HAS TRANSLATION always represents an original text (or “Source Text” or “Source Text”); in this it implies a certain degree of equivalence, although the concept of strict equivalence between languages ​​is already surpassed in Translation Studies. The concept of translation has been renewed for a long time in dichotomies such as “fidelity” versus “freedom”, “fidelity to the letter” versus “fidelity to the Spirit”, etc.

The translation takes into account a series of parameters (context, grammar, etc.), so that it is understandable to people who do not know the source language and who do not have the same culture or knowledge2. Translating involves controlling the source language but also the target (or recipient) language, which is usually the mother tongue. The good translator has more than linguistic skills: he must be able to analyze the text and possess the qualities of writing. In order to translate scientific and technical texts, he must also have strong technical knowledge and master the jargon in both languages.

Translation is still essentially human, but machine translation (computer-assisted translation) tools appear.

The discipline concerned with translation is called the translation process.

Role of translation and languages ​​in the circulation of ideas and information

In space and time, the intensity of intercultural communication and exogamic exchanges depends largely on the quantity and quality of information translated from one language to another, but history has shown that movement and “notoriety” of the ideas are not quantitatively confused with the most widely spoken languages. In particular, the number of speakers of a spoken language is not a good predictor of the ability of a message created in this language (or circulated in this language) to be later translated and circulated in the world; according to the linguist David Crystal”, who explains that a language becomes a global language has little to do with the number of people who speak it, but much more with “who” those speakers speak. The network of bilinguals and translators6 has for both of great importance from this point of view.

Since the 19th century and with globalization and the regulation of “intellectual property rights” and translation, a number of languages ​​and cultures are more or less well “translated”, or are even fading faster than before or are already dead or forgotten (a dead language like Latin can still be translated).

Some authors describe the emergence of a new Global Network and System of languages, where English plays a preponderant and central role. However, the culturo-linguistic hegemony of English could be contained little by little by the improvement and generalization of machine translation programs on the Internet and by Wikimedia’s novel approach that encourages and facilitates “interlanguage translations and exchanges on Wikipedia and its Projects”. -brothers (in 287 possible languages ​​at the end of 2013, whose languages ​​say “dead” and Esperanto, with several important Bilateral language projects).

Analyzing the relative status of the world’s languages ​​has long been impossible due to a lack of relevant data, notes Mark Davis (president and co-founder of the Unicode Consortium which produces standards for character encodings for all computers and mobile devices). interfaces of the planet using writing), while one still intuits the importance of the structure of this network; For a long time it remained impossible to quantitatively study the structure of the global network of interlanguage exchanges but this becomes easier thanks to the constitution of large open databases of global trade “sites” such as Wikipedia or Twitter and while better is known and better the proportion of languages ​​spoken on the Internet.

In 2014, an international Franco-American team used the science of networks to create maps to visualize how information and ideas circulate in the world (depending on the language of the original message, based on the average GDP of the countries where the habla15), depending on the language of the first translations and who will transmit the information or depending on the Medium (book, Wikipedia, Twitter). To elaborate this “Map” these researchers have studied on the one hand the data available on Literary Translation (based on 2.2 million translations of books published in more than 1000 languages) and on the other hand the two large world networks of exchanges by the language11,16 which are:

Bilingual tweets (from the study of 550 million tweets, 17 million users in 73 languages, selected for the study), which has been possible thanks to the open database and because it allows a tweet to be associated with a language and the person who Tweet to one or more language communities; of different language versions of Wikipedia pages (without taking into account the work of robots on Wikipedia), including the open database (DBPedia)

Analysis of these data shows that:

There is an important prioritization of “interface” languages ​​in this network, with nuances depending on the media studied.

Not surprisingly, English is the most important and effective in terms of interface between other languages ​​to spread an idea or information in the world (it is in the mapped network the most central hub). Second, particularly in

Translation Methods vs. Translation Techniques

What is the difference between a method and a translation technique? Well, it’s very simple: the translation method refers to the entire text to be translated, while the translation technique will vary on a case-by-case basis within the same text, depending on the ad hoc verbal elements. basis to translate. The classic taxonomy of translation processes goes back to the year 1958, and it is to J.-P. Vinay and J. Darbelnet that it owes. It has seven categories:

1. The loan

Borrowing is a translation process to use a word or expression in the source text in the target text. The loan note is usually in italics. It is, in effect, reproducing the expression of the original text as it is. In this sense, it is a translation technique that does not translate…

Example: The gaucho wore a black hat and panties used at the time.

2. The cape

When a translator uses the lexical layer, they create or use a neologism in the target language by adopting the structure of the source language.

Example: German handball translated into Spanish handball, or English skyscraper translated into French skyscraper.

3. The literal translation

it is what is conventionally called the Metaphrastic Translation, or metaphrase. It is a word-for-word translation that leads to a text in the target language, both correct and idiomatic. According to Vinay and Darbelnet, literal translation is only possible between languages ​​for the benefit of great cultural proximity. It is acceptable only if the translated text maintains the same syntax, the same meaning and the same style as the original text.

Example: What time is it? ⇒ What time is it?

4. The transposition

transposition is to move from one grammatical category to another without therefore the meaning of the text does not change. This technique introduced a change of grammatical structure.

Example: The president thinks that ⇒ according to the president

5. Modulation

Modulation consists of changing the shape of the text by means of a semantic or perspective modification.

Example: Maybe you’re right ⇒ you haven’t maybe you’re not wrong.

6. Equivalence

Equivalence is a translation process by which an equivalent reality is translated by a completely different expression. This technique can be used to translate the names of institutions, interjections, expressions, all facts or proverbs.

Example: once bitten, twice shy ⇒ he who got burned with milk sees the cow and cries.

7. The Adaptation

Adaptation, also called cultural substitution or cultural equivalent, consists of replacing a cultural element of the original text with another more appropriate to the culture of the target language. This will make the text more familiar and understandable.

Example: baseball ⇒ soccer

since the 1960s, different authors (Michel Ballard, Hélène Chuquet, Michel Paillard, etc.) have reported other translation procedures such as explanation (about clarifications in the target language text), collocation (the use of a set of of words that are often used together in the target language) and compensation (not making a reference or connotation in one part of the text and compensating by making it appear later).