Ambiguity problem in translation

Translation as a human activity and a mysterious phenomenon.

Translation as a Human Activity and a Mysterious Phenomenon

LECTURE 2

Main points:

1. Translation as a human activity and a mysterious phenomenon.

2. Ambiguity problem in translation.

3. Disambiguation tools.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

We are concerned with translation and in particular, with proposing a new orientation to the study of translation. We intend to set the scene for what is to follow by asking three questions which lie at the root of any attempt to understand the phenomenon of translation.

1. What is translation?

2. What is a translator?

3. What is translator theory?

We shall soon discover that these questions are fraught with ambiguity and the answers to them are far from satisfactory. These is no one theory that is entirely adequate for building a comprehensive formal model of translation. It is necessary to find basic methods and tools of formalization (formulating general rules on the basis of particular translation cases) in modern linguistics.

Translation is a human activity known since very long ago and the professions of an interpreter or a translator are among the oldest dating back to biblical times and earlier. In the armies of Alexander the Great and King Darius of Persia interpreters were distinguished by badges with the logo of a parrot.

Until the late nineteen fifties translation had never been in focus of scholars’ attention.

There are major reasons:

1. The word “translation” is itself ambiguous.

2. Abundance of an easily available and relatively cheap workforce to do the job at an acceptable quality level.

3. Relatively low quality of translation was generally satisfactory for the existing marked.

4. Until the introduction of computers and market globalization the flows of multilingual information in the world had been rather fragmented.

5. Translation is one of the complex problems that human intellect may face.

Komissarov’s Theory of Translation Equivalence Level (TEL) states that while translating you pass from one of the following equivalence level so another:

a) sign level (words and word combinations);

b) utterance level (sentence);

c) message level (phrase, paragraph);

d) situation description level (text fragments);

e) communication purpose level (whole text).

Ambiguity is the property of language units to bear several different meanings. Not only is the meaning of the words ambiguity but also the relations between them.

Any language unit consists of three indivisible components:

1. a sign (form, expression) of a language unit

(e. g. book, it, -tion, a, etc.);

2. a concept (meaning) of a language unit (the mental content of the language unit conventionally related to the sign in the minds of language speakers);

3. a denotatum (a fragment of the real world, including the inner world of human beings, that corresponds to a given concept).

According to common scientific opinion there may never be a direct link between the sign and the denotatum. Never ever. Which is shown by a dashed line in the famous triangle of Ogden and Richards 1. (Fig.1)

DENOTATUM

SIGN

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11