Section 1: Different Text Types

One example where a simple word equivalences is insufficient for effective translation is advertising. This is because advertising's intent is to convince, and the translation must be equally convincing to be successful.

Different kinds of texts—an advertisement, a novel, a research paper—suggest different priorities and strategies for their translation.

THREE TEXT TYPES

In the 1970's Katharina Reiss (1923-2018), a German linguist and translation scholar, developed a theory that defined translation practices according to the function of the original text. She was building on the work of Karl Bühler (1879-1963), who had defined three text types:

  • Informative

    scientific paper, encyclopedia entry

    language whose function is to deliver information

  • Expressive

    poem, play

    language whose function is to express a point of view

  • Appellative

    sermon, political speech

    language whose function is to convince the reader/listener

Reiss theorized that a translation will be judged by how successfully it accomplishes the predominant function of the original.

Take a stab at selecting the translation strategies for each text type. Select all the strategies that apply.

Focus on precisely capturing facts
Maintain clear terminology and precise meaning
Prioritize accuracy over style
Use creative wording to engage readers
Substitute cultural references freely
Yes! Reiss argued that the translation for informative texts will succeed if it accurately represents the facts that the original intends to communicate. It is less important whether the translation also captures style and form, though many informative texts assume a certain form (encyclopedias are not especially lyrical). A matter of fact style in a certain context is in fact often how we know we are reading an informative text.
Maintain literal word-for-word translation
Adapt to target audience culture
Preserve emotional impact and call to action
Focus on formal equivalence of words
Ensure equivalent persuasive effect
Exactly. Reiss argued that since an appellative texts exist primarily to convince an audience, the success of the translation can be measured by whether it is similarly convincing to its new audience. We sometimes translate appellative texts as historical documents (e.g. Machiaveli's The Prince), but then they cease to be appellative. In translating, say, an advertisement, the ability to convince is still central. In pursuing this end, appellative translations readily allow adaptations: changing names, forms, symbols, approaches to better appeal to a new audience.
Capture the author's unique voice and style
Prioritize technical accuracy over style
Recreate wordplay and literary devices creatively
Maintain emotional resonance and atmosphere
Match the exact word count of the original
Right. With expressive texts, the translation will often focus on the voice, style, mood, sound, and subjective expressiveness of the original text. Reiss argued that in order to achieve this, the translator must, as much as is possible, inhabit the mind of the original author. Translations of the expressive text type are the most subjective and varied.

Assessing the original work for its primary text type helps us better set our expectations for the possible intentions and strategies of the translation.

What text type is ?

A Bit of History

One of the earliest didcussions of translation theory comes from 42 BCE, when Cicero wrote about translating the speeches of two Greek orators from Greek to Latin.

"I translated the most famous orations of the two most eloquent Attic orators, Aeschines and Demosthenes[...]. And I did not translate them as an interpreter, but as an orator, keeping the same ideas and the forms, or as one might say, the "figures" of thought, but in language which conforms to our usage."

Converti enim ex Atticis duorum eloquentissimorum nobilissimas orationes[...], Aeschinis et Demosthenis; nec converti ut interpres, sed ut orator, sententiis isdem et earum formis tamquam figuris, verbis ad nostram consuetudinem aptis.

Note Cicero's use of "interpreter" as a kind of translator that he does not want to be. Today, interpreter and translator are two distinct professions requiring two different skillsets--the first usually charged with facilitating a live exchange, as in a court or a hospital, the second with creating an experience in a new language.

Based on how he describes his approach to translating the orations by Aeschines and Demosthenes, Cicero saw them as primarily what text type?

most texts are nuanced

What is the primary text type of a newspaper profile of a politician to be translated from Portugese to English?

What is the primary text type of a "Stay Healthy!" poster for a doctor's office to be translated from Bengali to German?

Expressive Translations grapple with the subjectivity of language

[An ancient pond!] is a well-known haiku by Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) and has been translated by dozens of poets and scholars. Each translation attempts to capture a particular expressive aspect of the poem.

Japanese Original:

古池や
蛙飛びこむ
水の音

Transliteration:

furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

The old pond;
A frog jumps in —
The sound of the water.

Tr. R.H. Blyth (1898-1964)

The old pond, yes, and
A frog-jumping-in-the-
Water's noise!

Tr. G.S. Fraser (1915-1980)

pond
      frog
            plop!

Tr. James Kirkup (1918-2009)

Breaking the silence
Of an ancient pond,
A frog jumped into water —
A deep resonance.

Tr. Nobuyuki Yuasa (b. 1932)

Old pond
leap—splash
a frog.

Tr. Lucien Stryk (1924-2013)

The old pond,
A frog jumps in:
Plop!

Tr. Alan Watts (1915-1973)

An old pond —
The sound
Of a diving frog.

Tr. Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982)

old pond
a frog jumps into
the sound of water

Tr. Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Because the effects of a poem are so compressed, emanating from the rhythm and sound as much as the connotations and evocations of individual words, translating a poem requires an equally wild sense of creativity in the new language. Each translation finds some new aspect of the poem in its original language.

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