Translation method by mona baker
If language were simply a nomenclature for a set of universal concepts, it would be easy to translate from one language to another. One would simply replace the French name for a concept with the English name. If language were like this the task of learning a new language would also be much easier than it is. But anyone who has attempted either of these tasks has acquired, alas, a vast amount of direct proof that languages are not nomenclatures, that the concepts . . . of one language may differ radically from those of another. . . . Each language articulates or organizes the world differently. Languages do not simply name existing categories, they articulate their own.
(Culler, 1976: 21–2)
This chapter discusses translation problems arising from lack of equivalence at word level; what does a translator do when there is no word in the target language which expresses the same meaning as the source language word?
But before we look at specific types of non-equivalence and the various strategies which can be used for dealing with them, it is important to establish what a word is, whether or not it is the main unit of meaning in language, what kinds of meaning it can convey, and how languages differ in the way they choose to express certain meanings but not others.
2.1 THE WORD IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
2.1.1 What is a word?
As translators, we are primarily concerned with communicating the overall meaning of a stretch of language. To achieve this, we need to start by decoding the units and structures which carry that meaning. The smallest unit which
Equivalence at word level 11 we would expect to possess individual meaning is the word. Defined loosely, the word is ‘the smallest unit of language that can be used by itself’ (Bolinger and Sears, 1968: 43).1 For our present purposes, we can define the written word with more precision as any sequence of letters with an orthographic space on either side.
Many of us think of the word as the basic
(Culler, 1976: 21–2)
This chapter discusses translation problems arising from lack of equivalence at word level; what does a translator do when there is no word in the target language which expresses the same meaning as the source language word?
But before we look at specific types of non-equivalence and the various strategies which can be used for dealing with them, it is important to establish what a word is, whether or not it is the main unit of meaning in language, what kinds of meaning it can convey, and how languages differ in the way they choose to express certain meanings but not others.
2.1 THE WORD IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
2.1.1 What is a word?
As translators, we are primarily concerned with communicating the overall meaning of a stretch of language. To achieve this, we need to start by decoding the units and structures which carry that meaning. The smallest unit which
Equivalence at word level 11 we would expect to possess individual meaning is the word. Defined loosely, the word is ‘the smallest unit of language that can be used by itself’ (Bolinger and Sears, 1968: 43).1 For our present purposes, we can define the written word with more precision as any sequence of letters with an orthographic space on either side.
Many of us think of the word as the basic