Translation Assignment III

Summary of Translation Procedures

A.     INTRODUCTION

Translation is a transferring process of a written or spoken text in source language (SL) into an equivalent form in the target language (TL). It aims to make the texts is easily understood by broad readers. However, Languages do not have universal form. They differ in various forms which make the translation process difficult. In short, the bigger the gap between the SL and TL, the more difficult the transferring process will be. This essay will focus on translation procedures which is used for sentences and the smaller units of language.

B.  TRANSLATION PROCEDURES

      According to Nida (1964), translating procedures are divide into two types. They are:

1. Technical procedures, which refers to the steps made before translating the texts into target language. The translators need to examine the content and structures provided in the texts. The steps of technical procedures can be divided into three:

a. Analysis of the source and target languages

A good translator has to understand the target language first, and he needs to understand what the text is telling about. Moreover, analysis is needed because the translator will have broad knowledge about the content of the text. It also helps the translator to find difficulties in the target language, so the translator may find solutions to overcome these difficulties. For example, when we translate an article about health in English, we need to understand English itself first. Then, we start to analyze what the content is about and try to make an understanding based on our interpretation. In short, this analysis aims to make a broad understanding about the content of the text.

b. A through study of the source language text before making attempt translate it

The purpose of this step is to make the translator have more understanding and knowledge about the content of the text. The translator needs to collect information about the content as much as possible. The information can be an explanation about the content, the terms used in the text, or the function of the content provided in the text. By doing through study, the translator will be easy to translate some difficult terms used in the source text based on the meaning in general use. For instance, when we translate a text about computer, it requires us to know terms used in computer such as boot, bug, cookies, and the others. Because some terms may have different meaning in another context, the translator have to know and understand about the terms used in the context in order to avoid misunderstanding.

c. Making judgments of the semantic and syntactic approximations

Structures in the target language plays important roles in making good sense of translation. A good translator has to make a good understanding about the syntactic patterns in the target language, and he also needs to produce meaning according to the syntactic pattern. It helps the translator to avoid making ambiguous meaning which make the readers difficult to understand the text. For instance, when we translate sentence

The man with the telescope in a box.

It is ambiguous to translate whether the man or the telescope is in the box. Hence, it is good for a translator to make sense the syntactic patterns and the semantics.

2. Organizational procedures, which refers to steps done after translating the texts into target language. As translating process done, a translator have to evaluate the product in order to be accepted and understood by the readers. This kind of procedures requires:

a.  Constant reevaluation of the attempt made

Once translating into the target language is done, there are still many corrections to be made, so the translator has to evaluate it carefully which part of the text is still uncovered. In addition, an evaluation is not enough. There must be reevaluation which makes the product appropriate to the source language.

b. Contrast it with the existing available translation of the same text done by other translators

After we have done the reevaluation, it is needed to contrast the product of translation with the other translation done by the other translation. By doing this, we try to make a general acceptance of the meaning produced by the others. When we have differences in translating a text, we need to make consideration with the others what it is exactly about. The translation has to fulfill the need of the reader. Once the meaning produced is so contrast, it will make the reader hard to make an understanding about the meaning of the text. Moreover, by contrasting with the other’s we try to know how accurate our translation is.

c. Checking the text’s communicative effectiveness

The last procedure is to check the text’s communicative effectiveness by asking the target language readers to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reaction. The text we produced must be readable and have clear meaning which make the readers feel comfortable reading the text. Sometimes, the meaning we produced still seems awkward in the reader’s perspective, so we have to observe the reader’s reaction. When they have read our translation, they give comments to the text whether it is easy to understand and catch the meaning we produced.

C.     PROCEDURES OF TRANSLATING CULTURE-SPECIFIC CONCEPTS (CSCs)

Graedler (2000:3) puts forth some procedures of translating CSCs:

1.      Making up a new word.

2.      Explaining the meaning of the SL expression in lieu of translating it.

3.      Preserving the SL term intact.

4.      Opting for a word in the TL which seems similar to or has the same "relevance" as the SL term.

Newmark (1988b) propose these different translation procedures:

·         Transference: it is the process of transferring an SL word to a TL text. It includes transliteration.

·         Naturalization: it adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then to the normal morphology of the TL.

·         Cultural equivalent: it means replacing a cultural word in the SL with a TL one.

·         Functional equivalent: it requires the use of a culture-neutral word.

·         Descriptive equivalent: in this procedure the meaning of the CBT is explained in several words.

·         Componential analysis: it means "comparing an SL word with a TL word which has a similar meaning but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent, by demonstrating first their common and then their differing sense components."

·         Synonymy: it is a "near TL equivalent." Here economy trumps accuracy.

·         Through-translation: it is the literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations and components of compounds. It can also be called: calque or loan translation.

·         Shifts or transpositions: it involves a change in the grammar from SL to TL, for instance, (i) change from singular to plural, (ii) the change required when a specific SL structure does not exist in the TL, (iii) change of an SL verb to a TL word, change of an SL noun group to a TL noun and so forth.

·         Modulation: it occurs when the translator reproduces the message of the original text in the TL text in conformity with the current norms of the TL, since the SL and the TL may appear dissimilar in terms of perspective.

·         Recognized translation: it occurs when the translator "normally uses the official or the generally accepted translation of any institutional term."

·         Compensation: it occurs when loss of meaning in one part of a sentence is compensated in another part.

·         Paraphrase: in this procedure the meaning of the CBT is explained. Here the explanation is much more detailed than that of descriptive equivalent.

·         Couplets: it occurs when the translator combines two different procedures.

·         Notes: notes are additional information in a translation.

D.  CONCLUSION
      After the translating process is done, it is important that the translator ask target-language readers to read the translation to check their understanding about the message transferred. This is the important thing in the end of translation process, for we have to look back on the goal of translation that makes readers understand about the content conveyed. In doing that, a translator needs to use translation procedures which can helps him to form a good result.