THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATING

DECIDE ON APPROACH

WORKFLOW

SL TEXT LEVEL

REFERENTIAL LEVEL

COHESIVE LEVEL

NATURALNESS LEVEL
Translation THEORY OF Translation
THEORY TRANSLATING PRACTICE

VOCATIVE
NATURAL APPROACH
TEXT
EXPRESSIVE REFLECT DEVIATIONS
TEXT FROM “NATURALNESS”
TRANSLATION TRANSLATING
THEORY THEORY

Lexical Naturalness Grammatical

THE APPROACH
 INTUITIVE APPROACH ANALYTICAL APPROACH

Sentence-by-sentence Read text 2 or 3 times

translation of 1st paragraph

Find intention, register &

Position review tone

Read remaining text Mark difficult words

Translate Translate

Useful for…

Literary texts / Easier texts Technical texts / Harder texts

Disadvantages

Time wasting May become mechanical & inhibit intuition

TRANSLATION THEORY

TRANSLATION
ISSUES
 TEXTUAL LEVEL

ADOPT AS BASE CONTINUAL SOURCE

LEVEL OF REFERENCE

AUTOMATIC
FIND EQUIVALENTS
CONVERSIONS

drawbacks advantages

Literal Translationese Paraphrases Synonymy

translation level corrector reducer
 Referential level

Sentence • Meaning / Purpose /

interpretation Author’s intention

Simplify towards • Compromise

specific reference between text and
factual level

• Transcend factual
In case of ambiguity
or abstract/figurative level with relevant
writing additional info

Clarification Achieve referential and

of all linguistic pragmatic correspondence
difficulties with the SL text
TEXTUAL LEVEL COHESIVE LEVEL REFERENTIAL LEVEL
• Linguistics • Structure • Reality
• Language (connections/coherence) • Life
• Sense • Mood • Reference
(tone/emphasis)

 Coherence and emphasis regulator

 Determines difference between misleading and good translations
 LEVEL OF NATURALNESS

MAKE READ GOOD

SENSE NATURALLY TRANSLATION

GRAMMATICAL LEXICAL

Common
Word Order
Structures

Non-finite verbs
Cognates
appropriateness

Use of articles,
Usage of words
tenses &
and idioms
collocations
COMBINING THE 4 LEVELS

TEXTUAL
TEXTUAL

REFERENTIAL

NATURALNESS REFERENTIAL
COHESIVE

NATURALNESS

COHESIVE

TEXTUAL

NATURALNESS REFERENTIAL

COHESIVE
 UNIT OF TRANSLATING

SENTENCE

The clause Localize the object

Finite Non-finite Collocations Be aware of stress

Adj. + N Vb + O

ISSUES

Avoid automation Base on SL terms

Archaic / ambiguous structures Respect the author’s style

 TRANSLATION OF LEXIS

LEXICAL
PROBLEMS

No Terms are hard

understanding to translate
of lexical items

Over or Under- Figurative meaning

translation and collocations

generic-into- Language gap Base on writer’s idea. Support unclear

specific word Discover meaning meaning with
shift footnotes
TRANSLATION OF
PROPER NAMES

DEFINE
UNKNOWN
PROPER NAMES

CHECK FOR
FICTIONAL
NAMES

AVOID
POLITICAL
OPINION

SPELLCHECK

RESPECT
MEDICAL TERMS
 Elegance and
force
Pare your version
down Clearness
through
redundancy

Communicative Use natural

translation language
REVISION
Based on SL text
dependence empathize with
Semantic
author’s
Translation
language

No changes in 1-
Accuracy to-1 lexical
equivalences
 CONCLUSION GENERAL TRANSLATION TYPES

Lengthy
Interpretation
preface
Notes,
Challenging SL Additional Academic
text explanation
glossary and
research
bibliography

Scholarship Research

Imaginative
writing
Tension
Sensitive
balance to
poetic
convey
transference
meaning

Artistic