Studying translation product and process

4.0 INTRODUCTION
The focus in this chapter is on the following two models:
(1) Vinay and Darbelnet’s taxonomy in Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais (1958/95),
which is the classical model and one which has had a very wide impact;
(2) Catford’s (1965) linguistic approach, which included the introduction of the term ‘translation
shift’.

4.1 VINAY AND DARBELNET'S MODEL

 Vinay and Darbelnet carried out a comparative stylistic analysis of French and English.
 They looked at texts in both languages, noting differences between the languages and
identifying different translation strategies and ‘procedures’.

The two general translation strategies identified by Vinay and Darbelnet are direct translation and
oblique translation.The two strategies comprise seven procedures, of which direct translation
covers three:
A_direct translation
(1) Borrowing: The SL word is transferred directly to the TL.
EX:
(Sultan_‫)سلطان‬
(henna_‫)حنة‬
(Tennis_‫)تنس‬
(Bank_‫)بنك‬
(Cotton_‫)قطن‬
(Algebra_(‫الجبر‬
(Alchemy_‫)الكيمياء‬
(Caliph_‫)خليفة‬
(Amber_‫)عنبر‬
Vodka, shamrock, shampoo, origami, ketchup, bazaar
(2) Calque: This is ‘a special kind of borrowing’ where the SL expression or structure is transferred
in a literal translation.
EX:
(Open sesame_‫)افتح يا سمسم‬
(Red line_‫)خط أحمر‬
(The cold war_‫)الحرب الباردة‬
(The straw that broke the camel's back_‫)القشة التي قسمت ظهر البعير‬
(The enemy of my enemy is my friend_ ‫)عدو عدوي صديقي‬
***Vinay and Darbelnet note that both borrowings and calques often become fully integrated into
the TL, although sometimes with some semantic change, which can turn them into false friends.
EX:
Actuellment in French: with the meaning of currently.
Actually in English: with the meaning of really.
 Regime in English: a system or ordered way of doing things.
‫ رجيم‬in Arabic: following a diet to lose weight.

(3) Literal translation: This is ‘word-for-word’ translation, which Vinay and Darbelnet describe as
being most common between languages of the same family and culture.
EX:
I left my spectacles on the table downstairs’ which becomes ‘J’ai laissé mes lunettes sur la table en
bas.’
Literal translation is the authors’ prescription for good translation: ‘literalness should only be
sacrificed because of structural and metalinguistic requirements and only after checking that the
meaning is fully preserved’ .But, say Vinay and Darbelnet , the translator may judge literal
translation to be ‘unacceptable’ because it:
(a) gives a different meaning;
(b) has no meaning;
(c) is impossible for structural reasons;
(d) ‘does not have a corresponding expression within the metalinguistic
experience of the TL’;
(e) corresponds to something at a different level of language.
***In those cases where literal translation is not possible, Vinay and Darbelnet say that the strategy
of oblique translation must be used. This covers a further four procedures:

B-oblique translation
(4) Transposition: This is a change of one part of speech for another without changing the sense.
Transposition can be:
-obligatory
-optional
Vinay and Darbelnet see transposition as ‘probably the most common structural change
undertaken by translators’. They list at least ten different categories, such as:
-verb → noun:
-adverb → verb:
(5) Modulation: This changes the semantics and point of view of the SL. It can
be:
-obligatory: e.g. ‘the time when’ translates as ‘le moment où’ [lit. ‘the moment
where’];
-optional, though linked to preferred structures of the two languages: e.g. the
reversal of point of view in ‘it is not difficult to show’ → ‘il est facile de
démontrer’ [lit. ‘it is easy to show’]
Vinay and Darbelnet place much store by modulation as ‘the touchstone of a good translator’,
whereas transposition ‘simply shows a very good command of the target language’.
Modulation at the level of message is subdivided along the following lines:

 abstract for concrete

 cause–effect
 part–whole
 part–another part
 reversal of terms
 negation of opposite
  active to passive (and vice versa)
 space for time
 rethinking of intervals and limits (in space and time)
 change of symbol (including fixed and new metaphors).
(6) Equivalence: Vinay and Darbelnet use this term to refer to cases where languages describe the
same situation by different stylistic or structural means.

- Equivalence is particularly useful in translating idioms and

proverbs

 Charity begins at home - ‫األقربون أولى بالمعروف‬

 Every tide has its ebb - ‫لكل جواد كبوة‬
 Don’t put your head in the lions mouth - ‫ال تلقوا بأيديكم) إلى التهلكة‬
 Yours sincerely - ‫تفضلوا بقبول فائق االحترام‬

(7) Adaptation: This involves changing the cultural reference when a situation in the source culture
does not exist in the target culture.
 ‫ ليلة الحنة‬- bachelor's party
 Wake/funeral ceremony _‫العزاء‬
 Baby shower _ ‫السبوع‬

*The seven main translation categories are described as operating on 3 levels; these 3 levels reflect
the main structural elements of the book. They are:
(1) the lexicon;
(2) syntactic structures;
(3) the message.

*In this case, ‘message’ is used to mean approximately the utterance and its metalinguistic situation
or context.

Two further terms are introduced which look above word level; these are:

(1) Word order and thematic structure

(2) Connectors, which are:

- cohesive links
- discourse markers (however, first, etc.)
- deixis (pronouns and demonstrative pronouns
such as this, that )
- punctuation.
 A further important parameter taken into account by Vinay and Darbelnet is that of
servitude and option:

Servitude Option
Refers to obligatory transpositions and Refers to non-obligatory changes that are due to the
modulations due to a difference translator’s own style and
between the two language systems; preferences.

***Clearly, this is a crucial difference. Vinay and Darbelnet stress that it is option, the
realm of stylistics that should be the translator’s main concern. The role of the translator is then ‘to
choose from among the available options to express the nuances of the message’.
***The authors continue by giving a list of five steps for the translator to follow in moving from ST
to TT; these are:
(1) Identify the units of translation.
(2) Examine the SL text, evaluating the descriptive, affective and intellectual content of the units.
(3) Reconstruct the metalinguistic context of the message.
(4) Evaluate the stylistic effects.
(5) Produce and revise the TT.
*The first four steps are also followed by Vinay and Darbelnet in their analysis of published
translations.

* As far as the key question the ‘unit of translation’ is concerned, the authors reject the individual
word. They consider the unit of translation to be a combination of a ‘lexicological unit’ and a ‘unit
of thought’ and define it as: ‘the smallest segment of the utterance whose signs are linked in such a
way that they should not be translated individually’.
EX:
In the original French version:
The division, or découpage, of a short ST and TT into the units of translation.The divisions proposed
include examples of:
- individual words (e.g. he, but)
-grammatically linked groups (e.g. the watch, to look)
- fixed expressions (e.g. from time to time)
- semantically linked groups (e.g. to glance away).

In new analysis in the later, English, version of the book

The units are rather longer: both the groupings:
-‘si nous songeons’ / ‘if we speak of’
 -and ‘en Grande Bretagne, au Japon’ / ‘in Great Britain, Japan’ are each given as a single unit.

…To facilitate analysis where oblique translation is used, Vinay and Darbelnet suggest
numbering the translation units in both the ST and TT . The units which have the same number in
each text can then be compared to see which translation procedure has been adopted.

4.2 CATFORD AND TRANSLATION 'SHIFTS'

--- Although Vinay and Darbelnet do not use the word ‘shift’, in discussing translation shift, that is in
effect what they are describing.
--- The term itself seems to originate in Catford’s A Linguistic Theory of Translation. --- Catford
follows the Firthian and Hallidayan linguistic model, which analyses language as communication,
operating functionally in context and on a range of different levels (e.g. phonology, graphology,
grammar, lexis) and ranks (sentence, clause, group, word, morpheme, etc.).
---As far as translation is concerned, Catford makes an important distinction between
formal correspondence and textual equivalence, which was later to be developed by Koller):

A formal correspondent A textual equivalent

Consists of a TL item which represents the closest Translational equivalence is the similarity
equivalent of a SL word or phrase. Thus, the text between a word (or expression) in one language ad
in the TL, must have the same impact on the its translation in another. A translation equivalent
different readers it was addressing. Is a corresponding word or expression in another
language.
Is a more general system-based concept between a Is thus tied to a particular ST–TT pair.
pair of languages.

When the two concepts diverge, a translation shift is deemed to have occurred.
Translation shifts are thus ‘departures from formal correspondence in the
process of going from the SL to the TL’.
Catford considers two kinds of shift:

1- A level shift
…Would be something which is expressed by grammar in one language and lexis in another.
EX: aspect in Russian being translated by a lexical verb in English:
e.g. igrat ’ (to play) and sigrat ’ (to finish playing).

2- Most of Catford’s analysis is given over to category shifts.

These are subdivided into four kinds:

(a) Structural shifts: These are said by Catford to be:

- the most common form of shift
-and to involve mostly a shift in grammatical structure.
EX:
the subject pronoun + verb + direct object structures of ( I like jazz and j’aime
le jazz) in English and French are translated by an indirect object pronoun +
verb + subject noun structure in Spanish (me gusta el jazz).
(b) Class shifts: These comprise shifts from one part of speech to another.
EX:
(c) Unit shifts or rank These are shifts where the translation equivalent in the TL is at a different rank
shifts: to the SL. ‘Rank’ here refers to the hierarchical linguistic units of sentence,
clause, group, word and morpheme.
(d) Intra-system shifts: These are shifts that take place when the SL and TL possess approximately
corresponding systems but where ‘the translation involves selection of a non-
corresponding term in the TL system’
EX:
between French and English : advice (singular) in English
becomes des conseils (plural) in French