Key Concepts in Translation

Translations are usually renderings of a chosen text from a time gone by into a
modern language. Many people have translated Shakespeare into Indian languages. Some
years ago Roberto Calasso translated the Bhagavata Gita into modern Italian. But no one
will translate “Harry Porter” into Latin or "The Dark Knight” into Sanskrit. A literary
translation exists in two worlds; as a work of literature and and a work of translation. For
those who do not know the original language, the translation is the primary text. One of the
perplexing questions in translation studies is whether a translation belongs to the Source
Language or to the Target Language. Another worry and argument are over what makes a
successful translation. How far can the translator push the language to accommodate the
original ideas and, when that link begins to break up, how is she or he to leap across the
gap created?

Source Language

The language from which you translate is called the SL or source language. The term source text
or ST is the original text that is to be translated into another language.

In the context of multiple translations like the ones from Hindi to English to Tamil, which would
be the source language? Also, how to categorise something as a translation when it is the
original text for non-natives? (e.g. English translations of Homer or Virgil). When we are
read Marx or Valmiki, if we do not know German or Sanskrit, what we reading is the
original through translation, i.e. that translation is our original.

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of

an equivalent target-language text. The translator always risks inadvertently introducing
source-language words, grammar, or syntax into the target-language rendering. On the
other hand, such "spill-overs" have sometimes imported useful source-language calques
and loanwords that have enriched target languages. Translators, including early translators
of sacred texts, have helped shape the very languages into which they have translated.

Because of the laboriousness of the translation process, since the 1940s efforts have been made,
with varying degrees of success, to automate translation or to mechanically aid the human
 translator. More recently, the rise of the Internet has fostered a world-wide market for
translation services and has facilitated "language localisation".

Target Language

The language into which you translate is called the TL or target language. The term 'target
language' is applied to the language that a source text is translated into. When talking about
Target language, one cannot ignore the culture, since translations are for a specific reader,
bound to a specific culture. English translations of classical texts introduce the issue of
English as target language medium for world readers. What happens then to other
languages of the world?

Linguistic Systems

The goal of translation is to bridge the source and the target texts while keeping an eye on the
translator's social and cultural world. Linguistic untranslatability is due to the difference in
the Source Language (SL) and the Target Language (TL). For example, there is no
equivalent for the Sanskrit word upaveetham (Tamil-poonool). What it actually means is
the thread which symbolically binds you to the Vedic way of life. This is impossible to
convey fully in English, so we simply say, "sacred thread."

In linguistics, a calque (or loan translation) can be defined as a word-for-word translation from
one language into another. For example, when you take a phrase in French and then literally
translate root-for-root or word-for-word into English, that’s a calque.

Calque / Loan Translation

In English we see many examples of common phrases that are calques translated from other
languages. For example; Beer Garden is a calque of the German Biergarten, and Adam’s Apple is
a calque of the French pomme d’Adam. In both these examples, English phrases are derived
from a direct literal translation of the original. Calque is a loanword from a French noun – it’s
derived from the verb calquer, meaning to copy, to trace.

Loan Translation
Loan translation is just another term for calque. When used as a verb, to calque means to borrow
a phrase or word from another language whilst translating its components in order to create a
new lexeme in the target language. It’s a class of loan in which words or phrases are borrowed
from another language, with each of the elements of the phrase being translated. Basically, it’s
respecting the syntactical structures of the target language.

Calque contributes to the richness of a target language by avoiding the direct use of foreign
words. Calque is a construction, unlike a loan which is a phonetic and morphologic adaptation.

English transliterations usually rely on the source language to give us a starting point when the
alphabets are different, and an example of this is the Hanyu Pinyin system for Mandarin Chinese.
But there will always be disputed spellings in other languages, and perhaps the most obvious one
today is ‘Mohammed’ – there are of course issues that still arise in other languages – such as
Farsi and Russian.

Cultural Systems

Cultural untranslatability is due to the absence in the TL of relevant situational features. For
example, idioms and expressions may be culture-specific which can make them
untranslatable or difficult to translate. For example, expressions such as "hot dog
(American, a specific type of food and 'Kangaroo Court' (from Australia, meaning an
unofficial court organized by people who have no authority or knowledge of the law)

Eg: 1. The problems of the world are easily soluble in wine.

2. Think of the phrase, "a warm welcome. Such a welcome would be welcome
in a

cold climate but not in our coucntry where it is 40'C in the shade in summer.
These

are instances of cultural play of words

Faithfulness /Fidelity
Faithfulness in translation defines how a translated document follows the source and how much
it keeps the original message. However, this doesn’t mean the original text must remain as
close to the original as it can be. But the translated text should be faithful in a way that
reflects SL style, and should not over-simplify or translate terms literally. So translators
have to be just and faithful.

For example: Radio Mirchi: Sema hot machi

BSNL: One India

A-Language: the mother tongue of a translator.

B-Language: a language that a translator can speak and write almost as well as their mother
tongue.

CAT: Computer-aided translation, or computer-assisted, machine-aided or machine-assisted

translation with the aid of computer programs, such as translation memory (see term),
terminology management and localization tools, designed to reduce the translator’s workload and
increase consistency of style and terminology. It is the use of software to assist a human
translator in the translation process. It converts a text to be translated, segments it, and then
makes these segments available for translation in its own editor.

A CAT tool comprises several subsystems. At its core is a Translation Memory System (TMS),
which collects individual translation units in a database. During the translation process, the
individual translation units, consisting of a segment of the source text and the equivalent
translation in the target language, are saved. Storing the translation units ensures that translations
are consistent and that the same terms are used within a text. This improves the quality of the
output text.

Eg: memoQ, SDL Trados Studio, Across, OmegaT, Wordfast, Smartcat

Copy-writing: writing of advertising copy. Translation of advertising copy will rarely be

satisfactory due to the different cultural contexts it has to be translated in. Adverts for foreign
countries should therefore always be produced in those countries, or at least they should be
re-adapted instead of simply translated. (see Transcreation)

Interpretation: the action of the interpreter that translates verbally the utterance of a speaker
into the language of a listener. Interpretation always refers to oral communication. i.e
Interpretation conveys meaning of the spoken word from one language to another. Whereas,
translation deciphers meaning of the written word from one language to another.

Language pair: the combinations of languages someone can translate from and into. A language
pair is formed when one language is translated into another language. When English is translated
into Spanish, this is called and English-Spanish language pair. If you are able to translate
information the other way, a second language pair is created: Spanish-English.

Literal translation

It is a term used to describe a word-for-word translation that sticks too close to the source text. It
is a translation that sounds unnatural in the target language, is usually hard to read and does not
convey the meaning of the original text. This translation closely adheres to the grammar and
construction of the source text. A literal translation usually appears “stilted” and unnatural. A
literal English translation of the German word “Kindergarten” would be “children's garden” but
in English, the expression refers to the school year between pre-school and first grade.

Localisation:

The translation and cultural adaptation of websites, software, documentation and games. It’s
more than a simple translation, since the content has to be adapted to the local cultural context
and the local market. Language localization is a process of adapting the product in the language
suited to the particular culture and geographical location/market. It doesn’t just mean to translate
from one language to the other. In this, the focus is on communicating rather than repurposing. It
is often referred to by the numeronym “L10N”, signifying L followed by 10 letters and ending
with N. The localization process is the translation and cultural adaptation of software, games,
and websites as well as audio, video, or other multimedia.

Language localization is a process of adapting the product in the language suited to

the particular culture and geographical location/market. It doesn’t just mean to

translate from one language to the other. In this, the focus is on communicating

rather than repurposing. It is often referred to by the numeronym “L10N”, signifying

L followed by 10 letters and ending with N. The localization process is the

translation and cultural adaptation of software, games, and websites as well as

audio, video, or other multimedia.

Eg: Netflix creating content tailored for different regions

Netflix's experience is all about providing users with the content they want, and this

theme carries throughout their platform from movie recommendations on the

homepage down to translated subtitles. In fact, Netflix has become pretty well

known for their localization efforts on both the developer and translation end.

They've developed both the technology and processes they need to not only

translate their own apps and interfaces, but also subtitles and voice dubbing of

content.

Machine translation (MT): Translation produced by a computer program or use of a translation

program to translate text without human input in the actual translation process. The quality of
machine-translated text, in terms of terminology, meaning and grammar, varies depending on the
nature and complexity of the source text, but is never good enough for publication without
extensive editing. Not to be confused with computer-aided translation. i.e. Machine Translation
(MT) or automated translation is a process when a computer software translates text from one
language to another without human involvement.

MT works with large amounts of source and target languages that are compared and matched
against each other by a machine translation engine. We differentiate three types of machine
translation methods:

1.​ Rules-based machine translation: uses grammar and language rules, developed by
language experts, and dictionaries which can be customized to a specific topic or
industry.
2.​ Statistical machine translation: does not rely on linguistic rules and words; it learns how
to translate by analysing large amount of existing human translations.
3.​ Neural machine translation: teaches itself on how to translate by using a large neural
network. This method is becoming more and more popular as it provides better results
with language pairs.
Technical translation

Broadly speaking, technical translation is the translation of materials dealing with scientific and
technical subject domains. Technical translation requires the use of a technical translator. A
qualified technical translator understands the subject matter and specialized terms of that field in
both the source and in the target languages.

A variety of types of material require technical translation. At one extreme, articles from
scientific, medical, engineering, and technical journals require linguists with graduate training in
the relevant field as well as professional translation skills. At the other end, product
specifications sheets for electronic equipment may not need a degree in computer science, but
they do require a working knowledge of the terminology used in the field.

The level of scientific or technical knowledge needed for the project, the availability of
specialized translators in the required language pair, increases the demand for those translators.
For example, English-Japanese translations cost more because of the demand for technical
translations in this language pair exceed the relatively small number of qualified translators.

It is a type of specialized translation involving the translation of documents produced by

technical writers (owner's manuals, user guides, etc.), or more specifically, texts which relate to
technological subject areas or texts which deal with the practical application of scientific and
technological information. While the presence of specialized terminology is a feature of
technical texts, specialized terminology alone is not sufficient for classifying a text as "technical"
since numerous disciplines and subjects which are not "technical" possess what can be regarded
as specialized terminology. Technical translation covers the translation of many kinds of
specialized texts and requires a high level of subject knowledge and mastery of the relevant
terminology and writing conventions.

Technical translation is necessary for multiple fields, from engineering to construction and
healthcare. Any errors in the translated texts or missing information can easily lead to costly
lawsuits or the need to retranslate your company documentation.

Eg: Patent translation, Translation for user manuals.

Proof-reading: checking a text or a translation to ensure that there are no mistakes and that the
text is fluent. It’s now a synonym for revising.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization. The process of optimizing a website in order to be more
easily found by search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. It’s very important to make
localization effective. Optimization in this case doesn’t mean to make it accurate and without
grammar mistakes. It means instead (for the part concerning our work, at least) to use some
specific keywords that visitors are more likely to look for. It also means to put these keywords in
the right place (such as titles, headlines..) as well as embedded in the code of the page (I know,
we’re translators and we don’t like computer technologies, but we should learn at least a bit of
HTML, because some words need to be translated even there…)

Source Culture/SC: the culture where the text you have to translate has been produced.

Target Culture/TC: the culture you have to translate a text for.

Target Language: the language you have to translate into.

Transcreation: (or creative translation) is the merger of two words: translation and creation. It's
an intricate form of translating that preserves the original intent, context, emotion, and tone. is
the adaptation of a creative work into another language or culture. Therefore, it is more than
direct translation or localization of the text, as transcreators focus on capturing the desired
persuasive or emotive effect of the original. Transcreation enables translators to inject their own
creativity and cultural knowledge to create content that resonates with a new audience.
Transcreation services is a growing new industry.

Kentucky Fried Chicken gave us an example of how a slogan went wrong in Mandarin.. KFC’s
famous “Finger lickin’ good” slogan became “Eat your fingers off”.

For instance, the famous Pedo brand of Turkish nappies works less well in Spain, where it means
flatulence. Phonetics is important too. Coca-Cola can sound like “bite the wax tadpole” when
spoken out loud in Chinese.

Transcription: the process of transcribing a speech to obtain a written text. The text can then be
translated.
Translation: for the insiders, “translation” refers exclusively to written communication,
otherwise it is just interpretation

Translation Memory (TM): a TM is a database which stores chunks of texts and corresponding
translations. While you translate using a CAT tool, the program progressively saves each original
sentence and the corresponding translation. In this way it creates a database of translated
expressions. Every time you come across the same sentence (imagine you are translating an
instruction manual where a lot of expressions are repeated) the CAT tool will suggest to you the
translation that you previously did and saved. You can then accept it or change it. It keeps a
memory of translated segments. Of course a segment can be one single word, but generally
speaking a TM is not just a list of words. If you want a words database you have to use a
terminology database. A Translation Memory reduces your work as you will never have to
translate the same bit twice.

Intercultural Translation

‘Intercultural translation’, developed by Boaventura de Sousa Santos, refers to the bringing

together of different knowledges in different epistemes without silencing or marginalizing the
specificity of any of these knowledges. In other words, this concept seeks to put forth a
conversation between different knowledges that are anchored in different cosmologies.
Intercultural translation, in a sense, is a tool that inaugurates and allows the sharing of struggles
and risks premised upon making absent knowledges visible and the various layers of oppression
intelligible. Consequently, intercultural translation acts as the basis for opening up new spaces
for communal resistance and social struggle.

Santos addresses intercultural translation as a system of empowering oppressed groups, mainly

in the Global South. For this reason, intercultural translation cannot be reduced to its theoretical
abstraction, but should be integrated to the political sphere. Thus, interpolitical and intercultural
translations are coeval and work in tandem. Hence, intercultural translation becomes a system of
languages in which communal acts of resistances work together. Intercultural translation,
politically and culturally, engenders a vocabulary that works to breach the Western universal
paradigm.
As a contrast to the Western paradigm, intercultural translation focuses on building an
epistemology of the south addressing those who have been erased through history and
marginalized by the Western logic of inferiority. It enables a breaking of silence. It is not only an
individual act but also a communal one that reinvigorates erased cultures. This opens up new
canons of thought, new constellations of knowledge, and other ways of being in the world.
Intercultural translation, then, is conceptualized as a tool to reach ‘global social and cognitive
justice’.

What intercultural translation aims at is an underlying logic for fuelling other possible worlds.
Intercultural translation brings to the fore the coexistence of differences and similarities, it
empowers the development of the intercommunication of social alliances between movements
that work against colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy, opening up the possibility
of a bottom-up political aggregation.

Translation/interpretation has always been central to intercultural communication. Lack of

knowledge of another culture may cause confusion, misunderstanding or even offense during
communication process and it also makes the conclusion of international or bilateral agreements
difficult or impossible. To the extent that without communication there can be no negotiation,
communication is obviously integral to the success of the mission. It is necessary for a translator
or an interpreter to realize the importance of having a cultural background when taking part of
this kind of negotiations, which can affect thousands of people. Therefore a translator becomes
an intercultural contact.

Creative Use of Language

The notion of creativity has been used by many theorists to describe that aspect of language
which enables a language user to use language in a novel way or to devise new forms of
language. Chomsky especially uses the "creative aspect of language use" to describe the
innovative uses of language.​
This study explores the notion of creativity in linguistic theory. An examination is made of its
application by Chomsky, from his earliest work on.​
At least two different notions are distinguishable:
 1.​ Rule-governed creativity: The author makes original use of the established
possibilities of the language. It is shown to be a formal property of the syntactic
system and creative in a mechanical sense only
2.​ Rule-changing creativity. The author actually goes beyond those possibilities, that
is, if he creates new communicative possibilities which are not already in the
language. It is an aspect of the semantic (meaning of what is created) system, but is
left largely unexplored by Chomsky.

i.e. Linguistic creativity then can be regarded using either ‘inventiveness’ or ‘originality’.

Creative Translation

Creative translation is adapting a text to a different culture or a language by avoiding word for
word translations while staying loyal to the essence of a text. This may require a translator
to change a few words, delete or add new sentences. Or, in some situations, rewrite the
whole text. In such cases, you are not only looking for a translator with

1.​ native-like proficiency in a language

2.​ native-like understanding of cultural concepts of the language.

What you come up within your own mother-tongue may create a powerful impact
on your audience who share the same values or similar backgrounds with you.

Consider yourself as a service provider with international customers. Your text that
introduces you to potential customers may be flawless in your mother-tongue. However, a
direct translation of that text may cause some misunderstanding or misjudgements about
you and your business. In such a situation, the aim of a creative translation job would be to
make sure to come up with a different text – A text that incorporates the same impact with
the elimination of possible misunderstandings.

Creative Translation Process

A common misunderstanding is that translation is a very straightforward process

with very little input from the translator or that the translator is merely a channel through
which one language is transformed into another. A skilled translator injects a healthy dose
of creativity into their task. The act of translating and the creative process are virtually
inseparable, a fact that is especially true in literary translations.
 Creativity is the key by which a skilled translator deals with some of the most
common problems in translating. Often, a translator will be torn between
representing form versus content. Creativity is the thing that can find a harmonious
balance between the two, and the whole process becomes more art than science. In
addition, translations should not be literal. Rather, they need to convey the full meaning of
the original text, which includes cultural context. Some languages have idioms and sayings
that don’t exist in other languages. Many of these are based on cultural cues which may not
even exist in the culture of the target language.

Therefore a creative translation is a process which combines together translation

and transcreation, paraphrasing. Certain answers to specific questions such as “Who is
included in the target audience?” Would they be able to find it appropriate?, “Would it
offend them?” has to be found and then the translator would start incorporating creativity
in translation.

For the translation to be 100% effective, the translator should be experienced and
truly knowledgeable about the culture. Today many large-scale companies spend huge
numbers to ensure creativity in translation is achieved.

In her book Translation and Creativity, Kirsten Malmkjær maintains that translating
ability, like creativity, can be seen as one identifiable human characteristic that all
bilinguals have to a degree – and that even monolinguals have, to the extent that all
language use is translational – but which some bilinguals possess to extraordinary levels.
The ability can be nurtured and trained, and guidelines can be provided to enhance this
development. Translating moments occur in the individual mind, but can be influenced by
prior practice and discussions with others, and many translating projects are group efforts.
In the context of the wide variety of artefacts that qualify as artistic, translations may fall
squarely within that classification. Translations are clearly original works, although
imitation and copying remain characteristic of the manner in which they bring something
new to the world.
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