Translation and Language [Paperback]

Translation Studies and linguistics have been going through a love­-hate relationship since the 1950s. This book assesses both sides of the relationship, tracing the very real contributions that linguists have made to translation studies and at the same time recognizing the limitations of many of their approaches. With good humour and even­handedness, Fawcett describes detailed taxonomies of translation strategies and deals with traditional problems such as equivalence. Yet he also explains and assesses the more recent contributions of text linguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics and psycholinguistics.

This work is exceptional in that it presents theories originally produced in Russian, German, French and Spanish as well as English. Its broad coverage and accessible treatment provide essential background reading for students of translation at all levels.

1. Introduction

A troubled relationship
Langue/parole
Signifier/signified
Paradigmatic and syntagmatic: word sets and collocations
Sociolinguistics and pragmatics

2. Sub-Word Components

Sound
Morphemes
Componential analysis

3. Semantics

Semantic fields
Word relations
Connotation
Word meaning and translation

4. Translation Techniques

Russian approaches (Shveitser and Retsker)
Translation as 'analogy'
Translation as 'adequacy'
Concretization
Logical derivation
Antonymic translation
Compensation
The view from Canada (Vinay and Darbelnet)
Borrowing
Calque
Literal translation
Transposition
Modulation
?quivalence
Adaptation
An American model (Malone)
Matching: Substitution and Equation
Zigzagging: Divergence and Convergence
Recrescence: Amplification and Reduló