Strategies Used by Professional Translators

                a. Translation by a more general word (superordinate) 

• This is one of the most common strategies to deal with many types of nonequivalence. As Baker believes, it works appropriately in most, if not all, languages, because in the semantic field, meaning is not language dependent.

 

The preceding examples illustrate the use of a general word (superordinate) to overcome a relative lack of specifi city in the target language compared to the  source language. ‘Shampooing’ can be seen as a type of ‘washing’ since it is more restricted in use: you can wash lots of things but you can only shampoo hair.

        b. Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word 

This is another strategy in the semantic field of structure

There is a noticeable difference in the expressive meaning of mumble and its nearest Italian equivalent, mugugnare. The English verb mumble suggests confusion, disorientation or embarrassment, as can be seen in the following examples:

‘Sorry,’ she managed to mumble incoherently.

 I was doing a three-point-turn manoeuvre to get us back onto the road when he woke up, lifted his hat and mumbled: ‘Where are we?’

‘I didn’t mean to disturb you,’ I mumbled apologetically.

‘I’m in your hands,’ I mumbled and didn’t quite know why I said it.

Presented with a hard question, she’ll blush, stare at her feet and finally mumble her answer.

The Italian near equivalent, mugugnare, in contrast, tends to suggest dissatisfac[1]tion rather than embarrassment or confusion. Possibly to avoid conveying the wrong expressive meaning, the Italian translator opted for a more general word, suggerisce (‘suggest’).

        c. Translation by cultural substitution 

This strategy involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression with a target language item considering its impact on the target reader. This strategy makes the translated text more natural, more understandable and more familiar to the target reader. The translator's decision to use this strategy will depend on:

1. The degree to which the translator is given license by those who commission the translation
2. The purpose of the translation

In Britain, cream tea is ‘an afternoon meal consisting of tea to drink and scones with jam and clotted cream to eat. It can also include sandwiches and cakes’. Cream tea has no equivalent in other cultures. The Italian translator replaced it with ‘pastry’, which does not have the same meaning (for one thing, cream tea is a meal in Britain, whereas ‘pastry’ is only a type of food). However, ‘pastry’ is familiar to the Italian reader and therefore provides a good cultural substitute.

            d. Translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation

This strategy is usually used in dealing with culture-specific items, modern concepts, and buzz words. Using the loan word with an explanation is very useful when a word is repeated several times in the text. At the first time the word is mentioned by the explanation and in the next times the word can be used by its own.

Shaman is a technical word used in religious studies to refer to a priest or a priest doctor among the northern tribes of Asia. It has no ready equivalent in Japanese. The equivalent used in the translation is made up of shaman as a loan word, written in katakana script (the script commonly used to transcribe foreign words into Japanese), plus a Japanese suffi x which means ‘like’ to replace the -ic ending in English. The Japanese suffi x is written in the Kanji script (the Chinese system used to transcribe ordinary Japanese)

            e. Translation by paraphrase using a related word

This strategy is used when the source item in lexicalized in the target language but in a different form, and when the frequency with which a certain form is used in the source text is obviously higher than it would be natural in the target language.

The paraphrase in the Arabic text employs comparison, a strategy which can be used to deal with other types of non-equivalence

    

        f. Translation by paraphrase using unrelated words

The paraphrase strategy can be used when the concept in the source item is not lexicalized in the target language.

When the meaning of the source item is complex in the target language, the paraphrase strategy may be used instead of using related words; it may be based on modifying a super-ordinate or simply on making clear the meaning of the source item.

Alfresco, ‘in the open air’, is a loan word in English. Its meaning is unpacked in the German translation. The two expressions, alfresco and ‘in the open’, have the same ‘propositional’ meaning, but the German expression lacks the ‘evoked’ meaning of alfresco, which is perhaps inevitable in this case. Note that the loan word is placed in inverted commas in the source text

        g. Translation by omission

This may be a drastic kind of strategy, but in fact it may be even useful to omit translating a word or expression in some contexts. If the meaning conveyed by a particular item or expression is not necessary to mention in the understanding of the translation, translators use this strategy to avoid lengthy explanations

The source text addresses a European audience, and the use of gave us highlights its intended orientation. The Chinese translation addresses a different audience and therefore suppresses the orientation of the source text by omitting expressions which betray its original point of view.

        h.  Translation by illustration

This strategy can be useful when the target equivalent item does not cover some aspects of the source item and the equivalent item refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly in order to avoid over-explanation and to be concise and to the point.

Figure 2.2 appeared on a Lipton Yellow Label tea packet prepared for the Arab market. There is no easy way of translating tagged, as in tagged teabags , into Arabic without going into lengthy explanations that would clutter the text. An illustration of a tagged teabag is therefore used instead of a paraphrase.

source: Baker, M. In Other Words (3rd ed.).