Translation Strategies

Translation Strategies

Translators follow a variety of strategies and procedures during the translation process. However, deciding on the strategy and procedure to be used should be guided by the purpose or aim of the translation. In other words, choices about translation strategies and procedures are controlled by the skopos of the translation. In fact, according to Hans Vermeer’s skopos theory, the same text may actually have more than one translation if there are multiple purposes (Munday, 2016). Once a translator is clear of the purpose of the translation, he/she should be able to make well-informed decisions about the strategies and methods to follow during translation. The skopos may, for instance, justify a translator’s choice of foreignization over domestication or free translation over communicative translation.

I will discuss some of the translation strategies and procedures outlined by Vinay and Darbelnet, but first, we need to distinguish between strategy and procedure in the translation process. A strategy may be considered broader than procedure. Munday (2016) explains that strategies are related to the translator’s overall approach to the translation process. In this sense, a translator may adopt a free approach or a literal one, for example. Procedures, on the other hand, are realized at a more specific level. They are concerned with the specific methods translators use to deal with certain elements in the text, for example, deciding between using a borrowed transliterated word or a TL equivalent.

In their discussion of translation strategies, Vinay and Darbelnet (Munday, 2016) distinguished between Direct Translation and Oblique Translation. Direct translation encompasses the following three procedures:

1. Borrowing: Borrowing is a procedure in which the SL word is transliterated using the alphabet of the TL. Arabic has borrowed many English technological terms, for example, إنترنت – واي فاي – مودم. Cultural specific items are usually borrowed as well.

2. Calque: Calques are special kinds of borrowings in which expressions are translated literally bringing with them foreign concepts (Ali, 2005). Some calques which have entered the Arabic language from English are غسل دماغ – تغذية راجعة – حرب باردة – ناطحة سحاب.

3. Literal translation: Literal translation is a translation that is based on rendering the direct denotative meanings of SL words into the TL while maintaining the syntactic rules of the TL.

Oblique translation consists of several types of procedures as well. The following four procedures fall under this category:

1. Transposition: Transposition is when one part of speech is changed for another part of speech while maintaining the same idea. For example, translating the Arabic sentence نجح الطالب في تسليم جميع الواجبات into English as The student successfully submitted all the assignments.

2. Modulation: Modulation is when the same meaning is expressed using a different point of view. For example, the Arabic expression الجمعة البيضاء has been used as an equivalent for the English expression Black Friday in reference to the same notion.

3. Equivalence: Equivalence is mostly used when translating idioms and proverbs, such as translating the English proverb A stitch in time saves nine into Arabic using the proverb الوقاية خير من العلاج.

4. Adaptation: In adaptation, a TL cultural reference is chosen as an equivalent for a SL cultural reference when the SL cultural reference does not exist in the TL, such as translating the phrase like Romeo and Juliet into Arabic as مثل عنتر وعبلة.

Other procedures that are worth noting:

Compensation: Compensation is a strategy that is used to limit translation loss, for example translating the Arabic word خال into English as maternal uncle involves using compensation because English uncle includes reference to both maternal and paternal uncles, unlike Arabic خال and عم.

Generalization: Generalization is when a more general TL term is used to translate a specific SL word. For example, using the English word dates when translating العجوة.

To wrap up, I would just like to emphasize that different texts and different purposes require different translation strategies and procedures. A good translator is one who can identify the skopos of translation and use it to guide his/her decisions during the translation process.

Happy translating!

Sources:

Ali, A. M. (2005). Calquing: A means of terminological enrichment. Turjuman: Journal of Translation Studies, 14(1), 113-135.

Munday, J. (2016). Introducing translation studies (4th ed.). London/New York: Routledge.

Written by: Ms. Dania Salamah