A Brief History of Translation Studies

Neslihan Kansu-YetkinerETI 301

Translation Theory Before the Twentieth Century People have been arguing for centuries

about literal v. free v. faithful translation word-for-word v. sense-for-sense 

For example: Cicero, St Jerome, St Augustine, Martin

Luther, Étienne Dolet, Alexander Tytler, Johann, Friedrich Schleiermacher,

See Robinson (1997/2002)

Word-for-word or sense-for-sense TR  TR theory until 20th cent.: a sterile debate

over the triad literal, free, and faithful TR (Steiner 1998)

Cicero (1st cent BC, De optimo genere oratorum(On the best style of Orators)):

word for word vs sense for sense TR – chief principles of TR of the age

word for word (interpreter / literal TLR) - The replacement of each individual word of ST (Greek) with its closest grammatical equivalent in Latin (

sense for sense (orator) – produce a speech that would move the listeners

Cicero and Horace

Cicero and Horace (BCE) underlines the goals of producing an aesthetically pleasing and creative text in TL.

St Jerome

Another period that caused a changing step in translation development was marked by St Jerome (fourth century CE). "His approach to translating the Greek Septuagint Bible into Latin would affect later translations of the scriptures.

St Jerome’s famous statament on translation process

“Now I not only admit but freely announce that in translating from the Greek-except ofcourse in the case of Holly Scripture, where even the syntax contains a mystery-I render not word-for-word, but sense-for-sense (St. Jerome 395 Ce/1997:25).

Later on, the translation of the Bible remained subject to many conflicts between western theories and ideologies of translation for more than a thousand years.

Moreover, these conflicts on Bible translation were intensified with the coming of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, when "translation came to be used as a weapon in both dogmatic and political conflicts as nation states began to emerge and the centralization of the Church started to weaken evidence in linguistic terms by the decline of Latin as a universal language."

Martin Luther(1483-1546)

Non-literal or non-accepted translation came to be seen and used as a weapon against the church. The most famous of this is M. Luthers’s crucially influential translation into East Middle German of the New Testament.

His translation of the Bible into the language of the people (instead of Latin) made it more accessible, causing a tremendous impact on the church and on German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation and influenced the translation into English of the King James Bible. His songs inspired the development of singing in churches. His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant priests to marry.

Much scholarly debate has focused on Luther's writings about the Jews. His statements that the Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues burned, money confiscated, and liberty curtailed were revived and used in propaganda by the Nazis from 1933 to 1945.

In response to accusation that he had altered the holy scriptures defended himself by writing “Circular Letter of Translation” (1530).

Early attempts at a systematic theory of TR

 Dryden (1680): TR categories: Metaphrase: corr. to literal, word-

for-word, line for line Paraphrase: TR with latitude, words

not so strictly followed as the sense; corr. to faithful, sense-for-sense TR

Imitation: corr. to free TR and adaptation

Etinne Dolet

For instance, Etienne Dolet (1509-1546), whose heretic mistranslation of one of Plato's dialogues, the phrase "rien du tout" (nothing at all) that showed his disbelief in immortality, led to his execution.

Dolet (1540): principles of Translators  

TLR must perfectly understand the sense and the material of the original author, although he should feel free to clarify obsurities

TLR should have a perfect knowledge of both SL and TL, so as not to lessen the majesty of the language

TLR should avoid word-for-word renderings TLR should avoid Latinate and unusual forms TLR should assemble and connect the words

eloquently to avoid clumsiness

Tytler (1797): laws and rules:

The TR should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work

The style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original

The TR should have all the ease of the original composition

Schleiermacher (1813) and the valorization of the foreign  17th cent.: TR as imitation 18th cent.: TLR’s duty to recreate the

spirit of ST for the reader of the time Early 19th cent (Romanticism):

Translatability vs untranslatability Schleiermacher (1813) Ueber die

verschiedenen Methoden des Uebersetzens

1

Schleiermacher, ctd.  Distinguished between:

Dollmetscher (commercial texts) Übersetzer (scholarly and artistic texts):

On a higher creative plane Breathing new life into the language

Q: How to bring the ST writer and the TT reader together?

Only two paths for the ‘true’ TLR: 

Either the TLR leaves the writer alone as much as possible and moves the reader to the writer, or

He leaves the reader alone as much as possible and moves the writer toward the reader

Moving towards the writer does not mean writing as the author (for example in German) would have done, but giving the reader the same impression that he as a German would receive.

TLR must adopt an ‘alienating’ method of TR orienting himself by the language and content of the ST

TLR must valorize the foreign and transfer that into TL He must communicate the same impression

which he/she receibed from SLT A special language of TR is necessary for

compensating the expression that cannot convey the impression of the foreign

Schleiermacher’s influence: 

Enormous influence on modern translation

Consideration of different text types (Reiss)

Alienating vs naturalizing (Venuti) ‘Language of translation’ (Benjamin) Hermeneutics (Steiner)

Late 19th and early 20th cent. 

Focus on the status of the SLT and the form of TLT

Newman (translating Homer): foreignes of the work (deliberate archaic language)

M. Arnold: advocated a transparent TR of Homer

Elitist attitude: It was thought that TR could never reach the heigths of the ST, it is preferable to read the work in the original language

TR Studies since 1970s: 

TR developed into an academic discipline US: TR workshops, creative writing, Princeton,

Iowa; comparative literature (cultural studies) Contrastive analysis (TR - subject of research):

Linguistic approach : languages in contrast (1960’s – 1970’s) CA: James 1980, Vinay Darbelnet (1958),

Catford 1965, Connor, Chesterman (2001) CA useful but fails to account for

sociolinguistic & pragmatic factors nor the role of TR as a comm. act

LINGUISTIC / SYSTEMATIC APPROACH: (1950’s – 1960’s) J.P. Vinay & J. Darbelnet (1958) Stylistique comparee du

francais et de l’anglais – contrastive approach G. Mounin (1963) Les problemes theoriques de la

traduction – linguistic issues E. Nida (1964) Toward a Science of Translating =

Ubersetzungswissenschaft (W. Wills, Koller, Kade, Neubert)

Candidate names: science, translatology, translatologie, traductolgia – studies

THE HOLMES – TOURY ‘map’ 

J. S. Holmes (1972 / 1988 / 2000) Paper - 1972: Third International Congress of Applied

Linguistics (Holmes’ founding statement for the field: limitations by TR being dispersed across other disciplines need to reach all scholars working in the field (from

whatever background) cf. ‘map’ of TR studies Holmes in G. Toury (1995): TR Studies cover: description of the phenomena of TR (descr. TR theory -

DTS) the establishment of gen. principles to explain and

predict such phenomena (TR theory)

Two important problems in the development of the discipline (Holmes)

1-Name for this disipline The art of translation The craft of translation Principle of translation Fundamentals of translation Phiolosophy of translation

Transtology Traductology (French) Translatio (Latin) Theory of Translation Towards a Science of Translating

(Nida 1964)

2- The lack of general consensus on the scope and structure of the discipline.

Terminological, Lexicographical studies

Contrastive Linguistics. Emprical discipline

“Translation Studies” – self-perception

Many people today think that Translation Studies is mainly: Literary theory Cultural studies

And, possibly: Communication studies Stylistics & Genre analysis

Perspective from Linguistics

Linguists perceive it as related to: Contrastive linguistics Pragmatics Discourse Analysis Stylistics

Once dismissed as useless to TT– all of these areas have been re-animated by corpora linguistics

Perspective from Information Technology

IT specialists are increasingly fascinated by human language and: Machine assisted translation Machine Translation Knowledge Engineering Artificial Intelligence

Pure Translation Studies have two main objectives

1-To describe the phenomena of translating and translation(s)

2- To establish general principles by means of which these phenomena can be explained and predicted.

Acknowledgements

Translation theories

Descriptive Translation Studies has three foci: Product-orientated DTS – focuses the

translation Function-orientated DTS – examines

the context and purpose of the translation

Process-orientated DTS– analyses the psychology of translation and process

Partial theories of translation

Medium restricted – man or machine? Area restricted – specific

languages/cultures Rank-restricted – word/sentence/text Text-type restricted –different genres Time-restricted – historical view Problem-restricted – specific problems,

e.g equivalence

Applied Translation Studies

Translator Training: Teaching methods, Testing techniques, curriculum design.

Translation Aid: Dictionaries, Grammar and IT

Translation Criticism: The evaluation of translations, translation reviews.

Development since 1970’s -Contrastive analysis has fallen by wayside. -Linguistic –oriented “science” of translation has become

effective (Germany, UK) -Translation studies is satrted to be seen as an “independent

discipline” (Mary Snell-Hornby, Translation Studies: An Integrated Approach)

-Descriptive Translation Studies (Israel, Belgium) “The discipline of 1990’s” (Mona Baker, Routledge

Encyclopedia of Translation, 1997). Proliferation of specialized translating and interpreting courses

at both graduate and postgraduate level. Proliferation of books, conferences and journals on translation

studies.

SITUATION IN ARAB WORLD The early translations used in Arabic are dated

back to the time of Syrians (the first half of the second century AD), who translated into Arabic a large heritage that belongs to the era of paganism (Bloomshark 1921: 10-12, qtd by Addidaoui, 2000) (7). Syrians were influenced in their translations by the Greek ways of translation. Syrian's translations were more literal and faithful to the original

The time of the prophet Mohamed is of paramount importance for translation history. The spread of Islam and the communication with non-Arabic speaking communities as Jews, Romans and others pushed the prophet to look for translators and to encourage the learning of foreign languages. One of the most famous translators of the time is Zaid Ibnu Thabet, who played a crucial role in translating letters sent by the prophet to foreign kings of Persia, Syria, Rome and Jews, and also letters sent by those kings to the prophet.

According to Ben Chakroun (2002) (9), the early translators of the Koran focused on its meaning. Salman El Farisi, for instance, translated the meaning of Surat Al Fatiha for Persian Muslims, who didn't speak Arabic. Ben Chakroun (2002) (10) states that Western libraries still preserve many translations of the Koran, and that some of them such as the Greek translation of the philosopher Naktis belong to the third century. Besides, the Holy Koran received a special interest from the translators. It was translated into Persian and into Turkish language.

Besides, the core of the conflicts that existed and still exist in the translation of Koran is related to the reason behind translation itself, i.e., whether to use the translation as a way to teach the principles of Islam or to use it in praying and legislation was the difficult choice that faced translators. In general, translation of Koran knows various changes, the fact that led to the creation of special committees that took the responsibility of translating it in a way that preserves it from

falsification.

The Arab history of translation is also characterized by the name of Al-Jahid (868-577), one of the greatest theorists in translation. His theories and writings in the domain of translation are still used today by many professional Arab translators. According to Al-Jahid (1969), "the translator should know the structure of the speech, habits of the people and their ways of understanding each other." (12)

In translation studies it is in religious discourse where Arabic translation reaches its peak. Translation of Koran received much interest from Arab translators. Today, translation in the Arab world knows a sort of progression, especially with its openness to Western theories and theorists, but it is still suffering from many problems and difficulties.

TURKISH TRADITION

Turkish Language -11th century by Seljuk Turks-Official Lang. of Ottoman Emp.

13-19th century pre-Ottoman and Ottoman Perid

Seljuk State,Capital city-Konya (Tercüman, dragoman)

Status of dragomans?

16th century

İntitutionalized status-16th century Offical function-18th century Who are they? Their tasks?

Predomiance of Islamic Sources

-Translation of Persian and Arabic sacred texts, religious writing.(13th-14th century)

-Quran Translations -other texts?

Contact with non-Islamic Cultures

Mehmet II Conquest of Constantinople

18th century

Ahmed III Non-literary works. İbrahim Müteferrika

Tanzimat Period

Translation of scientific and literary works,

Revival of literary works in Turkish. Scientific institutions Translations of European Classics Tercüman-i Ahval,, Tasvir-i Efkar

Republican Period

Westernizing Program World classics Quran Translation into Turkish Translation Committee Contemporary Journals

Academic institutions and publications

Thank You…