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Student’s name: Moniz Rodrigues Cumbane. Year: III. Course: English course

Lecture: Dionísio Mavume

Subject: History of Translation

1. A brief summary of History of translation

1.1. Problems of translation: “Onegin” in English by Vladimir Nabokov

For a long period of time Vladimir Nabokov was engaged, on and off in translating Pushkin’s
Onegin and during his work he learned plenty of facts and came to certain conclusion. The novel
is concerned with the afflictions, affections and fortunes of three young men. The actions of the
novel took place between the end of 1819 and the spring of 1825. It is written about Onegin’s
fate, Onegin’s sickness called Oneginstvo. In that novel there are a lot of features, as edition,
chapters, body, rhyme and other. In conclusion, these notes focus on the linguistic of Pushkin’s
text.

II

In these notes, Nabokov wrote that Russian poetry is affected by six characters of language and
prosody. He mentioned that in conjunctions with characteristics of polysyllabic words, the half-
accent in the third four occur three or four times more frequently in Russian iambic tetrameters
than in English ones.

III

Regarding to these notes, the author said that the national poet of Russia was as much a product
of French literature as of Russian culture. In addition, he highlights that his list comprises about
ninety expressions that Pushkin as well as his predecessors and contemporaries transposed from
French into melodious Russian. Further, he said that the English translator should also make up
his mind how to render such significant nouns and their derivatives which constantly recur in
Pushkin’s idiom, and the English translator of Onegin, while seeking an idiom in the Gallic
diction of Pope and Byron, must constantly refer to the French poets.

IV

Nabokov stated that the person, who desires to turn a literary masterpiece into another language,
has only one duty to perform, and this is to reproduce with absolute exactitude the whole text.
Thus, the term “literal translation” for the author, is tautological since anything but that is not
truly a translation but an imitation, an adaptation or a parody.

The author postulated that Onegin has been mistranslated into many languages. However, Onegin
fared better in French. There are four English complete versions unfortunately available to
college students. And these all four versions are in meter and rhyme; all are the result of earnest
effort and of an incredible amount of mental labor; all contain here and there little gems of
ingenuity; and all are grotesque travesties of their model, rendered in dreadful verse, teeming
with mistranslations.

VI

Nabokov proposed to analyze one stanza in chapter four, which describes Onegin’s life to
illustrate some of the special fine point that Pushkin’s translators should be aware of. Apart from
that, the author said that Pushkin masks an autobiographical allusion under the disguise of a
literal translation. In addition, he argued that none of the translators of Pushkin, English, German
or French, have noticed what several Russian students of Pushkin discovered independently that
the two first lines of our stanza XXXIX are a paraphrase, and the next two a metaphase.

VII

The author concluded that: first, it is impossible to translate Onegin in rhyme. Second, it is
possible to describe in a series of footnotes the modulations and rhymes of the text as well as all
its associations and other special features. Finally, it is possible to translate Onegin with
reasonable accuracy by substituting for the fourteen rhymed tetrameter lines of each stanza
fourteen unrhymed lines of varying length, from iambic diameter to iambic pentameter.
 1.2. Meaning and Translation by Willard V.O.Quine

In his work, Willard Van Orman Quine argues that there can be no clear distinction between
“analytical” statements, which are true only due to meaning; and “synthetic” statements which
are true due to facts. He then defines analytical statements further by dividing them into logically
true ones which remain true under any circumstances and analytically true sentences which can
be transformed into logically true ones by means of synonymy.

He understands definitions just as constituted explanations or as synonyms, which is thus no

proper way to define synonymy. As a result, he finally came to conclude that there is no proper
definition of analytical sentences as a definition would always be circular as shown in the
example above.

Finally, he discusses in his paper the notion of meaning. Regarding to this, he claims that
meaning should not be confused with naming, as there can be one name with several different
meanings. So he rather compares meaning with connotation.

1.3. On linguistic aspects of translation by Roman Jakobson

Jakobson, in his essay, states that meaning of a word is a linguistic phenomenon. Using
semiotics, Jakobson believes that meaning lies with the signifier and not in the signified. Thus, it
is the linguistic verbal sign that gives an object its meaning. Interpretation of a verbal sign
according to Roman Jakobson can happen in three ways: intralingual, interlingual and
intersemiotic. In the case of intralingual translation, the changes take place within the same
language. Therefore, a verbal sign (word) belonging to a particular language is replaced by
another sign (word) belonging to the same language. Interlingual translation on the other hand
can be seen as replacing a verbal sign with another sign but belonging to a different language.
The last kind of explanation of verbal sign that he talks about is the intersemiotic translation.

In addition, the author argues that the translator, instead of paying attention to the verbal signs,
concentrates more on the information that is to be delivered. Roman Jakobson uses the term
‘mutual translatability’ and states that when any two languages are being compared, the foremost
thing that needs to be taken into consideration is whether they can be translated into one another
or not. Laying emphasis on the grammar of a particular language, he feels that it should
determine how one language is different from another.

Further, in his paper, Roman Jakobson also deals with the problem of ‘deficiency’ in a particular
language. Jakobson believes that all cognitive experiences can be expressed in language and
while translating whenever there is a “lack or deficiency of words”, loan words, neologisms and
circumlocutions can be used to fill in this lack.

Moreover, in order to support the fact that one of the factors that translation has to take care of is
the grammatical structure of the target language, Jakobson believes that it becomes tedious to try
to maintain fidelity to the source text when the target language has a rigid grammatical
framework, which is missing in the source language. Finally, Jakobson, in his essay brings the
relationship between gender and the grammar of a particular language.

1.4. Principles of Correspondence by Eugene Nida

Nida, in his work, begins by affirming that “no two languages are identical, either in the
meanings given to corresponding symbols or in the ways in which symbols are arranged in
phrases and sentences, it stands to reason that there can be no absolute correspondence between
languages. Hence, there can be no fully exact translations”.

Nida then sets forth the differences in translation: first, the nature of the message: in some
messages the content is of primary consideration, and in others the form must be given a higher
priority. Second, the purpose of the author and of the translator: translator’s purpose is similar to
that of the original author. Finally, the type of audience: the decoding ability of the audience
should be important.

In addition, Nida brings the two orientations in translating based on two different types of
equivalence: Formal Equivalence (F-E) and Dynamic Equivalence (D-E). In connection with F-E,
it focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content. Such translations then would
be concerned with such correspondences as poetry to poetry, sentence to sentence, and concept to
concept. The principles governing an F-E translation would then be: reproduction of grammatical
units; consistency in word usage; and meanings in terms of the source context.
On the other hand, D-E aims at complete “naturalness” of expression. A D-E translation is
directed primarily towards equivalence of response rather than equivalence of form. The
relationship between the target language receptor and message should be substantially the same
as that which existed between the original (source language) receptors and the message. The
principles governing a D-E translation then would be: conformance of a translation to the
receptor language and culture as a whole.

1.5. Translation Shifts by J. C. Catford

According to Catford, “shift “represents some changes occurring in a translation process.

Translation shifts occur both at the lower level of language, i.e. the lexicon-grammar, and at the
higher thematic level of text. Catford states that by shift we mean the departure from formal
correspondence in the process of going from the source language to the target language. Further,
he states that basically, in shift of translation, or transposition he says, it is only the form that is
changed. In addition, he argues the translation shift is done to get the natural equivalent of the
source text message into the target text.

Catford divides the shift in translation into two major types, level/rank shift and category shift.
Level/rank shift refers to a source language item at one linguistic level that has a target language
translation equivalent at a different level. In other words, it is simply a shift from grammar to
lexis. Category shift refers to departures from formal correspondence in translation. The category
shift is divided again into structure shifts, class shifts, unit shift, and intra-system shifts.

In views of the author, structure shift is the changing of words sequence in a sentence. Class shift
occurs when the translation equivalent of a source language item is a member of a different class
from the original item. Unit shift is the changes of rank; that is, departures from formal
correspondence in which the translation equivalent of a unit at one rank in the source language is
a unit at a different rank in the target language. Intra-system shift refers to the shifts that occurs
internally, within the system; that is for those cases where the source and the target language
possess systems which approximately correspond formally as to their constitution, but when
translation involves selection of a non-corresponding term in the target language system.

1.6. Translation as a Decision Process by Jirví Levý

Levý begins by stating that from the teleological point of view, translation is a PROCESS OF
COMUNICATION, and its objective is to impart the knowledge o the original to the foreign
reader. And from the pragmatic point of view, translating is a DECISION PROCESS.

Moreover, the writer states that the translator will decide between two possibilities: the good man
of Sichuan, and the good woman of Sichuan. Then he shows the components of the decision
problem: “Instruction I – situation: to define the class of possible alternatives; and Instruction II –
paradigm: directing the choice among the alternatives.

Further, Levý states that the translator, in his system of decisions, may take one step more or less
than the author of the original did. According to him, the translator’s decisions may be necessary
or unnecessary, motivated or unmotivated. Hence, according to Levý there are four possible
cases: first, a necessary and motivated surplus decision; second, a necessary and unmotivated
surplus decision; third, an unnecessary and motivated surplus decision; finally, an unnecessary
and unmotivated surplus decision.

Apart from that, the author states that the patterns of instructions and of the corresponding
paradigms are dependent on the texture of the MATERIAL in which they are effectuated; and the
type of semantic segmentation is dependent not only on the linguistic code, but on the
characteristic code of the particular type of literature as well.

Finally, Levý argues that the decision processes in translation have the structure of a semiotic
system, having its semantic aspect, and its syntax. As all semiotic processes, translation has its
PRAGMATIC DIMENSION as well.

1.7. The Name and Nature Of Translation Studies by James S. Holmes

Holmes in his paper starts by stating the following: a new field of study "Science tends to
proceed by means of discovery of new areas of ignorance." This new study is made up of: the
process; no new field of study; the development of a new disciplinary utopia; and promote
development by focusing on impediments.

Further, the writer talks about the “Promote development” which is the lack of appropriate
channels of communication; name the field of research; and lack of general consensus on the
scope and structure of the discipline. Moreover, Holmes talks about new channels. Regarding to
them he says that channels of communication are not independent; research papers are dispersed
over a wide variety of scholarly fields and journals; and information is not localized for
practicing translators to find and use.

Apart from the above points, Holmes discusses on the confusion created by referring to a
discipline by its subject matter. So he says that there is confusion in learned terms: Greek: suffix
"-ology" translatology; Late Latin: "translatio" / "transduction"; "translatistics" / "translitics" –
more understood, yet still not acceptable; theory of translation / translation theory; Science of
translation; and "studies" = TRANSLATION STUDIES [appropriate English term].

In connection with the translation studies, Holmes argues that they are empirical disciplines and
they have two major objectives: describe particular phenomena; and establish general principles
by which it can be explained and predicted.

Holmes in his paper also talks about the "Scope" of translation studies: Pure translation studies
and Descriptive translation studies [DTS]. In translation studies as field of pure research, they
author postulates that it has got two main objectives: describe phenomena of translating and
translation; and establish general principles but which it can be explained and predicted. Apart
from that, it has also two branches: descriptive translation studies; and theoretical translation
studies. Meanwhile in descriptive translation studies [DTS], he says that it is made up by three
major kind of research: Product-oriented DTS; Function-oriented DTS; and Process-oriented
DTS.

Product-oriented DTS is an area of research that describes existing translations starting point:
descriptions of individual translations, text-focused translation description, ccomparative
translation description, image comparative, and analyses of various languages. Function-oriented
DTS is the descriptive of the function of a translation within the recipient of socio-cultural
situation. And Process-oriented DTS Theoretical is concerned with the process/act of translation.

In theoretical translation studies or translation theory, Holmes states that are used the results of
DTS (information from related fields) to evolve principles, theories and models that serve to
explain and predict translating and translation. Then he argues that the ultimate goal of translation
theorists: is to develop a full inclusive theory that accommodates all phenomena that falls under
the terrain of TS; and exclude all phenomena outside the terrain.
In addition, the writer talks about General TS, and it is composed by Current theories and Partial
theories. And he also talks about the Partial translation theory which is: time restricted theories;
problem restricted; the nature of translation equivalence; translating metaphors; and translating
proper names etc.

Apart from pure translation, Holmes also talks about applied translation theory. According to
Holmes, applied translation studies are use of translation; teaching of translating; translation if
used in foreign language teaching; translation is used to test foreign language acquisition; and
translating is taught to train professional translators.

Finally, the author talks about the translation tools: “Translator training” - is composed of:
teaching methods; testing techniques; and curriculum planning. “Translator aids” - are: CAT
(computer assisted translation) tools; dictionaries; and grammars. “Translation policy”- the task
in translation policy is to render informed advice to others in defining the place and role of
translators, translating and translation in the society at large. “Translation criticism” - The level
of criticism is still too low; thus, low quality management of translations.

1.8. The Hermeneutic Motion by George Steiner

George Steiner in his paper begins by defining hermeneutic motion, saying “The hermeneutic
motion, the act of elicitation and appropriative transfer of meaning, is fourfold”. Steiner is
concerned with asserting the idea that in the hermeneutic motion there is something there and that
the transfer between languages will not be an empty and futile effort.

According to the writer, the act of translation is an act of trust. It is that the translator must
believe the world as symbolic in which one symbol can stand for another. Yet, Steiner presents a
gloomy reality in that the trust cannot be final in that sometimes there is simply just nothing there
to be found or to translate. The donation of trust necessitates a proof through realization and
labor. Steiner says, “As he sets out, the translator must gamble on the coherence, on the symbolic
plentitude of the world”. In many ways, the translator must find that anything for almost anything
can mean everything.

After trust, the second stage of the translator according to the writer is “aggression”; it is
incursive and extractive. Understanding is an act, and a violent one at that, which is a Hegelian
thought. Steiner believes that the act of understanding is that of “primary being”. Further, the
translator will experience sadness after both failure and success. There are certain texts or genres
that are exhausted by translation.

The third stage is incorporative. It deals with the importation of meaning and form, embodying
the original so that the translation is not “made in a vacuum”. All translations and meanings
maintain risks of being transformed. The dialectic can be seen in a sense of individual sensibility.

Finally, the author says that to consider a source text worthy of translation is a dynamic of
magnification. Yet, what does it mean to classify a text as worthy of translation and how does one
do so? It is that the source texts gains “light” from the orders of diverse relationship and distance
between it and the translation.