As the act of translating become more commonplace throughout the years due to how the internet has allowed information to be spread across borders, seas and countries, the scope in which translation can be done has expanded massively; way beyond of its original use of only translating certain religious texts and work of literature.
Nowadays, you can find translation in brochures, any form of entertainment, the menu you order from in a restaurant and even the signs you see on the streets. It is due to this great amount of content that need and could be translated that people’s interest in translation as both a subject to study and a prospective occupation does not wane throughout the years and instead, strengthened.
However, for many; especially those who are multilingual, often notice a common trend whenever they come across translated content along with the source text: The translated version of the text does not have exactly the same meaning with the source text. Actually, aside from that, some of the information within the source text was not included in the translated version of the text! Surely, this is a mark of a bad translator, no?
Reasons for Alteration and Reduction in Translation Meaning
To those who are uninformed on the translation process, these thought processes are most likely to cross their mind. However, altering and reduction of meaning is a common practice when it comes to translating. In reality, these acts are actually often necessary in order to complete certain translations.
For the uninitiated, the art of translation has evolved far and beyond the way it was more than a decade ago. Due to the scope that translation take now, directly translating from the source text; or dubbed as literal translation in translation studies, is no longer enough to convey the meaning within a source text.
As an example, the saying “break a leg” does not translate quite smoothly if it is translated literally because the target language does not have the context of how people originally say this in theater auditions in hopes of getting into the cast. In order to overcome this, modern translation made use of certain strategies and approaches to translation. One of these strategies and approaches include alteration and reduction in meaning, each with different variety of reasons to why they were employed during the translation process.
These reasons can range from practical reasons; such as lack of exact equivalent in the target language, to a more affective reasons related to the source text itself; such as ensuring that the translated content are as faithful as possible to the original text. The following few paragraphs will list some of the reasons and considerations why translators chose to employ the alteration and reduction of meaning during the translation process:
Make Translated Information More Concise
One of the most necessary contents that many countries wish to translate into another language are usually related to their countries’ cultures, customs and beliefs. This can be because of a number of things, from wanting to use this information as promotional content or simply in order to preserve their cultures and beliefs by spreading it and making it well-known in other countries. However, the translation process for these types of information is not quite so simple.
When it comes to cultural information, it tends to come with certain background information that are either scarce or non-existent in the target language. This would mean that this type of information could not be translated directly and may even need a lengthy explanation on what these cultural items are referring to. For the use of; for example, tourism, providing tourist with a lengthy paragraph relating to a certain cultural item may not only distract them, but also take up the spot of wherever these translations are written.
This is why translators would alternate or reduce meaning on these types of texts, in order to make the content more comprehensible and absorbed more easily by those who read it. If the meaning conveyed within certain items of the source text is not too vital, then they would opt to omit it from the translation in order to not confuse the readers. If the meaning behind the item is truly important to the content as a whole, the translators may choose to change certain parts of the text; such as structure, vocabulary or grammar, so that the translated text would not be too lengthy.
Equivalent of the Word does not exist in the Target Language
Another common problem that can be found in certain texts during the translation process is the lack of an equivalent word in the target language. For certain content, this goes without saying. For example, the word gayung does not have any equivalent in English; as they take showers and not baths.
For others, such consideration is quite subtle. A good example of this is when translating English idioms or sayings; translating “it’s about to go down”, “jumping on the bandwagon”, “getting cold feet”, and “pleading the fifth” would not give the same meaning if they were translated into other languages. This is because each language has different background information on why certain idioms mean what they mean; which may or may not be the same in other countries.
Therefore, in order to overcome this limitation of direct translation, translators may do an alteration or reduction in meaning during the translation process. They may change certain vocabularies within the idiom into vocabularies that convey similar meaning to the one in the source text to fit more with the context of the target language; for example, “getting cold feet” can simply be translated to “berat hati” in Indonesian language.
Translators may also choose to just omit the information and instead focus on delivering important bits of the information. An example of this is omitting the idiom “it’s about to go down” and just focus on how they began fighting in the first place.
Translated items have Cultural Value
One of the hardest considerations that a translator has to make when making a translation is when the source text included an item that has cultural value. Certain type of content within a source text tends to have cultural values that are nigh impossible to translate due to the uniqueness of a certain linguistic culture that the source text conveys. A great example of this is the use of certain accents within literature to indicate the race and ethnicity of a certain character within the story. So, the challenge that translators need to tackle is how to translate, for example, how a cowboy would speak using Indonesian language.
When it comes to this type of scenario, translators can do one of two things: adapt the word structure to have similar culture value with the source text or to completely omit this subtle cultural value altogether. Altering the word structure to adapt the cultural value may have its risks; such as offending those related to the culture being adapted, but a good execution of this may bring the uniqueness of the cultural value of the original text into the translated content.
An excellent example of this is the English translation of how the character Naruto speak in the Japanese animation Naruto; where in the original text he ended every sentence with the word dattebayo which has no literal translation in English. In the English translation, this word was changed into “believe it” because the original Japanese text use the dattebayo catchphrase in order to show the character’s sense of confidence in himself.
The phrase “believe it” have similar value in the way that it conveys how the character express their confidence to others by asking them to believe the same value he does. The translator can also choose to completely omit this subtle cultural value, as it does not directly affect the translated content in a major way. However, this omittance may lead to a reduction in cultural value; making the resulting translation less “faithful” to the source text.
Different Grammatical Structure between Languages
This reasoning may be obvious and one of the primary reasons why someone would like to hire a translator in the first place; grammatical differences between languages. Each and every language has their own grammar structures and systems in place that cannot be directly translated into another language. Another big consideration related to this is how grammar within each country are also affected by their culture.
A perfect example of this is how, in Japan, instructions are usually structured in a polite manner while in English instructions are usually more direct and to the point. In this example, one of the hotels in Japan attempted to say that maids are available if you need any help. A direct translation of what they had written resulted with “You are invited take advantage of the maid” in English which leads to a number of misunderstandings.
For this reason, alteration and reduction in meaning is necessary in order to ensure that certain grammatical elements within the original text do not confuse the readers of the translated text. For the above example, the translators may choose to alternate the grammar structure to be more direct instead of passive so that the readers would instantly understand the intent behind the text. The translator may also omit certain parts of the original text that may cause confusion for the readers. In the above example, the translator could omit the word “invited” to reduce the possibility of miscomprehension.
In order to make a “faithful” translation
The final reason within this listicle is usually more related to work of literature and the concern of many modern translation efforts; the faithfulness of the translation. The word “faithful” here refers to how the particular subtle feeling and meaning within the source text are retained within the translated text. For example, poetry comes with a certain rhymes and word structure that cannot be conveyed in another language if they were to be translated directly.
This particular hurdle directly relates to the need for alteration and reduction in meaning during the translation process, as when it comes to certain type of literature, translators need to adapt the source text’s structure into the translation. In the example of poetry, the translator may need to change certain vocabularies within the poetry that convey similar meaning to the original text while also considering the rhyming structure.
The translator may also need to omit certain parts of the content due to certain artistic elements that literature may have; for example, the 17 syllable limits of a haiku.
The consideration that a translator needs to make when making translations can be vast, and the ones listed in this listicle are only some of them. With the increasing needs for different types of translated content, comes the need to adapt to certain aspects within written content that could not be directly translated.
Alteration and reduction of meaning is only one of the tools that translators could employ in solving these translation issues.
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