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On Linguistic Aspects of Translation (1959)

Roman Jakobson

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What do you know about the Linguistics Aspects of Translation?

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Code: 2943 9949

https://www.menti.com/al9n9bgf95ft

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Roman Jakobson �(1896–1982)

  • Russian-American linguist and literary theorist
  • In 1920, co-founder of the Prague Linguistic Circle
  • Phonology and Distinctive Features
  • A new model of communication based on six factors

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�Three Types of Translations�

1. Intralingual translation (rewording)

2. Interlingual translation (translation proper)

3. Intersemiotic translation (transmutation)

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Equivalence in Meaning: A Challenge�

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"The meaning of any linguistic sign is its translation into some further, alternative sign"

🡪 impossibility to achieve a perfect correspondence between all aspects of meaning

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Linguistic Meaning and Grammar

  • Verb tenses and grammar features vary between languages
  • Literal translation of the ideas in the original text
  • Grammatical gender

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Grammar features examples

  • English in Federal prose:
  • John and Peter will come.
  • John or Peter will come.
  • John and/or Peter will come.
  • �Traditional English:

3. John and Peter or one of them will come.

� Samoyed language:

  1. John and/or Peter both will come.
  2. John and/or Peter, one of them will come.

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English:

  1. She has brothers.

�Old Russian:

Own choice:

  1. She has two brothers.
  2. She has more than two brothers.

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Leave to the listener:

  1. She has either two or more than two brothers.

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Grammatical pattern

  • Completive aspect: indicates that an action is, has been, or will be definite and complete
  • Non-completive aspect: verbs that often indicate ongoing processes, habits, or repeated actions.

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Grammatical gender

"Death": 

  • Russian: feminine noun - represented as a woman
  • German: masculine noun - represented as a man

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Statue of Death in the Cathedral of Trier in Trier, Germany

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The Notion of "Untranslatability"

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  • Poetry by definition is ustranslatable.
  • Creative transposition
  • Traduttore, traditore

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Meaning as a Sign System: Semiotic Approach

  • The study of sings from semiotics to translations

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  • Cat – gato – chat (relationship between signs and what they signify)

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 Jakobson’s Functions of Language

SIGNIFIER

SENDER

EMOTIVE FUNCTION

RECEIVER ​

CONATIVE FUNCTION

PHATIC FUNCTION

POETIC FUNCTION

METALINGUAL

FUNCTION

SIGNIFIED

MESSAGE​

CHANNEL​

CODE​

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The Role of Context

  • Metalingual function 🡪 language can be very context-sensitive

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Now it’s your turn!

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