this is a good proposal for translation studies

1. Universidad de Quintana Roo
Division of Political Sciences and Humanities
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Translation
ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMME
Researcher’s name: Isaí Castillo Hernández
Student’s registration number: 10-11436
Working Title: English-Spanish translation of the chapters: “Rebuilding of
the Party”, “Rise to Power”, and “Third Reich” by Matthew Moses
General Line of Research: Applied linguistics
Nature of Research: Documentary research
Date: 13/12/2014

2. 1. Introduction
1.1 Background
Translation has been something really important for me since I started to work on the
wonderful world of the languages. As a Spanish native speaker I find translation as a tool of
work, and it allows me to know not only my source language but also the target language. More
than a job, translation is for me an art, and art is one of the most creative things someone can
do. As any other job, translation is a disciplined job. Translators should be responsible with it.
One of my greater cravings is to become a translator someday. I would like to translate texts
from the English language to my source language which is Spanish. In my short time of
translation I have realized that it is not as difficult as I thought. It takes a long time to translate
but that is the way translation is.
This is the reason for I have chosen doing a translation to work on, since if I want to be a good
translator, this is the perfect time to start. The following translation I will be doing is about the
history of a famous person in the world, Adolf Hitler. Therefore, the English-Spanish translation
I will present will make the reader go back to the past and know more about this character, his
life and concerns about politics.

3. 1.2 Rationale
The following translation has been asked for with the purpose of teaching in literature and
history classrooms. The book what I will be working on is called “Hitler, triumphant” by
Matthew Moses. This is a book in which is explained what would have happen if Adolf Hitler
would have won and achieved all his goals in life. The chapters I will be working on is called
“Rebuilding of the Party”, “Rise to Power”, and “Third Reich”.
Furthermore these chapters will help students to think about the importance of the
literature and history since nowadays these topics are being forgotten. With this translation
I want students make consciousness about how Adolf Hitler’s life was and his concerns
about politics.

4. 1.3 Objectives
The main objective of this work is to provide information full of history and culture about
Adolf Hitler’s life and politics to the students of the Vanguardia Educativa School. This
translation will take a really important place since teachers of this school will need the
information for presentations they will be doing in Literature and History classes.
The secondary objective of this translation is to provide to the society a Spanish translation
of these three chapters, since for me this text is written only in English.
Besides, I will use different translation techniques which take an important place in this
translation. The use of these translation techniques will help me to provide readers a good
and understandable Spanish translation of these chapters.

5. 1.4 Significance of the research project
The English-Spanish translation of these chapters will be useful for Spanish native speakers
so that they can enjoy the story and feel as though they were part of the story. As head of
this work, this is an opportunity for me to put all my effort and creativity on this translation.
This work will be of importance for me to develop my translation skills and use the
translation techniques learned.
Besides, the translation of these chapters will show Hitler’s thoughts about life and war
getting students of the Vanguardia Educativa School to make consciousness of the
importance of History.
At doing this work I will contribute the society an important work which can be used by
people interested in this kind of history texts providing ideas of how life was in those years
when wars were the daily bread.

6. 2. Literature review
2.1 Definition of translation
According to Bell (1991: 5-6) translation is the expression in another language (or target
language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and
stylistic equivalences. He defines translation also as the replacement of a representation of a text
in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language.
According to Adriana Tassisni (2012, 13) translation is the act of moving written text from one
language to another. On the other hand, she says that translation is a very difficult task. As any
language student knows to his or her dismay, words, phrases, idioms, and expressions in one
language do not necessarily correspond to those in another. At most basic level, there are the
pitfalls of false cognates or false friends, reversed word order, pictograms vs. alphabets, and so
forth. In the end, translation is really not about words; it is all about communicating meaning, a
very complicated task, indeed. And when more than one language gets involved, the task grows
exponentially harder, often resulting in a true Tower of Babel.
Jeremy Munday (2012) states that the English term translation, first attested in aroud 1340,
derives either from Old French translation or more directly from the Latin translation
(‘transporting’), itself coming from the participle of the verb transferre (‘to carry over’). In the
field of languages, translation today has several meanings:
1. The general subject field or phenomenon (‘I studied translation at university’)
2. The product-that is, the text that has been translated (‘they published the Arabic translation
of the report’)
3. The process of producing the translation, otherwise known as translating (‘translation
service’)

7. 2.2 History of translation
2.2.1 Translating the Bible
Translation has been used for many years. In fact, this is one of the oldest occupations in the
world according to Marry Soffer (2006). A clear example of this is the translation of the bible.
As we know the bible is one of the books in the world translated into 2,527 languages.
(Sociedades Bíblicas Unidas, 2014)
“The history of translation, not unlike the history of culture itself, begins with religion
and eventually leads into secular culture. Language has always been a critical element of
religion. To every culture, its language has been always sacred. It was the means of
maintaining and transmitting traditions, and of communicating with the higher powers.
Therefore, the issue of translating one’s sacred writing and prayers into another language
was always a very critical decision, which was never taken lightly”. Morry Sofer (1991, 21)
The Judeo-Christian-Muslim world derives its culture from a common source, namely, a set
of books originally written in Hebrew, known to Christians as the Old Testament, to Muslims
as the Holy Books, and to Jews as the Tanakh (acronym for Torah, Prophets and Writings).

8. The Hebrew Bible was created over a period of some one thousand years roughly 1300-300 B.C.
By the time it was completed, its originators had begun to disperse around the Middle East, and
spoke several languages other than Hebrew, including Aramaic and Greek.
While Jewish life and learning flourished in and around Babylonia, with Aramaic and its main
language, a major Jewish community prospered in Alexandria, Egypt. Here the dominant culture
was Greek, and the main language spoken by the Jews was Greek. This gave rise to the first
great translation of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Septuagint, Latin for Seventy, the number of
scholars that by tradition, translated the Bible from the Hebrew.
No translator in history achieved greater honor and acclaimed than St. Jerome (347-419, the
patron saint of translators in the Catholic Church. Jerome translated both the Greek and Hebrew
versions of the Bible into Latin, and produced the Vulgate, the standard Bible for the next
thousand years. Throughout his life in Europe and in the Middle East, translation was his great
passion, and despite adversity, he managed to leave the Church a vast corpus of translations
and commentaries which were pivotal for the development of the Christian civilization. (Morry
Soffer, 2013)

9. 2.3 Requisites for professional translators
The ability to translate a word or even one sentence into another language does not mean that
one can be considered a qualified translator. Rather, it is necessary to develop this special
talent, usually fueled by a passion for translating.
Translating is an innate type of skill – it is the ability to translate one language into another
precisely, accurately, and in all of it meanings. According to Morry Sofer (2013) there are ten
requisites needed prior to becoming a professional translator.
1. Knowledge of both the source and target language – being fully familiar with both
languages.
2. Familiarity with the culture in which the language is being used – knowing traditions,
manners, and being familiar with people that use it.
3. Ability to keep up with the growth and changes of the language – words might change their
meaning from time to time.
4. Making distinctions between the languages translated from and into.
5. Ability to translate in more than just one area of knowledge – interest in increasing
vocabulary in a variety of related and unrelated fields of translation.3
6. Facility for writing or speaking – must be able to translate accurately either orally or in
writing.
7. Development of a good speed of translation – work fast without compromising the integrity
of your documents.
8. Engaged research skills – the ability to acquire references to produce a high quality
translation.
9. Computer skills - keep up with new developments.
10. Consider the fact that certain languages are in high demand if you wish to be busy on a
regular basis doing translation work.

10. 2.4 Translator Skill Levels
Morry Sofer (2013) explains that translators are classified by levels. These are the levels:
Level 0. No functional ability to translate the language. Consistently misunderstanding or
cannot understand at all.
• Level 0+. Can translate all or some place names (i.e., street or city designations), corporate
names, numbers and isolated words and phrases, often translating these inaccurately. In
rendering translations, writes using only memorized materials and set expressions. Spelling
and representation of symbols (letters, syllabus, characters), are frequently incorrect.
• Level 1. Sufficient skill to translate the simplest connected written material in a form
equivalent to usual printing or typescript. Can translate either representations or familiar
formulaic verbal exchanges or simple language containing only the highest-frequency
grammatical patterns and vocabulary items, including cognates when appropriate. In
rendering translations, writes in simple sentences (or clauses), making continual errors in
spelling, grammar and punctuation, but translation can be read and understood by a native
reader used to dealing with foreigners attempting to translate his/her language.
• Level 1+. Sufficient skill to translate simple discourse for informative social purposes in
printed form. Can translate material such as announcements or public events, popular
advertising notes containing biographical information or narration of events and
straightforward newspaper headlines. In rendering translations, writing shows good control
of elementary vocabulary and some control of basic syntactic patterns, but major errors still
occur when expressing more complex thoughts.

11. • Level 2. Sufficient skill to translate simple authentic written material in a form equivalent to
usual printing. Can translate uncomplicated, but authentic prose on familiar subjects that are
normally present in a predictable sequence, which aids the translator in his/her work. In
rendering translations, has written vocabulary sufficient to perform simple translations with
some circumlocutions.
• Level 2+. Sufficient skill to translate most factual material in non-technical prose as well as
some discussions on concrete topics related to special professional interests. In rendering
translations, often shows surprising fluency and ease of expression.
• Level 3. Able to translate authentic prose or unfamiliar subjects. Translating ability is not
dependent on subject matter knowledge. In rendering translations, control of structure,
spelling and general vocabulary are well adequate.

12. • Level 3+. Increased the ability to translate a variety of styles and forms of language
pertinent to professional needs. In rendering translations, able to write the language in a
few prose styles pertinent to professional/educational needs.
• Level 4. Able to translate fluently and accurately all styles and forms of languages
pertinent to professional needs. In rendering translations, able to write the language
precisely and accurately in a variety of prose styles pertinent to professional/educational
needs.
• Level 4+. Increased ability to translate extremely difficult or abstract prose. Increased
ability to translate a great variety of vocabulary, idioms, etc. In rendering translations, able
to write the language precisely and accurately.
• Level 5. Can translate extremely difficult and abstract prose. Translate a wide variety of
vocabulary and idioms, colloquialism, slang and pertinent cultural references. In rendering
translations, has writing proficiency equal to that of a well-educated native. Without errors
of grammar, spelling, style or vocabulary.

13. 2.5 Translation techniques
Translating texts is not as easy as many might think. It depends on the kind of topic the
translator is working on. For example, it is not the same thing working with a scientific text
than working with a more social topic.
According to Vinay and Darbelnet (2000, 84-93) there are some translation techniques that
can help us to translate texts more easily.) I will explain each one of them in a brief way.
• Borrowing. It is the simplest of all translation methods. It is the talking of words directly
from one language into another without translation. The English word “bulldozer” has
been incorporated directly into other languages.
• Calque. A calque is a special kind of borrowing whereby a language borrows an
expression form of another, but then translates literally each of its elements. For
instance, the word “football” is translated as “fútbol” and “balompié”.
• Literal translation. It is the direct transfer of a second language text into a grammatically
and idiomatically appropriate target language text in which translators’ tasks is limited to
observing the adherence to the linguistic servitudes of the target language. For example,
the phrase “good morning” is translated as “buenos días”.

14. • Transposition. This method involves the replacement of one word class with another
without changing the meaning of the message. For instance, “reconstruction of the city is
very important” can be written as “reconstructing the city is very important” or “to
reconstruct the city is very important”. The translation of these sentences into Spanish has
the same meaning which is “la reconstrucción de la ciudad es muy importante”.
• Modulation. It is a variation of the form of the message, obtained by a change in the point
of view. This change can be justified when, although a literal, or even transposed,
translation results in a grammatically correct utterance, it is considered unsuitable,
unidiomatic or awkward in the target language. The expressions “it is not difficult to
show” and “it is easy to show” are examples of modulation.
• Equivalence. This process is creative, but not always easy. Here you have to express
something in a completely different way, for example when translating idioms or
advertising slogans. Here we have an example; the phrase “stop splitting hairs” is
translated as “deja de buscarle cinco patas al gato”.
• Adaptation. With this method we reach the extreme limit of translation: it is used in those
cases where the type of situation being referred to by the second language message is
unknown in the target language. For example “The Sound of Music” is translates as
“Sonrisas y Lágrimas”.

15. 3. Methodology
First of all, the chapters to be translated are: “Rebuilding of the Party”, “Rise to Power”, and
“Third Reich”. As I said before, these chapters will be used in a school to teach history and
literature. This is a book written by Matthew Moses in which he describes the life of Hitler and
what could have happened if Adolf Hitler would have achieved his goals in life. It is pretended
that these chapters will help students to think and make consciousness about the importance of
history and literature.

16. These are some of the tools I will use to translate the text:
• Dictionaries: online and printed. They can help you to find definitions of words, and their
equivalence, for example from English to Spanish and from Spanish to English. Some
examples of online dictionaries I will use are: Cambridge, Oxford, Word Reference, and
the Free Dictionary. I will also use the Thesaurus.com synonym Dictionary. The printed
dictionaries I will use are Cambridge and Oxford which are English-Spanish dictionaries.
• Computer: This is also an important tool for a translator because you can store
everything you do. This is a tool that translators must consider because this instrument
makes the work easier. Using a computer is very useful and helpful because translators
can save time and money. They can save their advances of the work. In other words, I can
say that this intelligent instrument is one of the most important tools a translator must
have.
• Experts: It is important to find out teacher that have a great knowledge in linguistics.
They can help you to choose between one word and another. Therefore, teachers and
professionals in the field who have an advanced level in linguistics will help you to do a
good translation.
• Glossaries: This is also an important tool for translators because there you can find
words that have scientific meaning. Some texts can have scientific words translators do
not know, that is why translators must use glossaries to find out their definitions.

17. • Online translators: They are very helpful because you can get a good translation, however
they are not as trustful as doing a translation using dictionaries. One thing that can be very
helpful for a translator using online translators is that you can change the order of words
and have a good translation. You can make a small change so that the translator can see
that the translation has coherence. Some of the online translators I will use are: Google
Translate that is launched by Google and it offers many languages of translation even it
does not provide a correct grammar structure, because of the advanced level you can
correct the provided translation, Dictionay.com which provides examples and the different
grammar functions of words and different examples of contexts as well, Word Reference
which offers definitions, conjugation, English synonyms, and contexts and Cambridge
which offers American English and British English, and it offers English-Spanish translation
and Spanish-English translation.
• Thesis of translation: This is also an important tool I will use since it will help me to
compare my translation with another. Thesis can provide some ideas of how you can
translate the text, and the structure it has to have. You can find in them some important
information about different tools the translator used to translate.
• Books: They are very important because in them you can find information about translation.
I will use the following books online: Translation and translating by Bell (1991) and The
translator's Handbook by Sofer (2013). These books will be used in case of any doubt about
the translation techniques.
• Internet: This is undoubtedly a great tool because without this would not be possible to
search online. Everything a translator needs can be found on the Internet.

18. 3.1 Steps for translation
After having found out the tools for the translation of the text I will follow some steps that will
help me to do a very well translation. These are the steps:
1. First of all I will read the whole text two or the necessary times to have a general
understanding of it.
2. Analyzing the text. Here I will read it again, paragraph by paragraph and underline the
words I do not understand.
3. I will write the first English-Spanish translation of the text. I will translate sentence by
sentence and write them down in Spanish. I will write the sentences as we say them in
Spanish.
4. I will use bilingual dictionaries to look for words I do not understand. In case I do not find a
word in a bilingual dictionary, I will use the Thesaurus online dictionary of synonyms.
5. I will read the text in Spanish and correct what I consider is wrong.
6. Finally I will read texts, the English version and the Spanish version. Here I will make sure
that I wrote in Spanish is what the original text tried to communicate. I will do it by
checking out sentence by sentence.
Note that the use of the translation techniques will be such as great importance to do a good
job. Using these techniques will help me to choose the appropriate words and choose the best
technique to translate the text.

19. Conclusion
The translation of these three chapters will be of a great importance for the Vanguardia
Educativa School as well as for the society.
As a future professional, this translation will help me to develop my translation skills, and at
the same time my language skills.

20. References
• Jean Paul, V., & Jean, D. (1995). A methodology for translation. (1st Ed.), Comparative and
Stylistics of French and English (1st ed., pp. 30-39). Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books?hl=es&lr=&id=I06D-
6gU45sC&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=vinay+and+darbelnet+a+methodology+for+translation&ots=
CIeXqjy6c4&sig=4G71nMmS4fQ-
6HQx7DBrFUf4My8#v=onepage&q=vinay%20and%20darbelnet%20a%20methodology%20for%2
0translation&f=false
• Munday, J. (2012). Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications (3rd ed.).
Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Translation-Studies-Theories
Applications/dp/0415584892/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418451166&sr=1-
13&keywords=translation&pebp=1418451169755
• Sociedades Bíblicas Unidas. (2014). Lo que hacemos | Sociedad Bíblicas Unidas. Retrieved from
http://www.sociedadbiblicasunidas.org/sample-page-2/

21. • Sofer, M. (1991). The translator’s Handbook (1st ed.). Retrieved from
https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=CP70-
AGCNcUC&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq=morry+sofer+1991+book&source=bl&ots=yVUboDkI
o8&sig=25vl7KR-
FoPTRAy9AGI95AG_BOg&hl=es&sa=X&ei=y26LVLqJL_OasQT91ICQAQ&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAg#v
=onepage&q=morry%20sofer%201991%20book&f=false
• Sofer, M. (2013). The translator's Handbook (8th ed.). Retrieved from
http://www.amazon.com/The-Translators-Handbook-Revised-Edition/dp/0884003418
• Tassini, A. (2012). The Translator Training Textbook: Translation Best Practices, Resources &
Expert Interviews. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Translator-Training-Textbook-
Translation-
Interviews/dp/1461120934/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418448900&sr=1-
6&keywords=translation
• T. Bell, R. (1991). Translation and translating (1st Ed.). C. Candlin (Ed.). Retrieved from
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0582016487/ref=rdr_ext_tmb