Sumários

Finished Practical 4

16 Outubro 2024, 14:00 • Rui Vitorino Azevedo

We continued our revision of Practical 4, reviewing students’ translations and focusing on adapting the text to align with the chosen general strategy. Since the text had a peculiar style, we emphasized maintaining this style through compensation techniques. We then explored specific strategies from Vinay and Darbelnet to see how they could be applied. Afterward, we began Practical 5, which involves translating a children’s book, with an emphasis on ensuring the text remains appealing to children.

Practical 5

16 Outubro 2024, 11:00 • Rui Vitorino Azevedo

We began Practical 5, which focused on translating a children’s book. Students worked on identifying their overall translation strategy, often prioritizing the aesthetics of the text. We then explored specific strategies from Vinay and Darbelnet to see how they could be applied. Some difficulties arose with terms that lacked direct equivalents, and we spent time brainstorming solutions. Additionally, we focused on adapting the text to meet the target audience’s expectations, ensuring it remained appealing to children.

Vinay and Darbelnet's Translation Model

14 Outubro 2024, 14:00 • Rui Vitorino Azevedo

In today's class, we covered Vinay and Darbelnet's translation model, which includes two main approaches: Direct Translation and Oblique Translation.

Direct Translation:

  1. Borrowing: Using the source language (SL) word directly, often for technical terms (e.g., Bulldozer → Bulldozer).
  2. Calque: A literal translation of SL phrases (e.g., Science fiction → Ficção científica).
  3. Literal Translation: Word-for-word translation when languages share similar structures (e.g., The cat is on the table → O gato está na mesa).

Oblique Translation:

  1. Transposition: Changing the grammatical structure (e.g., No smoking → Proibido fumar).
  2. Modulation: Adjusting perspective for naturalness (e.g., It's not impossible → É possível).
  3. Equivalence: Replacing an expression with a culturally appropriate one (e.g., It's raining cats and dogs → Está a chover a potes).
  4. Adaptation: Substituting cultural references (e.g., Baseball → Futebol).

We also discussed Modulation in more detail, focusing on changing perspective or cognitive categories to maintain naturalness and accuracy in the target language. Vinay and Darbelnet identified various types of modulation—such as abstract to concrete and cause to effect—applicable at both the word and sentence levels.

Additional Strategies:

  • Compensation: Adapting effects that cannot be directly translated to maintain tone.
  • Concentration vs. Dissolution: Balancing fewer vs. more words to express meaning.
  • Amplification vs. Economy: Introducing additional details vs. reducing content for brevity.
  • Reinforcement vs. Condensation: Adding clarity vs. using fewer words.
  • Explicitation vs. Implicitation: Adding explicit details vs. inferring meaning from context.
  • Generalization vs. Particularization: Replacing specific terms with general ones vs. making general terms more specific.
  • Articularization: Using connectors to enhance clarity and flow.
  • Juxtaposition (Parataxis): Omitting connectors for direct expression.
  • Inversion: Moving a phrase or word to another position to maintain the natural flow in the target language

The aim of covering these strategies is to help students navigate linguistic and cultural differences effectively.

Vinay and Darbelnet's Translation Model

14 Outubro 2024, 11:00 • Rui Vitorino Azevedo

In today's class, we covered Vinay and Darbelnet's translation model, which includes two main approaches: Direct Translation and Oblique Translation.

Direct Translation:

  1. Borrowing: Using the source language (SL) word directly, often for technical terms (e.g., Bulldozer → Bulldozer).
  2. Calque: A literal translation of SL phrases (e.g., Science fiction → Ficção científica).
  3. Literal Translation: Word-for-word translation when languages share similar structures (e.g., The cat is on the table → O gato está na mesa).

Oblique Translation:

  1. Transposition: Changing the grammatical structure (e.g., No smoking → Proibido fumar).
  2. Modulation: Adjusting perspective for naturalness (e.g., It's not impossible → É possível).
  3. Equivalence: Replacing an expression with a culturally appropriate one (e.g., It's raining cats and dogs → Está a chover a potes).
  4. Adaptation: Substituting cultural references (e.g., Baseball → Futebol).

We also discussed Modulation in more detail, focusing on changing perspective or cognitive categories to maintain naturalness and accuracy in the target language. Vinay and Darbelnet identified various types of modulation—such as abstract to concrete and cause to effect—applicable at both the word and sentence levels.

Additional Strategies:

  • Compensation: Adapting effects that cannot be directly translated to maintain tone.
  • Concentration vs. Dissolution: Balancing fewer vs. more words to express meaning.
  • Amplification vs. Economy: Introducing additional details vs. reducing content for brevity.
  • Reinforcement vs. Condensation: Adding clarity vs. using fewer words.
  • Explicitation vs. Implicitation: Adding explicit details vs. inferring meaning from context.
  • Generalization vs. Particularization: Replacing specific terms with general ones vs. making general terms more specific.
  • Articularization: Using connectors to enhance clarity and flow.
  • Juxtaposition (Parataxis): Omitting connectors for direct expression.
  • Inversion: Moving a phrase or word to another position to maintain the natural flow in the target language

The aim of covering these strategies is to help students navigate linguistic and cultural differences effectively.

Practical 4

9 Outubro 2024, 14:00 • Rui Vitorino Azevedo

This class focused on conducting a pre-translation analysis of an excerpt from The Semplica Girl Diaries by George Saunders, guided by Nord’s TOSTA model. Students were asked to analyze key aspects of the source text (ST) before beginning the translation. These aspects included:

  1. Text Type and Purpose: Identifying the genre and purpose, considering the author's intent and the target audience.
  2. Subject Matter: Exploring any culture-bound or technical terms related to the text's subject.
  3. Text Organization: Assessing paragraph length, coherence, and any redundant information for translation.
  4. Vocabulary: Characterizing the vocabulary, noting colloquial expressions, collocations, and idiomatic phrases.
  5. Sentence Structure: Analyzing the sentence complexity—whether the text featured long or short, simple or complex sentences.
  6. Style: Describing the overall style of the text.
The class discussed the strategic decisions to be made before translation, focusing on the general approach to be adopted. After analyzing the text, we began reviewing students' translations of the excerpt into Portuguese, reflecting on the main challenges of achieving "equivalence"—that is, creating a similar effect on the Portuguese reader as the original text had on its audience.