TrIn 3001: Introduction to Translation

1. TrIn 3001: Introduction to Translation Semana 5A (28/VI/04)

2. Dictado: Entregar media página resumen de lecturas Comentarios de la prueba Entregar título y temas del trabajo teórico Contestar preguntas #1-12 de Nida: “An Introduction to the Nature of Meaning” Dictar Larson Capítulos: 8, 18, 21 Práctica: Ejercicio traducción #4 (revisiones en clase) Analizar trabajos individuales Ejercicios prácticos: Cognados falsos Discutir ejercicio de acentos Clase 28-VI-04

3. Discussion: Educational Documents • At home read the articles in the manual pp. 51+ “Educational Documents: Translation or Evaluation?”and “Items to be Included in the Translation of Most Documents” • Write a half page summary describing at least 2 problems facing translators and how the author suggests solving them. What did you learn from reading the second article that you did not already know? • Please send your summary to the instructor’s emails before the next class.

4. Midterm translation: challenging words

5. Midterm translation: challenging words

6. Chapter 7 practice (pp. 80-85) Exercise A: Possible words to choose-- [plant, fleet, electrical typewriter, animal, loaf, duplex, clothing, exercise, bull, rose, building, trout, vertebrate, tableware, utensil, yacht, food, saucer, gown, machine, steak knife, march, etc.] Exercises C, D (all items) Exercises E (# 1-5), F (# 6-10) Exercises G, H, I (odd numbered items)

7. “An Introduction to the Nature of Meaning” • 1. What is language in relation to meaning? Language is the medium through which meaning is expressed. • 2. What is a code? What kind of code is language? A code is an organized system of symbols. Language is a code of words.

8. “An Introduction to the Nature of Meaning” • 3. Why is there no code that is comparable to language? No other code involves the number of symbols and complexity that language has. • 4. What kind of signs are linguistic signs (according to Reichenbach’s classification)? Why? Are there exceptions? These are iconic because they suggest with their form the object to which they refer. Called onomatopoeia.

9. “An Introduction to the Nature of Meaning” • 5. What’s another name for conventional signs? Conventional signs are symbols such as mathematical signs: $, %, +, =, Σ, Δ, Π 6. Which are the 3 linguistic contexts in which a linguistic sign can occur? Immediate, displaced and transferred

10. “An Introduction to the Nature of Meaning” • 7. Why are the traditional approaches to meaning (which describe concepts as centripetal, centrifugal, or lineal) not adequate? Common denominators of meaning are usually ineffective. • 8. Why is the mental approach to meaning inadequate? It assumes the real meaning of a word can be equated with the mental image. The more abstract the term the more difficult it is to produce an image.

11. “An Introduction to the Nature of Meaning” • 9. Does the behaviorist (stimulus-response) approach provide an adequate explanation of linguistic phenomena? No.What was its main contribution to the study of language? It discounted the mental approach to meaning and focused on the stimuli-response of the speaker and hearer.  • 10. How do symbolic logicians (also called logical analysts or linguistic analysts) divide their study of meaning? Semantics, syntactics and pragmatics

12. “An Introduction to the Nature of Meaning” • 11. What is semantics? It is the relationship of signs (symbols) to referents. • 12. What process is essential to deal with objects and events? Classification. Why? Objects and events are unique. What metaphor does the author use to refer to linguistic symbols? Handles. Why?For dealing with groupings of similar objects and events.

13. Part-whole relationship Contrastive pairs Using componential analysis to determine meaning of particular words : Generic Shared Central Contrastive Incidental Head: nose, ear, eyes Country-homeland vs. país-patria Terms Chapter 8

14. Notes Chapter 8 • Languages may group words by a part-whole relationship. Sets of words include: • Parts of a house • Parts of a head • Parts of a machine • Political organizations • Languages classify and subdivide large areas of knowledge in different ways. Ex: The word hand may not have a separate meaning apart from the word arm.

15. Notes Chapter 8 • Translators use contrastive pairs to distinguish the components of meaning from closely related pairs of words. • Ex: technical school vs. trade school • Ex: meat vs. flesh: meat is edible flesh • The words must belong to a common set and have contrastive features as well. • Ex: to show and to see belong to a set but to show has the added contrastive meaning of to cause to see

16. Notes Chapter 8 • Meaning components of words may be more easily isolated by looking at lexical matrices. The translator may need to make displays that show the contrastive features of meaning for certain areas of vocabulary. This mapping is done through componential analysis. In order to compare any two words, they must share components of meaning with a generic component in common. The words horse and sheep share contrastive meanings within the generic component animals. The generic or central component (animals) unites the contrastive components of this set (horse and sheep).

17. Notes Chapter 8 • The contrastive components always narrow down the meaning of the central component. To differentiate a certain set of terms, incidental (or supplementary) components may be used. These incidental components may become contrastive components at another level of study. • Ex: In studying kinds of furniture it is incidental whether the object has arms or not. But in studying the kinds of chairs, the arms become a contrastive component in order to distinguish the kinds of chairs.

18. Notes Chapter 8

19. KINDS OF MEANING COMPONENTS • Central component(generic): It unites a semantic set (it’s more prominent). • Contrastive components (non-central): They distinguish one word from another in a set. • Incidental components (supplementary): Their presence or absence is incidental for the contrast needed to differentiate a certain set of terms.

20. Chapter 8 practice (pp. 95-96) Exercise A. Group 1: on the board have your recorder list the parts of a house in English within 2 minutes Group 2: on the board have your recorder list parts of a house in Spanish within 2 minutes Check off words representing common categories and underline actual words translated. Exercise C. 2 groups (5 min.)–ways of looking at things One group contrasts or explains differences in meaning in English. Second group translates into Spanish each word. How many translations will Group 1 accept of the Group 2 list?

21. Chapter 18: Propositions Remember: A group of meaning components is a concept. A group of concepts is a proposition which is the basic unit of communication • A. Proposition = Single EVENT (or STATE) and the concepts related to it. • Ex: John hit the ball. (EVENT PROPOSITION) • The flower is beautiful. (STATE PROPOSITION) • B. Proposition = Semantic unit consisting of a group of CONCEPTS (things, events and attributes) in which one concept is CENTRAL and others are RELATED to it. Ex: John hit the ball. Central concept: hit (EVENT) Related concepts: John (AGENT) + ball (AFFECTED)

22. Kinds of Propositions EVENTS: Actions: John hit the ball. Experiences: The boys heard the whistle. Processes (change of state): The ice melted. STATES: Ownership: The car is mine. Identification: G. W. Bush is the President. Location: There is a doctor in the house. Description: Minnesota winters are cold. State propositions have a topic and a comment but no event concept.

23. Kinds of Propositions • Depending on the author’s/speaker’s purpose, any proposition can also be a question or a command. Note the following three situational meanings (also called illocutionary forces of the proposition—indicated by word order or punctuation): • John hit the ball. • Did John hit the ball? • John, hit the ball!

24. Kinds of Propositions • Three distinctions in illocutionary force: • A statement intends to give information to the hearer • A question intends to gain information from the hearer • A command intends to encourage or solicit the action of the hearer • The intent of the speaker is in focus as it relates to what he wants of the hearer.

25. Propositions • How to break down sentences into propositions? Ex: John rejected Peter’s offer. 1) Identify central concepts (in this case, events) (REJECT and OFFER). 2) Identify related concepts (participants) (JOHN and PETER) 3) Rewrite so that EVENT = VERB and AGENT = SUBJECT. John rejected [something]. Peter offered [something]. 4) Clarify relations between these propositions (time, cause + effect, etc.) Peter offered something.[before] John rejected it.

26. Propositions • The translator always looks for the most natural way to translate. Which grammatical form used in the translation will depend on the relation that the proposition has to other propositions and how they are expressed most naturally in the receptor language. • The proposition John rejected Peter’s offer might be translated into English with the following forms: • John rejected the offer of Peter. • The offer of Peter was rejected by John. • The rejecting of Peter’s offer by John. • Peter, whose offer was rejected by John, . . . • Peter, the one whose offer John rejected, . . .

27. Propositions • Keep in mind that concepts have meaning only in that they refer to things, events, attributes and relations. Only when concepts occur with other concepts is there meaningful communication. The combination of concepts becomes a proposition only when it makes sense.

28. Exercises Chapter 18 (216-217) • Ex. A: #4, 7, 8 • Ex. B: #3, 7, 8 • Ex. D: #3, 4, 5 (English and Spanish)

29. Chapter 21: Skewing Between Propositional Structure and Clause Structure The sentence structure should “match” the proposition structure. • Ex. Subject Verb Object John painted the house AGENT EVENT AFFECTED • Match the following sentences. • The students passed the midterm. • Nosotros tradujimos el documento.

30. Propositional Structure and Clause Structure When is the sentence structure skewed? • A. Passive Constructions The house was painted by John. Subj.-AFF verb-EVENT compl.-AGENT • B. Abstract Nouns • They are afraid of DEATH [=the fact/possibility of dying] • Two propositions exist here: • They will/may die. (EVENT) • They are afraid. (EXPERIENCE)

31. Abstract Nouns • Abstract nouns always represent a skewing of the grammatical structure and the semantic structure. The translator will often need to restate the abstract nouns as verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. Look for the equivalent abstract noun in the RL; if none exists, do not attempt to create new abstract nouns—translate with verbs, adjectives or adverbs.

32. Genitive Constructions • A genitive construction is a grammatical form to encode a variety of semantic structures. • Problem for translator: one surface form is used to represent many different meanings. • The house of John • John’s house

33. house of John House of Representatives house of the Lord wing of the bird cup of water law of Moses law of the land forgiveness of sins judgment of the court Propositions Possession Grouping or elected body Place where presence is felt Part + whole Container + substance Law that Moses wrote Law that governs the land Action/event + affected Action/event + agent Genitive Constructions

34. Genitive Construction • Take care to identify the meaning of the source text, especially with ambiguous or implicit meaning. Notice one sentence can have passive, genitive and possessive constructions and abstract nouns: The concern of the leader was revealed by his gifts to his people. • Passive: was revealed [Agent = leader] • Genitive: concern of the leader • Possessive: his people (whom he leads) • Abstract nouns: concern = event; leader = event and person; gifts = event and things

35. Strange Forms Can you figure out what these headlines mean? • STOLEN PAINTING FOUND BY TREE • LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS CUT IN HALF • MAN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING FACES BATTERY CHARGE

36. Exercises Chapter 21 (253-55) • Ex. A: #2, 3, 6 • Ex. B: #1, 2, 5, 6 • Ex. C: #1-5 • Ex. D: #1, 6, 9 • Ex. E: underline words standing for an event

37. Types of translation errors • Implicit vs. explicit issues • Inaccurate meaning, unnatural flow • Punctuation (periods, exclamation and question marks, commas, parentheses, quotation marks, short and long hyphens (guión v. raya), colon, semicolon, ellipses) and Spelling (diéresis, apostrophe, accents, inconsistent spelling) • Format/appearance (confusing, illegible, disorganized) • Inconsistent key word • Grammar error (verb tense) • Sentence structure (natural word order/flow)

38. Types of Translation Errors 8. Source text misunderstood/mistranslated 9. Addition 10. Omission 11. Indecision (other options given) 12. False Cognate 13. Word form or usage 14. Consistent with SL style

39. In-class practice exercises • Ejercicio de cognados falsos • Corregir ejercicios de acentuación • Revisiones de ejercicio traducción #4 en grupos • Analizar trabajos individuales

40. Ejercicio: La columna izquierda lleva las formas correctas. •  expedito expédito •  libido líbido • prístino pristino • intervalo  intérvalo • Nobel Nóbel • coctel cóctel • elite  élite • fútil futil • táctil tactil • Sáhara Sahara

41. Acusar recibo/to acknowledge WWW/MMM(Red/Malla Mundial) Versus/contra, frente a Support/apoyar, mantener Court/tribunal User-friendly/convivencial Shock/susto Skill/destreza, conocimiento Sponsor/patrocinador Stranger/desconocido To record/registrar, anotar To report/informar Script/guión To prove/demostrar To register/anotar 16. Contraseña/password 17. Policy/regla, norma, plan, política 18. Motorist/conductor de coche 19. Anuncio/notice 20. Highlighted/resaltado 21. Home page/pagina frontal, portada 22. Honest/honrado 23. Intoxicated/borracho 24. Funeral/entierro 25. Editor/redactor jefe 26. Expiration date/fecha de caducidad 27. Table of contents/index/índice 28. Crime/delito 29. To check/comprobar/verificar 30. To attach/adjuntar Traduzca estas palabras problemáticas(manual pp. 126-138)

42. Translation exercise #4 1) Two students will be assigned the same Sample (1-5) and will work as co-translators. 2) Each student will translate the assigned source sample into his/her native language. 3) Cover up with paper and tape the column that is written in your native language (and don’t peek!). 4) In the next class, both co-translators will consult and compare notes with each other first and then with the “published” version uncovered. 5) Turn in your rough draft, your rough draft with noted changes, and your final work with the incorporated revisions. Your final translation is not expected to read exactly like the “published” version in the manual.

43. Individual Translation Abstracts • Within the 5-6 translated sentences that you brought, which words/ phrases were difficult to translate naturally? Why? • What steps did you take to resolve the difficulties? • How do you know you have produced an accurate and natural translation?

44. Tarea para el 01-VII-04 • Leer Capítulo 9 (Larson) • Investigación para el trabajo teórico (fecha de entrega 12 de julio) • Responder a las preguntas de Nida: “An Introduction to the Nature of Meaning” (#13-24) • Ejercicio traducción #4 (original, borrador con revisiones anotadas, trabajo final)