The document discusses various theories and models of translation shifts. It describes Vinay and Darbelnet's model which identifies two translation strategies - direct translation and oblique translation. It also discusses Catford's theory of level and category shifts. Additionally, it summarizes Van Leuven-Zwart's comparative and descriptive model of translation shifts which examines shifts at the micro and macro levels. The document provides details on different translation techniques like transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation.

1. The Translation Shift Approach
BY
Bushra Tabassum
University of Gujrat

2. Translation shift
• Small linguistic changes occurring in
translation of ST to TT
• Since 1950s there has been variety of
linguistic approaches to the analysis of
translation that have proposed detailed lists in
categorizing the translation process

3. Theory and Model
• A model is a representation of something
• It captures not all attributes of the
represented thing, but rather only those
seeming relevant
• A theory is a related set of concepts and
principles
• - about a phenomenon

4. Difference between theory and model
• Theory is general in
nature
• theory can apply on any
model
• Model is particular
• Model is based on
different theories

5. Three different Model
• Vinay and Darblnet’s model
• They present a model of comparative stylistic
analysis of French and English
• they identify two different translation
strategies in translation that are “direct
translation” and “oblique translation”

6. Cont..
• Catford used the term “shift” in linguistic
approaches to translation
• Catford considred two kind of translation
o Shift of level
o Shift of category

7. Cont..
• Van Leuven-Zwart’s comparative and
descriptive model of translation shift
• Comparative model-micro level
• Descriptive model-macro level

8. Textual Equivalent
• It is defined as any target language text or portion of
text which is to be equivalent of a given source
language text or portion of text.
• A textual translation equivalence is thus that portion
of TL text which is changed when and only when a
given portion of SL text is changed.
• It is based on competent bilingual informant or
translator thus to find the French textual equivalent of
the English text "My son is six", we ask competent
translator to put this into TL, French.He supplies Mon
files a six ans.This, then is the textual equivalent of My
son is six.

9. Formal Correspondent
• A formal correspondence is any TL category
which may be said occupy, as nearly as
possible, the same place in the economy of
the TL as the given SL category occupies in the
SL.
• Catford examines several issues involved in
the translation process like extent, meaning,
level of languages, phonological translation, to
evolve his theory of translation.

10. Cont....
• He also stated that the central task of any
translation is to find out the target language
equivalents.
• Two kinds of shifts:
• Level Shift:
•A level shift would be something which is
expressed by grammarss in one language and
lexis in another.

11. Category Shifts
• Structural Shift: This shift is the most common
form of shifts and to involve mostly a shift in
grammatical structure
• For example the structure of English is s+v+o
and when the text is translated into French it
would be o+v+s.

12. Class Shift
• These shifts are from one part of speech to
another
• When a SL item is translated with TL item
which belonges to a different class.A verb may
be translated as a noun.

13. Unit Shifts/Rank Shifts
• “Rank” referes to the hierarichal linguistic units
of sentence, clause, group, word and morpheme.
• These are the shifts where the translation
equivalent in the TL is at a different rank to the
SL.
• Intra-system Shifts
When we try to translate within the same language
this is called intra-system shift .
For example précis, and explanation of a text.

14. Vinay and darbelnet’s work
• Stylistic analysis of comparative literature and
contrastive linguistics of French and English
• Stylistique comparée du français et de
l'anglais : méthode de traduction,
(Comparative stylistics of French and English :
a methodology for translation).

15. strategies
• Vinay and Darbelnet identified two strategies
of translation
• Direct translation
• Obligue translation
• Futher Seven methods
• Direct translation
• Borrowing
• Calque
• Literal translation

16. Borrowing – Loan
• borrowing from the source language a term or
concept to overcome a lacuna in the target
language or to create a stylistic effect. SUSHI,
PIZZA
• Adaptation of the word in our system
• proper names, names of people
• Football
• música rap
• Gym
• The New York Times

17. Calque
• French word alaque means copy.
• It is also called loan translation.
• It is a word for word trnslation from ST to TT.
• Word order will be as it is.
• Most common meaning, out of context.
• singly
• A special type of borrowing, consisting of
borrowing an expression from the source
language and translating literally each element.

18. example
• Wo aya, us ne daikha, us ne fatah kia.
Translation in english:
He came , he saw, he conquered.
Calque
• Transposition
• Modulation
• Equivalence
• Adaptation

19. Literal Translation
• the direct transfer of the source text into the
target language in a grammatically and
idiomatically proper way
• Grammatical structure converts from ST to TT
• Out of context
• Singly

20. Oblique Translation
• Oblique=> alternate, not direct,
not stated directly
• Oblique Translation:
Used when the structural or conceptual
elements of the SL cannot be directly
translated without altering meaning the
grammatical and stylistics elements of the TL.

21. Procedures
• Transposition
• Modulation
• Equivalence
• Adaptation

22. Transposition
• Change of one part of speech for another
without changing the sense.
• Transposition within the same language
• Reconstruction of the city is very important.
• Reconstruction the city is very important.
• To reconstruct the city is very important.

23. Obligatory Transposition
• When only a transposition is acceptable.
• Obligatory transposition in a particular past
context would be translated.
• “I will never forget the time when I got lost in
the market”.
• “I will never forget the time that I got lost in
the market”.

24. Optional Transposition
When the transposition used depends mostly on
context and desired effect.
Optional transposition in the reverse direction
could be translated literally.
“ The course is of interest to all of us.”
“The course interests all of us”.(Back Translation)

25. Transposition
• Vinay and Darbelnet see “transposition” as
‘probably the most common change
undertaken by translators.
• This changes the semantics and point of view
of the SL.
• Modulation
• It is used when the other techniques would
generate a text that is grammatical correct
,but unsuitable ,unidiomatic or awkward in
the TL.

26. Modulation
• Obligatory:
• e.g “The time when” Translates as
• “the moment where”.
• Optional:
• e.g ,the reversal of point of view in “It is not
difficult to show”.
• “It is easy to show”.

27. Modulation
• Vinay and Darbelnet place much store by
modulation as ‘the touch stone of good
translator’
• Whereas transposition simply shows a very
good command of the Target language.

28. Modulation at message level
subdivided
• Abstract for concrete
• Cause- effect
• Part –whole
• Part- another part
• Reversal of terms
• Negation of opposite

29. Modulation at message level
• Active to passive
• space for time
• Rethinking of intervals and limits(in space and
time)
• Change of symbol( including fixed and new
metaphors)

30. Equivalence
• Equivalence is similarity between a word(or
expression) in one language and its translate
into another.
• Equivalence is particularly useful in translating
idioms and proverbs.
‘

31. Adaptation
• Changing the cultural reference when a
situation in the source culture does not exist
in the target culture.
Cultural Reference (ST)___CulturalReference(TT)
• Titles of books, movies, Characters often fit
into this category.
• History, Society,Religion,Culture..

32. Van Leuven-Zwart’s
•Van Leuven-Zwart first divides selected
passages into comprehensible textual units
called “transemes”
•Next she defines the “Architransemes” which is
the invariant core sense of the ST transeme.
•Comparative model of translation shifts
•The comparative model involves a detailed
comparison f ST and TT and a classification of all
the microstructural shifts.

33. Van Leuven-Zwarts methods
• Van Leuven-Zwarts methods is as follows:
• Transemes
• A comparison is then made of each separate
transeme with the Architranseme and the
relationship between the two transeme is
established.

34. Cont…
• The absense of a synonymic relationship
indicates a shift in translation and shifts are
divided into three main categories with
numerous subcategories.
• The three main categories are modulation ,
modification and mutation.
• Mutation
• It is impossible to establish an Architranseme
either because of addition, deletion, or some
radical change in meaning in the TT.

35. Cont…
• Modulation
• One of the transemes tallies with the
Architranseme, but the other differs either
semantically or stylistically : the sit up example
would be classed as modulation because the English
phrase has an extra element (quickly)
• Modification
• Both transemes show form of disjunction
(semantically, stylistically, syntactically,
pragmatically, or some of these) compared to the
Architransems : for example , you had to cry (it
caused you to cry)

36. Descriptive model
• Is a macro structural model
• Designed for the analysis of translated
literature.
• It is based on concepts borrowed from
narratology and stylistics.
• It attempts to interweave the concepts of
discourse level(linguistics expression of the
fictional world)

37. Cont…
• And story level(narration of the text including
narrator point of view).
• With three linguistics metafunctions
interpersonal, ideational and textual.
• Leuven Zwart perceived the interaction of
these elements
• that matches the specific micro and macro
structural shifts to the three functions on the
discourse and story level.

38. Cont…
• It operates beyond the sentence level
• It focus on such things as action and plot
structure, the make up of characters and
relation between them
• The narrator attitude toward the fictional
world, or the point of view.
• In other words this is where narratological
aspects are discussed.

39. Cont…
• In moving from stage on to stage two in the
analysis, selectivity increases.
• The assumption is that only those
microstructural shift which show a certain
frequency and consistency lead to shifts in the
macrostructure.
• Descriptive model combines three general
functions of language with three level of
narratology.

40. Cont…
• Firstly the interpersonal function, defined as
“the way in which the communication
between speaker and hearer is established”
which in fictional texts covers the aspect of
narrator position and angle on things.
• Secondly the ideational function or the way in
which the information about the function
world is presented determining the image
which is referred to the reader.

41. Cont…
• Thirdly the textual function or the way in
which the information is structured and
organized in language.
• And point of criticism concerns the facts that
it remain unclear exactly how macro structure
is derived from the microstructural
• And what point make them difference.

42. Cont…
• Van Leuven-Zwart’s framework that studies
syntactic, semantic and stylistic shifts all
together has been one of the most detailed
ones.
• It has been presented to establish and describe
shifts in translations of narrative texts.
• However, some scholars including Toury have
not paid attention to this model in shift studies
because of its complexities.

43. Drawbacks
• There are, however, drawbacks to this model, and
these drawbacks relate to taxonomies in
• general. First, as van Leuven-Zwart herself partly
recognizes (1989: 153–4), the comparative
• model is extremely complex. There are practical
implications in allocating the different kinds of
• shift since there are eight different categories and
thirty-seven subcategories, not all clearly

44. Cont…
• differentiated. Second, keeping track of all the
shifts throughout a long text is also difficult. It
• may be that this second problem can be
overcome to some extent by computer-
assisted analysis
• of electronic texts.