University of Abou Bakr Belkaid

Department of English
N”77 .Mansourah , Algeria
13000
00213556338163

A survey on translation procedures and techniques

Doctor Belachoui sidi mohammed el habib
Department of English , Abou-Bekr Belkaid university ,Algeria

ABSTRACT:
Translation is the process of replacing an original test, known as the source text within substitute one known as
the target text .The process is usually an interlingual translation in that the message in the source language text is
rendered as a target text in a different language .Procedures are considered essential for translation and the
translators need to use some procedures for the realization of a translation that might be objectively correlative to
the original text both in form and content, some procedures are used by translators when they formulate an
equivalence for the purpose of transferring elements of meaning from the source texts to the target text.
This article reviews a taxonomy of translation procedures used for dealing with the translation shifts proposed
by two French scholars named Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet who explored the linguistic aspects of
translation and first proposed seven methods or procedures in 1973 , their work has opened the door for later
taxonomies of translation techniques,I decided to outline a widely-accepted list of these translation procedures
and techniques in the hope that the reader may become interested in knowing a little bit more about translation
procedures and their nuances.

Keywords:Translation, procedures ,technique, source language ,target language .

Introduction:
It is important that the reader realizes that he /she can call on a great many procedures or techniques to move
from one language to another and must at all costs avoid word-for-word translation ,. translation procedures are
used for sentences and smaller units of language within that text. the unit is defined as “the smallest segment of
the utterance whose signs are linked in such a way that they should not be translated individually” (Vinay &
Darbelnet 1958 ).

The small, yet meaningful, changes that occur in the process of translation are called translation shifts. Catford
(1965/2000: 141) defines them as “departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the SL
to the TL”. Although Catford was the first to use the term shift, a comprehensive taxonomy of shifts that occur in
translation was established by Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet (1958), who developed a taxonomy of
translation procedures.
when structural and conceptual elements of the source language can be transposed into the target language the
translator use direct procedures .
The following are the main direct procedures or techniques : Borrowing ,Calque ,Literal Translation.

Borrowing:
“This is the simplest, most straightforward technique in the translator's arsenal. It consists, in fact, in not
translating at all and in conserving unchanged a word or an expression from the source language in the target
language. It should not be a panacea and ought to be used pertinently and parsimoniously, to give the passage a
note of local colour or when no satisfactory equivalent exists” see ( François gallix & Michael walsh.1997).
Examples:
la Bibliothèque Nationale ... rue de Richelieu (the Bibliothèque Nationale ... the Rue de Richelieu), These are
obligatory borrowings, since all cultural institutions, including famous streets, must be maintained in their ori-
ginal form. English does, however; apply its own rules of orthography to the borrowing, hence the capital letter
of "Rue"
More examples:
-Software in the field of technology and funk in culture.
Abbatoire, café, passé and résumé from French

Calque:
Calque is a particular type of borrowing in which the translator borrows an expression from the source text by
translating literally every part of the original elements.
it can be in lexical or in structural the system of the target text . Sometimes calques work, sometimes they
don't.
examples:

Source language Target language

Quality assurance assurance qualité.
Breakfast. Breakfast
Designed to create désigner.
A former prisoner un ancien prisonnier.

Secret location location secret

marriage of convenience marriage de convenance

.
Literal Translation:
Unlike the borrowing, the word-for-word or literal translation translates the word or the expression
literally. This option occasionally creates the frequently false impression that one has avoided a lazy ,
A word-for-word translation can be used in some languages and not others dependent on the sentence
structure: In practice, literal translation occurs most commonly when translating between two languages
of the same family, such as French and Italian, and works most efficiently when they also share the same
culture. Despite seemingly limited scope of applications, this procedure is among preferred ways of
translating in those functional contexts where more emphasis is laid on preserving the verbatim meaning
of the original text than attaining stylistic elegance, which is often the case with legal translation.

Oblique translation procedures:

It was vinay and darbelnet (1958)who first put oblique translation technique on the map , which allow
translators to exert a strict control over the reliability of their efforts.

Oblique translation procedures are used when the structural or conceptual elements of the source language
cannot be directly translated without altering meaning or upsetting the grammatical and stylistics elements of the
target language, the translators use Oblique or indirect Translation Techniques which includes:

 Transposition
 Modulation
 Reformulation or Equivalence
 Adaptation
 Compensation

Transposition :

Here, the translator changes the grammatical category of the word. It may be compulsory or optional and
multiple combinations are possible. It is a shift in word class without changing meaning. (verb-adjectif-adverb-
preposition…).
Examples:

Source language Target language

Noun Verb
The hour of indulgence le moment de se faire plaisir

Noun Adverb
At some level of consciousness plus ou moins consciemment
Adjectif Noun
festival paper papier-cadeau, litt. : papier de fête
Adjectih Verb
Endless ne s'arrête jamais, n'en finit pas,
Verb Noun
Ta bleep le bip-bip

Adverb Noun
with a certain testy reluctance avec une certaine réticence et quelque irritation

Source language Target language.

proposition verb
Into a shallow rippled expanse pour former une étendue peu profonde et ridée.

driving through the city Traversant la ville en voiture

run up the stairs monter l'escalier en courant.

ski down the slope descendre la piste à ski.

verb preposition
heralding the approach qui annonçaient le passage
This is an optional transposition of the relative to the
participal but it does lighten the syntax. An
additional transposition, of the substantive passage to
the participle approaching might have been
envisaged were it not for the rather awkward effect
of two successive participle forms.
dans l'espoir hoping
 This is an almost obligatory transpsition of the
preposition and substantive to the participle form,
since a more literal rendering by the noun phrase in
the hope would convolute the syntax of the
sentence.

qui suivait travelling

 Here the transposition of the relative, while
optional, just as in our first example supra,
nonetheless allows the sentence to run more
smoothly.

son passage as he walks by

This is an obligatory transposition since English does
not possess a substantive for passage in this context
son genre de vie the kind of life he leads
 This is an optional transposition. It is advisable,
however, in order to avoid a term such as lifestyle
the register of which is too familiar.
Adaptation:
Here we reach the outer limit of translation. Adaptation needs to be used in situations where the metalinguistic
situation referred to in the original text does not exist in the target language. It is therefore necessary to adapt
the original reference to a phenomenon winch does exist in die target language, in order te preserve the
meaning of the allusion.
Examples:
à qui les entendrait le dernier (at who-heard-it-last),: this slight adaptation seems necessary in English to
underline the habitual character of their game.
le beau para d'Indochine (her wild colonial boy),: while the French is not, strictly speaking, a collocation, it has
the ring of one and we opted to translate it by reference to the popular ballad.
Modulation:
This procedure involves switching angle or point of view in order to translate a word or expression that
"moves" awkwardly from one language to another. It operates by metonymic transfer- the part for the whole,
the container for the content, etc…
Examples:
les occupations auxquelles il passe la plus grande partie de ses heures (the occupations that take up most of his
day),: There à a double modulation here, the dative relative pronoun becomes the nominative and the
metonymic "heures” is expanded to "days”.
le milieu avec lequel il est en contact (the circles in which he moves),: The quasi-collocational character of the
phrase makes it necessary to opt for the dynamic verb in English.
vu son attitude (in view of his behaviour),: Similarly, this compulsory modulation involves swapping a static
lexeme, "attitude", for the more dynamic "behaviour". The problem is that the English "attitude" concerns
either a general approach to a problem or, on a more physical technical register, the angle or posture adopted
by a person or an object.
There are two types of modulation :

Metonymical modulation:

The translator changes the part for the whole or the cause for the effect or the container for the content.

More Examples:

Source language target language

he swung the bill in my face Il m‟agita l‟addition sous le nez. the part for the
whole
He chin nuzzled into his breast le monton rentré dans le cou.

She cleared her throat elle s‟eclaircit la voix.

Life jacket gilet de sauvtage.

Sun-lamp lampe a bronzer.

Sac de couchage sleeping bed .

Paper weight presse -papier .

Windshield pare-brise.

I „ve got you under my skin. Je t‟ai dans la peau

he died one hundred years ago. Il est mort depuis cent ans

Grammatical modulation:
The translator changes affirmative to negative or injunction to interrogation or passive voice into active. Etc….

Examples:
Source language target language

not unlike his own un peu comme le sien. (The opposite in the negative form )
.
A gaudy tie Une cravate peu discrete

He has been a source of disturbance ever since Il n‟a cessé d‟etre une source de problems depuis

Quite maliciously. . Non sans malice.

The flight was not yet being called on n‟avait pas encore annoncé leur vol ( Active instead of
passive
He left a sudden lurch of money un brusque déclic se fit soudain dans sa mémoire.

The joke was on me je fis les frais de la plaisantrie(.the subject becomes the
object ).

Follow the fleet. en suivant la flotte.(injunctive from substituted for

affirmative form )

Say the word and you are dead sit u pronounces ce mot, t‟es mort .

Reformulation or Equivalence:

This technique is often used when translating names of institutions, interjections, idioms or proverbs, translators

used completely different expression to transfer the same meaning it is used for rendering more elaborate

structures between SL and TL. The process is creative, but not always easy. Would you have translated?

Example: Chat échaudé craint l’eau froide ⇒ once burned, twice shy.

Adaptation:

The most complex of Vinay and Darbelnet's translation procedures is the final one, adaptation which occurs
when something specific to one language culture is expressed in a totally different way that is familiar or

appropriate to another language culture. It is a shift in cultural environment. Should pincho (a Spanish restaurant

menu dish) be translated as kebab in English? It involves changing the cultural reference when a situation in the

source culture does not exist in the target culture (for example France has Belgian jokes and England has Irish

jokes). Example: baseball ⇒ football

Compensation:
There is another translation technique called compensation ,it’s used when the meaning is lost and the
word or the expression can not be translated from source to target language i.e it allows the translator to
change a stylistic difficulty into another section of the language .
Translators use compensation Translators know that compensation needs careful ,strategic application.
because the transfer of meanings from the source language to the target language continually involves
some degree of loss .this is the reason why the translator must decide if and when this technique is used.
There is an example mentioned by Peter Fawcett.It concerns the translation of formality which use forms
like (tu and used in Spanish and tu and vous in French ..ect) knowing that English has only (you ) to
expresses degrees of formality in different situations.

Conclusion:

Finally, translation shifts can be viewed either as unwelcome deviations from the source text in the course of the
translation act or as something indispensable and desired to overcome specific differences between the SL and
TL (Bakker, Koster & van Leuven-Zwart 1998). Although the taxonomy introduced by Vinay and Darbelnet has
been criticized for being nothing more than a comparison between English and French at the level of words,
phrases, and sentences taken out of the context, it can be regarded as the proposal that formed a springboard for
later taxonomies of translation techniques and strategies.

Vinay and Darbelnet‟s taxonomy of translation procedures encourages one to look beyond simple structural
alterations between SL and TL to see the role of the translator as a creative intermediary between the original
author and the target audience in the process of translation-mediated communication

Scholars exploring the translation shifts labeled and re-labeled them in the term translationese is a pejorative
term used to refer to the language of translation that derives from calquing ST lexical or syntactic patterning (see
Duff 1981). New mark (2003: 96) uses a similar term translatorese to refer to the automatic choice of the most
common dictionary translation of a word where a less common alternative would be more appropriate.
Translation Procedures various ways to achieve a more comprehensive and clear-cut categorizations (see Marco
2009 for a review of inconsistencies between the terms procedure, strategy, method, and technique within
translation studies). For example, Nida (1964) uses the term techniques of adjustment to discuss processes
targeted at producing semantically equivalent structures from a communicative perspective.
 This study showed that the end product of translation is the result of a series of phrases that the translator
undergoes consciously or unconsciously more or less intricated according to factors such as the characteristics
of the original text to be translated, the translator's intellectual and material resources, the source and target
language involved, the purpose of the translation and other basically external influences such as time and
physical or emotional conditions for the task.

REFERENCES :

1-Bakker, M., Koster, C. & van Leuven-Zwart, K. (1998). Shifts of Translation. In M. Baker (Ed.), Encyclopedia
of Translation Studies (226–231). London: Routledge.

2-Catford, J.C. (1965/2000). Translation Shifts [First published in 1965]. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The Translation
Studies Reader (pp. 141–147). London: Routledge.

3-Catford, J.C. (1965) A linguistic theory of translation: An essay in applied linguistics. Oxford University
Press.
4-Díaz Cintas, J., & Remael, A. (2007). Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Manchester.

5-François gallix –Michael walsh.1997,la traduction litteraire ,hachette livre studio Frank Dubiez ,paris.France.
6- Gambier, Y. (2010). Translation strategies and tactics. In Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer (Eds.), Handbook of
Translation Studies, Vol. 1. Amsterdam.

7-Louise M. Haywood from the University of Cambridge claims (cited in Bosco, 1997.).
8-Marco, J. (2009). The terminology of translation: Epistemological, conceptual and intercultural problems and
their social consequences. In Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer (Eds.), The Metalanguage of Translation
.Amsterdam.

9-Nida, E. (1964). Toward a Science of Translating. Leiden: Brill.

10-Vinay, J.-P., & Darbelnet, J. (1958/2000). A Methodology for Translation. [An excerpt from Comparative
Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for Translation, trans. and eds. J. C. Sager & M.-J. Hamel,
Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1995, first published in 1958 as Stylistique comparée du français et de l‟anglais.
Méthode de traduction] In L. Venuti (Ed.), The Translation Studies Reader . London: Routledge.