This document discusses key terms from translation theory and provides examples of their usage. It defines terms like adaptation, amplification, aspect, false friend, interchange, lacuna, and translation unit. For each term, it provides the English and French translation along with examples to illustrate how the concept can be applied. The document concludes by suggesting potential practice scenarios for interpreters to apply these translation theory concepts and providing additional resources for further information.

1. What Interpreters Can Learn from
Translation Theory
FIT XIX World Congress
August 1, 2011
Terena Bell, Speaker

2. Translation Theory Terms
English French Spanish German
Adaptation adaptation adaptación Adaptation
Amplification étoffement amplificación Erweiterung
Aspect aspect aspect Aspekt
False Friend faux ami falso amigo falsche Freunde
Interchange chasse-croisé permutación Chassé-croisé
Lacuna lacune vacío Lücke
Translation Unit unité de traduction unidad de traducción Übersetzungseinheit

3. Adaptation
The translation method of creating an
equivalence of the same value applicable to a
different situation than that of the source
language.
Ex. - In a country where the fig tree is
considered to be harmful, another plant can
be substituted for the fig tree in the Biblical
parable.

5. Thomson and Thompson
Jansen and Janssen
Jonson and Ronson
Schultze and Schulze
Hernández and Fernández
杜本 and 杜朋
Fomichoff and Fomichoff

6. Amplification
The translation technique whereby a target language unit
requires more words than the source language to
express the same idea.
The translation procedure where the translator uses
more words in the target text than were present in the
source text in order to re-express an idea or to
reinforce the sense of a word from the source text
whose correspondence in the target language cannot
be expressed as concisely.
Ex. - the charge against him: l’accusation portée contre
lui

7. Aspect
The manner in which an action expressed by a verb or noun is situated
in time. Note 1. – Aspect indicates the particular point of view from
which the course of an action is considered or a specific phase
during the course of an action. Note 2. – The same word can have
several aspects. Thus, the word continuation is both durative and
imperfective
Ex. – (durative aspect) to reflect; reading
Ex. – (instantaneous aspect) to explode; bursting
Ex. – (inchoative aspect) to begin; start
Ex. – (iterative or repetitive aspect) to shred; rereading
Ex. – (perfective or terminative aspect) to close; outcome
Ex. – (imperfect aspect or non-completion) to strive; development
Ex. – (progressive aspect or continuity) to be growing; deceleration.

8. False Friend
Words of any two languages which, despite the
same origin and similar form, have different
meanings
A word in a given language whose form
resembles a word in another language, but
the meaning of the two words or one of their
senses is different
Ex. – Semantic: actual/real : actuel/réel

11. Interchange
A translation technique by which two lexical items
permute and change grammatical category.
Interchange is a special case of transposition.
A translation procedure where the translator swaps two
lexical items with respect to form and function so that
they switch their respective parts of speech.
Ex. – He ran across the street: Il a traverse la rue en
courant
Ex. – Il sortit de la mansion en courant : He ran out of
the house

12. Lacuna
The absence of an expression form in the target language for a
concept in the source language.
The absence in the target language of a word, an expression, or a
syntactic turn of phrase that exists in the source language. Note 1. –
A lacuna may occur in connection with a socio-cultural
phenomenon unknown to the target audience. Note 2. – Faced with
a lacuna, a translator may resort to various translation procedures
including borrowing, calque, adaptation, paraphrase,
compensation, a translator’s note, or ad hoc formulation.
Ex. – Bundesfeier => (paraphrased as) Swiss National Day
Ex. – In French the absence of a single word for ‘shallow’ (peu
profound)
Ex. – Konjunktur => (paraphrased as) the economic situation; the
financial situation

13. HMO
PPO
SSN
Medicaid
Medicare

14. juge d’instruction

16. Translation Unit
The smallest segment of the utterance in which the cohesion of signs is such that they must not be
translated separately. Units of translation permit the segmentation of a text to be carried out.
1. A text segment consisting of a single word, a phrase, a whole sentence, or even more than one
sentence, which a translator treats as a single cognitive unit in establishing equivalence.
2. A single element in the source text or a group of elements that are linked by semantic or formal
features and which translators interpret as a single entity in association with their situational
knowledge. Note 1. – The elements that constitute the translation unit may form a sequence within
a phrase or may be dispersed throughout the text (transphraseological unit). These elements can
take on their own semantic value in the framework of the text. Note 2. – Unifying elements that
contribute to or function as translation units can be phonetic (ex.: alliteration), lexical, stylistic, (ex.:
register), narrative (ex.: highlighting events, mode or tense of verbs), rhetorical (ex.: anaphora,
argumentative progression), intertextual (ex.: allusion), etc. A single element can evoke several of
these levels simultaneously. Note 3. – The entire text does not usually constitute a translation unit.
Nevertheless, it provides a frame of reference on the holistic level that confers semantic value on
elements in the text as the translator first identifies them and then interprets them.
Synonym: unit of sense
Ex. – prendre son élan, de demain en huit, battre à coups précipités.

17. Translation Theory Terms
English French Spanish German
Adaptation adaptation adaptación Adaptation
Amplification étoffement amplificación Erweiterung
Aspect aspect aspect Aspekt
False Friend faux ami falso amigo falsche Freunde
Interchange chasse-croisé permutación Chassé-croisé
Lacuna lacune vacío Lücke
Translation Unit unité de traduction unidad de traducción Übersetzungseinheit

18. Practice Scenarios
• A mother is at the GP’s, seeking treatment for
her son with ADHD.
• A father is enrolling his daughter in their local
Big Brothers-Big Sisters program.
• An abused woman has gone to the courts to
file an EPO.
• A refugee to the US is attending his first
cultural orientation, which is the concept of
time in America.

19. For More Information
Delisle, Jean, Hannelore Lee-Jahnke and Monique C. Cormier, eds. Terminologie de la
Traduction, Translation Termonology, Terminología de la Traducción,
Terminologie der Übersetzung. Philadelphia, PA : John Benjamins Publishing Co.,
1999.
Vinay, Jean Paul and Jean Darbelnet. Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A
Methodology for Translation. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Co.,
1995.
www.ineverylanguage.com