TRANSLATION THEORIES

1. Translation

2. Criteria for a good translation
Massoud (1988)
• A good translation requires full understanding of the text to be
translated including knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of
the source language.
• A good translation is easily understood.
• A good translation is fluent and smooth.
• A good translation is idiomatic.
• A good translation distinguishes between the metaphorical and the
literal.
• A good translation reconstructs the cultural/historical context of the
original.
• A good translation makes explicit what is implicit in abbreviations,
and in allusions to sayings, songs, and nursery rhymes.
• A good translation will convey, as much as possible, the meaning of
the original text.

3. El Shafey (1985: 93)
• The knowledge of the grammar of the source
language plus the knowledge of vocabulary, as
well as good understanding of the text to be
translated.
• The ability of the translator to reconstitute the
given text (source-language text) into the target
language.
• The translation should capture the style or
atmosphere of the original text; it should have all
the ease of an original composition.

4. Translation Errors
• Grammatical errors;
• Mistranslations;
• Localization errors, and
• Errors of inconsistency.

5. • GRAMMATICAL ERRORS - Grammatical errors
would be characterized as errors dealing with
the grammar of the target language, including
errors of usage, syntax and tense
• MISTRANSLATIONS - simply an oversight or an
arrogant act or plain ignorance on part of the
translator. In literary translations, the problem
of mistranslations is further accentuated

6. • LOCALIZATION ERRORS - The errors pertaining
to localization take place due to the fact that
the term to be translated normally does not
exist as a concept in the target language
• ERRORS OF INCONSISTENCY - These could
create major problems in certain kinds of
translation, whereas they may not be
important in other types of translation (
technical Consistency)

7. CONCLUSION
• Errors concerning grammar, mistranslations
and localization errors should be completely
avoidable in any translation as they will render
a translation unusable. Errors of inconsistency
should also be normally avoidable but it is
possible that the novice may make them.

8. Skopos Theory
• Skopos - In the history of translation studies, for a
long time, when people assess the quality of a
translation, they are likely to employ
“equivalence” or “faithfulness”
• Skopos is a Greek word for purpose,aim or
intended function. Its basic idea is that the
translator should work in order to achieve the
skopos of the translation rather than just follow
the source text as in directional equivalence
theory

9. Skopos
• In the framework of Skopos theory, there are
not such things as right or wrong, faithfulness
or unfaithfulness, and the translation Skopos
decides the translation process. Skopos theory
accounts for different strategies in different
situations, in which the source text is not the
only factor involved
• The determining factor might be what the
translator thinks the purpose should be.

10. • Vermeer explains the skopos rule as follows:
• Each text is produced for a given purpose and should
serve this purpose.The skopos rule thus read as
follows: Translate/interpret/speak and write in a way
that enables your translation to function in the
situation in which it is used and with the people who
want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to
function.The important point here is the skopos rule
doesn’t say how a text should be translated.It simply
tells the translator where to look for indications about
way to translate.
Vermeer’s skopos rule