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"Word-for-word" translation is generally considered  as the rendering of text from an original language to the target language by following the exact words of the original text, while “sense-for-sense” translation emphasizes the idea of preserving the meaning of the write-up without obeying the exact grammar or structure of the original text.
28-07-2023
Gentile Eleonora, 
1996183
Reviewing the questions of “word-for-word” and “sense-for-sense” translation can not only help to test translation theory and guide translation practice, but also help translators rethink the essence of translation.
The debate on which approach is better runs through the history of western translation, and the exploration of this problem can be traced back to the ancient Roman period when western translation originated. At that time, Cicero, Jerome, Augustine and other great scholars had already put forward opinions on “word-for-word” or “sense-for-sense” translation.
Introduction
WORD-FOR-WORD
SENSE-FOR-SENSE
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Transcript

"Word-for-word" translation is generally considered as the rendering of text from an original language to the target language by following the exact words of the original text, while “sense-for-sense” translation emphasizes the idea of preserving the meaning of the write-up without obeying the exact grammar or structure of the original text.

28-07-2023

Gentile Eleonora, 1996183

Reviewing the questions of “word-for-word” and “sense-for-sense” translation can not only help to test translation theory and guide translation practice, but also help translators rethink the essence of translation.

The debate on which approach is better runs through the history of western translation, and the exploration of this problem can be traced back to the ancient Roman period when western translation originated. At that time, Cicero, Jerome, Augustine and other great scholars had already put forward opinions on “word-for-word” or “sense-for-sense” translation.

Introduction

WORD-FOR-WORDSENSE-FOR-SENSE

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Horace

“One of the worst tragedies of humanity is to postpone the moment of starting to live. We all dream of enchanted gardens beyond the horizon, instead of enjoying the view of the flower beds under our windows.”

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Marcus Tullius Cicero

"And I did not translate them as an interpreter, but as an orator, keeping the same ideas and forms, or as one might say, the 'figures' of thought, but in language which conforms to our usage."

St. Jerome and the lion - Scott Gustafson

St. Jerome in his study - Antonello da Messina

"Now I not only admit but freely announce that in translating from the Greek, I render not word-for-word, but sense- for-sense."

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St Jerome

The most famous of all western translators

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"Since it is certain that death is not at all among the living: and as for the dead, they no longer are: therefore, death touches them even less. And hence death can do nothing to you, for you are not yet ready to die, and when you have died, death will also not be able to do anything, since you will no longer be 'anything at all'.”

"I will cause a boy who drives a plow to know more of the scriptures than the pope."

Etienne Dolet

William Tyndale

Torture of Etienne Dolet - Leon Charles Adrien Bailly

William Tyndale - Alexander Johnston

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"You must ask the mother at home, the children in the street, the ordinary man in the market and look at their mouths, how they speak, and translate that way; then they will understand and see that you are speaking to them in German."

Martin Luther

Martin Luther and the Scriptures - Lucas Cranach

literal translation free translation adaptation word-for-word sense-for-sense metaphrase paraphrase imitation

"I thought fit to steer betwixt the two extremes of paraphrase and literal translation; to keep as near my author as I could, without losing all his graces, the most eminent of which are in the beauty of his words."

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John Dryden

"That in which the merit of the original work is so completely transfused into another language as to be as distinctly apprehended, and as strongly felt, by a native of the country to which that language belongs as it is by those who speak the language of the original work."

Alexander Fraser Tytler

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Friedrich Schleiermacher

"Either the translator leaves the writer in peace as much as possible and moves the reader toward him, or he leaves the reader in peace as much as possible and moves the writer toward him."

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  • Not knowing enough about the culture of the SL, so misunderstanding a phrase.
  • Do not having a real way to express with the TL something of the original country.
  • "Using too much sense" and getting out of the topyc.
  • Do not understand the real meaning of the original text and translating wrong.
  • The translator putting too much of his ideas in a text that does not need it and adding "comments" along the translation.
  • Completely changing the meaning of a phrase and consequentially change the sense of the situation (for example: subtitles).

Peter Newmark

Why go against sense-for-sense?

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"In communicative as in semantic translation, provided that equivalent effect is secured, the literal word-for-word translation is not only the best, it is the only valid method of translation."

"Communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original. Semantic translation attempts to reader, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the second language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original."

Thank you

Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher was born on November 21, 1768 in Breslau, a German city in Lower Silesia which passed, in 1945, to Poland under the name of Wroclaw. Coming from a Protestant family, he received his very first training from his father, a reformed Calvinist pastor. He then studied at a seminary of the Moravian Brothers, assimilating their pietistic spirit - whose diffusion center is in the city of Herrnhut - and their profound religious sense, as well as discovering the Greek and Latin classics. But he soon begins to feel the teaching of the "Herrnhuters" too restrictive and when the Faculty refuses consent to a conference dealing with modern cultural trends he decides to leave and start studing illuminist philosophy.

Then after his studies he founds the modern Protestant theology and the modern Hermeneutics, expounding a Romantic approach to interpretation based not on absolute truth but on the individual's inner feeling and understanding.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Marco Tullio Cicerone; Arpino, 3 January 106 BC - Formia, 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman lawyer, politician, writer, orator and philosopher.Member of a wealthy family of the equestrian order, Cicero was one of the most important figures of all Roman antiquity. His vast literary production, ranging from political speeches to writings on philosophy and rhetoric, as well as offering a valuable portrait of Roman society in the last troubled years of the republic, remained as an example for all authors of the first century BC, so much so that it can be considered the model of classical Latin literature.

Oratory and forensic activity were, in Rome, one of the main means of propaganda for emerging politicians, as there were no written documents on political subjects, with the exception of the Acta Diurna, which enjoyed little circulation.

Dolet’s ideas, especially the last one, which stressed the importance of focusing on the style of the target text, was not in line with common practice and was heavily criticised.

Etienne Dolet was a French umanist born in Orléans, 1509.He has been famous, not just for the translation of Plato's dialogues who brought him to death, but even for his five principles of translation:

  • understand the content of the source text;
  • be proficient in both the source and target language;
  • avoid translating “word for word”;
  • use common, everyday language;
  • produce the target text in an eloquent and harmonious style.

The convertion of Paula by St. Jerome - L.Alma-Tadema

Before he was known as Saint Jerome, he was named Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus. He was born around 342 AD, in Stridon, Dalmatia. Today, the town, which ceased to exist in Jerome's time, would likely be in Croatia or Slovenia.To alleviate the feelings of guilt he often felt afterwards, Jerome would visit the crypts in Rome and imagine himself in hell. He did so every Sunday, even though he was not a Christian. Jerome succeeded in frightening himself, but not in changing his ways. Fortunately, Jerome had as a companion, Bonosus, who was a Christian influence. His influence is part of what persuaded Jerome to become a Christian and change his ways for the better. In or around the year 366, Jerome decided to become a Christian and was baptized by Pope Liberius.

During a long period of travel he gained ecclesiastical training and developed his skills as a translator. Then by choise of the Church, he was made a priest.After his death he became the patron saint of archaeologists, Biblical scholars, librarians, students and translators

'Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago'

German theologian, professor, pastor, and church reformer. Luther began the Protestant Reformation with the publication of his Ninety-Five Theses on October 31, 1517. In this publication, he attacked the Church’s sale of indulgences. He advocated a theology that rested on God’s gracious activity in Jesus Christ, rather than in human works. Nearly all Protestants trace their history back to Luther in one way or another. Luther’s relationship to philosophy is complex and should not be judged only by his famous statement that “reason is the devil’s whore.”Given Luther’s critique of philosophy and his famous phrase that philosophy is the “devil’s whore,” it would be easy to assume that Luther had only contempt for philosophy and reason. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Luther believed, rather, that philosophy and reason had important roles to play in our lives and in the life of the community. However, he also felt that it was important to remember what those roles were and not to confuse the proper use of philosophy with an improper one.

He was born in 1631. His family was wealthy and puritanical, in fact, hattended Cambridge where he received rigorous classical training. John Dryden was certainly the greatest writer of the Restoration period, and for this reason this period is also known as "the age of Dryden". He was a poet, critic and playwright. In June 1654 Dryden's father died leaving him a small income which however was not enough to live on. Arriving in London during the Protectorate, Dryden gets a job with John Thurloe, Oliver Cromwell's secretary of state. After Orwell's death and the return of the monarchy under Charles II, Dryden became the foremost poet and critic of his time. Nevertheless, Dryden's greatest successes come with the satirical verses.

Dryden died on 12 May 1700 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Dryden's influence as a poet was enormous throughout his life, and after his death many elegies in his honor were written by the English literary community.

Newmark was born on 12 April 1916 in Brno in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the Czech Republic. He was one of the main figures in the founding of Translation Studies in the English-speaking world in twentieth century. He was also very influential in the Spanish-speaking world.He is widely read through a series of accessible and occasionally polemical works: A Textbook of Translation (1988), Paragraphs on Translation (1989), About Translation (1991), More Paragraphs on Translation (1998).He was associated with the founding and development of the Centre for Translation Studies at Surrey. He was chair of the editorial board of The Journal of Specialised Translation.

He also wrote "Translation Now" bimonthly for The Linguist and was an Editorial Board Member of the Institute of Linguists. Newmark died on 9 July 2011.

  • The style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original.
  • The translation should have all the ease of the original composition.
  • The translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work.

Lord Woodhouselee, was born in Edinburgh, on the 15th of October, 1747. He was the eldest son of William Tytler, esquire of Woodhouselee, by his wife, Anne Craig.Alexander Fraser Tytler was very much a product of his time. The Edinburgh of the eighteenth century was a lively intellectual city, with a strong sense of independence from England and London and Tytler was the offspring of an intellectual family.In fact he has been the first English theorist who publisced a comprehensive list of principles of translation:

  • I phase (43-30 BC ca): corresponds to the youthful age of the poet: it would be the time of the most ancient Epòdi and Satires.
  • II Phase (30-23 ca) corresponds to the composition of the first three books of the Odes: it is the moment in which the dialectic and the political struggle are redimensioned.
  • III phase (23-13 ca), finally, is that of the poet's full maturity. The 2 books of the Epistles belong to this period

Quinto Orazio Flacco, born in Venosa in 65 BC, was of very humble origins, the son of a loving father who worked as a enforcer exactionum, but had the opportunity to study in the best grammar and rhetoric schools in Rome.

In Tyndale's view, there was only one authority in the world: God. Hence the role of the king as his earthly vicar, as he wrote in his Obedience of a Christian man: "God made the king the judge of His land, and besides he there is no other judge. Those who judge the king, judge God." It is, in essence, a contractual relationship. Against this backdrop, in 1523 Tyndale began work on translating the New Testament from Greek into English. Immediately running into clerical hostility, he moved with his copyist William Roy to Cologne, Germany, and in July 1525 published the first edition. Here, the Lutheran reform had created a climate of openness that was still unthinkable in England.

However, Tyndale's project was discovered by the deacon of Frankfurt, who asked for the intervention of the senate of Cologne to block further printing of the volume. Copies had also begun to flood England, and in great secrecy. It is said that the Archbishop of Canterbury even bought copies specifically to burn them.

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