Compensation
Compensation is a translation technique used to introduce the source language information
elements or effects to the target language because the element or effect itself cannot be replaced or
there is no equivalent in the target language.
Eg: offer food (SL) = ဆွမ်းကပ်သည် (TL)
die (SL) = နတ်ရွာစံသည် (TL)
Bosco (2008) said that compensation can be used to bring the lost meaning to appear on the
surface of the meaning world. It helps to reveal something lost in the source language to be available
in the target language. The missing meaning is attempted to be revealed with something else in the
target language.
(1) Compensation in kind
Compensation in kind is basically the insertion of a particular textual effect into the TT when
the effect in the source text cannot be exactly reproduced. For example, English does not express
gender of definite articles such as Spanish does (el gato, la gato). Therefore, a translator would need
to compensate in kind by referring somewhere that makes this point clear.
Compensation in kind is divided into three forms.
(a) Literal meaning in SL cannot be compensated by the connotative meaning in TL.
Eg: He has a heart of stone. (SL) = သူက အသည်းမာတယ် (TL)
(b) Connotative meaning in SL can be compensated by literal meaning in TL.
Eg: The old man kicks the bucket. (SL) = အဖိုးကီးေသသွားပီး (TL)
This expression literally shows the physical action of kicking the bucket. However, the
connotative layer adds a figurative sense, it indicates ‘the end of life’.
(c) The humorous effect compensated with too similar humor.
(2) Compensation in place
Compensation in place is shifting of a given textual effect from the exact place it is to be found
in the ST to a different place in TL.
Eg: A new, wooden chair. (SL) = သစ်သားထိုင်ခံု (TL)
We can put two different types of adjectives before and after the noun they modify while in
English, adjectives typically precede the noun they modify, as in ‘new, wooden chair’. This adjustment
preserves the meaning while adhering to the preferred adjective order in the target language.
(3) Compensation by merging
Compensation by merging is a translation technique by compressing or summarizing the.
source text characteristics in a long stretch into short stretch of the target text.
Eg: a beautiful lady (SL) = ေချာေမာလှပတင့်တယ်ေသာ မိန်းမကီးတစ်ဦး (TL)
In this example, the translator merges the meaning of the adjective which describes a lady’s
character ‘ေချာေမာလှပတင့်တယ်ေသာ’ into ‘beautiful’ which also describe the same level and meaning of
adjectives.
(4) Compensation by splitting
Compensation by splitting is a translation technique by breaking down an information element
or s single stylistic effect in the ST into two elements of information or stylistic effect represented in
the TT. It consists of rendering one word of ST into several words in the TT.
Eg: acidic husband (SL) = ေဒါသကို ေရှတန်းတင်တတ်ေသာ ေယာကျ်ား (TL)
မုန်လင်မယား (SL) = husband-and-wife pancake (TL)
In these examples, the translators split the meanings of the words ‘acidic’ and ‘မုန်လင်မယား’ of
SL into their equivalent split meanings of TL.
