Translation strategies and examples

 

2.3.2.2 Strategies used by professional translators

 

(a) Translation by a more general word (superordinate)

This is one of the commonest strategies for dealing with many types of nonequivalence, particularly in the area of propositional meaning. It works equally well in most, if not all, languages, since the hierarchical structure of semantic fields is not language-specific.

Example :

Source text ( China’s Panda Reserves  – World Wide Fund for Nature text which accompanied a slide show):

Today there may be no more than 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild, restricted to a few mountain strongholds in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

Target text (Chinese):

今天，仍处于野生状态的大熊猫可能只有一千只，仅限于中国的 四川、陕西和甘肃省内的一些山区。

Today there may be only 1000 big pandas which still remain in the wild state, restricted to certain mountain areas in China’s Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

Note : The preceding examples illustrate the use of a general word (superordinate) to overcome a relative lack of specifi city in the target language compared to the source language.

 

(b) Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word

This is another strategy in the semantic field of structure.

Example :

Source text: ( Morgan Matroc  – ceramics company brochure):

Today people are aware that modern ceramic materials offer unrivalled properties for many of our most demanding industrial applications.So is this brochure necessary; isn’t the ceramic market already overbombarded with technical literature; why should Matroc add more? Because someone mumbles , ‘Our competitors do it.’ But why should we imitate our competitors when Matroc probably supplies a greater range of ceramic materials for more applications than any other manufacturer.

Target text: (Italian):

Qualcuno suggerisce : ‘i nostri concorrenti lo fanno.’

Someone suggests : ‘Our competitors do it.’

Note : There is a noticeable difference in the expressive meaning of mumble and its nearest Italian equivalent, mugugnare. The English verb mumble suggests confusion, disorientation or embarrassment, as can be seen in the following examples:

·         ‘Sorry,’ she managed to mumble incoherently.

·         I was doing a three-point-turn manoeuvre to get us back onto the road

·         when he woke up, lifted his hat and mumbled: ‘Where are we?’

·         ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you,’ I mumbled apologetically.

·         ‘I’m in your hands,’ I mumbled and didn’t quite know why I said it.

Presented with a hard question, she’ll blush, stare at her feet and finally mumble her answer. The Italian near equivalent, mugugnare, in contrast, tends to suggest dissatisfaction rather than embarrassment or confusion. Possibly to avoid conveying the wrong expressive meaning, the Italian translator opted for a more general word, suggerisce (‘suggest’).

 

(c) Translation by cultural substitution

This strategy involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression with a target language item considering its impact on the target reader. This strategy makes the translated text more natural, more understandable and more familiar to the target reader.

Example :

Source text ( The Patrick Collection   – a leafl et produced by a privately owned museum of classic cars):

The Patrick Collection has restaurant facilities to suit every taste from the discerning gourmet, to the Cream Tea expert.

Target text (Italian):

. . . di soddisfare tutti i gusti: da quelli del gastronomo esigente a quelli dell’esperto di pasticceria .

. . . to satisfy all tastes: from those of the demanding gastronomist to those of the expert in pastry .

Note : In Britain, cream tea is ‘an afternoon meal consisting of tea to drink and scones with jam and clotted cream to eat. It can also include sandwiches and cakes’.  Cream tea has no equivalent in other cultures. The Italian translator replaced it with ‘pastry’, which does not have the same meaning (for one thing, cream tea is a meal in Britain, whereas ‘pastry’ is only a type of food). However,pastry’ is familiar to the Italian reader and therefore provides a good cultural substitute.

 

(d) Translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation

This strategy is usually used in dealing with culture-specific items, modern concepts, and buzz words. Using the loan word with an explanation is very useful when a word is repeated several times in the text. At the first time the word is mentioned by the explanation and in the next times the word can be used by its own.

Example :

Source text ( A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan  – Blacker 1975 :315):

The shamanic practices we have investigated are rightly seen as an archaic mysticism.

Target text (Japanese):

我々が探究してきたシャーマン的行為は、古代の神秘主義とし て、考察されるべきものであろう。

The shamanic behaviour which we have been researching should rightly be considered as ancient mysticism.

Note : Shaman is a technical word used in religious studies to refer to a priest or a priest doctor among the northern tribes of Asia. It has no ready equivalent inJapanese. The equivalent used in the translation is made up of shaman as a loan word, written in katakana script (the script commonly used to transcribe foreign words into Japanese), plus a Japanese suffi x which means ‘like’ to replace the –ic ending in English. The Japanese suffi x is written in the Kanji script (the Chinesesystem used to transcribe ordinary Japanese).

 

(e) Translation by paraphrase using a related word

This strategy is used when the source item in lexicalized in the target language but in a different form, and when the frequency with which a certain form is used in the source text is obviously higher than it would be natural in the target language.

Example :

Source text ( The Patrick Collection ):

Hot and cold food and drinks can be found in the Hornet’s Nest, overlooking the Alexick Hall.

Target text (German):

Im Hornet’s Nest, das die Alexick-Halle überblickt , bekommen Sie warme und kalte Speisen und Getränke. In the Hornet’s Nest, which overlooks the Alexick-Hall, you can have hot and cold meals and drinks.

 

(f) Translation by paraphrase using unrelated words

This strategy is used when the source item in lexicalized in the target language but in a different form, and when the frequency with which a certain form is used in the source text is obviously higher than it would be natural in the target language.

Example :

Source text ( The Patrick Collection ):

You can even dine ‘ alfresco ’ in the summer on our open air terrace.

Target text (German):

Im Sommer können Sie auch auf der Terrasse im Freien sitzen und essen.

In the summer you can also sit and eat on the terrace in the open .

Note : Alfresco, ‘in the open air’, is a loan word in English. Its meaning is unpacked in the German translation. The two expressions, alfresco and ‘in the open’, have the same ‘propositional’ meaning, but the German expression lacks the ‘evoked’ meaning of alfresco, which is perhaps inevitable in this case. Note that the loan word is placed in inverted commas in the source text.

 

(g) Translation by omission

This may be a drastic kind of strategy, but in fact it may be even useful to omit translating a word or expression in some contexts. If the meaning conveyed by a particular item or expression is not necessary to mention in the understanding of the translation, translators use this strategy to avoid lengthy explanations.

Example :

Source text ( China’s Panda Reserves ):

The panda’s mountain home is rich in plant life and gave us many of the trees, shrubs and herbs most prized in European gardens.

Target text (Chinese):

熊猫的山区定居地有着丰富的植物种类，有着欧洲园林所珍视的 许多树木、灌木和草本植物的种类。像这一山杜鹃花等种类为十 九世纪的植物学家所集采，然后运回欧洲作为园林收藏品。

The mountain settlements of the panda have rich varieties of plants.There are many kinds of trees, shrubs and herbal plants that are preciously regarded by European gardens.

Note : The source text addresses a European audience, and the use of gave us highlights its intended orientation. The Chinese translation addresses a different audience and therefore suppresses the orientation of the source text by omitting expressions which betray its original point of view.

 

(h) Translation by illustration

This strategy can be useful when the target equivalent item does not cover some aspects of the source item and the equivalent item refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly in order to avoid over-explanation and to be concise and to the point.

Example:

This strategy appeared on a Lipton Yellow Label tea packet prepared for the Arab market. There is no easy way of translating tagged, as in tagged teabags , into Arabic without going into lengthy explanations that would clutter the text. An illustration of a tagged teabag is therefore used instead of a paraphrase.

(This summary taken from the book " In Other Words" page 24-48 and  https://translationjournal.net/journal/63theory.htm )