Translation strategies

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Translation strategies

• Inglese per il giornalismo e leditoria
• a.a. 2009/10
• Lesson 2

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Translatability

• The translatability of a text depends on many
  aspects.
• 1. 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.

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• 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.

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Poetry

• 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.

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Technical translations
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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

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1. Equation

• 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)

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• Some lexical items have a particularly high
  frequency in Italian (much higher than their
  English equivalents)
• ex. Realtà) reality the English lexical item has
  too high a level of abstraction
• Larte 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 dont 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

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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
• Ill try to get her to come
•  
• The straw that broke the camels back
• La goccia che fa traboccare il vaso

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3. Divergence

• The strategy of choosing one possible solution
  from a potential range of alternatives

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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
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• 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
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4. Convergence
Commercialista
Accountant
Ragioniere
Contabile
Tu
Lei
You
Voi
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5. Amplification

• Swansea is the birthplace of Dylan Thomas

• Swasea è il luogo natale del famoso scrittore e
  poeta Dylan Thomas

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6. Reduction

• Carta geografica

Map
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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
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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
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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
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HIGH PRESSURE

• Pressione alta high blood pressure

• Alta pressione in the meteorological sense

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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.
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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.