Learning journal

BASIC ENGLISH

REFLECTIVE/LEARNING JOURNAL

Session Translation I

Highlights  Literal translation  Communicative translation  Semantic translation  Adaptation  Cultural, functional, and descriptive equivalents  Transposition

Notes

•

Literal translation is when the translator translates a text word for word, this translation is not the best option because it produces a misunderstanding and poor style in the text.

Faithful friends are a true cognate when the words have the identical form and the same meaning.

Example

 Hospital – hospital

BASIC ENGLISH

False friends are a false cognate when the words have the identical form but different meaning.

Example

 Carpet- alfombra  Carpeta- folder

•

Communicative translation is when the translator translates a text giving a clear meaning for the reader, where he can add words that can improve and understanding translation.

Example

BASIC ENGLISH  Beware of dog- Cuidado con el perro

•

Semantic translation Is when the translator respect the text specially the semantic and syntactic structures giving a clear meaning in a formal way and its focus on the style of the author. It’s used in philosophical, religious and political texts.

Example

 The window was broken by Anna  Ana rompio la ventana

•

Adaptation is a free translation that is used when the other doesn’t work; it is very useful because it transforms the meaning where the translators bear in mind the cultural aspects in the target language.

The best environments for this method are plays, comedies, and poetry; the tense characters and plots. Also this method is applied with proverbs.

Example

BASIC ENGLISH  It’s the early bird that catches the worm  Al que madruga Dios le ayuda.

•

Cultural, functional, and descriptive equivalents

Cultural equivalent is a more approximate meaning also it’s not exactly it is used in general texts and it depends of according to the culture.

Example

 Sight – percepción o a la vista

BASIC ENGLISH Functional Equivalent is used when we don’t have the Word in the target language for this reason we explain the function, this procedure has specific purpose.

Example  Black Friday- Dia de ofertas

Descriptive equivalents in this case the translation must be focused in twio important elements such as : the function and the description. So the translator will give the correct equivalent for his translation.

•

Transposition

These methods help us to give a more natural expression in our translation, where we can express an idea in different ways with the same message.

In this case, we can know that transposition have some principal classes.

Class shift is focused in exchanging the four words classes, when translate English to Spanish.

Example

 He moved quickly  Se movio con rapidez

BASIC ENGLISH

Structure shift is centered in the change in the world order.

Example  Spanish

Carro azul  English

Blue car

Unit shift is a change where we can change a word to phrase.

Example  The cooked

Cocinaron

It is no necessary to bear in mind the subject.

Internal shift is a change of tense modality, etc.

BASIC ENGLISH Example  The car was washed by Lisa (passive)  Lisa lavo el carro (active)

Reflection

•

Translation is an important subject because we have some important aspects, for example we have methods to translate a text, adaptation, equivalents and transpositions. These aspects are very important to translate a text in a better way.

Also we can say that the translation is a very important subject because we can learn more vocabulary, the meanings of the words in both languages and if we don't like to be a teacher, we can use the translation as our career.