Strategies, techniques

and procedures in
translation

Based on:
Bogucki, Ł., Goźdź-Roszkowski, S., Stalmaszczyk, P. (red.). 2015. Ways to
Translation. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.
 Basic division of translation
strategies

Literal translation strategy involves translation of the target text by

following individual words of the source text as closely as possible

Free translation strategy involves capturing the sense of longer

stretches of the source text.
 Incongruity

A comparison between two languages normally reveals units that are

structurally incongruent with one another.

Example:
the verb “fetch” vs. two Polish verbs “iść + przynieść”
 Incongruity

Such incongruities demonstrate that translation cannot be reduced to

establishing a straightforward correspondence between individual

words.
 Translation shifts
Polish: “Prosimy nie wyrzucać pełnych kubków”
Literal translation: “We ask to not throw away full cups”
Free translation: “Please do not dispose of liquids”.

The SL often must be changed in the target language to properly render the meaning of the

source text. Those small changes in translation are referred to as translation shifts, i.e.

“departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the SL to the TL” (Catford

1965/2000: 141).
 Translation units

“the smallest segment of the utterance whose signs are linked in such a
way that they should not be translated individually” (Vinay & Darbelnet
1958 quoted in Hatim & Munday 2004: 18).
 Translation units

A lexicological translation unit: a group of lexemes that form a single

element of thought.

(cf. the verb “fetch” vs. two Polish verbs “iść + przynieść”)
 Translation units
According to Hatim and Munday (2004: 27), the unit of translation is

“a TL piece of language which plays the same role in the TL system as

an SL piece of language plays in the SL system”.
 The translation shift
The translation shift occurs when rendering a translation for a particular
segment of the text requires the translator to break the formal
correspondence between surface structures functioning in SL and TL.
Example 1: upstairs [which conflates both the direction (up) and the
medium (stairs) of movement]/
(She went) upstairs.
(Weszła) schodami na górę / po schodach na górę.

Example 2: autobusem / by bus

 Taxonomy of translation procedures
proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet
1. A direct translation (which resembles word by word quotation of the original
message in the target language).
1a borrowing
1b calque
1c literal translation
2. An oblique translation (in which the translator interprets, e.g. elaborates or
summarizes, the explicit contents of the original).
2a transposition
2b modulation
2c equivalence
 Taxonomy of translation procedures
proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet

Translation procedures can be employed at three levels of language:

(a) the lexicon

(b) the grammatical structures
(c) the message (which stands for higher elements of text, including, besides
sentences and paragraphs, certain situational utterances that convey broader
meanings).
 Borrowing
Borrowing involves using foreign phrasing in the target text to bridge
the gap in the TL.

Laptop (komputer przenośny?), tablet

gender ideology – ideologia gender (ideologia płci?)

Using borrowings creates specific stylistic effects, e.g. it introduces the

flavour of the foreign culture into a translation.
Human Resources instead of Dział Kadr
 Calque
Calque is a special kind of borrowing in which the TL borrows an expression form
the SL by translating literally each of the original elements.
The result creates either, a lexical calque, which preserves the syntactic structure
of the TL, but at the same time introduces a new mode of expression; or a
structural calque, which introduces a new construction into the language.
Examples of lexical calques in Polish: “lokowanie produktu” (product placement),
“przeglądarka internetowa” (Internet browser), “drapacz chmur” (skyscraper).
Examples of structural calques in Polish: “szybki kredyt” (fast loan), “zdrowa
żywność” (healthy food), “tania odzież” (second-hand clothes) - all these phrases
break the conventional way of distinguishing categories by postpositioning the
adjective, cf. “kredyt długoterminowy”, “żywność bezglutenowa”, “odzież
robocza”.
The examples “auto-myjnia” (carwash) or “biznes plan” (business plan) employ
nouns for the attributive function, which is not normally used in Polish.
 Literal translation
Literal translation (word for word translation) relies on the direct
transfer of a text from SL into a grammatical and meaningful text in TL.

Literal translation is applied most commonly when translating between

two languages of the same family,
or
in those functional contexts in which it is more important to preserve
the verbatim meaning of the original text than to achieve stylistic
elegance, e.g. in legal translation.
 Transposition
Transposition involves replacing one word class with another without
changing the meaning of the text. The original expression is referred to
as the base expression, and the result as the transposed expression.

English adjectives “elven” or “elvish” (from the word elf)

elvish sword, elven princess > miecz elfów, księżniczka elfów
(?elficki/elfowy miecz)
viking ships > “okręty wikingów” (?“wikińskie / wikingowe /
wikingowskie okręty”).
 Transposition
Transposition can be employed for a better economy of the target text:

The word ‘Hispanic’ can refer to] people whose origins range from Mexican
and Puerto Rican to Cuban and Argentinean.

. . . osób pochodzenia zarówno meksykańskiego i portorykańskiego, jak i

kubańskiego i argentyńskiego.
vs.
. . . osób pochodzących zarówno z Meksyku i Portoryko, jak i z Kuby i
Argentyny.
 Modulation
Modulation involves changing the form of the message through a change in
perspective.
An alteration of this kind may be required in contexts where a literal or
transposed translation still sounds unidiomatic or awkward in the TL, despite
being grammatically correct
.
“He is 40 years old” - “On ma 40 lat”
“Are you on the phone?” - “Czy masz/posiadasz telefon?”
“If it wasn’t for . . .” - “Jedynie dzięki . . .”
 Equivalence
Equivalence (aka reformulation) involves the use of completely
different stylistic and structural methods than those employed in th SL.
Examples:
translation of exclamations and expletives:
“Ouch!” - “Au!”, “Damn it!” - “Niech to szlag [trafi]!”.
translation of onomatopoeic sounds: “patataj” - “bumpety-bump”,
“hau hau” - “woof woof”.
 Equivalence
Features of equivalence

Equivalence as the translation procedure usually relates to the whole of

a message.
Equivalence tends to be fixed in most cases because it embraces
idioms, sayings, proverbs, clichés, etc.
 Equivalence
Equivalence in proverbs
“Rome wasn’t built in a day” - to “Nie od razu Kraków zbudowano”
“Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched” - “Nie dziel skóry
na niedźwiedziu”

Equivalence in idioms
“like two peas in a pod” - “jak dwie krople wody”
“apples and oranges” - “różne jak woda i ogień”
 Adaptation

Adaptation is used when the type of situation referred to by the SL message

does not function in the TL culture. In such cases the translator must
recreate a situation that can be regarded as more or less equivalent (this is
why adaptation can be considered as a specific kind of situational
equivalence).
 Adaptation
Situation: an Englishman who, without taking much notice, kisses his
daughter on the mouth as a greeting of a loving father after a long
journey.
The literal translation of “He kissed his daughter on the mouth” would
probably sound awkward to French (or Polish?) audience, since in that
culture it may have a different connotation. Consequently, a translation
into French requires a special kind of over-rendering
 Adaptation
The movie title “Broken Arrow” refers to US nuclear accident definition
codes, where the phrase signifies “an actual accident involving a
nuclear weapon, warhead, or component”.
Because of the above, the literal translation “Złamana strzała” wouldn’t
be appropriate.

But such emergency codes were not available for use in translations in
Poland at that time. The film was distributed under the title “Tajna
broń”.
 References

Bogucki, Ł., Goźdź-Roszkowski, S., Stalmaszczyk, P. (red.). 2015. Ways to

Translation. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.