1. TRANSLATION AND ITS MAIN OBJECTIVES.

TRANSLATION THEORY AND OTHER SCIENCES

Translation is a human activity known since ancient times and

an interpreter or a translator is among the oldest of professions,
dating back to the biblical era and earlier. Translation is one of the
most complex problems that the human intellect may face.
The stated goal of translation is the transformation of a text
originally in one language into an equivalent text in a different
language retaining as far as possible the content of the message, the
formal features and functional roles of the original text.
In studying this complex process at work, we are in fact seeking
insights towards the whole relationship between language activity
and the social context in which it takes place.
The purpose of translation is implementation of speech
communication between people speaking different languages.
Communication is impossible if there is a distinct non-coincidence
between transmitted and received information.
This act of communication is different from communication acts
carried out in one language. In the process of translation
communicators use different language systems and as a result this
communication is always bilingual.
Linguistics of translation focuses on the system of
communicatively equal units of two languages which can replace
each other in interlinguistic communication.
Translation presupposes communicative similarity of text in
different languages, their interchangeability in a definite act of
communication.
E.g. It' s a long lane that has no turning.
Перемелеться – мука буде.
In this example, translation provides communicative similarity
between the original and translated texts but not their semantic
identity.
The essence of translation is to reach communicative
equivalence, i.e. to retain functional (communicative) relevance of
the original.
Communicative similarity of texts in different languages
discovered in translation in an objective phenomenon that reflects
universal properties of the language as a means of exchange of ideas.
The study of translation has been dominated and to a degree still
is, by the debate about its status as an art or a science.
The linguist inevitably approaches translation from a scientific
point of view seeking to create some kind of "objective description
of the phenomenon".
Nevertheless, the supposed dichotomy between "art" and
"science" is still current enough, as the quintessence of translation as
art, is even more patent in literary texts.
The term "translation" presupposes that the content and style of
the original text should be preserved as far as possible in the
translated text; the aim is to reproduce as accurately as possible all
grammatical and lexical features of the SL (source language) original
by finding equivalents in the TL (target language). At the same time
all factual information contained in the original text must be
preserved in the translation.
We would suggest that there are, in fact, three distinguishable
meanings for the word “translation”.
It can refer to:
(a) translating: the process (to translate: the activity rather than
the tangible object);
(b) a translation: the product of the process of translating (i.e.
the translated text)
(c) translation: that abstract concept which encompasses both
the process of translating and the product of that process.
Description of the translating process is one of the major tasks
of the translation theory. Here we deal with the dynamic processes of
translation trying to understand how the translator performs the
transfer operation from ST (source text) to TT (target text). The
study of the translating process reveals both the translator's strategy
and scientific techniques used to solve typical translation problems.
Translation makes possible an exchange of information between
the users of different languages by producing in the TL a text having
an identical communicative value with the ST. Thus TT isn't
completely identical with ST as to its form or content. The
relationship between ST and TT is based on the various degrees of
equivalence of their meanings.
As any observable phenomenon translation can be the object of
scientific study aimed at understanding its nature, its constituents
and their interaction, as well as various factors influencing it or
linked with it.
The science of translation or translatology is concerned with
both theoretical and applied aspects of translation studies. A
theoretical description of the translation phenomenon is the task of
the translation theory. In a narrow sense, translation theory is
concerned with the translation methods appropriately used for a
certain type of text, and it is therefore dependent on a functional
theory of a language. However, in a wider sense, translation theory is
the body of knowledge that we have about translating, extending
from general principles to guidelines, suggestions and hints.
Translation theory is concerned with minutiae (the meanings of
semi-colons, italics, misprints) as well as generalities (presentation,
the thread of thought underlying a piece) and both may be equally
important in the context. Theoretical research is to discover what
translation is, to find out what objective factors underlie the
translator’s intuition, to describe the ways and methods due to which
the identity of the communicative value of ST and TT is achieved.
The theory of translation provides the translator with the appropriate
tools of analysis and synthesis. Translation is a complicated
phenomenon involving linguistic, psycholinguistic, cultural, literary
and other factors. Different aspects of translation can be studied with
methods of respective sciences. Up to now most of the theoretical
research has been done within the framework of linguistics. The
linguistic theory of translation is concerned with translation as a
form of speech communication establishing contact between
communicants who speak different languages. The basis of this
theory is linguistics in the broadest sense of the word, that is
macrolinguistics with all its new branches, such as psycholinguistics,
sociolinguistics, text linguistics, communicative linguistics, etc.,
studying the language structure and its functioning in speech in their
relationship in mind, culture and society.
The core of the translation theory is the general theory of
translation which is concerned with the fundamental aspects of
translation inherent in the nature of bilingual communication and
therefore common to all translation events, irrespective of what
languages are involved or what kind of text and under what
circumstances was translated. Basically, replacement of ST by TT of
the same communicative value is possible because both texts are
produced in human speech governed by the same rules and implying
the same relationships between language, reality and human mind.
All languages are means of communication, all speech units convey
information to the communicants.
The general theory of translation focuses on translation
universals and is the basis for all other theoretical study in this area.
This theory describes the basic principles which hold good for each
and every translation event. In each particular case, however, the
translating process is influenced by both common basic factors and
by a number of specific variables which stem from the actual
conditions and modes of the translator’s work.
An important part of the general theory of translation is the
theory of equivalence aimed at studying semantic relationships
between ST and TT. It has been noted that there is a presumption of
semantic identity between the translation and the source text. At the
same time it can be easily seen that there’s in fact no such identity.
The creation of equivalent texts results in and is dependent on the
equivalence of correlated language units in the two texts. In any two
languages there are pairs of units which are of identical or similar
communicative value and can replace each other in translation. The
communicative value of a language element depends both on its own
semantics and on the way it’s used in speech. Therefore translation
equivalence may be established between units occupying dissimilar
places in the system of respective languages.
One more branch of the theory of translation deals with the
pragmatic aspects of the translating process. The communicants
involved in interlingual communication speak different languages
but they also belong to different cultures, have different general
knowledge, different social and historical background knowledge. In
some cases, the pragmatic value of translation is the major factor in
assessing the quality of the translator’s performance. Pragmatic
aspects of translation come afore especially in literary translation, in
which the equivalence of effect on the reader is even of greater
importance than the semantic equivalence between the ST and TT.

Вот план текста:

1. Введение в понятие перевода и его цели

2. Перевод как процесс и как продукт
3. Переводоведение как наука
4. Общая теория перевода
5. Теория эквивалентности
6. Прагматические аспекты перевода

Конспект текста:
Текст посвящен теории перевода.
Перевод определяется как преобразование текста на одном
языке в эквивалентный текст на другом языке с сохранением
содержания, формальных особенностей и функциональных
ролей оригинала.
Различаются перевод как процесс (деятельность) и как продукт
(переведенный текст). Описание процесса перевода - одна из
задач теории перевода.
Переводоведение изучает перевод с научной точки зрения.
Выделяется общая теория перевода, изучающая универсальные
закономерности, присущие любому акту перевода.
Важный раздел общей теории - теория эквивалентности,
изучающая семантические отношения между оригиналом и
переводом. Хотя полной идентичности между ними нет,
создаются эквивалентные тексты на основе эквивалентных
языковых единиц.
Еще один раздел связан с прагматическими аспектами перевода,
обусловленными различиями в культуре, фоновых знаниях
коммуникантов. Особенно важны при художественном
переводе.