Basics of translation, 2010 SIS English

Week 1 Aalborg University

Basics of Translation: the course

1. Introduction
This course is primarily about translation, as you will be introduced to the basics of translation
(duh!). By “basics of translation” we mean 1) insights into the differences in grammar and lexis in
Danish and English, 2) building experience and proficiency in practical translation between Danish
and English texts, and 3) providing you with insights into some basic concepts in translation theory.

2. Reading
The majority of reading in this course will focus on some practical and theoretical-practical issues
in relation to translation and will introduce you to some basic – but central – concepts in translation.
Our primary reading material will consist of:

• Lita Lundquist: Oversættelse: Problemer og Strategier, set i Tekstlingvistisk og Pragmatisk

Perspektiv.
• Peter Newmark: A Textbook of Translation (excerpts)

3. Course plan
Here is the course plan:

Week Topic Reading Deadlines

1 Course Introduction
Basics of the basics of
translation
2 Punctuation
3 Three phases, four levels
4 Working with the source
text
5 Translation strategies I:
Methods and procedures
6 Translation strategies II:
Units and strategies
7 Translation strategies III:
Lexis and dictionary use
8 Working with the target
text
Newmark: ”Introduction”
Lundquist: ”Forord”
”Punctuation” Assignment #1
Borg: ”Kommasætning”
Lundquist: pp. 25-26
Newmark: ”The process of translating”
Lundquist: pp. 26-36 Assignment #2
Newmark: ”The analysis of a text”
Lundquist: pp. 36-49
Newmark: ”Translation methods” & ”The
other translation procedures”
Lundquist: ”Oversættelsesenhederne” & Assignment #3
”Oversættelsestrategierne”
Newmark: ”Tracing the unfindable word”
Lundquist: pp. 49-50 Assignment #4

4. Class structure
There are, of course, many different ways to structure one's classes. Given that this course covers
both practical and theoretical issues, class sessions will be structured such that they combine
theoretical content – in the form of lecturing – with content-relevant practical and reflexive

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exercises.
Remember to keep an eye on the course module pages, since they will be our main channel
of communication.

5. Assignments
There are four assignments in this course, which are all available online from the front page our
course module section.
All the assignments combine translation (both Danish-to-English translation and English-to-
Danish translation) with “theorizing” about translation.
These assignments are not obligatory, but it is a very good idea to do them – or at least most of them
– in order to practice translation and text production. And, some of them will have to be included in
your language portfolio.

6. Assessment
You are going to be assessed on the basis of the language portfolio. From this course, you should
enclose the following into the portfolio:

• at least two assignments which I have corrected and commented on

• your own comments on those assignments and on your way of handling them
• if you wish, anything that might document your working with exercises in class
• at the beginning of the course, write a page or so, in which you state what you expect to gain
from the course and and in which you evaluate your own level of proficiency in translation
between Danish and English and in text production at the moment of writing
• towards the end of the course, write a page or so, in which you discuss what you think you
have gained from the course.
• if you wish, any comments on your own effort and progression throughout the course (like a
diary of “aha” experiences kind of thing or whatever)
• anything else you might want to add

See the portfolio guide for more information.

7. Translation: the basics of the basics

A simple answer would be something along the lines of “translation/translating is the transfer of a
text in Language A into an equivalent text in Language B”, a type of definition you will encounter
in many dictionaries if you look up the verb “translate”1:

• turn words into different language: to reproduce a written or spoken text in a different
language while retaining the original meaning (MSN Encarta)
• to turn into one's own or another language (Merriam-Webster)
• to change words into a different language (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Disctionary)
• to render in another language (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

But things are a bit more complicated than that. There are several factors at play in getting from A
to B – and, of course, a host of terms to describe these factors.

7.1 Source and target

Two important terms serve the purpose of distinguishing between the original language and text and

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the translated text and the language of the translated text. The term source applies to the original
input text – the source text – and the language of that text – the source language. The term target
describes the output text – the target text – and the language of that text – the target language.

7.2 The purpose of translation

The aim of translation is to achieve maximal equivalence between the source text and the target
text. While the term 'maximal equivalence' might be self-explanatory, complete and total
equivalence is virtually impossible, and some things will always be lost in translation, basically
because languages differ from each other formally and functionally, and languages are “rooted in”
different cultures. The process of translation is thus in itself a very dynamic one, and while there are
there certainly are many ways to produce a bad or incorrect target text, there is admittedly no single
God-given correct translation of any text. There are simply too many factors at play in thetranslatio
n process.
In fact, Newmark has listed no less than ten factors which create tension in the translation
process, pulling the translation in different directions:

• The style or idiolect of the author of the source text (should it be preserved somehow in the
target text or should it be normalized?)
• The norms of the source language: the grammatical, lexical and other conventions, or rules,
of communication within the source language
• The culture of the source language: this actually covers two things
• Those elements within the source text which specifically refer to the culture that the source
text and the source language are embedded in
• Other ways in which cultural norms influence the form and nature of the source text.
• The setting and traditions of the context of the source text: the format of the text in
accordance with the textual traditions at the time it was produced.
• The readership of the target text: expectations of the intended readership (and the translator's
expectations towards the intended readership) – note that, while Newmark does not mention
it, I think that the indended readership of the source text is also an important factor here.
• The norms of the target language: the grammatical, lexical and other conventions, or rules,
of communication within the target language
• The culture of the target language:
• Elements within the target language that specifically refer to cultural elements
• Other ways in which cultural norms influence the form and nature of the target text.
• The setting and traditions of the context of the target text: the format of the text in
accordance with the textual traditions at the time of translation.
• The 'truth': content of the text when seen independently of the source and target texts and
languages.
• The background and agenda of the translator

These are not the only tension-creating factors in translation. Another important set is that of
semantic meaning versus pragmatic meaning, the former being the 'literal meaning' of an
expression and the latter being situation- and context-specific meaning. The problem here is
whether to translate the 'literal meaning' or the pragmatic meaning. Imagine the following statement
uttered in a cold room in which the window is open and there is no heat on source text expression
possible meanings target language expressions.

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Which of the following possible meanings should one go with? If there are no further clues in the
text, it is really up to the translator to pick the possible meaning that makes the most sense.

7.3 The translation process

The process of translation is a special type of communicative situation and the translator is
basically a participant in this communicative situation.
The normal monolingual communicative situation looks like this:

The translator's role is somewhat different from the SENDER and RECIPIENT in the normal
monolingual communicative situation, because the translator must both decode and encode, and the
translator works within the framework of two codes, or languages, in what is called the bilingual
communicative situation:

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Thus, the translator, in the decoding process, analyzes the language specific source text into a
nonlanguage-specific idea, or semantic representation (basically, the content of the text – what
Newmark calls 'the truth'). Then in the encoding process, the translator synthesizes the
representation into a language specific target text.

7.4 A translation exercise

Now, let us do the following exercise:
Translate the following text into English and comment on your own translation:

Musikken spiller
Musiklivet i Hjørring Kommune er både aktivt og rigt facetteret. For en stor del præget af
musikskolen og et stort lokalt engagement, som kommer til udtryk i (mange) lokale musikforeninger,
kor, orkestre og ensembler i hele kommunen. Hjørring er bl.a. hjemsted for den i Danmark
verdenskendte gruppe "De Gyldne Løver", der i 2007 kan fejre 40-års jubilæum for sin danske
folkemusik med et glimt af irske undertoner og den velkendte vendsysselske lune. Også den
folkekære Niels Hausgaard er bosiddende ikommunen.
(from: http://www.hjorring.byprofil.dk)