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TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES

Translation Techniques: Compensating for Differences Between

Languages

When a professional translator sits down to work, he or she does not stop and
think about the strategies to be employed for a particular translation work. It comes
intuitively. But ask a translator to make a list of the translation techniques they use,
and they might be hard pressed to describe these to an outsider. Nevertheless, we
will pinpoint these techniques to help readers interested in translation to learn more
about the many nuances of this fascinating work that well deserves public
awareness and attention.

A translator considers many elements before the actual translation is done. There
could be discrepancies in vocabulary and grammar in both languages that means

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literal translation is not possible. That is why these translation techniques are used
to come up with an accurate translation.

Broadly, there are two main translation types: direct and oblique, with sub-types
under each one. It should be noted that translation techniques are different from
translation methods. Translation methods are applied to the entire document.
Translation technique on the other hand can vary within the same document,
based on the particular verbal elements that require translation.

Direct Translation Techniques

Direct translation techniques are utilized when the conceptual and structural
elements of the source language (SL) are directly transferable into the target
language (TL). The techniques used for direct translation are borrowing, calque
and literal translation.

1. In borrowing, the words are taken directly from the source language into the
target language without any translation, such as funk, abattoir, passé, café,
résumé, taco, tortilla, burrito and bandana. Often, these words are italicized to
indicate that they are foreign words. Take a look at this sentence, where very
little translation has been done: The gaucho was wearing a worn pair of old
bombachas and a black sombrero.

2. Also known as loan translation, it means a phrase that is borrowed from

another language and literally translated, such as “superman” and “beer
garden” from the German words “Übermensch” and “Biergarten”, respectively.
The German “standpunkt” becomes “standpoint” in English. Calques can be
seen often in international and specialized fields, such as “quality assurance”
or “aseguramiento de calidad” in Spanish. The meanings of some calques are

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not that clear to other people, especially when they relate to law, science and
other vocations. Often the translator will be creating coined words in the target
language by adopting the source language’s structure, as in “handball”
(English) becoming “balonmano” in Spanish. “Rascacielos” (Spanish) and
“gratte-ciel” (French) means skyscraper in English.

Direct translation, per se, means the literal word-for-word translation of written
text, which may or may not convey the actual message of the original document.
However, when it applies to translation, literal translation indicates technical
translation of legal, technological, technical, and scientific texts.

3. Literal translation. Word-for-word or literal translation (metaphrase) is

applicable to some languages but not for others due to the difference in
structure of the sentences. For example, in the English sentence, “The team is
working to finish the report,” the literal translation in Spanish is “El equipo está
trabajando para terminar el informe.” But this sentence cannot be literally
translated into German or French because of the differences in sentence
structure. It is normally applied only to languages that are very close to each
other culturally and is only acceptable if the same syntax, style and meaning
are maintained in the translated text.

(Sytanx or syntaxis: the study of the rules and patterns by which sentences and
phrases are domed in a language.)

Oblique Translation Techniques

When the conceptual or structural elements of the source language cannot be

directly translated into the target language without changing its stylistic and
grammatical elements and the meaning, oblique translation techniques are used.

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Here, the translator exerts a tighter and stricter control over their translation. This
category has five types:

1. In modulation, a phrase that is not the same as the SL and TL is used to

impart the same idea. The Spanish phrase, “te lo dejo” literally translates to
“I’ll leave it to you.” However, it sounds better when translated as “you can
have it.” It changes the meaning and switches the source language’s point of
view. Modulation can also be used without changing the meaning and putting
an awkwardness in the target language. It is also possible to employ
modulation in the same language. In this example, “es fácil de entender” and
“no es complicado de entender” mean “it is easy to understand” and “it is not
complicated to understand,” respectively. The former indicates that something
is not difficult to comprehend, whereas in the latter, the meaning goes deeper
by saying that something was previously thought of as difficult but turns out to
be not a complicated thing to understand.

(Another example is: ¿Cuántos años tienes? and How old are you?. If we
translate it directly: How many years do you have?, it would not make sense
as the verb “have” implies to hold something, to touch it as you hold it. We
don’t really “have” years to carry with us, therefore in English is used the
phrase: How old are you?)

2. This is when the sequence of some parts of the speech changes, for example,
“yellow ball” in English becomes “balle jaune” in French, and “pelota amarilla”
in Spanish. This is because grammatical structures could be different in some
languages, e.g., “Er schwimmt gern” in German is “he likes swimming” in
English. Transposition is also employed often when translating English into
Spanish and vice versa because of verb positioning. In Spanish, the verb is
positioned near the end of the sentence while in English, the verb is quite

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close to the beginning, thus the translator must know that a word category can
be replaced in the TL without changing the SL’s meaning.

(You move from one grammatical category to another without altering the
meaning of the text. The grammatic structure changes due to a need in the
target language.)

3. Equivalence or reformulation. When translating advertising slogans,

interjections, proverbs, names of institutions, and idioms, oftentimes the
expression must be translated in an entirely different manner. In this case,
equivalence or reformulation is used. This process is a bit difficult, and
creativity is essential. For example, it is easy for Americans and other English
speakers to understand the saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
However, directly translating this phrase might not have the same meaning in
other languages, thus substituting it with the phrase; “keep your options open”
makes it easier to understand in more languages.

 * “Under the weather” – “ Me siento agüitado”

 * “Spill the beans” – “Sacar la sopa”
 * “Come rain or come shine” – “Llueva, truene o relampaguee”
 * “I’m loving it” – “Me encanta”

4. Generally speaking, compensation applies to terms that cannot be

translated yet their nuances are expressed somewhere else within the
text. In English, there is only the pronoun “you,” for example, whereas there
are informal and formal versions in French (tu and vous), in German (du and
sie) and in Spanish (tú and usted). The degree of formality is expressed in
several ways, which is not present in English. When using compensation, the
translator exercises discretion and some freedom in replacing elements that
are inherent in the source language with items that are native to the target

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language. A translator who uses compensation technique must have a deeper

knowledge of the source and target languages, as well as the ability to have a
higher level of understanding that goes beyond literal translation.

Nuance: a very slight difference in appearance, meaning, sound, etc.

5. This is used when a term or phrase that is specific to a culture is translated in

a completely different manner so that it becomes appropriate or familiar to
another culture’s language. In adaptation, the cultural reference to a situation
is changed if this is not existent in the target culture, like substituting Belgian
jokes with Irish jokes when translating from French to English. It is quite
commonly used in the translation of movie titles and books as well as in pop
culture.

(In the movie Shrek – Gingerbread talks to Lord Farquaad about the Muffin Man in
English but in Spanish he talks about Pin Pon, un muñeco de carton.)

Have you ever tried to use an online translator and did not understand the resultant
translation? If this has happened to you, you will understand the difficult task of
coming up with a fully comprehensible and accurate translation in the language
that you understand and the fact that human translators are needed to produce
quality translations.

Professional translators employ many elements, skills, knowledge and techniques

that are available and required in their profession. One of the main things is the
deep understanding of the source and target languages. Many of the techniques
discussed here will be applied in different parts of the document. Literal translation
may still need a bit of tweaking to make it sound better in the translated language;
verbs may be repositioned and idioms may have to be changed or replaced to fit

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the culture of the reader. Translators are very sensitive to cultural issues and
exercise sound judgment to change phrases, terms and sentences that might be
offensive to other cultures.

When you require accurate translation, do not rely on machines, as they are not
capable of producing accurate translations. Translation work is a combination of
many elements. The work process is difficult and long, and must conform to
various rules, which are indigenous to most languages. For example, English to
Spanish translation might not need a lot of changes to be implemented although it
cannot be said that it is still easy, but consider translation from English to Arabic,
English to Hindi, English to Afrikaans or English to Chinese and vice versa. Being a
good translator is not an inherent skill; it requires long periods of study and on-the-
job experience.

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