Page 67 - Translation Journal July 2015
P. 67
Identification of the Most Used Translation Strategies in the Persian Translation of Abrams’s
“A Glossary of Literary Terms” Based on Baker’s Taxonomy”
By: Amir Marzban and Maryam Naderi Shiadeh
Abstract
The focus of the present product oriented, qualitative and quantitative thesis was to identify the type and the most used translation
strategies while rendering English literary technical terms into Persian, based on Baker’s (1992) taxonomy. For the purpose of this study,
“A Glossary Of Literary Terms” by Abrams (2008), and its translation “ ”یبدا تاحالطصا یفیصوت گنهرفby Sabzian (2009), were selected
as the corpora of the study. For the next step, all of the 228 main entries of the mentioned book and their first Persian equivalents were
extracted and analyzed to see which Baker’s (1992) translation strategies have been applied by the renderer to translate the entries, then
the frequency and percentage of the most used translation strategies were calculated. Research findings showed that the translator used
5 strategies in rendering the entries and the mostly used strategy was “translation by a more general word (superordinate)” (69.29%), and
the least used strategy was “translation by paraphrase using related words” (0.87%).
Keywords: Bilingual Dictionary, Translation Strategies, Baker’s Taxonomy.
1. Introduction
Translation plays an important role in the modern world. Chute believes that “Without translation, our world would narrow mercilessly”
(cited in Miremadi, 1991, p. 21). Newmark defines translation as “a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or
statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language” (Newmark, 1981).
Finding equivalents to transfer the same meaning of a source language (S L) text in a target language (TL) is not always an easy task.
According to Catford (1987), translation is the replacement of a textual material in one language (SL) by an equivalent textual material in
another language (TL).
Nida and Taber (1982: 12) see translating as a process of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the SL
messages first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. In other words translation is a transfer of meaning, message and style
from one SL text to the TL text. In the order of priority, style is put the last. Here the things to reproduce (transfer) is stated, message.
Translation is needed not only for SL texts, but also for SL technical terms.
Translation Journal - July 2015 | 67
“A Glossary of Literary Terms” Based on Baker’s Taxonomy”
By: Amir Marzban and Maryam Naderi Shiadeh
Abstract
The focus of the present product oriented, qualitative and quantitative thesis was to identify the type and the most used translation
strategies while rendering English literary technical terms into Persian, based on Baker’s (1992) taxonomy. For the purpose of this study,
“A Glossary Of Literary Terms” by Abrams (2008), and its translation “ ”یبدا تاحالطصا یفیصوت گنهرفby Sabzian (2009), were selected
as the corpora of the study. For the next step, all of the 228 main entries of the mentioned book and their first Persian equivalents were
extracted and analyzed to see which Baker’s (1992) translation strategies have been applied by the renderer to translate the entries, then
the frequency and percentage of the most used translation strategies were calculated. Research findings showed that the translator used
5 strategies in rendering the entries and the mostly used strategy was “translation by a more general word (superordinate)” (69.29%), and
the least used strategy was “translation by paraphrase using related words” (0.87%).
Keywords: Bilingual Dictionary, Translation Strategies, Baker’s Taxonomy.
1. Introduction
Translation plays an important role in the modern world. Chute believes that “Without translation, our world would narrow mercilessly”
(cited in Miremadi, 1991, p. 21). Newmark defines translation as “a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or
statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language” (Newmark, 1981).
Finding equivalents to transfer the same meaning of a source language (S L) text in a target language (TL) is not always an easy task.
According to Catford (1987), translation is the replacement of a textual material in one language (SL) by an equivalent textual material in
another language (TL).
Nida and Taber (1982: 12) see translating as a process of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the SL
messages first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. In other words translation is a transfer of meaning, message and style
from one SL text to the TL text. In the order of priority, style is put the last. Here the things to reproduce (transfer) is stated, message.
Translation is needed not only for SL texts, but also for SL technical terms.
Translation Journal - July 2015 | 67
