Microsoft Word Revised Syllabus Ver doc

The Ancient Models
Translation began to gain momentum with the spread of Christianity. This text- based 
religion was in need of its book being translated into different languages. Here the translator 
had a dual role to play; primarily evangelistic in spreading the religion, and secondarily 
giving aesthetic flavour to the message. St. Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damascus to 
translate the New Testament of the Bible. St. Jerome declared that his translation was based 
on the Ciceronean model, though there remained the problem of· demarcation by a fine line 

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between the two models. The reason, probably, was the structural, relatedness between Greek 
the original language of the New Testament and Latin.
Subsequent efforts by various persons like Wycliffe, Purvey and Tyndale yielded 
good results. They all belonged to the Ciceronean class of translators. Notwithstanding this 
surge, one would also see the other model in action. It was the Lindisfrane Gospels which 
were translated around 700 A.D. It was a literal rendering of the Gospels with the Latin 
version in between the translated texts. During the region of King Alfred of England, in the 
Ninth century, he prompted scholars to translate materials from Latin to English language. 
Some of the translations were found to have mixture of both these two models.
Theories of the Middle Ages
King Alfred of England wanted to enrich English bringing good materials from other 
languages by way of translation. This included the Bible versions also. There appeared to 
have been a steady growth of literature and in the thinking process during this period. The 
Church and the clergy however sened apprehension that it would lead to problems concerning 
their authority and began to tighten their grip on the laity and the monarchs. They began to 
stem the tide of translation and arrest the thinking capacity of men. Thus the European 
continent slowly slipped into intellectual darkness. This age began to be labeled as the ‘dark 
age’. When other parts of Europe had been getting darker and darker, the sun of enquiry 
began to shine in Italy thereby brining the first waves of the Renaissance as early as the 13
th
century by Dante who lived upto 1312 and Giotto who lived till 1337. it took centuries for 
these rays of intelligence and enquiry to reach the rest of the continent, Literature, art, 
architecture and science began to blossom resulting in hectic activity in the field of 
translation also.
Thus Europe saw a spurt of activity in all fields including literature and translation or 
works form Greek and Latin. There was an urge to revitalize the languages as well as to learn 
classical languages such as Greek and Latin. People wanted to embellish their languages 
Creek and Latin materials through translation.
Robert Bacon suggested that it was more difficult to translate an ancient text of the 
classical language into a contemporary vernacular than a contemporary text of the classical 
language into the vernacular. Dante also felt the same way. He went further to include the 
moral and aesthetic criteria of works of art and scholarship in translation. Both Bacon and 
Dante felt that one had access to matters found in other languages through translation. Thus 
Europe was well set to create history in the field of translation theory.
The next major break-through occurred in the 14th century. During the turbulent years 
of Europe an Oxford trained theoretician John Wycliffe produced a complete translation of 
Bible into English. Despite strong opposition from the clergy his discipline John Purvey 
revised it, took 150 copies and circulated it.
The effort of subsequent Bible translators like Erasmus, William Tyndale, and Martin 
Luther led to thinking to similar lines and they aimed at three types. Primarily they wanted to 
clarify the errors found in the previous versions due to various factors; secondly they wanted 
to produce an understandable and good vernacular style, and thirdly they wanted to clarify 
the points of dogma and minimize the interpretation of the source text.

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While real progress was attained in evolving procedures to make effective and 
efficient translation, considerable work had been done in the development of vernaculars as 
effective vehicles of communication. The translators were confronted with many problems in 
translating texts from the classical languages into vernaculars.
The first ever recorded theory on Translation was formulated by Etienne Dolet. His 
formulation came in his short volume on translation in 1540 in which he set down the five 
broad principles given below.
1.
The translator must fully understand the sense and meaning of the original author, 
although he is at liberty to clarify obscurities.
2.
The translator should have a perfect knowledge of both SL and TL.
3.
The translator should avoid word-for-word renderings.
4.
The translator should use forms of speech in common use.
5.
The translator should choose and order words appropriately to produce the correct 
tone.
The five principles cover almost the entire gamut of translation. Dolet had a perfect 
understanding of the problems involved in translation and how these issues had to be tackled. 
He stood for the Ciceronean type of translation with emphasis on the part of the translator to 
understand the original text correctly. He had also seen the problems of loss and gain of 
information in the translated text, and had insisted on the translator having mastery over the 
target language also. He also laid emphasis on 'style', a matter advocated strongly by great 
scholars and translators of the present time like Nida.
Chapman (1559-1634) in his Seven Books (1958) strongly supported Dolet's view and 
he has said in his Epistle to Reader which formed part of his translation of the Iliad that a 
translator must:
1.
Avoid word for word renderings;
2.
Attempt to reach the 'spirit' of the original
3.
Avoid over loose translations, by basing the translation on a sound scholarly 
investigation of other versions and glosses.
During the 16th and 17th centuries French Scholars translated many works into their 
language in which some of them effected minor modifications from the SL Text. Some of 
them told they just looked to their ancient masters. According to them imitation was a means 
of instructions. John Dryden an English translator worked extensively on the types of 
translation found in those days.
During the later part of 18th century and 19th centuries great poets and translators like 
Shelly, Coleridge, Fredrich Schledge, Fitzgerald, the German Scholar August Wilhelm 
Schlegel and many others were involved in translation and they can be brought under the 
following categories, .. viz., Recreation (Shelly), Adaptation (Fitzgerald) and Ciceronean type 
(A.W.Schledge).

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During the end of 19th century the linguists (Structuralists of Prague School) entered 
the area and were involved in the description of languages as existed. These developments 
brought new hopes in the 20th century and consequently the following theories on translation 
such as, Philological Theory, Linguistic theory, Socio-linguistic theory· and Ethno-linguistic 
theory. The refinement of these theories resulted in an elaborate model (Three stage Model) 
which was worked out by Nida and Taber (1969) at great length. All these theories centered 
mostly around written messages, although they could be applied to the Verbal message. 
However Danica seleskovitch (1976) proposed a new model based on psycho-linguistic 
approach (Psycho-linguistic Theory or Interpretation Theory). It explained the details of 
translating or rather interpreting the spoken messages effectively.
During this period Europe was witnessing an unprecedented urge for the study of the 
old classics. People then felt urge to learn Greek and Latin. They also worked towards 
enriching their languages translating works from classical languages into theirs. Thus the 
Renaissance and Reformation played a vital role in the history of the development of 
Translation and its theories.