The Imperfection of Translation
The essential problem with translation is an obvious one. A word has more qualities than just its denotation. For one, a word has a sound, an attribute which has great importance in poetry (though we should not underestimate its significance in prose, as well). Also, a word consists of various connotations, meanings which only rarely cross over from language to language. Complicating matters is the nature of literature itself. Writers and poets put pressure on the language; they often choose words because of their rich variety of meanings, complicating rather than clarifying their subjects. Unfortunately, then, for the translator of literature, the currency of words is not as easy to exchange as the other kind of currency.
E. V. Rieu recognizes the inherent difficulty of translation. Perfect translation may be impossible, so the best we can hope for, he writes in the following, is a translation of the spirit of the work: "I call it the principal of equivalent effect and regard it as signifying that that translation is the best which comes nearest to creating in its audience the same impression as was made by the original on its contemporaries" (55). Rieu criticizes the translators of the King James Version of the Bible for remaining stubbornly faithful to the original language. Here he presents a parable, the moral of which is undoubtedly weakened by awkward translation.
St. Luke in xvii. 8 reports Jesus as imagining a scene in which a master says to his slave, "Get something ready for my supper." The Greek is colloquial and the master is not represented as speaking politely. Yet the authorized translators put into his mouth the words: "Make ready wherewith I may sup." (55)
In that example the superiority of Rieu's plain-spoken translation is obvious, but it begs the question of how much freedom does one give a translator. Rieu's ideal that a translated work must cause "the same impression" as the original seems to give scholars license to embellish.
Werner Winter believes that, regardless of the degree of embellishment, translation cannot avoid altering the work. Try as we might, Winter writes, "Meaning and form cannot be dissociated from one another" (70).
Words are almost translations themselves. They are re-creations of other words from other languages and from their own. They are metaphors—dead because they have been "carried across" into alien languages, and dead because we no longer hear them. They are the memories of, and allusions to, what they once were.
Positron Emission Tomography is a scanning technique that allows us to measure in detail the functioning of distinct areas of the human brain while the patient is comfortable, conscious and alert. PET represents a type of functional imaging, unlike X-rays or CT scans, which show only structural details within the brain. The differences between these types of imaging don’t end there.
Translation is a linguistic science, but it occurs within a theological and moral framework. The issue is a sensitive one, as theology involves an obligation to the text and morality involves an obligation to the
Bullying has become a major problem facing the United States today. The American Psychological Association reports that roughly 40% to 80% of children are involved in bullying on some level during their time in school. (APA, 2014) The magnitude of the problem can be observed in the statistics. In the United States, a total of 4,080,879 children between the ages of five and 18 have been the victims of bullying compared to 3,892,199 who have reported that they have engaged in bullying someone else. Additionally, 851,755 said that they have been both the victim and the bully. That's a whopping 8,824,833 people in the United States that have been involved in bullying behavior on one level or another. (High, B., 2000 Census)
Throughout the past two hundred years, many linguists have attempted to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy into English. While all have been successful in conveying the general meaning of various passages, diction and wordiness have varied wildly; no two translations are identical. This can be attributed to two factors: normal translational variation and the intent of the linguist. Taking both of these into account, John Ciardi's 1954 translation is far superior to the others.
Kan-Rice, Pamela. “School Bullies Are Often Also Victims; Feeling Safe Reduces Youth Bullying” University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources News and Information Outreach. AScribe Health News Service. 2 Sept, 2003. Infotrac July 08, 2004. http://news.ucanr.org/newsstorymain.cfm?story=502
Many people find the word “bullying” hard to define. In fact, the definition of the word has changed greatly within the last ten years. The current definition of bullying, according to stopbullying.gov, is “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is reappeared, or has the potential to be repeated over tim...
"Radioisotopes in medicine." World of Physics. Gale, 2007. Science in Context. Web. 19 May 2014.
Since the brain is extremely fragile and difficult to access without risking further damage, imaging techniques are used frequently as a noninvasive method of visualizing the brain’s structure and activity. Today's technology provides many useful tools for studying the brain. But even with our highest technology out there we do not know everything definitely. We do have fallbacks at times and these fallbacks can lead to serious problems.
One thing that might make things difficult to choose is that they both have an incredible measure of strength. Superman has always been known has the “man of steel” ever since he was first thought of. Beowulf has the strength of thirty men, “The time has come, O Beow...
Bullying has been a part of schooling for as long as children have been congregating. To some it seems like a natural, though uncomfortable, part of life and school experience, while to others it can mean terrifying experiences which spoiled and characterized otherwise happy years in school. Dan Olweus, a pioneer in bully behavior research documented that 2.7 million children are affected as victims, and that 2.1 children act as bullies (Fried, 1997, as cited in Aluedse, 2006). With bullying cited as the reason for violent, gun-related crime in the past few years, school districts as well as national governments have put anti-bullying policies in place. Bullying is a complicated phenomenon, involving more than one child demanding lunch money from a smaller child. It is a worldwide epidemic hitting schools everywhere. Virtually everyone has seen or experienced bullying. With technological advances, bullying is even hitting the internet. Parents, teachers, students and governments agencies alike are attempting to put a stop to bullying practices.
In human society, translation plays a significant role, which helps realize effective communication among people. Benjamin (as cited in Venuti, 2000) indicates translation is the mode, which plays a function of transmitting information; hence translatability determines whether the information could be effectively and appropriately delivered and is regarded as the “essential quality of certain works”. Throughout history, many scholars have developed translation theories, which provide various effective translation strategies and methods, to explore the translatability. Equivalence theory points out that all languages always share some similarities; hence the languages could be exchanged (Nida, as cited in Venuti, 2000). The skopos theory emphasizes
Translation has always played a key role in shaping cultures, societies, languages, and literatures throughout the history of mankind. On the other hand, in contrast to all its potentials, the discipline has been underestimated within academia and it had not been studied in any systematic way as a planning activity until the last century (Toury, 2002). Having been overshadowed by linguistics and comparative literature, the discipline of translation studies was conceived as a subordinate academic field. This is mainly because translation was merely seen as a code-switching activity and firmly stuck in the paradigms of fidelity and equivalence.
Bullying is defined as the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively to impose domination over others and is often repeated and habitual. Bullying is something that can manifest in all kinds of places whether it be at home, school, or in the community. There are different ways that bullying can manifest at home. For example, we often hear of fathers trying to “toughen up” their sons up and make them into a man, when in reality, they are bullying their children to make them tough. Parents often allow their sons to be aggressive and rough and find it appropriate for them to physically hurt other people. They often say “boys will be boys” as if that behavior is normal and okay. Well, it is not normal or appropriate behavior, that kind of behavior is only teaching them to be aggressive in society and to bully other people. This type ...
In this essay we are going to study the translation equivalents and the gaps raised from the non-equivalence at word level; then we will analyze some useful strategies for the translation process.