1.
Translation Process
Ronald H. Bathgate
1. Tuning. By this we mean getting the feel of the text to be translated.
Depending on their field of work, translators need to be able to
produce the language of a poet or novelist, lawyer or economist,
research physicist or factory manager, advertising copywriter or
biblical prophet. Each ‘register’, as it is often called, demands a
different mental approach, a different choice of words or turn of
phrase. If the text is difficult or of the type which is not so familiar to
the translator, he may want to read some background literature or
consult the author (if available) or some other adviser.
2. Analysis. Once the translator has attuned his mind to the framework of
the text to be translated, he will take each sentence in turn and split it
up into translatable units — words or phrases. He will also establish the
syntactic relations between the various elements of the sentence. At
some points in this phase (or the understanding of terminology phase),
it may be necessary to establish relations between elements in larger
portions of the text, in the interest of consistency.
3. Understanding. After having split up the sentence to be translated into
its elements, the translator will generally put it together again in a
form which he can understand or respond to emotionally. The extent to
which he can do this will depend on his basic knowledge of the subject
matter. There has been a great deal of discussion about the extent to
which a translator should be able to understand the texts he translates
— about how much attention he should pay to the ‘content’ as opposed
to ‘form’; it seems obvious that due attention to both form and content
is essential.
4. Terminology. The next step is to consider the key words and phrases in
the sentence to make sure that apart from understanding them and
feeling what they imply, one has a translation for them which is in line
with standardized usage and is neither misleading, ridiculous nor
offensive for the target-language reader. Both in this phase and in the
preceding (Understanding) phase, discussion with the author or some
other adviser is often advisable as the best way to help the translator
solve some of his problems.
5. Restructuring. When all the bricks needed for the edifice of the
target-language text have been gathered or made, the translator will
fit them together in a form which is in accordance with good usage in
the target language. This is the phase where ‘form’, as opposed to
‘content’, comes into its own.
6. Checking. The translator will doubtless check his draft translation for
typing errors and passages where a second perusal suggests a more
elegant or more correct translation. In addition, it is quite common for
someone other than the translator to read through the finished
translation and make or suggest changes. In the case of specialized
texts, this is often the source-language author or someone else with a
better command of the subject matter than the translator. In any case,
it is important that the translator should be consulted at this stage. It
still happens too often that the corrector, while improving the content
of the target-language text, introduces blemishes in the form which are
then published under the translator’s name.
7. Discussion. For this reason, a good way to end the translation process
is often with a discussion between the translator and the expert on the
subject matter. As Nida and Taber point out in their book The Theory
and Practice of Translation, it is generally inadvisable to make a
committee meeting — with more than two participants — out of this:
too many cooks spoil the broth. On the other hand, it is sometimes
necessary to point out to translators that they should not work in
isolation, and to help them in acquiring the social skills needed for such
discussions.
According to Larson (1984: 3) when translating a text, the translator’s goal is
an idiomatic translation which makes every effort to communicate their meaning of
the SL text into the natural forms of the receptor language. Furthermore, he states
that translation is concerned with a study of the lexicon, grammatical structure,
communication situation, and cultural context of the SL text, which is analyzed in
order to determine its meaning. The discovered meaning is then re-expressed or re-
constructed using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the
receptor language and its cultural context. The following diagram is presented by
Larson as the translation process.
Source Language Receptor Language
Text to be translated Translation
Discover the meaning Re-express the meaning
Meaning
Figure 2. Translation process by Larson (1984: 4)
Nida and Taber (1982: 33) distinguish translation process into three stages:
(1) analysis, in which the surface structure is analyzed in terms of (a) the
grammatical relationships and (b) the meaning of the words and combinations of
words, (2) transfer, in which the analyzed material is transferred in the mind of the
translator from language A to language B, and (3) restructuring, in which the
transferred material is restructured in order to make the final message fully
acceptable in the receptor language. The translation process can be illustrated in the
following diagram.
A (Source) B (Receptor)
(Analysis) (Restructuring)
X (Transfer) Y
Figure 3. Translation process by Nida and Taber (1982: 33)
