FACOLTÀDISTUDIUMANISTICILingue ecultureperlamediazione linguistica

Traduzione LinguaInglese 1

Prof.ssaOlgaDentia.a.2017-2018

LESSON8

Whataretranslationstrategies?

Malone,J.L.,TheScienceofLinguisticsintheArtofTranslation,1988

TRANSLATIONSTRATEGIES:Maloneprovidesalistof9strategiesapplicableatthelexico-

grammaticalandstructurallevel.

(Cfr.TaylorC.CUP,1998,pp.47-64)(ElenaManca,University of Salento)

Malone’s strategies

• MATCHING:EQUATION &SUBSTITUTION• ZIGZAGGING:DIVERGENCE &CONVERGENCE• RECRESCENCE:AMPLIFICATION &REDUCTION• REPACKAGING:DIFFUSION &CONDENSATION• REORDERING

(Also see Chapter 6&7from Ulrich’s 1992Translating Texts).

EQUATION

One-to-OneEquivalence• loanwords(baseball,lasagna,software)• Calques(dribblare,crossare,loggare)

• Possibletrapsofthisstrategy:cognates/falsecognates

COGNATES

• wordsthatlooksimilarandhavesimilarmeanings(cfr.Ulrich271-274)

FALSECOGNATES=FALSEFRIENDSwords that look alike in two different languages buthave different meaningscamera—room(NOTadevicefortakingphotographs)candido—clean,spotless,innocent(NOTcandid)confetti—sugar-coatedalmondspresentedatweddings(NOTsmallpiecesorstreamersofcoloredpaperthatarescatteredaround)crudo—uncooked(NOTcrude)fastidio—annoyance,boredom(NOTfastidious)genitori—parents(NOTgenitals)libreria—bookstore(NOTlibrary)magazzino—store,warehouse(NOTmagazine)parente—relative(NOTparent)

PARTIALCOGNATES

• DirettorevDirectorØManager,Managing Director orCEO– ChiefExecutiveOfficer (AmministratoreDelegato)

ØNewspaper:EditorØSchool:Headmaster,Principal (US)ØOrchestra:Conductor

Theexample ofREALTA’

SUBSTITUTIONAn item is replaced with another item• Grammar level: The Italian ‘di’ replaces theEnglish Saxon Genitive

• The Italian subjunctive can be replaced by anEnglish infinitive: Farò in modo che si interessi … -I’ll try to get her to ……

• Proverbs: The straw that broke the camel’s back =La goccia che fece traboccare il vaso

• Cultural relocation: Caffè – Espresso; Waffles –Frittelle; Cupcake – Bignè; Bertrand Russel – Alicein Wonderland

Attherhyme andsoundlevel

Translationbyculturalsubstitution(adaptedfromBaker,M.InOtherWords,ElenaManca,

UniversityofSalento;alsocfr.Unlrich)

A culture-specific item or expression is replacedby a target-language item which does nothave the same propositional meaning but it islikely to have a similar impact on the targetreader.

The main advantage of using this strategy is thatit gives the reader a concept with which s/hecan identify, something familiar andappealing.

The translator will use this strategy accordingto the degree of freedom s/he will be grantedby the editor/publisher/customer and to thetranslation purpose.On a more general level, this choice will beinfluenced by the translation conventions &norms prevailing in a given community, i.e.,deviating from these norms

ExampleA:Sourcetext(ABriefHistoryofTime– Hawking,1988)

A well-known scientist (some say it was BertrandRussel) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. Hedescribed how the earth orbits around the sun andhow the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vastcollection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of thelecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got upand said: ‘What you have told us is rubbish. The worldis really a flat plate supported on the back of a gianttortoise’. The scientist gave a superior smile beforereplying, ‘What is the tortoise standing on?’ ‘You’revery clever, young man, very clever’ said the old lady.‘But it’s turtles all the way down!’

Targettext(back-translatedfromGreek)

Alice in the Wonderland was once giving a lecture aboutastronomy. She said that the earth is a spherical planet in thesolar system which orbits around its centre the sun, and thatthe sun is a star which in turns orbits around the centre of thestar system which we call the Galaxy. At the end of the lecturethe Queen looked at her angrily and disapprovingly. ‘What yousay is nonsense. The earth is just a giant playing card, so it’s flatlike all playing cards,’, she said, and turned triumphantly to themembers of her retinue, who seemed clearly satisfied by herexplanation. Alice smiled a superior smile, ‘And what is thisplaying card supported on?’ she asked with irony. The Queendid not seem put out, ‘You are clever, very clever’ she replied,‘so let me tell you, young lady, that this playing card issupported on another, and the other on another other, and theother other on another other other …’. She stopped, out ofbreath, ‘The Universe is nothing but a great big pack of cards,’she shrieked.

The above example illustrates a very interesting use of the strategy ofcultural substitution. It is the opening passage in Stephen Hawking’spopular book about Time and the Big Bang Theory (1988). LikeHawking in the original text, the Greek translator sets out to capturethe undivided attention of the reader immediately. S/he decides thatthis is best achieved by introducing the reader to characters which arefamiliar and interesting rather than to foreign characters andstereotypes with which the reader may not identify. Alice inWonderland is apparently renowned in Greece; the average educatedGreek is expected to know the story and to be familiar with thecharacters of Alice and the Queen, as well as the playing-cardcharacters. For anyone who has read the story, the association withAlice recalls an image of a chaotic absurd world, which is particularlyappropriate in this context. A little old lady at the back of the room isan English stereotype of someone who is charming but tends to getthe wrong end of the stick, that is, to misunderstand what is beingsaid. This stereotype image is not likely to be accessible to peoplefrom other cultures. It is replaced by ‘the Queen’, and this is thenfollowed by a series of interesting substitutions, such as ‘giant playingcard’ for flat plate and ‘a great big pack of cards’ for turtles all the waydown.

ExampleB:Sourcetext(ThePatrickCollection – aleafletproducedbyaprivately-ownedmuseumof

classiccars).The Patrick Collection has a restaurant facilities to suit every taste –from the discerning gourmet, to the Cream Tea expert.

Target text (Italian)… di soddisfare tutti i gusti: da quelli del gastronomo esigente a quellidell’esperto di pasticceria

In Britain, cream tea is ‘an afternoon meal consisting of tea to drinkand scones with jam and clotted cream to eat. It can also includesandwiches and cakes.’ Cream Tea has no equivalent in other cultures.The Italian translator replaced it with ‘pastry’, which does not have thesame meaning (for one thing, cream tea is a meal in Britain, whereas‘pastry’ is only a type of food). However, ‘pastry’ is familiar to theItalian reader and therefore provides a good cultural substitute. (ElenaManca, University of Salento)

Example C:Sourcetext(Italian– Gadda,‘Laceneredellebattaglie’)

Poi, siccome la serva di sue piani sotto la sfringuellava altelefono coll’innamorato, assenti i padroni, si imbizzì:prese a pestare i piedi sacripantando “porca, porca,porca, porca …”: finchè non la ismise, che non fu moltopresto.

Target text (English: ‘The ash of battles past’):Then, because the servant-girl two floors down waschattering at the telephone with her young man, heremployers being away, he lost his temper: and beganto stamp his feet, bellowing ‘Bitch, bitch, bitch …’ untilshe gave up, which was not very soon.

Porca is literally the female of swine. Atranslator’s footnote explains that the Italianword ‘when applied to a woman, … indicatesunchastity’. Bitch represents a straightforwardcultural substitute. Although the literalmeanings of porca and bitch are different,both items are used chiefly for theirexpressive value. Their literal meanings arenot relevant in this context.

DIVERGENCE

A relationship one to many: the equivalent ischosen from a potential range of alternatives

DIVERGENCE:theexample oftheItalianSEMPREandNIENTE

DIVERGENCE:grammar level

Thetranslatoraimsatmakingtherightchoiceaccordingtopurpose&style

CONVERGENCE

Arelationship many toone• tu• Lei• voiYou• loro

CommercialistaRagioniere AccountantContabile (but also

Registered/CharteredAccountant)

AMPLIFICATION

The addition of some elements to the sourcetext for greater clarity.

• The most obvious form of Amplification is thetranslator’s note, be it in endnote, a footnoteor a bracketed addition following the itemitself.

AMPLIFICATION:examples

• Salame = Salted (pork) meat• Cream Tea = il tradizionale tè del pomeriggioinglese chiamato Cream Tea

• After Courtrai = Dopo la battaglia di Courtrai• the lettering on the plaque celebrating the 36men = le lettere sulla targa commemorativache ricorda i 36 uomini …

REDUCTION

The omission of elements in the target textbecause they are redundant or evenambiguous.

• Carta geografica: map• Three-toed sloth: bradipo• Esporre in modo visibile: display (Tim Parks1994)

• Vietato sporgersi dal finestrino: do not leanout

• Many rings on his fingers: diversi anelli

DIFFUSION

A source text item is expanded but no extrainformation is added• Ex.• Magari!• If only I could• Would that it were!• I wish that were the case!

DIFFUSION:FURTHEREXAMPLESItalian subjunctive and conditional usage can expressa wide range of meanings, often requiring diffusion inEnglish translation.The perfect conditional in sentences like• La banda avrebbe rapinato altre tre bancherequires the use of a conventional passive voiceexpression of the type• The gang is alleged to have robbed three otherbanks

• The gang is said to have robbed three other banks• The gang is reported to have robbed three otherbanks

DIFFUSION:FURTHEREXAMPLES

Similarly,thecommonuseoftheimperfect formoftheItalianverb‘dovere’inclausessuchas• Dovevaarrivarealletre

needs diffusing to

• Hewassupposedtoarriveatthreeo’clock

CONDENSATION

A sourcetextiscontractedwithoutomittinganylayerofmeaning.• Thetargettextexpressionislinguisticallymoreeconomic.Englishisreputedtobeshorter&moreeconomicalthan Italian.

CONDENSATION:examples

• abuonprezzo,abuonmercato=cheap• farvedere=toshow• tolookat =guardare• tomake up=inventare• tomakeupfor=compensare

CONDENSATION:

• Loscandalo suscitato dai risultati delrapportodelMinistero dell’Ambiente sull’inquinamentodell’aria.

• EnvironmentalDepartmentAirPollutionReportFindingsscandal

• Ilnuovo libro diDanBrown,autore delCodiceDaVinci

• DaVinciCodeauthorDanBrown’snewbook

REORDERING

It requires the translator to operate basicinversion procedures with, for example,adjective-noun sequences or verb-objectpositioning:• white horse / cavallo bianco• (tu) mi piaci / I like you.

HOWEVER

Pressione alta isthecorrecttranslationformedicalhigh(blood)pressure,butnotinthemeteorologicalsensewherebanksofhighpressure havetoberenderedbyalta pressione.

REORDERING:further examples

While Italian will typically front a verb phrase,for example, when an intransitive verb is used tointroduce a new phenomenon into thediscussion - e.g. è successa una disgrazia -, theEnglish version of such clauses is usually thetypical subject-verb structure: somethingterrible has happened.

REORDERING:further examples

• Non è ancora giunto il tempo• The time has not yet come / It is not yet time• Spuntò una donna alla svolta• A woman appeared from round the bend /There appeared a woman from round thebend

• Apparve dal nulla un uomo con in mano unaborsa di pelle marrone

• A man with a brown leather bag appearedfrom nowhere

REORDERINGThe English passive voice may be rendered in Italianwith:- Its passive forms: è amato da tutti / He is loved byeveryone- an impersonal si construction: i risultati si possonovedere / results can be seen; si pensa che moltepersone siano intrappolate sotto le macerie / manypeople are thought to be trapped under the debris;- an active form using verbs with impersonal agentswhose nominal or pronominal identity never appears:mi hanno detto che / I have been told that

Translationusingaloanwordorloanword+explanation

Thisstrategyiseffectivewhencopingwithculture-specificitems,modernconcepts,andbuzzwords.Theuseofaloanwordfollowedbyanexplanationissuccessfulwhenthewordisfoundseveraltimesinthetext.Onceexplained,theloanwordcanbefreelyused:thereaderisabletounderstanditandisnotbotheredbyfurtherexplanations.

ExampleA:Souce text(ThePatrickCollection)

The Patrick Collection has restaurant facilities to suit every taste – fromdiscerning gourmet, to the Cream Tea expert.Target text (back translation from German):

… from demanding gourmets to ‘Cream-Tea’-experts.

The Patrick Collection leaflet is translated for the benefit of touristvisiting this privately owned motor museum in the United Kingdom. Asmentioned above, the English cream-tea custom is culture-specific;Germans have coffee and cakes. The German translator could have usedthe strategy of cultural substitution. ‘Coffee and cakes’ could havereplaced cream tea but the translator seems to have decided that thekind of educated German who has access to this type of literature willknow the English cream-tea custom. Note that the transferred Englishexpression is, as is often the case with loan words in translation, ininverted commas. (Elena Manca, University of Salento)

If we compare the strategies used by theGerman and Italian translators with thoseused by the French and the Japanese,

• The French TT will read as: “ … - de la tablegourmande au Salon de Thé à l’anglaise”

• The back-translation of the Japanese T,instead, “… from the gourmet with keenrecognition to a shop specializing in creamcakes and tea.”

ExampleB:Sourcetext(AStudyofShamanisticPracticesinJapan)

Theshamanicpracticeswehaveinvestigatedarerightlyseenasthearchaicmysticism.Targettext(backtranslatedfromJapanese):Theshamanicbehaviourwhichwehavebeenresearchingshouldrightlybeconsideredasancientmysticism.ShamanisatechnicalwordusedinreligiousstudiestorefertoapriestorapriestdoctoramongthenortherntribesofAsia.IthasnoreadyequivalentinJapanese.Theequivalentusedinthetranslationismadeupofshamanasaloanword,writteninkatakanascript(thescriptcommonlyusedtotranscribeforeignwordsintoJapanese)plusaJapanesesuffixwhichmeans‘like’toreplacethe–ic endinginEnglish.TheJapanesesuffixiswrittenintheKanjiscript(theChinesesystemusedtotranscribeordinaryJapanese).(ElenaManca,UniversityofSalento)

Translationbyellipsisoromission

This strategy may sound rather extreme and free, butin fact the omission of a word or expression, which isnot particularly relevant in some contexts, aims ateasing the development of the text, making it lessambiguous, less heavy and clearer for the reader.

Example ASource text (China’s Panda Reserves)The panda’s mountain home is rich in plant life andgave us many of the trees, shrubs and herbs mostprized in European gardens.

Target text (back-translated from Chinese)The mountain settlements of the panda have richvarieties of plants. There are many kinds of trees,shrubs and herbal plants that are preciouslyregarded by European gardens.

The source text addresses a European audience,and the use of gave us highlights its intendedorientation. The Chinese translation addresses adifferent audience and therefore suppresses theorientation of the source text by omittingexpressions which betray its original point ofview.

Culture-specificassociationsofwords

Some associations of words (collocations)mirror the cultural setting in which they occur.If the cultural settings of the SL and TL areconsiderably diverse, there may be collocationswhich leave the target reader confused orastonished. Like culture-specific words, theylink concepts which are not easily accessible tothe target reader.

Translators cannot opt for accuracy of meaningrelaying each word from the ST to the TT.

The following extract is taken from an instructionleaflet which accompanies a hair conditioner:

“Kolestral-Super is ideal for all kinds of hair,especially for damaged, dry and brittle hair.”

Back-translation from Arabic:Kolestral-super is ideal for all kinds of hair,especially for the split-ends hair, harmed ordamaged hair and also for hair which is dry, ofweak structure or liable to breaking.

Common collocates of hair in English include dry, oily,damaged, permed, fine, flyaway and brittle, amongothers. These collocations reflect a cultural reality in theEnglish-speaking world. Common collocates of ‘hair’ inArabic are mainly ‘split-ends’, ‘dry’, ‘oily’, ‘coarse’, and‘smooth’. The collocations damaged hair and brittle hairhave no close equivalent in Arabic. The translator of theabove extract nevertheless feels obliged to reproduceevery possible aspect of meaning conveyed in the sourcetext, regardless of whether the source collocations arelikely to have any significance in the Arabic context.(Elena Manca, University of Salento)