Group: 1902 Tasks for seminar 6

How extralinguistic factors play a role in translation process?

A translator draws on all kinds of knowledge while translating, and such knowledge falls broadly under two types: linguistic and extralinguistic . In addition, s/he must be equipped with translation methodology, i.e., knowledge and skills involving problem identification, problem-solving, decision-making, subject research skills, etc. A translator’s competence might also involve self-concept, aptitude and personality, attitudes and affective factors, translation effort, understanding of translation, etc. Moreover, since these components of translator competence appear to complement each other, a translator who is lacking in one component or another can resort to other component(s) to compensate for that lack. The overall competence level of a translator correlates with the overall quality of translation. However, it does not mean that each component contributes equally to improving the final output. There might be a hierarchy among them, meaning that some components might be more important than others in determining the quality. Given the fact that most translation work involves more or less specialized texts, it is likely that extralinguistic knowledge, rather than linguistic competence itself, plays a major role in the success of translation. For example, a scientist can translate a scholarly scientific article better than a professional translator who has little or no scientific knowledge.
Specifically, extralinguistic knowledge seems to precede linguistic knowledge in its contribution to translation: it makes it possible for a translator to infer meaning at cognitive levels, leading to in-depth comprehension and thus successful translation. Studies on extralinguistic knowledge are too limited to draw any conclusions, however. Further studies are in order, and the present study attempts to investigate the status and the role of extralinguistic knowledge in translation.


Task 2: What is pragmatic aspect of translation and how it is retained in translation? If possible, illustrate some examples.
Pragmatics of translation is a wide notion which covers not only pragmatic meaning of a word, but some problems connected with various levels of understanding by speech acts communicants of certain meanings or messages, depending on linguistic or paralinguistic factors, that is, background knowledge. A well-known linguist Konissarov points out that pragmatic aspect of translation should be considered from three points. One of them is conveying pragmatic meaning of words. This point chiefly pertains to the translation of national realia and equivalent lacking words that is, various names.
The term pragmatic meaning of a word is not yet fully investigated. But some linguists point out that the pragmatic component of the word meaning, which is realized in various kinds of emotive and stylistic connotations, is individually-occasional or collectively used meanings. They reflect the conditions of a language unit use, the conditions such as situation and place of communication, subject and purpose of communication; social, ethnic, and individual peculiarities of communicants, their attitude towards one another. Irrespective of the fact whether pragmatic aspects are singled out into a certain type of a word meaning or whether it is considered among other components of its meaning, pragmatic meaning, which is fixed in a word, plays an important role and its retention ensures complete communicative adequacy of translation to the original.
Pragmatics as a linguistic term means the analysis of language in terms of the situational context, within which utterances are made, including the knowledge and beliefs of the speaker and the relation between speaker and listener. Pragmatic information is actualized in translating the equivalent–lacking lexical units, first of all personal names, geographical names, national realia by way of transcription and transliteration. But in some cases, while translating the names of states, boroughs, counties and provinces explication of their implicit information is needed. For example: Georgia – штат Джорджія (США) (In case the context indicates that the author writes or speaks about the USA)
Alberta – провінція Альберта (Канада)
Surrey – графство Сурей (Англія).
Explication is also required in cases when one and the same name designates several notions: ALBANY – Олбані – поетична назва Шотландії
Олбані – чоловіча тюрма на острові Уайт (Англія)
Олбані – річка у центральній частині Канадu.
Олбані – порт і курортне місто у південно-західній частині Австралії.