 20th century. From these parameters a new, prismatic view of Balzac’s creations will emerge, embodying the dialogue that translators and retranslators enable between cultures.


2022 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-282
Author(s):  
Nur Rosyidah Syahbaniyah ◽  
Totok Suhardijanto

This study discusses class and semantic shifts of adverbs of modality in the Korean short story and its Bahasa Indonesia translation in the short story anthology of ‘Langit dan Kupu-Kupu. This study aims to identify how the adverbs of modality original text change into a different word class in the target text. The sources of data in this study were six Korean short stories entitled ‘Dua Generasi yang Teraniaya’, ‘Seoul Musim Dingin 1964’, ‘Jalan ke Sampho’, ‘Bung Kim di Kampung Kami’, ‘Dinihari ke Garis Depan’, dan ‘Betulkah? Saya Jerapah’ and its Indonesian translation. This study was conducted using a descriptive qualitative method, and the design of a linguistic corpus was used to collect analytical data. The analysis results found that from 46 adverbs of modality, four translated adverbs remained classified as adverbs. At the same time, the other ten words change their class into pronouns, nouns, particles, adjectives, and verbs. Additionally, the other 32 words have a combination of adverbs and other word classes. Furthermore, of the 290 adverb words in the source text, 143 words were accurately translated, 100 were deleted, and 47 changed their meaning in the TT. In the translation of Korean-Indonesian short stories, the shifting technique is used to adjust differences between Korean and Indonesian grammar systems. Translators also make a shift in the word's meaning of short stories as long as they do not deviate from the context and message in the ST to produce a natural translation that TL readers can easily understand.


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