Translation Myths pt.1.2

Myth #1: Translation is all about Words pt.2

Welcome back to Myth #1 of our translation myths. In part 1, we found that languages have different ways to express the same meaning. In the last part we used the set phrase “what is your name” in French and English to demonstrate this point.

While some people may be convinced by this, many others feel that outside of such phrases and maybe a few idioms, you should always stick to the wording of the original. Let’s try another example to see if this works. Here is a sentence that can be translated several ways

I don’t like that man – Je ne l’aime pas, cet homme-là.
Moi, je n’aime pas cet homme.
Je n’aime pas cet homme.

How would a translator know which one to pick? All three French phrases have the same meaning as the English phrase. Which one is correct?

The truth is that any of the three may be right. In spoken language, the choice of phrase would be fairly easy.

You see, in English, we often emphasise something by saying it slightly louder or with slightly more force. So if I said “I don’t like that man,” the emphasis is on me. Perhaps I might say this if someone else does like him. If I said “I don’t like that man,” the emphasis is on that particular man rather than a man I do like. Of course, I can also just say “I don’t like that man” with no particular emphasis.

In French, they tend to emphasise things by changing the wording of the phrase. In our first example, the stress would be on that particular man, much like if you said “I don’t like that man” in English. The second phrase emphasises the person speaking, just like “I don’t like that man” in English and the last phrase is the same as using no particular emphasis in English.

If translation were all about words, we would only need one way to express this English meaning in French yet, as we have seen, there are at least three choices, depending on which part of the sentence you want to emphasise. Since translation isn’t about meaning, translators need to take care choosing the correct way of translating a phrase, taking into account many different factors. It is not simply a case of looking each word up in a dictionary and writing down the first translation of it you find.

It is clear then that since languages have so many different ways to express similar meanings, there is no way that we can assume that using dictionary equivalents of the same words will necessarily mean that we create the same meaning. We also have to abandon the idea that translation is all about words. If it were then learning a language would simply mean memorising a bilingual dictionary and, as we all know, that is simply not the case. Translation is all about meaning not words.

Translation Myths pt.1.1

Myth #1: Translation is all about words pt. 1

The first translation myth we will look at is possibly the most common. Most people, when they think of translation, will think that translators take the WORDS from one language and turn them into WORDS in another. Following this logic, all a translator really needs is a good dictionary and they can translate pretty much anything. Learning translation then is really all about learning the words and grammar of both languages and making one fit the other.

So, why is this a myth? Well, here is one solid reason which should be obvious to anyone who has ever learned a second language.

REASON
Different languages use different ways to express the same meaning.

If you have ever tried to learn another language, you will have probably started with some set phrases so that you can ask someone’s name, find out where they are from, how they are and so forth. These set phrases are commonly taken to express similar meanings. Let’s take a common example that you might find in a French phrase book.

What is your name? – Comment vous-appelez vous?

Now, if you go up to a French person and say that phrase to them, the likelihood is that they will respond to you by giving you their name. Yet, the French word for “name” does not appear anywhere in that sentence. In fact, of the four words in the French phrase, only one would be found by looking up one of the English words in a dictionary.

If translation were all about words, this would be a bad translation, yet this translation is accepted and used all the time. If you ask a French teacher to translate “what is your name?” into French, you will be given the exact French sentence we find above.

So why has this French phrase become accepted as a good translation of “what is your name?” The answer is simple: translation is about meaning, not words. In this case, the meaning of “what is your name?” is best expressed using the French phrase which, if literally translated would be something like “what do you call yourself?” Put another way, the effect of asking an English person “What is your name?” is equivalent to the effect of asking a French person “Comment vous-appelez vous?”

This equivalence of effect is often what translators aim for. Understanding how this works and how to find out the meaning of what is said is a key skill for translators. Next tiem, we will look at this in more detail.

More Posts Coming Soon

Sorry for not posting a lot recently. This has mostly been due to work commitments. The "Future of Interpreting in Church" series is going to go on the back burner for now and instead, the next few posts will examine some common translation myths. More on Monday.

Jonathan