OUTLINE

Introduction......................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Summary in French:.............................................................................................................................................................3
1. Translation categories..................................................................................................................................................3
2. Language Studies..........................................................................................................................................................4
3. Language Studies and Translation Studies..................................................................................................................4
4. Classification of Theories of Translating:.................................................................................................................5
4.1. Philological Theories of translating:......................................................................................................................5
4.2 Linguistic Theories of Translating:.................................................................................................................................6
4.3. Sociolinguistic Theories of Translating:...................................................................................................................6
5. Models of Translating:.................................................................................................................................................6
5.1 The Grammatical Model of Translating:........................................................................................................................6
5.2 The Cultural Model:.......................................................................................................................................................7
5.2.1 The Ethnographical Semantic Method:......................................................................................................................7
5.2.2 The Dynamic Equivalence Method:............................................................................................................................7
5.3 The Interpretive Model:.................................................................................................................................................7
5.3.1 The Text Analysis Method:.........................................................................................................................................8
5.3.2The Hermeneutic Method:..........................................................................................................................................8
6. Assessment of the Models:..........................................................................................................................................9
7. Summary in English......................................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................................................... 10
References......................................................................................................................................................................... 10

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 Introduction

Translation is the communication of meaning from one language (the source language SL) to
another language (target language TL). It requires prior acknowledge which govern it. So, in that
exercise, translators were confronted to many practical and theoretical difficulties, leading some
theorists to provide insights towards these problems. In our work, we are going to deal with
Languages and translation studies, Theories of translating, Classification of theories, Models of
translating and Assessment of models, all this, in order to master the activity of translation and
produce high quality translation.

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 Summary in French:
Nous avons quatre catégories de traduction. Il faut retenir que translating, c'est à dire le fait de
traduire diffère de translation (le document traduit) lorsque l'on parle des théories de
traduction. La traduction est référée différemment en fonction des théoriciens, de leurs
idéologies. L'étude de langue permet aux apprenants d'acquérir des compétences, des
connaissances générales sur les langues concernées. L'étude de la traduction traite de la théorie
systémique de ce domaine, de la description et de l'application de la traduction, l'interprétation
et de la localisation. Ces deux éléments sont intimement liés l'un à l'autre. En conséquence, on
se rend compte que la majorité des traductologues sont des linguistes. Les théories de traduction
sont propres à des idéologies données. Nida nous présente trois théories de traduction à savoir :
philological, linguistic et sociolinguistic translating. Chacune de ces théories est incontournable
dans son domaine et l'une ne peut remplacer l'autre. Il ressort également de ce document que
nous avons trois modèles de traduction : le modèle grammatical, le modèle culturel et le modèle
interprétative.

1. Translation categories

Translation is divided into four categories:

 SLT decoding and TLT encoding (theory), i.e. Translating

 Translated documents, i.e. Translation

 Grammar Translation Approach: word-for word translation

 Academic, interdisciplinary field, i.e. translation assessment

This last is named according to each author's ideology: - Lefevere 1978; de Beaugrande 1978;
Bassnett-McGuire 1980 call it Translation Studies - Nida and Taber 1969, call it the The
Science of translation -Wilss 1982, calls it Translation Science -Hartman 1981, calls it
Translation Studies

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 2. Language Studies

It is an interdisciplinary major offered by the Linguistics department. It is designed to equip

students with competence in one foreign language and at the same time, provide an
understanding of the general nature of human language, its structure and use. In Forties,
Translation craft has been increasingly influenced by new emergence disciplines such as
sociology, ethnography, psychology and communication theory. In the Sixties, translating
gathered momentum, gaining invaluable insights from Text Linguistics.

3. Language Studies and Translation Studies

Translation studies is an academic interdisciplinary dealing with the systematic study of the
theory, description and application of translation, interpreting and localisation.

There is a close interrelation between language studies and translation studies. By L. G. Kelly
(1979 :34); “to each stream of language theory, there corresponds a theory of translation”.

The mutual influence between language and translation has been highlighted by linguists and
translation theorists. J. Catford, for example, in the preface to his A Linguistic Theory of
Translation articulates the proposition that: “since translation has to do with language, the
analysis and description of translation processes must make considerable use of categories set
up for the description of language. It must, in other words, draw upon a theory of language- a
general linguistic theory. (1965: vii)”.
Another relation between language studies and translation studies is that translation theorists
are generally linguists. It's the case of linguists like Catford, Nida, de Beaugrande and Hartman
who have applied current linguistic theories to the translation activity, giving birth to New
translation theories based on linguistic theories. According to Catford, there is four types of
translation: phonological, graphological, grammatical and lexical. Catford defines Translating
as the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in
another language (TL). He distinguishes between different types of translation equivalence, that
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is, textual equivalence and formal correspondence. Catford is concerned with translation
equivalence as an empirical phenomenon, that is, formal correspondence.

The theory of translating according to Nida, consists of the three procedures of analysis: deep
structure, transfer and restructuring. He adds one more stage to this theory: testing. Analysis
consists essentially in back-transformation to a near-kernel level. In this stage, the SLT must be
read and studied carefully, and meaning must be extracted. Nida devises several stages of
analysis, though in practice they overlap. They are: (1) lexicogrammatical features of the
immediate units, (2) discourse contexts, (3) communicative context, (4) cultural context of the
SL, and (5) the cultural context of the receptor language.

Restructuring the message involves adjustments at different levels: grammatical and semantic.
In this stage, the translator should pay attention to the divergences of the two languages in
terms of voice, word classes, connectors, etc. Others adjustment are required in terms of
language varieties or styles. Metaphorical expressions and idioms must also be modified to fit
in the TL culture

Testing accuracy of rendering, readability, stylistic equivalence, etc. But in Nida's view, it is
dynamic equivalence rather than verbal correspondence which should be the focus of attention.
The length of the translation compared to the original is also important.

4. Classification of Theories of Translating:

Nida (1976) classifies theories of translating into three main categories: Philological, Linguistic
and Sociolinguistic.
4.1. Philological Theories of translating:

Philological theories of translating (also called 'pre-linguistic)

were formulated at a time when philology was the discipline that shouldered the responsibility
of studying language. Philological theories of translation focus primarily on literary texts taking
no interest in other fields such as science and technology, commerce, and law. Philological
theories of translating deal with the problem of the equivalence of literary texts by comparing
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and contrasting the SL and the TL. They also focus on the literary quality, i.e. the form of the
text and its stylistic features and rhetorical devices.

4.2 Linguistic Theories of Translating:

According to Nida: Linguistic theories of translation are based on a comparison of linguistic

structures of source and receptor texts rather than on a comparison of literary genres and
stylistic features. (1976: 69). One major difference between linguistic theories of translating
and philological theories of translating is that linguistic theories are descriptive rather than
prescriptive.

4.3. Sociolinguistic Theories of Translating:

Some factors such as age, sex, educational levels, occupation, social class and religious
affiliation which affect linguistic variation, need to be accounted for in translating. Inspired by
Martin Joos’s distinction of different styles, Nida and Taber produce a similar list which
comprises the following: technical, formal, informal, casual and intimate.

Formal style, for example, is designed for a relatively wider audience than that of technical
style. Technical style, on the other hand, is used among specialists; hence it is intended for a
restricted audience, because it utilizes complicated vocabulary and complex grammatical
constructions. Therefore, when translating, one should be aware of the fact that there are several
styles at work which must be rendered into the TL.

5. Models of Translating:

5.1 The Grammatical Model of Translating:

It is the replacement of source language grammar and lexis by equivalent target grammar and
lexis according to Catford (1965:22). According to Chau, grammatical model of translation is
divided in two methods as follow: the traditional Grammar Method and the Formal Linguistic
Method. According to him, The Traditional Grammar Method is basically an adaptation of a
method of foreign language teaching which is a direct application of “Traditional Grammar”.
The Formal Linguistic Method of translating has evolved with the development in structural
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linguistics in the Sixties. That is why the theory it underlies, is considered scientific as opposed
to the pre-scientific Traditional Grammar Method.
5.2 The Cultural Model:

This approach to translating and translation teaching is based on the theory of language which
defines meaning in terms of its cultural fields and contexts. According to this view, language is
culture; translating is describing and explaining the world view of one people to another. Such a
hypothesis postulates that every language not only provides a means of communication for its
speakers but also imposes on them a different vision of the world, a different way of analysing
experience.

5.2.1 The Ethnographical Semantic Method:

Also called “ethnoscience” or “the new ethnography” is a methodology for formally
uncovering how certain parts of culture are talked about and presumably thought about by
native participants. The conclusion which can be reached from this definition is that cultural
gaps among languages are inevitable and are not always bridgeable. Ethnographical
Semanticists devised various techniques such as componential analysis of meaning.

5.2.2 The Dynamic Equivalence Method:

According to Eugene Nida, dynamic equivalence, the term as he originally coined, is the
“quality of a translation in which the message of the original text has been so transported into
the receptor language that the response of the receptor is essentially like that of the original
receptors”. It can also be considered a modern and a refined version of the old notion of “free”
or. “idiomatic” translation, as opposed to word-for-word translating.

5.3 The Interpretive Model:

Bassnett-McGuire (1980: 79) sums up the characteristic features of this new trend in linguistics:

1- The text is regarded as the relevant unit for examination

2- Meaning is studied in relation to co-text and context;

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3- Efforts are made to discover recurrent patterns of structure common among texts of the same
type;
4- The place of the reader, as a producer rather than the consumer of the text, is re-evaluated.

5.3.1 The Text Analysis Method:

This method is based on Text Linguistic Theories, and also makes use of insights derived from
other adjacent disciplines such as pragmatics, semiotics, sociolinguistics, literary criticism,
stylistics, rhetoric, and communication theory. The Text Analysis Method emphasizes the study
of meaning in relation to co-text and context.

The most important feature of this method, which distinguishes it from all the previous
methods, is that it regards the text rather than the words or individual sentences as the unit of
examination.

5.3.2The Hermeneutic Method:

Unlike all the translation methods discussed so far, the Hermeneutic Method is not based on
current trends in linguistics or other related disciplines. There are many insights that a
translator can gain from Hermeneutics. Chau (1984b :74-6) lists the following: there is no truly
'objective' understanding; prejudices' are unavoidable and can be positive; there is no final or
definitive reading; the interpreter cannot but change the meaning of the SL; no translation can
represent its source text fully; understanding is not always explicable.

Though the Hermeneutic Method is difficult to adopt in the teaching of translating, especially in
the teaching of beginners, the fact that it supersedes all the previous methods in accounting for
context cannot be denied. It pays attention not only to the cultural and the pragmatic context,
but also to the reader's 'emotional' context, i.e. his interaction with and reaction to the SLT. It is
this reaction of the reader at the time and place of the reading that determines the reconstruction
of the meaning of the text. This is a subjective process where no final reading is definitive, and
no fixed context can be identified. The result of this subjectivity is a kind of free translating

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which, according to de Beaugrande and Dressler (1981: 216), “may cause the SL text to
disintegrate and disappear altogether”.

6. Assessment of the Models:

From the above discussion of the three models of translating one can conclude that none of
these models is adequate to be adopted on its own as a model of translating and translation
teaching. The Grammatical Model is inadequate due to its emphasis on form while meaning is
totally forgotten. As a consequence of this, isolated sentences or rather individual words are
translated out of context. The cultural Model improves on the Grammatical Model by paying
attention to meaning and by accounting for context. The Interpretive Model surpasses both
previous models in accounting for context.

7. Summary in English
Talking about translation study, we can say translation is divided in four categories and one has
to notice that there is a difference between translating and translation because the two words do
not deal with the same notion. Translation has different designation; this is due to each author’s
ideology belonging. Language studies help learners to acquire competences, general knowledge
in a given language. Translation studies deal with the theory of systemic study, description and
application of translation, interpreting and localisation. The relation between these studies
(language study and translation study) is that translation deals with language where a translation
theory is; and intervenes a stream of language theory. There is also a relation of mutual
influence and translation theorists are generally linguists. Anton Popovic (1987) defines
translation theories as “a science which studies the systemic examination of translation and its
task to structure the translation process and the text. Peter Newmark (1981) defines it as “a
body of information related to translation process “. Translation theories are proper to each
author’s ideology. According to Nida (1976), there are three theories of translation which are:
Philological translating, linguistic translating and sociolinguistic translating. Each of them is
specified in a given field. Talking about Models of Translation, we can retain there are three
models of translating which are: Grammatical Model of Translating, Cultural Model and
Interpretive Model. These models are then subdivided into subcategories. The models of
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translating cited above, are inadequate to be adopted as models of translating and translation
teaching. All of them have their weaknesses, and this is the Assessment of the Models deals
with.

Conclusion:
At the end of our work, we remark that those theories are essential to achieve a good
translation. However, we don't have to focus on them, because translation as an interlanguage
means of communicating have a lot of difficulties. So, the translator is called to be in
permanent research of perfect, by reading and practicing a lot of translation exercise.

References

Muhammad S. (1991:1-37), Theories of Translation and their application to the teaching of

English/ Arabic-Arabic/ English Translating
https://admissions.sa.ucsc.edu/majors/languagestudies?
fbclid=IwAR1QFHMhzM7gmggqKWJQRBFc5KaBhmlHOA1Jwpih2OJdqtdUSESElmZIVPg(
language studies)
https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiIhtfui57tAhUIfMAKHVjCAwQQ
FjACegQIBRAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdergipark.org.tr%2Ftr%2Fdownload%2Farticle-file
%2F317280&usg=AOvVaw1aGOVEhJvnsHyzvP_MP3dX (translation theory)

https://www.translationdirectory.com/article61.htm?
fbclid=IwAR1D8tXbyZqO_vyfigxASn9zLsVN8Dxdex8F7ADU6WsaLOICevb9WOO787s
(Interpretive model)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_studies?
fbclid=IwAR1D8tXbyZqO_vyfigxASn9zLsVN8Dxdex8F7ADU6WsaLOICevb9WOO787s
(translation studies)

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