Translation and Interpretation

1.Translation and interpretation: historical development

Translation, oral or written, is probably as old as the spoken and written words. Even somewhat isolated tribes have contacts with one another in spite of the fact that they speak different languages. As a result, there have always been some bilingual speakers. Three-thousand year old bi-lingual treaties between the Hittites and pharaonic Egypt have been unearthed. Throughout the ages, famous writers have tried their hand at the "art of translating": from Cicero through St Jerome, Maimonide, Dante, Oresna, Rivarol, Leopardi, Goethe, Pope, ChGteaubriand, Gogol, Leconte de Lisle to Gide.

Today, there are some fifty national associations of translators and a good many journals which report on individual experiences in translating. What characterizes these reports, nevertheless, is a singular lack of a solid theoretical foundation. One may possibly ascribe to the author of Language and Thought (1939), the American Wilbur Marshall Urban, the first scientific attempt at examining the philosophical aspect of translation. Linguists, such as Gardiner, Jespersen, Vossler, and Sapir, were consulted by Urban. Already in 1923, Bronislaw Malinowski had given us a remarkable appendix (The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages) to C.K. Ogden's and I.A. Richards's 8th edition of their The Meaning of Meaning. The fundamental problems were at least discussed - total translatability or total (or partial) non-t

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c and technical books. . Translation of fiction. . Drama and opera. . Legal and official documents. . Contracts and tenders. . Certificates and other legal papers. . National and international standards. . Material and equipment specifications. . Scientific papers. . Technical articles. . Cover-to-cover. . Reports and articles. . Abstracts. . Monitoring. . Telexes, etc. . Technical drawings. . Oral translations. . The spoken word. . Journal translation. How does one know when a translation is "good"? One does not, really. "There are no absolute standards of translation quality but only more or less appropriate translations for the purposes for which they are intended." (Sager, 1989). Inasmuch as a translated text is of and by itself a literary or technical creative piece of work, it can only be judged by its effects on the reader. One would think that if the effect on the reader reading the translation is the same as that on a reader reading the original, the translation would be considered "good". However, this would not take into account the cultural differences between readers. 4.Translation and the Arab World "The diversity of types of Arabic gives rise to a host of problems..." (Picken, 1989). Indeed

Category: Psychology - T