ATA ATA Translation Transfer Skills 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does 'dynamic equivalence' mean in translation theory and practice?
- Translating every word with its closest dictionary equivalent
- Producing a target text that has the same effect on its readers as the source text had on its readers (Correct answer)
- Maintaining the grammatical structure of the source in the target text
- Translating only the denotative meaning while ignoring connotation
Correct answer: Producing a target text that has the same effect on its readers as the source text had on its readers
Dynamic equivalence, developed by Eugene Nida, prioritizes producing equivalent effect in the target-language reader rather than formal correspondence to source-language structure.
Eugene Nida's concept of dynamic equivalence holds that the best translation produces in the target-language reader the same response that the source text produced in its original readers. This contrasts with formal equivalence, which prioritizes structural and linguistic correspondence. Dynamic equivalence is particularly important in advertising and literary texts.
Question 2: Which transfer strategy is most appropriate for culturally specific concepts that have no direct equivalent in the target language?
- Omit the concept entirely to avoid confusion
- Use borrowing, calque, or an explanatory equivalent to convey the concept (Correct answer)
- Substitute the nearest cultural equivalent even if it changes meaning
- Always use footnotes and never translate the term itself
Correct answer: Use borrowing, calque, or an explanatory equivalent to convey the concept
When source-language concepts lack target-language equivalents, translators use borrowing, calque, or explanatory equivalents to convey meaning.
Cultural gaps -- concepts, institutions, or objects that exist in the source culture but not the target culture -- are among the most challenging aspects of translation. Available strategies include borrowing (using the source-language word as a loan word), calque (translating each component of a compound term), functional equivalents, descriptive translation, and cultural substitution. The appropriate strategy depends on the text type, audience, and communicative purpose.
Question 3: What is 'transposition' as a translation procedure?
- Moving paragraphs from one section of the text to another
- Changing the grammatical category of a word while preserving the meaning (e.g., verb to noun) (Correct answer)
- Replacing a source-language idiom with a target-language idiom of opposite meaning
- Translating from an intermediate language rather than the source language
Correct answer: Changing the grammatical category of a word while preserving the meaning (e.g., verb to noun)
Transposition is a translation technique where the word class changes between source and target text without changing the overall meaning.
Transposition, identified by Vinay and Darbelnet, involves replacing one grammatical class with another while conveying the same meaning. For example, the French 'apres son retour' (after his return -- noun) might be transposed into English as 'after he returned' (clause with verb). It is a core technique in achieving natural target-language expression.
Question 4: In translation of legal documents, why is back-translation sometimes used and what are its limitations?
- Back-translation is used to verify that a translation is word-for-word identical to the source; its limitation is cost
- Back-translation is used as a quality check, but cannot guarantee equivalence because languages are not symmetrical (Correct answer)
- Back-translation is prohibited in legal translation
- Back-translation produces a more accurate translation than direct translation
Correct answer: Back-translation is used as a quality check, but cannot guarantee equivalence because languages are not symmetrical
Back-translation re-translates the target text into the source language to check for discrepancies, but it is imperfect because translation is not a reversible process.
Back-translation is used in quality assurance by having a second translator render the target text back into the source language. If the result closely matches the original source, this provides some evidence of accuracy. However, back-translation has significant limitations: a skilled translator can produce a natural-sounding back-translation even from a flawed target text.
Question 5: What is the primary goal of 'localization' as distinct from standard translation?
- Localization refers exclusively to translating a text into a regional dialect
- Localization adapts content culturally, technically, and linguistically to make it fully appropriate for a specific locale and market (Correct answer)
- Localization means translating only the user interface elements of software
- Localization removes all cultural references from the source text
Correct answer: Localization adapts content culturally, technically, and linguistically to make it fully appropriate for a specific locale and market
Localization goes beyond linguistic translation to adapt content -- including cultural references, units, date formats, images, and legal requirements -- for a specific target market.
Localization is the process of adapting a product, service, or content for a specific locale beyond mere linguistic translation. It includes adapting cultural references, humor, color symbolism, units of measurement, date and number formats, regulatory requirements, and visual design. Localization aims to make the target version feel as though it was originally created for the target market.
Question 6: How should a translator approach 'implicature' -- meaning that is implied but not explicitly stated -- in the source text?
- Always make implicit meaning explicit in the target text
- Preserve the same degree of implicitness in the target text, conveying the implied meaning through natural target-language expression (Correct answer)
- Ignore implicature because only explicit content should be translated
- Add footnotes explaining all implied meanings
Correct answer: Preserve the same degree of implicitness in the target text, conveying the implied meaning through natural target-language expression
Translators should generally preserve the same level of implicitness as the source, conveying implied meaning through natural target-language expressions rather than always making it explicit.
Implicature refers to meaning that is conveyed indirectly through the pragmatic context of an utterance. When a source text implies something without stating it directly, the translator must decide how to handle this in the target language. The default professional approach is to preserve the same level of implicitness using target-language expressions that imply the same thing to a target-language reader.
ATA ATA Translation Transfer Skills 2
What does 'dynamic equivalence' mean in translation theory and practice?