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TRANSLATION
THEORIES
In his Approaches to Translation, Peter Newmark believes that:
“...translation theory is neither a theory nor a science, but the body of knowledge that we have and have still to have about the process of translating.”
Based on this definition, this process has to take the followings into consideration:
It must lay down a number of principles necessary to make evaluation of translations possible and set the restrictions.
It must determine the type of methods of translation applicable in most cases.
It must clearly define the criteria based on the type of translation.
PRESCRIPTIVE TRANSLATION THEORY
z The oldest translation theory (It has been applied since the antiquity, the time of Cicero).
It has certain rules and the theory is associated with «making rules.»
The focal point is «what is translated.»
The prescriptivists are more “objective” about
language and meaning.
The critics pay attention to the rules of the target language (linguistics) and shape the measures of this theory according to the
reader’s language.
Reader-oriented approach
Sense-for-sense translation
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Non verbum de verbo sed sensum exprimere de sensu
Express sense-for-sense, not word-for-word
Cicero points out;
In translated texts, clarity and harmony with grammar of target language are important.
Prescriptive translation theory has been considered as an unshaken guiding principle.
The norms of prescriptive translation theory have its function, which tells us what target a translation
should realize from critic’s points of view.
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Viaggio says “prescriptivism is inescapable. If there is no right, or at least better way of
translating, then we are all wasting time, breath
and money: there is nothing but language to
teach.”
Prescriptive translation theory has drawbacks in two aspects:
1.
One is that it always thinks that its norm is the only right one and applies it into all the translations. (This rule makes a contrast to the goal of dynamic
equivalence as seeking “the closest natural equivalent to the source-language massage”)
2.
On the other hand, it confined itself to language—the
small field, and does not care for culture—the large
environment.
DESCRIPTIVE TRANSLATION THEORY
z It is a relatively modern translation theory.
While the perspectivists offer a kind of free
translation on condition that the translated texts would be clear (in the target language), the
descriptivists believe that translators should be loyal to the source language.
The focal point is «how to translate.»
Descriptive translation studies set translation
practice in time and, thus by extension, in politics, ideology, economics, culture.
Descriptive translation theory is assumed to be the opposite of prescriptive translation theory.
It displays great «tolerance.»
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The translators use the «paraphrasing» method;
they change the grammatical structure of the source text.
The interest of descriptive translation theory is not in language itself, and it tries to inquire into the
translation origin and its social action.
The scholars of descriptive school often ask two common questions:
1. Which factor causes translator to translate the text into another language?
2. What is the function of a version in the target
language?
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The biggest risk of descriptive translation theory is being too subjective to miss the meaning of the source text.
The translated texts became much longer than the source text with the addition of the social and cultural actions in the target
language.
A translator needs to analyze the source
text to choose the right method. Thus, he
has to study the intention of the text, the
readership of the target text and his own
objective.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
z Chesterman, Andrew. Reflections on Translation Theory: Selected Papers 1993 - 2014. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017. EBSCOhost.
Çakır, Abdülkadir. «Çeviri Yöntemleri.» Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, no. 14, 2005, pp. 237-244.
Küçükbezirci, Yağmur, and Hiperlink (Firm). Theories and Practice of Translation.
Vol. Genişletilmiş 2. Baskı, Konya, 2018. EBSCOhost.
Liu, Kunlun. «Prescriptive Aspects of the Descriptive Translation Studies.»
International Journal of English Linguistics, vol. 4, no. 4, 2014, pp. 13-21.
Newmark, Peter. Approaches to Translation. A. Wheaton Co. Ltd. Press, 1984.
