Univerzitet u Sarajevu Filozofski fakultet

IN OTHER WORDS A COURSEBOOK ON TRANSLATION by Mona Baker THE REVIEW

Andrea Maksi II year Master studies Sarajevo, 2012.

Mona Baker In other words Routledge , 1992 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE 304 pp. ISBN 0-415-03085-4 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-03086-2 (pbk) ISBN 0-203-13359-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-19120-X (Glassbook Format)

Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language (Newmark, 1981). Mona Baker's In other words primarily offers both a practical and theoretical guide to translation studies, and at the same time provides an important source for training of the translators, but can as well be interesting book for anyone interested in linguistic gaps between languages. This book offers examples of translated texts from a wide variety of languages that were examined throughout the book, and offers as well practical exercises at the end of each chapter and at the same time using modern linguistic theory creates a foundation that will guide many future translators. To create a foundation for critical analysis of Baker's work, it is necessary to show what every translator need to follow as the procedures during translation. The translating procedures, as depicted by Nida (1964) are as following: I. A. B. C. Technical procedures: analysis of the source and target languages; a through study of the source language text before making attempts translate it; Making judgments of the semantic and syntactic approximations. (pp. 241-45)

II.

Organizational procedures:

constant reevaluation of the attempt made; contrasting it with the existing available translations of the same text done by other translators, and checking the text's communicative effectiveness by asking the target language readers to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reactions (pp. 246-47). (Nida, E. A. (1964). Towards a science of translation, with special reference to principles and procedures involved in Bible translating)

But much as the translators-beginners and many others would like to think, the translation is not something that can be separated from the life we live, the life with all of its various and conflicting narratives. Although it has been said many times that the translators are a bridge between cultures, Baker wished to point out that sometimes the bridges are blown up, like the image of the translator and their editing during translating isbeing invisible and discrete. So far, the common standpoint is that the translators mostly deal with how the target language matched the source language. This notion needs to be changed according to Baker. This is where a theory of equivalence comes into spotlight. This theory is the central issue in translation although it has caused heated controversy and many different theories of the concept of equivalence have been elaborated. Before further presenting the adjestives that Baker has assigned to the notion of equivalence, it is fundamental to first define what a translation equivalence is: Translational equivalence is the similarity between a word (or expression) in one language and its translation in another. This similarity results from overlapping ranges of reference. A translation equivalent is a corresponding word or expression in another language. (Bruce, Les. 1995.Helps for lexical semantic analysis)

Equivalence is one of the procedures used in translation. In his work on translation equivalence, Catford (1988) defined translation as the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in other language (TL). Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style according to Nida.

The natures that Baker has assigned to the notion of equivalence grammatical, textual, pragmatic equivalence, and several others) and she seems to offer a more detailed list of conditions upon which the concept of equivalence can be defined. In her book she explores equivalence in relation to the translation process and at the same time including different aspects of translation.

She distinguishes between:

Equivalence that can appear at word level and above word level, when translating from one language into another. Baker acknowledges that, in a bottom-up approach to translation, equivalence at word level is the first element to be taken into consideration. In fact, when the translator starts analyzing the source text s/he looks at the words as single units in order to find a direct 'equivalent' term in the target language. Baker gives a definition of the term word since it should be remembered that a single word can sometimes be assigned different meanings in different languages and might be regarded as being a more complex unit or morpheme. This means that the translator should pay attention to a number of factors when considering a single word, such as number, gender and tense.

Grammatical equivalence, when referring to the diversity of grammatical categories across languages. She notes that grammatical rules may vary across languages and this may pose some problems in terms of finding a direct correspondence in the TL. In fact, she claims that different grammatical structures in the SL and TL may cause remarkable changes in the way the information or message is carried across. These changes may induce the translator either to add or to omit information in the TT because of the lack of particular grammatical devices in the TL itself. Amongst these grammatical devices which might cause problems in translation Baker focuses on number, tense and aspects, voice, person and gender.

Textual equivalence, when referring to the equivalence between a SL text and a TL text in terms of information and cohesion. Texture is a very important feature in translation since it provides useful guidelines for the comprehension and analysis of the ST which can help the translator in his or her attempt to produce a cohesive and coherent text for the TC audience in a specific context. It is up to the translator to decide whether or not to maintain the cohesive ties as well as the coherence of the SL text. His or her decision will be guided by three main factors, that is, the target audience, the purpose of the translation and the text type.

Pragmatic equivalence, when referring to implicatures and strategies of avoidance during the translation process. Implicature is not about what is explicitly said but what is implied. Therefore, the translator needs to work out implied meanings in translation in order to get the ST message across. The role of the translator is to recreate the author's intention in another culture in such a way that enables the TC reader to understand it clearly. (Baker, 1992)

The notion of equivalence has been analyzed, evaluated and extensively discussed from different points of view and has been approached from many different perspectives. The first discussions of the notion of equivalence in translation initiated the further elaboration of the term by the theorists. Even the brief outline of the issue given above indicates its importance within the framework of the theoretical reflection on translation. The difficulty in defining equivalence seems to result in the impossibility of having a universal approach to this notion because translation has never been an easy task per se, but truly an art which requires great efforts and proficiency of translators. The role of the translator is not a passive and mechanical one, and has also been compared to that of an artist. A translator must wellunderstand both languages, as well as the culture that she/he is to translate.