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ERIC ED334839: Semantic and Communicative Translation: Two Approaches, One Method. PDF

15 Pages·1991·0.41 MB·English
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DOCUMENT RESUME FL 019 288 ED 334 839 Viaggio, Sergio AUTHOR Semantic and Communicative Translation: Two TITLE Approaches, One Method. 91 PUB DATE 15p.; For a related document, see FL 019 287. NOTE Reports - Evaluative/Feasibility (142) PUB TYPE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Classroom Techniques; Communication (Thought DESCRIPTORS Transfer); Educational Strategies; Language Proc*ssing; Semantics; Teaching Methods; Theories; *Translation *Newmark (Peter) IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT In a sequel to a *.7eview of the translation theory of Peter Newmark, it is argued that there is a single best method of translating regardless of whether the translator takes a semantic, communicative, or other approach. Methods of traAslating and approaches to extracting the sense of the text are clearly distinguished. Newmark is criticized for refusing to distinguish linguistic meaning irom extra-linguistic sense, which leads him to advocate literal, even word-tor-word, translation and sometimes to become entangled in wnrds. Two dissimilar texts, one demanding a communicative approach (a public notice) and one for which a semantic approach would be best (a poem), are used to illustrate the point. For each text, the purpose, formal features, sense, and sense as semantically structured are examined, and translations into Spanish are analyzed. Contains 10 references. (MSE) *************************************$************************k******** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** TWO APPROACHES, SEMANTIC AND COMMUNICATIVE TRANSLATION: ONE METHOD by Sergio Viaggio U.N. This is but an appendix to a much lengthier piece ir need of --and argue against-- Peter discuss In publisher. it I a Newmark denies the possibility of Newmark's view of translation. existence of a sinCe method of a science of translation and the basis In what of few the and on follows, a translating. examples, I shall endeavour to show that the method best applied in translating is --or should be-- one and the same, regardless of whether, at the re-expression stage, the translator chooses to follow the semantic er communicative or literal or any other shall also try and prove that the method itself approach. I proviCes the criteria for giving partial or total preference to any specific approach or combination thereof. The terms semantic and communicative are the creatures of Peter Newmark; in his last opus, A Textbook of Translation, he comes up with the following gradation: TARGET LANGUAGE BIAS SOURCE LANGUAGE BIAS ADAPTATION WORD-FOR-WORD FREE LITERAL IDIOMATIC FAITHFUL SEMANTIC/COMMUNICATIVE What follows is an anthology of Newmark's remarks on the subject: personal and individual, translation is "Semantic [ST] follows the thought processes of the author, tends to over- translate, pursues nuances of meaning, yet aims at concision Communicative reproduce pragmatic impact. to order in translation [CT] is social, concentrates on the message and the main force of the text, tends to under-translate, to be simple, clear and brief, and is always written in a natural A ST is normally inferior to its and resourceful style. original, as there is both cognitive and pragmatic loss ... ST differs from 'faithful translation' only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic value (that is, the beautiful and natural sound) of the SL text, compromising on 'meaning' where appropriate so that no assonance, word-play CT attempts version. or repetition jars in tne finished ... to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in way that both content readily language are and such a Only ST acceptable and comprehensible to the readership and CT fulfil the two main aims of translation, which are 'Equivalent economy second, and accuracy, ... first, effect' is the desirable result, rather than the aim of any translation, bearing in mind that it is an unlikely result if the purpose of the SL text is to in two cases: (a) U.S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION vev., Or opmpriS Staled dittus docu Powts (Mtce ul Educatonal Research and Improvernem ofric,a1 mem do no! necessaray represent "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS EOLIC;ATIONAL Hf. SOURCES INFORMATION OEM position or policy I - GUNTER (ERIC) MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY inns document PINS been reproduced as 2 recmvet1 from the person or orcia.'ration \NX 1. oncjinallny \ err,' fumy Mil ADI C Minor Changes have been made to Improve TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES affect and the TL translation is to inform (or vice versa); if there is a pronounced cultural gap between the SL and (b) the TL vocative CT the textee However, of text. in equivalent effect is not onll desirable, it is essential. (1988b, pp. 45-51) works meat for the Newmark's juicy much There in is Basically, I am in agreement theoretician and the practitioner. with our author's poles, his main --and capital-- contribution to Newmark speaks our discipline, but even here I have my quibbles, Does he I am not so sure he is right. of a putative readership. really think that Shakespeare addressed his sonnets to himself, minding a or that he wrote his plays for his own pleasuh:e without I can hoot really how his clientele at The Globe might react? buy that a few lyric poets may write solipsistically, but not the No one writes a pla, a novel or likes of Dickens or Pushkin. can or will be love poem without caring whether it even a I am not saying that authors write exclusively, or understood. even mainly, pour la gallerie, but they do normally have a reader They want, basically, --albeit an ideal one-- very much in mind. by moved be We hope cannot to their move audience. to Shakespeare the way the Globe audience was moved; but we are A translation of Shakespeare must also aim at moving, moved. that's the essential equivalence of effect the translator should attempt; and this is why any translation of a great work of art When Newmarx asserts ought to be itself a great work of art. that a CT will be better than a ST, that a CT will normally be better than the original, whilst a ST will be more awkward, that ST tends to over- whereas CT tends to under-translate, a a translate in search of a nuance of meaning, the --I would bet unwanted-- implication is that a CT of Hamlet would be better, if Why? not than Hamlet, then than a ST of Hanlet. How can a sonnet in He states that ST over-translates. English, with its shorter words, be over-translated in the same He avers that a ST will be worse amount of Spanish syllables? If a good poet translates a bad one, the than the scure4s text. I can't translation is bound to be better than the original. said that Poe sounds better when but it pass judgement, is (Newmark mentions Baudelaire's as Poe improved by Baudelaire If we do well, but he does not say the translations are better). not have many more examples it is due to the fact that not many their to condescended poets translcice have class first colleagues. Where Newmark and But those quibbles are relatively minor. when he ways part krow translatologist is every almost I adamantly refuses to distinguish linguistic meaning form extra- linguistic sense, which leads him to advocate literal and even Let us listen to him: word-for-word translation. - 2 3 "We do translate words, because there is nothing else to there only words page; the on is there are translate; one way of looking at nothing else there. That is ... translation, which suggests it is basically lexical. This The basic thought-carrying element of language is not so. But since the grammar is expressed only in is its grammar. The words must we have to get the words right. words, stretch and give only if the thought is threatened." (1988b, p. 73) Asserting that there are nothing but words on the page is Strictly speaking, there either too bold or too timid. is interpreting them as words nothing but a series of shapes; What most implies seeing an intention behind the contrasts. translatologists --myself included-- suggest is just taking one further step and seeing an intention, a sense, behind the words; linguistic meaning, we assert, therefore, that those words, that basically, what the That is, must themselves be interpreted. Parisian interpretive theory --much maligned by Newmark-- boils Newmark becomes thus entangled rather hopelessly ih down to. words: "I am somewhat of a 'literalist', because I am for truth and I think that words as well as sentences and texts accuracy. have meaning, and you only deviate from literal translation when there are good semantic and pragmatic reasons for doing in grey texts. so, which is more often than not, except ... The single word is getting swamped in the discourse and the individual in the mass of society - I am trying to reinstate to redress the balance." xi-xii) (1988b, pp. them both, "However, in CT as in ST, provided that equivalent-effect is secured, the literal word-for-word translation is not only is the only valid method of translation." the best, it "For me, a translation can be inaccurate, (1988a, p. 39) it can never be too literal." (1988b, p. 72) in trying to restore the word and the Newmark is right But his individual; I sympathise fully with him in this respect. literalism turns him into a distinguished heir of St Jerome, the semantic vs. communicative dichotomy becoming a XXth century re- incarnation uf the verbum de verbo/sensum de senso controversy. Of course, ST and CT are but the ,trictly translational poles of thare is no purely ST or a continuum and, as Newmark points out, Still exclusively CT; both approaches are widely overlapping. available - Newmark advccates using ready equivalents whenever I think provided accuracy and pragmatic effect are amintained; is dangerous and does not really work even in the approach Take such a ready correspondence as otherwise obvious cases. 'question' and 'cuestión', a ST of 'To be or not to be, that is the question' would presumably be, therefore, 'Ser o no sere esa To begin with, that is no hendecasyllable (the es la cuestión'. iamb); but let closest formal equivalent to the English five-foot on the one hand, us stick to a 'Question' 'cuestión'. is, on the other, an is posed, that and, 'problem', an 'issue' Obviously, both that is asked. 'question' 'interrogation', a 'Cuestión', for its So far, so good. 'meanings' are relevant. part, is more an 'issue' than a 'problem' and has nothing to do then, very much out cf the 'Cuestión' is, with 'questioning'. A (I am sure Newmark and I see eye to eye so far.) question. much better rendition would be 'Ser o no ser, he ahi el dilema'. 'dilemma' as a synonym of No dictionary that I know of gives But that is 'question', or 'dilema' as a synorym of 'cuestión'. The 'sense', it not?: 'dilemma'. what Hamlet faces, a is 'question'. with clear aptly perfectly and though, is 'To be or not to Shakespeare could have written, for instance, the whole lost: effect is except dilemma', the that's be, nine neatly of consists line the too long; 'dilemma' is monosyllabic words and the final dissyllable, the inverted foot becoming by 'that's'. power much loses its cf in 'that' for the very reason he would Shakespeare chooses 'question' 'Ser o no ser, he certainly have rejected it in Spanish. True, I, nevertheless, ahi el dilema' is not hendecasyllabic either. The inverted fourth foot is already a departure would leave it. (a very convenient alibi), but from strict form in the original version would spoil even without it, I suggest any addition to my The syllables in anacrusis, though the music to keep the notes. only three, rather than the required six, end in such abyssal a realise it's been shortchanged. caesura that the ear doesn't even possible A speech.) written much for So ear! (The otherwise most achieved by be would hendecasyllabisation a Look acceptable archaism - 'Ser o no ser, aveste es el dilema'. suitable a neat ST, a by all means at all we have accomplished: archaisation of the language via a very much normal demonstrative in classic Spanish, and an unimpeachable classic hendecasyllable The stretching of the acoustic arc At what price? to boot... ciooó // oci000d)o as opposed to the abrupt ciooó // Wocio (Ps close to Shakespeare's as you can get in this specific instance) wrecks (A better possibility is 'Ser o no ser, he the whole exercise. ahi la disyuntiva', but the problem of the extended acoustic arc I do not know whether Newmark would after the caesura remains.) call my translation semantic or communicative, nor do I really rhe point is global care what the label might eventually be. other, coherence and cohesion are best served this way than the takes precedence and the most important truth, that of poetry, towards demands fidelity Newmark poetics. that of over Shakespeare Shakespeare; I submit that one cannot be faithful to without being also faithful to poetry. improved - by a In all probability, my translation can be poet better poet applying the same method, and not by an equal And that method has been a) having a through a better method. understanding clear notion of the purpose of the translation; b) and formal semantic the analysing thoroughly words and the which in features of the original, c) making sense out of them, is pondering turn necessitates resorting to the situation (Hamlet suicide, whether to kill himself or not; if he is of tW2 minds about whether to do either of two things, he is very much in the (two) horns of a dilemma), a sense hinted at by the words, but lying outside of them; d) re-expressing that sense trying to find In this the best and closest formal and functional equivalence. particular instance, the translator has seen and understood that inversion, he is dealing with a five-foot iamb with fourth foot inversion that the only dissyllabic word is 'question', that the produces an unexpected caesura which gives enormous force to something parallel He has tried --and failed-- to find 'that'. He decides --in all conscience-- to make some formal in Spanish. concessions, the most important of which is the abrupt breaking He invokes as He is not happy with a of the metre. it. justification the fact that the metre is also done violence in in that particular line and elsewhere in the the original - And he submits and defends his translation as the monologue. which being his best possible under the circumstances (one of original limited talent); e) collating the final version with the It has been the same coherence and cohesion. for accuracy, teaching for years, method this translator has been applying and Security the same he uses in the interpreters' booth at the U.N. Council and helping his mother buy the right Revlon cream at communicative task for the specific assess his specific Macy's: decide what text in the specific situation, understand the words, weight to give to the specific form, make out the sense, and re- suitable form (semantic, communicative, express it in the most time faithful, idiomatic, literal, free) that can be found in the right extra-linguistic sense at his disposal; in short, make the the right linguistic way. assertion with two widely I shall now try and illustrate my One that cries for a communicative approach dissimilar texts. and another demanding utmost (or even an absolutely free one) Both were analysed earlier this year in my attention to form. seminar with the faculty at the translation department of the School of Foreign Languages, Havana University. Happy the Man, and happy he alone, 1 He, who can call to-day his own: He, whc secure within can say, To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived to-day! Restricted area 2 Only ticketed bus passengers beyond this point Violators will be prosecuted paraphrase of Dryden's of beginning the The first is Manhattan's Horace's Ode, the second a notice posted throughout One is a beautiful piece of XVII- Port Authority Bus Terminal. a prosaic and threatening the other century English poetry, I suggested the method specimen of XX-century US public English. required respectively to come up with the proper translations is deciding on the translator's goal, linguistic one and the same: analysis of the text, formal analysis of the text, selection of (both linguistic and aesthetic), its relevant formal features linguistic the interpretation of situation, the analysis of re-verbalisation of that sense message in order to extract sense, azxording to the translator's goal and trying to reproduce as and features, possible formal relevant all adequately as Let us see. collation of both versions. TEXT 1. for my didactic and polemic stanza The Purpose: is, a) I want to come up with a poetic purposes, a self-contained poem. translation that will do at least some justice to the original, pay special attention to what I actually do as I translate so I can show my colleagues how I show my students that poetry can processes different the well as translated, indeed as be classical combination of five- and six- Formal features: b) All rhymes oxytonic, but that is foot iamb, aabb rhyme scheme. typical of English verse, no meaning should be assigned to the The language is fact that there are no paroxytonic endings. quite modern, save, parhaps, for 'Thy'. The only true happiness lies in a) Macroproposition: Sense: c) True happiness b) Propositions: intensely living the present. lies in 1) enjoying the present; 2) having the certainty that one has lived the present; 3) not fearing the future. Only that man is happy The sense as semantically structured: d) who can claim possession of to-day, and fearlessly defy destiny rather future the of personification or any fortune or (a person at that), by telling him "No 'fickle' and even 'cruel' matter what doom you may choose to castigate upon me to-morrow, you cannot take away this day from me, and to-day I have lived." 'happy', 'alone', 'call', 'to-day', 'his Key words and syntagms: There is a 'I have lived'. 'thy worst', 'secure within', own', through 'Happy he alone' to progression from 'Happy the man', 'He, who can call to-day his own'; and a somewhat parallel one from 'He, who secure within can say' to 'To-morrow do thy worst, The whole load of the stanza falls for I have lived to-day'. The lines carry a proposition each. The upon the last line. macroproposition is repeated in lines two and four. I first heard this beautifu] four lines at the end of Tony I didn't know who the author was, Richardson's film Tom Jones. This was in 1965, I think. but the poem marked me forever. I But that wasn't acquainted at all with English literature. 'for I have 'Happy the man' and, above all, the final initial - 6 - 7 Many a time I sought to lived to-day' haunted me ever since. More than twenty years fill in the middle with my own words. later, in Jamaica, I chanced upon them in Steiner's After Babel. Spanish I shall exert myself to come up with the best piece of I shall also try to poetry I am capable of tc. convey that sense. they since so expressions, words and key equivalent find precisely and economically convey that sense in beautifully, Dryden. more many needing be that shall beforehand know I I syllables than those 42 to convey as much semantic information. Spanish offers me, ready-made (and that is a good 'coincidence', hendecasyllable nothing else), the roughly equivalent meters: The last themselves masters of our poetics. and alexandrine, line being the whole point of the original, it must also be the Everything else is, then, more or crowning of the translation. less negotiable; everything else will therefore depend on this This line line, will have to lead up to it and rhyme with it. An almost literal translation comes should be attempted first. (I can see Newmark 'pues que he ivido hoy' readily to mind: It makes exactly the same sense as smiling in triumph). Good! blissfully the equivalent fragment in the original and it is, Maybe I can complete it enough, a perfect alexandrine hemistich. Obviously Fortune 'To-morrow do thy worst', who? backwards. What could 'her worst' (fickle, capricious, reckless, cruel...) 'Me matarás maiiana, Non-life; metaphorical or actual death. be? Only the de-verbalisation of pues que he vivido hoy'. 'thy 'Pues que' can lead to 'You may kill me to-morrow'. worst' sounds weak and convoluted; better a simple 'pero'. The last line has come off so neatly that I'll endeavour to I desperately need a rhyme for preserve it no matter what. aside from pilfered words such as Forget 'meaning': 'hoy'. all of them first person there are only four rhymes, convoy, and 'soy'. singular present indicative: 'voy' 'estoy', 'doy', Either I stick one of them into any of the lines or I have to Suddenly I see light: the relinquish my gorgeous fourth line. the owner of this man who can claim to-day as his own says 'I am Now, I have to manage to end 'I am' = 'soy'; hallelujah! day'; (I legitimately discard the any of the other lines with that. I don't feel bound to keep it, since any other two- aabb scheme, Now for the next more rhyme scheme will do - abab or abba.) the beginning, the 'Happy' that will resolve important feature: options, two the basically have itself 'To-day'. I in The hendecasyllable will hendecasyllable and the alexandrine. de iand a stress on the sixth syllable or, possibly, on the fourth 'Feliz del hombre 'Feliz del hombre o-o-6-o soy'... and eighth. 'within', but que se dice 'Soy...", that se dice could do for himself, but 'within', 'secure'... it's too weak; no, not 'to' But 'alone' Better. 'Feliz de aquél que puede decir 'Soy...' 'Feliz de aquél que puedo decir is missing; make a note of it. is too much not quite. 'Soy / el duerio de hoy'...; 'Hoy' - 7 - Peter resounding (one of four '-oy, words in Spanish, remember?) Newmark's assertion notwithstanding, never mind whether Dryden repeats it three times, it is the last one that really laatters so I save 'hoy' for the last round. connote or the denote will that expression need an I 'el duetio del dia que me toca...' I think I've got it: present. Wait, I'm one syllable short (that anacrusis always gets me); how Much better; and 'this about 'el duelio de este dia que me toca'? So far day' brings us closer to 'to-day' than simply 'the day'. I've got 'Feliz de aquél que puede decir "Soy / el dueño de este ipero he vivido dia que me taca" /... "Me matarás maiianal / in the bla.lk not bad at all! hoy!" Can fill Not bad; I need an in (whatever, For that, decently enough? '-oca' I If you find my procedure the semantic meaning). principle, that when am only disclaimer my is somewhat pedestrian, I wrestling with a sonnet of my own, I go about it exactly the same please, rather way, except that I can always write whatever I (In this I am consistent with than mind Dryden or anybody else. writes; I use my principle that one should translate the way one language the same way whether I want to communicate my own sense or someone else's.) Loca dawns upon me. So I must look for a suitable '-oca'. Somewhere in the back of my mind I know that I think I know why: my checking be on I'll Fortune (later talking about I'm translation against the original and discover that Dryden is indeed referring to Fortune; it must have stuck with me, or, more probably, it's the most plausible personification); anyway, now I My basic sense will doubtless be y decir a la have Fortuna loca. Fortuna loca; but this man must say it so that it will be obvious He must aver bluntly, that he is very much 'secure within'. is an apt verb. 'Espetar' assuredly... defiantly, daringly, Let me 'en el rosto'. 'Espetar en la cara', or, more nobly, 'Feliz de aqua que puede decir "Soy / el dueño de este dia see: la Fortuna loca / "Me que me toca" / y espetar en 31 rostro a Now, remember Good boy! matarás malianal ipero he vivido hoy!"' about the 'alone'; perhaps 'Feliz solo de aqudl que puede decir My first version respects the metre; this one turns the "Soy... hemistiches are both alexandrine; also, into an line first oxytonic; it would sound better if the first one were not (to my only ones that count for ears, of course, but then those are the A possible solution is becoming more literal and go the nonce). but el hombre for Feliz solo del hombre que puede decir "Soy IK , I listen to all three variants repeatedly in my is too specific. there is no mind and decide that 'alone' adds a crucial element: grasped quite it hadn't present one; the happiness I lout (too much attention to words and sounds, probably). initially It would not The third line also turns out to be an alexandrine. instead of the last line standing be a problem, but that now, Can I shorten it, so that out, the second one gets shortchanged. 'y decir fiero a la Fortuna I think olf symmetry is restored? 8 SIM 9 meanings of that time kept the loca'; maybe Spanish had at opposed side with that of 'wild', as 'proud' and 'fierce' side by Alonso I put back my Martin No such luck. to to-days's 'ugly'. inner files, I I rummage through my disappointedly on its shelf. On my way Back to the dictionaries. hm... run into 'altivo'... will Julio Casares 'gallardo'. ponder the bookshelf to I and 'valiant'. both 'proud' probably have an adjective meaning further until My search is over.., Sure enough: 'bravo'. that a translation (Newmark is again right when he warns notice. So my latest update becomes: is never really finished!) decir "Soy Feliz solo de aqua que puede toca" el duefio de este dia que me Fortuna loca y espetar bravo a la vivido hoy!" "Me mataras mahanal pero he this / Am the the master of ("Happy only he who can say "I fickle / And bravely say to day that's been alloted to me" to-morrow, but I have lived to- Fortune / "You may kill me day!"] My next step will be out. With it, my last line also stands By the way, Peter Newmark cutting that first alexandrine short. the head when he asserts hits the nail one more time squarely on the basically to reproduce the effect that the translator seeks I wish I had been than on its readership. poem had on him rather gratitude I've lines; through love and the cne to write those them in is why I wanted to translate made them my own, and that them, as my is how I want to translate the first place, and that marvel at and be will be able to understand, own, so that others moved by them. TEXT 2: how to approach Again, I want to show my st.udents Purpose: a) this other kind of text. Its sole aim is to keep A public notice. Formal features: b) must It platform. the entering from people non-ticketed It must also fit the in Spanish. accomplish the same goal Everything else may legibly so. roughly two-by-two foot area and be negotiated. unless you have a ticket. You can't go through Sense: c) 'title', the A general strutured: Sense as semantically d) redundancies, a threat. notice itself with a host of of poetry after an equivalent piece If with Dryden I was the 6ensitising aesthetically of efi,ct with the equivalent piece of will seek an equivalent reader to the same sense, now I - 9 - 0

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