Translation of neologism. Part one

  

Neologism can be defined as newly coiled lexical units or existing lexical units that acquire a new sense (Newmark). Neologisms are the biggest problems for the professional translators. Newmark, in his book A Textbook of Translation, proposed some types of neologisms:


- old word with new senses; 

- derived words. Neologisms of derived words can be coined by the adding of suffixes, prefixes;
- Abbreviations;
- Collocations;
- Transferred words
- Acronyms


In the next post I will try to show the methods of translations of neologisms on the example of Ferdydurke.

Even-Zohar - polysystem theory

In the 1970s, a new stage of translation theory, scholars began focusing on translation from the perspective of the target text and culture and the communicative process as a whole. Itamar Even-Zohar, an Israeli culture researcher and professor at Tel Aviv University, since the 1970s had been working on developing theoretical tools for dealing with the complexity of socio-cultural system. Moreover, Itamar Even-Zohar, influenced by Russian formalists, developed a theory of translation based on a conception of literature as a system. However, he showed how translations can occupy a primary or secondary position in the literary system. The term polysystem means a layered conglomerate of cohesive elements that changes and mutates while these elements are in interaction with one another. Itamar Even-Zohar offered a comprehensive theoretical framework on how literary system function and develop and also how translated literature affects the national literature or is affected by the nation literature. His polysystem theory moves the study of translation out of a purely linguistic analysis.

Untranslatability - part two

Next example of untranslatability is the case of the Italian word in the sentence 'C'è stato un tamponamento'. The sentence seems fully translatable, because English and Italian are sufficiently close to follow a loosely approximate pattern of sentence organization with regard to word order. The conceptual level is also translatable, because an event occorring in time past is being reported in time present. The difficulty concerns the translation of Italian word tamponamento, which emerges in English as a noun phrase:

Italian version: C'è stato un tamponamento.

English version: There has been / there was a slight accident (involving a vehicle). 

The word tamponamento is a sign that has culture-bound or context meaning, which cannot be translated even by an explanatory  phrase. Tamponamento is considered as a whole, so the term cannot be fully understood without some knowledge of Italian driving habits and the frequency with which 'slight accident' occur and the weighting and relevance of such incidents when they do occur.

Methods of translation

                                                             Methods of translation

Adaptation (free translation) is a translation method in which the translator replaces references to the source society or culture with corresponding features of the target society or culture which are more appropriate for readers of the target text.

Loan translation is a translation method whereby the translator translates a phrase literally into the target language (know as word for word translation).

Compensation is a method of translation whereby the translator can get around stylistic difficulties in the source text by introducing similar stylistic effects at other points in the target text. For example, many languages use two different second-person pronouns, one formal and one informal (French tu and vous, Spanish tú and Usted, Italian tu e Lei). Only English very rarely makes this distinction, so the translator must convey this in another way, using first names or nicknames, or through syntactic constructions which are seen as informal in English (I’m, you’re, gonna, dontcha).

Borrowing is a method of translation in which the translator uses a word or phrase from the source text in the target text without changing it. Borrowed words are normal printed in italics if the word is not regarded as having been integrated into the vocabulary of the target language.

Paraphrase  is a method of translation in which the translator renders one term in the source text using several words or an entire phrase.

Translator’s note is an explanation, usually a footnote, which the translator inserts to give details about the either the limitations of a translation or the source culture or any other information he or she feels is useful.

Untranslatable - part one

When a text or a certain expression haven’t equivalent in another language this phenomenon is described as untranslatable. Catford distinguishes two types of untranslatability: linguistic and cultural. On the linguistic level, untranslatability occurs when there is non lexical or syntactical substitute. In the book ‘Translation Studies’ published in 1980 by Susan Bassnett we can see the example of the English term ‘butter’ and the Italian translation ‘burro’. Both words refer to an edible dairy product in the form of a block of fat. It would nevertheless be incorrect to claim that ‘burro’ and ‘butter’ mean the same thing in both cultural contexts, because there are in fact the following differences:

Butter: deep yellow colour, salty taste and connotes with high class, compared to more common margarine. 

Burro: bright colour, sweet taste and no social connotations