A_Brief_History_of_Translation

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRANSLATION From 3000 BC onwards (Ancient Egypt) Translation became important in the West from 300 BC • Romans took over Greek culture • To enrich their native tongue/literature (not just imitate) • sense for sense not word for word (Cicero 106-43 BC, Horace 65-8 BC) • Considerable licence 12th-15th century • 1492: Spanish kings/queens reconquered Spain from Moors • Toledo School of translators translated Arabic versions of Greek science/philosophy into Spanish Bible translation: from 4th century onwards • 384 BC: Pope Damascus commissioned St Jerome to translate NT into Latin (from Greek) and OT (from Hebrew) • 1380-84: John Wycliffe: first complete translation into English • Developing Reformation • Revisions by John Purvey (1408), William Tyndale (1526), Myles Coverdale (1535) 16th century • Bible translated into many European languages (RC and Protestant) • Martin Luther (1522) into German • 1611: King James Bible (English) Aims of 16th century translators: • Clarify errors of previous editions • Produce accessible vernacular style • Clarify dogma Middle Ages • Emergence of national vernaculars from 10th century • Vertical v. horizontal translation • From prestige language to vernacular (Latin to French) or between SLs of similar status (Norman French to English) Theorists: Roger Bacon (1214-92), Dante (1265-1321), John of Trevisa (1326-1412) Renaissance: 14th (Italy) - 17th century (Reformation) • Etienne Dolet (1509-46) • George Chapman (1559-1634) • Philemon Holland (1552-1637) • Focus on the individual: bold, revolutionaty, nationalistic 17th – 18th century • Rules of aesthetic production • Increased translation of the classics (French classical theatre, 1625-60) • Imitation of classical models • Tended to emphasise ‘spirit’ of the original • Sir John Denham (1615-69) • Abraham Cowley (1618-67) • John Dryden (1631-1700): metaphrase, paraphrase, imitation • Alexander Pope (1688-1744) • Johann Wolfgang von Geothe (1749-1832) • Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747-1804) Romantic period: late 18th – 19th century • Reaction against neo-classicism (formal harmony, rationalism) and movement towards irrationalism, vitalism, imagination, genius of the individual. • S.T. Coleridge: (1772-1834): fancy v. imagination • Contact with other cultures: increase in translation (incl. literary criticism) • Translation of Shakespeare (into German 1797-1833) by August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845) and Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) • Translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy into German (Schlegel) and English (Francis Cary, 1772-1844) 2 • Translated literature exerted seminal influence on SL • Translation = work of creative genius or mechanical process • Archaism: Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), William Morris (1834-96) 20th century: the Age of Translation • Continuation of 19th century ideas (Walter Benjamin (18921940) • Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953, On Translation, 1931) • Ezra Pound (1885-1972) • Modern linguistics: communication theory, structuralism: translation as a science • [Note also the role of Roland Barthes (1915-80): reader/translator as interpreters] Roman Jakobson (1896-1982) (Prague School) On linguistic aspects of translation (1959) • Structuralism (Ferdinand de Saussure) • Distinguished interlingual, intralingual, intersemiotic translation • Equivalence between sign systems Eugene A. Nida (1914-) Towards a Science of Translating (1964) The Theory and Practice of Translation (with Charles Taber, 1969) • Linguistic, referential, emotive (connotative) meaning • Componential analysis/semantic structure analysis • Deep structure/kernel sentences • Formal and dynamic equivalence (instead of literal, free or faithful translation) Peter Newmark Approaches to Translation (1981) A Textbook on Translation (1988) • Semantic v. communicative translation • Questions validity of achieving full equivalent effect on TL reader • Prescribes procedures for handling text types, metaphors, cultural terms, etc. 3 Germany: ‘science of translation’ (Übersetzungswissenschaft) Leipzig School (Albrecht Neubert, Otto Kade, in former GDR) Wolfram Wilss (Saarland University) Werner Koller (Bergen University) • Einführung in die Übersetzungswissenschaft (1979) • Indentified 5 types of equivalence (from denotative to formal) Emphasised need for text analysis to identify hierarchy of equivalence requirements Linguistic approaches to translation (linguistic shifts) Comparative/contrastive linguistic studies (1960s-) J.-P. Vinay and J. Darbelnet, Slylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais: Méthode de traduction (1958) • Translation strategies: • Direct/oblique, borrowing, calque A. Malblanc, Slylistique comparée du français et de l’allemand (1963) G. Vázquez-Ayora, García Yebra (Spanish/English) J. C. Catford, A Linguistic Theory of Translation (1965) Linguistic shifts • Relation between formal and translation equivalence Kitty van Leuven-Zwart (Amsterdam, 1984-1990) • Comparative model: micro-level shifts (at sentence, clause and phrase level) • Descriptive model: macro-level shifts. Tries to relate microlevel shifts to (literary) discourse level functions (interpersonal, ideational, textual) Functionalist and communicative approaches (Germany, 1970s-) Katherina Reiss, Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Übersetzungskritik (1971) • Focus on text types (informative, expressive, appellative/operative, audio-visual) and the need to convey the function of the SL text in the TL translation. • Proposes criteria for evaluating translation (intralinguistic, extralinguistic) J. Holz-Mäntärri (Helsinki), Translatorisches Handeln (1984) 4 Translational action model • Stresses need to produce a TT that is functionally communicative (for the TL receiver) • Looks at the whole process of translation: intiator, commissioner, ST producer, TL producer (translator), TT user, TT receiver • Professional profile of the translator Skopos theory (Hans J. Vermeer, 1970-) • Focuses on the purpose of the translation, which determines translation strategy and methods. • Rules of coherence and fidelity. Christiane Nord, Text Analysis in Translation (1988) • Distinguishes documentary/ instrumental translation: documentary: reader knows he is reading a translation, instrumental: TT functions as a communicative text in its own right • Stresses translation commission, role of ST analysis, functional hierarchy of translation problems • Intended text function, addressees, time/place of text reception, medium, motive Discourse approaches (1970-). Focus on meaning, social/power relations, context of situation, translation as functional communication. Issues of equivalence. • Systemic functional grammar (M.A.K. Halliday, from 1978) • Register analysis/equivalence: translator aims for equivalence of utterance in TL situation. • Register of text: field (topic), tenor (communication partners), mode (form of communication) • Metafunctions/discourse semantics of a text: ideational, interpersonal, textual (related to register) Juliane House, Translation Quality Assessment (1997, revised from 1977) Produces profile of ST register and genre: ‘statement of function’ for ST (what is the information to be conveyed and the relationship between sender and receiver). This is compared with the TT > assessment of quality of translation. 5 • Overt translation: obvious translation because tied to source culture • Covert translation: has status of original text in TL Mona Baker, In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation (1992) Thematic and information structures • Theme/rheme: how old and new information are presented • Text cohesion: use of pronouns v. lexical repetition • Pragmatics: coherence, presupposition, implicature (need for translator to make these explicit in different ways for different TL cultures) 6