The document outlines a comprehensive English translation course led by Ana Rojo at the University of Murcia, focusing on various aspects of translation such as its definition, processes, and challenges. It includes lessons on multi-word structures, grammar, and the impact of context on translation, complete with mind maps and illustrations by Begoña Martínez Pagán. The course emphasizes the complexities and nuances of translating between languages, including lexical and grammatical considerations.

1. An English translation course
How does translation
(even)
exist?
A visual teaching aid for the textbook
Step by Step originally written by Ana Rojo.
With summaries, brand new mindmaps and illustrations
by Begoña Martínez Pagán (@minibego / minibego.com)
for the University of Murcia 2016-2017 course “(3096) TRADUCCIÓN GENERAL C-A I (INGLÉS)”

2. How does translation
(even)
exist?

3. Lesson 1:
DOES TRANSLATION
EVEN EXIST?

4. 1. DEFINITION
2. FEASIBILITY
3. IMPORTANCE
4. EQUIVALENCE
5. FORCES

5. Translation is not rocket
science
(nor tango)

6. Is translation…

7. art?

8. craft?

9. science?

10. technique?

11. law?

12. commerce?

13. YES.

14. That, and
more.

15. 1. Definition

16. Jakobson (1959)
● Intralingual translation
● Intersemiotic translation
● Interlingual translation

17. Munday (2001):
● Product
● Process
● Subject matter

18. ● Oral vs written

19. 2. Feasibility

20. 3. Importance

21. 4. Forces

22. TRUTH ⬌COMPETENCE

23. WRITER ⬌TRANSLATOR ⬌READER

24. WRITER ⬌TRANSLATOR ⬌READER
● INTENTIONS
● STYLE

25. WRITER ⬌TRANSLATOR ⬌READER
● INTENTIONS
● STYLE
● SKILLS

26. CONVENTIONS
+ CULTURE
WRITER ⬌TRANSLATOR ⬌READER
INTENTIONS
+ STYLE
SKILLS EXPECTATIONS
+ skills
CONVENTIONS
+ CULTURE

27. Can we create an ideal
replica? A clone?
● An EQUIVALENT

28. Equivalent:
Aequi + valere
Same + worth

29. TRANSLATION:
AN OPTIMIZATION
PROBLEM

30. TRANSLATION EXPENSES
● Time
● Effort
● Loss of meaning

31. SOLUTION
● Linguistic analyisis
● Skilled production

32. Lesson 2:
WORDS

33. Lexicon
● Structured network,
“tree”
● Not “a list”
● FLUID

34. Words in two languages
DO NOT
correspond exactly

35. ● Decisions must come
from context
● We study words first
for educational reasons

36. Strategies

37. There’s ALWAYS some loss
equivalence ☞ acceptable

38. Move vertically
● Top > down (+ specific)
● Down > up (+ general)

39. Ambiguity
+ vague
- vague

40. Polysemy
+ other meanings
- other meanings

41. Connotation
+ force
- force

42. Recapitulation
● Moving vertically
● Ambiguity
● Polysemy
● Connotation

43. What is a
word?

44. Everybody thinks they know what
a word is. But the matter, which
seems so simple, is in fact
enormously problematical.
Aitchison, J. (1994)

45. There once was a fisher named Fisher
Who fished for a fish in a fissure.
But the fish with a grin
Pulled the fisherman in
Now they all fish the fissure for Fisher.
Aitchison, J. (1994)

46. 1.1. The smallest
meaningful unit?

47. 1.2. Minimal permutable element
(Cruse, 2000)
● Cannot be interrupted
● Cannot be moved, or new material inserted

48. 1.3. Any sequence of letters with
an orthographic space at either
side (Baker, 1992)

49. Dissimilarity

50. Same world?
Different views?
Different “cuts”?
Can words determine thoughts?
(Sapir-Whorf)

51. Rojo, A. Step by Step, page 69

52. Rojo, A. Step by Step, page 70

53. Equivalence
at word level

54. Kussmaul (1995):
What are the
relevant features of the meaning of a word,
in a given context,
with regard to the function of the translation?

55. Word nuisance

56. Choose the
RIGHT
meaning

57. Cope with
AMBIGUITY

58. He got a boot in his stomach

59. The Bishop will marry the Prince

60. Children should
always be belted in cars

61. Iraqi head is caught
in possession of arms

62. A survey of milk drinkers reveals
that many are turning to powder

63. The World’s
Most Beautiful Mummy

64. Legal text:
ambiguous on purpose
(serve papers)

65. Humorous texts

66. Move across the
semantic category

67. 1. Sinonymy (same)
2. Antonymy (opposite)
3. Hyponymy (categories)
4. Meronymy (parts)

68. Modulation:
move up and down
the semantic category

69. Modulation
a change in point of view
● Part/whole
● Abstract/concrete
● Cause/effect
● Means/result
● A/non-a

70. Movefrom
one language type
to another

71. Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000):
English: motion verbs express
movement and manner of movement
but use satellites or prepositions
for path.

72. Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000):
Spanish: motion verbs express
movement and path
but use satellites or prepositions
for manner of movement.

74. Slobin (1996, 1997)
EN>ES translators, +50 % cases:
Omit manner and include path
ES>EN translators add manner.

75. Language acts

78. Secondary meanings

80. Lesson 3:
MULTI-WORD
STRUCTURES
TRANSLATING PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

81. KNOCK, KNOCK
—Is this the translators’ club?
—Well, it depends.
-On the context?
-Come in!

82. Surrounding linguistic
environment restricts
the meaning of a term.
—Rojo, Step by Step

83. SPEAKERS FOLLOW
(PRE-ESTABLISHED)
PATTERNS

84. Step by Step, Ana Rojo

85. SPEAKING IN SILVER
FROM LOST TO THE RIVER

86. “Lexical pattern”
Any group of words that
is relatively fixed.
Too general?

87. PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
● Fixedness (doesn’t change much)
● Idiomaticity (natural to native speakers)

88. PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
● Such as:
○ Collocations, idioms, proverbs,
formulaic expressions, clichés

89. How to classify them?
● Semantic? (meaning)
● Syntactic? (structure)
● Other?

90. Corpas Pastor (1996) 3 basic categories:
Incomplete utterance:
1. Collocations
2. Idioms
Complete utterance:
3. Phraseological statements

91. 3 BASIC CATEGORIES:
● Collocations
● Idioms
● Phraseological statements

92. Collocations:
● Incomplete utterance, variable
● The tendency for some words to
occur together
● A matter of FREQUENCY
● E.G. heavy drinker, strong coffee

93. Idioms:
● Incomplete utterance, stable
● “Frozen patterns of language which allow
little or no variation in form and (…)
often carry meanings which cannot be
deduced from their individual
components.”
Baker (1992)

94. Moon (1998). 3 types of idioms:
● Transparent metaphors
● Semi-transparent metaphors
● Opaque metaphors

95. Phraseological statements
● Complete utterances
● Autonomous

96. Types of phraseological statements
● Proverbs (generally accepted truths, didactic)
○ “Never look a gift horse in the mouth”
● Clichés (obvious facts, not didactic)
○ “No somos nadie” // “We live and learn”
● Quotations (like proverbs with known origin)
○ “May the force be with you”

97. Types of phraseological statements
● Comandments (often religious)
● Slogans (from advertisements)
● Routine formulae (greetings, letter
writing)

98. DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATION
● Recognise them as such
● Similar-but-NOPE counterparts
● Similar vs natural
● No equivalent
● Manipulated (literature, publ.)

99. STRATEGIES (1 / 2)
● Similar form and meaning
● Similar form, dissimilar meaning
● Typical expression, slightly diff.
meaning

100. STRATEGIES (2 / 2)
● Paraphrase
● Invent new image
● Omission
● Compensation

101. Lesson 4:
ABOVE THE WORD
TRANSLATING
GRAMMAR

102. ORDER MATTERS
● Mi más vieja amiga
● Mi amiga más vieja

103. Differences
in grammar
⬌Differences in
information
Add? Omit?

104. Grammar, as defined by
DIRVEN AND VERSPOOR (1998):
● The combination of knowledge
of the linguistic categories and
knowledge of the patterns in
which these may appear.

105. This includes:
● Lexicology
● Morphology
● Syntax
● Phonetics
● Phonology

106. But we will focus on:
● Syntax
● Morphology

107. Grammar’s double role
● SYNTAX: patterns
○ How messages are organized
● MORPHOLOGY
○ How a word’s form(s) convey
meaning

108. Morphemes
● Inflectional
● Derivational

109. Morphemes
● Inflectional
○ Do not change the word type
■ Number, gender, tense,
aspect, agreement,
comparison

110. Morphemes
● Derivational
○ Change the word type
■ Syntactic category (verb to
noun…)
■ Meaning (size, affection…)

111. ALTMANN (1997):
[Saying] that we ignore meaning and we
ignore grammar is to say that we do the
linguistic equivalent of driving on the wrong
side of the road, through red, with no brakes!

112. Problems in translating
grammatical meaning

113. Gender

114. Female. Male. Neither. Both.
ES>EN: express gender (?)
EN>ES: find out!
Or avoid the subject?

115. Number

116. NUMBER
● Singular
● Plural
● Dual > As singular or as plural?
○ Pyjamas, dungarees , overalls
● ES: su > his, hers, its, theirs?

117. Person

118. PERSON
● Formal / polite
● Informal / familiar / friendly?

119. Tense

120. TENSE
● Location in time:
○ Past / present / future
● Temporal duration:
○ Complete / incomplete
○ Momentary / continuous

121. TENSE
● ES<>EN: +/-same tenses
● WITH EXCEPTIONS!
○ Frequency
○ Uses

122. SPANISH USES
WAY LESS
THE PASSIVE TENSE!

123. Voice

124. VOICE
● Active
● Passive
● se-passive
➔ (is your friend in Spanish)

125. Bear in mind:
➔ Frequency in each language
➔ Existence of similar
structures
➔ Function
➔ Stylistic value

126. Morphemes

127. MORPHEMES
➔ No one-to-one correspondence
➔ Several strategies

128. WATCH OUT FOR
➔ Diminutives
➔ Augmentatives
➔ Pejoratives

129. DIMINUTIVES
● English:
○ -ey, -y, -ie, -o, -ette, -let
○ -za (Australia)
● Spanish
○ -ito, -illo, -ete, -ín, -ico

130. But!
Diminutives in Spanish
have many more uses.

131. USES OF DIMINUTIVES
★ To indicate something being
small and compact
○ Sillita, gatito, cucharilla

132. USES OF DIMINUTIVES
★ To convey charm or endearment
○ Abuelita, maridito, mujercita,
abuelete, vejete

133. USES OF DIMINUTIVES
★ To indicate that something’s
casual or temporary
○ Amiguete, noviete, rollete

134. USES OF DIMINUTIVES
★ To play down an unpleasant or
embarrasing thing
○ Dolorcillo, mentirijilla,
mentirosillo, dinerillo, gordito

135. USES OF DIMINUTIVES
★ To convey a precise degree (in
certain adverbial expressions)
○ Cerquita, en un momentito,
prontito, tempranito, poquito

136. USES OF DIMINUTIVES
★ To convey annoyance or discontent with
things happening during a specific period
○ Diíta, añito, mesecito,
semanita

137. USES OF DIMINUTIVES
★ To give a friendly or familiar tone
○ Un momentito, una cervecita,
despacito, con cuidadito

138. USES OF DIMINUTIVES
★ To talk to little children or lovers
○ Jarrito, marranete, pillín,
monín, cariñito, cielito

139. USES OF DIMINUTIVES
★ To form new words
○ Zapato ➜ zapatilla
○ Libro ➜ libreta
○ Avión ➜ avioneta

140. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To express intensity
○ Negative
○ Positive
○ Or depending on context!

141. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ Disdain, displeasure
○ Solterón, solterona, cabezón,
cabezota, bocazas, manazas,
ricacho, ricachón, pasote

142. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ Approval, satisfaction
○ Cochazo, pisazo, casaza,
motazo, padrazo, madraza,
pasote, golazo, puntazo,
pintaza

143. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To indicate a blow or a stroke
○ -azo
■ Hachazo, martillazo,
puñetazo, cabezazo, codazo,
sartenazo, plumazo

144. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To indicate a blow or a stroke
○ -on (to a certain part of the body)
■ Coscorrón, pisotón, bofetón

145. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To form new words
○ Tabla ➜ tablón
○ Fuego ➜ fogón
○ Cinto ➜ cinturón
○ Camisa ➜ camisón
○ Caja ➜ cajón
○ Cuerda ➜ cordón

146. USES OF PEJORATIVES
★ Pejoratives indicate contempt,
objection, disapproval.
★ Spanish has pejorative
morphology. English doesn’t.

147. PEJORATIVES
★ -ajo, -ejo, -acho, -ucho, -ales, -anga,
-ingo, -arro, -orro, -astro, -uelo,
-zuelo, -ezuelo, -uno, -uzco, -uzo

148. DEROGATORY DIMINUTIVES
★ -ete, (-cete, -ecete)
★ -ico, (-cico, -ecico)
★ -illo (-cillo, -ecillo)
★ -ito (-cito, -ecito)

149. DEROGATORY AUGMENTATIVES
★ -aco
★ -ote (-zote, -ezote)
★ -ón (-zón, ezón)

150. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To indicate resemblance to negative
qualities or mischievous behaviour
○ Caballuno, lobuno, pequeñajo,
chiquitajo, renacuajo,
animalejo, diablejo.

151. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To hint at something rudimentary or done
without expertise
○ Pintarrajo, muñecajo, palote,
monigote*
*de monigo, monaguillo

152. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To hint at inherent negative features
○ Listorro, ceporro, señoritingo,
frescales, bestiales, fritanga

153. How would you translate these?
○ Listorro, ceporro, señoritingo,
frescales, bestiales, fritanga

154. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To mock somebody, without
extra meanings
○ Perico, Pericales

155. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To complain about certain
behaviour
○ Acusica, quejica, llorica

156. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To hint at the appalling
condition of something (poor,
old, ugly, doesn’t work…)
○ Poblacho, casucha, cacharro

157. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To suggest that something has the quality
described, only to a certain degree:
○ Feúcho, malucho, blancuzco,
negruzco, borrachuzo,
borrachuelo, marranuzo

158. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To indicate lack of importance or
secondary status:
○ Escritorzuelo, reyezuelo,
populacho

159. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To indicate some sort of
extrinsicality (mostly not a blood
relation)
○ Padrastro, madrastra,
hijastro

160. USES OF AUGMENTATIVES
★ To intensify the negative
qualities of the stem
○ Pajarraco, libraco,
bicharraco, abusón, barrigón
○ Let’s think about this
example: sudaca

161. USES OF PEJORATIVES
★ To convey disdain by
downgrading the category
○ Falsete, pringadete, zoquete,
tontito, cabrito, listillo,
burrillo, borrico,
gobernadorcillo, frailecillo

162. Compounds

163. COMPOUNDS
➔ Unpredictable
➔ Break up and build again
◆ In general, use common
sense!

164. Others?!

165. ● SHAPE (YANA, NAVAHO)
○ Long
○ Round
○ Sheet-like

166. ● AMUESHA (Perú)
○ Dead
○ Alive

167. Lesson 5:
BEYOND THE SENTENCE,
EXPLORING THE NOTION OF
CONTEXT

168. How do readers
establish
context?

169. ● Let’s think:
○ I hate irritating children
○ I hate irritating men
○ I hate irritating misogynists
○ I hate irritating fascists

170. Co-text
Con-text
of situation
Text Culture
Werlich, 1970; Van Dijk, 1977; Halliday and Hasan, 1976

171. Original text
in original context
Pic: Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penguin_in_Antarctica_jumping_out_of_the_water.jpg#metadata

172. Translated text
in
target
context
Pic: Andreas Lucke, bildlich.org

173. ● Context
○ Cohesion
○ Coherence

174. ● Coherence, Baker (1992)
○ The network of conceptual
relations that underlie the
surface of a text.

175. ● Cohesion, Baker (1992)
○ The network of surface
relations which link words
and expressions to other
words and expressions in a
text.

176. ● Ana Rojo (2009):
○ Cohesion can, therefore, be considered
the surface expression of coherence,
since cohesive devices are textual
devices for making conceptual relations
explicit.

177. ● Cohesion
○ Do the underlying ideas make sense?

178. ● Coherence
○ How meaning is structured
○ Beyond texts / languages

179. ● Cohesive devices in translation:
○ Grammatical differences
○ Lack of stylistic naturalness

180. ● Cohesion
■ Reference
■ Ellipsis
■ Lexical cohesion
■ Conjunction

181. Reference, (Rojo, 2009):
● The connection of one
linguistic expression to
another, in which one provides
the information needed to
interpret the other correctly.

182. Reference
● Personal (pro-nouns)
○ Pro-verbs, pro-complements, pro-clauses
● Demonstrative
● Comparative
● Deictics

183. !
➔ Spanish does NOT repeat pronouns,
the person marker is “in the verb”

184. Ellipsis (Rojo, 2009):
● The omission of one or more
items that are understood in
the context, but which are
required to make the sentence
grammatical.

185. Ellipsis
● Situational knowledge
● Language-specific economy
● Borderline with reference

186. ● Lexical cohesion
■ Reiteration (repetition)
■ Collocation

187. Conjuction (Rojo, 2009):
● The use of formal
markers to hold bits of
text together.

188. ➔ Conjunction
◆ Parataxis
● Coordination
● Juxtaposition
◆ Hypotaxis
● Subordination

189. !
➔ English uses more parataxis
(coordination, juxtaposition).
➔ Spanish uses more hypotaxis
(subordination).

190. The car and I crawled cursing up the street to
my flat. You just cannot park around here
anymore. Even on a Sunday afternoon, you
just cannot park around here anymore. You
can doublepark on people: people can double
park on you.
[Amis, Money, 1982, cited by Rojo, 2009]

191. Mi coche y yo íbamos a paso de tortuga camino a casa,
cagándonos en todo. Es que aquí ya no se puede
aparcar. Es que ni siquiera en domingo por la noche se
puede aparcar.

192. Opciones que habíamos dejado abiertas:
1. Puedes hacerlo en doble fila, los demás van a
aparcar sí o sí.
2. Si tú no aparcas en doble fila, lo harán otros.
3. Acabas aparcando en doble fila como hacen los
demás.
4. Acabas aparcando en doble fila o te dejan
encerrado.

193. Coherence, Baker (1992) (again)
The network of conceptual
relations that underlie the
surface of a text.

194. Coherence
(Hatim and Mason 1990, Beaugrade 1980)
The procedures which ensure conceptual conectivity, including:
1. Logical relations
2. Organisation
of events, objects, situations
3. Continuity in human experience

195. Coherence
(…) depends on the interaction between
textual knowledge and
the reader’s own knowledge and
experience of reality.
(Rojo, 2009)

196. This text is cohesive but incoherent:
(…) I bought a Ford. The car in which President Wilson
rode down the Champs Elysees was black. Black
English has been widely discussed. The discussions
between the presidents ended last week. A week has
seven days. Every day I feed my cat. Cats have four
legs. The cat is on the mat. Mat has three letters.
(Baker, 1992, as quoted by Rojo, 2009)

197. Finding a text coherent depends on
● Reader’s ability to recognise the semantic
relations that form the thread of meaning
● Reader’s capacity to find text components
relevant and believable.

198. An elevator in Belgrade:
To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If
the cabin should enter more persons, each one should
press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going
alphabetically by national order.
(Tradux Translations, 2006, as quoted by Rojo, 2009)

199. !
➔ This makes no sense!

200. ?
➔ Why do we understand it?

201. Frame:
An internalised chunk of knowledge
Rojo, 2009

202. Frame:
A mental model of reality that helps
us understand the world around us.
Rojo, 2009

203. Frame:
We have stored an inventory of
these mental models and we use
them to interpret reality.
Rojo, 2009

204. Interesting, on mental models:
https://joshkaufman.net/mental-models/
The Personal MBA

205. Frame
○ Cognitive approach
○ Mental model of reality
○ Prototypical situations
○ Meaning:
a complex conceptual structure
obtained from experience

206. Example of a toxic model,
right here in this chapter
of the book.

208. ● Implicature
○ I’ve got to take my car for a
service soon. We are going to
Portugal in two weeks.
Rojo, 2009

209. ● Implicature
○ It helps us explain how we manage to
establish continuity of meaning
between apparently decontextualized
stretches of language.
Rojo, 2009

210. Grice (1975):
“We assume that conversation is governed
by a Cooperative Principle”
● Quantity
● Quality
● Relevance
● Manner

211. Grice (1975)
Cooperative Principle:
● Quantity
○ One should provide just as
much information as required

212. Grice (1975)
Cooperative Principle:
● Quality
○ One should only say what one
believes is true.

213. Grice (1975)
Cooperative Principle:
● Relevance
○ What one says must be
relevant to the current
exchange.

214. Grice (1975)
Cooperative Principle:
● Manner
○ Speakers must be clear, brief,
and orderly.

215. +Others add one extra:
● Politeness
○ One should always be
courteous and considerate.

216. If these principles are
right, we will look for that
kind of connections first.

217. “My husband is losing
a lot of weight.
He works very hard.”

218. ● Implicature
○ Apparently fragmented
language?
○ Metaphor / metonimy
■ My girlfriend is a doll
■ Estoy agotada. Mi hijo es un
auténtico bicho.

219. “Cognitive metonimy” as
the basis of
pragmatic inference…
… we will skip this part.

220. Exploiting
the context of situation

221. We store concepts
together with their
prototypical contexts.

222. ● Situational information
○ Speaker’s geographical,
social, temporal origin
○ Natives choose their register

223. ● Cultural / situational-related
information
○ How much to explain?
○ How much to leave implicit?
■ See: Chip Kidd at TED:
■ https://www.ted.com/talks/chip_kidd_designing_books_is_no_laughing_matter_ok_it
_is

224. That’s all,* folks!
*For the time being: there’s one
summary/round-up chapter that I’d like
to add at some point.

225. Remember, this is a
visual teaching aid for
the textbook:
Rojo López, Ana María. Step by Step: A Course in
Contrastive Linguistics and Translation. Oxford:
Peter Lang, 2009. Print. ISBN: 978-3039111336
You can buy it here: http://amzn.to/2ibIXIq

226. This presentation is a work in progress!
Send your feedback to:
bego(a)minibego.com