A_TEXTBOOK_OF_TRANSLATION.doc

A TEXTBOOK OF TRANSLATION

Peter Newmark
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SHANGHAI FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION PRESS

9787810801232

A Textbook of Translation

Peter Newmark

SHANGHAI FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION PRESS

A Textbook of Translation
Peter Newmark

Prentice Hall
NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY TOKYO

First published 1988 by
Prentice HaH International vUIO Ltd.
66 Wood Lane End, Heme! Hempstead.
Hertfordshire, HP2 4RG
A division of
Simon &i Schuster International Group
(0 1988 Prentke Hall International >XK ' Ltd
All rights reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission, in writing, from the publisher. For permission within the United States of America contact Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632.
All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of materials used in this book. The Publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach.
Printed and bound in Great Britain bv A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd, Kxeter
Library of Congress Catahging-in-Pubiicariitn Data
Newmark, Peter
A textbook of translation,
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
L Translating and interpreting. L Title.
P306.N474 1987 418 .02 86-30593
ISBNO-B-912593-Oipbk.)
British Library Cataloguing in Pubhcauon Data
Newmark. Peter
A textbook of translation.
1. Translating and interpreting
[.Title
418,02 P306
ISBN 0-13-912593-0
Published by arrangement with Pearson Education Limited.
Licenced for sale in the People's Republic of China only, excluding Hong Kong

A Textbook of Translation

For my daughter Clare

Preface
This book has been five years in the writing. Sections of it have twice been stolen during travel and have been rewritten, hopeniliy better than the first time - the fond hope of ail writers who have had their MSS lost, stolen or betrayed. Its 'progress' has been further interrupted by requests for papers for conferences; four of these papers have been incorporated; others, listed in the bibliography are too specialised for inclusion here. It is not a conventional textbook. Instead of offering, as originally planned, texts in various languages for you to translate, I have supplied in the appendices examples of translational text analyses, translations with commentaries and translation criticism. They are intended to be helpful illustrations of many points made in the book, and models for you to react against when you do these three stimulating types of exercise.
If the book has a unifying element, it is the desire to be useful to the translator, Its various theories are only generalisations of translation practices. The points I make are for you to endorse or to reject, or simply think about.
The special terms I use are explained in the text and in the glossary.
I hope you will read this book in conjunction with its predecessor, Approaches to Translation, of which it is in many respects an expansion as well as a revision; in particular, the treatment of institutional terms and of metalanguage is more extensive in the earlier than in this book.
I dislike repeating myself writing or speaking, and for this reason I have reproduced say the paper on case grammar, about which at present I haven't much more to say, and which isn't easily come by.
This book is not written by a scholar, I once published a controversial piece on Corneille's Horace in French Studies, and was encouraged to work for a doctorate, but there was too much in the making that didn't interest me, so 1 gave up. And a German professor refused to review Approaches because it had so many mistakes in the bibliography; which is regrettable (he was asked to point them out, but refused; later, he changed his mind and reviewed the book), but academic detail is not the essential of that or this book either.
I am somewhat of a itteralist', because I am for truth and accuracy. I think that words as well as sentences and texts have meaning, and that you only deviate from literal translation when there are good semantic and pragmatic reasons for doing so, which is more often than not, except in grey texts. But that doesn't mean,
xt

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I'BEFACh

as Alex Brothenon (Amsterdam) has disparagingly written without evidence, that I believe in the * absolute primacy of the word1. There are no absolutes in translation, everything is conditional, any principle (e.g. accuracy) may be in opposition to another (e.g, economy) or at least there may be tension between them.
Much as at times I should like to get rid of the two bugbears of translation, the dear old context and the dear old readership, alas, we never can. lean only go as far as saying that some words in a text are far less context-bound than others; and that some readerships (say of a set of instructions, of which the readership is the reason for its existence) are more important than others (say a lyric, where the poet and his translator) may only be writing for himself.
Again when Halliday writes that language is entirely a social phenomenon and consequently collapses or conflates Biihler's expressive and appellative functions of language into the interpersonal function, stating that there is no distinction between the first two functions in language, I can only say that this is a matter of beliefor philosophy as the expression of belief, and that I disagree. But all this is to some extent a matter of emphasis (and reaction) rather than (diametrical) opposition. The single word is getting swamped in the discourse and the individual in the mass of society -1 am trying to reinstate them both, to redress the balance. If people express themselves individually in a certain type of text, translators must also express themselves individually, even if they are told they are only reacting to, and therefore conforming with, social discourse conventions of the time.
Writing a book about translation, 1 am aware that this is a new profession, though an old practice, and that the body of knowledge and of assumptions that exists about translation is tentative, often controversial and fluctuating.
This book is intended to be reasonably comprehensive, that is, to discuss most of the issues and problems that come up in translating. (In this aim, at least, the book is original.) In spite of the controversial nature of several of its chapters, it is therefore designed as a kind of reference book for translators. However, some of the shorter pieces in Chapter 18 are inadequate and can only offer you a few pointers. I hope to expand the book (my last one on translation) for a second edition, and I would welcome suggestions for its improvement,
Acknowledgements
I warmly thank Pauline Newmark, Elizabeth Newmark and Matthew Newmark, whom I have consulted so frequently; Vaughan James, who has helped so much at every stage; Vera North, who coped so superbly with the ins and outs of my handwriting; Mary FitzGerald; Sheila Silcock; Margaret Rogers, Louise Hurren; Mary Harrison; Simon Chau, Hans Lindquist, Rene Dirben, Robin Trew, Harold Leyrer, David Harvey.

Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xii
Parti Principles
1 Introduction
2 The Analysis of a Text 11
Reading the text 11
The intention of the text 12
The intention of the translator 12
Text styles 13
The readership 13
Stylistic scales 14
Attitude 15
Setting 15
The quality of the writing 16
Connotations and denotations 16
The last reading 17
Conclusion 17
3 The Process of Translation 19
Introduction 19
The relation of translating ro translation theory 19
The approach 20
The textual level 22
The referential level 23
v

CONTENTS
The cohesive level 2 3
The level of naturalness 24
Combining the four levels 29
The unit of translating 30
The translation of texts 32
The translation of proper names 35
Revision 36
Conclusion 37
Language Functions, Text-categories and Text-types 39
The expressive function 39
The informative function 40
The vocative function 41
The aesthetic function 42
The pharic function 43
The metalingual function 43
Translation Methods 45
Introduction 45
The methods 45
Comments on the methods 47
Equivalent effect . 48
Methods and Lext-categories 50
Translating 51
Other methods 52
The Unit of Translation and Discourse Analysis 54
Introduction 54
Coherence 55
Titles 56
Dialogue cohesion 57
Punctuation 58
Sound-effects 58
Cohesion 59
Referential synonyms 59
Enumerators 60
Other connectives 60
Functional sentence perspective 60
Contrasts 63
The lower units of translation 65
Conclusion 66

CONTENTS
vii

7 Literal Translation 68
Introduction 68
Varieties of close translation 69
The translation of poetry 70
Faithful and false friends 72
Words in their context 73
Elegant variations 73
Back-translation of text (BTT) 74
Accepted translation 74
Constraints on literal translation 75
Natural translation 75
Re-creative translation 76
Literary translation 77
The sub-text 77
The notion of theKno-equivalent1 word - 78
The role of context 80
8 The Other Translation Procedures 81
Transference 81
Naturalisation 82
Cultural equivalent 82
Functional equivalent 83
Descriptive equivalent 83
Synonymy 84
Through-translation 84
Shifts or transpositions 85
Modulation 88
Recognised translation 89
Translation label 90
Compensation 90
Componential analysis 90
Reduction and expansion 90
Paraphrase 90
Other procedures 90
Couplets 91
Notes, additions, glosses 91
9 Translation and Culture 94
Definitions 95
Cultural categories %
General considerations 96
Ecology 97
Material culture 97

Vltl CONTENTS
Social culture 98
Social organisation - political and administrative 99
Gestures and habits 102
Summary of procedures 103
10 The Translation of Metaphors 104
Definitions 106
Translating metaphors 106
Types of metaphor 106
11 The Use of Componeniial Analysis in Translation U4
Introduction 114
Lexical words 317
Cultural words 119
Synonyms 120
Sets and series 121
Conceptual terms 121
Neologisms 122
Words as myths 123
Conclusion 123
12 The Application of Case Grammar to Translation 125
Introduction 125
The translation of missing verbs, i.e. verbalforce 126
The translation of case-gaps 129
Various types of case-partner 132
Contrast and choice in translation 134
Some related issues 135
Case partners of adjectives and nouns 136
A remark on Tesniere 138
Conclusion 138
13 The Translation of Neologisms 140
Introduction 140
Old words with new senses 141
New coinages 142
Derived words 143
Abbreviations 145
Collocations 145
Eponyms 146
Phrasai words 147

CONTENTS
}X

Transferred words 147
Acronyms 148
Pseudo-neologisms 148
The creation of neologisms 149
A frame of reference for the translation of neologisms 150
14 Technical Translation 151
Introduction 151
Technical style 151
Terms 152
Varieties of technical style 152
Technical and descriptive terms 153
Beginning technical translation 154
Translation method L55
The title 156*
Going through the text 158
Conclusion IfrO
Appendix; sampletest 161
15 The Translation of Serious Literature and Authoritative Statements 162
Introduction 162
Poetry 162
The short story/novel 170
Drama 172
Conclusion 173
16 Reference Boohs and their Uses; Tracing the'Unfindable' Word 174
Introduction 174
Resources 175
[Unfindables words 176
17 Translation Criticism 184
Introduction 184
Planofcriticism 186
Text analysts 186
The translator's purpose 186
Comparing the translation with the original !87
The evaluation of the translation 188
The translation's future 189
Marking a translation 189
Quality in translation 192

X
CONTENTS

18 Shorter Items 193
Words and context 193
The translation of dialect 194
You and the computer 195
Function and description 198
The translation of eponyms and acronyms 198
Familiar alternative terms 201
When and how to improve a text 204
Collocations 212
The translation of proper names 214
The translation of puns ■ 217
The translation of weights, measures, quantities and currencies 217
Ambiguity 218
19 Revision Hints for Exams and Deadlines 221
20 By Way of a Conclusion 225
Part II Methods
Introductory note 229
Test 1 Tower needs clear eyes1, The Economist 231
Text 2 'Vppcr gastroint^imal endoscopy1, British Medical Journal 234
Text 3 Brideshead Revisited (Waugh) 238
Text 4 4Une certaine idee de la France' (De Gaulle) 242
Text 5 4Le Parti Socialiste' (Source unknown) 245
Text 6 Ala Recherche du Temps Perdu (Proust) 248
Text 7 'Presentation d'un cas de toxoplasmose', Bordeaux Medical 250
Text 8 'Dialysebehandlung bei akutem Nierenversagen', Deutsche
Medizinische Wochenschrifi 254
Text 9 Alexander von Humboldt (Hein) 259
Text 10 VAdoraticm (BoreL) 264
Text 11 Die Blasse Anna (Boll) 267
Text 12 La SocUti Francaise (Dupeux) 272
Text 13 'ZumWohlealler\SC,4Z^ 277
Glossary 282
Abbreviations 286
Medical terminology 288
BihHograpky 289
Name index 291
Subject index 292

PART
I

Principles
Figures appear in Part I as follows:
1 The dynamics of translation ■*
2 A functional theory of language 20
3 Language functions, text-categories and text-types 40
4 The Translation of metaphor 105
5 Scalar diagrams 116
6 Equation diagram 116
7 Matrix diagram 117
8 Parallel tree diagram 117

CHAPTER 1
Introduction
My purpose in this book is to offer a course in translation principles and methodology for final-year-degree and post-graduate classes as well as for autodidacts and home learners. Further, I have in mind that I am addressing non-English as well as English students, and I will provide some appropriate English texts and examples to work on.
1 shall assume that you, the reader, are learning to translate into your language of habitual use, since that is the only way you can translate naturally, accurately and with maximum effectiveness In fact, however, most translators do translate out of theii own language ('service' translation) and contribute greatly to many people's hilarity in the process.
Further, I shall assume that you have a degree-level 'reading and comprehension' ability in one foreign language and a particular interest in one of the three main areas of translation: (a) science and technology, (b) social, economic and/or political topics and institutions, and (c) literary and philosophical works. Normally, only (a) and (b) provide a salary; (c) is free-lance work.
Bear in mind, however, that knowing a foreign language and your subject is not as important as being sensitive to language and being competent to write your own language dexterously, clearly, economically and resourcefully. Experience with translationese, for example,
Strauss' Opus 29 stands under the star of Bierbaum who in his lyric poems