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Nature of translation theories can be largely separated into 2 categories:
Prescriptive Descriptive
It is more subjective in nature, where the authors of the theories tell the In the 20 Century, there were calls for people to study all
th

readers how to translate and the author offers his/her own opinions. theories in an objective way, without offering any suggestions on
This style of translation theories is very common in the earlier stages of which one the scholar feels should be the way – the translator gets
translation study. to choose for themselves à presents all possibilities, no influence
on the reader.
E.g. Bible translations [Hebrew], Buddha scroll translations
[Sanskrit/Pali] E.g. Eugene Nida, James Holmes etc.
Peter Newmark’s styles of translation
SL emphasis TL emphasis
Word-for-word translation Adaptation
- often demonstrated as interlinear translation, with TT - 'freest' form of translation.
immediately below ST. - It is used mainly for plays (comedies and poetry)
- TT translated word by word, out of the context - themes, characters, plots are usually preserved but the SL
- Cultural words are translated literally culture converted to the TL culture and the text rewritten.
- SL meanings preserved and readers are able to understand the
mechanics of SL E.g. the flying Dutchman in SG (2016)
- Commonly found in religious scriptures, or from ancient text to It is a German language opera, but the version in Singapore added
modern language, so to best preserve the meaning in ST. a ‘southeastern twist’ to it, with the use of wayang kulit (shadow
- E.g. à bed in front bright moon light. puppetry) and Chinese opera. The set were also inspired by
- E.g. it was raining cats and dogs à . kelongs (fishing villages on stilts).
Problem:
- Meaning of ST might not be conveyed through the translation
- Hinders readers’ understanding of ST, especially when there are
cultural references.
Literal translation Free translation
- SL grammatical constructions are converted to the nearest TL - Free translation reproduces the matter without the
equivalents, but words are translated singly, out of context. manner, or the content without the form of the original.
- E.g. à Bright moonlight in front of the bed. - Usually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original, a
- E.g. it was raining cats and dogs à . so-called 'intralingual translation*, often prolix and

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* refer to examples listed in Vinay & Darbelnet’s Procedures* pretentious, and not translation at all.
e.g.
Context: conditions and environment in which communication takes
place. E.g. Tagore Rabindranath
The great earth makes herself hospitable with the help of the
High-context communication: most information is either in the grass.
physical context, or internalized in the person, while very little is in the
coded, explicit, transmitted part of the messae.

Low context communication: the oppositie of high context.

The night kisses the fading day whispering to his ear I am

death your mother. I am to give you fresh birth.



“



Faithful translation Idiomatic translation
- Attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the - reproduces the 'message' of the original but tends to distort
original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures. nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms
- It 'transfers' cultural words and preserves the degree of where these do not exist in the original
grammatical and lexical 'abnormality' (deviation from SL norms)
in the translation. e.g.
- It attempts to be completely faithful to the intentions and the text-
realisation of the SL writer. * refer to V&D’s equivalence
- E.g. it was raining cats and dogs à
Semantic translation Communicative translation
- Takes more account of the aesthetic value (the beautiful and - attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the
natural sounds of the SL text), compromising on 'meaning' where original in such a way that both content and language are
appropriate so that there are no disagreeing assonance, word-play readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership.

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 or repetition in the finished version. - E.g.
- Faithful: uncompromising and dogmatic
- Semantic: more flexible, admits the creative exception to 100%
fidelity and allows for the translator's intuitive empathy with the
original.
- E.g. it was raining cats and dogs à .

Newmark’s thoughts on these methods: only semantic and communicative translation fulfills the aim of translation

Jeremy Munday’s styles of translation
More derivative More primary
Phonological translation Creative/primary
Word-for-word Translocation
Literal Free-Adaption
Formal Functional

Bible Contextualization: a process of translating by interpretation the location/environment/context in which the text or action
translation was being executed, and then add the relevance of context to the interpretation and translation of meaning in ST.

Intertextuality Intertextuality: shaping a text’s meaning with another text.
1. a brief or prolonged reference to a literary text in a second literary text [book in a book]
2. a brief or prolonged reference to a media or social “text” in a literary text. i.e. refer to a film/tv show/song

While translating these intertexuality STs, the translator should strive to keep the meaning of the intertexual elements in
the translated text.
How:
1. identify the intertexual element
2. relate it to a certain type of word/idiom/interjection/quotation in TL.

E.g.

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 Li Po created this work when he was drinking wine and writing poems with his cousin in the garden. The last line “
”states the forfeit for not being able to create a poem on the spot – 3 dou (1 dou =2 litres) of wine. This
was actually an indirect reference to the forfeit rules, which was directly stated in by “
”when translators translate, they have to both bring out the intertexual reference, as well as
the implied meaning behind it.
Hypotext vs. Hypertext is derived from hypotext.
hypertext E.g. = hypotext; =hypertext

Hyponym vs. Hypernym is a more generic term while hyponym is a more specific term.
hypernym E.g. ‘Instrument’ is a hypernym term, but ‘piano’, ‘guzheng’, ‘didgeridoo’, ‘flute’, ‘oud’ are all hyponyms of the hypernym.
When translators translate, they have to alter accordingly to either the hypernym or hyponym of the ST.
Corpus
= a large and structured set of texts=
=mostly electronically stored and processed=
=used to do statistical analysis and hypothesis testing=
Corpus type Content Aim
Monolingual - Texts in one language only only - Check the correct usage of words, or to look
- Most common form of text up to the most natural word combinations
- E.g. A look at the Singapore Constitution [English] à practical use e.g. preparing for a speech.
- To identify patterns or new trends in
language à Scientific/ research useage
Comparable - translated/non-translated text, all in the same language - Identify the nature of TT and TL (against ST
- E.g. translated version of “The emperor’s new suit” (Andersen and SL) and the process of translation
tales), “the fox and grapes” (Aesop fables) and “Cowherd and
the Weaver girl” ( ), all in Mandarin. à TT1, TT2, ST3
Parallel - Consists of 2 monolingual texts, one being a translation of the - To examine translation strategies – how the
other text is translated into a different language/
- ST1 and TT1. E.g. The Kite Runner à cultureà changes in expression/ different
meanings etc.
Specialised - Texts of a specific type, such as such as newspaper editorials, - To observe how language is used in that
scientific articles, or casual conversations particular field.
- E.g. Language used in constitutions: The language used in the
SG constitution against a conversation
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 * no comparision here*

Constitution: “The penalty for robbery is imprisonment for not less than
two years and not more than ten years, and caning of not less than six
strokes”
Conversation: “If you rob, you can get jailed for up to 10 years and be
caned!”
General - Texts of many types, possibly in both spoken and written - To make general observations about that
forms particular language
- Either all in TTs or all STs.
- E.g. Letters, interviews, news reports about the Tiananmen
incident in 1984
Spoken - Spoken texts of many types compiled into various kinds of - To make observations from spoken texts
corpora, including monolingual, comparable or parallel
- E.g. Transcription of speeches vs. interviews vs. conversations
Internet as - Internet Texts - To find out if a word or a phrase we have
virtual corpus heard really exists and in which kinds of
E.g. Google. Yahoo. Baidu. CNKI/Jstor??? texts it occurs

Translation universals – Mona Baker
Explicitation - involves adding explicit materials in the target text that is implicit in the source text
- may occur in the form of lexical, syntactic, or semantic additions, expansions, or substitutions
- the process of introducing information into the TL which is present only implicitly in the SL, but which can be
derived from the context or the situation. * see Nida’s addition and footnotes
Simplification - involves more general terms replacing specific ones, or a number of short sentences replacing a long one and lower
average sentence length in general, omission of modifying phrases and words à makes ST more accessible to TA
- other types of simplification are the reduction and omission of repetition, a narrower range of vocabulary
- Mostly because these stuff are not needed in TT and TL. * see Nida’s subtraction
Normalization - Described as the tendency for translators to adhere to typical linguistic patterns of thee target language, even to the
point of exaggeration.
- Replace a ST metaphor with a TT metaphor, preferably one that carries the same meaning
- Punctuation: if punctuation is ok in ST, but awkward in TT, then translators will have to adapt to the TT norms.
-

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Avoidance of “the boy is climbing a tree, he looks like he is going to fall” à [ ]
repetitions “No no no, don't go there!” à “ ”
Exaggeration
Certain features occur more often in translated texts than in non-translated texts
Gideon Toury
=translation norms=
=pioneer in DTS=
Preliminary Two main sets of considerations: translation policy; directness of translation *often interconnected*
norms
Translation policy:
- factors that govern the choice of text-types, or even of individual texts, to be imported through translation into a
particular culture or language at a particular point in time. i.e. what texts are suitable to be translated to Chinese?
- Different factors apply to different group (e.g. literary vs. non-literary; different publishing houses etc.) due to the
varying requirements.

Directness of translation:
- How direct should a TT be, or, are indirect TTs allowed at all?
- Related to the presence of a medium language e.g. Arabic to English to Japanese/ Bengali to English to Chinese
à how much is changed?
Initial Adequacy and acceptability:
The norms that the translator sets before translating, that is, to subscribe to either the norms of the ST, or the norms of the
TC. Adherence to ST determines the translation’s adequacy; adherence to the norms of TC determines the translation’s
acceptability. E.g. adheres to the gendered grammars. * Prioritise ST over TT.
Operational The decisions made during the act of translation itself, and it mostly describes the presentation of TT and its content.

Interference The translations are affected by the interference in the translator’s environment [education, experience, knowledge etc.] in
which he/her subscribe to.
Refers to the SL characteristics (Grammar and structure) is copied in TT, either passively or actively. Toury feels that the
acceptance towards the degree of interference is replied on the cultural and social context.
ST’s interference to TT is regarded as the ‘default’.
Other norms
Christiane 1. Regulative translational conventions: the generally accepted ways of handling certain translation problems below
Nord’s the text rank

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conventions 2. Constitutive translational conventions: consist of what a particular cultural community accepts and expects as
translations
* constitutive determines regulative e.g. ’s example
Andrew Chesterman considers that society establishes norms for translation behaviour based on the behaviour of individuals who
Chesterman’s are considered to be standard-setting, and on notions of ideal texts
norms 1. Professional norms: norms constituted by competent professional behaviour, under the consensus of the society.
They govern accepted methods and strategies of the translation production process. E.g. to the Chinese
2. Expectancy norms: what the readership expects a translation (of a given type) and a native text to be like. E.g.
audience expects Tagore’s poems to be elegant, poetic with beautiful wording yet maybe a bit of contemporary
twist, but some of Feng’s translations did not make it.
* Expectancy governs the professional
Skopos theory
Background Theory of translation by German translator Vermeer in 1978.
information Skopos è greek word for “purpose”.

Like the name, the theory states that the process of translation is determined by the function of the product, and the
addressee specifies the function. The theory emphasizes on the role of the translator as a creator of the TT, instead of
prioritizing ST like the convention. In this case, translation is considered primarily as a process of intercultural
communication whose end product is a text which as the ability to function appropriately in specific situations and context
of use.

E.g. NUS Open house brochure: TT is targeted to give information about the university’s vibrant life, admin stuff and
diverse curriculum. Targeted towards a group of public and students. With the clear aim and specified target addressee, the
translator can deploy translation stratories accordingly. E.g. V& , Nida 5 techniques.

Collocation The tendency of certain words to co-occur regularly in a given language.
E.g. deliver a speech vs. deliver a sentence.