Communication by Translation

Dr.Padam Jain

Professor of English

Govt. P.G. College.

Satna (M.P.) India

Key Words - communication, problems in translation, message

Introduction:
There is a close kinship among communication, language and translation. Generally speaking
communication is sharing of information or intelligence. The most common medium of communication
is language .Besides, non-linguistic ways such as kinetics of body ,symbols, codes and signals are also
employed to steer forth communication. But in present paper I argue on how linguistic communication
is channelized by translation. Translation, from the very beginning, has been a form of communicating
thoughts among various people, cultures and countries. The translator, before being a ³ writer´as such,
is primarily a ³ message conveyor.´In most cases, translation is to be understood as the process
whereby a message expressed in a specific source language is linguistically transformed in order to be
understood by readers in the target language essentially consists of conveying the meaning expressed by
the original writer. He forms a bridge between two languages- the source language and the target
language. He is a true conveyor and interpreter of the message. The honesty and fidelity of the
translation depends on how much proximity the translator has with both languages. Even the trivial slip
in understanding either of the languages makes communication ineffective and meaningless. Nida states
³translating consists in producing in receptor language the closest natural equivalent to the message of
1
the source language first in meaning and secondly in style.´ Thus the translator has to take care of
meaning and style in order to make communication natural and palatabe. In this way a translator acts in
two capacity first as decoder and secondly as recoder who understands the text and then interprets it to
the receiver in its true spirit. Thus he is the real facilitator of communication. While defining the
togetherness of communication and translation it is pertinent to quote Gadamer 's views, who never
thought communication as, ³ passing of information from one person to another´but as ³ some subject
2
matter´becoming ³ mutually accessible for two or more people.´ He also stated that ³ invented systems
of artificial communication are never languages. For artificial languages, such as secret languages or
3
systems of mathematical symbols, have no basis in a community of language or life.´ He also added
that our verbal world should not be conceived as a barrier to knowledge, but rather than something
embracing everything, ³ always open to every possible insight,́ although ³ language as language can be
contrasted with every other act of communication.´
Translation = Communication:

Everyone knows, for instance, that legal translation leaves little room for adaptation and rewriting.
Similarly, when it comes to translating insurance contracts, style-related concerns are not paramount to
the translating process; what the end reader needs is a translated text that is faithful to the source text in
meaning, regardless of stylistic prowess from the translator. Yet, in a number of cases, the translator
faces texts which are to be used within a process of ³ active communication´and the impact of which
often depends on the very wording of the original text. In these specific cases, the translator sometimes
finds it necessary to reconsider the original wording in order to both better understand the source text
(this also sometimes occurs in plain technical texts) and be able to render it in the target language. This
is the moment when the translator becomes an active link in the communication chain, the moment
when his/her communication skills are called upon to enhance the effect of the original message.

The translation process here becomes twofold: firstly, the translator needs to detect potential
discrepancies and flaws in the original text and understand the meaning they intend to convey. To do
this, the translator often needs to contact the writer of the text to be translated (or any other person who
is familiar with the contents of the text) in order to clarify the ambiguities he has come across.
Secondly, once this first part of the work is over, the translator will undo the syntactic structure of the
original text and then formulate the corresponding message in the target language, thus giving the
original text added value in terms of both wording and impact. It is important to stress that this work
will always be carried out in cooperation with the original writer, so that the translator can make sure
the translated message corresponds to the meaning the writer originally intended to convey; remember,
the translator is essentially a message conveyor, not an author.
The art of translation has always been complex and flummoxing as it involves the matrix of
two languages- the one source language and the other target language. It is not only difficult but
impossible also to make perfect balance between the two. Hence every translation can only be an
5
approximation,´no translation can reproduce the original perfectly.´ It (The original) involves mind
and soul of the writer at the particular moment of time, context and circumstances that disappears in the
translation. A translator works hard to reach the original but in doing so he either adds something
superfluous to it (the original) or drops (from the original) something essential. Most of the translations
have problems of exactitude in emotions, meaning and context to the original text-both linguistically
and culturally. These two factors separate the thinking plains of the writer and the translator to a great
extent and thus make them poles apart. This chasm further widens in the translation of a literary work.
A translator tries to evoke an emotional experience in the reader through the translation similar to one
created by the author of the original. Thus, he strives for the three way balance of emotion, form and
content. Apart from this, a translator faces two fold problems-the one dealing with the choice of text for
translation and non-availability of translations of the same text already done and the second linguistic
and non-linguistic. These problems cover the areas of meaning, style, tone, technique and overall effect.
In the words of Catford, " Translation as a space is always unidirectional: it is always performed in a
given direction: from a Source Language (SL) into a Target Language (TL).. Translation may be
defined as follows: the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual
material in another language (TL). The central problem of Translation practice is that of finding TL
translation equivalents"6.

Genuinely speaking, a translator chooses the text for translation keeping in mind the universality of the
text and the author. Another significant criterion in the choice of a work for translation is its artistic
worth, social relevance of a work and popularity of the writer. If the work has already been translated
the translator has to work as a translation- critic and in case of finding it difficult he decides to translate
afresh striking off the errors of earlier translators. On the other hand non-availability of the translation
of the text compounds the problems of the translator as he has to work in a vacuum.

According to Nida the problem of translation between the target language and source language
lies on two fronts "first in terms of meaning and the second in terms of style."7 The problem of style can
be dealt in with the style of language and the style of author. The former means the peculiar stylistic
structure of each language, which is closest to that in another language and the latter the selection of
individual author from the general stylistic structure of a language. In translation, the former aspect of
style should be taken as a wider term to indicate the peculiarities of stylistic structure of each language.
Style in the context of translation, can be defined as a structure of phonology, word, morphology and
syntax of source language, which are contrastive to those of target language. Stylistic problems in
translation occur mainly because of the difference in the stylistic structure of source and target
languages. It means that stylistic problems in translation should be studied with the help of contrastive
stylistic analysis of source language and target language. Nida divides stylistic problems of translation
into four levels- Phonological, lexical, morphological and syntactic."8.

Phonological Factors - In Translation, from one language to another, phonological factor, play a vital
role. Every language has its own phonological system. A translator will have to be aware of
phonological system of both the languages - the source language and the target language. The slight
lapse will change the pronunciation of one word into another. Special care should be taken in the
pronunciation of proper nouns. They should bear diacritical marks to ensure correct pronunciation and it
happens with other words also where there is a danger of homophonous words. These diacritical marks
may create problem to the readers in understanding the accurate implication of these marks.

Lexical Factors - It pertains to the words or vocabulary of language. Every lexical form is connected in
two directions with grammatical forms. But in translation it has its deep impact. The accuracy of
translation depends on the understanding of the meaning given in the source language. A translator will
have to be very intelligent in brining the suggestive meaning of the source sentence into the target
sentence. Sentence is the prime basis of meaning and not the word, the word becomes meaningful only
when it is used in sentence. The meaning of a word depends upon its use in the sentence, its context,
etymology, appropriateness, time and place, association, contrast, gender, collocation its power of
expression the meaning, the speaker and the tone. A literal translation cannot communicate the exact
meaning of the original. Words of one language, many times, do not find their parallels in other
language. While translating such words, a translator will have to find out the meaningful equivalent
words to convey the exact meaning of the original. Idiomatic phrases create lot of problems to the
translator. for example " os yky & ihys gks x;sA "A literal translation would be they became red and pale.
While it should be translated as " They burst into anger". Combined words, too, create problem to the
translator for example "uhyh&uhyh" "can not be translated as "blue-blue." "pk;&ok;" means "tea".
Regional words also pose a lot of problem before a translator.

Morphological Factors - At the morphological level, there are a number of problems for a translator.
These problems are mainly brought out because of different morphological structures in languages. No
two languages have the same morphological structure. This create problem in finding out the equivalent
words while translating from one language to the other. Apart from this, there are other problems also
that are related to verb morphology : compound verb formation, tenses and other aspects. In Hindi, we
generally make use of complex verbal formations made up of nouns and verbs. But while translating to
English these complex verbal formations are translated into simple verbs. For example, "fglkc tksM+uk"
"to add an account" must be changed " to calculate the account.

Syntactical Factors - At syntactical level, the problems of a translator are many and complex to a great
extent. Grammatical structure of a language differs from the other. In English, articles play important
role in making a sentence directional and meaningful. We find nominative expressions, finite verb
expression, taxeme of selection etc. in English. Every syntactic construction shows us two of (or some
times more) free forms combined in a phrase, which we may call the resultant phrase. The resultant
phrase may belong to a form class other than that of any constituent. In English definiteness can also be
part of some grammatical constructions, such as the relative clause construction. There are problems in
translating sentences with complex construction. For example - "tehu ij fxjk gqvk Vksi" on (the) ground
fallen hat' should be translated into "the hat dropped on the ground".

The proverbs, customs, myths, folk images, relations, humour, specialized vocabulary of one
language do not correspond to the other. It is not only difficult but sometimes impossible to find
equivalent words in other language by the translator. For example "pkpk] ekSlk bR;kfn" do not find their
parallelism in the word "uncle" of English.

The above discussed problematic areas of translation cause compound challenges to

translator and even the trivial slip at any step changes the whole course of meaning ,thus, seriously
affecting the direction of communication. A perfect translation of a work from one language to
another is like cloning. Pointing the problem of translation Fried-Rich Maxmuller had said that
translation could never take the place of the originals, because they could never be more than an
approximation of one language to the other. Then he observed, " The translator, however, if he has
once gained the conviction that it is impossible to translate old thought into modern speech, without
doing some violence either to the one or to the other, will hardly hesitate in his choice between two
evils. He will prefer to do some violence to language rather than to misrepresent old thoughts by
clothing them in words which do not fit them. "9

Conclusion:
In this paper my aim was to discuss the various problematic zones of translation and how they
affect the course of communication if they are not taken care of properly by the translator keeping in
mind the flavour of both languages- the source and the target language. The paper also highlights the
relationship between translation and communication. Ineffective communication is meaningless and in
our struggle to make it effective translation ' is involved on multiple levels, bearing in mind the
possibility of both intralingual and interlingual translation. As for interlingua translation, Rosenzweig
stated more than three decades ago that there are no linguistic particularities in any language that cannot
be found (at least in germs) in all the other languages (cf. Chomsky's concept of universal grammar),
which forms the basis of the possibility, mission and necessity of translation .10 However, he predicts
the harmony of all languages one day, which - at least in the present - seems to be more than utopian
.Despite all these bottlenecks at various stages translation pervades our lives , it is omnipresent and
indispensable in all domains. In present age of information technology translator has proved to be the
true ambassador of communication across the globe.
References : -

1. Nida. Language, Structure and Translation (California : Stanford University Press, 1975), p.43.
2. H.G.Gadamer.Truth and Method(Continuum International
3. Ibid,p.443.

4. Ibid.p.551.

5. Werner Winter, "Impossibilities of Translation", The craft and context of translation, ed.
William and Roger Shattuck (Austin : University of Texas, 1961), p. 72.

6. J.C. Cat ford, A linguistic Theory of Translation (London : Oxford University Press, 1972), p. 20.

7. Nida, Language, Structure and Translation (California : Stanford University Press, 1975), p. 95.
8. Ibid, p. 102.
9. Nirad C. Chaudhary, Scholar Extraordinary (New Delhi : Orient Paperbacks, 1974), p. 354.

10. F.Rosenzweig.Traducerea-pro si contra.Orizont literar,1980,31(25)