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413-1:
TRANSLATION AND LEXICOGRAPHY |
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| 413.1.0:
AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND STRUCTURE |
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"The
dictionary is the most successful and significant book
about language", writes Robert Ilson (1985:1),
"In Britain, its success is shown by the fact that
over 90% of households possess at least one, making
the dictionary more popular than cookery books (about
70%) and significantly more widespread than the Bible
(which was to be found in 80% of households in England
in 1983, according to the Bible Society). Its significance
is shown by the fact that - like the Bible- its authority
is invoked, rightly or wrongly, to settle disputes…." |
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Dictionaries are real-time objects, created for a particular
real-life purpose. Depending upon its purpose, its structure
and extent of coverage will differ. Of course, the most
significant use of a dictionary (what we are calling
LEXICON here) has, dictionary available, any bilingual
dictionary is designed to cater to needs of a number
of people: second/foreign language learners, translators,
editorial staff, tourists and copy-writers. In this
unit, you will learn about the relationship between
LEXICOGRAPHY, the science (or art?) of dictionary-making
and TRANSLATION STUDIES, or the discipline that studies
the nature, structure, and constraints as well as tools
and techniques of interlingual transfer. |
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This
unit will have the following structure: |
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| 413.1.1. |
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| 413.1.1.1.
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| 413.1.1.2
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| 413.1.1.3. |
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| 413.1.1.4. |
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| 413.1.1.2. |
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| 413.1.2.
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| 413.1.2.1.
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| 413.1.2.2. |
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| 413.1.3.1. |
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| 413.1.3.2. |
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| 413.1.4.2
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| 413.1.5. |
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| 413.1.6.
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| 413.1.7. |
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| 413.1.1:
INTRODUCTION |
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Translation
and Lexicography are both such disciplines, where the
theories, methods and empirical findings of linguistics
could easily be seen at work. Translating and dictionary-making
are both practical activities undertaken not necessarily
by the specialist linguist alone, but also by those
who may belong to related or even unrelated disciplines
(just as, for example, Dr. Peter Mark Roget of the famous
Roget's Thesaurus who was basically a physician). These
activities are thus as old as man's concern with written
communication. Translators and lexicographers, particularly
bilingual lexicographers, have traditionally been accepted
as authorities with conventional wisdom in all societies.
Their products were received as the necessary and convenient
tools. |
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| 413.1.1.1:
WHAT IS TRANSLATION? A LEXICOGRAPHER'S VIEW |
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There
are different definitions of translation arguing whether
translation is an 'art', or a 'craft' or a 'science'.
There are some books which have their titles focusing
on one or the other of these views on translation. But
as a lexicographer who has to give meaning as well as
definitions of each word, we will inevitably deal with
the noun translation or the verb to translate from a
reasonably neutral and 'scientific' point of view, seeking
some kind of 'objectivity' in describing the phenomenon.
While you must have already been introduced to this
debate in a number of introductory units under the course,
411, let us deal with these terms from a lexicographical
angle. |
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| 413.1.1.1.1
: DEFINITIONS |
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We
know that the general definition of translation has
the problem of equivalence as its focus. With this in
mind, let us consider the following standard definitions
of 'Translation":
Definition 1: "Translation is the replacement of
a representation of a text in one language by a representation
of an EQUIVALENT text in a second language". Hartmann
and Stork 1972 (as quoted in New mark 1988).
Definition
2: "Translation consists in reproducing in the
receptor language the closest unnatural EQUIVALENT of
the Source-Language message, first in terms of meaning
and secondly in terms of style" - Nida and Taber
1969.
Definition
3: Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt
to replace a written message and/or statement in one
language by the same message and/or statement in another
language by the EQUIVALENT TL standard term.
Definition
4: Translation could take place not only between two
different languages, but also between a language and
a non-verbal sign system as well as within the same
language. - Roman Jakobson(1966).
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