Alaa Ahmed Riad

Assignment (4)
Factors governing a translation oriented toward Formal
Equivalence
F-E is source-oriented , it is designed to reveal as much as possible
of the form and content of the original message.
It has to adhere to several formal elements including :
a) Grammatical units
Correspondence in rendering nouns as nouns , sentences as sentences
without splitting them and keeping the all the formal indicators
,marks of punctuation, paragraph breaks and poetic indention.
b) Consistency in word usage
Concordance of terminology
c)Meanings in terms of the source language
Keeping idioms as they are ;rendering them literally to a give a
cultural flavor .
F-E uses marginal notes , foot notes , brackets and parentheses.
Factors governing a translation oriented toward dynamic
equivalence
D-E is receptor-response oriented, it wants to reflect the meaning and
the intent of the original message exactly the same way as a bilingual
and bicultural will .It wants to produce the 'closest natural
equivalence to the source language message'. Natural here applies to
three levels a) language and culture of the receptor 2) the context of
the message 3 ) the receptor language audience.
As for the language, there are two levels grammar and lexicon,
translation should conform to the structure of the receptor language .
Lexicon is a more challenging levels as there are three levels :
1) Terms which have parallels e.g. tree, chair
2) Terms which have the same referential parallels but they serve
different functions ( book now and book in the New Testament)
3) Terms which have cultural specialty (synagogue).
Naturalness applies to all levels of language (co
suitability)(Target- Oriented)
1) word class: one would say God Loves instead of God is Love.
2) grammatical categories: some language the predicate nominatives
must agree in number with the subject, one should say the two shall
act as if they are one instead of the two shall be one.
3) Semantic classes: swear words in some language are based upon
the perverted use of divine names , other languages may be based on
excremental , anatomical.
4) Discourse type: some language use direct quotation , while other
languages prefer indirect
5)cultural context: norms of the receptor culture , for example in
some societies the practice of sitting down to teach is unbecoming.
Alaa Ahmed Riad
Assignment (4)

Accordance of the context of the particular message including :
intonation and sentence rhythm. A natural translation must avoid
some elements like vulgarities crude expression and slang especially
in a dignified context. Translators also should avoid anachronism .
Translator should be sensitive to the difference between languages for
example : some languages consider onomatopoeic expression slang ,
while other languages consider it essential for communicating the
meaning.Spanish language prefers flowery language , English ,on the
other hand , prefers precise clear language.Translator should strive to
render the stylistic effect and any underlying tone : sarcasm , irony
for the sake of the similar response.
Conformance to the audience plays an important reole and relies
mainly on the experience and the decoding ability , Translation ready
by man of the street would be different than one read by church men
for example .
A Translation which aims at a dynamic equivalence involves a
number of formal adjustments
1- Special literary form
poetry involves more adjustments than does prose.
Greek dactylic hexameter is translated as an iambic pentameter.
2- Semantically exocentric expressions
Idioms which might be meaningless in the receptor language , should
be replaced with endocentric expression which makes sense to the
reader .
for example : grid up the lion of your minds can be translated as get
ready in your thinking.
3- Intraorganismic meaning
They suffer most in the process of translation as they deal with certain
emotive meanings that sometime seem untranslatable.
For example the Greek word 'tapeinos' is translated as lowly which
carried the meaning of low status , while Christians adopted it as an
important virtue.