Each day brims with countless interactions across various languages.

Translation
bridges us all together – languages, cultures, and people – yet few understand what it
means.

What is translation?

Broad concepts rarely escape broad definitions, and translation is no exception.

Linguists often discuss signs and the encoding/decoding process. Computer scientists
interpret translation through neural networks and machine learning. While
psychologists focus on what’s inside the translator’s mind.

There is no “best” description, as everyone utilizes different lenses. Still, nearly every
translation definition within the field includes three crucial parts: source language,
target language, and transfer of meaning. Simply put, translators transfer the
meaning from the text written in the source language to the target language.
Let’s unpack this step by step:

Meaning transfer – the message from language A (source language) needs to

be communicated in language B (target language)

Written text – translation is often confused with interpretation. However, the

latter deals with spoken, not written, language

Source language – the language being translated from

Target language – the language being translated into

Translation theory in academia started with these essential building blocks several
decades ago. It has since expanded further through the inclusion of new concepts,
mostly from adjacent fields, such as linguistics. Therefore, along with the birth of
translation studies, the concept of translation was born.

The concept of translation

The concept of translation has evolved so much that some say translation
encompasses nearly everything – a building is a ‘translation’ of an architect’s ideas
into the physical world. But the groundwork had to be built first. This happened
hundreds of years ago, well before translation studies were established as an
academic discipline.

In the beginning, fundamental distinctions appeared in Western and Eastern ancient

texts, like the difference between literal translation (metaphrase) and sense-for-
sense translation (paraphrase). For example, have you ever noticed how films or
books in different countries occasionally have a title that is seemingly unrelated to the
original? In these cases, translators (and marketers) often create their own text and
choose completely different titles for various reasons: length, catchiness,
appropriateness, and so on. This process is also known as transcreation.
Furthermore, it’s normal to discover that such texts have little in common with the
source text at the textual level.

Does something make translations unique? Many think translations should be

indistinguishable from authentic texts. This would mean that good translators, just like
good interpreters, should be invisible. On the other hand, many others feel that
translators’ invisibility hurts the profession and even takes something unique away
from the reader. Welcome to the age-old translation debate
over fidelity and transparency! In one sense, much of translation can be explained
as the interplay of these two ideas. Some translators want their texts as natural as
possible, sometimes at the expense of faithfulness. In contrast, others prefer to follow
the source text religiously, and a third camp prizes the middle ground.

Many other conceptual tools and models have been conceived to define and practice
translation. Searching for ‘the right way’ created several paradigms – the descriptive
or prescriptive approaches to studying and defining translation. No unified translation
theory exists, nor a single, comprehensive definition. This becomes even more
apparent when viewing translation practice history – there’s hardly any common
thread binding all translations together.
The history of translation

One thing that remains constant is that translations serve to propagate ideas.

Recognising little parts of the history of translation helps us grasp the bigger picture.
For example, understanding the etymology of the word ‘translation’, which originates
from the Latin trānslātiō (to carry over, to bring across), sheds light on
today’s ‘transfer of meaning’.

Translations have facilitated communication throughout the centuries on a massive

scale. While translation scholars dispute the first documented translation, many
claim it was the monumental Epic of Gilgamesh. Since then, innumerable literary
translations have been produced.

In the Western world, translation also fuelled Christianity’s spread. From St. Jerome’s
Vulgate to the King James Bible, the biblical word permeated the world thanks to
millions of translations in dozens of languages. This desire to spread ideas – whether
from politics, religion, philosophy, or science – led to the democratisation of translation
through technology. Nowadays, machine translation connects cultures worldwide in
real-time, and translations are more abundant than ever before. If this has piqued
your interest in the rich history of translation, read more here.

Here we have it all – literature, religion, culture, etc. But how to make sense of
something that is evidently everywhere, and then condense it into digestible chunks?
Simplification and categorisation are required for such a diverse topic.

Types of translation

There are many different classifications of translations based on numerous factors.

Some are familiar to translation scholars, while others better aid those looking for a
particular translation service. The latter will most likely come across a text type
division, which usually includes the following eight types of translation:
 Legal translation

Technical translation

Medical translation

Financial translation

Localisation

Marketing translation

Certified translation

Literary translation

Each category is intricate, requiring a different approach and translation technique –

translating bank statements differs vastly from untangling Dostoevsky.
Moreover, each category contains subcategories that depend on the scholar and
their particular paradigm. For example, technical translations can be further divided
according to the area of expertise (IT, automobile industry, etc.) or text type (user
guides, manuals, patents, etc.). Translation services are quite varied, so if you need
any extra information in order to understand them better, read more here.

To contrast the pragmatic division above with a more theoretical, linguistic one, three
new terms must be introduced: intralingual, interlingual, and intersemiotic. These
are the brainchildren of Roman Jakobson, a famous linguist whose concepts also
impacted translation studies. Here is a short explanation:

Intralingual translation – translating verbal signs into other signs of the same

language. For example, any modern rendition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
had to be translated from Middle English (provided it is not a translation of a
translation).

Interlingual translation – translating verbal signs into other signs of a different

language. This is what most people imagine when they hear the word
‘translation’. It is a meaning transfer from language A to language B.
 Intersemiotic translation – translating verbal signs into non-verbal
signs (music, film, etc.). This is a fancy name for the process of making Harry
Potter films out of Harry Potter books.

The classification you choose also transforms the concept of translation and
its importance. To paraphrase an influential translation scholar, Gideon
Toury, translation is whatever the target culture (readers) accepts and regards as
a translation.