The Beginning Translator's Workbook: Or the ABC of French to English Translation

by Michele H. Jones

Overview

This workbook combines methodology and practice for use in a course for beginning translators with a proficiency in French ranging from intermediate to advanced level. It takes a linguistic approach to the problems of translation in addressing common and major pitfalls: delineation of 'translation units' or what constitutes a concept beyond mere words, word polysemy, false cognates, structural and cultural obstacles to literal translation. It offers chapter by chapter explanations of the various strategies used by professional translators to counter these problems: the translation devices known as transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation. Each chapter concludes with a variety of practice exercises focusing on one specific problem. The second part of the book is a global application of all the principles taught in the first part and guides the student step by step through the actual translation of a choice of literary (prose, poetry, and plays) and non-literary excerpts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761808367
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	08/28/1997
Pages:	294
Product dimensions:	6.16(w) x 9.26(h) x 1.09(d)

About the Author

Michele H. Jones is Assistant Professor of French at St. John's University in Jamaica, New York.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	The Would be Translator's Basic Terminology	xi
	Preliminary Remarks: Linguistics and Metalinguistics	xv
Chapter 1	Translation Units
	What are T.U.s and what is their use?	1
	Lexical T.U.s	2
	Grammatical T.U.s	4
	Extended T.U.s	5
	Delineation of T.U.s	6
	Exercises	8
Chapter 2	Words in Context
	Polysemy: Words and their semantic range	15
	Literal vs. figurative meaning	16
	Language levels
	Gender problems	17
	Dictionaries and thesauri	18
	Exercises	19
Chapter 3	Deceptive Cognates
	Faux amis	25
	Cognates and deceptive cognates
	Partial faux amis	26
	Unrelated similar looking words
	List of common deceptive cognates	28
	Exercises	33
Chapter 4	Translation Devices
	What strategies do translators have at their disposal?	37
	Sample chart	38
Chapter 5	Borrowings
	What is a borrowing and what is its purpose?	41
	French and English: a history of mutual borrowing	42
	Lexical fields of borrowing	44
	Creative borrowing	45
	Unnecessary borrowing	47
	Use of borrowings
	Exercises	49
Chapter 6	Calques
	What is a calque?	53
	Semantic and structural calques
	Calques and neologisms	54
	Calques and acronyms	55
	Calque vs. borrowing
	Exercises	56
Chapter 7	Literal Translation and Structural Obstacles to Literal translation
	What is a literal translation?	59
	Structural obstacles to literal translation	61
	Differences in word order
	Ellipses	63
	Gallicisms and Anglicisms	65
	Special problems with verb tenses	66
	Problems with French pronominal verbs	68
	Exercises	71
Chapter 8	Transposition
	What is transposition?	77
	Some examples of necessary transpositions	78
	Examples of optional transpositions	79
	Noun-verb transpositions
	Transpositions with postpositional adverbs	80
	Cross transposition	81
	Exercises	82
Chapter 9	Modulation
	What is modulation?	89
	Word modulations	90
	Preposition modulations	95
	Message modulations	96
	Necessary and optional modulations	97
	Modulation and transposition	98
	Exercises	99
Chapter 10	Equivalence
	What is equivalence?	105
	Exclamations and reflex formulas	106
	Prop words
	Greetings and letter closings	107
	Cliches and idioms
	Slang and slang expressions	109
	Proverbs and axioms
	Official signs and warnings
	References to a common socio-cultural heritage	110
	Exercises	111
Chapter 11	Adaptation
	What is adaptation?	119
	Linguistic deficiency and compensation	120
	Adaptation in traditions, usages and institutions
	Exercises	128
Chapter 12	Applying Translators' Devices to Literary Texts
	Transposition	131
	Modulation	135
	Equivalence	138
	Adaptation	142
	General Exercises	146
Chapter 13	Translating Titles
	General advice	151
	Translation devices applied to the translation of titles	152
	Exercises	157
Chapter 14	Guidelines for the Translation of Literary Prose
	Sticking to the text vs. demonstrating originality	161
	What are the basic guidelines to follow for a successful translation?
	Working method	163
	Text samples, guiding notes and suggested translations	166
Chapter 15	Guidelines for the Translation of Dialogues and Plays
	Problems specific to the translation of dialogues and plays	187
	Equivalence as the preferred translating device for dialogues	188
	Use of a specific vocabulary	189
	Text samples, guiding notes and suggested translations	191
Chapter 16	Guidelines for the Translation of Poetry
	Poetry translation: a difficult but creative enterprise	211
	Is poetry translation the reserved domain of poets?
	The different levels of poetry translation	212
	How to proceed with the translation of a poem	213
	Basic rules of French prosody	215
	Poem samples and suggested translations	217
Chapter 17	Guidelines for the Translation of Non-Literary Texts
	Content vs. style	223
	Non-literary and specialty languages	224
	Taking liberties with sentence structure	225
	Improving on the original	226
	Conventions in newspapers and magazines	227
	Cultural references in newspapers and magazines	229
	Sample of newspaper and magazine articles, guiding notes and suggested translations	232
Chapter 18	Guidelines for the Translation of Ads
	Ads and cultural references	251
	Advice for the translation of ads	253
	A sampler of ad translations	255
Appendix	The Translator's Tools
	Dictionaries, specialized dictionaries, books on translation studies	261
	Index	273

Editorial Reviews

...we are beholden to the author for taking the time to put together all of this most useful material and for basing it on actual classroom use.--Fred M. Jenkins, French Review

From the Publisher

This manual combines methodology and practice and is designed to be used in a translation course for beginners with a proficiency in French ranging from intermediate to advanced level. Each of the beginning 11 chapters defines a particular translation problem, introduces a method of dealing with it, provides numerous examples to illustrate the point, and concludes with practice exercises consisting of short sentences designed to make the student think about the difficulty and decide on the appropriate translation strategy. The final chapters provide a global application of the principles taught by guiding students through the actual translation of literary and non-literary excerpts. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

...we are beholden to the author for taking the time to put together all of this most useful material and for basing it on actual classroom use.

Fred M. Jenkins