TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES

Translation is a process of interpretation of source language (SL) into target language (TL). It means that translation takes place when you transfer the meaning of a written text from one language to another. However, there are a number of techniques that can be used for translation purpose. They have been divided into two broader groups for convenience to understand.

DIRECT TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES

1- BORROWING

A borrowed word or loanword is a word taken from one language (often called the source language or donor language) and incorporated into another language (often known as the recipient language or borrowing language) without any translation. The English language has adopted a vast number of words from other languages, including these examples: piano (Italian), yogurt (Turkish), sofa (Arabic) and zebra (Bantu).

Similarly, Urdu has borrowed countless words from the English language as we have been doing this very ‘generously’ since independence. Rarely would one find such a ‘generous’ borrower. For instance, موٹر سائیکل (motorcycle), کالج (college) and ٹکٹ (ticket) etc.

2- CALQUE (Loan Translation)

Sometimes a word is translated literally into another language instead of being borrowed. A word or phrase or idiom translated literally into another language is known as loan translation. Loan translation is also known as calque. Loan translations are the words or phrases borrowed from another language but are in fact word-for-word translation. For example, English-Urdu calque will be, prime minister (وزیر اعظم) or white elephant (سفید ہاتھی).

There are some interesting English loan translations, too, commonly used in Urdu. Let us have a look at some of them: on the same page: ‘aik safhe par’, sacred cow: ‘muqaddas gai’, poverty line: ‘ghurbat ki lakeer’ and bookworm: ‘kitaabi keera’.

Similarly, the American concept of ‘boyfriend’ was borrowed into Japanese as (boyifurendo), but as a calque into Chinese as (nan pengyu) which means ‘male friend’. The term loanword itself is believed to have come from the German (Lehnwort) where ‘lehn’ stands for loan and ‘wort’ stands for word.

3- LITERAL TRANSLATION (Meta-phrase)

Literal translation is also known as word-for-word translation technique that is probably full of errors, since the translator makes no effort to convey the correct shades of meaning. For example, the following sentence;

This task is a piece of cake.

will be translated literally into Urdu as,

Ye kaam cake ka aek tukra hai.

which in fact conveys the meaning of,

This task is very easy to do.

Another interesting example of literal translation of a very commonly used sentence ‘She is my sweet heart’ may be;

“wo mera meetha dil hai”.

INDIRECT TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES

1- ADAPTATION

According to Newmark (1995), adaptation focuses on translating the author’s intention. It means that the sentences of SL will be translated into TL keeping in view the cultural aspects of both the languages. For example, an Indian may say to his British colleague;

Your mother is a cow.

But this statement can annoy the English fellow because the word ‘Cow’ is usually used for a bulky woman in their culture. So, adaptation in translation demands entire focus on the cultural codes of the source and target languages.

Christians celebrate their religious festival ‘Christmas’ every year.

However, the concept of religious festival in the Muslim culture will be well understood via, adaptation, the following sentence;

The Muslims celebrate their religious festival ‘EID’ every year.

2- TRANSPOSITION

Transposition involves moving from one grammatical category to another without altering the meaning of the text. In other words, this translation technique introduces a change in grammatical structure but the meaning remains the same. For example;

Verb - Noun:                    I intended to give you a present.

                                    My intention was to give you a present.

Adverb-adjective:            He lives dangerously.

                                    He lives a dangerous life.