sense-for-sense translation

Jerome, a Roman Catholic priest, theologian, and historian coined the term "sense-for-sense" when he developed this translation method when was tasked by Pope Damasus to review the existing translations of the Gospel and produce a more reliable Latin version.{{Cite book|title=The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version|last=Coogan|first=Michael David|last2=Brettler|first2=Marc Zvi|last3=Newsom|first3=Carol Ann|last4=Perkins|first4=Pheme|date=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195288803|location=Oxford|pages=466}} He described this method in his "Letter to Pammachius", where he said that, "except of course in the case of Holy Scripture, where even the syntax contains a mystery," he translates non verbum e verbo sed sensum de sensu: not word for word but sense for sense.Douglas Robinson, ed., Western Translation Theory from Herodotus to Nietzsche (Manchester, UK: St. Jerome, 1997, 2ed 2002), 25. He adopted a framework that corrected the mistakes of previous translators as well as the alterations of critical scholars and the errors made by careless copyists{{Cite book|title=The Murderous History of Bible Translations: Power, Conflict and the Quest for Meaning|last=Freedman|first=Harry|date=2016|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781472921673|location=London|pages=45}} by collecting the oldest Greek manuscripts, which he compared with the Old Latin versions, and translated the scripture into a version that is close as possible to the original meaning.

Jerome did not invent the concept of sense-for-sense translation. It is believed that it was first proposed by Cicero in De optimo genere oratorum ("The Best Kind of Orator"). In this text, he said that in translating from Greek to Latin, "I did not think I ought to count them out to the reader like coins, but to pay them by weight, as it were."Robinson, ed., Western Translation Theory, 9. Cicero did not mention sense-for-sense in his works but it is considered to be a type of "segmental" theory, which is attributed to him and Horace. This translation approach is based on segmentation, which considers how long a segment (word, phrase, or sentence) is before moving on to the next.{{Cite book|title=Translation and Empire|last=Robinson|first=Douglas|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781900650083|location=Oxon|pages=50}}

Jerome was not the originator of the term "word-for-word" either. It has possibly also been borrowed from Cicero as well, or possibly from Horace, who warned the writer interested in retelling ancient tales in an original way Nec verbo verbum curabit reddere / fidus interpretes: "not to try to render them word for word [like some] faithful translator."Robinson, ed., Western Translation Theory, 15.

Some have read that passage in Horace differently. Boethius in 510 CE and Johannes Scotus Eriugena in the mid-9th century read it to mean that translating literally is "the fault/blame of the faithful interpreter/translator," and fear that they have incurred it. Burgundio of Pisa in the 1170s and Sir Richard Sherburne in 1702 recognize that Horace is advising not translators but original writers, but still assume that he is calling all translation literal. Finally, John Denham in 1656 and André Lefevere in 1992 take Horace to be warning translators against translating literally.For Boethius, Eriugena, Burgundio, and Denham, see Robinson, ed., Western Translation Theory, 35, 37, 42, and 156. For Sherburne, see T. R. Steiner, English Translation Theory, 1650–1800 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1975), 89. André Lefevere's translation of Horace appears in Lefevere, ed., Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 15: "Do not worry about rendering word for word, faithful translator, but render sense for sense." This of course not only makes Horace's advice for the writer into advice for the translator, but anachronistically imports Jerome's coinage back into Horace's dictum, which actually preceded it by four centuries. For discussion, see also Douglas Robinson, Who Translates (Albany: SUNY Press, 2001), 170–174.

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In John Dryden’s 1680 preface to his translation of Ovid's Epistles, he proposed dividing translation into three parts called: metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation.Lawrence Venuti, The Translation Studies Reader. 3rd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2012.), page 38. Metaphrase is word-for-word and line by line translation from one language into another.Venuti, The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd ed., 38. Paraphrase is sense-for-sense translation where the message of the author is kept but the words are not so strictly followed as the sense, which too can be altered or amplified.Venuti, The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd ed., 38. Imitation is the use of either metaphrase or paraphrase but the translator has the liberty to choose which is appropriate and how the message will be conveyed.Venuti, The Translation Studies Reader, 3rd ed., 38.

In 1813, during his “Über die Verschiedenen Methoden des Übersetzens” lecture,Yves Gambier, Luc Van Doorslaer, Handbook of Translation Studies, (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub., 2010.), 40. Friedrich Schleiermacher proposed the idea where “[E]ither the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him, or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and he moves the author towards him”.Gambier, Handbook of Translation Studies, 40.

In 1964,{{cn|date=November 2019}} Eugene Nida described translation as having two different types of equivalence: formal and dynamic equivalence.Lawrence Venuti,. The Translation Studies Reader. (New York: Routledge, 2000.), page 129. Formal equivalence is when there is focus on the message itself (in both form and content);Lawrence Venuti, The Translation Studies Reader. (New York: Routledge, 2000.), page 129. the message in the target language should match the message in the source language as closely as possible.Venuti, The Translation Studies Reader, 129. In dynamic equivalence, there is less concern with matching the message in the target language with the message in the source language;Venuti, The Translation Studies Reader, 129. the goal is to produce the same relationship between target text and target audience as there was with the original source text and its audience.Venuti, The Translation Studies Reader, 129.

In 1981, Peter Newmark referred to translation as either semantic (word-for-word) or communicative (sense-for-sense).Peter Newmark, Approaches to Translation, (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981) He stated that semantic translation is one that is source language bias, literal and faithful to the source text and communicative translation is target language bias, free and idiomatic.Newmark, Approaches to Translation, 31 A semantic translation's goal is to stay as close as possible to the semantic and syntactic structures of the source language, allowing the exact contextual meaning of the original.Newmark, Approaches to Translation, 39 A communicative translation's goal is to produce an effect on the readers as close as possible to that as produced upon the readers of the original.Newmark, Approaches to Translation, 39

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In addition to these concepts, in 1990, Brian Mossop presented his concept of idiomatic and unidiomatic translation.Brian Mossop, "Translating Institutions and “Idiomatic” Translation." Meta: Journal des traducteurs 35, no. 2 (January 1990) Idiomatic translation is when the message of the source text is conveyed the way a target language writer would convey it, rather than staying to the way in which it was conveyed in the source text.Mossop, “Translating Institutions,”, 343 Unidiomatic translation is innovative and translates individual words.Mossop, “Translating Institutions,”, 343

In 1994, also in modern translation studies, Lawrence Venuti introduced the concepts of domestication and foreignization, which are based on concepts from Friedrich Schleiermacher's 1813 lecture.Gambier, Handbook of Translation Studies, 40. Domestication is the adaption of culture-specific terms or cultural context, where as foreignization is the preservation of the original cultural context of the source text (in terms of settings, names, etc.).

Venuti also described domestication as being fluent and transparent strategies that result in acculturation, where “a cultural other is domesticated, made intelligible”.Lawrence Venuti, "Genealogies of Translation Theory: Schleiermacher." TTR : Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 4, no. 2 (1991) Schleiermacher's distinction between "bringing the author to the reader" (domestication) and "taking the reader to the author"Douglas Robinson, ed. Western Translation Theory From Herodotus to Nietzsche. (Manchester: St. Jerome., 2002) (foreignization), dealt with a social concern and Venuti's distinction between domestication and foreignization deals with ethical principles.

{{reflist}}

• Gentzler, Edwin (2001). Contemporary Translation Theories. 2nd Ed. London and New York: Routledge.
• Lefevere, André. (1992). Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook. London and New York: Routledge.
• Newmark, Peter. (1988). A Textbook of Translation. New York: Prentice Hall.
• Nida, Eugene A., and Charles R. Taber. (1969). The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: Brill.
• Robinson, Douglas. (2001). Who Translates? Translator Subjectivities Beyond Reason. Albany: SUNY Press.
• Robinson, Douglas, ed. (2002). Western Translation Theory From Herodotus to Nietzsche. Manchester: St. Jerome.
• Steiner, T.R. (1975). English Translation Theory, 1650–1800. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
• Venuti, Lawrence. (1995). The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation. London and New York: Routledge ([https://web.archive.org/web/20110626120012/http://www.freewebs.com/dennis_rusu/the%20translator's%20invisibility.%20history%20of%20translation.pdf Read full version here])

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Category:Translation studies

Category:Translation