Transcript Translation Studies

Translation Studies
13. Transfer operations 1:
system and
classification
Krisztina Károly, Spring, 2006
Source: Klaudy, 2003
1. The system of transfer
operations (TO)
The concept of TO
Translating = a highly complicated
sequence of actions, including:
- the replacement of SL lexical units
by TL lexical units,
- the restructuring of the sentence
structure,
- the changing of the word order,
- the omission of certain elements
and the addition of others, etc.
The concept of TO cont.
due to the differences between SL and TL
lexical systems, even the seemingly
simplest action  the replacement of SL
lexical units by TL lexical units  can
become a complicated task
Klaudy (2003) calls these
choices/operations (e.g., replacement,
transposition, omission, addition) “transfer
operations” (= átváltási műveletek) 
refers to ALL the moves from SL to TL, not
only problematic cases
The history of the term
Vinay and Darbelnet (1958, 1995) 
"methods" or "procedures" of
translation, including:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
borrowing,
calque,
literal translation,
transposition,
modulation,
equivalence, and
adaptation
They use the word "transfer" as a
generic term for methods of
translation
The history of the term cont.
Catford (1965)  "operation":
"Translation is an operation performed on
languages" … "...a process of substituting
a text in one language for a text in another"
 Catford's interest is in translation as a
phenomenon (not in operations carried out
by translators)
Catford (1964)  "shifts”
Nida (1964)  "techniques of adjustment"
as a term to refer to additions, subtractions
and alterations
Newmark (1982)  “techniques”, “method”
and “procedures”
Translation as a decision-making
process: a case study
The first sentence of Graham Greene’s short
story The Innocent was translated by
Gabriella Prekop in the following way:
English ST: It was a mistake to take Lola
here. (Greene 451)
Hungarian TT: Hiba volt, hogy magammal
vittem Lolát. (Prekop 278) (lit: It was a
mistake to take Lola with me.)
Inventory of all of the operations
mere replacement of the English
lexical units with Hungarian ones
produces a grammatically ill-formed
sentence
(cf. Az volt egy hiba vinni Lola ide.)
Inventory cont.
To get a grammatically well-formed
Hungarian sentence, she had to
perform a series of operations:
(1) she left out the English personal
pronoun it,
(2) the past tense of the English
existential verb (was) was replaced
by the past form of the Hungarian
existential verb (volt),
(3) she left out the English article a,
Inventory cont.
(4) the English noun mistake was replaced
by the Hungarian noun hiba,
(5) the English Verb-Noun word order was
changed to the Hungarian Noun-Verb word
order,
(6) the conjunction hogy (‘that’) was inserted
in the Hungarian sentence,
(7) the declined personal pronoun
magammal (‘with me’) was inserted in the
Hungarian sentence,
(8) the English verb take was replaced by the
Hungarian verb vinni,
Inventory cont.
(9) the English infinitive (to take) was
replaced by the Hungarian conjugated
verb form (vittem, ‘ I took’),
(10)she left out to,
(11) she added the past tense, first
person singular inflection to the
Hungarian verb vinni,
(12) she added the transitive inflection
to the proper name Lola (Lolát),
(13) she left out the adverb here.
In sum = 13 operations:
four omissions (it, a, to, here),
two additions (hogy, magammal),
one change of word order (was
mistake  Hiba volt),
three lexical substitutions (was 
volt, mistake  hiba, take  vinni),
one grammatical replacement (to
takevittem),
two structural changes (mistake to
take  hogy vittem, Lola  Lolát).
Inventory cont.
in reality, the translator does not work in
such a linear fashion
the most complicated operation is making a
complex Hungarian sentence out of a
simple English sentence  the most
important transfer operation triggers the
rest, some of which are performed by the
translator consciously and others
automatically
Obligatory transfer operations: without
these we do not get a grammatically wellformed Hungarian sentence  are
generally performed automatically
E.g., the omission of it or the addition of
the transitive inflection to the proper name
Lola
2. The classification of
transfer operations
Obligatory and optional transfer
operations
Obligatory transfer operations = those
performed by translators due to the
differences between the lexical and
grammatical systems of the two Ls (without
them the translator would produce
semantically or grammatically ill-formed
sentences)
Optional transfer operations are those
performed over and above obligatory
transfer operations.
Automatic and non-automatic
transfer operations
Automatic transfer operations = those that
are (or should be) obligatorily performed by
translators as a result of differences
between the systems of the two Ls
(e.g., from English into Hungarian,
translators automatically omit English
prepositions and insert Hungarian
inflections and postpositions, change word
order)
distinguishing automatic transfer
operations from the rest is important
because if they are always automatically
performed their teaching may be
unnecessary in translator training
Classification according to level
of operation
word-level transfer operations = the
replacement of SL lexical units with TL
lexical units
phrase-level transfer operations = e.g.,
changing the word order within adjectival
phrases
sentence-level transfer operations = e.g.,
changing the passive in English into an
active structure in the Hungarian
translation
discourse-level transfer operations = e.g.,
the unification of subjects, within the
paragraph
Classification according to
the scope and cause of the
operation
Lexical transfer operations:
(1) differentiation and specification
(2) generalisation
(3) conceptual expansion (e.g., the
replacement of a word denoting the cause
of a process in the SL with a word that
denotes its consequence in the TL),
(4) antonymous translation
(5) total transformation (the replacement of a
SL word with a TL word that carries a
completely different meaning)
(6) compensation (rendering the meaning of
a SL word at a different place, using
different means) (Retsker, 1974)
Grammatical transfer operations:
(1) replacements,
(2) transpositions,
(3) insertions,
(4) omissions (Vaseva 1980).
Stylistic transfer operations
are necessitated by the requirements of
the genre or text type
(e.g., the choice between the various
forms of expressing impersonality in
Hungarian: e.g., first and third person
plural verb form, infinitive)
Pragmatic transfer operations
are necessitated by the requirements of
the TL culture
(e.g., use of the diminutive suffix in
Hungarian sounds childish and
simple-minded, but not in Russian,
where it denotes closeness)
What can be considered a
transfer operation?
broader view of transfer operations:
all operations conducted by the
translator in order to transform the SL
text into the TL text
Main types and (sub-)types
Main types
(= classification according to the
scope of the operation)
1. Lexical transfer operations
2. Grammatical transfer operations
(Sub-)types (classification acc. to
manner of performance)
1. Types of lexical transfer operations
1.1. Narrowing of meaning (differentiation
and specification)
1.2. Broadening of meaning (generalisation)
1.3. Contraction of meanings
1.4. Distribution of meaning
1.5. Omission of meaning
1.6. Addition of meaning
1.7. Exchange of meaning
1.8. Antonymous translation
1.9. Total transformation
1.10. Compensation
2. Types of grammatical transfer
operations
2.1. Grammatical specification and
generalisation
2.2. Grammatical division
2.3. Grammatical contraction
2.4. Grammatical omission
2.5. Grammatical addition
2.6. Grammatical transpositions
2.7. Grammatical replacements
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