Catford Translation Theory

 Zainab Albasyouni
 z.albasyouni@gmail.com

Catford defines translation as ““the replacement of a textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent
textual material in another language (TL)
The term “textual material” underlines the fact that sometimes it’s not the entirety of SLT which is translated,
at one or more levels, there may be simple replacement by non-equivalent TL material.
 Look at these two examples
English: This is my brother. Arabic: ‫أخي‬ ‫يكون‬ ‫هذا‬
English: What time is it? French: Quelle heure est-il?
There is replacement of SL grammar & lexis by equivalent TL grammar and lexis. There is also replacement of SL
graphology by TL graphology, but the TL graphological form is by no mean a translation equivalent of the SL
graphological form.
The previous two examples illustrate that grammatical and lexical equivalence are achievable to some extent.
However, phonological and especially graphological equivalence are almost impossible to obtain.
The word “equivalence” underlines the fact that the central problem that translation practice faces is finding TL
translation equivalents. So the central task of translation theory is defining the nature & conditions of translation
equivalence.

Since Catford believes that “any theory of translation must draw upon a theory of
language”1965:01. His theory was mainly about applying the linguistic approach to the translation
process. And since translation has to do with language, the analysis and description of translation-
processes must make considerable use of categories set up for the description of languages. It must,
in other words, draw upon a theory of language—a general linguistic theory. 1965:4. Therefore, It’d
be useful to look at & study the fundamental categories of the linguistic theory.

Fundamental categories of linguistic theory applicable to at least grammar,
phonology and probably graphology are:
unit structure class system

 Unit
a unit is a stretch of language activity which carry recurrent meaningful patterns. In grammar a
unit could either be a “sentence, clause or a group” each carrying a meaningful grammatical pattern.
Examples:
A. Sentences carrying the same pattern of arrangement of clauses.
/// If you do that // you will regret it ///
B. Clause carrying the same pattern of arrangement of groups.
// John / loves / Mary //
The units of grammar operate in hierarchies- larger or more inclusive units being made up of smaller
or less inclusive units- they form a scale of units at different ranks.
Sentence clause group words morphemes

 structure
As previously mentioned a unit is made up of patterns, these patterns are called structures. A structure
is an arrangement of elements. Thus, the elements of structure of the English unit “clause” are P
“predictor”, S “subject”, C “complement”, A “adjunct”
Examples:
// John / loves / Mary // SPC
// The young man / was writing / a letter // SPC
// He / ran / quickly // SPA

 Class
In terms of how these units operate in a structure, we come to define class.
Class is a grouping of members of a unit in terms of the way in which they operate in the structure of
the unit.
The elements of structure of the unit clause are S, P, C, A. The units which operate as exponents of
these elements are groups. Groups maybe classified in term of the particular elements of clause
structure which they expound. Thus, we have the class of verbal groups which operate at-or as
exponents of P in clause structure; and the class of nominal groups which operate as exponents of S
or C in clause structure.

 System
System means a finite set of alternants (variants) among which a choice must be made. Very often,
these alternants, the terms in a system, are the members of a class. An example of a system in grammar
might be the number system (singular/ plural).

 Grammar hierarchy
Units of grammar operate in a hierarchy, where the sentence is found on the top of the
hierarchy and the morpheme on the bottom. Starting from the smallest unit and working your way
up, you will find that the grammatical rank scale is made up of:
sentence
clause
group
word
morpheme
The rank scale is a scale on which units are arranged in a grammatical or phonological hierarchy.

• The sentence:
The highest or the largest unit on the rank scale. Catford defines it as the grammatical unit
most directly related to speech function within a situation. The elements of the sentence
structure are the main clause and the subordinate clause. In other words, the exponents of
elements of sentence structure are clauses.
• Clause:
The basic elements of a clause structure are S, P, C and A.

• Group
The primary group classes are verbal operating at P in clause structure, nominal, operating at S or C in clause
structure, adverbial, operating at A in clause structure.
The primary elements of nominal group structure are:
M modifier
H head
Q qualifier.
The structures which actually occur are:
H John, He, Wine
M….. H Old John, red wine, these old three books.
HQ John the manager, people who live in glass house.
M… HQ the man in the moon, the old man who lives next door.

• Words
The word is the smallest unit which would expect to have individual meaning. The word can be a free
morpheme or two or more morphemes.
• Morpheme
Is the smallest grammatical and meaningful unit. The morpheme can be either free or bound. A bound
morpheme could either be a suffix, prefix or an infix.
Since the morphemes are at the bottom of the rank scale, they themselves have no structure.

 Catford differentiates between different categories of translation in terms of extent, level and rank
Translation according to extent.
Full translation:
The entire text is submitted to the translation process. Every part of SLT is replaced by TL text
material.
partial translation:
Some part or parts of the SL text are left untranslated: they are simply transferred to and
incorporated in the TL text. In literary translation it is not uncommon for some SL lexical items to
be treated in this way, either because they are regarded as 'untranslatable' or for the deliberate
purpose of introducing 'local color' into the TL text.

Translation according to level
Total translation
replacement of SL grammar and lexis by equivalent TL grammar and lexis with consequential
replacement of SL phonology/graphology by (non-equivalent) TL phonology/graphology. In 'total'
translation SL grammar and lexis are replaced by equivalent TL grammar & lexis. This replacement
entails the replacement of SL phonology/graphology by TL phonology/graphology, but this is not
normally replacement by TL equivalents, hence there is no translation, in our sense, at that level.

Restricted translation
replacement of SL textual material by equivalent TL textual material, at only one level.
In restricted translation, translation is performed only at the phonological, Graphological,
grammatical or lexical level. It should be noted that there is no way in which we can replace
SL 'contextual units' by equivalent TL 'contextual units' without simultaneously replacing SL
grammatical/lexical units by equivalent TL grammatical/lexical units.

 Types of restricted translation
1. Phonological Translation
In phonological translation SL phonology is replaced by equivalent TL phonology, but
there are no other replacements except such grammatical or lexical changes as may result
accidentally from phonological translation.
2. Graphological Translation
In graphological translation SL graphology is replaced by equivalent TL graphology, with
no other replacements, except, again, accidental changes of grammar and lexis.
3. Grammatical Translation
Replacement of SL grammar by equivalent TL grammar, but with no replacement of lexis.
4. Lexical Translation
Replacement of SL lexis by equivalent TL lexis but with no replacement of grammar.

Translation according to rank
A third type of differentiation in translation relates to the rank in a grammatical hierarchy at
which translation equivalence is established. In normal total translation the grammatical units
between which translation equivalences are set up may be at any rank, and in a long text the ranks
at which translation equivalence occur are constantly changing: at one point, the equivalence is
sentence-to-sentence, at another, group-to-group, at another word-to-word, etc.
So according to rank translation is either Rank-bound or rank-unbounded.
1. Rank-bound translation means that the selection of TL text equivalent is limited at only one
rank, such as word-for-word equivalence, morpheme-for-morpheme equivalence, etc.
2. Unbounded translation, it can move freely up and down the rank-scale.

Catford Translation Theory

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