Introduction to translation theory: objects and objectives. Main types of translation

Source of information Receptor (Addressee)


TEXT

A speaker or writer (an author) makes a meaningful utterance called the text and addresses it to the listener, reader, or receptor, who understands the purport of the text and reacts to it.

We communicate to transfer information from one person to another. Translation helps people communicate if they speak different languages.
Thus, translation is a two-facet phenomenon: on the one hand, it is the process of transferring information; on the other hand, it is the result of this process. By the result is meant a new text created in translating.
The communicative situation consists of several elements:
T


Source of information Receptor (Addressee)


TRANSLATOR


SOURCE TEXT TARGET TEXT


he translation situation doubles the elements of communication. The receptor of the original text in turn becomes a translator who makes a translated text, or target text intended for the receptor speaking another language:

T he source text is the text to be translated. The target text is the end-product, the translated text.

For the translation to be adequate and effective, the target text should be equivalent to the source text. Indeed, when reading tragedies by Shakespeare in Russian, the receptor is but seldom aware that the words s/he sees in the text were not written by Shakespeare but by some other person, a translator. The form of the target text is new but the purport and the content are very close to the original. Paradoxically, the better a translator's work, the less his/her work is observed. The translated text is attributed to the author speaking another language and this text is used everywhere as if it were the original. Исходный текст - это текст, подлежащий переводу. Целевой текст - это конечный продукт, переведенный текст.
Thus translation unifies two different language speech acts in one communicative situation. It can be defined as a special type of communication intended to convey information between the participants speaking two different languages. As E. Nida and C. Taber put it, “translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language meaning and secondly in terms of style.”