1. Master of Translation
In and out of equivalence
Anthony Pym

2. Master of Translation
Your questions:

3. Master of Translation
Your questions:

4. Master of Translation Your questions on interdisciplinarity:
How can I get fit in this subject quickly if I don't have a translation background?
Does a good translator need to be an expert on both Chinese and English grammar?
Can anybody do a job as translator as long as they are good at English?
Any bilingual speakers could do the translation so why do we need to study translation as a program?
How can I learn the foundation of Chinese-English Translation from a professor without Chinese language background?
Should I know a bit about everything in order to be a good translator?
What else can I do except a translator after my graduation?

5. Master of Translation Your questions on equivalence:
Supposing we recently established contact with an alien civilisation who can only convey their speech voice instead of their text to us, how can we start to translate their language in the first step?
Do I need to translate every given word exactly? 
Is there a best method if the source language and the target language are not equivalent?
How to make a balance between achieving honesty and making the works vivid while translating (ex. subtitles)?
Are “faithfulness” “expressiveness” and “elegance” the general standards for translation?
How to translate the title of movies in the most proper way?

6. Master of Translation W.V.O. Quine, “Translation and Meaning” (1960)
Gavagai!
Gavagai = “rabbit”

7. Master of Translation
A Russian tradition

8. Master of Translation
A Russian tradition
Equivalence = “a permanent equivalent correspondence, which for a certain time and place does not depend on the context” (Retsker 1974/2007: 157)

9. Master of Translation A German tradition Kade (1968):
Total equivalence: One-to-one correspondence: Lion = Löewe = 狮子
Facultative equivalence: one-to-several: brother = 哥哥 / 弟弟 older/younger brother; river = fleuve/rivière,  河 / 江 / 川
Approximate equivalence: one-to-part, as in names for colours.
Null equivalence: one-to-none, as in cases where the foreign term is used.

10. Master of Translation
A Chinese tradition?
Loh (1958):

11. Master of Translation A Western tradition :
Vinay & Darbelnet (1958): équivalence:
Comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles
Like a bull in a china shop.
Give him an inch and he will take a mile.
得寸进尺 [get inch, take foot] (Loh 1958: 2.107)

12. Master of Translation A Western tradition : Catford (1965):
Equivalence is rank-bound, at the level of phonetics, lexis, phrase, sentence, semantic function, cultural function: “any TL form (text or portion of text) which is observed to be the equivalent of a given SL form (text or portion of text)” (1965: 27).
“equivalences shunt up and down the rank scale, but tend to be at the higher ranks” (1965: 25).

13. Master of Translation A Western tradition : Nida (1964):
Dynamic equivalence vs. formal correspondence (or formal equivalence):
Agnes Dei = lamb of God = seal of God
Bethlehem = House of Bread = Bethlehem

14. Master of Translation A Western tradition : Formal vs. Dynamic (Nida)
Semantic vs. Communicative (Newmark)
Anti-illusory vs. Illusory (Levy)
Overt vs. Covert (House)
Adequate vs. Appropriate (Toury)
Documentary vs. Instrumental (Nord)
Resistant vs. Transparent (Venuti)
Ut interpres vs. Ut orator (Cicero)

15. Master of Translation A Western tradition :
In 1974/75, the wider Western use of “equivalence” started to be adopted in Russian theories.
In 1995, Gideon Toury saw all translations as producing equivalence, since they were translations.

16. Master of Translation So what’s wrong with equivalence?
The term gained many different meanings.
If equivalence is everywhere (as in the Western tradition), it is not saying anything useful.
The problem is what one has to be equivalent to?

17. Master of Translation So what’s wrong with equivalence?
Quine: We will never know if “gavagai” = “rabbit”.
Equivalence theory forgets that we have to interpret texts.
It forgets that there is always a choice between two or more alternatives:
Please translate: “·The first word of this very sentence has three letters.”

18. Master of Translation
The basic equivalence formula:

19. Master of Translation
The basic equivalence formula, plus purpose:

20. Master of Translation
The basic equivalence formula, plus different purposes:

21. Master of Translation Resolving the problem of equivalence:
Equivalence means “same function” (Funktionskonstanz).
But most TTs have a new function or purpose, for a new client and for a new receiver (on the target side).
Equivalence is thus a special case.  

22. Master of Translation A paradigm shift:
Reiss, Katharina, & Hans J. Vermeer (1984). Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Holz-Mänttäri, Justa (1984) Translatorisches Handeln. Theorie und Methode. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica.
.  

23. Master of Translation The main concepts of Skopos theory:
The dominant factor in a translation is its purpose [Skopos] (Reiss & Vermeer 1984).
The source text is dethroned.
The same text can be translated in different ways for different purposes.
All strategies are legitimate if they achieve the purpose.
The translator is an expert who decides on the basis of the instructions (commission, Auftrag).

24. Master of Translation
Translatorial action:

25. Master of Translation In summary:
Equivalence started as an obligatory choice.
It became “equivalent function”.
Then it was applied to all levels, such that all translations are always equivalent, or shared the illusion of equivalence.
It went out of fashion because: 1) it was a mess, 2) it did not address hermeneutics, and 3) it did not contemplate different purposes.

26. Master of Translation Your task: Please translate:
Kiss me, kiss me a lot As if this night were the last time I am so afraid of losing you afterwards.
Please translate:
Kiss me my love, over and over
As if this night were our last chance of all
I’m so afraid that from here we can only fall

27. Master of Translation Your task: . Please translate:
For each phrase in your translation, state which rank it is equivalent to (e.g. to ST word, phrase, semantic value, phonetics, rhythm, rhyme or cultural function).