The Analysis of Translation Techniques

“Mustika Ratu Bengkoang Roots Masker”

English:

With Bengkoang (Yam Bean) extract, Licorice extract and a vitamin C derivate that help lightens spots on your skin, this mask will leave the skin feeling firmer, smoother and more radiant.

Directions:

Apply onto face and neck. Avoid the eye area. Leave it on until it dries (± 10 minutes), then rinse with water. Use regularly twice a week for best results.

Indonesia:

Ekstrak umbi bengkoang, akar manis dan derivate vitamin C dalam kandungan masker bengkoang membantu kulit wajah menjad terasa kencang, lebih lembut, lebih cerah dan menyamarkan noda hitam.

Cara Pakai:

Oleskan pada wajah dan leher. Hindari daerah mata. Diamkan hingga kering (±10 menit) lalu bersihkan dengan air. Gunakan secara teratur 2 kali seminggu untuk hasil optimal.

English	Indonesia	Techniques
With Bengkoang	umbi bengkoang	It uses Borrowing technique because it uses bengkoang, a word in bahasa Indonesia.
With Bengkoang (Yam Bean) extract	Ekstrak umbi bengkoang	This sentence uses Description technique. Because it uses “umbi” to describe the specific part of bengkoang which is used in this mask.
this mask will leave the skin feeling firmer, smoother and more radiant.	masker bengkoang membantu kulit wajah menjad terasa kencang, lebih lembut, lebih cerah dan menyamarkan noda hitam.	This sentence uses Transposition technique, because it changes the grammatical category from English to Indonesia so that Indonesian users can understand the meaning in their language context.
Apply onto face and neck	Oleskan pada wajah dan leher	It uses Generalization technique, because it uses “oleskan” than “aplikasikan” the real meaning of word “apply” to make it more general and easy to understand.
Leave it on until it dries	Diamkan hingga kering	This sentence uses Transposition technique, because it changes the grammatical category from English to Indonesian context.
Use regularly twice a week for best results.	Gunakan secara teratur 2 kali seminggu untuk hasil optimal	It also uses Generalization technique. It uses “optimal” than “hasil yang terbaik” from the translation of “best result” because it’s made more general and effective.
Source:  a Mustika Ratu Bengkoang Roots Masker product

 

Translation Procedures, Strategies and Methods by Mahmoud Ordudari

Translation typically has been used to transfer written or spoken SL texts to equivalent written or spoken TL texts. In general, the purpose of translation is to reproduce various kinds of texts including religious, literary, scientific, and philosophical texts in another language and thus making them available to wider readers.

Translation procedures, strategies and methods

The translating procedures, as depicted by Nida (1964) are as follow:

1. Technical procedures:
1. analysis of the source and target languages;
2. a through study of the source language text before making attempts translate it;
3. Making judgments of the semantic and syntactic approximations. (pp. 241-45)
    
2. Organizational procedures: constant reevaluation of the attempt made; contrasting it with the existing available translations of the same text done by other translators, and checking the text's communicative effectiveness by asking the target language readers to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reactions (pp. 246-47).

Newmark (1988b) mentions the difference between translation methods and translation procedures:

1. Word-for-word translation: in which the SL word order is preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context.
2. Literal translation: in which the SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents, but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context.
3. Faithful translation: it attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures.
4. Semantic translation: which differs from 'faithful translation' only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text.
5. Adaptation: which is the freest form of translation, and is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten.
6. Free translation: it produces the TL text without the style, form, or content of the original.
7. Idiomatic translation: it reproduces the 'message' of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original.
8. Communicative translation: it attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership (1988b: 45-47).

Procedures of translating culture-specific concepts (CSCs)

Graedler (2000:3) puts forth some procedures of translating CSCs:

1. Making up a new word.
2. Explaining the meaning of the SL expression in lieu of translating it.
3. Preserving the SL term intact.
4. Opting for a word in the TL which seems similar to or has the same "relevance" as the SL term.

Defining culture-bound terms (CBTs) as the terms which "refer to concepts, institutions and personnel which are specific to the SL culture" (p.2), Harvey (2000:2-6) puts forward the following four major techniques for translating CBTs:

1. Functional Equivalence: It means using a referent in the TL culture whose function is similar to that of the source language (SL) referent. As Harvey (2000:2) writes, authors are divided over the merits of this technique: Weston (1991:23) describes it as "the ideal method of translation," while Sarcevic (1985:131) asserts that it is "misleading and should be avoided."
2. Formal Equivalence or 'linguistic equivalence': It means a 'word-for-word' translation.
3. Transcription or 'borrowing' (i.e. reproducing or, where necessary, transliterating the original term): It stands at the far end of SL-oriented strategies. If the term is formally transparent or is explained in the context, it may be used alone. In other cases, particularly where no knowledge of the SL by the reader is presumed, transcription is accompanied by an explanation or a translator's note.
4. Descriptive or self-explanatory translation: It uses generic terms (not CBTs) to convey the meaning. It is appropriate in a wide variety of contexts where formal equivalence is considered insufficiently clear. In a text aimed at a specialized reader, it can be helpful to add the original SL term to avoid ambiguity. 

The different translation procedures that Newmark (1988b) proposes:

1. Transference: it is the process of transferring an SL word to a TL text. It includes transliteration and is the same as what Harvey (2000:5) named "transcription."
2. Naturalization: it adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then to the normal morphology of the TL. (Newmark, 1988b:82)
3. Cultural equivalent: it means replacing a cultural word in the SL with a TL one. however, "they are not accurate" (Newmark, 1988b:83)
4. Functional equivalent: it requires the use of a culture-neutral word. (Newmark, 1988b:83)
5. Descriptive equivalent: in this procedure the meaning of the CBT is explained in several words. (Newmark, 1988b:83)
6. Componential analysis: it means "comparing an SL word with a TL word which has a similar meaning but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent, by demonstrating first their common and then their differing sense components." (Newmark, 1988b:114)
7. Synonymy: it is a "near TL equivalent." Here economy trumps accuracy. (Newmark, 1988b:84)
8. Through-translation: it is the literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations and components of compounds. It can also be called: calque or loan translation. (Newmark, 1988b:84)
9. Shifts or transpositions: it involves a change in the grammar from SL to TL, for instance, (i) change from singular to plural, (ii) the change required when a specific SL structure does not exist in the TL, (iii) change of an SL verb to a TL word, change of an SL noun group to a TL noun and so forth. (Newmark, 1988b:86)
10. Modulation: it occurs when the translator reproduces the message of the original text in the TL text in conformity with the current norms of the TL, since the SL and the TL may appear dissimilar in terms of perspective. (Newmark, 1988b:88)
11. Recognized translation: it occurs when the translator "normally uses the official or the generally accepted translation of any institutional term." (Newmark, 1988b:89)
12. Compensation: it occurs when loss of meaning in one part of a sentence is compensated in another part. (Newmark, 1988b:90)
13. Paraphrase: in this procedure the meaning of the CBT is explained. Here the explanation is much more detailed than that of descriptive equivalent. (Newmark, 1988b:91)
14. Couplets: it occurs when the translator combines two different procedures. (Newmark, 1988b:91)
15. Notes: notes are additional information in a translation. (Newmark, 1988b:91)

Leppihalme (1997:79) proposes another set of strategies for translating the proper name allusions:

1. Retention of the name:
1. using the name as such.
2. using the name, adding some guidance.f
3. using the name, adding a detailed explanation, for instance, a footnote.  
2. Replacement of the name by another:
1. replacing the name by another SL name.
2. replacing the name by a TL name
3. Omission of the name:
1. omitting the name, but transferring the sense by other means, for instance by a common noun.
2. omitting the name and the allusion together.

Moreover, nine strategies for the translation of key-phrase allusions are proposed by Leppihalme (1997: 82) as follows:

1. Use of a standard translation,
2. Minimum change, that is, a literal translation, without regard to connotative or contextual meaning,
3. Extra allusive guidance added in the text,
4. The use of footnotes, endnotes, translator's notes and other explicit explanations not supplied in the text but explicitly given as additional information,
5. Stimulated familiarity or internal marking, that is, the addition of intra-allusive allusion ,
6. Replacement by a TL item,
7. Reduction of the allusion to sense by rephrasing,
8. Re-creation, using a fusion of techniques: creative construction of a passage which hints at the connotations of the allusion or other special effects created by it,
9. Omission of the allusion.

Conclusion

Although some stylists consider translation "sprinkled with footnotes" undesirable, their uses can assist the TT readers to make better judgment of the ST contents. Various strategies opted for by translators in rendering allusions seem to play a crucial role in recognition and perception of connotations carried by them. If a novice translator renders a literary text without paying adequate attention to the allusions, the connotations are likely not to be transferred as a result of the translator's failure to acknowledge them. They will be entirely lost to the majority of the TL readers; consequently, the translation will be ineffective.