Topic outline

  • General

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    Like any other scientific field, translation has basic principles of effective work. When we skip the fundamentals, we get sloppy, and while some of us may have the quickness of mind to compensate with sheer linguistic talent, it makes for more work and longer turnarounds when we do not adhere to translation basic methods.


    Objectives:
    1- Learn about Translation Approaches.
    2- Know the difference between Literary and Technical Translation.
    3- Learn about Translation Quality.
    4- Know how to segment a text into Translation Units.
    5- Learn about Documentary Research.
    6- Know how to revise a translation

  • Translation Approaches

    While some assert that a translation is mainly a «copy" of the original and it should reflect the structure of the source text, others maintain that the main function of a translation is to convey the information contained by the source text to the target readership.


  • Trans-Quality

    Supporters such as Vinney & Darbelnet, Mounin, Catford, and Roman Jacobson determine rranslation quality as a correspondence between the structures of the source text (in terms of form and meaning) with target text structures (in terms of form and meaning). Then Evan Zohar and Katrina Reiss and Marianne Lederer (Gile, 2005, p. 35) challenged this idea and considered translation as a social activity governed by intentions and strong relationships.

  • Translation Units

    In linguistics, a morpheme can be defined as the smallest syntactical and meaningful linguistic unit that contains a word, or an element of the word. In translation, a unit is   the smallest segment of the utterance whose signs are linked in such a way that they should not be translated literally or separately.

  • Documentary Research in Translation

    Translation is a productive process of a special kind, the quality of its output is achieved if the translator makes an effort to raise the level of its inputs. If we talk about the inputs, we mean an approach that frames his work and the steps he takes; starting from the moment when his eye falls on the ST and continues to the moment when the TT is delivered to the recipient in its final version. Between this and that, the documentary research emerges as a stage that some consider as a key driver for the profitability in translating scientific texts

  • Revision in Translation

    Tests are essential. They are the means by which the translator checks the correctness of the translation and evaluates it in case of error. It is usually done after defining the hypotheses (meaning and reformulation) and in groups that include a series of translation units (usually a sentence and above) at the end of each stage.


  • Literary Translation vs Technical Translation

    Literary translation is significantly different from any other kind of translation. Just the volume of the texts sets this translation endeavour apart. Tackling a piece that runs in the region of hundreds of thousands of words is not an easy task, nor is attempting to recreate poetry in another language without losing the magnificence of the source text.