1. Introduction to Translation Studies Translation Practice and Contrastive Grammar

2. Main texts
M. Ulrych, Translating Texts. From Theory to Practice, pp
C. Taylor, Language to Language, pp

3. Mark Shuttleworth, Dictionary of Translation Studies (1997)
Source Text
Source Language Text ST
Target Text
Target Language Text TT
Translation is the rendering of a Source Language text into a Target Language text. But translation is not a merely automatic substitution of linguistic structures.
“Translation is an incredibly broad notion, which can be understood in many different ways”
Mark Shuttleworth, Dictionary of Translation Studies (1997)

4. Some definitions Traducere: trans (al di là) + ducere (portare)
Translation is the transfer of a meaning, a semantic core from one linguistic code to another

5. Prego
Ciao
Pronto?
You know the truth
He delivered the punch
Ha il senso della realtà
A gentle slope
Of gentle birth
Antonio è arrivato
È arrivato Antonio!
È successa una disgrazia.

6. Pronto?
Pronto. Parla Mary, potrei parlare con Susan
Si, cara
Allora andiamo
Hello?
Hello, this is Mary, could I speak to Susan please?
Are you ready?
Yes, I am
Right, then let’s go

7. Potrebbe passarmi quel libro per favore?
Prego?
Vorrei leggere quel libro
Prego
Grazie
Could you give me that book please?
Sorry?
I would like to read that book
Here you are
Thank you
You’re welcome

8. Prego?
Vorrei comprare un libro
Prego, dopo di lei
Can I help you?
I’d like to buy a book
After you

9. Non hanno un bel niente
Niente affatto
La goccia che fa traboccare il vaso
Mi piace il tiramisù
Il rosso dell’uovo
A buon mercato
Buon Natale e buon anno
He went (andò, andava, è andato)
Egli andava (he went, he would go, he used to go, he was going)

10. Linguistic Variations Communicative Functions
Language
Use
Structure
Context and culture
(situation)
(register)
Phonology
Graphology
Lexicon
Grammar
Style
Linguistic Variations
Communicative Functions

11. To break: distruggere, fare a pezzi
Ewe Turn: sheep stop the traffic in Madrid
Ewe Turn – U Turn
Pecore in fuga bloccano il traffico di Madrid
Could breaking news be starting to break us instead?
To break: distruggere, fare a pezzi
E se le ultime notizie fossero davvero le ultime?

12. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
“The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.”
La ballata del vecchio marinaio (trad. T. Tommaso Pisanti)
Soffiava il buon vento, volava la bianca spuma
seguiva libera la scia;
I primi fummo che irrompemmo
In quel tacito mare.

13. It is dangerous to lean out Vietato sporgersi
Valone, 20 aprile 1917
Un’altra notte,
In quest’oscuro
Colle mani
Gelate
Distinguo
Il mio viso
Mi vedo
Abbandonato nell’infinito
Ungaretti
In this dark
With hands
Frozen
I make out
My face
I see myself
abandoned in the infinite
Traduzione di Charles Tomlison
In this dark
With frozen hands
I make out
My face
I see myself
Adrift in infinite space
Traduzione di Peter Creagh

14. There was another problem to be solved: how to protect bank deposits from the risk of disappearing into thin air as a result of the overwhelming losses which were threatening to bring down the three main banks.
C’era anche un altro problema da risolvere: come proteggere i depositi bancari dal rischio di dissolversi nell’aria in seguito alle perdite schiaccianti che minacciavano le tre banche principali.
Restava inoltre scoperto il problema della salvaguardia dei depositi bancari esposti al rischio di volatilizzarsi a fronte della gran massa di perdite che ormai schiacciava i tre principali Istituti di credito.

15. Translation Studies

16. In his article On Linguistic Aspects of Translation (1959) Roman Jakobson distinguishes three kinds of translation
Intralingual translation: rewording (riformulazione) (an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs in the same language)
Interlingual translation: translation proper (an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language)
Intersemiotic translation: transmutation (an interpretation of verbal signs by means of non verbal signs) (parola-immagine)

17. Translation Studies refer to what Jakobson defines INTERLINGUAL Translation
Translation Studies date back to the 1970s.
1972 James S. Holmes, “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies” during the Third Conference of Applied Linguistics (in Copenhagen) used the expression “Translation Studies” to define a new area of analysis that is not simply a part of linguistics.
1978 André Lefevere proposed that the name Translation Studies should be adopted for the discipline that concerns itself with the problems raised by the production and description of translations

18. Linguistic Variations Communicative Functions
Language
Use
Structure
Context and culture
(situation)
(register)
Phonology
Graphology
Lexicon
Grammar
Style
Linguistic Variations
Communicative Functions

19. Translation:
From Theory to Practice

20. The translatability of a text depends on many aspects.
It depends on the degree to which the source text is embedded in its own culture. The more culture-bound a text is, the more difficult it is to translate. The less culture bound a text is, the less it needs to be adapted to suit the TL readership. We should speak of a sliding scale of translatability, largely depending on the degree to which a text is embedded in SL culture.

21. 2. The translatability of a text is deeply connected with the communicative function of the text. Promotional leaflets, business letters and poetry are meaningful examples of different degrees of translatability.

22. Translation Strategies (Malone)
In 1988 Malone introduces a list of nine translation strategies, that is nine different procedures adopted by translations in order to cope with the lexical and syntactical differences between Source Language and Target Language
Approfondimento: C. Taylor, Language to Language, pp

23. Equation
Spaghetti, Lasagna, Pizza (however the absolute equivalence of these terms must be questioned, as they are used outside their home context)
One of the most well-known traps associated with the word-for word equation if that of false friends, where the meanings of deceptively similar terms do not match across languages (Actual/attuale; editor/editore)
Some lexical items have a particularly high frequency in Italian (much higher than their English equivalents)

24. (ex. Realtà) reality: the English lexical item has too high a level of abstraction
L’arte come imitazione della realtà/Art as imitation of nature
La realtà è dura/Life is hard
La sua malattia è una realtà/Her illness is genuine
Progetti che diventano realtà/plans which are realised
Spesso la realtà ci sfugge/Often we don’t see things as they really are
Ha il senso della realtà /He is realistic
Bisogna tenere il senso della realtà locale/We must keep local needs in mind
La realtà economica/the economic situation

25. Examples that deviate from equation
The Holy Bible (La Sacra Bibbia)
(not The Sacred Bible)
(not La Santa Bibbia)

26. 2. Substitution
(the antithesis of equation: the translation has little or no morpho-syntactic or semantic relation to the source text.
Ex. The Italian subjunctive replaced by an English infinitive
Farò in modo che si convinca a venire
I’ll try to get her to come
The straw that broke the camel’s back
La goccia che fa traboccare il vaso

27. 3. Divergence:
The strategy of choosing one possible solution from a potential range of alternatives
panna
vetro
Cream
glass
Crema
bicchiere
If it should happen
should it happen
Se dovesse succedere
If it were to happen
Were it to happen

28. She saw a beautiful dress in the window She opened the window
She lowered the window
NIENTE
Non ho niente da dire
Niente male
Niente scherzi
Non hanno un bel niente
I have nothing to say
Not bad
No messing about!
They have nothing at all

29. 4. Convergence Commercialista Accountant Ragioniere Contabile Tu Lei
You
Voi

30. Swansea is the birthplace of Dylan Thomas
5. Amplification
Swansea is the birthplace of Dylan Thomas
Swasea è il luogo natale del famoso scrittore e poeta Dylan Thomas

31. 6. Reduction
Carta geografica
Map

32. Per quanto riguarda il tempo
7. Diffusion
A source text item or utterance is expanded without adding any extra layer of meaning
Cheap
A buon mercato
Weatherwise
Per quanto riguarda il tempo
The nineteen century sex role system
La divisione dei ruoli in base al sesso nel XIX secolo

33. 8. Condensation
A source text item or utterance is contracted without omitting any layer of meaning
To look at
guardare
To fall in love
innamorarsi
inseguire
To run after

34. The time has not yet come
9. Reordering
It occurs when various procedures are introduced to the syntactic units into the most familiar patterns of the target language
Black and white
Bianco e nero
Non è ancora
giunto il tempo
The time has not yet come
Something terrible
has happened
È successa
una disgrazia

35. HIGH PRESSURE Pressione alta: high blood pressure
Alta pressione: in the meteorological sense

36. Da questi elenchi apparirà evidentissima la minima percentuale delle opere da noi tradotte in confronto al totale annuo delle opere importate.
The very small percentage of works trnaslated by us compared to the total number of works imported per year is clear from these lists.

37. A cogliere la mela del biblico albero della conoscenza furono, il 25 aprile 1953, le mani di un bizzarro fisico inglese
The hands which, on the 25 th of April 1953 picked the apple from the Biblical tree of knowledge belonged to a rather eccentic English physicist.

38. Linguistic Variations Communicative Functions
Language
Use
Structure
Context and culture
(situation)
(register)
Phonology
Graphology
Lexicon
Grammar
Style
Linguistic Variations
Communicative Functions

39. Language USE language functions
Ex. “Nice weather, isn’t it?”: two people at the bus stop. The main purpose is to socialise, to create a common ground for conversation and not to make a statement about the weather.
Standard phrases should be translated with standard equivalents in the TL, they should not be translated literally.

40. La lingua è un modo di agire sociale
La lingua è un modo di agire sociale. Attraverso i nostri atti linguistici che si concatenano in un testo (scritto, verbale…) e si attualizzano pragmaticamente, siamo in grado non solo di veicolare dei messaggi, ma di influenzare i comportamenti degli altri con richieste, domande, proposte, avvertimenti. Non sempre i meccanismi dell’azione linguistica sono diretti ed espliciti.

41. Ex. “Chiuda quella finestra
Ex. “Chiuda quella finestra!” in una sala d’attesa ad uno sconosciuto: ordine efficace nel contenuto linguistico ma del tutto infelice dal punto di vista pragmatico, perché scortese.
“Le dispiacerebbe chiudere quella finestra?” “Potrebbe chiudere per cortesia”: un atto linguistico strutturato a livello del discorso come una frase interrogativa, in realtà non è una domanda, una richiesta di informazione, ma di un servizio.

42. People use language in order to achieve different aims
People use language in order to achieve different aims. Apart from conveying meaning, all utterances have some communicative force. Under the surface structure of what is being said there is the underlying force.
The overall meaning of an utterance largely depends on the addresser’s intentions, and on the underlying communicative force
The translator must understand the overall communicative force of the utterances of the ST in order to convey it appropriately in the TT.

43. A: Linguistic Functions
Austin, How to Do Things with Words (1962)
Functions
THE LOCUTION: the literal meaning of an utterance, the formal meaning of the words
THE ILLOCUTION: the communicative force (the act that is performed by it: warning, request, etc.)
THE PERLOCUTION: the effect on the hearer or reader

44. Atto locutorio: Un atto linguistico si definisce locutorio in quanto chi lo produce compie un’azione intenzionale fonica o grafica implicante l’uso di certe informazioni.
Atto illocutorio: ogni enunciato che ha come scopo di modificare la situazione degli interlocutori. (ogni atto linguistico che consiste in un’asserzione, una domanda, un ordine, una proposta…) Ex. “Io pometto…”, “Perchè…?” “Ti ordino…” “mi congratulo…”
Atto perlocutorio: si esaminano le conseguenze dell’atto linguistico sul destinatario (paura, desiderio, dolore, ansia…)

45. B : communicative functions
Elements of an act of verbal communication
Jakobson (1960): communicative scheme
Communicative functions
Although texts are generally multifunctional, one function generally predominates

46. Addresser Message Addressee
Contact
Context
Code
Expressive Poetic Conative
Phatic
Referential
Metalingual

47. Relationship between communicative functions and text types (1)
Literary texts
Emotive function
autobiographies
letters
Technical reports
referential function
textbooks
Scientific articles
advertising
Political propaganda
conative function
Charity appeals

48. Relationship between communicative functions and text types (2)
Poetry
songs
Poetic function
Nursery rhymes
Greetings
phatic function
condolences
Good wishes
metalingual function
grammar
dictionary

49. C: Rhetoric functions
Once the translator has determined what is the predominant language function of a ST, he has to establish what rhetorical strategies the author of the ST has used to achieve the desired effect
Ex. In a vocative text, persuation may be achieved by narrating, describing, arguing…
Once the predominant language function has been established, the translator’s next task will be to determine what rhetorical function the author has used to achieve the desired effect.

50. Linguistic Variations Communicative Functions
Language
Use
Structure
Context and culture
(situation)
(register)
Phonology
Graphology
Lexicon
Grammar
Style
Linguistic Variations
Communicative Functions