Traduccion Apuntes
Traduccion Apuntes
Traduccion Apuntes
PRE-TRANSLATION ANALYSIS
- Author
- Genre
- Intention - might be related to the genre.
- Register, tone, and authorial voice.
- Style - related to the author.
- Language
- Target public
- Translation strategy
1. REGISTER
➔ Is a socially defined variety of a language.
Categories
❖ Technical (computing texts, medicine texts…) / Non-technical
❖ Formal (posh, etc) / Informal (with contractions and slangs)
❖ Urban (from cities) / Rural
❖ Standard (common language) / Regional (with dialects marked like Scottish words...)
❖ Jargon (between people that know each other and know what they are talking about,
like some themes, tricks, etc.) / Non-jargon
❖ Vulgarity / Propriety
2. STYLE
➔ Literary style is a unique way of presenting a piece of writing. The combination of
word choice, figurative language, sentence formation, and formality work to
create a ‘voice’ through which a story is told.
- Authorial / narrative voice → Determine the literary style of the author (how
she/he narrates, whether she uses dialogue and which literary figures use…)
➔ Example:
- She picked a red rose from the ground → Colloquial, daily life.
- Scarlet was the rose that she plucked from the earth → Poetic
- From the ground she delicately plucked the ruby rose, cradling it in her hands as if it
were a priceless jewel. →Poetic but narrative.
2. History
❖ “It’s quite cold in here, isn’t it? There is an opinion involved and also an
illocutionary force, try to get someone to get up and close the door or
turn on the heating. It has an effect on someone. Were not just doing an
illocutionary force, there is often a kind of mismatch between the syntax
and the illocutionary force.
EXERCISE
LEAR: Let the great gods LEAR: que los dioses
That keep this dreadful pudder o’er our heads que mantienen este terrible
tumulto sobre nuestras cabezas
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, encuentren a sus enemigos
ahora. Tiembla, tú desgraciado,
That hast within thee undivulgèd crimes que tienes dentro de ti delitos que no se
han conocido
Unwhipped of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand, que la justicia no ha
castigado/azotado. Escóndete, tu mano ensangrentada,
Thou perjured, and thou simular of virtue tu perjura, y tú que simulas la virtud
That art incestuous. Caitiff, to pieces shake, que eres incestuoso. Miserable,
desintégrate en pedazos,
That under covert and convenient seeming que bajo apariencia oculta y
conveniente
Has practiced on man's life. Close pent-up guilts, has conspirado contra la vida de
un hombre. Culpa encerrada,
Rive your concealing continents and cry romped vuestros continentes de
ocultación y clamad
These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man por la gracia de estos terribles
convocadores. Soy un hombre
More sinned against than sinning. contra el que se ha pecado más de lo que él ha
pecado
TIPS
Endeavour speeches
➢ Illocutionary = the act performed in saying “it’s quite cold in
here”. Depending on how the locutor says it, it can mean a
comment or a command, among others.
■ Perlocutionary effect = the hero gets up and closes the
window
TYPES OF ACTIVITY
Translation criticism
➔ Should take into account all the factors and elements in the process of translation:
Intention, Function, Cultural and social context, Text type, Register, Strategies,
Principles and rules, Constraints, Intended audience and Ideology of the translator.
HOW TO DO A TRANSLATION CRITIC?
Step 1: Analysis of Target Text on its own, see how natural the translation is; could it be
perceived as an original work?
Step 2: Analysis of Source Text on its own as if you were going to translate it; identify
potential translation problems. Consider:
(3) part of Mode: cohesion (holds the text together, creating 'texture' and
contributing to the overall coherence of the argument), lexical chain of
synonyms; word order and thematic structure (theme - rheme)
- Dialects (varieties of language according to its users): are there characters that speak
in dialect? What function do geographical or social dialects perform in the play?
- Style: prose / verse (predominant form in early modern drama - blank verse). Non
blank verse forms: couplets (function in signaling the end of a set speech or of a
scene) , songs (lyrics adapted or unadapted to given melody) , shorter lines. Other
things: quality, metaphors and imagery, ambiguity, significant stylistic or rhetorical
devices, neologisms, wordplay.
- Humour
- Cultural elements: culturemes or culture-specific terms and concepts: identity (forms
of address, honorifics, social ranks), beliefs and values (religion), environment (food,
clothes, weapons, coins, flora and fauna), proper names and intertextual references.
Step 3: Analysis of the Target Text, see how the Target Text has solved the challenges. Also
include:
TYPES OF TEXTS
DUBBING = the replacement of the dialogues in the original track of an audiovisual text
with "another track on which translated dialogues have been recorded in the target language".
● Isochrony: Following the timing of each character's speech every sentence, phrase,
pause has to coincide with the timing needed by an actor to utter them.
● Kinesic synchrony: Following the gestures; the meaning of gestures has to be in
consonance with the translation.
● Lip synchrony: it is only an issue in close-up shots, where the speaker's face and lip
movements are fully visible, and only in labials, and semi-labials where the mouth has
to be closed.
Symbols inserted in the dubbing script or final translation, indicating where the voice comes
from and some paralinguistic signs:
● (ON) on screen, in field voice (not inserted by default; only to indicate a change
from
● (OFF) voice off, voice out of camera range
● (SB) si boca, the character is on screen but his/her mouth cannot be seen
● (DE) de espaldas, the character has his/her back to the camera
● (DL) de lejosthe character is far away from the camera
● (DC) de costado, de lado,
● (G) gesto sonoro, paralinguistic sign
● (P) (T) (X) pisar / xafar, when one character interrupts his/her previous interlocutor
SUBTITLING
Technical aspects:
Relationship between oral Source Text (temporal) and written Target Text (spatial): time measured in
seconds and frames (24 frames per second); space measured by typographical characters (including
blank spaces)
On the basis that it takes six seconds to read two full subtitle lines, that is, 72 characters (36 characters
each full line):
-> 1 second = 12 characters
-> 2 frames = 1 character.
TRANSLATION IN VERSE
Views →There are different views concerning what poetry translation is. However, there is
no approach that is 100% right, but it rather depends on the author you ask.
Frameworks
Holmes, James. “Forms of Verse Translation and the Translation of Verse Forms”
(1970)
VERSE APPROACHES
He arranges this forms of meta-literature along a fan with the source poem in the
centre:
● Critical essay in another language is indeterminate in length and subject matter: the
writer brings in whatever material he thinks relevant,interpretative: the writer also
“translates” the poem into another linguistic system as well as providing a critical
interpretation of it.
● Prose translation: this is determinate in length and subject matter, and also
interpretive can be verbatim (interlinear, literal, word-for-word), rank-bound, unbound
‘literary’ translation.
● Verse translation: is interpretive, indeterminate in length and subject matter, uses
verse as its medium, thus aspiring to be a poem in itself.
● Imitation, poem ‘about’ a poem, and poem inspired by a poem: are indeterminate in
length and subject matter, and do not have interpretation as one of their major
purposes.
➔ Holmes proposes the use of the term “metapoem” which has a double purpose: it is
both meta-literature on the source literary text and primary literature in the
target tradition.
➔ The problem of choosing the appropriate verse form in which to cast the metapoem is
taken at an early stage in the entire process of translation, and it will determine the
nature and sequence of the decisions still to come.
METAPOETIC FORMS
‘Form-derivative’ forms: Seek some kind of equivalence in the target language for the
outward form of the original poem. In other words, the poet chooses a form into which he
then pours what he has to say (ideas, thoughts, images, music).
1. Mimetic form: Reproduce the original form (structure) to keep it. Fundamental
similarity (or ‘identity’) as the starting point. Example → Iliad in English in
hexameters (Richmond Lattimore).
➔ Pseudo-mimetic forms: Reproduce the identity of the poem, but not to
reproduce either its particular form or function. Example → French
alexandrines into English alexandrines, but they are not in fact equivalent
neither in form nor in function; instead, the translator looks at the name of the
form rather than at the form itself.
2. Analogical form: Understand the function (of the form) within its poetic tradition,
and then seek a form that fills a parallel function within the target poetic tradition. In
other words, bring the original poem within the native tradition, to ‘naturalise’ it.
Function as the starting point. Example → Epic -> in English: blank verse or heroic
couplet. Function as the starting point.
Monistic approach: Form and content are inseparable, it is impossible to find any
predetermined extrinsic form into which the poem can be poured in translation, and the only
solution is to allow a new intrinsic form to develop from the inward workings of the text
itself.
3. Organic form: Convey (reproduce) the semantic content and organically allows it to
take its own unique poetic shape as the translation develops. Meaning as the starting
point.
Older collateral of the organic form: A kind of minimum conformation on the part of the
metapoet to the formal requirements of his poetic culture, which at the same time leaves him
the freedom to transfer the ‘meaning’ of the poem with greater flexibility and gives
place to creative interpretation and adaptation of the original work. Might be for
different reasons such as create a new poetic effect, highlight certain aspects or bring out
different nuances.
4. Extraneous or deviant form: Cast the metapoem into a form that is not equivalent in
either the form or the content of the original; the translator intentionally chooses a
form that is different or unrelated to the original one to convey the essence or
meaning in a way that might be more suitable or expressive in the target language or
cultural context. Example → ABC rhyme translated into AB rhyme.
Mimetic form (1)
★ PROSODY: Study of sound patterns and beats in poetry (stanzas, meter, rhymes and
verse patterns).
★ METRE: Arrangement of sound elements into strong and weak beats or accents.
LINE LENGTHS
- Octosyllable
- Decasyllable
- Alexandrine: 12 syllables (a ‘hexameter’ in English accentual-syllabic verse; in
French prosody, a line of 12 syllables)
KINDS OF FEET
LINE LENGTHS
One foot -> monometer
Two feet -> diameter
Three feet -> trimeter
Four feet -> tetrameter
Five feet -> pentameter
Six feet -> hexameter (also alexandrine)
Seven feet -> heptameter
★ Line lengths combined with the dominant kind of feet constitute line metrical
patterns.
CAESURA: Internal pause marking the end of a sense unit - NOT a metrical unit.
Example: A thing of beauty | is a joy forever: (John Keats).
Note that the caesura may occur in the middle of a foot: “Its lóve/linéss/ incréa/ses | Ít / will
néver” (J. Keats)
ENJAMBMENT: When the sense unit does not coincide with the end of the verse line.
When it does, lines are called end-stopped lines.
Examples in lines 2 onwards showing different degrees of enjambment:
A thing of beauty is a joy forever;
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower of quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health and quiet breathing ...
SCANSION: To measure its rhythm in order to analyze its meter by marking the rhythmical
or metrical units in the line.
4. Observe the caesura or internal pause marking the end of a sense unit, and
enjambment(s).
5. Examine and explain the effect of regularities and irregularities, both those changes
that are accepted or expected, and those that are not.
VARIATIONS OR LICENSES
- The first line has one syllable less because the first foot is ‘defective’ so the line is
scanned “ ^ Lóng/ for mé/ the ríck/ will wáit/”
- A defective foot can occur in mid line: Speech after long silence; it is right it is read
as Spéech af/ter lóng/ ^ sí/lence; ít/ is ríght /
“It was níght / in the lóne/some Octóber “ (last foot is an anapest with an extra syllable: - - ´
- )
Extra syllable…
Hé was / a jóin/er of víl/lage lífe (third foot is anapest)
Caesura
Defective feet, or feet with extra syllables may occur before the caesura.
RHYMES
★ RHYME: The repetition of two syllables at the end of a line with the same medial vowel(s)
and final consonant(s) and with different initial consonant(s).
★ INTERNAL RHYME: When one of the rhyming words is not at the end of the line; can
occur in two consecutive lines.
FORMS
Consonant or assonant?
Assonance = back - rat C V C
Consonance = back- neck C V C
Others…
Perfect rhyme = back - pack C V C
Reverse rhyme = back - bat C V C
Rich rhyme = bat - bat C V C :
Eye rhyme (visual rhyme) = cough - plough
RHYME PATTERNS
● Enclosed rhyme: A B B A
● Alternate rhyme: A B A B
STANZA FORMS
★ TAIL RHYME: A verse form in which rhymed lines such as couplets or triplets are followed
by a tail – a line of different (usually shorter) length that does not rhyme with the couplet or
triplet. In a tail-rhyme stanza (also called a tail-rhymed stanza), the tails rhyme with each
other.
COUPLET (2): A A
- Open couplet: The syntactic unit carries over into the first line of the next couplet and there is
no heavy pause at the end of its second line.
- Closed couplet: The syntactical unit comes to an end at the end of the second line, and there is
a heavy pause or a full stop.
- Heroic couplet: When lines are iambic pentameters.
TRIPLET (3): A A A
Terza rima : a b a, b c b, c d c
QUATRAIN (4)
- Ballad stanza: 4a 3b 4a 3b ; 4x 3a 4x 3a ; iambic rhythm (4 is for tetrameter, 3 for trimeter)
- Long ballad: a b a b ; x a x a ; a a b b ; all lines are iambic terameters
- Short ballad: 3x 3a 4x 3a; iambic rhythm
- Heroic quatrain: a b a b ; all lines are iambic pentameter, alternate rhyme
- Brace stanza: a b b a; all lines iambic pentameter, brace rhyme
CINQUAIN (5)
Limerick: 3a 3a 2b 2b 3a; anapestic rhythm (3 is for trimeter, 2 for dimeter)
SIXAIN (6)
- Stave of six: a b a b c c : iambic pentameter or tetrameter (quatrain + couplet)
- Sestina: six pentameter sixains that repeat, each in a different and predetermined pattern, the
end words of the lines of the first sixain.
- Tail-rhyme stanza: a a b c c b, with line b having different length
SEPTET (7)
Rhyme royal (Chaucerian stanza): a b a b b c c ; pentameters. Variants have hexameters.
OCTAVE (8)
- Common octave: a b a b c d c d ; x a x a x b x b; pentameter or tetrameter
- Brace octave: any octave in which brace rhyme (a b b a) is used
- Triolet: a b a a a b a b ; 1st, 4th and 7th lines are identical, as are lines 2 and 8
- Ottava rima: a b a b a b c c; iambic pentameter
★ Stanzas of ten, eleven and twelve lines are rare and have no familiar name.
SONNET (14)
● Italian or Petrarchan sonnet: a b b a, a b b a, c d e, c d e ; a b b a, a b b a, c d c, d c d
- 14 lines: one octave + one sextet. Some have the sestet ending in a couplet.
VILLANELLE
Usually 19 lines in tercets and two rhymes; 1st line is repeated in line 6 and 12, and 3rd line is
repeated in line 9 and 15; both 1st and 3rd lines are repeated in the final 4 lines.
THE ODE
Poem of some length which does not follow any of the other conventional forms.
- Stanzaic odes: follow a fixed stanzaic pattern
- Horatian ode: a a b b; or unrhymed quatrain in which the first two lines are longer than the
third and fourth
- Pindaric ode: consists of three stanzas, ‘strophe’, ‘antistrophe’ and ‘epode’, being the first two
identical in pattern except for the rhyme sounds, and the third stanza is almost diferent from
the other two.
- Cowleian ode: Indeterminate in form