Linguistics and Translation

The discipline of translation studies began as a corollary in the development of the linguistic sciences in the 20th century. It became almost an autonomous field

of study later. The central object of its study was always the activity of translation.

From a linguistic point of view - Translation is a special case of communication because sender and receiver do not share the same code: the translator recodes the message from the sender into the receiver's code. The main responsibility of the translator is to sustain the message although there is no one to one correspondence between the two code systems/languages.

Translation is no doubt a complex activity, but fundamentally it is always the transfer of a message from one language system to another. This implies that the very basis of translation must be a contrastive linguistic study of the systems of two languages (SL and TL) between which such transfer takes place. Contrastive linguistics seeks to explain the linguistic phenomenon by making use of contrast between two languages. It aims to bring out the similarities and differences between two linguistic systems. This is a valuable contribution and it helps the translators to a great extent. However some people tend to neglect the linguistic aspect of translation.

The point of objection to the relationship between translation and linguistics is that the translating activity involves aspects beyond its purely linguistic aspects.

It is true that some cultural, religious, ideological, social, economic and other aspects can not be explained by the language sciences alone. Translation is not just a linguistic activity. It is much more than that.

However linguistics plays an important role in the translation of a document from one language to another. Translating information includes more than just changing each word from the original language to another. One must also decode and decipher all the facets and functions of the original language into the new language. This is where the study and understanding of linguistics comes into play in translation. A linguistic approach to translation can help to understand the linguistic difficulties that make any act of translation complex.

The study of linguistics is essentially the study of human language. It can be broken down into several sub-categories.

Morphology: the study of the formation of words.
Syntax: the study of sentence formation (how words combine iota phrases/clauses)
Phonology: the study of sound systems of a language
Semantics: the study of word/sentence meaning.
Historical linguistics; the study of language evolution over time
Sociolinguistics: the study of how language is used in society
Psycholinguistics: the study of how language is processed in the mind.
Neurolinguistics: the study of the actual encoding of language in the brain.
Computational linguistics: the study of languages by using the techniques of computer science.

Accurate translation of one language to another requires addressing all the function aspects of linguistics.

Each language differs in its linguistic functions but there are commonalities among languages as well. An accurate translation must determine where the similarities and differences lie. Relying on only one area, grammar for example, will not produce an optimal translation. It may, in fact, be lacking in vital information if the other functions are not fully realised. A careful use of the tools provided by linguistic study will improve the quality and accuracy of a translated document.

The relationship between linguistics and translation has always provoked a lively and interesting debates. At the center of these debates is an essential question : is translation a branch of linguistics or is it a science in its own right? But even f we consider translation as a science in its own right it has to be recognised that it requires an interdisciplinary approach and linguistics as a science of language is the core of translation studies. Other disciplines are only peripherally important in comparison to linguistics.

In this respect Maria Tsigou argues quite rightly that :

" To claim that linguistics has nothing to do with translation - is false and misleading. Bcause during the process of translation - that is during the process transfer of message from one language to another, there is essentially a linguistic process going on and it can not be otherwise. Therefore linguistics and translation are very closely related by nature. Thus it is normal to expect that one must be a linguist before becoming a translator.

Translation studies have now evolved and changed into cultural studies and this has further subordinated and masked the role of linguistics in trying to present it as independent science. Different models of translation are now in prevalence but for every theoretical model of translation there is a corresponding linguistic theory.

The most common definition that "translation is the transfer of a message from source language to target language" makes it very clear that translation is purely a linguistic phenomenon. Roman Jakobson's typology of translation also stresses that translation is changing verbal signs of one language into other verbal signs of same language or verbal signs of other language or changing them into non- verbal signs in another medium/form. His focus on "verbal signs of language" again stresses the linguistic nature translation activity. For J. C. Catford translation is an operation between languages. It is a process of substituting a text in one language for another text in another language. According to him central problem of translation is to find exact equivalents in target language. This is often impossible so he comes up with the idea of untranslatability.

It is of two kinds

1. Linguistic untranslatability when you have no linguistic equivalent in TL for a word in SL (e.g. कल दो होते है एक बीता हुआ कल और दूसरा आनेवाला कल) and

2. Cultural untranslatability when a cultural concept or element in SL culture is absent in TL culture. (e.g. मंगलसूत्र, बलूतं, वटसावित्री पौर्णिमा etc)

In conclusion we can say that one can not be a good translator without a basic acquaintance with linguistic science. A thorough knowledge of languages (SL and TL) and all its aspects is a basic qualification for a good translator. Despite the claims of some people translation is nothing but a kind of applied linguistics. And applied linguistics is itself a branch of linguistics. Thus translation and linguistics are essentially and closely related and they can not be separated. Although it is true that translation can not be done purely at a linguistic level and it must incorporate cultural and contextual factors too. After all language is a product of culture which can not be ignored in translation activity.