Week 2

IMT201
INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION
STUDIES I
Week 2
Asst.Prof.Dr. Burcu TÜRKMEN
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
 How can you describe ’LANGUAGE’?

 What are the functions of language?
 How do you learn a foreign language?
LANGUAGE
 What kind of difficulties do you have during the language

learning process?
 How do you strengthen your native language?
 How do you strengthen your foreign language?
CULTURE
 How can you describe CULTURE?
 Do you like having friends from another cultures? Why?
 Do you think it is beneficial for having cultural knowledge

for translators? Explain.
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
 The first step towards an examination of the processes of

translation must be to accept that although translation
has a central core of linguistic activity, it belongs most
properly to semiotics, the science that studies sign
systems or structures, sign processes and sign functions.
 Beyond the notion stressed by the narrowly linguistic
approach, that translation involves the transfer of
‘meaning’ contained in one set of language signs into
another set of language signs through competent use of
the dictionary and grammar, the process involves a whole
set of extra-linguistic criteria also.
 Edward Sapir claims that ‘language is a guide to social
reality’ and that human beings are at the mercy of the
language that has become the medium of expression for
their society.
 Experience, he asserts, is largely determined by the

language habits of the community, and each separate
structure represents a separate reality:
 No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be
considered as representing the same social reality.
 The worlds in which different societies live are distinct

worlds, not merely the same world with different labels
attached.
 Language, is the heart within the body of culture, and it is
the interaction between the two that results in the
continuation of life energy.
 In the same way that the surgeon, operating on the heart,

cannot neglect the body that surrounds it, so the translator
treats the text in isolation from the culture at his or her
peril.
TYPES OF TRANSLATION
 On Linguistic Aspects of Translation’, Roman Jakobson

distinguishes three types of translation:
(1) Intralingual translation, or rewording (an interpretation
of verbal signs by means of other signs in the same
language).
(2) Interlingual translation or translation proper (an
interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language).
(3) Intersemiotic translation or transmutation (an
interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of
nonverbal sign systems).
 A dictionary of so-called synonyms may give perfect as a
synonym for ideal or vehicle as a synonym for conveyance
but in neither case can there be said to be complete
equivalence, since each unit contains within itself a set of
non-transferable associations and connotations.
Because complete equivalence (in the sense of synonymy or sameness)
cannot take place in any of his categories, Jakobson declares that all
poetic art is therefore technically untranslatable:
Only creative transposition is possible: either intralingual transposition –

from one poetic shape into another, or intralingual transposition – from
one language into another, or finally intersemiotic transposition – from
one system of signs into another, e.g. from verbal art into music, dance,
cinema or painting.
 What Jakobson is saying here is taken up again by Georges Mounin, the French
theorist, who perceives translation as a series of operations of which the
starting point and the end product are significations and function within a
given culture.
 So, for example, the English word pastry, if translated into Italian without
regard for its signification, will not be able to perform its function of meaning
within a sentence, even though there may be a dictionary ‘equivalent’; for
pasta has a completely different associative field.
 In this case the translator has to resort to a combination of units in order to
find an approximate equivalent. Jakobson gives the example of the Russian
word syr (a food made of fermented pressed curds) which translates roughly
into English as cottage cheese.
 In this case, Jakobson claims, the translation is only an adequate

interpretation of an alien code unit and equivalence is impossible.
Interpreters mediate communication between people
speaking different languages.
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 1. Mediate communication: Interpreters help speakers and listeners
bridge cultural and cognitive gaps (of which they may not be aware)
that would otherwise impede communication. In practice, this
mediation may range from cautious language transfer through a range
of optimizing processes, some automatic, some allowed or
constrained, depending on the situation, the setting and the
interpreter- user/client relationship.
 2. Between people speaking: The interpreter’s domain is real-time
oral communication. Usually both input and output are live speech,
and even when the input is partly or wholly written or recorded (as in
SI with text or sight translation), the interpreter’s product is for
immediate consumption in real time by real people, with all the
constraints (such as imposed pace), conventions and freedoms
(pragmatic, prosodic etc.) of oral communication.
 3. Different languages: Interpreters are called upon when speaker(s)
and listener(s) are unable to use a common language (or prefer not to
– for example, when a participant understands or speaks the other’s
language imperfectly, or for diplomatic reasons). The mere fact of
changing languages already reframes a message culturally and
cognitively, since language elements do not match one for one.
To fulfil this combined linguistic, cognitive and communicative (mediating)
task, the skillset of any interpreter must therefore bring together four core
competencies, the first three being realized and implemented in the fourth:
▶ Language proficiency (L) in both source and target languages, to decode the
signs and present the message intelligibly, clearly and idiomatically;
▶ Knowledge (K), both general (including cultural) and local, to penetrate the
cognitive world(s) of speakers and listeners sufficiently to mediate their
exchange;
▶ Skills (S), both general (for communication) and specific to interpreting, to

manage the constraints and exploit the opportunities of the medium;
▶ Professionalism (P) to manage conditions, set priorities and take operational

and ethical decisions aimed at optimizing the service in real life.
 The demands on each of these competencies, separately or in coordination, will vary
in different modes, domains, settings and situations, with results depending on the
interpreter’s ability and on external factors.
 These four dimensions, developed more fully below in 2.4, will serve throughout this
book and its companion volume as a framework for our proposals for developing and
integrating the components of interpreting expertise through training.
 In our experience, the precise configuration and levels of these competencies that
are needed to interpret professionally to a high standard are never all naturally
present (i.e. without training) even in the most gifted educated bilingual.
THANKS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION.

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IMT201

 How can you describe ’LANGUAGE’?

 What kind of difficulties do you have during the language

 How can you describe CULTURE?

 Do you like having friends from another cultures? Why?

 Do you think it is beneficial for having cultural knowledge

 The first step towards an examination of the processes of

 Experience, he asserts, is largely determined by the

 The worlds in which different societies live are distinct

 In the same way that the surgeon, operating on the heart,

 On Linguistic Aspects of Translation’, Roman Jakobson

Only creative transposition is possible: either intralingual transposition –

 In this case, Jakobson claims, the translation is only an adequate

▶ Skills (S), both general (for communication) and specific to interpreting, to

▶ Professionalism (P) to manage conditions, set priorities and take operational

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