Vice Chancellor, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute (Deemed University),

Pune

LINGUISTICS AND TRANSLATION

Author(s): D. P. Pattanayak
Source: Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Vol. 27, No.
1/2 (1966-67), pp. 57-63
Published by: Vice Chancellor, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute
(Deemed University), Pune
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42930754
Accessed: 23-03-2020 08:23 UTC

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 LINGUISTICS AND TRANSLATION

By
D. P. Pattanayak

Translation is the process by which meaningful experience f

speech community is communicated to another. In a monolingual
this might mean transmitting a message from one dialect to anot
one register to another, or from an early stage of the language t
stage. The marginal or interlinear glossing of the early Latin tex
Vedic Nighantus presenting strings of synonyms may be conside
manifestations of the unlingual translation. A third manifestat
transmission of a message from one style to another. The follow
examples demonstrate the differences between two stages as well as t
of the language.

Old Tamil nān katti utaiyen

Written Tamil ennitam katti irukkiratu.

Spoken Tamil engitte katti irukku.

Even among the spoken varieties of speech there is difference between

the caste dialects of Tamil, Thus :

Non-Brahmin ennakku so:ru veņu 'I want rice'

Brahmin ne:ku ša:dam veņu 'I want rice'.

The syntactic differences, the vocabulary substitutions and the gramma-

tical changes in the above examples point out some of the complexities involved
even in a unilingual translation.

The early and medieval translation efforts in Europe, including those

of Bible translation, emphasised word for word translation with lamentable
results. From word to sense through pharse, sentence, paragraph and a
discourse, mark the progress in the history of translation. In India too
the same progress may be noted in the ideas implicit in the Nighantus, yäakas
Nirukta and partially explicit in Patanjali's Mahäbhäsya. From a pure
listing of synonyms, through the gropping in the darkness for finding a basis
of etyma in Nirukuta, one comes to the refreshing distinction between pada-

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 58 D. P. PATTANAYAK

sphota and väkya sphota in Patanjali's M

definition as the mechanism for makin
or a sentence.

Unilingual or intralingual translation may be viewed as 'rewording' or

interpreting a message expressed by a set of verbal signs by means of other
signs in the same language. But in the substitutions of axle units it is almost
impossible to find two units isomorphic in their domain. That is why the so
called synonyms may be viewed as expressing subtle differences of registers
or distances in space and time. Thus substitution of current form or an
obsolete form or both for a current term may be reflecting a bi-register or
multiple register intra-lingual translation as the case may be.

Although unilingual translation is of great interest, it is bilingual or

interlingual transation that is considered as the tanslation proper by most
people. Intersemiotic translation deals with the interpretation of verbal signs
in terms of non-verbal behaviour and is outside the interest of most linguists.

A basic underlying assumption of the word for word and sentence

for sentence translation is that the semantic contents of a word or a sentence
in the source language can be specified precisely in a word and a sentence in
the target language. But it is futile to look for full equivalence between features
of two languages. It is important to underline from the very beginning that
such substitutions when attempted are generally partial. For example, for
the word 'curds' in English the Oriya equivalent is dahi. But the varieties
of curds expressed by basā dahi, chedā dahi do not have their English counter-
parts.

In the sense that any two languages are potentially capable of expressing
the totality of cognitive experience, they are the same. But since different
language speakers more often than not, perceive and segment experience diffe-
rently and to the extent languages use different devices in expressing even
the same content, they are different in handling 'meaningfulness'. This is
why translation, which aims at communicating the meaningful experience
from one language to another presupposes bilingual competence. The more
balanced and advanced the mastery of bilingualism the more facility he has
in interpreting the bicultural data manipulated by the source language and
the target language.

Robert Graves, the English poet and novelist calls translation a lie, a
polite lie. Some have also called translators traitors. Robert Graves thinks
of translation as almost absolutely impossible whereas the other group think
that translators can never be faithful. It is also recognised that 'faithful
translations are seldom beautiful and the beautiful ones are seldom faithful.
Since earliest times faithfulness has been considered to be the touch-stone

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 LINGUISTICS AND TRANSLATION 59

by which translations are tested. The French translator scholar

(1509-1546) was strangled to death and all his writings pu
his translation of Plato was considered to be unfaithful to the
then with the expansion of the notion of valid translation, t
faithfulness has also been considerably enlarged. We have arrived at a
time when 'equivalence in difference' or presentation of a message in two
different yet equivalent codes, is not merely accepted as valid, but preferred
by many.

It is necessary to emphasise at this point that as any cognitive expe-

rience is conveyable in any existing language, one has to be proficient in the
use of different devices in the target language for the expression of any con-
ceptual information contained in the source language. Some of the devices
may be examined for clarifying the above position.

(a) Qualification and amplification of terminology Siberian chukchees:

Screw = rotating nail.

(b) Loan translation

Russian : Horseless street car called eletriceskaya konka 'electrical
horse car'.

(c) Addition of information

(i) English : She has brothers.

Sanskrit : dual. She has two brothers.

PI. She has more than two brothers

Either/or. She has either two or more than two
brothers.

(ii) English : I fired a worker.

Russian : More information needed.

One has to know whether the action was completed or

not in order to determine the choice between a completive
or non-completive aspect of the verb.

nanyal or nanimal
one has to know whether the worker was a man or woman
in order to exercise choice between a masculine and a
feminine noun.

rabotnika or rabotnici

(d) Difference in grammatical categories : Gender. Police is feminine

in Hindi which sounds queer to an Oriya speaker.

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60 D. P. PATTANAYAK

The Czehc poet Joseph Hora was

to translate Boris Pasternak's poe
as Russian : zhizny is feminine while Czech zivot is
masculine.

(e) Repetition of constituents leading to change of meaning and the

use of this device by different languages in different ways.
Philipines language : Truly Truly = Perhaps (Doubt)
Dravidian : (Tamil) : veļaveļai = appropriate time
Malayo-Polynesian languages : bāhāsā bāhāsā = Languages
(Plurality)

Sanskrit : kaņthe kaņthe = In each voice (each, every)

The above examples are sufficient to demonstrate that unless one has
adequate command over the target language in all its dimensions, it is hard
to get the ease so necessary for translation. If the linguist himself is not a
translator, he can aid the translator by supplying him with the best description
which, in turn, will give the translator an insight into the working of the
languages concerned.

It has already been suggested that facility in language use is not

sufficient for one to be a good translator. It is important that the translator
be bicultural as well. Language is the product as well as the expression of
culture. One's knowing a language is not really complete - without knowing
how meaning is structured. Unfortunately, due to the influence of behaviourial
conditioned reflex on the study of language and the necessity to emphasise
automaticity at the initial stages of language acquisition, unfortunately the
study of meaningfulness has been neglected by linguists. This lulled some
to believe that the study of culture is not essential for the translator. A few
examples are given below to demonstrate the necessity on the part of the
translator for having an insight into the cultural phenomena.

(a) Behaviour as expressed by language means different things to

different communities. Thus "Beating the breast" means
'repentance' in Luke 18 : 13, 'to congratulate oneself' in the Central
African Chokwe language, 'pride' as well as 'deep sorrow' in Oriya.

(b) Cultural norms and permitted deviant behaviour are different in

different societies.

Supposing through observations and enquiry one finds that most

people go to bed between 9-11 p.m. and they get up between 5-7 a.m.
It is further found that a few people get up between 8-9 a.m. It

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 LINGUISTICS AND TRANSLATION 61

in a particular culture people view this as a matter of

convenience then there is no pattern. But if people w
late are considered sick and lazy, then it provides a clue fo
enquiry in establishing a pattern of rest in the community

(c) The attitude of an American and a Spaniard to bull-fig

a very interesting example of cultural difference and n
bicultural insight. The Spaniard considers bull-fight a
a triumph of humanity over brute force. The America
it a demonstration of cruelty, the killing of a defence
The attitude of a Spaniard towards human and animal is so
tiated that there are separate groups of words indicating a
human body parts. It is not enough to know this fact
into conclusions about the character of various culture
American attitude towards animals, for instance, is diff
their attitude towards fish. Tarpon fishing is similar t
in almost all its aspects; no American considers it crue

Although people may be aware of many socio-cultural a

divergences in their own immediate surroundings, somehow
consider the alien culture to be am undifferentiated and undi
Such an attitude leads one to generalise about the whole com
isolated individual traits. Such attitude is a hindrance to goo
A translator attempts to reproduce in his audience somethin
effect which is supposed to have existed in the original.
recognises that words are tools for the manipulation of con
problem of response to meaning is different for different co
that one has to "focus attention on the total cultural context
out hidden motifs of words but to establish the extent to which
carry emotive meaning and in what way they segment experi
equipped he is as a translator.

It must be clear by now that translation as an art and as

beyond the narrow domains of linguistics. It may be consid
applied linguistics, where knowledge of the language structur
equipment. The qualities oï a good translator are his compet
pulating the structures of both the languages and both the cultu
cerned with. Knowledge of the conclusions arrived at by rese
fields of philology, symbolic logic, psychology, psycholinguis
netics are likely to enhance this competence.

The purpose of translation also determines the degree of

culture required on the part of the translator. A scientific tr
field notes of a sociologist may require a verbatim translation
refinement in the language. A religious translation is judged

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 62 D. P. PATTANAYAK

standard by a sectariant. In one Marathi tr

of the term mulgā was preferred to putra in t
that the term putra etymologically means 'o
hell fire'. The implication, howsoever remo
saving his father from hell fire, was considere
the other hand, a specialist might need a he
piece to give him all possible nuances of mea
descriptive, and interpretative prose are rela
of poetry, where 'profusion is forced into a
quality of words and metres, which is an essen
almost impossible to recreate in the target l
texture and mood of the original the translato
partially on his competence, partially on hi
purpose of translation.

This brings us to the question of the qua

lation. Judging a translation as 'good' or 'bad
ment of the translation in question in a grad
'excellent' at either end, and degrees of a
Carlyle's 'Hero and Hero Worship' is transla
it may be accepted by the Marathi readers in t
but there is no doubt that it is an unaccepta
does not convey Carlyle's sense of 'Hero' and be
of the cultural context of the essays an t
translation of Elliott's 'Waste Land' in Oriya
it is read with appreciation by many in the abs
a habitation is not judged 'unlivable' simply b
are not observed, similarly a translation is not
not perfectly satisfactory. The existence of m
lation of texts is proof of relativity in style

Discussion

Dr. A. M. Ghatage : How would one render a faithful translation of an

idiomatic work ? Is it necessary for the translator to know about the cultural
background of the language from which the translation is made ?

Dr. D. P. Pattanayak : Yes, unless he has the cultural background, he

cannot do justice to the translation.

Dr. A. R. Kelkar : As for example in translating the term 'repentance'

in the Bible, a translator is supposed to provide the mythological background
associated with the term.

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 LINGUISTICS AND TRANSLATION 63

Poetic translations are much more difficult than the other.

Dr. (Mrs.) I. Karve : We have four different translations of M

dūta. The language of these translations represents difference of
place. Translators are also of different calibre.

Dr. A. M. Ghatage : The crucial point about translation is whe

should be a good one or a correct one. What should be the standar
judging a translation ?

Dr. L. M. Khubchandani : A translation of a literary work sh

a good one which primarily conveys the aesthetic sense df the origi
But a translation of a factual work, say a scientific paper, should e
on conveying faithfully the correct information given in the original

Dr. A. M. Ghatage : In translating the dialogues of Plato, t

way is to give the literal translation along with footnotes, explaining t
tural background.

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