PROCESS of TRANSLATING

“ Approach, Unit of Translation, Translation Method”

Arranged by :

Yolanda Ramadhan
(1788203052)

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF LANCANG KUNING PEKANBARU

2019
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Bismillahirahmanirrahim.

And Praise God the author prayed to Allah SWT, because thanks for His grace and guidance we
were able to complete this paper on time. This paper is titled "Process of Translating (Approach,
Unit of Translation, Translation Method)". This paper is structured to fulfill one subject task of
Translation.

Translation is the process of transferring information from the source language to the target
language. The activity involves the translation of a complex system to produce grammatical,
natural and consistent results with original information. Therefore, some difficulties may be
encountered by the writer in the translation process. However, every difficulty there must be a
solution. For this reason, this paper presents an explanation of some of the problems related to
the translation process as a knowledge base for understanding translation.

Therefore, the author welcomes any constructive suggestions and criticisms for the perfection of
this paper. All deficiencies and mistakes come from the author himself personally, and all
absolute truths come from Allah SWT. Finally, I hope this paper can benefit writers and readers.

Pekanbaru, 13 October 2019

Author
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

The translation process is operational. It transfers meaning by changing the written ideas
expressed in one language to another or from the Source language to the Target Language. The
ultimate goal is to convey information and convince readers with author's innovative and
authoritative translation methods that reflect the quality of naturalness.
This translation is very important in today's global life. We can connect with the outside world
with translations from source languages to target languages. People who are different from our
language, will be helped by the translation. In addition, various sciences from various corners of
the world can be known by its translation.
As we know, language and its translations involve quite complex linguistic systems which must
develop and differ from one language to another. Because not all translators know the system
that applies in the source language, it certainly creates difficulties for translators themselves.
In addition, translators will face another problem where language also develops and causes the
emergence of new words, phrases, idioms or linguistic systems in languages that may not be
known by translators. It is clear that the complexity and development of language systems pose
translation problems. However, there will be no cases and problems if there are no alternative
solutions. That way, at least the difficulties and problems of translation will be slightly reduced.
As mentioned earlier, translation is important in all aspects of life. However, sometimes
translators have difficulty due to the complexity of the language system. Therefore, a translator
also needs to understand well about it. If a translator must have a good understanding in handling
translation problems, the translation process will be easier.
 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A. Approach Process of Translation

The Process of translation is operational. It transfers meaning by converting written ideas

expressed in one language to another language or from Source language to Target Language. The
main purpose is to convey the information.
Translation starts with choosing a method of Approach. There are two main approaches to
translating;

 The first method is translating sentence by sentence of a paragraph or a chapter. In

order to get the feel and tone of the text it requires conscious review of the text by
reading it in a Source Language. This method is suitable for the literary texts.
 The second method involves reading the whole text for two or three times and looking
for the intention, register and tone in order to mark the difficult words and passages.
After taking the bearings one can proceed with translating of a text. This method is more
suitable for technical or institutional text. The first approach is preferred for a relatively
easy text while the second approach is preferred for a harder one.

B. Unit of Translation

The ‘unit of translation’ is the element ‘used’ by translators when working on the ST. Individual
words Clauses Sentences Whole texts De Saussure’s sign: signifier (word, sound, image) and
signified (concept). Sign is arbitrary: its meaning derives from contrast with other signs.A
translation unit is a segment of a text that the translator treats as a single cognitive unit for the
purposes of establishing an equivalence. The translation unit may be a single word, a phrase, one
or more sentences, or even a larger unit.

When a translator segments a text into translation units, the larger these units are, the better chance there
is of obtaining an idiomatic translation. This is true not only of human translation, but also in cases where
human translators use computer-assisted translation, and also when translations are performed by machine
translation systems.

The notion of Unit of Translation The notion of Unit of Translation (UT), once defined, is useful for
bridging the technical gap between the full text and its components in describing relationships involved in
a translation, and looking at a localized passage’s potential accountability to the whole text. The Unit of
Translation is defined functionally as a textual unit instead of a language unit which maintains its textual
integrity by performing three functions: 1. syntatic bearer, 2. information carrier, and 3. stylistic marker.
Text translation thus preserves the textual integrity of each UT not in syntactic form but in function, given
the necessary rank-shifts in the process. So, we can say that the key functional UT can be set at the level
of sentence.

In actual translation practice, analysis and teaching, examination are needed to clarify the relationship
between the text and its constituent parts as Units of Translation (UT). Examination makes the units of
translation textually significant and thus accountable within translation, a process that reconstructs the
structure of the source text in the target language and culture.

The Concept of “ UNIT OF TRANSLATION” UT Good translating, like good writing, comes from the
right choice of words and word order. The only difference is that in translating, this “right choice” is
prompted and at the same time restricted by the existing SL text as well as by the resources available in
the target language. This appropriateness, has engaged the attention of translation theorists and
practitioners for centuries deciding what length of discourse can serve as a unit of practice and analysis.
This has been a core issue underlying the concept of UT, “a basis for a scientific approach to translation”
(Snell-Hornby 1990: 81).

THE RANGE AND SCOPE OF THE UT Catford, following Halliday, proposes a systemic hierarchy of
five units for consideration in translating. They are, in descending order: 1. the sentence, 2. clause, 3.
group, 4. word and 5. morpheme (Catford 1965: 8). Newmark, states that “free translation has always
favoured the sentence; literal translation the word,”. He has observed that with text linguistics, free
translation has moved to the whole text, i.e., to regarding the whole text as the UT, and has given rise to a
“confusing tendency” (Newmark 1988:54). His schema of hierarchical ranking, in consequence, ranges
from the complete text, to the paragraph, sentence, clause, collocation, word group, word, and
morpheme(Newmark 1988: 65-66).

Those who have taken exception to the (full) text as the UT, including Newmark, argue that “That would
be chaos,” and “Ideally, the UT is one word [...] never the text”(Newmark 1981: 140, 1988: 55). Those
who hold the (full) text as the UT either warn that the translator “must never dwell on the words of his
author” (O’Brien 1959/66:84, quoting Dryden), or insist that the translator “must eventually resolve to
translate discourse equivalents, rather than lexical or even sentential structures” (Givón 1978: 272). It is
worth noting that what underlies these contending arguments is a common (mis)belief that the sentence
and the (full) text are mutually exclusive units; or, that textual/discoursal meaning is independent of the
structures of the constituent sentences.

C. Translation Method

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent

target-language text.
Some types of translation:

1. Word-for-word translation
o The source language word order is preserved and the words translated by their most
common meanings”Example: love at first sight
2. Literal translation
o The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents but the
lexical items are again translated out of context. As pre-translation process, it indicates
problems to be solved.
3. Faithful translation
o It attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the
constraints of the TL grammatical structures. It transfers cultural words and preserves the
degree of grammatical and lexical deviation from SL norms. It attempts to be completely
faithful to the intentions and the text-realisation of the SL writer.
4. Semantic translation
o It differs from faithful translation only in as far as it must take more account of the
aesthetic value of the SL text, compromising on 7meaning where appropriate so that no
assonance, word play or repetition jars in the finished version. It does not rely on cultural
equivalence and makes very small concessions to the readership. While `faithful
translation is dogmatic, semantic translation is more flexible.
5. Adaptive translation
o It attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both
language and content are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership.
6. Free translation
o It reproduces the message of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by
preferring colloquialisms and idioms.
7. Idiomatic translation
o It reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the
original. Usually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original.
8. Communicative translation
o This is the freest form of translation mainly used for plays and poetry: themes/ characters/
plots preserved, SL culture converted to TL culture & text is rewritten. (From A
Textbook of Translation by P. Newmark)
9. Philological translation
o When applying this method, the translator can add notes of philological and
historical nature to the translation, with the purpose of not only understanding
specific terms and words properly, but also for adding clarifications of familiar
meanings; in this case, the source text often becomes subject of examination and
the translation aimed at specialized audiences or students.
 CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

A. Conclusion

The Process of translation is operational. It transfers meaning by converting written ideas

expressed in one language to another language or from Source language to Target Language.
Conclusion A sentence enters the text-building process as a syntactically independent but not
textually independent entity, its independence endowed by a cognitively significant structure of
combined old-new information (cf. Downing 1995) secured semantically by lower-level textual
units such as words. Further down from the level of sentences, units such as clauses, phrases,
words and morphemes enjoy less and less independence, degrees of which are marked by various
types of punctuations (including zero punctuation) or word space.

B. Suggestions

The translator has to look up for all the proper names before starting the Process of translation.
Firstly he must be aware of all the geographical terms and particularly careful of proper names in
medical texts as a drug in one country is marketed under a different brand name in another. It
may be a chemical formula such as ‘Aspirin’. The translator must check the spellings of all the
proper names as misprints appear very commonly.

Finally, there is the revision procedure in process of translation which concentrates according to
the situation. This process of revision constitutes half of the complete process. Revision is a
technique that is acquired by a translator. A translator should spend fifty to seventy percent of
the time in revising the text than in translating depending on the difficulty of the text. It is hard
for a translator to make continual improvements while revising but he can read the text for
cohesion of sentences and naturalness of the text.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_unit

Hatim, B. & Munday, J. (2004). Translation: An advanced resource book. New York: Routledge

Vinay, J. P & Darbelnet, J. (1958/ 1995). A methodology for translation. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The
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