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Łukasz Bogucki, Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski – University of Łódź, Faculty of Philology
Institute of English Studies, Department of Translation Studies, 90-236 Łódź, Pomorska 171/173
Piotr Stalmaszczyk – University of Łódź, Faculty of Philology, Institute of English Studies
Department of English and General Linguistics, 90-236 Łódź, Pomorska 171/173
Reviewer
Wojciech Kubiński
Cover Design
Barbara Grzejszczak

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Contents

Piotr Stalmaszczyk: Preface ........................................................................................ 7

Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk: Equivalence ..................................................... 11
Jacek Tadeusz Waliński: Translation Procedures ........................................................ 55
Janusz Wróblewski: Linguistic Barriers to Translating ............................................... 69
Janusz Wróblewski: Cultural Barriers in Translation .................................................. 109
Mikołaj Deckert: Cognitive Approaches to Translation .............................................. 145
Łukasz Grabowski: Corpora and Descriptive Translation Studies .............................. 161
Łukasz Bogucki: Multimodal Communication and Multidimensional Translation
in Audiovisual Contexts ...................................................................................... 189
Adam Bednarek, Joanna Drożdż: Translation in Digital Space: Machine
Translation, CAT and Localization ...................................................................... 207
Jerzy Jarniewicz: Literary Translation ......................................................................... 227
Łucja Biel, Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski: Legal Translation ..................................... 249
Wioleta Karwacka: Medical Translation ..................................................................... 275
Paulina Pietrzak, Adam Bednarek: Interpreting .......................................................... 305
Paulina Pietrzak: Translation Competence .................................................................. 317
Jerzy Tomaszczyk: Borrowing from English. Some Implications for
Translation andTranslator Training ..................................................................... 339
Index ............................................................................................................................ 367

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Preface

Translating from one language into another is a mathematical task

Wittgenstein, Zettel 698

Every translation is an act of creation. Translation creates new entities, linguistic

and semiotic, which makes it a crucial communicative activity. Little wonder
that contemporary translation studies have a very wide scope and interface with
disciplines as varied as linguistics, literary and culture studies, semiotics, com-
munication studies, information and computer science, and philosophy.
This volume investigates the various ways to translation and translation
studies. Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk provides a comprehensive over-
view of meaning theories, and concentrates on the issues of equivalence and
indeterminacy of translation (also within a historical perspective). The author
considers translation in cognitivist terms, i.e. as re-conceptualization of a source
language message in the totality of its contexts and situations, and puts forward
a typology of equivalence at language levels. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
demonstrates that, similarly to the whole field of translation studies, the scope of
equivalence is getting more and more extended at present times.
Jacek Waliński focuses on units of translation and translation procedures.
He distinguishes direct translation procedures (such as borrowing, calque, and
literal translation), and oblique procedures (transposition, modulation, equiva-
lence, and adaptation). Waliński concludes that a careful analysis of possible
taxonomies of translation procedures encourages one to look beyond simple
structural alterations between source language and target language, and to see
the role of the translator as a creative intermediary between the original author
and the target audience in the process of translation-mediated communication.
The next two chapters are devoted to barriers in translating. Janusz
Wróblewski first discusses the linguistic barriers, next the cultural ones, noting

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though, that it is not always possible to differentiate between the two. He com-
ments on the difficulties involved in translating word play and puns, and ana-
lyses different strategies and procedures applied by translators when confronted
with such barriers. Since translation involves more than just linguistic opera-
tions, translators often face cultural barriers. Wróblewski focuses on the ‘cultural
turn’ in Translation Studies, he discusses different aspects of linguistic and cul-
tural transfer, and provides an interesting classification of culture-specific words
and phrases and appropriate translation procedures.
Various theoretical perspectives have been applied to analysing translation
processes and procedures. One of the most successful approaches has been pro-
posed within Cognitive Linguistics. Mikołaj Deckert provides in his chapter an
overview of selected cognitive models of translation analysis. He first lists the
major features characterizing Cognitive Linguistics, and next discusses the Co-
gnitive Linguistics approach to poetics of translation, referring to issues such as
perspective, salience, and metaphor. Also this chapter mentions re-
conceptualization and the complex processes in which the source language mes-
sage is reconceptualised in a number of cycles before it is expressed in the target
language.
Contemporary Translation Studies pay close attention not only to linguistic
theories, but also different methodologies, finding corpus linguistic methodology
very promising. Łukasz Grabowski presents the scope of possible applications
of language corpora and corpus linguistics methodology in empirical research on
translation. He explicates the difference between quantitative and qualitative
research methods offered by corpus linguistics, and discusses the three basic
types of corpora (parallel, comparable, and monolingual comparable) extensive-
ly used in descriptive Translation Studies.
Communication has its multimodal dimension, and hence Łukasz Bogucki
devotes his chapter to multidimensional translation, especially in audiovisual
contexts. He observes that audiovisual translation is a dynamic genre whose
main feature is the coexistence of visual and verbal communication, where the
visual element is a feature distinguishing audiovisual translation from translation
in the traditional sense. Bogucki discusses various aspects of multimodality in
translation research and methodological issues involved in this research (such as
multimodal analysis and transcription). Additionally, this chapter shows the
importance of terminological issues and adequate nomenclature in all domains
of Translation Studies.
Adam Bednarek and Joanna Drożdż tackle the issue of translation in the
digital age and within digital space. They focus on different aspects of machine
translation (with some historical context), computer tools employed in the pro-
cess of translation, and on the important issue of localization. Localization ac-

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counts for socio-cultural, linguistic and technical distinctions within appropriate

markets, it involves the adjustment of the product and creation of new terminol-
ogy, and hence provides very interesting challenges for both practitioners and
theoretically oriented researchers. The authors discuss current trends in localiza-
tion (such as website, software, and video game localization), and parameters of
assessment.
Undoubtedly, it is literary translation which is considered as translation par
excellence. Jerzy Jarniewicz observes that what makes literary translation dif-
ferent is, by definition, the kind of texts which it deals with, and that literary
texts possess characteristic properties which determine the way they are read,
disseminated, evaluated, interpreted and rendered into another language.
Jarniewicz illustrates his discussion with examples of poetry translation, and
shows the complexity of literary translation, also its possible multimodality and
yet another dimension of the localization process (with translations considered
an integral part of local literatures). Also this chapter stresses the creative aspect
of translation and the author focuses on the open meaning of literary texts, which
accounts, among other things, for the need of “new” translations of “old” texts.
The next two chapters are devoted to specialized translation. Within this
field especially two areas require closer attention: legal translation and medical
translation. Legal translation is often considered exceptionally challenging and
demanding. Łucja Biel and Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski discuss the most
important features of this genre, and point to such issues as legal effects of legal
texts and discourse, questions of interpretation, and strict requirements on fideli-
ty of translation. They also elucidate the concept of legal language, highlight the
importance of legal terminology and phraseology, and stress that legal terms are
unique to a legal system and do not easily transcend its boundaries. Further on,
Biel and Goźdź-Roszkowski provide an overview of legal translation strategies
and techniques; also this chapter includes discussion of equivalence, within the
scope of specialized texts.
Medical translation, discussed by Wioleta Karwacka, brings its own chal-
lenges, connected with a very wide area of highly specialized knowledge. Addi-
tionally, medical texts include different genres, such as textbooks for medical
students, popular texts on medicine, but also research papers, conference pro-
ceedings, case studies and case histories, reports and a variety of simple texts for
patients (information leaflets, consent forms, brochures). Karwacka discusses
properties of medical language (such as Latin and Greek terminology, frequent
use of eponyms, acronyms and abbreviations), and briefly outlines the history of
medical translation. She also mentions translation of medical texts for lay read-
ers, where the criterion of user-friendliness adds yet another dimension to trans-
lation assessment (in both intralingual contexts and interlingual communication).

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The chapter convincingly demonstrates that multi-disciplinary approach is most

useful in medical translation practice and research.
Interpreting is the earliest form of translation, and still omnipresent. Adam
Bednarek and Paulina Pietrzak provide a useful classification of interpreting
types, divided according to the social context involved (such as community,
conference, escort, media interpreting) and the manner of delivery (especially
simultaneous, consecutive and whispered interpreting). Each type has its own
important features, and poses interesting tasks for practice, teaching, and re-
search. The authors also mention crucial differences between interpretation and
“typical” translation, pointing to methodological consequences of these differ-
ences, and point to the necessary mental skills (such as concentration, mnemonic
capacity) which contribute to a good performance by the professional interpreter.
Paulina Pietrzak investigates translation competence, stressing from the
outset the elusiveness of the notion. The relevant components contributing to an
appropriate level of competence include, among others, skills as complex and
divergent as linguistic competence in the languages involved, cultural compe-
tence, factual competence in specialized fields and subfields, and technical com-
petence. Pietrzak distinguishes process-oriented translation competence from
product-oriented translator competence and discusses the consequences of this
distinction for translator education.
Jerzy Tomaszczyk discusses borrowing from English and possible implica-
tions and challenges of the Anglicization of lexis for translators and translator
training. He provides data illustrating the presence of English lexical items in
new additions to Polish vocabulary as found in the Polish press, in different texts
and in conversational Polish.
There exist numerous metaphors of translation (as diversified as, for in-
stance bridge-building, border crossing, opening doors, changing clothes); in the
opening quote Wittgenstein compares translating from one language into another
to a mathematical task. This comparison points to the creative aspect of the pro-
cess on the one hand, and to certain rigorous constraints on the other. Contribu-
tors to the present volume stress the creative aspect of translation, but also focus
on different constraints, standards and challenges to translation practice.
Linguists from the Institute of English Studies at the University of Łódź
contributed to a volume titled Ways to Language (Barbara Lewandowska-
Tomaszczyk, ed. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 1988, new edition
published as New Ways to Language, Łódź, 2010), a comprehensive introduction
to contemporary linguistics and language studies. The current volume is inspired
by this earlier handbook, both as far as the title is concerned, and also as a case
of team work.
Piotr Stalmaszczyk

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Equivalence

Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk

University of Łódź
blt@uni.lodz.pl

Abstract: The chapter is an extensive survey of main topics, concepts and definitions in
the field of translational equivalence. The first sections present issues reflecting the rela-
tionship between linguistic theories of meaning and equivalence in terms of
a comparison between formal, behavioural and cognitive approaches to meaning and
translation. Touching upon the concept of indeterminacy in translation and the cognitive
notion of language commensurability and translation units, the chapter presents a theory
of reconceptualization as a theory of translation (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2010).
Further sections discuss different types of equivalent structures in languages and the
chapter concludes with a presentation of a classification of qualitative and quantitative
equivalence types drawn from authentic language corpus data.
Keywords: Cognitive Linguistics, commensurability, conceptualization, construal,
equivalence, frames, frequency of use, Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMs), intertextuali-
ty, language corpora, mental spaces, re-conceptualization, semantic prosody, semantics,
sociolect, speech acts, tertium comparationis, translation strategies, universals

1. Translation and Equivalence

Translation is broadly defined as the rendering of a message or information from

one language (Source Language) into another language (Target Language). In
other words, it is the establishing of the semantic – or meaning – equivalence
between a SL text, or more precisely, discourse, and a TL discourse. Translation
is not the substitution of one TL word/phrase/sentence for one SL
word/phrase/sentence. It is the re-creation of a whole SL discourse in a (similar
or comparable) TL context, and uttered/written with a similar function and
a similar communicative intention. Translation, as any other communicative
content, invariably involves the re-conceptualization of the original SL infor-
mation into the TL context- and addressee-mediated message.

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The concept of equivalence depends to a large extent on the definitions of

semantics and meaning within a given model of language. The equivalence
practice depends on the type of text translated (e.g., translation of a media or
legal text requires a different approach than the translation of a poetic text) and
the function of the message (e.g. film translation requires fulfilling a number of
technical conditions and constraints, absent in the translation of fiction). Inter-
preting too, with all its specificity, permits, in some contexts e.g. community
interpreting, more relaxed strategies with respect to the SL constraints and can
get closer to what can be considered a more liberal form of rendition –
a paraphrase – in which a SL text is a source of inspiration for the translator
rather than a strictly constraining point of reference.

1.1. Meaning theories and equivalence

There are basically two approaches to linguistic meaning1. One says that the
relation between man and reality is objective, i.e., human beings perform mental
categorization of objectively existing things and phenomena within their con-
texts, which leads directly to the hypothesis of the stability of linguistic meaning
and its universality.
An alternative semantic approach sees the origin of linguistic meaning in
the human subject. Linguistic senses are rooted in the human mind and mediated
by cognitive processes shared by all mankind. They are, however, shaped by
culture specific social conditions, which make semantic structures language-
bound and not universal patterns.
And yet, for translation to be possible, semantic approaches require a certain
stable universal entity which can be regarded as a point of reference – tertium
comparationis – between a SL and a TL utterance (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
1999). The first, objectivist, approach to meaning, perceives the text as a stable
pattern with one optimal (“best”) semantic interpretation. In the latter approach –
cognitively oriented – the text is considered dynamic and less stable, lending
itself to diverse numerous interpretations. In the first approach thus, a privileged
position is occupied by the notion of the context-free best translation. The sec-
ond philosophy assumes that the text is constantly subject to creative interpreta-
tion through listening, reading and, indeed, translation. Therefore, the concept of
the best translation loses much of its sense, while what requires a more stable

1
The present chapter is based on Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2010, 2012, 2013. Cf.
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2004 for a thorough study of the relationship between se-
mantics and translation.

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value are rather human cognitive abilities and mental operations of universal
character. Most of the contemporary theories of meaning, particularly those cog-
nitively based, address the question of SL – TL equivalence from this perspec-
tive.
The preservation of the original SL meaning in the TL is implemented in
terms of achieving the optimal resemblance (comparability) between the SL and
TL texts. As meaning is portrayed not only in the semantic content of the mes-
sage but also resides in its form, cases where it is not semantic content but the
way the message is expressed is given priority include instances of the ‘phone-
mic translation’ of poetry (Lefevere 1975). In such cases it is the sound, syntax,
rhythm, melody or rhymes of the verse that are taken to be components of its
‘literal meaning’ rather than the semantic representation. This can be observed in
the translation of children’s poetry e.g., the title The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss
(Theodor Seuss Geisel), is translated by Stanisław Barańczak to retain the
rhythm and rhyme as Polish. Kot Prot. Equally important, particularly in chil-
dren’s literature, are paratextual elements in translation (visual form of the text,
typographic details, illustrations, see Oittinen 2000).
Faithfulness in semantic representation may also be disregarded in favour of
other factors such as constraints resulting from rhymes, puns or other play on
words (Gutt 1991:131).
Cognitively based approaches to language assume a holistic approach to
meaning, represented in terms of Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMs) (Fillmore
1982, Lakoff 1987), which include the representation of linguistic senses in the
context of cognitive knowledge frames (e.g., the word cauliflower is considered
a flower in the BOTANY knowledge frame and a vegetable in terms of CUISINE.)
The approach to meaning proposed by the linguistic theory of Relevance (Sper-
ber and Wilson 1986) on the other hand and its application to translation theory
(Gutt 1991, Bogucki 2004), assumes that it is not only the semantic content and
the way a message is represented that is of importance but also a (similar) degree
of mental processing effort related to the message that is considered a parameter
in establishing the closest possible equivalents across the languages.
Most of the contemporary approaches to meaning permit to incorporate not
only a strictly semantic layer of meaning but also what is conventionally as-
sumed to be the pragmatic realm of language, i.e., the speaker/author-intended
meaning in their frameworks, vital for the interpretation of the original text and
its translation into receptor language.

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2. Historical approaches to equivalence

The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed the first scholarly attempts at
capturing the nature of translation. In the thirties the outlook on translation was
inspired by German field-theories (Trier 1931) and later in the sixties – by
Chomsky’s Transformational-Generative (TG) theory of language (Chom-
sky1964). They were formal approaches, based mainly on a system of necessary
and sufficient conditions of word meanings such as e.g., a feature matrix for the
word boy is proposed to include the components (+animate, +human, +male,
+young).
Eugene Nida (1964) adopted a part of the formal theory dealing with the TG
deep and surface structures and extended a formal, linguistic concept of equiva-
lence towards the functioning of linguistic signs in the socio-cultural context in
terms of what he labels the “functional definition of meaning” and “functional
equivalence” between SL and TL texts. The concepts of formal correspondences
and literal meaning, characteristic of traditional investigation thus gave way to
the notions of dynamic meaning and dynamic equivalence. For example, besides
the literal equivalents between Polish and English as in: A: proszę B: dziękuję
and their literal English counterparts (?)A: please. B: thank you, a functionally
more adequate dynamically equivalent exchange should be proposed: A: here
you are B: thank you A: you’re welcome.
Early seventies bring a new interest in Translation Studies (TS) treated as an
independent empirical discipline which developed in the literary circles partly as
a reaction to the universalist tendencies in the rigorously formalised TG trend.
TS scholars are interested more in translation as a process than translation as
a product. The older semantic queries concerning equivalence, identity, refer-
ence, and the like, are replaced by questions of the relationship between the SL
and TL in the framework of the inventory of meaning conventions characteristic
of SL and TL cultures.
With the rise of Speech-Act (SAT)-based theories of meaning (Searle 1979),
there appear new trends in translation theory, this time – based on speech acts.
The SL speech-act, with its locution, illocutionary force, and intended perlocu-
tionary effects, is performed under certain social and interactional conditions.
The translated speech act is rarely strictly identical to the original SL speech act.
The task of the translator is to fill the gap to the extent possible in the TL. In the
SL oriented translation the locutions in the TL may be similar or even identical
to those of the SL, so most of the original message form has a chance to be pre-
served in the translation, but the illocutionary force and thus, perlocutionary
effects may be entirely or partly different. The translation then may not reach the

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audience intended by the original author, or if it does, it can generate effects

entirely different from the original ones. In the TL oriented translation, the in-
tended meaning is more important and in order to efficiently communicate it, the
translator has to resort to remodelling of the original locution and the original
message and make them subordinate to the intended communicative effect. In
consequence then, the source-centered translation may contribute towards sus-
taining the original message but provide some limitations on the intelligibility of
the original by the TL reader, while the target-oriented translation may be more
communicatively efficient with the TL readership, but at the price of losing the
(structural) identity of the original message. The incompatibility of those two
objectives is best seen in the translation of literature, and more specifically, poet-
ic texts. All “sweetness and harmony” of poetry, to use Dante Alighieri’s word-
ing, is gone when poetry is translated from one language to another. As the
unique SL- or TL-orientation does not seem sufficient to account for translation
theory of meaning, there arise models which aim at including both linguistic and
pragmatic correlates in theory of translation and translation quality assessment
(House 1981). Parallel to these issues, new ideas of translation in terms of the
"polysystem" theory, embracing and/or making reference to other literary sys-
tems, are proposed (cf. Toury 1995) and they foreground the role of the translat-
ed texts in a double function, creating the new, and establishing the old systems.
Pragmatically oriented theories of meaning offering an alternative to the
truth-based theories are attempts to understand meaning in terms of
a combination of the speaker’s intentions and beliefs as well as regularities or
conventions in the linguistic behaviour of members of the same population
(Lewis 1969). The concepts of intentionality and purposiveness of a linguistic
utterance find their way into a Skopos thory of translation (Reiss and Vermeer
1984), whose central tenet is that a translation must depend on the individual
function of the translated text. The literary tradition is vivid in the activities of
the Leipzig school of translation. Think-aloud protocols (cf. Loerscher 1991),
the Skopos theory (Textgattungen) and an Integrated Approach to translation
(Snell-Hornby 2006) are the theories either originated or developed in the Ger-
man tradition, which started with Goethe’s Romantic attitude to translation and
which acknowledges the specificity of SL and TL systems. The latter trend,
a holistic theory of translation, shows a clear influence of new cognitive theories
of meaning. They do not assume a universalist level for linguistic syntax, seman-
tics, lexis, or even cognitive structures, but reach to the level of common prelin-
guistic structures (Lakoff 1987) to guarantee tertium comparationis of language
commensurability, understanding and, consequently, translation.

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3. Gavagai – Indeterminacy of translation

The absence of one – well-defined – linguistic level of comparison can lead to

the assumption that people using different linguistic systems cannot communi-
cate because the common level of equivalence between these systems is inde-
terminate. Extending this reasoning to translation, the conclusion can be reached
that translation (and communication) are not possible.
The thesis of the indeterminacy, or more strongly impossibility of transla-
tion can be defended either on philosophical systemic or on conceptual grounds.
Either languages of the world have such disparate systems that they do not fit
one another, or human conceptual categories are so diverse that they cannot be
‘calibrated’ so a foreign speaker can never be certain about the correspondences
between the native interlocutor’s and his own interpretations of the perceived
reality. W. V. Quine’s celebrated thesis of the indeterminacy of translation is an
instance of such scepticism. To expose his thesis Quine (1964:460-61) gives an
example of radical translation, i.e. translation of the language of a hitherto un-
known people. No sentence in such cases, Quine claims, even the one whose
context is shared by a native and a foreign language user, can be determined
with any degree of certainty. The expression gavagai Quine created in the un-
known language can be rendered as “a rabbit”, “rabbit parts attached to each
other” or even, as in more sophisticated proposals of Quine’s “undetached rabbit
part”, “there is rabbitting now”, or “Lo, rabbithood again”. The ultimate correct-
ness of such translations cannot be determined even though we have to do with
an observational sentence with a rabbit in front of the language users. This ex-
ample is to provide an even stronger argument that language users of different
communities cut the outer reality according to a specific, non-universalist mode.
Conceptual indeterminacy, rooted in the lack of discrete boundaries between the
categories, has its consequences in translation and translation theory.
Opposing the radical relativist tradition are those semantic approaches
which operate within different types of the universalist assumption. They accept
the existence of a universal system of language-independent entities (semantic
primitives/primes, universal conceptual categories or universal pre-linguistic
structures) or the existence of universal cognitive abilities shared by all human
beings. Some universalist hypotheses contributed to the postulates first proposed
in the fifties of the twentieth century and put forward explicitly by Katz (first in
1971, reiterated in 1978), which express the principle of effability in natural
language:

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Effability Hypothesis

“Each proposition can be expressed by some sentence in any natural language”

(Katz 1978:209).

The thesis has been discussed in numerous publications reaching the conclusion
that as a rule, there is no one-to-one correspondence between thought and its
linguistic realization, making it sensitive to background knowledge as well as to
the ultimate goal of the interaction. The speaker, to quote Sperber and Wilson
(1986), aims at optimal relevance, not at literal truth.
What this signifies is a concession to some form of sociolinguistic Relativi-
ty Theory, which can be phrased in terms of a weak Effability hypothesis as
proposed by Keenan (1978):

Weak Effability Hypothesis

“Anything that can be thought can be expressed with enough precision for efficient
communication”.

A contemporary instantiation of this stance is Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk’s

Theory of Re-conceptualization (2010) as a theory of communication and
a theory of translation.

4. Cognitive approach, translation and understanding

Translation, as is the case with Quine’s gavagai, has always been one of the
major tests for any version of the Relativity thesis. However, there is a need at
this point to discriminate between the impossibility of translation and the
(im)possibility of understanding a text or a linguistic utterance. Lakoff (1987)
argues that even if translation is impossible, it does not follow that understand-
ing is impossible. Understanding is an ability to conceptualize on the basis of
verbal and/or nonverbal clues and to match these conceptualizations to the per-
son’s own experience. Translation involves one additional dimension – it re-
quires matching these mental products to expressions of the TL. Understanding
of SL and TL texts does not necessarily entail the ability to translate. Similarly,
translation is possible – without an in-depth expert understanding of the original
text – particularly a text within a restricted (scientific or technological) domain.

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The content of SL text does not have to be, and most frequently is not, in a one-
to-one correspondence with the content of a TL text. The semantic content of SL
concepts may partly overlap with that of TL in translated texts but cases of using
the lexical forms which have wider or narrower scope than the original ones are
numerous. In the case of TL conceptual or lexical gaps, translators search for
comparable concepts from domains different than in the original to achieve
a similar effect. The translator uses for that purpose either sets of conventional
translational correspondences between SL and TL or proposes more creative TL
forms.

4.1. Cognitive universals

Propositional universals in the form of universal semantic structures as well as

lexical semantic primes of the universal character are postulated either by realist
theorists of language (Katz 1991) or by some cognitivists (e.g. Wierzbicka
1992). The majority of cognitively oriented linguists, however, propose in their
place non-propositional prelinguistic image-schematic representations and basic
level categories (Langacker 1987), shaped and developed by the human cogni-
tive system via universal mental processes such as metaphorization and meton-
ymy. Image-schemas are the first sensorimotor representations that develop in
the newly born infants and serve as the basis for the development of more com-
plex representations, universal across languages and cultures, they function as
the ‘anchoring point’ or a cognitive tertium comparationis between pairs of lan-
guages. Image-schemas are proposed to be units which structure both our expe-
rience of space and all our experience as well as cognition, i.e., concepts both of
physical and natural kind, as well as – by metaphorization processes – those
which belong to abstract domains. Both our cognition and abstract reasoning are
taken to be rooted in our physical bodily experience. Conceptualizations of ab-
stract objects, but also conceptualizations of phenomena which, although physi-
cally or physiologically grounded, are not accessible to direct perception (emo-
tions, sensations), are based on directly accessible meanings and construed by
conceptualizing the less known object or phenomenon in terms of better known
ones via metaphoric links.
Each mental model is a structure based on image-schemas which can have
a dual character. One type of cognitive models are the models based on the de-
compositional or ‘building-block’ structure, familiar from the classical theories
of meaning. The other kind represents Gestalt – holistic – structures, where ele-
ments do not exist as independent units and whose meaning is not a function of
the meanings of the parts. Lakoff (1987: 284) gives here the example of the

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CONTAINER schema, which has parts such as an INTERIOR, EXTERIOR, and

BOUNDARY, which, however, do not exist independently of the CONTAINER
schema.

4.2. Commensurability and translation

In cognitive models semantic universals then tend not to be of a strictly linguis-

tic nature, but uncover their more basic cognitive origin. On the other hand, lan-
guages vary and to render a SL message in TL is the task which presupposes not
only the tertium comparationis level but also the roots and paths of linguistic
diversification. Differences between human conceptual systems and structures
prove to be more varied from a typological point of view than those observed by
Benjamin Lee Whorf (1996). Linguistic systems correspond to one another in
different degrees. Their commensurability then is a dynamic notion. Lakoff
(1987) proposes four kinds of commensurability criteria: (1) truth-conditional
criteria (classical translatability), (2) criteria of use, (3) framing criteria (Ideal-
ized Cognitive Models), (4) conceptual organization criteria. Criteria (3) and (4)
are related to the cognitive concept of construal of the scene, which presents the
content of the scene as portrayed by a relevant syntactic structure. The systems
which would conform to all four kinds, which is an idealized case, would be
optimally commensurable and it would be sufficient to simply replace a lexical
form in TL for that in SL. Systems which can be only partly “calibrated”,
a typical cross language situation, are less commensurable and here the transla-
tor’s task is to find such TL equivalents which would bridge the incommensura-
bility between the two systems. The languages that would have none of the crite-
ria satisfied, are incommensurable to the highest degree, again an extreme case
of the gavagai type.
In contemporary cognitive linguistic models of language, the common level
of reference – the required tertium comparationis between languages, needed
inter alia in translation – is not assumed to be of the linguistic character. The
universal basis of human communication is the fact that we are all human – so
the basic biological and psycho-physiological processes are shared in the hu-
man race. We can rely on them, refer to them and take them as the point of ref-
erence in our – most frequently embodied – thoughts and languages.

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5. Translation units and equivalence types

Languages are segmented into units such as discourses, utterances, words and
sounds and the units can refer to objects in the outside reality or in the mental
world. As demonstrated in the sections above languages are not mutually cali-
brated to express exactly the same set of relationships in the two realities. There-
fore, the number of equivalences possible – which are based on resemblance
rather than identity, and embrace the aspects of the (perlocutionary) effects on
the SL and TL users as well as aspects of mental access and processing of the
units – is large and not fully symmetric. The responsibility for the labour share
to capture aspects of the resemblance rests either with the phonetic, lexical or
syntactic level or else with different configurations of these.
The notion of equivalence, the crucial notion for any theory as well as prac-
tice of translation, lends itself to a number of possible interpretations. The histor-
ically earliest – ST-oriented theories – assume ‘faithfulness to the original’ to be
the main parameter of translational equivalence. This programmatic criterion,
seldom practiced, has been replaced in contemporary translation theory by
a requirement of TL-oriented equivalence (Even-Zohar 1990). Some theorists
evoke a more dynamic concept of the language-oriented equivalence, such that
covers the interlanguage space between the SL and TL texts in the form of ‘the
third language’ (Duff 1981), the interlanguage translational equivalence (Toury
1995) or, most visible in the case of literary translations – source-driven, target-
led equivalence. The language orientation typology, as proposed by Round
(1998) is complemented by the language-level criteria:
 formal equivalence,
 equivalence of the outside world referents (i.e. denotations or refer-
ents/extensions),
 equivalents of mental representations or intensions,
 equivalence in functions.
Each of them is subject to re-conceptualization processes presented in the
section to follow.

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6. Re-conceptualization of meaning as a theory of translation

(Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2010)

TL versions change the propositional content of the SL by cutting down, narrow-

ing, or adding information. The information processed in this way may thus
modify the truth conditions of the original propositions in the translated version.
However, the main effort in translation goes into retaining a similar cognitive
effect on the addressee of the original and the addressee of the translation. What
we enter here is the realm of the approaches to meaning based on the pragmati-
cally oriented theories as well as on the theories of Cognitive Grammar.

6.1. Correspondence between total systems of communication –

Semiotics and translation

Transfer of information is not limited to the transfer via linguistic forms alone.
Information is also conveyed by the whole linguistic and situational context,
including the properties of the sender and the receiver of the message as well as
the background knowledge of the outside world and of the conventions holding
in the community of the sender and that of the receiver. Semiotic approaches to
language, i.e. approaches which embrace linguistic and non-linguistic (visual,
auditory) levels, assume exactly that it is the totality of such properties that
makes meanings communicable. In this respect, translation cannot be viewed as
the transfer of linguistic meanings alone. Optimally, it should be the rendition,
via linguistic means, of the SL cultural, literary conventions and the totality of
background facts to the TL culture. This assumption, however, is not a viable
option. The SL and TL systems are not commensurable in their totality. The
universal semiotics hypothesis is then untenable as a possible solution to the
problems of meaning equivalence and translatability. What is practiced instead
though is a set of strategies compensating for the meaning losses and transfor-
mations.
In the course of communicative interaction, each participant builds up
a system of conceptual domains (mental spaces Fauconnier 1985 or discourse
domains) based on their knowledge of reality in the form of knowledge frames or
Idealized Cognitive Models (Lakoff 1987, Fillmore 1982) and enriched during
the interaction. When two or more conceptual models (knowledge frames) inter-
act a new, blended, entity is created. This process takes place through building
language-specific constructions (e.g. Tom sneezed off the papers from the desk,
specific for English but not syntactically possible in Polish) and in the language

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of jokes, puns and wordplay. The theory of blending, or conceptual integration,

was first proposed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner (1998). Linguistic
interpretations are born in interaction. They emerge from the input material,
covering both language and knowledge of the world, as well as from contextual
circumstances, characteristic of a given act. However, the end result cannot al-
ways be predicted from the input parameters, and the final utterance does not
necessarily give unique clues to its componential parts. Conceptual blending
thus involves meaning modulation or meaning emergence, which, in the case of
translation from one language to another, presupposes re-conceptualization of
a SL message into a TL one.

6.2. Cognitive construal and translation as re-conceptualization

Looking at the world around, we perceive people, animals, objects, which inter-
act in varied scenes and events. We also resort to constructs of our imagination,
and devise abstract entities, which are put in some categorization schemes, then
shifted, reshuffled, etc. When a language user wants to convey a message to the
addressee, what she has at her disposal are the scenes perceived, filtered by her
conceptual system, a linguistic system and other semiotic codes she uses, which
structure her experience and shape the contents. Additionally, within the specific
codes, there are alternative ways to structure this experience, which are partly
conventional, partly discourse- and context-constrained, and partly entirely sub-
jective. In other words, what the conceptualizer presents in her message is her
construal of the world. The term construal is used here in the sense of Langacker
(1987), where it is defined as “the relation between the speaker (or hearer) and
the situation that he conceptualizes or portrays” (Langacker 1987: 487-488).
Translation, in cognitivist terms then, can be conceived of as re-
conceptualization of a SL message in the totality of its context and situation. The
term re-conceptualization (proposed and developed in Lewandowska-
Tomaszczyk 2010), is partly dictated by new construal parameters in the target
language form (TL grammar and meaning structures), different context (au-
thor/speaker – i.e. translator, time, place, addressee – TL audience), but also
brought about by subjective preferences of the translator in picking up or devis-
ing particular target language forms, which do not profile the same entities, i.e.,
do not identify them as figures against the base ground (see Langacker 1987,
1991). The translator and their readers’ mental spaces are populated by charac-
ters bearing some semblance to the original SL ones, interacting in ways, which
remind us of the source interactions, but clearly re-constructed. The TL words
and (fully semanticized) constructions give a new perspective, profile different

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parts of the base contents and make salient not necessarily identical elements
and parts of the original scenes. The translated text then is a blended outcome of
the original SL forms and meanings and fully native TL forms and their seman-
tics.

7. Equivalence at language levels

7.1. Lexical equivalence

Words and their properties can be treated as ‘windows’ through which one can
reach deeper layers of meaning and offer us access to complex structured pack-
ages of stereotypical knowledge such as Idealized Cognitive Models, as well as
to massive networks of knowledge structures. If a speaker uses, say, the word
tree, she can conceptualize its sense with different degrees of specificity (sche-
maticity and granularity) – either down to the perceptual, biological, etc. proper-
ties of the object, or at the fairly general tree as a plant level. Distinct meaning
components of variable complexity will be more directly accessible to the expert
(e.g. a botanist) as opposed to a non-expert user of the word. Both lexical com-
positional properties of different character (e.g. partonymy, hyponymy e.g.,
corniferous vs. deciduous trees, etc.) as well as larger units of the ICM type (the
function of trees in biology, hydrology, forestry, industry, or else in fun and
entertainment, etc.) can be considered practical points of reference in contrastive
semantic applications, translation including. The role of classical lexical compo-
sitionality in the cognitive linguistic framework is limited to a ‘coarse-grained
picture’ of linguistic meaning. To achieve a ‘fine-grained picture’ what is need-
ed is access to the networks of both linguistic, encyclopaedic as well as interac-
tional (pragmatic-discourse) meanings. The latter are not made focal points in
cognitivist literature, but it is the elucidation of such concepts that would make it
possible for us to come to grips with the problems of perlocutionary effects and
the idea of a fully-fledged Target Language-oriented translation.

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7.2. Word combinations in translation

From the point of view of a degree of cohesiveness or inter-dependence between

lexical items, one can distinguish between three kinds of lexical combination,
each of which poses a problem in translational equivalence:
 Combinations of independent lexical units
 Collocations
 Idioms
These three groups have different degrees of semantic transparency. What
is meant by this term is the extent to which the meaning of a word combination
can be uncovered from the meaning of its constituent parts. The meaning of
word combinations in (a) and (b) is (almost) fully recoverable from the meaning
of their constituents, while in the case of idioms (c) the holistic meaning is dif-
ferent from the sum of the individual lexical senses. The difference between (a)
an (b) is that (a) are relatively free word combinations while (b) combinations
are based on habitual co-occurance and, even though they are semantically
transparent, their form is not predictable.
The combinations of independent lexical units (e.g., an interesting/red/, etc.,
book) are the least restricted combinations, where, in the case of translation, each
item of a source language can be more freely substituted by an equivalent lin-
guistic item of a target language without necessarily affecting the sense of other
elements in the combination.
Idioms, on the other hand (e.g., it’s raining cats and dogs), are characterized
by a narrow range of variability and the maximum cohesion, i.e. the idiom has
usually both fixed elements as well as their order. The meaning of an idiom can-
not be typically retrieved by making reference to the senses of individual items
as would be the case with free combinations of individual lexical units. The
meaning of an idiom thus is not predictable from the meaning of its parts.
In the category of collocations, a distinction can be made between grammat-
ical collocation and lexical collocation. Both types can cause a problem for
a translator. Grammatical collocations, i.e., phrases consisting of a main part-of-
speech element such as a noun or verb and other parts which can co-occur with
it, e.g., Verb+Noun pay a compliment, form a closed set of patterns to be found
in a number of dictionaries. Lexical collocations, forming an open set of items
(e.g., at home; at 3 pm.), are less predictable and, as such, difficult to be handled
in terms of rules of language or usage. Lexical collocations can be understood as
combinations of two or more words used in one of their regular, non-idiomatic

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meanings, following certain structural patterns, and restricted in their combina-

torics.
Collocations, unlike idioms, can usually be understood by reference to the
meanings of the component lexical units, which can also take some modifiers.
However, differently from free combinations of words, one of the component
elements in collocations has a restricted combinatorial power, e.g. one can make
a (big) mistake, do (some) shopping or commit a (serious) crime. Languages
have their own systems of collocations and in English, similarly to a number of
other languages, there are classes of verbs, of reduced semantic content, which
collocate with different nouns to form a complete sense-expression. The verbs of
the do (somebody a favour), make (so much noise), give (a hand), have (a bath),
etc. classes, are the cases in point. The translation of such multi-unit words into
a TL usually yields different lexical combinations than in the SL e.g., Pol.
prawić (komuś) (niewyszukane) komplementy; robić (wielki,-e)błąd/zakupy/ha-
łas; popełnić (potworną) zbrodnię; brać (gorącą)kąpiel, etc.
Adjectives too collocate with different nouns according to language-specific
norms. One can say a heavy drinker or smoker ‘nałogowy pijak/palacz’ but not
a heavy teacher in the same sense of heavy, which can refer to weight in this
case. In collocations then, word senses are restricted by the sense of the collo-
cate. As collocational combinatorics is language-specific, collocations may pose
a problem for a translator.
Idiomatic expressions and idioms which have non-transparent meaning re-
quire search for the linguistic choices which are similar in content although not
necessarily in form.

7.3. Encyclopedic information, culture-specific elements, intertextuality

Similarly to theoretical problems in lexical semantics concerning discrimination

between linguistic and encyclopedic information, problems in translation prac-
tice may involve linguistic and encyclopedic knowledge. The words used in SL
texts which are items specific to a given culture may have no direct equivalents
in TL. Strategies that are used here would be either borrowing from the SL (Pol.
barszcz – Eng. borsch), or the borrowing of a form from the TL with the closest
possible sense (Pol. professor nadzwyczajny – Eng. associate professor). The
sense of the word, as it was used in the original however, will not be easily re-
constructed from the TL form. In such cases then, two kinds of strategies are
practiced depending on the type of text the original is. In the case of informative
or referential texts, additional information in the form of sense explication or
definition is in order. Such a technique can be also used in restricted-domain

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texts, in some descriptions and narratives (e.g., in journalistic prose). In poetry

however, what would be preferred is the original recreation of the SL text in the
TL. In such contexts, no matter whether the translator uses a loan word or
a close TL form as an equivalent, the original sense should be transferred prefer-
ably without a lengthy footnote. The preferred strategies are either forms with
a foreign tinge present or else fully re-created and/or domesticated, as e.g., in
one of the many Nabokov’s puns (1997:62)2:

(1)
I have not much at the bank right now but I propose to borrow – you know, as
the Bard said, with that cold in his head, to borrow and to borrow and to bor-
row3

The Bard in the text is William Shakespeare and the triple borrow presents
a play on the original phrase Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow from Macbeth’s
final monologue in Act V. A translator into German would have no problem
with Nabokov’s text as the German opposition morgen ‘tomorrow’ fits closely to
the German borgen ‘borrow’. Translating the English text of Lolita into Russian
though, Nabokov changed the allusion into a reference to Eugene Onegin “ ‘budi
zhit’ dol’gam, kak zhil’ ego otec’, po slovam poeta”. The Polish translator Rob-
ert Stiller on the other hand employed a strategy of domestication:

(1a) W tej chwili akurat nie mam dużo w banku, ale jestem gotów dać w zastaw
ostatnie futro, jak Makbet, gdy wśród cieni znienacka zaseplenił: futro, a po
futrze, a po futrze znów futro i futro.

The transator makes reference to the Polish proverbial saying: jutro będzie futro,
a pojutrze po futrze lit. ‘tomorrow will be a furcoat, and the day after tomorrow
there will be after – past the furcoat, i.e. there will be no furcoat’, indicating the
flying time and change. This kind of reference to other, frequently culture-
specific texts, is called intertextuality.

2
The example and interpretation quoted after Wróblewski 2013:85.
3
The examples quoted in this chapter are ordered according to the following sequence:
the first examples in the pairs are the original SL texts and the second examples pre-
sent their translated equivalents.

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7.4. Typology of meaning, equivalence and translation strategies

To render a message from one language into another the translator takes two
types of criteria into consideration. The first ones are conditions characteristic of
a SL and a TL, so-called typological language conditions. They are conventional
grammatical categories and rules of each of the two languages, not to be freely
changed by the translator. The other part of inter-language correspondences are
those properties of the TL which can be more freely selected (modified, added
and omitted) by the translator. It is the latter that can legitimately be called trans-
lation strategies while we retain the term linguistic or grammatical constraints
or pressure for the former. The repertory of strategies and pressures in transla-
tion has been frequently discussed in translation studies. The most widely adopt-
ed classification is that proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet (1958), which com-
prises :
 Loan Pol. Christmas pudding for Eng. Christmas pudding
 Calque or Loan translation (substituting the native senses of the expres-
sion in terms of similar structure) Pol. mysz (komputerowa) for Eng.
mouse
 Literal translation (word-for-word) Pol. mieć z tyłu głowy for Eng. to
have at the back of one’s mind
 Transposition (switching grammatical category) Pol. Czuję się dobrze
(Adverb) for Eng. I feel good (Adjective).
 Modulation (different discourse conventions) Pol. Dzień dobry Pani
Profesor for Eng. Good morning, Professor
 Correspondence Pol. piątek trzynastego for Eng. Friday the thirteenth (in
some other cultures (Spain) – Tuesday the thirteenth)
 Adaptation Pol. schabowy z ziemniakami for Eng. fish and chips
Each of these general strategies can have more particular effects and procedures
such as amplification, reduction, explicitation, implicitation, generalization and
its opposite – particularization.

7.4.1 The lexicon

The lexicon of a natural language can be perceived as a network of interrelated

nodes, where the nodes correspond to individual vocabulary items of the lan-
guage. The sense and value of each of the words can be characterized by its po-
sition in the network as well as its relationship to other words. The most frequent

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approach to lexical semantics perceives meaning as a complex construction built

out of several levels or layers (cf. Leech 1981). The boundaries between the
levels, or types of meaning, are not always stable or clear-cut, but, taken together
they are responsible, as Leech proposes for “the total composite effect of linguis-
tic communication”. Each of these semantic aspects poses a challenge in transla-
tion.
The core4 part of the lexical meaning, frequently referred to as the concep-
tual or denotative meaning, comprises most essential elements such as the condi-
tion of FEMALENESS in the concept of woman in English and kobieta in Polish.
Connotative meaning (connotation), which, in cognitive models, is incorporated
in lexical senses proper, is treated as a separate type of lexical meaning in other
approaches and is sometimes labelled experiential meaning as it is formed as
a consequence of human experience and the conventional language use. The
connotational component of the lexical meaning comprises the emotive evalua-
tion associated with the word, which may be different in different cultures. Con-
notation of the word is a set of non-criterial stereotypic or characteristic proper-
ties of the referent of a word, e.g. ‘inconstant, prone to tears’ with respect to
‘woman’ in many cultures and languages of the world. While the sense of the
word, or its denotation or reference, can be identical across languages, its conno-
tations as well as the speaker’s attitude or the evaluative charge of the word (i.e.
affective meaning) are very frequently distinct. The stereotypical or connotative
properties of the concept of a male, for instance, can be different in different
cultures, conforming either to an idealized model of a ‘supporting partner’ to
that of a ‘dominating macho’. Here we can also find instances of false friends as
e.g. Pol. Polak with positive or neutral evaluative charge vs. Am. Eng. Polack
expressing strongly negative evaluation.
Stylistic meaning called also interpersonal meaning of words depends on
the discourse topic, serves the speaker identification and is also an exponent of
the degree of intimacy and formality between the participants of an interactional
event. The basic part of a language vocabulary is formed by the most common
vocabulary items (e.g. child) and is followed by the informal colloquial (baby,
babe) and formal literary words (offspring). Next two layers comprise technical,
scientific (infant) and foreign vocabulary items as well as slang and dialectal
variants, cant and vulgarisms and, then, poetical and archaic words. The sub-
classes are not mutually exclusive e.g. the literary vocabulary is heterogenous
and may cover a range of words of scientific, archaic, or foreign types (borrow-
ings/loanwords). Each of these categories presents problems of its own in the

4
Part of this section is based on the Meaning chapter of Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
(ed.) 2010.

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process of translation (Pol. dziecko (neutral), noworodek (medical),

nowonarodzony (formal, lofty), potomek (formal, official), the negatively
charged bachor and the English loanword baby). While technical and scientific
vocabulary items may be the least problematic, as they are frequently based on
internationalisms, familiar to professional groups sharing the same occupation,
such varieties as dialectal variants or archaisms and poetical uses may pose an
immense problem in translation practice.
Meaning conveyed by a particular grammatical category i.e. grammatical or
categorial meaning is also rooted in the use of a relevant grammatical form of
lexical items. Languages differ with regard to the degree of correspondence be-
tween grammatical categories and relevant semantic dimensions (compare Pol.
baba, babka, babsztyl, babsko, babcia, babunia, etc. ‘older woman (frequently
unpleasant) – grandmother – granny – young, attractive woman (polysemy of the
form babka)’.
One of the essential issues in translating to or from languages with, say,
a rich inflectional system can be the transposition of those aspects of meaning
which are incorporated in the grammatical categories of a given word. Inflec-
tional languages usually have a category of grammatical gender of Nouns, irre-
spective of their sex differentiation (e.g., Pol. książka ‘book’ Feminine, stół ‘ta-
ble’ Masculine, mydło ‘soap’ Neuter). Other languages like English, on the other
hand, use natural gender, typically reflecting the sex of the referent or its neutral-
ity with respect to this dimension. The grammatically conveyed meaning can
influence word connotation and imagery associated with a given concept in dif-
ferent languages e.g. the image of death as a male (Germanic cultures) or
a female (Slavic cultures), and can thus be especially relevant in arts (painting,
sculpture) and in translation, particularly of literary texts.
Cross linguistic differences occur also with regard to the collocative or syn-
tagmatic meaning, i.e. the holistic semantics of a lexical item which results from
the syntactic environment viz. the co-occurrence restrictions of a given word,
e.g. Eng. to take photographs, Pol. ‘to make photographs’ (robić zdjęcia) or Eng.
to take temperature Germ. ‘measure temperature’ (Fieber messen). These as-
pects of lexical meaning are directly manifested in translation.
Contrastive or paradigmatic meaning of a word is this aspect of its meaning
which is derived from its relationship to other members of the same semantic
field. To delimit the boundaries of such English words as anxiety or annoyance
one has to resort to other words expressing emotions such as anger, surprise,
fear, etc. and to understand what barbecue is, one has to see its relations to other
member of the culinary field such as grill, roast etc. In the translation of such
items to the languages which have some conceptual and/or lexical gaps, the

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translator resorts to borrowing (e.g. Fr. barbecue), (a set of) closest equivalents
(Germ. grillen, braten) or to descriptive techniques.
Implicative (also presupposed, reflected, implied) meaning of a lexical item
is another aspect of word meaning which should be looked after in the transla-
tion process. It may refer either to logical or pragmatic presuppositions of an
item (e.g. Eng. bald refers to objects which do not have natural covering but
presupposes the existence or the expectation on the part of a speaker of such
natural covering). Implicative meaning may also include implicatures present in
a given discourse, e.g. the Eng. phrase member states ‘państwa członkowskie’
has specific implicative meaning in the texts involving the European Union and,
as such, may have to be translated differently than when such a phrase has no
implications of that type.
A direct consequence of the exploitation of a phonetic form of a word on the
other hand in order to shape its cognitive, connotative or affective meaning is the
semantization of the linguistic form. The phonetic form is essential in poetry and
onomatepoeia i.e. vocal imitation of sounds, vowel harmony and sound symbol-
ism are also the instances of semanticized form e.g. Eng. ting, bang Est. tinn or
Indones. ting, bong or Pol. bim-bom, etc.

7.5. Neologisms and translation

Peter Newmark (1988: 33) defines neologisms as “newly coined lexical units or
existing lexical units that acquire a new sense”. Neologisms appear in diverse
text types. In scientific or technological writing but also in the language of me-
dia or advertisements, they occur first of all to point to an outside world referent
discovered or created by the community members. In fine literature reference is
most frequently made to mental entities alone, the creations which have no des-
ignates in the surrounding reality. Such newly coined linguistic items are both
a product of human imagination and an outcome of linguistic rules used crea-
tively by language speakers. While the neologisms which have an outside refer-
ent (fax, laptop) are likely to find eventually their way into dictionaries, thesauri
or other reference tools like computer corpora, those invented by poets or au-
thors of literature (e.g., James Joyce shuit) are frequently unique coinages found
either in one text or in one author’s writing. Those then have very little chance to
appear in dictionaries of general language.
The problem with finding equivalents of such novel creations is complex. It
is not sufficient to say that they are the linguistic units which appear in the SL
texts but do not exist in TL. Such a statement could refer to all possible concep-
tual gaps of a TL when compared with a SL. Here the SL item can be a word of

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some currency in the SL system, such as e.g. labels for products of new technol-
ogies, while their import to the TL system may require either direct borrowing or
coining a novel form. A translator of technical texts can resort to either of the
two, though creating neologisms is not always recommended (cf. Newmark
1988:15). On the other hand, direct SL loanwords are not, as a rule, particularly
welcome by TL language policy makers.
The main techniques of translating novel SL forms in general involve the
processes of borrowing and loan translation, productive affixation, semantic
shifts and paraphrasing. Neologisms in fine literature are the forms and/or senses
novel to the SL and they should be rendered as such into the TL. Newmark dis-
tinguishes twelve types of neologisms, divided into two groups, which are ex-
tended and modified in later publications. Some examples of neologisms we can
provide here (Nineteen Eighty – Four George Orwell tr. Tomasz Mirkowicz)
include:

A. Existing lexical items with new senses:

 words and abbreviations, Big Brother (bb) – Wielki Brat (wb)5
 collocations, Big Brother is watching you – Wielki Brat patrzy
 compounds Newspeak – nowomowa, crimestop – zbronioszlaban
 blending Miniluv (Ministry of Love) – Minimiło (Ministerstwo miłości)
 affixation ungood – bezdobry, goodest (best) – najdobry
B. New forms:
 acronyms (new and old referents) and abbreviations, Ficdep (Fiction
Department) – Lidep (Departament Literatury)

By far the best known passage in English literature containing neologisms is

Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, the first lines of which run as follows: “ ‘Twas
brilig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe”. The poem abounds
in lexical neologisms but is nevertheless interpretable due to the retention of
authentic structure words, correct morphology and syntax as well as due to the
use of phonetically meaningful clusters which help in creating a peculiar, unset-
tling atmosphere. Ready-made equivalents to such creations cannot be immedi-

5
The abbreviation wb in Polish, pronounced as [‘voo ‘bǝ] additionally activates (particu-
larly with the older generation) a similar form – ub, pronounced alike as [‘oo ‘bǝ],
which stands for Urząd Bezpieczeństwa ‘Security Office’ and brings about worst
communist practices into mind. This case is an example of qualitative re-
conceptualization example.

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ately found in the TL. The translator has to, on the one hand, resort to the con-
ventional morphology and structure of the TL and look for possible original
creations that the TL system offers to convey the expressive function of the SL
text. The Polish translations (in fact the translated versions into numerous other
languages too) of Carroll’s poem are all creative and abound in impressive num-
bers of neologisms (www. http://home.agh.edu.pl/~szymon/jabberwocky.shtml):

Lewis Carroll Jabberwocky (1871)

Twas brilig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Pol. 1. (tr. Stanisław Barańczak) Dziaberliada

Brzdęśniało już; ślimonne prztowie
Wyrło i warło się w gulbieży;
Zmimszałe ćwiły borogowie
rcie grdypały z mrzerzy.

Pol. 2. (tr. Janusz Korwin-Mikke) Żabrołak

Błyszniało – szlisgich hopuch świr
Tęczując w kałdach świtrzem wre,
Mizgłupny był borolągw hyr,
Chrząszczury wlizły młe.

Pol.3. (tr. Bogumiła Kaniewska) Dżabrokłap

W dzionek błyskliwy ślniły grzaski,
Co się wśród grętów wygregrały,
Praary fumnie darły kraski,
A śliskie szmyki się drąskały.

The interesting strategies employed in all the versions of this first stanza of the
poem are mainly formation of new compounds and blended constructions, pho-
netic symbolism and associative meanings. What is striking though is the fact
that – to maintain intelligibility – grammatical processes (prepositional phrases
formation, nominal and verbal category formation, sentence patterns, etc.) are
not modified to such an extent either in the original or in its Polish versions.

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Colloquial language, most notably slang, has also a strong expressive func-
tion and is a rich source of neologisms (see Urban Dictionary6). However, its
lavish productivity is combatted by its mutability, characterized by lack of sta-
bility and frequent change. The translation of creative slang expressions poses
additional problems of the sociolinguistic nature. Slang, a language variety of
a social group in one community, cannot be simply rendered as a regional or
regional dialect of a TL community. To translate slang from the SL the translator
has to devise a new sub-code in the TL or resort to a modified version of one of
the available TL systems.

7.6. Convention and creativity – corpus data

The situation gets even more complex when richer collocational patterns of use
are taken into consideration. Various metaphorical or otherwise extended uses,
nonce-formations, metaphors, may be fairly opaque to a translator. Access to full
contexts and the possibility of comparing various uses provided by language
corpora, large computerized collections of representative and balanced samples
of texts, comprising different types, styles, modes and registers, can facilitate the
task of comprehending and transducting the problematic linguistic items. The
other extreme end of the conventionality-creativity scale comprises domain-
restricted terms, idiomatic expressions and conventional phraseology. The ac-
quisition of this whole world of domain-restricted terminology, the familiarity
with which cannot be obtained without sufficient exposure to authentic TL texts,
is another advantage of the use of corpora for translation practitioners. For that
reason, it is not only concordancing programs, which extract a given item with
a smaller or larger context, and display them, that are important here, but the
possibility of accessing a more complete text on a computer is of comparable
importance as well. A good translation professional must, obviously, be familiar
with conventional uses, but, at the same time, s/he also has to be aware of prob-
abilities of other, less frequent, options. Corpus data, provided the corpus is suf-
ficiently large, can provide both. Moreover, the information on the frequencies
of such items, keywords, collocations and clusters, available in most software

6
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Knosh&defid=6821156.
E.g., Knosh
Knosh is slang for food. Knosh can refer to food itself (noun) or the act of eating food
(verb).
“Mike I’m starving man, let's go get some knosh.”
“Do you have snacks? I need something to knosh on.”

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now, can help the translator to select a TL equivalent of similar currency (Pęzik
2011), which is as important as the qualitative – meaning-based – criterion.
The requirement of the translator’s familiarity with the rarer nuances of both
the source and target languages puts a very strict discipline on the professional
translator and the translation trainer. They have to actively look for new vocabu-
lary items, phraseology, etc. This discipline is even stricter with interpreters who
deal in their jobs with the linguistic material of the immediate reference and
currency with no direct access to the relevant aids. Corpora, especially those
built on line, give translators a unique possibility to access more recent linguistic
material accumulated in a systematic way.
Metaphoric language and linguistic creativity and their expression (see
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2012a) show language- and culture-specificity of
conceptualizations. SL and TL metaphors, though seemingly identical, may refer
to distinct outside world scenarios. The metaphoric Source Domain of TOUCH in
I am touched (with your kindness) in English is mapped on the Target Domain of
positive EMOTIONAL AFFECTION connected with kindness and desirable behav-
iour. The same target domain in Polish in Jestem dotknięty lit. ‘I am touched’
maps on a negative EMOTIONAL AFFECTION target domain as in Jestem dotknięty
twoimi obrzydliwymi oskarżeniami lit. ‘I am touched with your disgusting accu-
sations’ means in Polish ‘I am hurt with your disgusting accusations’, while the
semantic equivalent of the English I’m touched is the Polish Jestem wzruszony
lit. ‘I’m moved (w ‘inside’)’. In turn though the English I’m moved can also be
rendered as the Polish Jestem poruszony which is closer to the English I’m sur-
prised/astonished (often with a negative external stimulus). This kind of dis-
placement of senses, in this case distinct metaphoric mappings as well as the
frequency of use of particular metaphoric scenarios, can also be taken as
a dimension according to which differences between particular languages are
identified (see Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Wilson 2013).
Conventionally, languages also present distinct patterns in polysemic (i.e.,
multi-meaning) extensions. The English speaker perceives, for example,
a number of objects and phenomena in the real world, which he categorizes in
terms of similar properties of the polysemous concept (Lewandowska-
Tomaszczyk 2007) of running and assigns them to the same class, unlike the
Polish language user, for whom the English meaning extension patterns overlap
with Polish ones only to some extent:

(2) run
(2i) This man is running fast
(2ii) The horse was running to the barn
(2iii) Mr Clinton is running for presidency

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(2iv) Pete was running a tap

(2v) He was running a big nation
(2vi) A brook was running along the road
(2vii) The engine stopped running
(2viii) She murmured, running a finger down the page
(2ix) Small houses were running along from left to right
(2x) running commentary
(2xi) runny nose

Speakers of other languages, though capable to understand the motivation be-

hind the above categorization, assume different conventional optics and Polish
users would employ a lexicographic equivalent biec/biegać ‘to run’ in the case
of running as a physical activity, but they would employ different verbs for the
remaining examples:

(2a) Eng. The boy runs – Pol. Chłopie biega.

(2b) Eng. The motor runs – Pol. Motor chodzi (walks)
(2c) Eng. The clock runs. – Pol. Zegar chodzi (walks)
(2d) Eng. His nose runs. – Pol. Z nosa mu cieknie (lit. From nose it drips
him)
(2e) Eng. Mrs Clinton is running for presidency – Pol. Pani Clinton bierze
udział w wyścigu o prezydenturę (races for presidency)
(2f) running commentary – bieżący komentarz/ komentarz na bieżąco (run-
ning)
(2g) running water – bieżąca woda (runny)

Conventional equivalents – range of senses

As was mentioned before, SL-TL equivalents are conceptually non-identical.

There can be envisaged six cross-linguistic (lexicalised) equivalence contexts:
 SL-TL one (lexicalised)-to-one (lexicalised) equivalents Eng. philosophy
– Pol. filozofia
 SL-TL one-to-zero (lexicalised) equivalents (mostly culture-specific
items) – Eng. regulars (at the pub) – Pol. stali bywalcy/goście (pubu) lit.
‘steady customers (of the pub)’
 SL-TL zero (lexicalised)-to-one equivalents (mostly culture-specific
items) – Eng.  – Pol. włoszczyzna ‘a combination of basic vegetables
used to cook some soups’
 SL-TL one (lexicalised)-to-many (lexicalised) equivalents Eng. go – Pol.
iść, jechać

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 SL-TL many (lexicalised)-to-one (lexicalised) equivalents Pol. żal,

smutek, tęsknota – Eng. sadness; Eng. time, tense – Pol. czas
 SL-TL many-to-many equivalents (multi-value and multi-dimensional
equivalents):
Eng. pudding/ Christmas pudding – Pol. budyń, deser, pud-
ding/Christmas pudding Eng. translation; interpreting – Pol. prze-
kład/tłumaczenie
The examples below show networks of semantic relations in English and in
Polish with respect to the Polish concepts of państwowy and prywatny with ref-
erence to terms relating to health service and medical institutions:

(3)
Pol.
prywatny lit. ‘private’ – państwowy referring/belonging to state’

private health insurance ‘prywatne ubezpieczenie’, state-run hospital

‘państwowy szpital’, private hospitals ‘prywatne szpitale, state sector
‘sektor państwowy’, outpatient clinic ‘poradnia/przychodnia medyczna’,
private health-care providers ‘prywatna służba zdrowia’, medical work-
ers ‘służba zdrowia’, work in the formal sector ‘praca w sektorze państ-
wowym’, workplace insurance ‘ubezpiecznie pracownicze’, health ex-
penditure ‘wydatki na zdrowie’, out-of-pocket payments ‘opłaty pokry-
wane przez pacjanta’, the sick paying over the counter ‘chorzy płacący
sami za leki’, counterfeit medicines ‘leki podrabiane’, unlicensed dis-
pensaries ‘punkty sprzedające leki bez uprawnień’, health inspectors ‘in-
spektorzy medyczni’, pre-paid health insurance ‘opłaty wstępne na ub-
ezpieczenie zdrowotne’, pooling medical costs in times of need
‘skomasowanie wydatków na służbę zdrowia w potrzebie’, affordable
health care ‘opieka zdrowotna, na którą wszystkich stać’, health-cover
offer with a local insurer “oferta ubezpieczenia zdrowotnego przez
miejscowego ubezpieczyciela’, basic inpatient and outpatient annual
cover ‘pokrycie rocznych kosztów medycznych na szpitale
i poradnie/przychodnie’, work on health care ‘praca w służbie zdrowia’,
state-paid doctor ‘lekarz opłacany przez państwową służbę zdrowia’,
a no-frills but life-saving health care (informal) lit. ‘opieka zdrowotna
“bez cudów”, ale ratująca życie’, ‘podstawowa opieka zdrowotna’

The above English words and phrases in (3) are terms generated from newspaper
texts on American health care system (The Economist Oct-Dec 2013), addressed
to educated audiences.

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7.8 Words and terms – typology of translation texts

The examples in (3) above are mostly terms. The relationship between words in
general lexicon of a language and words which can be identified as terms is not
easy to define (Sager 1986, Cabré 1992). To put it briefly, terms are the lexical
units assigned a unique sense and identified with reference to only one concep-
tual system or a restricted knowledge domain as e.g. the concept of light in the
wave theory or the concept of grammar in the linguistic transformational-
generative theory. Both the understanding of terms in a SL as well as their TL
equivalents presuppose familiarity with the unique conceptual system underlying
a theory a given concept is a part of.
Each linguistic variety characteristic of a given restricted domain (referred
to as sublanguages in some publications) is associated with its own ontology, i.e.
a hierarchical system of terms representing this part of the outside reality, such
as e.g. contract law or nuclear physics. Contrary to the putatively universal on-
tologies created (or, sometimes perhaps, discovered) by philosophers (see Fig.
4 as an example of the universal top-branched ontology Casati 1998), whose aim
is to account for the structure of the universe in a language and in a domain-
neutral fashion, contemporary ontologies involved in computer-based conceptual
modelling are in the majority of cases domain-specific taxonomies (see Lewan-
dowska-Tomaszczyk 2003, 2005).
The oldest language-based ontological models come from lexicographic ma-
terial and can be found in thesauri of variouos kinds starting from medieval en-
cyclopaedic glossaries up to modern thesauri such as the widely-used Roget’s
Thesaurus. Such common-sense models are based on what is frequently referred
to as naive physics and, stemming from it, linguistic models incorporating naive
or folk-model semantics.

(4)
1. Objects, Natural Units and Natural Kinds
2. Events, Processes and Causality
3. Stuffs, States of Matter, Qualities
4. Surfaces, Limits, Boundaries, Media
5. Motivation, Requiredness, Value

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The term ontology has been recently extended to include a more specific sense,
i.e. “a neutral and (in the best case) computationally tractable description or
theory of a given domain which can be accepted and reused by all information
gatherers in that domain” (cf. Casati 1998). Here axiomaticity in terms of formal
representation of the system is a rule for the description to be ‘computationally
tractable’. Ontologies, together with their more domain-specific realizations, i.e.
taxonomies, are used in information storage, retrieval, and reuse for different
purposes. Ontologies for specific domains, frequently simple taxonomic termi-
nological structures, are built relative to their application. Therefore, one cannot
say that there exists a single best ontology of a domain. Likewise, the ontology’s
level of granularity tends to be domain-specific and function-dependent. The
purpose of more universal, foundational, as some would call them, ontologies, is
more general and aims at facilitating co-operation among different agents, hu-
man and artificial.

(5) Polish educational system basic ontology:

Żłobek ‘Nursery’
Przedszkole ‘Kindergarten’
Szkoła podstawowa ‘Primary school’
Gimnazjum ‘Middle school’
Liceum ‘High school’
(profilowane) (profiled: ogólnokształcące ‘general’ vs.
zawodowe/technikum ‘vocational’)
Kolegium ‘College’
Wyższa szkoła ‘High Vocational School/University/Academy’
zawodowa
vs.
Uniwersytet ‘University’

The British English ontological system for educational domain as for a number
of other domains (e.g. administrative system, law, etc.), is different from that in
Poland or USA. Taking the administrative structure of the country as another
example, the translator can either select the closest possible TL level of (admin-
istrative unit) equivalence for his/her purposes e.g., Pol. województwo ‘coun-
ty/shire, etc.’, resort to a higher, hyperonymic (less determined) unit ‘region’,
coin a calque ‘voivodship’ or retain the original Polish form as a loan-word ‘wo-
jewództwo’, most often with an adequate definition or explanation e.g., ‘the
chief unit in the territorial division in Poland for administrative, judicial and
political purposes’ or ‘the largest local government unit in Poland’.

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Words in general language frequently carry either distinct or modified sens-

es when contrasted with terms. Compare the word mass, which is associated
with a property and weight in ordinary English, while it has no necessary associ-
ation with weight in physics, where mass is a relation to acceleration while the
property and weight might be inferred (cf. Frawley 1992). The translation of
a text with specialized lexicon then should retain in the TL text both the univer-
sally acknowledged terms and collocations of a particular domain and, whenever
possible, the inferential structure of the text in the SL. In (6) below senses of the
English term accumulator followed by examples from authentic materials (cor-
pus-driven concordances) are provided, followed by the Polish equivalent con-
structions.

(6) accumulator exemplifies a cross-linguistic polysemy and language-specific

extension patterns (examples from Longman Corpus):
 accumulator used interchangeably with battery (ex. 1 below)
 a processor register (ex. 2 below)
 computer storage (ex. 3 below)
 a person who accumulates (wealth) (ex. 4 below) [AGENTIVE nominal]
 accumulated events (ex. 5 below)

N Concordance
1 whereas secondary ones can be recharged. The lead-acid accumu-
lator used in cars consists of secondary cells.
2 Thus we have a processor register called the accumulator, the
same length as a word of computer storage.
3 Load the contents of a store location into the accumulator, over-
writing the accumulator’s previous contents.
4 Accumulated wealth outlasts the accumulator, as does accumulat-
ed knowledge; wealthy men establish funds
5 FIVE nations compete on the Serpentine this weekend in a six-
event accumulator for a possible $5,000.

(6a) Polish
(i) akumulator = bateria ‘accumulator = battery’ (ex. 1 below)
(ii) akumulować (formal) bogactwo ‘accumulate wealth’; akumulator
bogactwa ‘wealth accumulator’ ‘a tool to accumulate wealth’,
akumulatornia/akumulatorownia as a production area (ex. 2 be-
low)

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N Concordance
1 Najdroższe, bo kosztujące aż 300 zł, są podwójne lampy halogeno-
we z akumulatorem, które mogą świecić nawet przez kilkadziesiąt
godzin.
Pol. ‘(lamps with) a battery’
2 pomieszczenia produkcyjne o charakterze pomocniczym – akumula-
torownia, warsztat.
Pol. ‘room in a production plant where accumulators or batteries are
kept’
Metaphoric extensions such as the ones below are used in non-
terminological contexts (ex. 4 and 5 below):
4 Metheny bowiem, świadom rychłej zmiany barw, ładuje akumulato-
ry, czyli zbiera pomysły na pierwszą płytę w barwach nowej wy-
twórni.
Pol. ‘Thus Metheny, […] is charging [his] batteries i.e., collecting
ideas for his first record, in the new firm’
5 Wyjeżdżam w góry – muszę naładować akumulatory
Pol.’I’m leaving for the mountains – I have to charge my accumula-
tors’

non-term naładować akumulatory/ baterie (metaphorically) – ‘to

charge batteries – in this context: ‘to have a good rest to get ready
for more work’

As can be seen, the Polish equivalents of the English terms participate in differ-
ent word-formation processes, and can present a number of conceptual extension
patterns, some of them overlapping in the two languages (metaphorical charging
the batteries), some others like polysemic clusters (Eng. How much do you
charge for that?) or absence of absolute equivalence or synonymy (a battery of
tests), distinct for the structures and across the languages.
As to the comparison of terms with words of general language, terms are
more like ordinary words judging from their conceptual-semantic nature, but
they usually develop more elaborate systems of semantic determination, exhibit
more constrained selection potential with respect to knowledge frames as well as
syntactic patterns and they also acquire a special status when put in discursive
use. In a cross-linguistic perspective, terms get frequently borrowed together
with the phonetic/graphic form, as well as with a precise top-level ontological
model, most often with a similar type and system of concept elaboration, even
though their polysemic and extension patterns tend to remain language and cul-
ture-specific. To present various networks of terms, ontological hierarchies are

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used not only in more linguistically oriented applications such as e.g. lexicogra-
phy (cf. WordNet in Fellbaum 1990; BIT design in Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
1993), translation and language teaching but also to explain different social and
economic phenomena.
The problem of synonymy and polysemy in lexical semantics is often con-
fronted with the problem of semantic sameness and differentiation in terminolo-
gy (compare the accumulator vs. battery examples). The ideal situation for ter-
minology would be if problems of contextual synonymy were the domain of
semantics and pragmatics while conceptual synonymy or equivalence were dealt
with only in terms of terminology and were solved by means of standardization.
In practice though, the two are not separate and translators working on their own
do not propose their individual linguistic solutions for standardization.
In many cases preference is given to international terms rather than to na-
tive solutions for reasons of frequency and range. Apart from the content of ter-
minological semantics in translation though as e.g, in the case of Pol. oferta –
corresponding regularly to English offer, what is of importance is also their
pragmatic constraints, which make the equivalent offer unsuitable for the con-
texts of say commercial bid as in Złożyliśmy ofertę w przetargu – We submitted
a bid in the tender (Sax 32012:14).

8. Translation and language naturalness

Linguistic units have a variable degree of cognitive entrenchment, depending on

the frequency of their occurrence in actual language use. The more entrenched
a structure is in a linguistic system, the more likely it will be considered part of
linguistic convention. The English sentence We have never intended sending an
unlimited supply of white men to rule these islands for instance, can have an
almost literal equivalent in the Polish sentence Nigdy nie zamierzaliśmy
wysyłania nieograniczonych zasobów białych ludzi, aby rządzić tymi wyspami or
else – in its approximate variant (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2012) Nigdy nie
zamierzaliśmy wysyłać nieograniczonej liczby białych, aby sprawowali władzę
nad tymi wyspami. The latter is, structurally and lexically, more preferred and
frequent, i.e. more entrenched in Polish, than the first variant. The more frequent
and more preferred utterances in a given context the more natural the utterance
is considered to be (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk et al. 2001). The translator then
should be ready to estimate the degree of entrenchment of a unit in a SL i.e. its
contextual naturalness to find a closest TL equivalent in this respect.

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9. Semantics and interaction: meanings emerge in interaction

Language does not function in vacuum. It is typically used in an interaction –

direct or indirect, in spoken, written or any other channel and mode. Language
then should be interpreted in terms of a cognitive-interactional framework as an
expression of two perspectives7. First, as partly conventional conceptualisation
of the socially accepted reality in terms of recurrent patterns of neural activation,
and secondly, as an expression of an open potential for capturing alternative
realities where new links are created. Language is asymmmetrically constrained
on different linguistic levels (in the sense of Jakobson 1971: 242), by the princi-
ples of linguistic convention as well as the psycho-physical abilities and prefer-
ences of its users. On each occasion meanings of linguistic units referring to
these realities are individually re-created and negotiated among the participants
of the communicative act. They are dynamic entities that, as investigated in con-
nectionist research (cf. Morelli & Miller Brown 1992), do not reside at any par-
ticular place in the neural network but emerge at a higher level of neural activa-
tion.
The main components of a cognitive model of linguistic (inter-)action
(Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 1985) are affective states and psychological and
physical needs of the speaker and addressee, such properties as their social sta-
tus, needs, expectations, etc., perceived prior to and during the interaction, the
linguistic and paralinguistic reaction of the addressee to the speaker’s linguistic
(and paralinguistic) action, as well as their knowledge of the universe. The con-
ceptualization of these components with each of the participants creates the
background framing, sensu largo, of an interactional act.
The essential property of the theory of re-conceptualization is that it is evi-
dent in the discourse process of message interpretation. Part of re-
conceptualization processes are an outcome of a TL morphological and syntactic
pressure, e.g., there is no direct literal equivalent of the English Passive sentence
I was given this book a minute ago in Polish, so there exists a clear syntactic
(language-typological) pressure on the translator to use another – approximate –
construction (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2012) e.g. Dostałam tę książkę minutę
temu ‘I got this book a minute ago’, rather than a structurally equivalent one.
The other part of re-conceptualization processes are translators’ preferred strate-
gies – i.e., a selection of a more preferred, morpho-syntactic option out of possi-
ble TL (closer or more distant) equivalents.

7
See Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 1987:103 for a Dynamic Semantics model of lan-
guage.

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10. Types of qualitative re-conceptualization

The main divide then between re-conceptualizaton types is that between those
associated with a particular language type, i.e., a typologically-based re-
conconceptualization, i.e. linguistic constraints and pressures, and the other –
synonymous with translation strategies – associated with the subjective prefer-
ences towards particular linguistic choices translators show in their tasks.
The examples below are instances of typologically driven re-
conceptualization patterns:

(7) Eng. passive voice > Pol. reflexive verb (syntactic pressure)

Eng. (Passive + Prep Passive nominalization) > Pol. (Reflexive + Prep nominali-
zation)

 I had been saved by being prompt.

 Uratowałem się dzięki swej żwawości.

The syntactic pressure is also clearly seen in the following pair in changing the
English passive voice into the Polish active voice with the simultaneous change
of the verbs (Transitive Passive receive > Intransitive Active nadszedł ‘ar-
rived’):

(8)
 One day a letter was received
 Pewnego dnia nadszedł list

A certain flattening of meaning (syntactic simplification) is also observed in the

following example:

(9a) bladobłękitny zając z fajansu, ze skrzyneczką na plecach, do której sypie się

cukier
(9b) a pale blue china rabbit with a sugar bowl on its back

In (10a) and (10b) the construal differences – dictated by typological pressure –

are present:

(10a) Blakną w słońcu, bo okno jest od południa.

(10b) They’re fading in the sunlight since the window faces south.

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In cross-linguistic comparisons what is conventionally observed are weakly

commensurable categorical hierarchies in language and, rooted in them,
a dynamic displacement of senses (cf. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 1987)8. On
top of this, a translation product is a result of an inter-discursive activity. Mean-
ings can be abstracted from their contexts but in their natural use they are con-
text-sensitive and emerge in the course of an interaction. Translation thus has to
do with various re-conceptualization operations.
If we make reference to the main types of equivalence mentioned before,
i.e.,
 formal equivalence,
 equivalence of the outside world referents (i.e. denotations or refer-
ents/extensions), equivalents of mental representations or intensions,
 and equivalence of functions,
the example below (11a/11b) – a translation strategy – is an instance of both re-
conceptualization in mental representation and in function (example from TVP
Polonia Polish film translation):

(11a) Idę na kolację do wiejskiego klubu

(11b) I’m going to dinner to a country club

Polish kolacja can be a more modest (cold) meal and perhaps served at a later
time than English dinner. English country club has both outdoor facilities, loca-
tion, interior architecture, and numerous entertaining functions, elitist sports in
particular, totally different than Polish wiejski klub, usually with smaller, less
sophisticated interior. Evident here are also differences in the perlocutionary
effect on the Polish (SL) and Eglish (TL) audiences.
Differences in referents are multiple and they are conditioned by different
factors, e.g., by the rule of political correctness as in the example below;

(12a) przypomniał mi się nasz pies Murzyn

(12b) I remembered our dog Blackie [lit. ‘Negro’]

8
As shown in Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 1987, a cross-linguistic displacement of sens-
es is a typical phenomenon in comparing languages. For instance, the verb go in Eng-
lish, a superordinate category for numerous verbs of movement, has no direct equiva-
lent in Polish at the same categorial level. In Polish the concept of going can be con-
sidered to have equivalents implemented by two more specific verbs iść ‘walk’ and
jechać ‘move by/in a vehicle’, which, in turn, would correspond to still more specific
English verbs such as ride, drive, etc., at a lower level of the categorization hierarchy.

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A number of more fine-grained re-conceptualization types can be represented by

the examples to follow:

(13a) na Rynku... jest sklepik szwarc-mydło i powidło (71)

(13b) on the market square... there was a general store (104)

The culture-specific description in the Polish original activates a clearly smaller

area (sklepik – lit. a little shop) with masses of goods in more or less disorderly
heaps (szwarc-mydło i powidło), usually with the owner selling the goods, while
the English version evokes rather a corresponding culture-spectific image of an
American open-shelf department store, larger, possibly with a number of shop
assistants and cash-registers.
Each of the equivalence types can either be constructed to evoke a more SL-
or else a TL-oriented image and conceptualization type. In the former – so-called
foreignization – the translator retains the original form of the lexical item and/or
structure as in the title characters of Hamlet, Harry Potter or, in a recent film
series, Downton Abbey, in the English original and its Polish translation. In the
opposite strategy – domestication – the translator resorts to the TL repertory of
proper names, compound parts, etc., as in Wuthering Heights – Wichrowe
Wzgórza, or Alice in Wonderland – Alicja w Krainie Czarów. A frequent strate-
gy is to retain foreign-sounding names and words – with no obvious TL equiva-
lents – in their original (or phonetically or graphemically) modified forms, and
render into a TL those linguistic forms which have natural TL equivalents. Each
of the strategies has a different perlocutionary effect – the creation of a more SL-
specific, frequently exotic, mysterious, etc. atmosphere in the former and intro-
ducing TL home-like elements in the latter context.

11. Translation and regional and historical varieties

Re-conceptualization processes are mostly visible in translation of regional and

historical varieties of language. There are obviously no determined rules as to
what strategies to use in such cases, although there are certain tendencies ob-
served.
The first tendency is marked by attempts to introduce archaisms or regional
(dialect) variants to TL versions as approximate equivalents of both historical
and regional varieties of SL texts. The second case presents the introduction of
non-standard TL equivalents, associated with lower social classes, frequently
introduced on the phonetic level and represented as so-called phonetic spelling

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(eye dialect). The third strategy is the use of a (more) formal TL style to repre-
sent a historically older, more formal or more distancing variety of language:

(14a) dlatego zapanowałem nad sobą i odpowiedziałem sucho: – Mylisz się,

Haniu, jeśli sądzisz, że ty jesteś powodem.
(14b) so mastered myself and answered dryly: ‘Thou art mistaken, Hania, in
thinking that thou art the cause ‘

Non-standard or less formal TL varieties are used to present regional SL varie-

ties. Foreign accent in a SL is frequently replaced by foreigner talk in a TL with
original foreign elements used in the SL text often retained in the TL, which
nevertheless introduces elements of re-conceptualization:

(15a) Po czym dodał z dumą: – Sam pan wielki powiedział, że Kali jest donkey
(15b) After which he added with pride: ‘The great master himself said that Kali
is a donkey.’

The perlocutionary effect of the TL utterance is that in (15a) no foreign material

is present in the English TL text so no distancing accent is present in the English
TL text except for the semantically foreignized phrase great master, so low dis-
tancing accent is present on this level. On the other hand, a compensating strate-
gy in the form of a less standard sequence of tenses (…said that Kali is…) has
been employed.
The fourth translational strategies aiming to retain equivalence on the perlo-
cutionary level are so-called eye-dialectal translational properties. This strategy
is practiced mostly in literary translation and occurs in two forms. The first one
covers deliberate spelling errors, which have no obvious effect on the pronuncia-
tion but whose special status is marked by erroneous spelling such as e.g. mruz
‘frost’ instead of mróz or świerzy ‘fresh’ in the place of świeży in Polish. Such
errors are usually called native-spelling errors. The other form involves portray-
ing the actual pronunciation with phonetically modified spelling as in the Eng-
lish text “When de fros’ is on de pun’kin an’ de sno’-flakes in de ar’, I den begin
rejoicin’-hog-killin’ time is near.” [When the frost is on the pumpkin and the
snow flakes in the air, I then begin rejoicing – hog-killing time is near] (Daniel
Webster Davis, “Hog Meat”). The latter is used as a clue towards the mainte-
nance of the perlocutionary effect of a particular social marking (sometimes
stigmatization) of a language variety.
A general tendency visible in a number of translated texts pertains to
a flattening (or neutralization) of the original complexity of the text, evident in
the use of a less varied and dense vocabulary and simpler syntax. Lewandowska-

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Tomaszczyk (2012) analyses emotion terms in translation and finds that e.g., the
English translation of the contemporary Polish novel Samotność w sieci ‘Loneli-
ness in the net’ has a much less varied fear vocabulary and less complex syntax
than the Polish original. This tendency is also exemplified in other materials
from the PELCRA translation corpus:

(16a) żywiąc się (lit. feeding himself) od tygodnia prawie wyłącznie durrą wy-
kradaną (lit. stolen from) wielbłądom.
(16b) He sustained himself for a week almost exclusively upon durra taken from
the camels

Compensatory strategies of various kinds are one of possible ways to secure

a comparable intended effect in translation. Examples (17a, b) present structural
compensation, examples (18a, b) show a definitional – generalizing effect, while
examples in (19a, b) are an instance of eliminating the regional forms to retain it
only in the lexical semantic content.

(17a) It was his custom to mount straight to the nursery, taking about three de-
grees of the staircase at once
(17b) Zwykle przychodził od razu na górę do dziecinnego pokoju, przy czym
biegł szybko, przeskakując po trzy schody naraz.
(18a) He sent his son to Eton
(18b) Wysłał syna do elitarnego gimnazjum w Anglii.
(19a)...stary dziad. Mówiło się na niego "pastusz"... O świcie zbierał z objeść
bydlęta
(19b) an old guy who was known as "the Shepherd"...At dawn, he’d collect the
cattle from the farmyards

12. Quantitative aspects of equivalence: language corpora

Apart from the qualitative changes, quantitative linguistic parameters such as

the frequency of occurrence of a language form, its combinatorics with other
items in discourse as well as patterns of semantic similarity, oppositeness and
inclusion, all contribute to a language specific character of SL and TL forms.
They are the quantitative parameters of message re-conceptualization, referred to
in part 7.6. above and in the sections to follow.
Cognitive approaches to language and the use of language corpora are two
recurrent themes in contemporary linguistics. The former emphasises the status

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of meaning content in linguistic theory and description. The latter is instrumental

in the identification of meaning structures and their context as well as in their
quantitative characteristics in language, providing data and instruments to iden-
tify frequency-based rules of translational equivalence.
The quantitative and qualitative methodologies used in translation studies
interplay and new insights are obtained as a consequence of investigating explic-
it corpus-based data with a more tacit semantic enquiry. The approach often used
is a Cognitive Corpus-based Linguistic approach as proposed in Lewandowska-
Tomaszczyk and Dziwirek (2008) and Dziwirek and Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
(2010) and applied to contrastive and to corpus-based translation studies.
One example of an interesting area at the interface of Cognitive Linguistics,
computerized language data and cross-linguistic investigation, is semantic pros-
ody (cf. Sinclair, 1992). Some words seem always to like the company of certain
other words and disprefer the company of others. These words trigger specific
semantics in their neighbours. The term semantic prosody implies thus the exist-
ence of an ‘intuitive’ meaning of an item, which is manifested only in its context
(cf. Louw 1993: 172). Search for prosodically cognate concepts can be success-
fully carried out only in large quantities of language data, e.g., the adjective ut-
terly collocates more frequently with negatively rather than positively loaded
concepts such as stupid, disgusting, etc. Outcomes of the prosodic analysis based
on more than one language are easily applicable in translation work and transla-
tor training.

12.1. Frequencies and registers

An important point connected with the use of language corpora is discussed in

Biber (1993: 226), who mentions in his analysis of register-diversified corpora
that “In fact, corpus-based research shows that our intuitions about lexical pat-
terns are often incorrect (cf. Sinclair 1992). However, similar to the patterns for
grammatical structures, for many words there is no general pattern of use that
holds across the whole language; rather, different word senses and collocational
patterns are strongly preferred in different registers”. There are big differences
across different registers in the frequency of use of similar lexical items. For
example, Biber (1993: 227) finds that in the social science, certain is quite
common, sure is relatively rare, and definite is quite rare while in fiction the
pattern is quite opposite: certain is relatively rare, sure is relatively common,
and definite is quite rare. “These patterns alone”, Biber concludes further, “show
that the semantic domain of certainty in English could not be adequately de-
scribed without considering the patterns in complementary registers”.

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In recent computer-based applications using parallel and comparable texts,

bi- and multilingual alignment and automatic equivalence acquisition based on
statistical regularities, are performed, which make it possible for translators to
build Translation Memories faster and on a larger scale as machine aids to hu-
man translation (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk et. al. 1989; Oakes & Lewandow-
ska-Tomaszczyk 2007/8) .

Conclusions

The concept of equivalence, so essential for any cross-linguistic analysis,

evolves in the Cognitive Corpus-Based Translation (CCT) as a dynamic notion,
represented as a cline gradually exhibiting more and more diversification both in
terms of qualitative (construal) types of SL-TL differences as well as the quanti-
tative (frequency) parameters of particular linguistic forms. The degree of equiv-
alence between SL and TL structures can thus be measured in terms of the refer-
ence categories mentioned above such as the typology of basic levels and proto-
typical category members, image-schemata and their extensions as well as the
construal relations of various types. The global equivalence criterion is the range
and strength of the intended effect achieved by a particular SL and TL. This is
a fairly broad concept of equivalence proposed here. Meaning dynamism is ob-
served not only in the source language text. We experience it on-line in new TL
interpretations of the source message.
Equivalence is a fluid notion then. The SL and TL systems and the transla-
tor exert their pressures. The translator has eventually the crucial role in setting
up SL – TL equivalence. It is through their activities that events in the real world
or in a fictitious world get mediated in human, machine and google translation
processes. Translators are TL users’ eyes, ears and touch. In the modern world –
this is taking place even in a more literal sense, particularly in the case of text-
to-sound or sound- to-text audio-descriptive contexts. Thus, the scope of equiva-
lence is getting more and more extended at present times.

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Language Corpora

English:
BNC
Longman-Microconcord Sampler

Polish:
Narodowy Korpus Języka Polskiego www.nkjp.pl
15-mln PELCRA Sampler

Parallel Polish-to-English and English-to-Polish contemporary text resources

Alice in Wonderland (Jabberwocky) Lewis Carroll tr. Stanisław Barańczak, Janusz Kor-
win-Mikke, Bogumiła Kaniewska
Lolita Vladimir Nabokov tr. Robert Stiller
Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe tr. Władysław Ludwik Anczyc
Nineteen Eighty – Four George Orwell tr. Tomasz Mirkowicz
The Cat in the Hat Dr. Seuss tr. Stanisław Barańczak
Dukla Andrzej Stasiuk tr. Bill Johnston
Henryk Sienkiewicz Reading Canon tr. Jeremiah Curtin
S@motność w sieci Janusz Leon Wiśniewski tr. Philip Stoeckle

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Translation Procedures

Jacek Tadeusz Waliński

University of Łódź
jacek.walinski@gmail.com

Abstract: A basic survey across a given language pair normally reveals units that are
structurally incongruent with one another, which demonstrates that translation cannot be
reduced to establishing a straightforward correspondence between individual words. To
properly render the meaning of the source text, translators must introduce translation
shifts, i.e. departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the
source language to the target language. This chapter reviews a taxonomy of translation
procedures used for dealing with the translation shifts proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet
(1958), which has been regarded a springboard for later taxonomies of translation tech-
niques and strategies.
Keywords: translation procedures, translation shifts, translation strategies, unit of trans-
lation, direct translation, oblique translation

1. Introduction

A question of translation procedures is associated with equivalence (see Chapter

1; see also Baker 2011) and a division between literal and free translation strate-
gies, where the literal generally refers to translation of the target text by follow-
ing individual word of the source text as closely as possible, while the free trans-
lation focuses on capturing the sense of longer stretches of the source text. It is
also closely related to a distinction of translation units (see Hatim & Munday
2004 for a review), in particular a lexicological translation unit, understood as
a group of lexemes that form a single element of thought. A basic survey across
a given language pair normally reveals units that are structurally incongruent
with one another. It can be illustrated with the verb “fetch”, whose meaning
corresponds to two Polish verbs “iść + przynieść”, or the compound “apple pie”,

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which is normally rendered in Polish with a single noun “szarlotka”. Such ex-
amples demonstrate that translation cannot be reduced to establishing
a straightforward correspondence between individual words.
In real life scenarios, translators often cope with more elaborate structures,
which due to entrenchment* require certain ways of translating, while not others,
to produce a massage that is meaningful to the target language users.

*) In modern approaches to language there is a growing tendency to replace the idea

of grammaticality with that of entrenchment, which is derived from the usage-based
approach to meaning postulated by cognitive linguistics. As put by Langacker
(2008a: 38): “Meanings (like other linguistic structures) are recognized as part of
a language only to the extent that they are (i) entrenched in the minds of individual
speakers and (ii) conventional for members of a speech community. Only a limited
array of senses satisfy these criteria and qualify as established linguistic units. But
since entrenchment and conventionalization are inherently matters of degree, there
is no discrete boundary between senses which have and which lack the status of es-
tablished units. We find instead a gradation leading from novel interpretations,
through incipient senses, to established linguistic meanings”. For example, Apple,
Inc. is famous for notoriously using marketing slogans that break conventions of
grammaticality. In 1997 the company introduced the attention-grabbing slogan
“Think different”, which was received as grammatically unconventional. Despite
initial criticisms, the slogan has been widely accepted, which makes it grammatical
(see Trenga 2010).
(author’s note)

For example, the following notice spotted in a Polish self-service bar above gar-
bage cans: “Prosimy nie wyrzucać pełnych kubków” with the accompanying
translation “We ask to not throw away full cups” may sound unfortunately puz-
zling to native speakers of English, who would probably expect in this context
a more conventional message, like “Please do not dispose of liquids”. Such ex-
amples demonstrate that the structure of the SL often must be changed in the
target language to properly render the meaning of the source text. Those small,
yet meaningful, changes that occur in the process of translation are called trans-
lation shifts. Catford (1965/2000: 141) defines them as “departures from formal
correspondence in the process of going from the SL to the TL”. Although Cat-
ford was the first to use the term shift, a comprehensive taxonomy of shifts that
occur in translation was established by Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet
(1958), who developed a taxonomy of translation procedures.

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2. Translation procedures

Vinay and Darbelnet (1958) reject individual words as units of translation by

emphasizing that translators deal with ideas and feelings in various semantic
fields, rather than individual lexemes. They define the unit of translation as “the
smallest segment of the utterance whose signs are linked in such a way that they
should not be translated individually” (Vinay & Darbelnet 1958 quoted in Hatim
& Munday 2004: 18). From this outlook, the translation unit is equivalent to the
above-mentioned lexicological unit and corresponds largely to a unit of thought,
since all these terms basically convey the same concept with emphasis put on
different facets. Following this perspective Hatim and Munday (2004: 27) de-
scribe the unit of translation as “a TL piece of language which plays the same
role in the TL system as an SL piece of language plays in the SL system”. Such
a denomination of the translation unit delimits borders between formal corre-
spondence at the structural level, on the one hand, and semantic equivalence in
the particular context, on the other. The translation shift occurs when rendering
a translation for a particular segment of the text requires the translator to break
the formal correspondence between surface structures functioning in SL and TL.
Sometimes, translation shifts are required to achieve a meaningful transla-
tion of relatively common lexemes. For example, the adverb “upstairs” conflates
both the direction (up) and the medium (stairs) of movement. Consequently,
translating “(She went) upstairs” into Polish, which does not have a parallel ad-
verb, requires using at least three distinct lexemes “schodami na górę”, but even
four “po schodach na górę” would not be inappropriate. And vice-versa, translat-
ing instrumental forms of Polish nouns used to encode instruments of motion,
such as “autobusem”, often requires using prepositional phrases, such as “by
bus”. Moreover, the translation shifts are employed to achieve equivalence at the
pragmatic level. For example, translating “Once upon a time…” as “Dawno,
dawno temu …” creates a parallel dramatic effect on the reader; using forms
“Pani/Pani” for translating “you” enables the translator to preserve the level of
formality in correspondence; changing the adjective-noun order for the nominal
“blue shark” into “żarłacz błękitny” effectuates in retaining naming conventions;
and so on. Understanding such systematic shifts between linguistic structures is
a basic aspect of daily practice in translation.
Vinay and Darbelnet’s (1958/2000) taxonomy of translation procedures
used to deal with incompatibilities between SL and TL structures distinguishes
two major methods of translation. A direct translation, which generally resem-
bles word by word quotation of the original message in the target language, in-
cludes borrowing, calque and literal translation. An oblique translation, in

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which the translator interprets, e.g. elaborates or summarizes, the explicit con-
tents of the original, embraces transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adap-
tation translation procedures. Moreover, these procedures can be employed at
three levels of language: (a) the lexicon; (b) the grammatical structures; and (c)
the message, which stands for higher elements of text, including, besides sen-
tences and paragraphs, certain situational utterances that convey broader mean-
ings. For instance, although the phrase “Polish jokes” refers in its origins to
jokes made specifically of Poles, it can be used as an umbrella term for jokes
made of other ethnic groups (Brzozowska 2010). It must be emphasized, howev-
er, that while the direct translation is more closely tied to the original text and
the oblique translation relies to a greater extent on interpretive resemblance to
function independently, this distinction is not always a clear-cut dichotomy. In
real life scenarios, it marks two opposite ends of a wide spectrum of options
available to translators. A particular choice is often dictated by the relevance of
a given message to the intended audience (see Chapter 7; see also Bogucki 2004;
Sperber & Wilson 1995).

3. Direct translation procedures

Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/2000) note that due to structural and metalinguistic
parallelisms that occur between languages it is often possible to overcome gaps
(or lacunae) between the source language and the target language by transposing
the SL message piece by piece into the TL. In such cases, when the translator
notices a gap in the target language, they can employ either a parallel category or
a parallel concept to convey the meaning of the source text. This can be accom-
plished with one of the following direct translation procedures.
(1) Borrowing, which is relatively the simplest of all procedures used for
translation, involves using foreign phrasing in the target text. The reason for the
gap in the target language is usually metalinguistic. Nowadays, it is frequently
caused by new technologies entering rapidly the surrounding reality. For exam-
ple, while “laptop” can be translated into Polish as “komputer przenośny”, its
more recent variant, i.e. “tablet” appears to function in Polish exclusively in
a lexical form borrowed directly from English. Another reason for using borrow-
ings is that the concept discussed in the source text is relatively unknown to the
target audience. This seems to be the case with the much discussed gender ide-
ology, which was not translated into Polish, as “ideologia płci”, but rather “ideo-
logia gender”. Although the concept of gender is obviously as universal to
Polish speakers as it is to any other audience worldwide, the recent discussion

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focuses on some specific aspects of European regulations, which is emphasized

by using that particular foreign term in this otherwise familiar context.
As pointed out by Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/2000), perhaps the most in-
teresting aspect of using borrowings relates to creating specific stylistic effects,
e.g. introducing the flavor of the foreign culture into a translation. For instance,
certain phrases from French are sometimes used to create an aura of nostalgia for
the past when French was the lingua franca, which can be exemplified with the
famous Michelle ballad by the Beatles. In such cases the translator may opt to
leave the foreign elements intact. On the other hand, terms borrowed from Eng-
lish tend to be associated with the modern socio-economic development, which
seems to explain why some companies in Poland decide to call their human re-
sources departments “Dział Human Resources” instead of “Dział Kadr”.
A remarkable example of employing borrowings for a stylistic effect in lit-
erary translation (Chapter 9) are Robert Stiller’s subsequent translations of the
novel “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess (1991, 2001). In order to
emphasize a violent, outright barbaric, nature of the protagonist and his gang,
Burgess invented a special slang for the book, which was based on modified
Slavic words borrowed mainly from Russian. For instance, “droog” means
“friend”, “korova” means “cow”, and so on. To preserve the harshness of that
slang for the Polish reader, who is naturally much more familiar with the sound
of Slavic languages than the original English-speaking audience, in his second
attempt Stiller back-translated, in a way, Slavic borrowings into English-
sounding expressions to make them more outlandish (Kubińska & Kubiński
2004; Lukas 2008).
(2) Calque is a special kind of borrowing in which the TL borrows an ex-
pression form the SL by translating literally each of the original elements. The
result creates either, a lexical calque, which preserves the syntactic structure of
the TL, but at the same time introduces a new mode of expression; or
a structural calque, which introduces a new construction into the language. Ex-
amples of lexical calques functioning in Polish include “lokowanie produktu”
(product placement), “przeglądarka internetowa” (Internet browser), “drapacz
chmur” (skyscraper), and “dział zasobów ludzkich”, which is another common
variant of labeling human resources departments in Polish companies. An exam-
ple of an unfortunate calque that occurs when translating without proper back-
ground from Polish to English is the bar notice “asking to not throw away full
cups” quoted in the introductory section.
Structural calques seem to be to less conspicuous, still they can be easily
found in contemporary Polish. Examples include: “szybki kredyt” (fast loan),
“zdrowa żywność” (healthy food), “tania odzież” (second-hand clothes), to name
but a few. All these phrases break the conventional way of distinguishing cate-

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gories by postpositioning the adjective, e.g. “kredyt długoterminowy”, “żywność

bezglutenowa”, “odzież robocza”. Other examples, such as “auto-myjnia” (car-
wash) or “biznes plan” (business plan) employ nouns for the attributive function,
which, unlike English, is not normally used in the Polish grammatical system
(Sztencel, 2009).
Since borrowing and calque are strongly related, it is sometimes difficult to
draw an absolute border between these two translation procedures. For example,
the translation “aplikacje dla Androida” (applications for Android) borrows both
the structure and lexis, which makes it an amalgamation of these categories. The
problem of loan expressions in contemporary Polish is much more complex.
Otwinowska-Kasztelanic (2000) distinguishes several types of loans at different
language levels. She classifies loan shifts as incorporating both calques, i.e.
loans where “foreign language elements are replaced by semantically equivalent
native ones” (Otwinowska-Kasztelanic 2000: 15), and semantic loans, i.e. native
language words used in accordance with the donor word semantics.
Polish has a long history of borrowing expressions from English in a wide
variety of semantic areas, including business, sport, technology, as well as nu-
merous other domains (Mańczak-Wohlfeld 2006). Although borrowings and
calques are relatively straightforward solutions to various problematic situations
encountered in the translation process, they should be used with caution. It
seems that a lot of translators are biased to think that words and structures bor-
rowed from English sound perfectly right to Polish speakers, which is not neces-
sarily true. Expressions like “marketingowiec” (marketer) or “zjeść coś w fast-
foodzie” (to eat something in a fast-food [restaurant]) sound awkward, despite
the fact that both marketing and fast-food have become popular words used in
common contexts. More natural equivalents for these expressions, at least in
most common contexts, are “specjalista ds. marketingu” and “zjeść coś w
barze”, respectively.
(3) Literal translation, or word for word translation, relies on the direct
transfer of a text from SL into a grammatical and meaningful text in TL. Using
this procedure, the translator focuses predominantly on adhering to the linguistic
rules of the target language. In practice, literal translation occurs most common-
ly when translating between two languages of the same family, such as French
and Italian, and works most efficiently when they also share the same culture.
Despite seemingly limited scope of applications, this procedure is among pre-
ferred ways of translating in those functional contexts where more emphasis is
laid on preserving the verbatim meaning of the original text than attaining stylis-
tic elegance, which is often the case with legal translation (Chapter 10).
If, after applying the first three procedures, the resulting translation is still
unacceptable, i.e. the target text has no meaning, gives another meaning, or

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skews the original message in any other way, the procedures of oblique transla-
tion can be employed to achieve a better result.

4. Oblique translation procedures

Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/2000) note that due to structural and metalinguistic
differences between languages certain stylistic effects are unattainable without
upsetting the lexis or the syntactic order in the target language. In such cases
more complex methods must be employed to convey the meaning of the source
text. Although at a cursory glance they might look fairly sophisticated, or even
unusual, the oblique translation procedures allow translators to exert a strict
control over the reliability of their efforts.
(4) Transposition involves replacing one word class with another without
changing the meaning of the text. It can be applied intralinguistically, i.e. within
a particular language. For instance, “She announced she would resign” can be
transposed to “She announced her resignation”. Similarly in Polish, instead of
saying “Ogłosiła, że rezygnuje” we can use “Ogłosiła [swoją] rezygnację”. The
original expression is referred to as the base expression, and the result as the
transposed expression.
Transposition is a highly versatile translation procedure. For example, Eng-
lish adjectives “elven” or “elvish” (from the word elf, which descends from
Germanic mythology) do not seem to have natural equivalents in Polish, despite
the fact that due to contacts with Germanic cultures, and in particular the enor-
mous popularity of Tolkien’s books/film adaptations, elves are widely known to
Polish audience. Although some translators attempt to use adjectives “elfowy” or
“elficki”, they may sound awkward to some Polish speakers, because Polish
usually employs a genitive form in postposition in such contexts. For that rea-
son, expressions “miecz elfów” and “księżniczka elfów” seem to sound more
natural than “elficki miecz” and “elfowa księżniczka” as translations for “evlish
sword” and “elven princess”, respectively. Similarly, the phrase “okręty wik-
ingów” seems to be a better choice than “wikińskie / wikingowe / wikingowskie
okręty”. Moreover, transposition can be employed for a better economy of the
target text. For instance, the sentence “[The word ‘Hispanic’ can refer to] people
whose origins range from Mexican and Puerto Rican to Cuban and Argen-
tinean.” can be translated literary as “. . . osób pochodzenia zarówno
meksykańskiego i portorykańskiego, jak i kubańskiego i argentyńskiego”. How-
ever, perhaps a more efficient choice is to use country names instead of national-
ities: “. . . osób pochodzących zarówno z Meksyku i Portoryko, jak i z Kuby

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i Argentyny”. The transposed expression is both more manageable for the trans-
lator and more easily graspable for the reader.
As demonstrated above, the transposed expression sometimes has
a substantially different stylistic value than the base expression. Since transposi-
tion enables rendering specific nuances of style, it is a basic means for fine-
tuning stylistic elegance of the translated text. Moreover, if a translation ob-
tained in this manner fits better the resulting utterance from the stylistic perspec-
tive, the transposed expression is, somewhat paradoxically, more literary in
character.
(5) Modulation involves changing the form of the message through
a change in perspective. An alteration of this kind may be required in contexts
where a literal or transposed translation still sounds unidiomatic or awkward in
the TL, despite being a grammatically correct utterance. As with transposition,
in some cases modulation may be optional, while in others it is obligatory.
A good example of fixed modulation is the change that occurs between some
Polish and English verbal constructions in grammatically prescribed contexts,
which can be observed for certain expressions of state. For example, “He is 40
years old” must be translated as “On ma 40 lat” and “Are you on the phone?” as
“Czy masz/posiadasz telefon?” (cf. Fisiak, et al. 1987). Yet, modulation typical-
ly operates at the phrase level. For instance, the set phrase “If it wasn’t for . . .”
must be translated, more or less, as “Jedynie dzięki . . .”, because any attempts at
word by word translation, e.g. “Jeśli to nie byłoby dla / z powodu”, sound pre-
posterous. Examples of optional modulations that are frequently encountered in
Polish translations of English texts include rendering “unless” as “chyba, że”, or
“It is not uncommon . . .” as “Dość powszechnie . . .”. However, the distinction
between obligatory and optional modulation is not always clear-cut, as it is de-
termined in each case by the wider linguistic context.
(6) Equivalence, also known as reformulation, produces an equivalent text
in the target language by using completely different stylistic and structural
methods. Classical examples of equivalence include translation of exclamations
and expletives. For instance, English “Ouch!” corresponds to Polish “Au!”,
while “Damn it!” to “Niech to szlag [trafi]!”. Another type of expressions that
normally require reformulation to fit into the target text involves onomatopoeia
of animal sounds. For instance, while horses in Polish stomp “patataj”, English
ones apparently generate “bumpety-bump” with their hooves, etc. Such exam-
ples demonstrate a specific feature of equivalence as the translation procedure: it
practically always relates to the whole of a message. Moreover, since it embrac-
es an opulent repertoire of idioms, sayings, proverbs, clichés, etc., it tends to be
fixed in most cases.

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Translating proverbs is a good example of employing equivalence for ren-

dering more elaborate structures between SL and TL. For example, “Rome
wasn’t built in a day” equals to “Nie od razu Kraków zbudowano”; “Don’t count
your chickens before they’re hatched” corresponds, at least for the most part, to
“Nie dziel skóry na niedźwiedziu”. In some cases, however, finding an equiva-
lent may not be so easy. For instance, the old-fashioned, but still common Eng-
lish saying “A rolling stone gathers no moss”, which according to CALD (2008)
is used to mean that “a person who is always travelling and changing jobs has
the advantage of having no responsibilities, but also has disadvantages such as
having no permanent place to live” does not seem to have an equally widespread
counterpart in Polish. It can probably be translated as “Toczący się kamień nie
obrasta mchem” (PWN-Oxford 2004), yet it is not something frequently heard in
everyday speech. For that reason, it resembles a calque rather than an equiva-
lence, which demonstrates that within this procedure certain borderline cases
exist, as well. The equivalence is also typically employed to translate idioms.
For example, “like two peas in a pod” is probably best translated as “jak dwie
krople wody”, while “apples and oranges” can be rendered in a good number of
contexts as “różne jak woda i ogień”. Again, one must bear in mind that not all
English idioms have direct counterparts in Polish, and vice-versa.
(7) Adaptation is used when the type of situation referred to by the SL
message does not function in the TL culture. In such cases the translator must re-
create a situation that can be regarded as more or less equivalent. From this out-
look, adaptation is a specific kind of situational equivalence. Vinay and Dar-
belnet (1958/2000: 91) discuss an example of an Englishman who, without tak-
ing much notice, kisses his daughter on the mouth as a greeting of a loving fa-
ther after a long journey. However, translating “He kissed his daughter on the
mouth” literary would probably sound awkward to French audience, since in that
culture it may have a different connotation. Consequently, a translation into
French requires a special kind of over-rendering.1
Adaptations are particularly common in translations of book and movie ti-
tles (Jarniewicz: 2000). A good example of adaptation in this context is the
translation of “Broken Arrow” (Segan & Woo: 1996). Although, at a first
glance, it seems that the title could be translated literally as “Złamana strzała”,
a closer look reveals that it refers to US nuclear accident definition codes, where

1
Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/2000: 91) also quote an anecdote about a simultaneous
interpreter who, having adapted “cricket” into “Tour de France” in a context of
a particularly popular sport, put himself in a difficult situation when the French dele-
gate thanked the original speaker for reference to such a typically French sport. To
avoid embarrassment the interpreter simply reversed the adaptation back into “cricket”
when translating to his English client.

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the phrase signifies “an actual accident involving a nuclear weapon, warhead, or
component” (Hebert 2008: 26). Since Poland at the time when the movie was
released had not officially admitted possession nor even storage of nuclear
weapons on its territory (Łuczak 1996), such emergency codes were not availa-
ble for use in translations. The film was distributed under the title “Tajna broń”.
Translators are often reluctant to make use of adaptation, as it invariably af-
fects not only the syntactic structure, but also the development and representa-
tion of ideas within the paragraph, chapter, or the text as a whole. In extreme
scenarios, a particular adaptation can affect extra-textual contexts, which can be
illustrated with the following movie title sequence, in which the initial transla-
tion influenced subsequent releases: Die Hard (Margolin & McTiernan 1988)
[original movie] – “Szklana pułapka”; Spy Hard (Nielsen & Friedberg 1996) [a
parody comedy with numerous references to the original movie] – “Szklanką po
łapkach”; A Good Day to Die Hard (Karnowski & Moore 2013) [the latest film
in the series] – “Szklana pułapka 5”.
The absence of adaptation may be noticeable by the overall tone of the text
that does not sound right in an indefinable way. It is the unfortunate impression
given by some international organization publications, where, for the sake of an
exaggerated insistence on parallelism, the people in charge demand translations
based on calques. The result often sounds unnatural, which is referred to as
translationese.2

5. Conclusion

From a general perspective, translation shifts can be viewed either as unwelcome

deviations from the source text in the course of the translation act or as some-
thing indispensable and desired to overcome specific differences between the SL
and TL (Bakker, Koster & van Leuven-Zwart 1998). Although the taxonomy
introduced by Vinay and Darbelnet has been criticized for being nothing more
than a comparison between English and French at the level of words, phrases,
and sentences taken out of the context, it can be regarded as the proposal that
formed a springboard for later taxonomies of translation techniques and strate-
gies. Scholars exploring the translation shifts labeled and re-labeled them in

2
The term translationese is a pejorative term used to refer to the language of translation
that derives from calquing ST lexical or syntactic patterning (see Duff 1981). New-
mark (2003: 96) uses a similar term translatorese to refer to the automatic choice of
the most common dictionary translation of a word where a less common alternative
would be more appropriate.

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various ways to achieve a more comprehensive and clear-cut categorizations

(see Marco 2009 for a review of inconsistencies between the terms procedure,
strategy, method, and technique within translation studies). For example, Nida
(1964) uses the term techniques of adjustment to discuss processes targeted at
producing semantically equivalent structures from a communicative perspective.
Newmark (1988) discusses procedures applied to sentences and smaller units of
language, which he distinguishes from methods referring to the whole text. Van
Leuven-Zwart (1989, 1990) presents an extensive analysis of translation proce-
dures based on extracts from translations of Latin American fiction. Chesterman
(1997) makes a distinction between global and local strategies, as well as be-
tween comprehension and production strategies. Diaz-Cintaz & Remael (2007)
review strategies applied specifically in the practice of subtitling. Despite such
efforts, all existing classifications still demonstrate certain deficiencies (Gambier
2010), which can be attributed to the fact that all categorizations demonstrate
a natural tendency to overlap to some extent (cf. Rosch 1978).
A closer look at Vinay and Darbelnet’s taxonomy of translation procedures
encourages one to look beyond simple structural alterations between SL and TL
to see the role of the translator as a creative intermediary between the original
author and the target audience in the process of translation-mediated communi-
cation. The last few decades have seen a considerable change in the focus of
translation studies from the formalist approaches concentrating predominantly
on linguistic transcoding to more functionally (e.g. Vermeer 1978/2000), and
socio-culturally (e.g. Sperber & Wilson 1995) oriented approaches taking into
consideration a vast array of extra-textual factors involved in the process of
translation. More recently, an increasingly important role is attributed to cogni-
tive linguistics as the frame of reference for the discipline of translation studies
(see Tabakowska 1993; Hejwowski 2004; Deckert 2013).

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Lukas, K. (2008). Konstruowanie kulturowej odmienności w przekładach ‘A Clockwork
Orange’ Anthony’ego Burgessa. In P. Fast & P. Janikowski (Eds.): Odmienność
kulturowa w przekładzie (pp. 83–100). Katowice: Wydawnictwo Naukowe “Śląsk”.
Łuczak, W. (1996 July). Poland’s Atomic Adventure. Air International, 51(1), 18–21.
Mańczak-Wohlfeld, E. (2006). Angielsko-polskie kontakty językowe. Kraków: Wydaw-
nictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
Marco, J. (2009). The terminology of translation: Epistemological, conceptual and inter-
cultural problems and their social consequences. In Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer
(Eds.), The Metalanguage of Translation (255–269). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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Newmark, P. (2003). Translation now – 24. The Linguist, 42(3), 95–96.
Nida, E. (1964). Toward a Science of Translating. Leiden: Brill.
Otwinowska-Kasztelanic, A. (2000). A study of the lexico-semantic and grammatical
influence of English on the Polish of the younger generation of Poles (19–35 years
of age). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie DIALOG.

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PWN-Oxford. (2004). The PWN-Oxford English-Polish and Polish-English Dictionary.

[CD-ROM]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
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tion and Categorisation (pp. 27–48). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance: Communication and Cognition, 2nd Ed.
[Fist edition published in 1986]. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sztencel, M. (2009). Boundaries Crossed: The Influence of English on Modern Polish.
E-pisteme, 2(1), 3–17.
Tabakowska, E. (1993). Cognitive Linguistics and Poetics of Translation. Tubingen:
Gunter Narr.
Trenga, B. (2010, October 7). “Think Different” or “Think Differently”: Can Emmy-
award-winning advertisement be ungrammatical? Grammar Girl. Retrieved from
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/think-different-or-think-
differently
van Leuven-Zwart, K. (1989). Translation and Original: Similarities and Dissimilarities,
I. Target, 1(2), 151–81.
van Leuven-Zwart, K. (1990). Translation and Original: Similarities and Dissimilarities,
II. Target, 2(1), 69–95.
Vermeer, J. (1978/2000). Skopos and Commission in Translational Action [Trans. A.
Chesterman]. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The Translation Studies Reader (pp. 227–238).
London: Routledge.
Vinay, J.-P., & Darbelnet, J. (1958/2000). A Methodology for Translation. [An excerpt
from Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for Transla-
tion, trans. and eds. J. C. Sager & M.-J. Hamel, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1995,
first published in 1958 as Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais. Méthode
de traduction] In L. Venuti (Ed.), The Translation Studies Reader (pp. 84–93).
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Literary texts and films

Burgess, A. (1991). Mechaniczna pomarańcza [Trans. R. Stiller]. Warszawa: WEMA.
Burgess, A. (2001). Nakręcana pomarańcza [Trans. R. Stiller]. Kraków: Etiuda.
Karnowski, T. (Producer), & Moore, J. (2013). A Good Day to Die Hard [Motion pic-
ture]. United States: Twentieth Century Fox.
Margolin, B. (Producer), & McTiernan, J. (Director). (1988). Die Hard [Motion picture].
United States: Twentieth Century Fox.
Nielsen, L. (Producer), & Friedberg, R. (1996). Spy Hard [Motion picture]. United
States: Twentieth Century Fox.
Segan, A. L. (Producer), Woo, J. (Director). (1996). Broken Arrow [Motion picture].
United States: Twentieth Century Fox.

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Linguistic Barriers to Translating

Janusz Wróblewski

University of Łódź
jzwrob@gmail.com

Abstract: This chapter focuses on purely linguistic barriers in translation. Such barriers
generally stem from the fact that the grammatical systems of different languages are
different. For example, when a language with a system of articles (e.g. English or Ger-
man) uses those articles in a functionally relevant manner, this may prove difficult to
translate into a language without articles (e.g. Polish). Also discrepancies between the
number or gender systems of nouns and verbs between languages can cause certain prob-
lems in translation. Additionally, some linguistic barriers appear at the level of lexical
meaning (shared exponence, polysemy, oligosemy). The final part of this chapter is
devoted to translating wordplay – the trickiest linguistic barrier to translation. Whenever
we see a clever pun (“Żubr czeka na polanie”, from the TV commercial of Żubr beer)
and think of ways of expressing it in another language, our immediate reaction is likely
to be “But that’s untranslatable!” And yet, as numerous wordplay-studded books availa-
ble in translation show, wordplay is generally translatable. This section defines word-
play, presents its classification and then discusses various procedures for translating
wordplay (the procedures are illustrated with numerous examples).
Keywords: linguistic untranslatability, polysemy, wordplay, puns, compensation, neolo-
gisms

1. Introduction

The relationship between language and culture notwithstanding, it is obvious

that quite often translators face not so much cultural as more or less purely lin-
guistic barriers to translating. These stem first of all from the general fact that
the grammatical systems of different languages are different.
In most cases, the differences between the source-language and the target-
language systems will be relatively unimportant – the translation does not pre-

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serve the full meaning of the original, but the resultant translation loss (or gain)
is functionally irrelevant: for example, the Arabic word kitaabeen does not mean
exactly the same as the English word books, because the English word comes
from a two-term system (singular vs. plural), while the Arabic word comes from
a three-term system (singular vs. dual vs. plural) and represents the dual number,
but it generally can be translated as books (or, two books) without any problems
(Catford 1965: 36).
Sometimes, however, the discrepancy between the language systems leads
to a serious obstacle in translation. For example, English and German have
a system of articles1 while Polish does not. This causes visible problems to Poles
when they have to produce a text in English or German (and this includes trans-
lation into these languages), but this in itself is only an educational problem and
not a real linguistic barrier, because the same Poles will have no problems (or at
least fewer problems) translating from English or German into Polish: in some
contexts the articles will simply be ignored (for example, when the indefinite
article “a/an” precedes a noun which is used as a Subject Complement – as in
“John is a teacher”), and in other contexts their function will be taken over by
other words (e.g. demonstrative pronouns; cf. “This is the book I told you
about” and “To jest ta książka, o której ci mówiłem”), or expressed by means of
word order (cf. “An elephant walked into my garden” and “Do mojego ogrodu
wszedł słoń” [indefinite specific] vs. “An elephant is a big mammal” and “Słoń
jest wielkim ssakiem” [indefinite generic]; see Krzeszowski 1980: 176). On the
other hand, when a language with a system of articles uses those articles in
a functionally relevant manner, this may prove to be a serious translational prob-
lem. For example, in some of their TV commercials, Volkswagen advertise their
car as “Volkswagen. Das Auto”. This will work perfectly well in English
(“Volkswagen. The Car”) or in other languages with articles, but is really hard to
render into Polish, which does not normally signal the contrast between indefi-
niteness and definiteness of nouns.
The translator into Polish (and other article-less languages) faces a similar
problem with the short story “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Arthur Conan Doyle,
which begins with the sentence: “To Sherlock Holmes she is always the wom-
an.” and which ends: “And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to

1
For those readers who do not speak German, it should be pointed out here that the two
systems, although superficially slightly similar, are in reality dramatically different.
This difference is reflected in Polish, where the English articles are called przedimki
(“pre-nominals”), while the German articles are referred to as rodzajniki, i.e. “gender-
markers” – they indicate not only the gender, but also the number and case of the
nouns (they are declined), and their distribution is somewhat different from that of
English.

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her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman.” (Doyle
1994: 3 and 29). The question is how to render “the woman” in such a way as to
bring out the implied contrast with “a woman”. Difficult as this task may seem,
however, it is not impossible, on account of the fact that here, unlike in the case
of the Volkswagen commercial, the translator is dealing with a longer stretch of
text – the full story, and not just a three/two-word slogan. The solution chosen
by Irena Doleżal-Nowicka was simply to highlight the word kobieta by means of
expanded spacing, so that the respective sentences read: “Dla Sherlocka
Holmesa była zawsze ko b i e t ą ...” “Kiedy zaś wspomina o historii z fotografią
albo Irenę Adler, mówi o niej zawsze z szacunkiem jako o ko b i e c i e .” (Doyle
1972: 3 and 28).
Also differences between the number systems of nouns between languages
can become a barrier. For example, nouns in Japanese are not inflected for num-
ber. Normally, this does not matter, as in most situations the number will be
specified by means of a numeral and a proper classifier, but there can be con-
texts where the specification comes later, and this can lead to certain problems.
Wiesław Kotański gives an interesting example of an untranslatable short dia-
logue from Japanese. The first speaker says:

“ieno sobani kiga arimasu” (“There is a tree/There are some trees near the house”).

Since the Japanese noun is not marked for number, the second speaker asks:

“nambon arimasuka” (“How many?”)

The answer is:

“ippon arimasu” (“One”)

(After Wojtasiewicz 1957: 50).

We cannot translate the first line as “There is a tree near the house”, because
then the second speaker’s question will sound dumb. If, on the other hand, we
render it using the plural form, then, in turn, the first speaker’s answer sounds
odd and changes the whole exchange into a rather silly joke. Obviously the un-
markedness for number of the first line is vital here (or, functionally relevant, to
use Catford’s terminology), as it triggers off the remaining part of the dialogue.
However, there is no way it can be reproduced naturally in English or Polish,
because in both these languages every countable noun is marked for number.

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Also differences in the gender systems of languages can occasionally cause

certain problems. For example, the poem “Lullaby” by Wystan Hugh Auden
begins with the following words:

“Lay your sleeping head, my love,

Human on my faithless arm;”

which Jerzy Sito translates as:

“Połóż śpiącą głowę, mała,

Ludzką, na moim ramieniu;”
(Auden 1988: 70-71)

As we can see, the English vocative “my love” is not marked for gender, where-
as the Polish word “mała” is feminine. Perhaps this is not a dramatic mistake in
translation, but in view of the fact that Auden was homosexual, the specification
of the sex of the addressee as feminine does seem odd. Incidentally, it would be
equally wrong to make the addressee clearly masculine, because the poem does
not talk openly about homosexuality – ideally, deliberate ambiguity of the
source text should be preserved wherever possible, and in this poem the address-
ee should remain genderless, which Barańczak managed to do by turning the
vocative into an epithet of the noun head:

“Złóż głowę – śpiącą, kochaną

Ludzką – na moim ramieniu”
(Barańczak 1993: 483)

What can be a minor problem in a poem becomes a major one in a novel based
on the unspecified gender of the narrator. When in the novel Written on the Body
by Jeanette Winterson we read “I went”, we do not know whether the words are
produced by a man or by a woman. Unfortunately, the lack of the gender marker on
English verbs is impossible (or at least extremely difficult) to reproduce in Polish.
We have to say “poszedłem” (masculine) or “poszłam” (feminine). With some
other verbs, the translator has certain possibilities of manoeuvring: for example, the
phrase “wpadłam w przygnębienie” can be made impersonal and therefore un-
marked for gender – “ogarnęło mnie przygnębienie”, some other verbs can be
changed into the passive voice, some phrases can be modified by replacing the
main verb, and thus “Zrozumiałam, że kocham Y” (“I realised or understood that I
was in love with Y”) becomes “Stało się jasne, że kocham Y” (“It became clear
that ...”), but this strategy has obvious limitations, and therefore translating this
novel into Polish, Hanna Mizerska used the feminine gender throughout and added

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a preface explaining the problem and telling readers what they were losing. Jerzy
Jarniewicz had a similar problem with Philip Roth’s novel Deception, which pre-
sents conversations between a married man and a married woman written in free
direct speech (it is not specified who says what) (Jarniewicz 2002: 78-80; see also
Jarniewicz 1996).
Obviously, if translation from English into Polish imposes markedness,
translation in the opposite direction loses it. Stanisław Lem’s short story “Mas-
ka” begins with the narrator not fully conscious of its identity, and therefore
talking about itself using the Polish neuter gender in the first person past tenses
of verbs: “powiększałom się i rozpoznawałom siebie”, “kiedym mogło już
dokładnie ogarnąć własny kształt”, “leżałom jeszcze bezwładne”, “dotknęłom
zimnych, gładkich, wklęsłych płyt”, etc. (Lem 1976: 5). (Later the being feels an
inflow or influx of sex and becomes female). This verbal experiment is very
effective, but the trick cannot be reproduced in English or any other language
which has no gender marker on the first person past tenses of verbs.
Differences between gender marking of certain notions in various languages
can cause certain clashes with our expectations with respect to our perception of
the order of things. Thus in English Death is traditionally associated with the
masculine gender (the Grim Reaper), and in German it is clearly marked as der
Tod, whereas the Polish noun śmierć is always feminine. The poem “Die Todes-
fuge” by Paul Celan exists in at least four translations into Polish, and yet each
of them violates our perception to a certain extent. The German text says at one
point:

der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland sein Auge ist blau
er trifft dich mit bleierner Kugel er trifft dich genau
(Literally, “Death is a master from Germany his eye is blue
he will hit you with his lead bullet he will hit you precisely”).

In English the image is the same, but in Polish the phrase “Śmierć jest mistrzem z
Niemiec” (all the four translations) sounds slightly odd: the subject is feminine, the
subject complement masculine, and there is not much that can be done about it.
Theoretically, the phrase could be rendered as “Śmierć jest mistrzynią z Niemiec”,
with the subject complement also feminine, but the original master refers of course
to master executioner as well as conjuring up images of soldiers and firing squads,
and calling Death “a mistress from Germany” ruins the effect completely (see Os-
trowski 2002: 145-147).
Another famous example of a gender mismatch in literary translation comes
from the poem “Ein Fichtenbaum” by Heinrich Heine in the Russian translation
by Lermontov. In the original, a spruce tree (the Fichtenbaum of the title, mas-

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culine gender) “träumt von einer Palme” (“dreams of a palm tree”, feminine
gender):

Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam

Im Norden auf kahler Höh’.
Ihn schläfert; mit weißer Decke
Umhüllen ihn Eis und Schnee.

Er träumt von einer Palme,

Die, fern im Morgenland,
Einsam und schweigend trauert
Auf brennender Felsenwand.
(Heine 1980: 82)

This will work perfectly well in Polish, where a masculine świerk can dream of
a feminine palma, but not in Russian. The Russian equivalent of Fichtenbaum is
ель, which is feminine gender. It is true that Lermontov replaced the original tree
with a pine tree – in Russian сосна, but this is also feminine, as is пальма, i.e.
the palm tree, so that the heterosexual emotional relationship between the trees
(or rather lovers, whom the trees symbolize) turns inadvertently into a lesbian
one; Lermontov’s version reads:

На севере диком стоит одиноко

На голой вершине сосна
И дремлет, качаясь, и снегом сыпучим
Одета, как ризой, она.

И снится ей всё, что в пустыне далекой,

В том крае, где солнца восход,
Одна и грустна на утёсе горючем
Прекрасная пальма растёт.
(Lermontov 1976: 76).

Interestingly enough, in French both the épicéa of the title and un palmier are
masculine, which again would turn the original longing into something which it
was not meant to be (see also Lebiedziński 1981: 157 and Pisarska 1989: 52).
Wawrzyniak reports that when, on the 9th of November 1970, Georges
Pompidou announced the death of General de Gaulle with the famous words:
«Françaises, Français, le général de Gaulle est mort. La France est veuve.»,
some translators had a serious problem with rendering his words, or, more spe-
cifically, the second sentence. Polish does not offer any problems here (“Francja
jest wdową”), as the Polish name of France is feminine, and neither does English

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with its fully natural “France is a widow”, but in German the name of France is
neuter, and the image of France as a wife and of General de Gaulle as a husband
is lost. Consequently, instead of translating the text literally (“Frankreich ist
Witwe”), the German translator achieves a much better result playing on the
concept of General de Gaulle as a father and offering the version “Frankreich ist
verwaist” (literally, “France is orphaned”) (see Wawrzyniak 1991: 55-56).
Naturally, it is not only the differences between the grammatical systems of
different languages that can cause translational problems; numerous linguistic
barriers appear at the level of lexical meaning.
Catford (1965: 94-96) points out that linguistic untranslatability stems first
of all from ambiguities peculiar to the source language which are functionally
relevant in the SL text. He subdivides them into those which involve shared
exponence, when two or more lexical or grammatical items have the same expo-
nent, as in the phrase “Time flies”, being on one hand an observation on the
passing of time and, on the other hand, at least technically, a request to measure
the velocity with which the said flies fly, and those which involve polysemy,
when one item has more than one meaning or, more specifically, when it has
a very general meaning with “a wide range of specific situational features”. Oth-
er situations where linguistic untranslatability can occur involve what Catford
terms oligosemy, that is, cases where a word or structure has a restricted range of
meaning, where this restriction is functionally relevant in the SL text, and where
this cannot be reproduced in a natural manner in the TL text. For example, the
Russian word пришла (prišla) means “came / arrived on foot”. In most contexts,
it can be translated into English simply as “came” or “arrived”, but if the detail
about somebody arriving on foot is functionally relevant, then we are dealing
with oligosemy and we are facing a linguistic barrier.
Let us look at the following bit of dialogue from Maxim Gorki’s novel
Детство (Detstvo, i.e., Childhood). The author / narrator, a little child, is talk-
ing to his grandmother, who has arrived from Nizhny / Nižnij Novgorod:

– Ты откуда пришла? – спросил я ее.

Она ответила:
– С верху, из Нижнего, да не пришла, а приехала! По воде-то не ходят, шиш!
(Gorki 1913-14)

In the Polish translation by Krystyna Bilska the text reads:

– Skąd tu przyszłaś? – spytałem.

– Z góry, z Niżnego – odpowiedziała – i nie przyszłam, tylko przyjechałam! Po
wodzie przecież się nie chodzi, bąku.
(Gorki 1974)

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It can be seen immediately that there are no translational problems between Rus-
sian and Polish in this passage, because Polish shares the restriction on the verb
przychodzić with Russian. In English, however, the dialogue cannot be repro-
duced in a natural manner. “Ты откуда пришла?” (“Ty otkuda prišla?”) can be
rendered simply and naturally as “Where did you come from?”, but the explana-
tion “не пришла, а приехала” (“ne prišla, a priyexala”) looks virtually untrans-
latable (in fact, when I asked Google Translate to translate it, the version I re-
ceived was: “did not come, and come”). The published English translation has:

“Where did you come from?” I asked her.

“From up there, from Nijni,” she answered; “but I did not walk here, I came by
boat. One does not walk on water, you little imp.”
(Gorky 1915)

This reads much better than the Google Translate version, but the grandmother’s
correction “but I did not walk here” does not stem naturally from the boy’s ques-
tion, because the boy did not use the verb walk.
Incidentally, the relative untranslatability of this passage stems not only
from the oligosemy of пришла (prišla), but also from the polysemy of С верху
(S verxu) and the shared exponence of Нижнего (Nižnego). The phrase S verxu
can be interpreted to mean something like “from above” or “from upstairs” on
one hand and “from up yonder” or “from upriver” on the other, and the word
нижний (nižnij) is both an adjective which means “lower” and a common ab-
breviation of the place name Нижний Новгород (Nižnij Novgorod). The boy
finds the grandmother’s answer absurd and totally incomprehensible: he pro-
ceeds to muse on who lives upstairs and who lives in the basement, and on ways
of coming downstairs (riding down the banisters or falling) and to wonder what
water has to do with that – he clearly understands the phrase S verxu in the sense
of “from upstairs”, while the grandmother obviously means “from upriver”, and
he clearly does not understand the reference to Нижний / Нижнего (Nižnij /
Nižnego) (see Gorki 1913-14 and Catford 1965: 96-98).

2. Wordplay as a problem in translation

The trickiest linguistic barrier to translation, however, is offered by wordplay.

Let us look, for instance, at the slogan “Żubr czeka na polanie” from the TV
commercial of Żubr beer and think of ways of expressing it in another language.
The word Żubr, apart from being a brand of beer, means “the European bison or
wisent”, the verb czeka means “is waiting”, and the phrase na polanie means

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both “in a/the clearing or glade” and “to be poured”, and this is where our chal-
lenge lies, because there is no way the ambiguity of the phrase na polanie can be
reproduced in English, French, German, etc. A few years ago another Polish
beer company advertised by means of the slogan “Mariola O KOCIM
spojrzeniu”, which means more or less, “Mariola WITH CAT-LIKE eyes /
gaze”, but the point is of course that the slogan contains the name of the beer –
OKOCIM. Again, it is probably impossible to reproduce this effect in any other
language, but this does not mean that all puns are by definition untranslatable.
The problem is that they usually cannot be translated literally.
But what precisely is wordplay?
In a narrower sense of this word, wordplay is a play on words, or a pun, that is,
“A figure of speech depending upon a similarity of sound and a disparity of mean-
ing” (Fogle 1974: 681), or “the humorous use of a word that has two meanings, or
of different words that sound the same” (OALD 1995). Thus at one end of the field
marked “puns” we have one word (or structure) placed in such a context that two
(or more) separate, individual meanings are activated at once (as in the following
joke: “Question: Where the doorbell rings off-key...? Answer: Must be a flat.”2),
and at the opposite end we have two different words or structures (occasionally
more) which look or sound similar and which are placed next to each other (as in
the famous Italian maxim traduttore traditore, which aptly sums up the difficulty,
if not the impossibility, of translation). In a broader sense – wordplay is playing
with words, and includes all sorts of linguistic deviations, some of which are
somewhat un-pun-like: for example, playing with parts of words (for instance,
Nabokov offers mauvemail as a milder form of blackmail and turns a therapist into
the rapist – 1980: 70–71 and 147–148), spoonerisms, modifying recognizable
phrases, as when Richard Curtis, Simon Bell and Helen Fielding published the
book Who’s Had Who (Faber & Faber, 1987), obviously hinting at, and playing on,
the title of the world-famous reference publications Who’s Who, or, generally, play-
ing with language at various levels, as Joyce did in his Ulysses and Finnegans
Wake (McArthur 1992: 787).
One point may require clarification here, namely the fact that some authors
distinguish between a pun and a play on words. For example, Freud in his book
Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten (originally published in 1905;
the English translation is entitled Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious)

2
The joke is of course based on two meanings of the noun flat: (1) “(a symbol for)
a note that is a semitone lower than a stated note” (CALD 2003), which accounts for
the sound of the doorbell being off-key, and (2) “(US apartment) a set of rooms for liv-
ing which are part of a larger building and are usually all on one floor” (CALD 2003),
which accounts for the doorbell being there.

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says that puns (actually, in the original, he uses the German word Kalauer, and
the French term Calembourgs) are:

the lowest form of verbal joke, probably because they are the ‘cheapest’ – can be
made with the least trouble. And they do in fact make the least demand on the tech-
nique of expression, just as the play upon words proper makes the highest. While in
the latter the two meanings should find their expression in identically the same
word, which on that account is usually said only once, it is enough for a pun if the
two words expressing the two meanings recall each other by some vague similarity,
whether they have a general similarity of structure or a rhyming assonance, or
whether they have the same first few letters, and so on.
(Freud 1983: 80)

As examples of the play on words proper, Freud quotes two jokes in French
from a book by K. Fischer (Über den Witz, 1889, Heidelberg, 2nd ed.), who, ap-
parently, also insisted that a play on words was different from, and nobler than,
a pun: (1) when Napoleon III assumed power, he immediately confiscated the
property of the House of Orleans; someone commented: “C’est le premier vol de
l’aigle” (“It’s the eagle’s first vol”, vol meaning both ‘flight’ and ‘theft’); (2)
trying to test the wit of one of his courtiers, King Louis XV of France asked him
to make a joke of which the King would be the subject; the courtier replied im-
mediately: “Le roi n’est pas sujet” [“The King is not a subject”] (Freud 1983:
71). Incidentally, the same story exists in English, about Thomas Killigrew
(1612-1683), page to King Charles I and later fool and jester of King Charles II.
As an example of a mere pun, Freud quotes, inter alia, Ludwig Hevesi’s com-
ment about an Italian poet: “Since he could not exterminate the Cäsaren [Cae-
sars], he at least eliminated the Cäsuren [caesuras]” (Freud 1983: 81).
Another, and, frankly speaking, somewhat incoherent distinction between
puns and a play on words is proposed by Hammond and Hughes (1978: 8–9), but
usually, the terms pun and play on words are used interchangeably and in the pre-
sent chapter, in accordance with majority usage, they will be treated as synonyms.
The most detailed and most precise definition of wordplay is probably that
offered by Delabastita:

wordplay is the general name indicating the various textual phenomena (i.e. on the
level of performance or parole) in which certain features inherent in the structure of
the language used (level of competence or langue) are exploited in such a way as to
establish a communicatively significant, (near-)simultaneous confrontation of at
least two linguistic structures with more or less dissimilar meanings (signifieds) and
more or less similar forms (signifiers).
(1993: 57, but cf. also 2001: 48)

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Delabastita has also proposed one of the neatest classifications of puns. He di-
vides puns into four major groups, namely those based on homonymy, homoph-
ony, paronymy, and homography; moreover, each of these types can be vertical
and horizontal, depending on whether the two (or more) meanings are activated
simultaneously or successively, which gives us eight categories altogether
(1993: 78-81). There are of course certain problems with Delabastita’s classifi-
cation: for one thing, it is not at all clear whether homophones include near-
homophones or not (specifically, should the following pun: “The dairymaid is
a girl who ought to know butter”, echoing the well-known expression to know
better, meaning “to be wise enough not to do something” [Maltzev 1980: 15], be
classified as a vertical homophonic pun or perhaps as a paronymic one?); more-
over, some puns will not fit any of Delabastita’s categories at all (e.g., the
above-quoted mauvemail), but other than that, this classification provides quite
a useful framework for a discussion of wordplay.
Let us now look at examples of the specific categories of puns as transla-
tional problems.

3. Classification of puns

3.1. Vertical homonymic puns

This is the ideal, prototypical play on words proper, where one word is put in
a context in which both its meanings are activated at once, as in Mercutio’s last
and pain-full pun “Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man”
from Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene I; Shakespeare 1958: 492). The word
grave means ‘serious’, but also evokes the image of a grave.
Another example from the same category is the following popular question-
and-answer exchange: Question: “Is life worth living?” Answer: “Depends on
the liver.” The word liver means both the human being performing the action of
living (morphologically to live + the suffix -er, which denotes the doer of an
action) and the organ in the body, known in Polish as wątroba.
A very clever homonymic pun – one without the actual word being used –
appears in the novel The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett. Twoflower is talk-
ing about a card game:

‘It’s a special kind of playing,’ said Twoflower. ‘It’s called –’ he hesitated. Lan-
guage wasn’t his strong point. ‘In your language it’s called a thing you put across
a river, for example,’ he concluded, ‘I think.’

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‘Aqueduct?’ hazarded Rincewind. ‘Fishing line? Weir? Dam?’

‘Yes, possibly.’
(Pratchett 1986: 127-128)

One of the cleverest vertical homonymic puns (and also one of the most difficult
to translate) comes from Pratchett’s Equal Rites: “The lodgings were on the top
floor next to the well-guarded premises of a respectable dealer in stolen property
because, as Granny had heard, good fences make good neighbours.” (1987: 119)
The starting point for this wordplay is of course the quotation “Good fences make
good neighbours” from the poem “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost (1992: 48-50),3
which is based on the traditional meaning of the word fence, the one known to most
English language learners and included even in concise dictionaries, namely, “a
structure which divides two areas of land, similar to a wall but made of wood or
wire and supported with posts” (CALD 2003), in Polish płot. Pratchett, however,
puts this saying in a context which activates also a completely different meaning of
fence, not so widely known, and usually not included in smaller-sized dictionaries,
i.e. “a person who buys and sells stolen goods” (CALD 2003), or, to use Pratchett’s
own phrasing, “a dealer in stolen property”, in Polish paser. Since there is no way
the word płot can be turned into the word paser in Polish, the translator faces
a really serious problem here.
Incidentally, some examples might be hard to classify as vertical or horizon-
tal. Let us look at the following short passage from the novel Jingo – Command-
er Vimes bids farewell to his butler Willikins, who has volunteered to join the
army and is about to leave: “‘Well, we shall miss you, Willikins.’ Others may
not, he thought. Especially if they have time for a second shot.” (Pratchett 1998:
68). Technically, the word miss is used only once and as such qualifies as
a vertical pun. On the other hand, its second meaning is not activated until
slightly later, which might classify the pun as horizontal.

3.2. Horizontal homonymic puns

Homonyms are repeated, occasionally with a slight grammatical modification

(e.g., singular vs. plural, etc.). They are obviously somewhat easier to make, and
therefore more frequent. We find several such puns in Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland; for example, there are two in the scene in which the Dormouse is
telling the story of three little sisters who lived at the bottom of a well:

3
Leszek Elektorowicz renders those words from Frost’s poem as “Mur to gwarancja
dobrego sąsiedztwa.” (Poeci 1974: 128), and in Stanisław Barańczak’s translation they
are: “Gdzie dobre płoty, tam dobrzy sąsiedzi.” (Frost 1992: 49-51)

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‘And so these three little sisters–they were learning to draw, you know–’
‘What did they draw?’ said Alice, quite forgetting her promise.
‘Treacle,’ said the Dormouse, without considering at all this time.”
(Carroll 1990: 152)

As can be seen, the word draw is used here first rather in the sense of making
a picture of something, using a pencil or pen, and afterwards rather in the sense
of pulling. And a few lines later, we read:

‘But they were in the well,’ Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing to notice this
last remark.
‘Of course they were’, said the Dormouse; ‘well in.’
(Carroll 1990: 154)

A simple pun of this type appears also in the first paragraph of the Foreword to
Nabokov’s Lolita: “Mr Clark’s decision may have been influenced by the fact
that the editor of his choice had just been awarded the Poling Prize for a modest
work (‘Do the Senses make Sense?’)” (1980: 5).
Let us have a look at one more example: David Benedictus in his sequel to
the Winnie-the-Pooh books, called Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, has Pooh
use the word odd in the sense of ‘strange’ and then has Piglet picking it up with
reference to odd vs. even numbers. Piglet visits Pooh and finds him

anxiously counting his pots of honey.

“Isn’t it odd?” said Pooh.
“Isn’t what odd?”
Pooh rubbed his nose with his paw. “I wish they would sit still. They shuffle around
when they think I’m not looking. A moment ago there were eleven and now there
are only ten. It is odd, isn’t it, Piglet?”
“It’s even,” said Piglet, “if it’s ten, that is. And if it isn’t, it isn’t.”
(Benedictus 2009: 1-2)

3.3. Vertical homophonic puns

When spoken, vertical homophonic puns are no different from homonymic puns:
one word or phrase activates more than one meaning simultaneously. For exam-
ple, we hear the phrase [mai kju:], and in our mind’s eye we see ‘my cue’, ‘my
queue’, and perhaps also ‘my Q’. Of course, when we see this phrase written,
one of the meanings is foregrounded, so the spelling spoils the effect to a certain
extent, but in the proper circumstances the multiple activation is still there.

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Therefore, when we read in Lolita: “‘Vivian Darkbloom’ has written a bio-

graphy, ‘My Cue’, to be published shortly, and critics who have perused the
manuscript call it her best book” (Nabokov 1980: 6), we know that apart from
suggesting the basic “visible” meaning (“a word or action in a play or film,
which is used as a signal by a performer to begin saying or doing something” –
CALD 2003), the word Cue, or rather the sound [kju:], refers also to the nick-
name and the initial of the surname of the character named Clare Quilty (it is his
biography).
Similarly, when Terry Pratchett in Night Watch talks about “the Bridge of
Size” (2003: 40), he is obviously playing on the better-known Bridge of Sighs,
or Ponte dei Sospiri in Venice, and confronting Size with its homophone Sighs.

3.4. Horizontal homophonic puns

Horizontal homophonic punning consists usually in having one character saying

a word and then having another character “misunderstanding” it, mistaking it for
its homophone. For example, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Mouse is
talking about a tale, and Alice visualizes the word tail:

‘Mine is a long and a sad tale!’ said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.
‘It is a long tail, certainly,’ said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s
tail; ‘but why do you call it sad?’
(Carroll 1990: 68-70)

Or Alice is explaining the movements of the Earth to the Duchess, and the
Duchess thinks of ... something else:

‘You see the earth takes twenty-four hours to turn round on its axis –’
‘Talking of axes,’ said the Duchess, ‘chop off her head!’
(Carroll 1990: 122-124)

Let me quote one more horizontal homophonic pun from Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland: this one is based on homophony not of single words, but of a word
and a phrase. The Mock Turtle reminisces about his school years:

‘The master was an old Turtle – we used to call him Tortoise –’

(Polish żółw morski and żółw lądowy, respectively.)

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Alice is naturally surprised:

‘Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn’t one?’ Alice asked.
‘We called him Tortoise because he taught us,’ said the Mock Turtle angrily: ‘really
you are very dull!’
(Carroll 1990: 192)

The joke consists in the fact that the word Tortoise and the phrase taught us are
(near-)homophones. Since it is highly unlikely that the two will remain homo-
phones in another language, the passage presents the translator with another
really serious problem.

3.5. Vertical paronymic puns

Paronyms are words which look similar, but which have different meanings. As
an example of a vertical paronymic pun Delabastita (1993: 81) quotes the word
intrinsicate from Antony and Cleopatra (this word is a conflation of intricate
and intrinsic). Cleopatra speaks (to an asp, which she applies to her breast):

With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate

Of life at once untie. Poor venomous fool,
Be angry, and dispatch.
(Act V, Scene ii, 307-309; Shakespeare 1958: 1264)

Numerous vertical paronymic puns can be found in James Joyce. For example, the
famous phrase “they were yung and easily freudened” from Finnegans Wake clear-
ly conveys the meaning “young and easily frightened”, but it also puns on the
names of two famous psychoanalysts, Jung and Freud (Book 1, Chapter 5, Joyce
1982a: 115).
Actually, a lot of Finnegans Wake looks like a conflation of various words,
not necessarily pure paronyms; for instance, the word penisolate from the sec-
ond paragraph of the book: “Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over the short sea,
had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus
of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war ...” (Joyce 1982a: 3), sug-
gests such words as penis, peninsula, and isolate.
Also the famous poem “Jabberwocky” from Lewis Carroll’s Through the
Looking Glass conflates a number of words; let us quote the first stanza here:

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‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
(Carroll 1998: 197)

Thus, for example, slithy combines lithe and slimy, while mimsy is a conflation
of miserable and flimsy (Carroll himself, in the words of Humpty-Dumpty, calls
such conflations portmanteau words – Carroll 1998: 198-199)

3.6. Horizontal paronymic puns

Making a horizontal paronymic pun consists in putting two similar-looking

words close to each other. It is probably the easiest type of pun to make, and
therefore many people consider it an inferior form of wordplay, but horizontal
paronymic puns are still occasionally used in literature.
For example, a few can be found in Nabokov’s Lolita – thus to most people,
women are women, but Humbert in Lolita distinguishes two female sexes, and
states: “But to me, through the prism of my senses, ‘they were as different as
mist and mast’.” (Nabokov 1980: 18). As could be expected, this is relatively
easy to translate; the Russian text has a horizontal paronymic pun here which,
moreover, retains one of the original meanings: “они были столь же различны
между собой, как мечта и мачта” (literally, “as a dream and mast”; Nabokov
1998). (See also the case of “the cowman and the sheepman” from Lolita, dis-
cussed in the section on translating wordplay – specifically, in the section on com-
pensation).
Additionally, we might have look at a prayer, quoted by Shipley (1979:
261), which also juxtaposes three similar-looking and -sounding words:

God loving me
Guard me in sleep
Guide me to Thee

3.7. Vertical homographic puns

By definition, homographic puns involve the use of words which are written in
the same way but which are pronounced differently; e.g. lead [li:d] = “to be in
front, to be first, or to be winning”; “to control a group of people, a country, or

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a situation”; “to go in a particular direction or have a particular result, or to al-

low or cause this”, and lead [led] = “a chemical element that is a very heavy,
soft, dark grey, poisonous metal, used especially in the past on roofs and for
pipes and also for protection against radiation” and “(the narrow strip of) col-
oured material, usually black and made of graphite, in the centre of a pencil”
(CALD 2003). Homographs are very rare in Polish owing to the relatively regu-
lar correspondences between sounds and spellings, but they are not impossible;
e.g., we have Dania – the Polish name of the country Denmark, and Dania – the
common noun which means “food” or “dishes” (as in the phrase Dania i napoje,
“Food and beverages”). Interestingly enough, the only example of a vertical
homographic pun quoted by Delabastita is the word The-rapist (1993: 81),
which is used by Nabokov in Lolita, but which is used there “horizontally”, so to
speak, and therefore this example will be presented in the next section.

3.8. Horizontal homographic puns

In Chapter 1 of Part Two of Lolita Humbert observes:

The rapist was Charlie Holmes; I am the therapist – a matter of nice spacing in the
way of distinction.
(Nabokov 1980: 147–8).

No matter whether the word is used vertically or horizontally, the effect cannot be
reproduced literally in any other language and, therefore, in the Russian Lolita
Nabokov substituted a horizontal paronymic pun for the original wordplay:
“Растлением занимался Чарли Хольмс; я же занимаюсь растением,
детским растением …” (roughly, the Russian texts contrasts the seduction of
a minor and looking after a child’s growth; Nabokov 1998).

3.9. Miscellaneous

Some puns are obviously difficult to translate, but some are equally difficult to
classify. For instance, when Nabokov plays on the morphological structure of
the word blackmail, and replaces black with mauve, thus giving this word
a somewhat “gentler” character, the resulting punning coinage does not fit into
any of Delabastita’s categories:

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Then, figuratively speaking, I shattered the glass, and boldly imagined […] how
eventually I might blackmail – no, that is too strong a word – mauvemail big Haze
into letting me consort with little Haze …
(Nabokov 1980: 70-71).

Among the cleverer instances of miscellaneous wordplay in Lolita we might

mention also the nicknames of the classrooms at Beardsley:

Mushroom, Room-In 8, B-room, Room-BA and so on.

(Nabokov 1980: 195)

The first word is obvious; the remaining ones play on ruminate, broom, and
rumba, respectively. Perhaps with some good will, the words could be treated as
a sequence of vertical paronymic puns, but they are certainly not prototypical
paronymic puns. And the inventiveness and creativity of punsters goes much
farther.
In the early 1990s, a German magazine (its name escapes me) entitled one
of its articles “Die BeeRDigung der DDR”. The basic meaning of the word
Beerdigung is “burial, funeral, or interment”, but the point here is that the capital
letters spell BRD, i.e. Bundesrepublik Deutschland. The article talked about the
burial of the German Democratic Republic, but also about its transformation,
about its becoming BRD, Bundesrepublik Deutschland. This is certainly
a simultaneous confrontation of two linguistic structures with dissimilar mean-
ings; it is visibly vertical, but it is not homonymic, not homophonic, not homo-
graphic, and not really paronymic.
Even if we fit the BeeRDigung into the paronymic puns or establish an addi-
tional category for it, we still have problems. Where do we place Joyce’s multi-
lingual puns, like the following “Fieluhr? Filou!” from Finnegans Wake (Joyce
1982a: 213)? Admittedly, they might be treated as homophonic, except that in
this case the homophones belong to two different languages: the first word is
a somewhat corrupted German question about the time, and the second word is
French and means roughly “rogue, rascal, crook or thief”, the implication of this
juxtaposition being probably that time is a thief.
And where do we classify puns based not just on two languages, but also on
two different scripts? Elena Slobodian mentions a few very interesting titles of
Russian novels, based on the interplay between the Cyrillic script and English.
For example, Eva Punsh (Ева Пунш) published a novel called Крысоlove,
which plays on the Russian word крысолов, [literally, ‘rat-catcher’] and, of
course, the English word love. «Крысолов» also happens to be the title of
a poem by Marina Tsvetaeva (Марина Цветаева) about the Rattenfänger von
Hameln (better known in English as the Pied Piper of Hamelin), first published

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in 1925, and of a short story by Alexander Grin, both of which get quoted in Eva
Punsh’s book. Eva Punsh is also the author of a book called Net.любви, which
exploits the fact that the English word net happens to be a transliteration of the
Russian word нет, meaning “no” (the whole title would thus mean more or less
“No Love” confronted with “A/The Net of Love” or “Internet Loves”). Another
writer – Oksana Robski (Оксана Викторовна Робски) – wrote a novel Про
любoff/on, the title of which is based on the modification of the spelling of the
word любовь, meaning “love”, in accordance with the French spelling of the
Russian surname Smirnoff (in Russian, Смирнов) and the famous brand of vod-
ka, and which then plays on the adverbial particles off vs. on (cf. Slobodian
2010).

4. Ways of translating puns

But let us leave the problems of the classification of puns aside, and let us turn to
ways of translating them.
As far as translating wordplay is concerned, Delabastita lists nine specific
procedures for dealing with wordplay (some of them with numerous subdivi-
sions); they are:
(1) PUN > PUN (a pun gets translated as a pun); (2) PUN > NON-PUN (the
translator ignores a pun and renders the basic meaning of the given phrase); (3)
PUN > PUNOID (the translator renders a pun as another rhetorical device; e.g.
a rhyming couplet or a literary allusion); (4) PUN > ZERO (the phrase or sen-
tence which contains a pun gets omitted); (5) Direct copy: PUN S.T. = PUN T.T.
(the translator copies the source-text pun into the target text); (6) Transference:
PUN S.T. = PUN T.T. (this means imposing the SL meaning onto the TL word4);
(7) Addition: NON-PUN > PUN (the translator makes a pun in the TL where the
original text had an ordinary phrase); (8) Addition (New textual material):
ZERO > PUN (the translator adds some text in order to introduce a pun); (9)
Editorial Techniques (Footnotes, etc.) (Delabastita 1993: vii and 192-227). (Inter-
estingly enough, the procedure called transference does not reappear on the lists in

4
This happened, for instance, in biblical translation. As Delabastita explains: “Since the
Jews were not allowed to utter the name of God, they used the word for ‘master’ in-
stead. When the Bible was translated into Greek, the Greek word for ‘master’ was giv-
en the additional meaning of 'God' by way of meaning transference...” (1993: 246). As
is commonly known, the same procedure was applied in other European languages,
including Polish.

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Delabastita 1996: 134 and 2004: 604; moreover, in Delabastita 2004: 604, the term
PUNOID gets replaced with RELATED RHETORICAL DEVICE.)
It seems to me, however, that they can be reduced to five major ones (al-
though direct copy is not really translation); the translator can: (1) ignore the pun
and translate the basic meaning of the relevant phrase(s), which covers Delabas-
tita’s procedures 2 and 4; (2) copy the pun directly from the source text into the
target text (Delabastita’s procedure 5); (3) explain the pun in a footnote (this is
Delabastita’s procedure 9); (4) try to translate the pun or to reproduce some form
of wordplay at the place of the original pun (Delabastita’s procedures 1 and 3),
and (5) ignore a specific pun but compensate for it by introducing a play on
words elsewhere in the text (Delabastita’s procedures 7 and 8).
Moreover, it must be added here that some of these procedures can be com-
bined; for example, the translator translates a pun as a new pun, but leaves the
original wordplay too, as Jacques Le Clercq did in his English translation of
Gargantua et Pantagruel (see below); or the translator uses the PUN > PUN
procedure and provides a footnote explaining the source-text pun anyway (as
Robert Stiller did in his bilingual Alice – Carroll 1990). Obviously, editorial
techniques such as footnotes, etc., can be combined with virtually any other pro-
cedure, but they are especially common, if not required, with direct copy, where
readers of the translation might not understand the point of the joke. Naturally,
the compensatory procedures can be used independently of any other proce-
dures, so that in a sense they also combine with other procedures.
Let us now look at these five procedures in more detail.

4.1. Ignoring the pun.

The first possibility is the simplest and, despite appearances to the contrary, not
always reprehensible: the translator ignores the wordplay and translates the basic
meaning of the phrase in question or, if the phrase without the wordplay is really
meaningless (e.g. the half-homonymic, half-homophonic riddle: “How would
you paint the sun and the wind?” “The sun rose and the wind blue/blew”), omits
it altogether.
Thus if one of the characters in the murder mystery by Ngaio Marsh entitled
Scales of Justice introduces his cats: Ptolemy, Alexis, and Edie, adding after
a moment “Edie Puss, of course” (1958: 12), playing on the name Oedipus, it
seems to me that the translator can perfectly legitimately introduce the third cat
(actually, a kitten) as, for instance, Cleopatra or Antigone, and forget the refer-
ence to Oedipus. The original name tells the reader two things: that the owner of
the cats is fond of Greek history and literature, and that he is a punster, but, since

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neither point is relevant to the plot, ignoring one of them (specifically, the sec-
ond one) will not produce a dramatic translational loss. Of course, this does not
mean that the pun cannot be recreated in Polish – for example, the kitten can be
introduced as “Mas” and then, after the listener expresses her surprise, the cat-
owner adds “Oczywiście Mas-Kotka” (meaning ‘mascot’, and exploiting the fact
the Polish equivalent of this word contains the word for ‘kitten’), but, frankly
speaking, I do not think that informing the reader about a minor character’s pen-
chant for punning is that important here.
Even if a book abounds in wordplay, if puns are its vital feature, this does
not mean that the translator has to try to translate every single one of them. It is
all right to omit one or even a few, provided that the majority are somehow re-
produced: the overall stylistic effect will still be preserved, and whether a book
contains 37 puns or just 33 is really irrelevant. Thus although Tadeusz Boy-
Żeleński managed to reproduce most of the puns from Gargantua et Pantagruel,
the following contrepèterie (spoonerism) from the 21st chapter of Pantagruel:

– Mais, (dist il), equivocquez sur “A Beaumont le Viconte.”

– Je ne scauroys, dist elle.
– C’est, (dist il), “A beau con le vit monte.”
(Literally: But, says he, produce a pun on “To Beaumont the viscount.” – I couldn’t
do it, says she. – it is, says he, “for beautiful cunt the cock rises.”)
(quoted after Toury 1997: 279)

does not appear in the Polish edition (see Rabelais 1988: Vol. 1 – pp. 198ff.).

Also Piotr Cholewa omitted a few puns from his translations of Pratchett – for ex-
ample, the following wordplay from the Discworld novel Mort (Mort lands a job
with Death; the job – at least initially – involves cleaning after the horses):

Some jobs offer increments. This one offered – well, quite the reverse, but at least
it was in the warm and fairly easy to get the hang of.
(Pratchett 1987b: 33; emphasis mine – JW)

gets a non-pun rendering: “Praca nie dawała szczególnej satysfakcji, ale przy-
najmniej było ciepło i technikę dało się opanować bez problemu” (Pratchett
2002: 33), even though it lends itself almost immediately to translation into Po-
lish – based on a similar opposition: „Na ogół posada wiąże się z dochodami.
Ta wiązała się – no cóż, z czymś wprost przeciwnym, ale...” (This translation is
mine – JW). Technically, the word increment means ‘one of a series of salary or
pay increases’, and corresponds rather to the Polish word podwyżka, but it is the

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word dochody (literally, ‘income’) that expresses the opposite of the Polish
equivalent of the word implied by the phrase “quite the reverse”.
Let us look also at the following scene from Moving Pictures, which con-
tains a nice homonymic pun:

Ginger stared, panic-stricken, out of the carriage window.

‘Who are all these people?’ she said.
‘They’re fans,’ said Dibbler.
‘But I’m not hot!’
‘Uncle means that they’re people who like seeing you in the clicks,’ said Soll.
(Pratchett 1991: 267)

Ginger, a young movie star(let), “misunderstands” the word fans (‘admirers’)

and comments “But I’m not hot!” referring to the second meaning of fans, name-
ly ‘devices for moving the air around to produce a cooling effect’. In Polish, the
equivalent of fans in the sense of ‘admirers’ is simply fani, or wielbiciele, but in
the sense of ‘devices for cooling the air’, it is either wachlarze or wiatra(cz)ki.
Naturally, a literal translation of Dibbler’s words into Polish cannot be ambigu-
ous and will not trigger off any associations with being (or not being) hot. There-
fore, translating the book into Polish, Piotr Cholewa simply omitted this word-
play, replacing Ginger’s comment with a neutral question “Who?”; his version
reads:

Ginger w panice wyglądała przez okno powozu.

– Kim są ci wszyscy ludzie?
– To fani – wyjaśnił Dibbler.
– Kto?
– Wujek chciał powiedzieć, że to ludzie, którzy lubią cię oglądać w migawkach.
(Pratchett 2000: 248)

4.2. Copying the pun.

Copying the source-text pun into the target text is not really translation, but it is
sometimes used by translators. For example, the English translation of Gargan-
tua et Pantagruel, by Jacques Le Clercq, reproduced in The Norton Anthology of
World Masterpieces, offers the spoonerism quoted in the previous section pre-
served in French plus an English one:

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“One moment!” Panurge begged. “Please equivocate on ‘à Beaumont le Viconte?’or

on ‘Runt and Codger are fellow-muckers!’ ”
“I don’t know what you mean!”
“Quite easy! ‘A beau con le vit monte,’ ‘Cunt and Roger are mellow fuckers!’ […]”
(Rabelais in Norton 1980: Vol. 1 – p. 1274)

Also two German translations of Joyce’s Ulysses copy Lenehan’s riddle:

Lenehan extended his hands in protest.

– But my riddle! he said. What opera is like a railway line?
– Opera? Mr O’Madden Burke’s sphinx face reriddled.
Lenehan announced gladly:
– The Rose of Castille. See the wheeze? Rows of cast steel. Gee!
(Joyce 1978: 135)

The translation by Georg Goyert runs:

Welche Oper hat Ähnlichkeit mit einem Eisenbahngeleise? [...]

– The Rose of Castille. Seht ihr den Witz? Rows of cast steel. He!
(1927, 1: 280–281)

The newer translation by Hans Wollschläger reads:

Welche Oper gleicht einer Eisenbahnlinie? [...]

– Die Rose of Castille. Nicht kapiert? Rows of cast steel. Na?
(1980, 1: 195)

This one, however, provides also an explanatory footnote: “– Die Rose of Cas-
tille – Rows of cast steel (engl.) phonet. Wortspiel: Rose von Kastilien – Reihen
aus Gußstahl (Schienen, Gleise).” (The German examples are quoted after
Szczerbowski 1998: 85-86). Which leads us nicely into the next section.

4.3. Explaining the pun in a footnote.

The third possibility for dealing with wordplay is explaining it in a footnote.

Some ambiguities are so important for the plot that they cannot be omitted or
translated otherwise than literally, and, literal translation being impossible, they
have to be explained with reference to the original. For instance, S.S. Van Dine’s
murder mystery The Bishop Murder Case is really centred around the double
meaning of the word bishop in English: ‘a priest of high rank’ (in Polish: biskup)
and ‘a chess piece’ (known in Poland as goniec or – from German – laufer).

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Since there is no way those two separate Polish equivalents can be combined
into one, the translator had no option but to explain this fact by providing an
appropriate footnote: “W angielskiej terminologii szachowej ‘biskup’ oznacza
‘gońca’” (Van Dine 1991: 145).
Let us now consider the following fragment from the short story “It’s
a Dog’s Life” by John Lutz [the narrator and protagonist, private detective Milo
Morgan, introduces his dog to Lieutenant Jack Redaway – incidentally, a very
unpleasant character]:

‘This is Sam,’ I said. ‘He doesn’t bite or make a mess.’

‘The gentleman of the firm. As a private detective, Morgan, I would think you’d
have noticed that “Sam” doesn’t suit that animal’s gender.’
‘It’s short for Samantha,’ I explained. ‘Since Sam’s been neutered, we use the male
pronoun for the sake of convenience. …
‘Don’t tell me. I already heard. Sam Spayed.’
(Lutz 1990: 99)

To spay means ‘to remove the ovaries of a female animal’ (CALD 2003), but the
point of the joke is that Lieutenant Redaway’s remark plays on the name Sam
Spade (the words Spayed and Spade being of course homophones) – well-known
to the aficionados of detective fiction – the name of the main character, a private
detective, in the famous hard-boiled mystery novel The Maltese Falcon by
Dashiell Hammett and in the equally famous 1941 film directed by John Hou-
ston and starring Humphrey Bogart. Again, since it is probably impossible to
translate this wordplay into Polish and to retain the allusion to Sam Spade, the
potential translator (to the best of my knowledge, this short story has not been
translated into Polish yet) would have to either omit the joke altogether, or ex-
plain it in a footnote.
To quote an example from a published translation: in Terry Pratchett’s nov-
el Truckers (the first part of the so-called Nome, or Bromeliad, Trilogy), the
nomes have stolen a truck and are driving it along a road. At one point Angalo
sees a road sign; Grimma and Masklin read: “Road Works Ahead”. Angalo is
happy that he can drive ahead at full speed, but Masklin is surprised that any-
body should want to tell drivers about a road which works; to him, it would
make sense to inform people about a road which does not work... Of course, this
will not work in Polish. Theoretically, it would be possible to produce some kind
of wordplay here, because the basic Polish equivalent of the word road – droga
– happens to have additional meanings such as “dear” and “expensive”, while
the Polish equivalent of the word works (roboty) happens to be homonymic with
the Polish word for robots, but this would entail substantial changes in the dia-
logue and, in view of what happens next (the nomes discover that there is no

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road ahead), the whole scene would not be as effective as in the original, and
therefore Jarosław Kotarski simply translated the sign as the nomes
(mis)understood it, i.e., as “Z przodu działająca droga”, and provided the follow-
ing explanatory footnote: “Znak ten w języku polskim nosi nazwę ‘Roboty
drogowe’, po angielsku Road Works Ahead. Zastosowano tu tłumaczenie do-
słowne, gdyż inaczej dialog byłby niezrozumiały (przyp. tłum.)” (Pratchett
2009: 221).

4.4. Trying to translate the pun.

It is true that some examples of wordplay might prove to be untranslatable and

might have to be omitted or glossed, but it is equally true that some can be trans-
lated (albeit not necessarily in the classical sense of this word). Thus of the two
jokes about computer-illiterate computer users quoted by Bogucki (2007: 22-
23),5 the first one is really untranslatable into Polish, but the second one is not.
Let us look at the first one:

Tech Support: ‘I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop.’

‘Okay,’ says the customer.
Tech Support: ‘Did you get a pop-up menu?’
‘No,’ replies the customer.
Tech Support: ‘Okay. Right-click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?’
‘Not at all,’ replies the customer.
Tech Support: ‘Okay, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until this point?’
‘Sure,’ replies the customer. ‘You told me to write “click” so I wrote down “click”.’

The joke is untranslatable, because there is no way we can reproduce in Polish

the homophony of right and write on which it is based, and the interplay of those
two words is vital here. Let us now look at the second joke:

Tom is trying to get his new computer working. He’s having trouble so he calls
over Harry to give him a hand. Harry switches on the computer then asks Tom if he
wants it password protected.
‘Oh yes, I read about that in the manual. I think the password I’ll have is
“DaffyDuckBugsBunnyTomandJerry”.’
‘That’s a very long password,’ says Harry.
‘Yes,’ replies Tom. ‘But the manual says it has to be at least four characters.’

5
The two jokes come originally from Arnott, Stephen and Haskins, Mike. 2004. Man
Walks Into a Bar. The Ultimate Collection of Jokes and One-Liners. Chester: Ebury
Press, p. 235 (Bogucki 2007: 23).

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This one can be translated into Polish relatively easily, except that the translation
cannot be literal.
If we try to translate this joke literally, i.e., if we retain the “DaffyDuck-
BugsBunnyTomandJerry” password, we run into a problem. The problem is of
course the word “characters”. In English, a character means both “a letter, num-
ber, or other mark or sign used in writing or printing, or the space one of these
takes” and “a person represented in a film, play, or story” (CALD 2003), but in
Polish the two meanings are expressed by means of different words (znak and
postać, respectively). If, however, we modify the password into something like,
for instance, “zakazwjazduzakazpostojuzakazwyprzedzaniastop” (roughly, “no
entry for vehicular traffic, no waiting, no overtaking, stop”), then we can contin-
ue to the very punchline:

– To strasznie długie hasło – mówi Harry.

– Tak – odpowiada Tom – ale w podręczniku jest napisane, że to mają być przy-
najmniej cztery znaki.

Perhaps the Polish version, which exploits the relative polysemy of the Polish
word znaki (technically, road signs are znaki drogowe), is less effective and less
amusing than the original, but at least the joke can be told, unlike the first one,
which can only be explained.
Also most of the puns presented in the section on the classification of puns
can be translated into Polish, and while some of these might test the translator’s
inventiveness, some actually lend themselves to translation almost immediately
(even if some translators do not see it). Let us have a look at some examples
(this is not a systematic study of all those puns in all the translations, and there-
fore only some of the most interesting solutions will be presented).
Thus although Mercutio’s vertical homonymic pun on the word grave gets
a non-pun rendering in Paszkowski’s translation – “Znajdziesz mię jutro
spokojnym jak trusia.” (Szekspir 1973: 451), Maciej Słomczyński succeeded – at
least to a certain extent – in recreating the homonymy of the word grave; his ver-
sion reads:

Odwiedźcie mnie jutro, a zobaczycie, że mam grobową minę.

[Literally, “Visit me tomorrow, and you’ll see that I have a grave mien”]
(Shakespeare 2005: 64)

The adjective grobowy means “grave-like, serious”, and therefore, by exten-

sion, something like “fitting for a grave”.
The pun on “the liver” cannot be rendered as a standard homonymic pun in
Polish, but if we answer the question as “Zależy od Ż/żywca”, then we do have

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a kind of pun here, “Żywiec” being a brand of beer and a neologism which po-
tentially could mean a human being performing the action of living...
Let us return for a moment to the pun on “fans”. As was stated above, Piotr
Cholewa did not reproduce this wordplay. It seems to me, however, that al-
though the association with heat (or lack of it) cannot be reproduced in Polish,
preserving wordplay in this bit of dialogue is relatively simple. The Polish word
wielbiciele just happens to be phonetically similar, if not identical, with the
phrase wielbi cielę, which means ‘adores (or worships) a/the calf’, so that it
might trigger off an equally silly question on the part of Ginger: “Who adores
a/the calf?” Here is my version of this dialogue, with a horizontal homophonic
pun (I have retained the last line in Piotr Cholewa’s translation):

– Kim są ci wszyscy ludzie?

– To wielbiciele – wyjaśnił Dibbler.
– Kto wielbi cielę?
– Wujek chciał powiedzieć, że to ludzie, którzy lubią cię oglądać w migawkach.

It will have been observed that some puns are slightly easier to translate than
some others. For example, the joke from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
about the three little sisters in the well being “well in” has been translated into
Polish without any problems by all the major translators of Alice: Marianowicz
is close to an ideal translation, but unfortunately he spoils it somewhat by being
unnecessarily verbose. The simplest solution would be to express “well in” by
means of the phrase “od stu dni w studni” (“in the well for a hundred days”,
reversed), but Marianowicz adds a few words and changes the speaker:

Aby znowu nie obrazić Susła, Alicja zapytała bardzo ostrożnie:

– A jak długo rysowały one ten syrop w studni?
– Sama odpowiedziałaś sobie przecież na to pytanie – rzekł Kapelusznik. – Od stu
dni – rzecz jasna.
(Carroll 1988: 128-129)

Słomczyński moves away from a pun towards a kind of spoonerism and offers
a phonetically amusing but semantically empty phrase “w studni na dole, dudni
w stodole” (Carroll 1972: 80), but Stiller and Kozak simply borrow Marian-
owicz’s obvious homophonic solution quoted above (Carroll 1990: 155 and
1997: 82, respectively).
Also the pun on senses from Lolita turned out to be easy to translate for
both Polish translators of the novel, Robert Stiller and Michał Kłobukowski:

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„Co myśleć o zmysłach?” [‘What to think of the senses?’]

(Nabokov 1991: 5)

„Czy zmysły są zmyślne?” [‘Are the senses clever?’]

(Nabokov 1997: 5)

On the other hand David Benedictus’s clever pun from Return to the Hundred
Acre Wood (“It is odd, isn’t it, Piglet?” “It’s even,” said Piglet – Benedictus
2009: 1-2) did not get rendered as a pun in the Polish edition, but neither did it
get ignored completely. Let us look at the corresponding fragment in the Polish
translation by Michał Rusinek:

–To nie do wiary – stwierdził Puchatek.

– Co nie do wiary?
Kubuś podrapał się łapą po nosku.
– Wolałbym, żeby stały spokojnie. A one się wiercą, kiedy myślą, że nie patrzę.
Jeszcze przed chwilą było ich jedenaście, a teraz jest tylko dziesięć. To nie do wia-
ry, prawda, Prosiaczku?
– Nie do wiary, ale do pary – powiedział Prosiaczek. – Jeśli jest dziesięć, ma się ro-
zumieć. A jeśli nie, to nie.
(Benedictus 2010: 5).

As can be seen, Rusinek translates “It is odd, isn’t it, Piglet?” as if it were “It is
unbelievable, isn’t it, Piglet?” and then he puts the Polish equivalent of “It is
unbelievable”, i.e. “Nie do wiary”, next to a possible Polish equivalent of “It is
even” (“do pary”), thus producing a rhyming pair which would presumably be
termed a punoid, or related rhetorical device.
Let us turn now to the vertical homophonic pun on Cue discussed above.
Although both Stiller and Kłobukowski offer a non-pun rendering of the title of
Vivian Darkbloom’s biography “My Cue”, it seems to me that a simple homo-
nymic solution is possible here: I would title the book “Pyta Q”, which can be
interpreted to mean both “Q asks” and “Q’s penis”.
Also it seems to me that “the Bridge of Size” from Night Watch, translated
by Cholewa flatly as “Most Spory” (Pratchett 2008: 28) can be called more crea-
tively as Most Eastchnień or Most Ostchnień (both playing on the Polish name
for the Bridge of Sighs, i.e., Most Westchnień, the first version being English-
based – East vs. West – and the second one being based on the German opposi-
tion of Ost vs. West).
It needs to be stressed, however, that the translating of puns is often a matter
of happy inspiration and that it is definitely much easier to invent puns when one
does not work to a deadline. Papers on translation theory contain numerous ex-

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amples of puns rendered as non-puns (and sometimes explained in a footnote) in

the published translation, and then rendered as clever puns by the given transla-
tion theorist (see, for instance, Szymenderski 2009 and Wróblewski 2013).
Let us now return to the horizontal homophonic pun on axis and axes. The
pun comes from Chapter VI (“Pig and Pepper”) of Alice’s Adventures in Won-
derland, and is based on the phonetic similarity between the words axis (‘a real
or imaginary straight line which goes through the centre of a spinning object’)
and the plural of axe (‘a tool used for cutting wood and which consists of
a heavy iron or steel blade at the end of a long wooden handle’ – CALD 2003),
that is, axes. Although it is impossible to play on the Polish equivalents of those
two words, because they are dramatically dissimilar, Marianowicz succeeded in
solving the problem brilliantly, building a pun on the Polish equivalent of the
word axes – topory – and offering probably the best Polish translation imagina-
ble:

– ...Bo ziemia, wie pani, potrzebuje dwudziestu czterech godzin na pełny obrót do-
koła swej osi. A najważniejsza rzecz to pory roku...
– Skoro już mowa o toporach – przerwała Księżna – to zetnij jej natychmiast gło-
wę!
(Carroll 1988: 102)

His version exploits the fact that the Polish word topory happens to be homo-
phonic – as well as being homographic – with two separate words: to (a demon-
strative pronoun, which in Polish can also perform the function of the copula to
be) and pory (meaning ‘times’ or ‘seasons’, and here used as part of the phrase
seasons of the year). Marianowicz simply expands Alice’s astronomy lesson by
one sentence, which means literally: “And the most important thing are the sea-
sons of the year...”, thus giving the Duchess perfect “axes” to talk of, and proba-
bly only the desire and/or necessity to find another solution forced Maciej
Słomczyński to introduce a rather unnatural and somewhat convoluted construc-
tion here:

[...] ziemia wiruje wokół swej osi raz na dwadzieścia cztery godziny, czy by się te-
go chciało, czy nie chciało...
– Niech ciało, powiadasz? Dobrze, niech ciało jej odrąbią od głowy! Utnij jej
głowę!
(Carroll 1972: 64)

Both Stiller and Kozak borrow from Marianowicz (see Carroll 1990: 123-125
and 1997: 63).

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Incidentally, there is a translation of this pun which is far better in a sense

than the original: into French. In the French version in question Alice says: “[...]
vous voyez bien, la terre met vingt-quatre heures à faire sa révolution.” To
which the Duchess replies: “Ah! Vous parlez de faire des révolutions! Qu’on lui
coupe la tête!” (Quoted after Victor Proetz 1971: 106).
Marianowicz was also quite successful in rendering the Tortoise / taught us
pun from Alice. In his version, the Turtle gets replaced with a Shark, whom the
pupils called Sawfish, and the text reads:

Nauczycielem naszym był pewien stary, bezzębny Rekin, którego nazywaliśmy Pi-
łą.
– Dlaczego nazywaliście go Piłą, skoro był Rekinem, a w dodatku nie miał zębów?
– zapytała Alicja.
– Ponieważ piłował nas wciąż w czasie lekcji – odparł ze zniecierpliwieniem Niby
Żółw.
(Carroll 1988: 166)

For Polish-less readers, the verb piłować (literally, “to saw”) has an additional
slangy meaning: “to demand constant hard work from pupils at school; to be
a harsh, severe, and demanding teacher”. For comparison, let us have a look at
Maciej Słomczyński’s version of this wordplay; here, the Turtle remains the
Turtle, and the pupils call him Oyster, because the Polish word for oyster – os-
tryga – contains the adjective ostry, which means “sharp” or “harsh”, and which
thus could be used to describe a teacher:

Nauczycielem był stary Żółw... Nazywaliśmy go Ostrygą.

– Dlaczego nazywaliście go Ostrygą, jeżeli nią nie był? – zapytała Alicja.
– Nazywaliśmy go Ostrygą, bo był ostry – powiedział gniewnie Żółwiciel.
(Carroll 1972: 101-102)

It would be interesting to analyse the remaining translations of this example and

of the other puns listed in the section on the classification of puns, but the trans-
lations presented above are sufficient to illustrate the general point, which is
that, although at first glance many puns may look untranslatable, they are un-
translatable only in terms of semantic equivalence. If we redefine translation to
include cases of formal substitution, then most instances of wordplay will turn
out to be perfectly translatable, even if initially they do pose a challenge for the
translator.
It is worth adding here that while some puns may be untranslatable into one
language, they might fare better in another language. Thus the famous Italian
maxim traduttore traditore cannot be translated as a pun into Polish, but it can be

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rendered into Chinese, where fān ‘yi means “to translate”, and fānyi’ corresponds
to such expressions as “to break a contract” or “to fail to keep one’s word” (see
Szczerbowski 2003: 23, who quotes here Chinese signs from the Bolshoj Kitajsko
Russkij Słowar’), and into Hungarian, where the saying “a fordítás: ferdítés” means
roughly something like “translation is distortion”6. And, it seems to me, an English
pun rendering is also possible: translator transtraitor (my own coinage – JW), even
if it stretches the rules of English word formation to a certain extent.

4.5. Ignoring a specific pun and compensating for it elsewhere.

The last thing a translator can do when dealing with wordplay is to ignore it, but
to introduce a play on words elsewhere in the text (compensation in place).
Sometimes a translator may want to produce additional instances of wordplay
not so much in order to make up for a specific pun which he failed to translate as
to compensate for more broadly understood inevitable translational losses, or
simply because puns are a stylistic feature of the original and a fragment of the
target text just lends itself to punning.
It is well-known, for instance, that Nabokov introduced additional puns
when he was translating his novel Lolita from English into Russian; for example,
where the original English version has a relatively neutral phrase “both of us
were panting as the cowman and the sheepman never do after their battles”
(Nabokov 1980: 298), Nabokov’s Russian Lolita introduces two paronymic puns
and has “мы оба пыхтели, как королю коров и барону баранов [i.e.: “the
king of cows and the baron of rams” in the dative case] никогда не случается
пыхтеть после схватки” (Nabokov 1989), which Stiller, who collated both the
English and the Russian Lolita, reproduced in Polish literally as: “obaj sapaliśmy
tak okrutnie, jak to królowi krów i baronowi baranów po ich walce nigdy się
nie zdarzało” (Nabokov 1991: 335; emphasis mine – JW ), which – incidentally
– shows how easy it is sometimes to translate puns between related languages.
The said Stiller introduced a few puns of his own into his translation of Loli-
ta into Polish. Since one of the characters is called Trapp, where the English
original has a simple sentence:

6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untranslatability [accessed 1 December 2013].

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I became sickeningly conscious that Trapp had changed his tactics and was still
with us, in this or that rented car.
(Nabokov 1980: 225)7

Stiller offers a clever horizontal paronymic pun:

… aż skręciło mnie od uświadomienia, że Trapp zmienił taktykę trapienia i dalej

nam towarzyszy: w takim lub inym wynajętym samochodzie. [Literally: “ … that
Trapp had changed his tactics of pestering us …”]
(Nabokov 1991: 253; emphasis mine – JW )

Moreover, where the English text mentions Cyrano: “You are a blind girl. Pal-
pate the face of: a Greek youth, Cyrano, Santa Claus, a baby, a laughing faun,
a sleeping stranger, your father” (Nabokov 1980: 228), the Russian version only
specifying additionally that the character is “Сирано-де-Бержерак”, Stiller adds
a punning comment in square brackets: “Jesteś niewidoma. Badaj dotykiem po-
cząwszy od twarzy następujące postacie: grecki młodzieniec, Cyrano de Berge-
rac [chodzi o jego wielki nos Cyranos]8, święty Mikołaj, niemowlę, śmiejący się
w łaskotkach faun, śpiący nieznajomy, twój ojciec.” (Nabokov 1991: 256).

5. Additional problems

Naturally, there are more linguistic barriers to translating. Hejwowski mentions

in this context also such elements as idioms, sayings and proverbs (2004: 108-
112), and he is certainly right. Idioms are tricky, because sometimes a translator
may not realise that he / she is dealing with an idiom, but this is not a real lin-
guistic barrier, only a language trap. Bronisław Zieliński once told a very in-
structive story of a trap he almost fell into when he was translating Roderick
Random by Tobias Smollett. This novel contains a fairly obscure English idiom
to dine with Duke Humphrey, and the context was so misleading (“When we
arrived at our dining-place, we found all the eatables at the inn bespoke by
a certain nobleman, who had got the start of us and, in all likelihood, my mis-
tress and her mother must have dined with Duke Humphrey, had I not exerted
myself in their behalf ...”) that the translator’s first idea was to translate it literal-

7
The Russian Lolita has no wordplay here either: “… а затем мне стало отвратительно
ясно, что Трапп переменил тактику и продолжает ехать за нами, но уже в других,
наемных машинах.” (Nabokov 1989).
8
Literally: “the talk is about his large nose, Cyranose” – JW.

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ly (“Gdybym się nie postarał, moja pani i jej matka musiałyby jeść / jadłyby
obiad z diukiem / księciem Humphrey”), and it was only his suspiciousness that
made him look beyond the literal meaning and led him to discover that this idi-
om means “to go dinnerless” (the full story is reported in Wróblewski 1996:
216). When, however, an author uses an idiom both in its idiomatic and in its
literal sense – which could be regarded as a form of wordplay – then the transla-
tor faces a real barrier. For example, let us look at the following passage from
Charles Dickens’s Martin Chuzzlewit:

It has been said that there is no instance, in modern times, of a Chuzzlewit having
been found on terms of intimacy with the Great. But here again the sneering detrac-
tors who weave such miserable figments from their malicious brains, are stricken
dumb by evidence. For letters are yet in the possession of various branches of the
family, from which it distinctly appears, being stated in so many words, that one
Diggory Chuzzlewit was in the habit of perpetually dining with Duke Humphrey.
So constantly was he a guest at that nobleman’s table, indeed; and so unceasingly
were His Grace’s hospitality and companionship forced, as it were, upon him; that
we find him uneasy, and full of constraint and reluctance: writing his friends to the
effect that if they fail to do so and so by bearer, he will have no choice but to dine
again with Duke Humphrey: and expressing himself in a very marked and extraor-
dinary manner as one surfeited of High Life and Gracious Company.
(Dickens 1994: 5-6; see also the endnote on page 790)

As can be seen, Dickens used the idiom to dine with Duke Humphrey in its idi-
omatic sense of “going without dinner”, but he also played on its literal meaning
of being “on terms of intimacy with the Great”, and therefore a translation based
on the corresponding Polish idiom obejść się smakiem fails, as does a literal
translation, because without the readers’ awareness of the idiomatic meaning,
the irony of the passage is gone. Hence, the passage is virtually untranslatable.
Also neologisms can prove difficult to translate (see Hejwowski 2004: 112-
118), both those which are relatively meaningless, such as, for instance, the
names of the various species encountered by Ijon Tichy during his space voyag-
es – let us try to translate the reference to “nieścisłości dotyczące m. in.
Odołęgów (a nie “Odolęgów”, jak podawał tekst), także Meopsery, Muciochów i
gatunku Powołów (Phlegmus Invariabilis Hopfstosseri)” from Dzienniki
gwiazdowe (Lem 1966: 6) – and those which have some sort of meaning defined
by the author; eg., “ziemista (specjalista od planety Ziemia), próżniarz (kos-
monauta), rdzawki (choroba robotów), wzrocza (organ wzroku istot poza-
ziemskich), kompoter (robot podający kompot)” (these examples from Lem are
quoted after Hejwowski 2004: 113).

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Finally, all sorts of poetic experiments can turn out to be impossible to

translate. Stanisław Barańczak is a translator who is not afraid of challenges – in
fact, he himself issued as many as 40 challenges in his book Ocalone w tłu-
maczeniu, i.e., he challenged his readers to translate 40 poems which are so
complex in their meaning and structure as to be virtually untranslatable, and then
presented his own solutions (1992: 211ff), but when he was preparing an anthol-
ogy of poems by E. E. Cummings, with one poem he simply gave up. The poem
in question is the one which opens the last volume published during the poet’s
lifetime (e e cummings, 95 poems):

l(a

le
af
fa

ll

s)
one
l

iness
(Cummings 1983: 344-345)

The semantic meaning of the text is easy to understand and to translate: what we
have got here is the word loneliness and the phrase a leaf falls inserted in it, but the
effects produced by the arrangement of the letters – for one thing, the la and le
looking almost like the French feminine and masculine articles, for another, the
mirrored af of leaf and fa of falls and the double ll in the middle, and finally, the
fact that the word loneliness has three signals of oneness: the letter l, which looks
like the numeral one, then the word one itself, and then the letter l again – all of this
forced Barańczak to present this poem in the anthology only in the original, in the
Afterword, and to state that it is untranslatable. For the time being, I think, we have
to agree with him – the graphic shape of the poem makes it really untranslatable.
But ...
For many years Joyce’s Finnegans Wake was also considered untranslata-
ble. In 1972 Maciej Słomczyński included some fragments of the novel in his
anthology of Joyce’s poetical works (Joyce 1972: 53-58), and in 1973 he pub-
lished a more extensive section, called “Anna Livia Plurabelle”, with some fairly
clever solutions (Joyce 1973: 42–53). Then in 1982 Tomasz Mirkowicz offered

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a rendering of the first six paragraphs of the novel (Joyce 1982b: 352–354), and
finally, in 2012 Krzysztof Bartnicki published a complete translation of this
novel. Who knows, perhaps in a few years someone will offer an equally ingen-
ious rendering of the so far untranslatable “l(a leaf falls)oneliness”?

References

Barańczak, Stanisław. 1992. Ocalone w tłumaczeniu. Szkice o warsztacie tłumacza

poezji z dodatkiem poglądowym w postaci „Małej Antologii Przekladów-
Problemów”. Poznań: Wydawnictwo a5.
Bogucki, Łukasz. 2007. Zarys przekładoznawstwa dla studentów neofilologii. Łódź:
Wyższa Szkoła Studiów Międzynarodowych w Łodzi.
Catford, J. C. 1965. A Linguistic Theory of Translation. London: Oxford University
Press.
Delabastita, Dirk. 1993. There’s a Double Tongue: an investigation into the translation
of Shakespeare's wordplay, with special reference to Hamlet. Amsterdam / Atlanta,
GA: Editions Rodopi B.V. (Approaches to Translation Studies, Vol. 11).
Delabastita, Dirk. 1996. “Introduction”. In: Delabastita, D. (ed.), Wordplay & Transla-
tion. Special Issue: The Translator. Studies in Intercultural Communication. 2 (2):
127-139.
Delabastita, Dirk (ed.). 1997. Traductio. Essays on Punning and Translation. Manches-
ter: St. Jerome Publishing, and Namur: Presses Universitaires de Namur.
Delabastita, Dirk. 2001. “Aspects of interlingual ambiguity: polyglot punning”. In: Quit-
te ou double sense. Articles sur l'ambiguïté offerts à Ronald Landheer. Textes réu-
nis par Paul Bogaards, Johan Rooryck et Paul J. Smith. Avec la collaboration de
Véronique van Gelderen. Amsterdam / Atlanta, GA: Rodopi: 45-64.
Delabastita Dirk. 2004. “Wordplay as a translation problem: A linguistic perspective”.
In: Kittel, Harald, Juliane House, Brigitte Schultze, et al. (eds.), Übersetzung: ein
internationales Handbuch zur Übersetzungsforschung. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
GmbH & Co. 600-606.
Fogle, S.F. 1974. “Pun”. In: Preminger A. (ed.), Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and
Poetics. Enlarged Edition. London: The Macmillan Press: 681-682.
Freud, Sigmund. 1983 [1905]. Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious. Translated
from the German and edited by James Strachey. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Pen-
guin Books.
Hammond, Paul and Patrick Hughes. 1978. Upon the Pun. Dual Meaning in Words and
Pictures. London: W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd.
Hejwowski, Krzysztof. 2004. Kognitywno-komunikacyjna teoria przekładu. Warszawa:
Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Jarniewicz, Jerzy. 1996. “Problems with Gender in English-Polish Literary Translation”.
In: Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. and M. Thelen (eds.) 1996: 235-239.

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Janusz Wróblewski

Jarniewicz, Jerzy. 2002. “Problematyka rodzaju w przekładzie literackim”. In: Soko-

loski, Duda and Scholz (eds.) 2002: 73-86.
Kropiwiec, Urszula, Maria Filipowicz-Rudek and Jadwiga Konieczna-Twardzikowa,
(eds.). 2003. Między oryginałem a przekładem. Vol. VIII. Stereotyp a przekład.
Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka.
Krzeszowski, Tomasz P. 1980. Gramatyka angielska dla Polaków. Warszawa: PWN.
Lebiedziński, Henryk. 1981. Elementy przekładoznawstwa ogólnego. Warszawa: PWN.
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. and M. Thelen (eds.). 1996. Translation and Meaning,
Part 4. Proceedings of the Łódź Session of the 2nd Maastricht–Łódź Duo Colloqui-
um on “Translation and Meaning”, 22–24 September 1995. Maastricht:
Hogeschool Maastricht, School of Translation and Interpreting.
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. and M. Thelen (eds.). 2013. Translation and Meaning
Part 10. Proceedings of the Lodz Session of the 5th International Maastricht-Lodz
Duo Colloquium on “Translation and Meaning”, Held in Lodz (Poland), 16-19
September 2010. Maastricht: Maastricht School of Translation and Interpreting,
Zuyd University of Applied Sciences.
Maltzev, V.A. 1980. An Introduction to Linguistic Poetics. Minsk: Higher School.
McArthur, Tom. 1992. The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: Ox-
ford University Press.
Ostrowski, Marek. 2002. “Zu der Übersetzung der Gedichte Paul Celans ins Polnische”.
In: Sokoloski, Duda and Scholz (eds.) 2002: 141-153.
Pisarska, Alicja. 1989. Creativity of Translators. The Translation of Metaphorical Ex-
pressions in Non-literary Texts. Poznań: UAM.
Proetz, Victor. 1971. The Astonishment of Words. An Experiment in the Comparison of
Languages. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press.
Shipley, Joseph T. (ed.). 1979 [1970]. Dictionary of World Literary Terms. Forms.
Technique. Criticism. Completely Revised and Enlarged Edition. London, Boston
and Sydney: George Allen & Unwin.
Slobodian, Elena. 2010. “Graficzne przyswajanie zapożyczeń z języka angielskiego
w języku rosyjskim początku XXI wieku i moda językowa”. Linguistica Copernicana.
– Toruń. – No. 2(4), 311-322.
Sokoloski, Richard, Henryk Duda and Jacek Scholz (eds.). 2002. Warsztaty Transla-
torskie II / Workshop on Translation II. Lublin: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL; Ot-
tawa: Slavic Research Group – University of Ottawa.
Szczerbowski, Tadeusz. 1998. Gry językowe w przekładach „Ulissesa” Jamesa Joyce’a.
Kraków: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Języka Polskiego PAN.
Szczerbowski, Tadeusz. 2003. “Stereotypy i przekłady, czyli “kłamstwa” motywowane
kulturowo”. In: Kropiwiec et al. 2003: 23-33.
Szymenderski, Tomasz. 2009. “Pratchett in Polish: Translation and Humour in Truck-
ers”. In: Kearns, John (ed.). 2009. Translation Ireland. Volume 18, number 1. Tori-
no: Trauben: 81-102.
Toury, Gideon. 1997. “What Is It That Renders a Spoonerism (Un)translatable?” In:
Delabastita 1997: 271–291.

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Wawrzyniak, Zdzisław. 1991. Praktyczne aspekty translacji literackiej na przykładzie

języków niemieckiego i angielskiego. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Nau-
kowe.
Wojtasiewicz, Olgierd. 1957. Wstęp do teorii tłumaczenia. Wrocław, Warszawa: Zakład
Imienia Ossolińskich.
Wróblewski, Janusz. 1996. “False Friends Revisited”. In: Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk,
B. and M. Thelen (eds.) 1996: 213–222.
Wróblewski, Janusz. 2013. “Dolores de la Traducción, or Lolita in Translation”. In:
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. and M. Thelen (eds.) 2013: 79-90.

Dictionaries

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 2003. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary by A. S. Hornby. 1995. (Fifth edition). Ed.
J. Crowther. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sources of additional examples

Auden, Wystan Hugh. 1988. Poezje. Selected and edited by Leszek Elektorowicz. Kra-
ków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
Barańczak, Stanisław (ed.). 1993. Od Chaucera do Larkina. 400 nieśmiertelnych wierszy
125 poetów anglojęzycznych z 8 stuleci. Selected, translated, and edited by
Stanisław Barańczak. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Znak.
Benedictus, David. 2009. Return to the Hundred Acre Wood. London: Egmont Books
Ltd, New York, NY: Dutton's Children's Books.
Benedictus, David. 2010. Powrót do Stumilowego Lasu. Translated by Michał Rusinek.
Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia.
Carroll, Lewis. 1972. Przygody Alicji w Krainie Czarów. Translated by Maciej
Słomczyński. Warszawa: Czytelnik.
Carroll, Lewis. 1988 [1955]. Alicja w Krainie Czarów. Translated by Antoni Marian-
owicz. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia.
Carroll, Lewis. 1990. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Przygody Alicji w Krainie
Czarów. Translated by Robert Stiller. Wydawnictwo Lettrex.
Carroll, Lewis. 1997. Alicja w Krainie Czarów. Translated by Jolanta Kozak. Warszawa:
Wydawnictwo Plac Słoneczny 4.
Carroll, Lewis. 1998. The Complete Illustrated Lewis Carroll. Ware, Hertfordshire:
Wordsworth Editions.
cummings e e (Cummings, Edward Estlin). 1983. 150 wierszy. Translated by Stanisław
Barańczak. Kraków – Wroclaw: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

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Dickens, Charles. 1994. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit: Edited by Michael
Slater. London: J.M. Dent, and Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle – Everyman.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. 1994. “A Scandal in Bohemia”. In: The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes. London: Penguin Books, 3-29.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. 1972. “Skandal w Czechach”. Translated by Irena Doleżal-
Nowicka. In: Przygody Sherlocka Holmesa. Warszawa: Iskry, 3-28.
Frost, Robert. 1992. 55 wierszy. Selected, translated, and edited by Stanisław Barańczak.
Kraków: Wydawnictwo ARKA.
Gorki / Горький Максим. 1913-14. Детство.
Available at: http://ilibrary.ru/text/1539/p.1/index.html 1913-14 [accessed 1 De-
cember 2013].
Gorki / Gorky, Maksim. 1915. My Childhood. Translated by Ronald Wilks. Available at:
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/g/gorky/maksim/g66my/chapter1.html [accessed 1 De-
cember 2013]
Gorki, Maksym. 1974. Dzieciństwo. Translated by Krystyna Bilska. Warszawa: Państ-
wowy Instytut Wydawniczy (Biblioteka Klasyki Polskiej i Obcej).
Heine, Heinrich. 1980. Das Glück auf Erden. Ausgewählte Gedichte. Deutschland. Ein
Wintermärchen. Moskau: Verlag Progress.
Joyce, James. 1978 [1922]. Ulysses. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Joyce, James. 1972. Utwory poetyckie – Poetical Works. Translated by Maciej
Słomczyński. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
Joyce, James. 1973. Finnegans Wake – Fragmenty. “Anna Livia Plurabelle”. Translated
by Maciej Słomczyński. Literatura na świecie 5 (25), pp. 42–53.
Joyce, James. 1982a [1939]. Finnegans Wake. London: Faber & Faber.
Joyce, James. 1982b. “Finnegans Wake (sześć pierwszych akapitów)”. Translated by
Tomasz Mirkowicz. Literatura na świecie 8 (133), pp. 352–354
Joyce, James. 2012. Finneganów Tren. Translated by Krzysztof Bartnicki. Kraków:
Korporacja Ha!art.
Lem, Stanisław. 1966. Dzienniki gwiazdowe. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
Lem, Stanisław. 1976. Maska. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
Lermontov / Лермонтов, Михаил Юрьевич. 1976. Поэзия. Mocква: Детская
литература.
Lutz John. 1990. “It’s a Dog’s Life”. In: Adrian, Jack and Robert Adey (eds.). The Art of
the Impossible. An Extravaganza of Miraculous Murders, Fantastic Felonies & In-
credible Criminals. London: Xanadu, 98-107.
Marsh, Ngaio. 1958. Scales of Justice. London and Glasgow: Collins – Fontana Books.
Nabokov, Vladimir. 1980. Lolita. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Nabokov, Vladimir. 1991. Lolita. Przełożył z angielskiego i rosyjskiego Robert Stiller.
Warszawa: PIW.
Nabokov, Vladimir. 1997. Lolita. Translated by Michał Kłobukowski. Warszawa:
Wydawnictwo Da Capo.
Nabokov, Vladimir. 1998. Лолита. Перевод с английского: Владимир Набоков.
Downloaded from http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/lolita.txt [accessed 9 July 2009].

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Poeci języka angielskiego, Volume III. 1974. Selected and edited by Henryk Krzec-
zkowski, Jerzy S. Sito, and Juliusz Żuławski. Warszawa: PIW.
Pratchett, Terry. 1986. The Light Fantastic. London: Corgi Books.
Pratchett, Terry. 1987a. Equal Rites. London: Corgi Books.
Pratchett, Terry. 1987b. Mort. London: Corgi Books.
Pratchett, Terry. 1991. Moving Pictures. London: Corgi Books.
Pratchett, Terry. 1998. Jingo. London: Corgi Books.
Pratchett, Terry. 2000. Ruchome obrazki (Moving Pictures). Translated by Piotr
W. Cholewa. Warszawa: Prószyński i S-ka.
Pratchett, Terry. 2002. Mort. Translated by Piotr W. Cholewa. Warszawa: Prószyński
i S-ka.
Pratchett, Terry. 2003. Night Watch. London: Corgi Books.
Pratchett, Terry. 2008. Straż nocna (Night Watch). Translated by Piotr W. Cholewa.
Warszawa: Prószyński i S-ka.
Pratchett, Terry. 2009. Księgi nomów: Nomów księga wyjścia, Nomów księga kopania,
Nomów księga odlotu (Truckers, Diggers, Wings). Translated by Jarosław Kotarski.
Poznań: Dom Wydawniczy REBIS.
Rabelais, François. 1980. Gargantua and Pantagruel. Translated by Jacques Le Clercq.
Fragments in: The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Vol. 1. General Edi-
tor: Maynard Mack. New York & London: W. W. Norton: 1237-1277.
Rabelais, François. 1988. Gargantua i Pantagruel. Translated by Tadeusz Żeleński
(Boy). Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
Shakespeare, William. 1958. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Ed. by
G. B. Harrison. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Shakespeare / Szekspir, Wiliam. 1973. Dzieła Dramatyczne. Tom 5. Tragedie. Translated
by Józef Paszkowski and Leon Ulrich. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
Shakespeare, William. 2005. Romeo i Julia. Translated by Maciej Słomczyński. Warszawa:
Elipsa Sp. z o.o. (Biblioteka Gazety Wyborczej; książka z płytą DVD).
Van Dine, S.S. 1991. Piosenka śmierci (The Bishop Murder Case). Translated by Janina
Sujkowska. Warszawa: Czytelnik.

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Cultural Barriers in Translation

Janusz Wróblewski

University of Łódź
jzwrob@gmail.com

Abstract: Even though traditional definitions of translation talk about the replacing of
a text in one language by an equivalent text in another language (cf. Catford 1965: 20,
Newmark 1982: 7), there is no doubt that translation involves more than just linguistic
operations, that apart from purely linguistic barriers, translators often face cultural barri-
ers. This chapter discusses various aspects of translation as a cross-cultural transfer and
of cultural untranslatability. It presents some classifications of culture-specific words
and phrases (the flora and fauna indigenous to an area, local types of food and drink,
items of clothing, local forms of music and dances, games, including card-games, social,
political, and administrative terms, quotations and allusions connected with the literature
of the given source-language country, allusions to the country’s history and culture, etc.),
and then enumerates typical procedures for translating them (reproduction without, and
with, explanations, syntagmatic, i.e. literal translation without, and with, explanations,
using an established equivalent or a functional equivalent, using a hyperonym, i.e.
a superordinate word, using descriptive equivalents, omitting the given item, etc.). All
the procedures are illustrated with quotations from various books, both fiction and non-
fiction.
Keywords: untranslatability, linguistic untranslatability, cultural untranslatability, cross-
cultural transfer, Skopos theory, the cultural turn in Translation Studies

1. Introduction

Although traditional definitions of translation talk about the replacing of a text in

one language by an equivalent text in another language (cf. Catford 1965: 20;
Newmark 1982: 7), no one is likely to question the statement that translation
involves more than just linguistic operations, that apart from purely linguistic

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barriers, translators often face cultural barriers. Catford himself is fully aware of
that when he says, discussing the limits of translatability:

Translation fails – or untranslatability occurs – when it is impossible to build func-

tionally relevant features of the situation into the contextual meaning of the TL text.
Broadly speaking, the cases where this happens fall into two categories. Those
where the difficulty is linguistic, and those where it is cultural.
(Catford 1965: 94; emphasis in the original).

He then proceeds to explain that linguistic untranslatability stems from the differ-
ences between the languages in question (for example, it can involve shared expo-
nence, when two or more lexical or grammatical items have the same exponent, as
in the phrase “Time flies”, being on one hand an observation on the passing of time
and, on the other hand, at least technically, a request to measure the velocity with
which the said flies fly), whereas cultural untranslatability occurs “when
a situational feature, functionally relevant for the SL text, is completely absent from
the culture of which the TL is a part” (Catford 1965: 99).
Actually, this kind of cultural awareness dates back somewhat earlier. In the
1950s, the French theorist Edmond Cary wrote that translation “n'est pas une
opération seulement linguistique” (“is not a strictly linguistic operation”) and
that it is connected with the whole cultural context (after Mounin 1982: 234).
Mounin himself stresses the necessity for a translator to study not only the given
foreign language but also the ethnography of the community that uses the lan-
guage (ethnography seems to be Mounin’s word for what the Germans call
Landeskunde, and what might otherwise be termed Life and institutions). He
concludes his argument by saying: “No translation will be fully adequate if this
double condition is not fulfilled” (1982: 236; translation mine – JW). Also Jean-
René Ladmiral talks about the relationship between each language and its cultur-
al context and postulates that translation theory should incorporate the extralin-
guistic (or “paralinguistic”) perspective of anthropology (1979: 17-18). He men-
tions the difficulty (if not impossibility) of rendering into French the vocabulary
of the Japanese tea ceremony or the technical expressions connected with base-
ball, and cites Henri Meschonnic (1973), who suggested that the linguistic no-
tion of language could be expanded into “langue-culture” (“language-culture”)
(Ladmiral 1979: 18).
In Germany, one of the major opponents to the idea that translation was
mainly a linguistic operation was Hans J. Vermeer, who saw translation as
a cross-cultural transfer, and who, in his paper entitled “Übersetzen als kulturel-
ler Transfer”, defined translation as “ein Informationangebot in einer Sprache z
der Kultur Z, das ein Informationangebot in einer Sprache a der Kultur
A funktionsgerecht imitiert” (“an information offer in language z of culture Z,

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which imitates functionally an information offer in language a of culture A”).

(Quoted after Snell-Hornby 1988: 46, translation mine – JW). Vermeer’s defini-
tion is obviously related to his Skopos theory, which says roughly that each
translation is produced for a specific recipient with specific purpose(s) in a given
situation, and that therefore what counts in translation is not any kind of equiva-
lence towards the source text, but rather whether the translation performs the
function that is expected of it in the target culture (cf. Snell-Hornby 1988: 46-47,
who, incidentally, fully subscribes to Vermeer’s opinions).
Soon the impact of cultural studies on translation studies became so great
that in 1990 Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere coined the phrase “the cultural
turn in Translation Studies” and stated that within the cultural turn “neither the
word, nor the text, but the culture becomes the operational “unit” of translation”
(after Munday 2009: 179). This means that we do not translate words as individ-
ual words, or even words as parts of a text, but that we look at the words as per-
forming a certain role in a certain culture and translate them accordingly. For
example, in the novel Shares in Murder by Judah L. Waten one of the characters
begins his day by “writing up his day book” and the author then adds: “it was the
size of a telephone directory”. While “a telephone directory” might pose
a serious problem for a translator into a language-culture which does not know
telephones, far less directories, it is not a difficult word to translate into
a European language – it has obvious one-to-one equivalents in virtually all the
European (and all major world) languages. The context in which it appears also
seems fairly simple, and yet, translating that novel into Bulgarian, Sidor Florin
decided that he had a problem with rendering the word: he realised that the key
word in that passage was not the telephone directory but size. And in Bulgaria at
that time, even the Sofia telephone directory was not very impressive. Conse-
quently, he replaced the original telephone directory with an encyclopedia (Flor-
in 1983: 130) – seemingly a dramatic mistranslation at word level, but an appro-
priate translation at the level of culture.
Today, as Koskinen puts it, “it has almost become a platitude to state that one
does not translate across languages but across cultures” (2004: 144) and the more
remote geographically, historically or politically the given cultures are, the more
problems the translator is likely to face. Thus a translator of the Bible into
a language which does not have a word for bread will have a serious problem with
the last word of the line “Give us this day our daily bread” from the Lord’s
Prayer (Matthew 6:11). Theoretically, he or she could borrow the word from
Greek, Latin or English, etc., but it will be meaningless without a footnote, and
a footnote in the Lord’s Prayer is not a desirable thing. At the level of culture,
however, the translator may simply replace bread with, for example, fish, if the
target culture has fish as its staple daily meal (Prunč 2001: 118), as the word

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bread in this prayer is used not so much for its denotation as for its symbolic
value of daily food. On the other hand, it would be wrong to replace sheep and
lambs with seals, because of the all-important symbol of the Lamb of God, or to
dispense with such words as cross and crucifixion even if the target cultures do
not know them – for obvious reasons (Nida and Taber 1974: 111).
Needless to say, there are certain problems surrounding the cultural ap-
proach to translation. The first one concerns the definition of culture. Initially,
the word was used to refer to the intellectual and material achievements of the
“civilized” societies (for example, in the arts and architecture). Later, it began to
signify the way of life of various societies, including – or even focusing on –
“primitive” societies. Still later, the word acquired a third meaning, “related to
forces in society or ideology” (Katan 2009: 74). Today, the definitions of culture
probably run into hundreds, if not thousands, but, as will be seen in the subse-
quent paragraphs, some words which translation theorists discuss as culture-
specific have relatively little to do with any of those definitions.
The second problem concerns the fact that some scholars consider language
a part of culture; if this view is accepted, then, by definition, every linguistic
barrier is also a cultural one.
Of course, even if language and culture are kept separate, it is not always
easy to classify a translational problem as linguistic or cultural; for example, the
fact that death is masculine in English and German and feminine in Polish and
Russian is certainly a linguistic issue (see the preceeding chapter), but also, to
a certain extent, a cultural one. Conversely, as Catford aptly demonstrates, when
looked at from a specific angle, some cultural barriers can be regarded as lin-
guistic. For instance, the Japanese word yukata means roughly something like
a “loose robe bound by a sash, worn by either men or women, supplied to guests in
a Japanese inn or hotel, worn in the evening indoors or out of doors in street or
café, worn in bed ...” (Catford 1965: 100). This in itself is already a problem in
translation, but the situation becomes even more complicated when the text says
hoteru-no yukata, because, while the Japanese phrase is a natural, high-probability
collocation, all the potential English equivalents (hotel dressing-gown, hotel bath-
robe, hotel nightgown) are rather low-probability collocations. Let us now visualize
that phrase in a sentence: “After his bath he enveloped his still-glowing body in the
simple hotel bath-robe and went out to join his friends in the café down the street.”
(Catford 1965: 102). There is no doubt that the reader experiences a cultural shock
here – a bath-robe worn in the street – but it is also indisputable that the collocation
hotel bath-robe sounds strange. This leads Catford to the conclusion that what we
are dealing with here is not so much a cultural shock as collocational shock, that the
untranslatability of the Japanese word can be attributed to a purely linguistic fea-
ture: unusualness of collocation (Catford 1965: 102).

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The third major issue is the importance of the cultural filter in translation –
should it be applied to every text type in every situation, or should it operate
selectively? (Katan 2009: 75-76). In other words, should there be a difference in
the approach to the translation of business letters, training booklets for the local
representatives of a foreign company and all sorts of promotional materials on
one hand, and the translation of literary texts on the other? Theoreticians argue,
but there seems to be little doubt that for some texts the cultural filter is more
important than for others. For example, it is common knowledge that letter writ-
ing conventions differ from country to country, and therefore a literal translation
of a business letter may turn out to be unacceptable for the given target culture.
Similarly, if someone born and educated in the Polish People’s Republic wrote
a very traditional socialist-style CV (“Urodziłem się w roku … w rodzinie intel-
igenckiej / robotniczej”) and wanted it translated into English so that he could
send it to an international company now, it would be a very bad service if the
translator did not insert a cultural filter into his or her work and did not follow
the format of standard modern CVs. On the other hand, if the above was the first
sentence of an autobiography or a novel, then perhaps a more literal version
would be in order, perhaps with a footnote explaining the cultural significance of
the first sentence.
Additionally, I remember a discussion on an Internet forum for translators
(the thread seems to be gone now) about translating a sales-team training booklet
for a large American company that was expanding into Germany. The text dis-
cussed some ways of approaching customers in a store, and the problem was that
almost all the practices mentioned were dramatically wrong for Germany, be-
cause in German shops sales clerks usually leave customers alone, except for
asking them if they can be of help. The direct American approach and the literal-
ly translated conversational gambits would probably draw curious looks from
any potential customers. Obviously, the text had to be adapted to German social
practices, because, as Korzeniowska and Kuhiwczak put it, “adequate translation
is a matter of successful linguistic and cultural transfer” (1994: 15 – emphasis in
the original).
Also works of fiction which concern (appropriate) human behaviour in vari-
ous situations might not lend themselves easily to translation. When translated
literally, passages which involve culture-specific behaviour might look odd or
even offensive to the target readers. It is for such cases that Vinay & Darbelnet
have postulated their last translational procedure, namely adaptation. They argue
that while it is perfectly normal for an English father to kiss his daughter on the
mouth, it would be very unnatural for a French father to do such a thing; appar-
ently, even mentioning such an action would be culturally unacceptable in
a French text, and, consequently, that action must be replaced with simple em-

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bracing, and the relevant sentence becomes Il serra tendrement sa fille dans ses
bras (‘he tenderly embraced his daughter in his arms’) (Vinay & Darbelnet
1995: 68). On one hand, this is highly disputable, mainly on the grounds that
a translator should not be a censor and that target language readers have the right
to get acquainted with source language manners and not have them filtered
through the “bon goût” of the translator, but on the other hand, culture-specific
behaviour is a translational problem, and perhaps a simple novel is not the best
place to propagate cultural diversity. To put it quite simply, when translated
literally, some culture-specific expressions will sound puzzling.
Let me illustrate this problem with two simple Polish words connected with
what might be termed Polish table manners: “Smacznego” (as used at the begin-
ning of the meal) and “Dziękuję”, as used at the end. While the word “Smaczne-
go” does not have an English-language equivalent, it is perfectly translatable
into English by means of the French phrase “Bon appétit”, and, although the
distribution of this expression in English is somewhat different than that of the
Polish word (the Polish word is probably used in more situations), this difference
is not so significant as to cause any raising of the eyebrows, let alone any serious
communication breakdowns. (Of course, in some contexts, the Polish word
“Smacznego” will be better rendered as “Enjoy your meal” or “I hope you like
it” – for instance, when uttered by the lady of the house encouraging her guests
to eat).
The problem becomes more interesting with the second word, the typical
equivalent of which is the English phrase “Thank you”. Let us visualise for
a moment a traditional Polish milk bar or a canteen in “Dom wczasowy” – and
people sitting together at a meal; the meal being over, they all stand up and say
“Dziękuję” (or, one of them, having finished eating first, stands up, says
“Dziękuję” and leaves) – natural? Yes, of course. Let us now consider the same
situation described in English: people, sometimes perfect strangers, leaving the
table after a meal and saying “Thank you” – puzzling? Well, slightly... At least
to the degree which prompted the authors of the Berlitz phrasebook Polish for
Travellers to offer the following comment about eating in Poland: “When people
leave the table in Poland, it’s a custom to say dziękuję (dzhehnkooyeh – thank
you) to one another. They aren’t thanking the cook or their host, but thanking
each other for eating together.” (Berlitz 1984: 40-41).
The Polish custom of saying “Dziękuję” at the end of a meal is
a translational problem not only between Polish and English. Lewicki (1993)
offers interesting comments on the rendering of this word (microtext) into Rus-
sian. Adapting his discussion of the Russian examples into English, we can say
that regardless of whether the passage:

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– Dziękuję! – Popławski podniósł się od stołu.

gets rendered literally (semantically, at the level of linguistic signs) as something

like:

“Thank you,” Popławski got up from the table.

or whether the translator adds a short explanatory phrase:

“Thank you for the company,” Popławski got up from the table.

the text still betrays its foreign origin. It is only when the translator uses a non-
equivalent microtext, when instead of “Thank you”, he has Popławski say some-
thing like, “Well, I’ll be going,” i.e., when he employs adaptation, that the pas-
sage will look natural and not have any connotations of foreignness (cf. Lewicki
1993: 45-46).
Of course, there will be cases where the source-language microtext is really
equivalentless, and where the translator’s best choice will be to omit the text
altogether. For instance, the Russians are apparently apt to utter all sorts of jocu-
lar congratulatory phrases on the occasion of some totally irrelevant events,
phrases which when translated into English or Polish, would sound puzzling or
idiotic, or they would have some very odd undertones. One of such expressions
is “С покупкой!” (literally: With [a/the/your] purchase!) (Lewicki 1993: 96).
Going beyond the semantics of the words, this expression would mean some-
thing like “Congratulations on your purchase!”, but will this phrase be interpret-
ed correctly? Let us imagine that we have a book set in the 1960s, 1970s, or
1980s in the Soviet Union, with a scene in which two neighbours meet in front
of their block of flats. One of them is returning from the corner shop with a jar
of jam. After the obligatory exchange of greetings, the conversations turns to the
purpose of the first neighbour’s going out, the information about the visit to the
shop and about the jam is duly provided, at which point the second neighbour
says “Gratulacje z okazji zakupu!” [“Congratulations on your purchase!”]. The
problem is that if a Pole of my generation (or older) read this, I am fairly sure,
we would probably assume that the expression in question referred to the scarci-
ty of jam in the shops, but we would be dramatically wrong. The shortages of
various goods under socialism notwithstanding, pragmatically, this phrase is
really only a kind of acknowledgement which could probably be rendered simp-
ly by means of “Aha” or a similar noncommittal exclamation. As far as render-
ing it into English is concerned, perhaps “Good for you!” would be an adequate
translation, provided that the jocular nature of this utterance is understood.

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Which leads us back to the general problem of cultural untranslatability and

of cultural elements in translation.

2. Various classifications of culture-specific elements

It must be remembered that the notion of cultural elements or culture-specific

language items includes also elements related to nature rather than culture, but it
is nature as reflected in a given language and culture.
According to Vlahov and Florin (1980), culture-specific words and phrases
(actually, the authors prefer to call them realia), can be classified into the follow-
ing categories (the original examples were in Russian; many were international-
isms, and I have taken a few of those and given them in English; I have copied
and/or transliterated a few less common Russian words, and I have added a few
English and Polish examples):

A. Geographical realia:
Names of objects connected with physical geography and meteorology: e.g.,
steppe, prairie, pampa, Puszta, fjord, wadi, samun or simoom, the mistral, tor-
nado.
Names of objects connected with man’s activity: e.g., polder, grid, aryk (“a
small aqueduct for the irrigation of farmland”), chaltyk (“a rice field”).
Names of endemic species: e.g., kiwi, the Abominable Snowman, Yeti, sequoia.

B. Ethnographical realia
Daily life
food and drinks: pie, spaghetti, empanadas, bigos, knedle, mate, kumis, ci-
der; places for eating: tavern, saloon, drug-store, bistro, brasserie;
clothing etc.: kimono, sari, sarong, moccasins, sombrero, jeans;
places and furniture: yurta,, igloo, wigwam, bungalow, hacienda;
transportation: rickshaw, troika, palanquin (litter / sedan chair), pirogue;
others: (Polish) sanatorium, dom wczasowy.
Work:
people: farmer, gaucho, concierge, fellah, (Polish) przodownik pracy;
tools: machete, boomerang, lasso;
organization of work: kolkhoz, ranch, latifundium.
Art and culture:
music and dances: kozachok, krakowiak, tarantella;
instruments: balalaika, tamtam, gusle, castanets, banjo;

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folklore: saga, runes, qasida;

theatre: kabuki, noh, happening, commedia dell’arte, Harlequin / Arlecchi-
no, Colombina, Pulcinella / Punchinello;
other arts: ikebana, Makonde art, Chinte;
performers: Minnesingers / Minnesänger, troubadour, skald, bard, geisha;
customs: vendetta, Ramadan, Śmigus-Dyngus;
holidays: Easter, Christmas;
games: baseball, cricket, tarot;
mythology: Santa Claus, trolls, Valkyrie, elves, gnomes, Baba-Yaga, were-
wolf, жар-птица = zhar-ptitsa (“the Fire-bird”);
cults: lama, bonze, Huguenots, Mormons, Quakers, dervish; buildings and
objects connected with religious cults: mosque, pagoda, church, synagogue,
hermitage, crucifix, prayer wheel.
Ethnic characterizations:
ethnonyms: Apache, Navajo, Bantu, Hutsuls, Copts;
ethnic slurs: кацап / kacap (“Ukrainian / Polish derogatory term for
a Russian”), Cockney; bosch, Fritz, Jerry, Kraut; Jap, Nip; Cholo, Dago;
Polack; Gringo; Yankee;
names of people according to their place of residence: Berliners, Londoners,
Mancunians (“the inhabitants of Manchester”), Liverpudlians or Scousers
(“the inhabitants of Liverpool”), Cariocas (“the inhabitants of Rio de Janei-
ro”).
Measures and money:
units of measure: inch, foot, yard, mile, kilometre, acre, hectare, pint, quart,
gallon;
money: lev, stotinka, rouble, kopeck, złoty, grosz;
colloquial names of banknotes and coins: twopence, threepence, dime, nick-
el.

C. Realia connected with politics and society

Administrative and territorial organisation / structure:
administrative and territorial units: губерния = guberniya (“a major admin-
istrative subdivision of the Russian Empire, a governorate, or a province”),
state, county, borough; region, province; department, arrondissement, can-
ton; principality; prefecture (in Japan); województwo, powiat (in Poland);
local settlements: аул = aul (“a fortified village in the Caucasus”), станица
= stanitsa, хутор = khutor; bidonville, favela;
details of a settlement: bazaar, souk, promenade.

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Authorities (institutions and people):

institutions: National Assembly, the House of Commons, the House of
Lords, Bundestag, Storting / Stortinget (Norway), Folketing / Folketinget
(Denmark), Riksdag / Riksdagen or Sveriges riksdag (Sweden), Eduskunta
(Finland), Knesset (Israel), the Cortes Generales (“General Courts”; the
Parliament of Spain), Duma (Russia); Sejm (Poland), Senate;
people: Chancellor, Khan, Czar, Shah, Sultan, Doge, Pharaoh, Lord Mayor,
sheriff, vizier, alcalde, satrap;
Social and political life:
political activity and activists: the Bolsheviks, Trockyists, Peronists, Tupa-
maros, Ku Klux Klan, Whigs, Tories, Roundheads, Presbyterians, Inde-
pendents, Levellers;
patriotic and civic movements and their members: partisans, hayduts
(“freedom fighters and sometimes robbers mainly in the Balkans”), the
Carbonari, the Maquis, klepths (“brigands and anti-Ottoman insurgents in
Greece and Cyprus”); Occidentalists, Slavists, Slavophiles;
social phenomena and movements (and their representatives): Prohibition,
publicity, business, military-industrial complex, New Economic Policy
(NEP), lobby, lobbyist, Tifosi (“fans of a football club or supporters of
Scuderia Ferrari in Formula One”), swingers, hippies;
degrees and titles, forms of address: docent, doktor habilitowany, nauczyciel
mianowany, nauczyciel dyplomowany (Polish); zasłużony działacz kultury
(Russian → Polish); knyaz / kniaź; prince, Graf (German), duke, earl, bar-
on, lord, Mister, Sir, Madam, Herr (German);
institutions: Наркомпрос = Narkompros (Народный комиссариат
просвещения = People’s [or National] Commissariat for Education, prede-
cessor of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Soviet Federative Social-
ist Republic), Urząd Stanu Cywilnego (Polish; “Register office”); The Royal
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals;
educational and cultural institutions: szkoła podstawowa, gimnazjum, liceum
(“primary school”, “junior high school” and “high school”, respectively, in
Poland); collège and lycée (“junior high school” and “high school”, respec-
tively, in France), college, madrasa, campus;
social classes and castes (and their members): nobility, bourgeoisie, mer-
chantry; Junker, Junkerdom; Grandees of Spain / Grandes de España; Pa-
riah (Paraiyar), samurai, fellah;
class signs and symbols: Red Banner, five-pointed star, the Star of David
(Magen David), fleur-de-lis; the crescent, swastika, the Union Jack; the
“Stars and Stripes”, “Old Glory”, and “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

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Military realia:
military units: legion, phalanx, centuria, horde, cohort;
weapons: arquebus, musket, scimitar, yataghan, Katyusha;
uniforms etc.: chainmail, shako, pelisse, lanyard (“a rope or cord fixed to
the hilt of a sword and worn around the wrist”), gymnasterka / gymnastiorka
(“a Russian military shirt-tunic”);
military personnel (including commanders and rulers): ataman, hetman,
centurion, sebastokrator (“venerable ruler”, a senior court title in the Byz-
antine Empire), Sirdar (“an Indo-Iranian title of nobility, synonymous with
Amir”), Gardes-Marine, janissary, bashi-bazouk (“irregular soldiers of the
Ottoman army, adventurers noted for their disorderliness and lack of disci-
pline”), Feldwebel, dragoon, cuirassier, plastun / plastoon (“a Cossack foot
scouting unit”).
(Cf. Vlahov and Florin 1980: 49-55)

Vlahov and Florin propose three more classifications of realia.

One is place-based:

a) on the plane of a single language, realia can be divided into

 native,with three subgroups:
 national [cf. samovar in Russian, lend-lease in English, concierge
in French, Schnaps in German, spaghetti in Italian, or województwo
in Polish],
 local [the authors illustrate this category by means of the “Russian”
word lautar, which means a singer-musician from the then Molda-
vian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic], and
 microrealia [as examples, the authors offer here the phrase the 4th
kilometre and the word Karlukovo, both used by people from Sofia
as a euphemism for “a mental hospital”, because there is a famous
psychiatric hospital around four kilometres away from Sofia and
another one in the village of Karlukovo; in the same way the inhab-
itants of Łódź use the word Kochanówek]1
 and foreign (international, which are known almost universally, such
as cowboy, and regional, which may have crossed the boundaries of
one country, but which are not fully international; eg. kolkhoz from
Russian),

1
Historically, the name was Kochanówka.

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b) and on the plane of pairs of languages – into internal and external (for
example, for the pair Norwegian and Polish, the word fjord is internal
for Norwegian, but external for Polish, while the word prairie is external
for both).

The next classification is time-based, i.e. realia can be current (e.g. Polish
wuzetka) or historical (e.g. Polish kontusz and żupan). Additionally, the time-
based classification can be combined with, or superimposed on, the place-based
one, giving such categories as national-historical or foreign-current, etc.
Finally, realia could be classified according to the translational procedures
used to deal with them, but this classification seems the least useful, as one word
can be rendered by means of various translational procedures (Vlahov and Florin
1980: 56-77).
A slightly different classification appears in Newmark 1988:

Ecology
Flora, fauna, winds, plains, hills: e.g. honeysuckle, pomelo, avocado, com-
mon snail (helix aspersa), koala, panda, wallaby, sirocco, llanos, veld, tun-
dra, selva
Material culture (artefacts)
Food: zabaglione, sake
Clothes: anorak, sarong, dirndl
Houses and towns: chalet, low-rise, hacienda
Transport: rickshaw, cabriolet, tilbury (“an open two-wheeled carriage”)
Social culture – work and leisure: the proletariat; boules, pétanque
Organisation, customs, activities, procedures, concepts
Political and administrative: the White House, Palais de l’Élysée, Hôtel
Matignon, 10 Downing Street
Religious: dharma, karma
Artistic: Art nouveau, Jugendstil
Gestures and habits
“Cock a snook” (“to thumb one’s nose”, “to place one’s thumb on one’s
nose with the fingers spread, and to wiggle the fingers back and forth as
a gesture of derision”), spitting as a blessing, giving a thumbs-up to signal
OK.
(See Newmark 1988: 95ff and 103)

It might be added here in passing that several years later Newmark proposed
a completely different classification, but it includes roughly the same terms; they
are just organized differently:

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Ecology – the geological and the geographical environment.

Public life – Politics, Law and Government.
Social life – including the economy, occupation, social welfare, health and edu-
cation.
Personal life – food, clothing, housing.
Customs and pursuits (such as cricket and football).
Private passions – religion, music, poetry.
(See Newmark 2010: 175)

Of course, it will be seen immediately that many of the examples given above –
and many other cultural words and expressions – are easily translatable, at least
into Polish. For example, although the culture of the Wild West is both geo-
graphically and temporally remote from modern Polish culture, such words as
cowboy, prairie, Colt revolver, Winchester rifle, sheriff, (federal) marshal, wig-
wam, tipi / teepee, pueblo, tomahawk, etc. have well-established equivalents
because of the immense popularity of the western as a film genre. (If, however –
for whatever reason – a country was isolated from this aspect of American cul-
ture, then those seemingly semi-international words might prove extremely dif-
ficult to translate into the language of that country.) On the other hand, it is also
clearly visible that the list of cultural elements that might prove difficult to trans-
late is far from complete.
Looking at the problem of culture-bound items from a more practical point
of view, Hejwowski states that the following culturally marked words and
phrases are likely to cause problems to translators: some proper names, words
and expressions connected with the organisation of life in the source culture
country (i.e. with the political system, the system of education, the health ser-
vice, law, etc.), names and phrases connected with various customs and tradi-
tions (e.g., culinary traditions, customs connected with eating, festivities and
rituals, the ways of welcoming and saying goodbye), quotations and allusions
connected with the literature of the given source-language country (novels,
plays, poetry, including poems for children, well-known songs, operas, operet-
tas, musicals), allusions to the country’s history and culture (music, film, paint-
ing, etc.) (Hejwowski 2004a: 71-72, 2004b: 128). Incidentally, in view of the
complexity of the phenomenon of culture-bound items, Hejwowski rejects the
term realia, which he says are mostly associated with daily life (2004a: 72).

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3. Procedures for translating culture-specific elements

Culture-specific elements are obviously difficult to translate and may require

more thought and work than plain language, but this does not mean that they are
untranslatable. For one thing, it will have been observed that in numerous in-
stances the problem is not so much with their denotation as with their connota-
tions, that is, a given phrase can be rendered into another language fairly easily,
but it will not evoke the necessary associations. For example, the Polish phrase
“lub czasopisma” can be translated literally into English as “or magazines” or
German as “oder Zeitschriften”, but readers of the respective translations are not
likely to recognize the reference to the words removed from the draft of an
amendment to the Polish Law on Radio and Television, words which symbolize
the corruption of Polish political life at the beginning of the 21 st century (see
Bogucki 2007: 21). As to how various culturally marked elements can be dealt
with in order to produce a relatively comparable effect on the target-culture au-
dience, let us look at some different approaches to this problem.
Hervey and Higgins, for example, postulate: “We shall use the general term
cultural transposition as a cover-term for the various degrees of departure from
literal translation that one may resort to in the process of transferring the con-
tents of a ST into the context of a target culture” (1994: 28 – emphasis in the
original). Generally speaking, translations can have a source-culture bias, or
a target-culture bias, and the degrees of cultural transposition can be seen as
points along a scale between the extremes of exoticism and cultural transplanta-
tion:

Exoticism – Cultural borrowing – Calque – Communicative translation – Cultural

transplantation
(Hervey and Higgins 1994: 28).

Exoticism consists in importing grammatical and cultural features of the source

text and may be one of the main reasons why readers read and like the given text
/ translation; for instance, Icelandic sagas deprived of the local colour would not
be the same and would hardly deserve reading.
Cultural borrowing is transferring a source-text expression into the target
text. It is different from the previous procedure, because it does not involve any
adaptation. Words and phrases such as Weltanschauung, ‘langue and parole’,
‘joie de vivre’ are so well-established in a number of European languages that
there is really no need to translate them. “Unless special consideration of style
can be invoked, there is little reason not to render such terms verbatim in an

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English TT. On occasion it may even seem perverse not to do so” (Hervey and
Higgins 1994: 31). The authors add that this procedure can be used even with
less common foreign words (in historical, legal, sociological or political texts),
provided that the first time the foreign word occurs, it is defined properly in the
target text.
Calque is a procedure which involves not single words, but phrases, and it
consists in translating those phrases more or less literally into the target lan-
guage. Thus if the source-text phrase ‘cherchez la femme’ gets rendered in the
target text as ‘cherchez la femme’, then we are dealing with cultural borrowing;
if, on the other hand, the phrase is translated into English as ‘look for the wom-
an’, then this is a calque (Hervey and Higgins 1994: 33).
Hervey and Higgins’s next degree of departure from literal translation is
called communicative translation. The term comes from Newmark’s model of
translation (1982: 39):

SOURCE LANGUAGE BIAS TARGET LANGUAGE BIAS

LITERAL FREE
FAITHFUL IDIOMATIC
SEMANTIC / COMMUNICATIVE

and it reflects Schleiermacher’s dichotomy between foreignizing and domesti-

cating translation as well as Nida’s distinction between formal and dynamic
equivalence (Nida 1964: 159), but in fact it could be traced back to Cicero’s
division between translating as a translator / interpreter and as an orator, and is
in turn reflected in similar dichotomies proposed by other translation theorists;
for example, Juliane House (1977, 1997: 29) prefers to speak about overt and
covert translation, Christiane Nord (1988, 1997: 47-52) distinguishes between
documentary and instrumental translation, while Venuti (1995) uses such terms
as resistant and fluent translation (after Pym 2010: 32-33; the first term in each
pair refers to the more literal translation, i.e., translation which is closer to the
original, whereas the second term in each case describes the freer rendering, i.e.
translation which tries not to look like a translation).
In Newmark’s words, communicative translation tries “to produce on its
readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the origi-
nal”, while semantic translation presents, “as closely as the semantic and syntac-
tic structures of the second language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the
original” (Newmark 1982: 39), and the former is really obligatory for rendering
clichés, proverbs and stock phrases; thus although semantically the German and
French notices “Bissiger Hund” and “Chien méchant” could be rendered as
“Savage [or, Vicious] dog”, communicatively they correspond to the English

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sign “Beware of the dog!” and have to be rendered as such, unless there are spe-
cific contextual reasons for not doing so (Newmark 1982: 39, Hervey and Hig-
gins 1994: 31-32).
The translator may have a certain problem with communicative translation
of certain proverbs. As is commonly known, at least among polyglots, proverbs
in different languages are often different, and sometimes there is no correspond-
ing proverb at all in the target language for a given source-language proverb. For
example, Hungarian has a proverb about morning rain: “Nem baj! Reggeli ven-
dég nem maradandó”. This means literally: ‘Never mind! The morning guest
never stays long’, and there are no similar proverbial expressions in English or
Polish, which makes fully communicative translation impossible. A literal trans-
lation may be misunderstood, unless the translator signals it by means of an in-
troductory remark: “You know the proverb / the saying...”, and the communica-
tive paraphrase “Never mind! It’ll soon stop raining” is acceptable, but readers
will not be aware of the proverbial nature of the original utterance (Hervey and
Higgins 1994: 32-33).
Cultural transplantation consists in replacing source-culture elements (for
instance, names) with target-culture elements. For example, the famous series of
comic strips about Tintin by Hergé features two similar-looking detectives
Dupont et Dupond. In the English translations, they have become Thompson and
Thomson (Hervey and Higgins 1994: 29) and in the Polish translations they are
called respectively Tajniak and Jawniak.
Some advice for dealing with culture-specific language items can also be
found in Mona Baker (1992). She does not focus specifically on culturally marked
words and phrases, but rather discusses general procedures for achieving equiva-
lence at word level in the case of various lexical gaps in the target language and
culture, but obviously some of those gaps are connected with culture. Thus what
Hervey and Higgins call cultural transplantation, Baker calls “Translation by cul-
tural substitution”. It should be pointed out, however, that although she defines it
more or less in the same way (“replacing a culture-specific item or expression with
a target-language item which does not have the same propositional meaning but is
likely to have a similar impact on the target reader” – 1992: 31), her examples show
that sometimes the source-culture item gets replaced not with a target-culture item,
but simply with another source-culture element, one which the translator believes
will be understood by target readers. For example, the Greek translator of A Brief
History of Time by Stephen Hawking decided to replace Bertrand Russell with
Alice in Wonderland and modify the whole introductory paragraph, because, ap-
parently, Alice is better known in Greece than the scientist (Baker 1992: 31-32).
Disputable as the translator’s decision was in this case, it is certainly useful to re-

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member that sometimes it is possible to replace a relatively unknown source-

culture item with another, better-known source-culture item.
To quote an example of a somewhat less disputable replacement of an un-
known source-culture item with another source-culture item, in Raymond Chan-
dler’s short story “Trouble Is My Business”, the narrator signals his disbelief by
saying “She blushed – and I have a dinner date with Darryl Zanuck” (Chandler
1977a: 8). Undoubtedly, there are some Polish readers of Chandler who are also
film fans and who have heard of Darryl F. Zanuck, the famous film studio execu-
tive and producer, but perhaps the majority of mystery readers in Poland have not,
and therefore Michał Ronikier decided to replace Darryl Zanuck in the Polish trans-
lation with Gary Cooper: “Zarumieniła się – Akurat! Tak jak ja jestem umówiony
na kolację z Gary Cooperem” (Chandler 1977b: 6).
It might be added here that sometimes an unknown source-culture item gets
replaced with an item coming from a different culture, but recognizable in both
the source culture and the target culture. For example, in one scene of the Czech
TV serial Nemocnice na kraji města2 (1977-1981), dr Cvach (played by Josef
Vinklář), an incompetent orthopaedic surgeon, tells his colleagues about the
latest medical article that he read during the weekend and then adds that he pre-
sumes they have read it too, to which Dr Josef Štrosmajer (Miloš Kopecký),
answers immediately: “Já ne, já jsem si celou neděli četl Káju Maříka” (“I ha-
ven’t, I spent the whole Sunday reading Kája Mařík.”). The reference is to the
book Školák Kája Mařík by Felix Háj (the pen name of Marie Wagnerová, née
Černá; 1887-1934), i.e. The Schoolboy Kája Mařík. This book (actually a whole
series of books) is obviously well-known in the Czech Republic, but not in Po-
land, and therefore the translator or the dialogue editor of the Polish voice-over
decided to replace Kája Mařík with Winnetou – the novel by the German writer
Karl May, popular both in Poland and in the Czech Republic.3
A more detailed classification of translational procedures for rendering culture-
specific language items is offered by Hejwowski (2004a and 2004b), who dis-
cusses nine such procedures.
The first is reproduction without explanations, i.e. copying the element
from the original, occasionally with some spelling adjustments. Interestingly
enough, in the English version of his book, Hejwowski uses the term transfer
(2004b: 136), but in the Polish text he argues that this operation should not be

2
English: Hospital at the End / Edge of the City, written by Jaroslav Dietl and directed
by Jaroslav Dudek.
3
Another good choice would have been the book Dzieci z Bullerbyn (Swedish: Alla vi
barn i Bullerbyn, English: The Six Bullerby Children) by the internationally known
Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren.

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called transfer, because transfer would be purely mechanical, whereas reproduc-

tion can involve some small changes in the spelling of the word, and if the SL
uses a different alphabet or non-alphabetic writing, it necessarily involves trans-
literation or transcription (2004a: 76).4
This procedure corresponds to “l’emprunt”, literally ‘borrowing’, the first
of the seven translational procedures listed by Vinay & Darbelnet, and, as the
authors point out, in the case of culture-specific language items, l’emprunt can
be used not only when there is a lexical gap in the target language, but also when
the translator wants to retain a specific item for local colour. In time, many of
such words will become part of the standard vocabulary of the language; e.g.
datcha and apparatchik from Russian, or tequila and tortilla and from Spanish
(Vinay & Darbelnet 1995: 32).
As far as some literary examples involving reproduction are concerned,
Hejwowski says that translating Namba Roy’s novel Black Albino, he was able
to preserve all the Jamaican words, such as bakra (‘white people’), pikni (‘a
child’) and asunu (‘an elephant’), presumably because the context made it clear
what they meant (Hejwowski 2004b: 136). Also the Polish translator of Michael
Crichton’s novel Congo retained the Bantu words in the Polish version; the orig-
inal says:

“No men come here,” the headman said. “This is kanyamagufa.”

“Then what crushes the skulls?”
“Dawa,” the headman said ominously, using the Bantu term for magical forces.
“Strong dawa here. Men stay away.”
(Crichton 1981: 3)

The Polish text reads:

– Ludzie tu nie przychodzić – padła odpowiedź. – To jest kanyamagufa.

– Więc kto rozbija czaszki?
– Dawa – odparł złowieszczo tragarz, używając słowa określającego w języku Ban-
tu “magiczną potęgę”. – Tu silna dawa. Ludzie zostać.
(Crichton 1994: 15)

4
In transliteration, each letter of the foreign word is replaced with a native-alphabet
letter, whereas transcription involves the replacement of each sound of the foreign
word with a native-alphabet letter; for example, the surname of the renowned Russian
translation theorist Фёдоров (in standard spelling without accents written as Фeдоров)
appears in Polish as Fiodorow (transcription), and in English as Fedorov (translitera-
tion; fairly remote from the Russian pronunciation of this surname).

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On the other hand, Polish readers of Martin Amis’s novel Money are not likely
to know what the translator meant by the word palimonia (after Hejwowski
2004b: 136), because, unfortunately, the word is simply meaningless. It is evi-
dently based on the word palimony, which is a blend of pal and alimony and
which means “An allowance for support made under court order and given usu-
ally by one person to his or her former lover or live-in companion after they
have separated” (The Free Dictionary5), but in Polish, the first part evokes asso-
ciations with impalement rather than with friendship (the word pal means “a
long wooden pole or stake”), and the part alimonia does not evoke any associa-
tions at all (the Polish equivalent of alimony is alimenty).
The second procedure is reproduction (or transfer – see the argument
above) with explanation, for instance, in the form of a footnote, or incorporated
into the main text. Regardless of how it is provided, it is important that the ex-
planation be kept short; otherwise the text begins to lose its basic character and
turns into a handbook of the “source-culture life and institutions” (Hejwowski
2004b: 137). Incidentally, Mona Baker in her list of procedures for achieving
equivalence at word level refers to those two procedures as “Translation using
a loan word or loan word plus explanation”, and illustrates the first by means of
the phrase “the Cream Tea expert” which got rendered into German as “‘Cream-
Tea’-Experten”, and the second one by means of the word cap (referring to plas-
tic caps for covering the hair to increase the effectiveness of hair treatment) –
hardly a culturally marked term, but apparently difficult to render into Arabic, so
that the translator reproduced the word and added an explanation: (back-
translated from Arabic) “the hair is covered by means of a ‘cap’, that is a plastic
hat which covers the hair” (please note that the borrowed words frequently ap-
pear in inverted commas). It is worth adding here that once the translator has
explained the borrowed word the first time it occurs in the text, later on he/she
can use reproduction without explanations (Baker 1992: 34-36).
The next procedure is syntagmatic (“literal”) translation without explana-
tions (Hejwowski 2004a: 78). For example, in Through the Looking-Glass, Al-
ice says: “But it certainly was funny [...] to find myself singing ‘Here we go
round the mulberry bush’” (Carroll 1998: 167). Słomczyński renders the title of
this children’s song and game simply as “Wokół drzewa morwy tańczymy w
krąg” (Carroll 1972b: 53) and Stiller as “Wokół krzaku morwy idziemy w tan!”
(Carroll 1990b: 145), because the context makes it clear that this is a song.6 On
the other hand, when Eeyore says in Winnie-the-Pooh: “Gaiety. Song-and-dance.

5
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/palimony [accessed 8 September 2013].
6
Incidentally, Jolanta Kozak replaced the song with “Chodzi lisek koło drogi” (Carroll
1997b: 60).

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Here we go round the mulberry bush.” (Milne 1980: 65), the context is not that
obvious, and hence the syntagmatic translation by Irena Tuwim “Szaleństwo.
Śpiew i taniec... Ot, przechadzamy się teraz wśród morwowych krzewów...”
(Milne 1962: 64) is somewhat obscure.7 Analogously, when “Ploughman’s lunch
with Stilton” becomes “obiad oracza ze stiltonem” (from the Polish translation
of the novel Nice Work by David Lodge), Polish readers can probably guess that
the phrase in question refers to some kind of food, but its significance escapes
them (Hejwowski 2004b: 138). Similarly, many English-speaking readers might
misunderstand the significance of the syntagmatic translation of the sentence
“Piotr nie żyje, zabity na ulicy w grudniu siedemdziesiątego roku” (from the
novel Weiser Dawidek by Paweł Huelle) as “Piotr was killed in the street in De-
cember 1970”, because they may lack the necessary knowledge of Polish history
(Hejwowski 2004a: 78, 2004b: 139). Also Mona Baker reports an interesting
example of syntagmatic mistranslation: in Britain, the size of a house or a flat is
typically discussed in terms of the number of bedrooms; in Switzerland – in terms
of the total number of rooms; Consequently, when Lady Bracknell’s neutral ques-
tion about Jack’s country house “How many bedrooms?” from The Importance of
Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde got rendered into German as “Wieviel Schlafzim-
mer?”, the text was misunderstood to contain sexual innuendo (Baker 1992: 239).
Clearly, in some cases, syntagmatic translation without explanations can be as
unintelligible or as misleading as reproduction without explanation.
It is perhaps safer to use syntagmatic translation with explanation. For
example, the line “Wrona orła nie pokona” from Raport o stanie wojennym by
Marek Nowakowski was translated into French as “Le corbeau ne vaincra pas
l’aigle”, and the translator provided a footnote explaining the significance of “Le
corbeau” (technically, it should be “la corneille”; nor was the footnote fully pre-
cise, but on the whole the explanation was acceptable). Also the English transla-
tion of “Wrona orła nie pokona” – “CROW may try but eagle flies high”8 – had
a footnote, again not fully precise, but on the whole acceptable (Hejwowski
2004a: 79).
The fifth procedure (with somewhat limited availability) is using an estab-
lished equivalent (of course, if there is one). When the already mentioned novel
Weiser Dawidek by Paweł Huelle mentions “wizerunki Czarnej Madonny”, it
seems only natural to render this phrase as “pictures of Black Madonna” (even

7
Monika Adamczyk replaced the original song with “Mało nas, mało nas do pieczenia
chleba” (Milne 1986: 59).
8
It will be observed that, strictly speaking, this is not a syntagmatic translation; evident-
ly, the translator decided that in this case rhyme was more important than the literal
meaning.

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though one English dictionary refers to it as the statue...). Similarly, if a foreign

book was translated into the target language, then the translator should use the
established title. Of course, the translator may face an additional problem, when
the given book was translated more than once and if it is known under two or
more titles. In some cases, the decision may be relatively simple – thus Kubuś
Puchatek will always be preferred over Fredzia Phi Phi (as the equivalent of
Winnie-the-Pooh) – but in some, the choice may be a bit more complex: for ex-
ample, should Shakespeare’s play Love’s Labour’s Lost be referred to in Polish
as Stracone zachody miłości (Leon Ulrich’s traditional version) or as Serc stara-
nia stracone (Maciej Słomczyński’s alliterative translation)? (Cf. Hejwowski
2004a: 79).
Similarly, when someone decides to translate Night of the Jabberwock,
a brilliant murder mystery by Fredric Brown (1983) into Polish, they will have
to make a decision as to how to render the name of the creature which Brown
borrowed from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice
Found There. Should the translator borrow from Maciej Słomczyński and write
Noc Dżabbersmoka (see Carroll 1972b: 22) or from Robert Stiller and render the
title as Noc Żabrołaka (Carroll 1990b: 123-124)? Or maybe he or she should
refer to Stanisław Barańczak (1993: 362) or Jolanta Kozak (1997b: 22-24) and
use such titles as Noc Dziaberłaka or Noc Dziaberlaka, respectively? Or maybe
the translator has access only to the translation by Antoni Marianowicz and
Hanna Baltyn (Carroll 2005) and Brown’s novel will appear as Noc Dziwolęka?9
And possibly he or she might not be allowed to use some of these names for
copyright reasons?
The situation may be even more difficult with titles of films. Generally,
films are referred to by the title of their first cinema release in the given country.
Unfortunately, quite a number of films were given idiotic titles, which have little
to do with the plot of the film or with anything. For example, in 1955 Kirk
Douglas starred in an André De Toth western entitled The Indian Fighter. This
phrase refers to the fact that the protagonist once fought Indians, and therefore it
should have been translated into Polish as Pogromca Indian. Unfortunately, the
original title was misinterpreted by someone to mean “an Indian warrior” and
was rendered as Indiański wojownik. Any reference now to Kirk Douglas play-
ing The Indian Fighter is likely to put a knowledgeable translator in a quandary:
should he/she use the misleading Polish title and run into problems with details

9
Some other translations of “Jabberwocky” that I have seen would give us Noc
Żubrowołka (Juliusz Wiktor Gomulicki), Noc Bełkotliszka (Aleksy Schubert), and Noc
Dżabrokłapa (Bogumiła Kaniewska).
See http://home.agh.edu.pl/~szymon/jabberwocky.shtml [accessed 8 September 2010].

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of the plot, or should he/she correct the idiotic mistake and run the risk of the
title not being recognized? Perhaps a solution would be to use the correct title
and to add a footnote providing the original title and an explanation: “Known in
Poland under the erroneous title …”
To cite another famous example from that decade: the 1958 film The
Horse’s Mouth, the title of which refers to the popular English idiom, was shown
in Poland as Koński pysk. This rendering caused quite a stir at the time the film
was shown in our cinemas: numerous people who had seen it wrote to daily
newspapers and film magazines and asked what the title referred to (the film did
not feature a single horse). If a history of British cinema now (or a biography of
one of the actors) mentions the film and states that it is based on the novel by
Joyce Cary of the same title, the translator faces an additional problem, because
the novel itself is known in Poland under the correct title Z pierwszej ręki.
Of course, the translator has to be aware of the existence of an established
equivalent, which is not always the case. For example, in the Polish translation
of the novel Brandbilen som försvann (literally The Fire Engine That Got Lost;
the Polish title is Jak kamień w wodę) by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, Martin
Beck is reading Raymond Chandler’s Lady in the Lake, referred to as Kobieta w
morzu (Sjöwall and Wahlöö 1990: 41). One of the problems is that the Swedish
word sjö can mean both “sea” and “lake”, but another problem is that Chandler’s
novel is known in Polish as Tajemnica jeziora. In the novel Ostatnia bitwa tem-
plariusza (La piel del tambor) by Arturo Pérez Reverte, translated by Joanna
Karasek, the protagonist mentally compares one of the characters to a dog from
the film Dama i włóczęga (Reverte 2003: 297), which is a nice literal translation
of The Lady and the Tramp, except that that 1955 Walt Disney animated film
was shown and is known in Poland as Zakochany kundel. There are, unfortunate-
ly, more examples like these, but they will not be quoted here for reasons of
space.
The sixth procedure is using a functional equivalent. For example, the
translator of Nice Work by David Lodge replaced the reference to “Debbie’s
cockney accent” by the phrase “Debbie powtarza w kółko «no» i «kurde»”,
which probably tells Polish readers more about Debbie’s social class and back-
ground than any literal translation would. In contrast, the translator of Therapy
by the same writer translated the phrase “had a Cockney accent” as “mówił jak
cockney” (Hejwowski 2004a: 81-82, 2004b: 140-141), which is both slightly
misleading and really empty: misleading, because “he spoke / talked like
a Cockney” does not mean exactly the same as “he had a Cockney accent”, and
empty, because the word Cockney is not Polish and is not widely known outside
the circles of students and graduates of what used to be called English philology
and is now usually referred to as English Studies.

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Choosing a functional equivalent, translators must be careful to avoid ele-

ments which are strongly connected with the target culture or third culture.
A few years ago one of my students translated a text (a fragment of a novel) which
stated that a character admired the hostess of an American talk show unknown in
Poland and that she watched all the shows. My student wrote that the character was
hooked on Ewa Drzyzga’s “Rozmowy w toku”, and did not see the strangeness of
the situation in which an American viewer in the United States would be hooked on
a Polish talk show. She said that she wanted to give the Polish reader an idea of
what the character liked (and – indirectly – what she was like) and that the Ameri-
can name of the hostess would be meaningless to Poles. I agreed, but I explained to
her that she should have replaced the unknown American talk show with one
known, like The Oprah Winfrey Show, or The Jerry Springer Show, both of which
had been broadcast in Poland.
Similarly, if a character in an English novel says that “Rome was not built
in a day, nor in a year” (for instance, David Copperfield’s aunt in Chapter 44 of
Dickens’s novel – 1981: 706), it would be unnatural for the Polish translator to
have her say in Polish “Nie od razu Kraków zbudowano” (a functional equiva-
lent of the English idiom; fortunately, Wila Zyndram-Kościałkowska translated
that proverbial line as “Rzym nie od razu zbudowany został” – Dickens 1987,
Vol. 2: 169). And obviously when the original English text talks about someone
losing money hand over fist, the translator cannot use the Polish idiom wyjść na
czymś jak Zabłocki na mydle, because the idiom contains a surname which is
recognizably Polish.10 As for the third culture, Hejwowski reports that the
French translator of Raport o stanie wojennym replaced ruskie pierogi by ravio-
li, clearly an Italian dish, which evokes wrong associations in the minds of the
readers (Hejwowski 2004a: 82, 2004b: 141).
The seventh procedure is using a hyperonym, i.e. a superordinate word.
For example, the translator of David Lodge’s Therapy rendered a reference to
“O-level examinations” as “egzaminy «O-level»” and provided an explanatory
footnote (reproduction with explanation). The translator of Lodge’s Nice Work,
on the other hand, instead of explaining the British educational system, simply
rendered “A-levels” and “O-levels” as “egzaminy” – an obvious case of under-
translation, but, since the exams in question do not play a significant role in the
novel, the hyperonym is perfectly acceptable in the given context (Hejwowski
2004a: 82). It might be added here in passing that “A-levels” could also be trans-
lated by means of the functional equivalent “matura” or “egzaminy maturalne”.

10
This expression was actually used in the Polish voiceover to the western Once Upon
a Time in the West, when it was shown on Polish TV in 1990.

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The next procedure involves using a descriptive equivalent. Since there is

no word in English to express the meaning of the Polish term cichociemni, the
translator of Raport o stanie wojennym into English decided to describe them as
“men who were parachuted into Poland during the Occupation”. This procedure
works best when the given word is used only once in the source text, as repeti-
tions of a descriptive equivalent would sound rather awkward (Hejwowski
2004a: 82-83, 2004b: 142). In a sense, it can be said that a descriptive equivalent
is reproduction with explanation minus the reproduction. Of course, the transla-
tor could have used other procedures; for example, the English Wikipedia trans-
fers the term,11 translates it more or less literally as “the Silent-Dark Ones” or
“The Unseen and Silent” (the latter equivalent coming from the first book about
the Cichociemni, published in England in Polish and in English in 1954), then
explains it, and then, throughout the article, uses the transferred Polish term.
Let us consider two more examples. In Chapter 8 of the novel Night Without
End by Alistair MacLean, the narrator says: “Miss Ross,” I said. “From now on
you are Mr Mahler’s personal Gunga Din.” (1979: 129). The reference is of
course to the “regimental bhisti” (i.e. a “water carrier”) – the epitome of
a faithful servant and protector – from the poem “Gunga Din” by Rudyard Kip-
ling (1983: 103-105 plus the endnote on page 404). The character of Gunga Din
is not widely known in Poland, and therefore the Polish translator Mieczysław
Derbień replaced his name with the phrase “anioł stróż” [“a guardian angel”]
(MacLean 1977: 173), a fairly sensible descriptive equivalent in this case.
In the novel Fear Is the Key also by Alistair MacLean, at one point the nar-
rator comments: “Contravention of the rules of the old southern hospitality. I
know. Emily Post would have something to say about this.” (MacLean 1971:
23). The problem is of course Emily Post, the popular American writer on eti-
quette. Theoretically, the translator could have used simple reproduction; I have
tested that on my students and, although they did not know who Emily Post was,
most of them guessed correctly from the context that she was somehow connect-
ed with rules of savoir-vivre. Alternatively, he could have used reproduction
with explanation (incorporated into the main text, rather than added as
a footnote, because the novel is a murder mystery and a thriller), but he chose
a descriptive equivalent; the Polish text says: “Podręcznik dobrego wychowania
miałby na ten temat niejedno do powiedzenia ...” (MacLean 1975: 34). Inci-
dentally, it would not have been a good idea to use a functional equivalent, such

11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cichociemni [accessed 8 December 2013].

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as Jan Kamyczek,12 because, for one thing, this name is too closely connected
with Polish culture (readers might wonder why a British national appearing be-
fore an American court of law would make a reference to a Polish name), and,
for another thing, I have tested this on my students too, and it turned out that to
the majority of them the name meant about as much as that of Emily Post.
The last procedure is omission, and it is last in both senses of the word,
meaning that most translators, translation theorists and translation critics agree
that it should be used only as a last resort. Thus the novel Zły by Leopold Tyr-
mand has lost most of its flavour in the French translation (Zły, l’homme aux
yeus blancs), because the translator chose to omit extensive fragments connected
with culture-specific elements, such as aspects of daily life in post-war Warsaw,
references to the history of the city, etc. Even less drastic omissions, such as
eliminating a single cultural allusion, can be considered a serious loss, because
that single allusion can symbolize a whole world, a world which readers of the
translation are then deprived of, a world which is then hidden from them. For
example, when the translator of Antoni Libera’s novel Madame cut out the
phrase “Wyspiański na weselu Rydla”, she made it impossible for her readers to
see that very significant aspect of Polish literary history (Hejwowski 2004a: 83,
96-97, and 2004b: 142-143).
Obviously, omissions occur in translations not only from Polish, but also in-
to Polish. For example, one of the most famous Polish translators from the
French, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, was also famous for omitting various historical
or literary allusions. Thus in his translation of Balzac’s Splendeurs et misères
des courtisanes (Polish: Blaski i nędze życia kurtyzany, English: A Harlot High
and Low), the following characterization of the maid-servant:

Elle était la soubrette la plus gentille que jamais Monrose ait pu souhaiter pour ad-
versaire sur le théâtre... perverse comme toutes les Madelonettes ensemble, elle
pouvait avoir volé ses parents et frôlé les bancs de la police correctionelle.

gets reduced to:

Był to idealny typ subretki ... Kto wie, może okradła rodziców i otarła się o ławę
policji poprawczej.

with the part about the actress Monrose and about the Madelonettes Convent
omitted (quoted after Borowy 1977: 216). Boy-Żeleński also omitted the –

12
One of the pen-names of Janina Ipohorska, the one she used for her books and articles
on savoir-vivre; http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janina_Ipohorska [accessed 8 December
2013].

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somewhat obscure, it has to be admitted, but loosely understandable – references

to “Ces journalistes ont été cause de Jocko, du Monstre Vert, des Lions de My-
sore et de mille autres belles inventions” from the novel Mademoiselle de Mau-
pin (cf. the French text of Gautier 1955: 31 and the Polish Gautier 1958: 61).
It must be remembered that omission is often not connected with the relative
untranslatability of certain culturally marked linguistic items, but is caused by
other factors – ideological, political or religious considerations. Mona Baker
reports that several extensive fragments were omitted from the Arabic transla-
tion of the book Arab Political Humour by Kishtainy simply because they would
be regarded as offensive by Arab readers. For example, one dot changes the
Arabic letter R ‫ ر‬into Z‫ ز‬. Arabic being based on a consonantal alphabet, the
addition of such a dot changes the word rabbi (‘my God’) into zubbi (‘my pe-
nis’). The story then goes:

Some humble person married a rich widow with whose money he built himself an
imposing mansion which he piously adorned with the legend, carefully engraved
over the door,‘Such are the blessings of my God’ (Hada min fadl rabbi). The local
wit hastened under cover of darkness to put matters right by adding the missing dot
to change the hallowed phrase into ‘Such are the blessings of my penis’.

As can be seen, the joke is perfectly translatable into its original language – Arabic
– and yet, the subject being taboo in Arab culture, that passage got omitted and
replaced with a different, much tamer, and much less witty joke (Baker 1992: 234).
One more interesting – albeit somewhat unorthodox – procedure for dealing
with culture-specific language items can be found in the said Mona Baker. This
procedure is translation by illustration. Apparently, it is not easy to translate
the phrase tagged teabags into Arabic, so when Lipton decided to introduce
tagged teabags onto the Arab market, instead of producing a long explanatory
note, they simply provided Lipton Yellow Label tea packets with an illustration
of a tagged teabag (1992: 42).
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Newmark (2010) reduces the number of
those procedures down to five major ones: the first of these is the simple trans-
ference13 (the same as Hejwowski’s reproduction or transfer) – thus der Bundes-
tag remains der Bundestag, with possibly a change of the article into the in Eng-
lish or a loss of the article in Polish; the next one is using a TL cultural (i.e.
a functional) equivalent – when the Bundestag becomes the German House of
Commons; the third translational procedure is using a descriptive equivalent –
the Bundestag becomes the Lower or the second chamber of (German) Parlia-

13
Mounin writes about transference that it is the ideal form of translation, “if only we
could understand it...” (quoted after Newmark 2010: 176).

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ment; the fourth procedure is componential analysis, “which splits a cultural

term into its core or generic components, which it shares with related terms”
(and which therefore results in an extended descriptive equivalent: Methodism,
a Christian religious faith, is then described as “a nonconformist denomination
deriving from the faith and practice of John Wesley and his followers”); finally,
Newmark’s fifth procedure is providing a transonym, by which term Newmark
means both an established equivalent of certain proper names: popes and saints
(Ioannes Paulus II = Jan Paweł II = John Paul II), or geographical names (Napoli
= Naples = Neapol, München = Munich = Monachium), and an invented equiva-
lent of literary names with special connotations (when the town of Wrottesley,
based on the root rot, becomes Pourrisley in French, pourri meaning “rotten”14).
Newmark discusses also cultural footnotes as an additional procedure, and says
that they are more valuable and more justified in scholarly literature, and much
less so in popular writing (2010: 176-178).

4. Other aspects of translating culture-specific elements

Of course, the choice of the actual procedure to render a given culture-specific

language item depends on several factors. First of all, it obviously depends on
the actual item to be translated – on what it is and on its function in the given
text. Then, to a certain extent, it depends on the translator: on his/her personal
taste – because there is no denying that some translators display target-language
bias and prefer domesticating strategies, while others show evident source-
language bias and favour foreignizing strategies – and on his/her skills and abili-
ties – some translators are visibly more skilled and may be more aware than
others of the existence of certain translational procedures and of the possibilities
of rendering the given item. The next factor which influences the translator’s
choice is the people who commission the translation and the degree of freedom
they grant the translator. This may be partly connected with the type of text and
the purpose of the translation. Finally, the translator’s decisions will be guided
by the general linguistic and cultural norms prevailing in a given community at
a given time – in short, by the general situational context of the translation pro-
cess (cf. Baker 1992: 31).
This brings us back to the role of the culture filter in translation. As was
stated above, there seems to be little doubt that for some texts the cultural filter
is more important than for others. For example, translators of children’s litera-

14
This comes from the novel Coming from Behind by Howard Jacobson.

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Janusz Wróblewski

ture tend to apply it more often than translators of other types of literature (at
least, this was the case in the 20th century). Specifically, foreign names get omit-
ted or polonized: thus the three sisters from the bottom of the well, Elsie, Lacie
and Tillie, are listed only as “trzy małe siostry” (“three little sisters”) by Maria
Morawska (Carroll 1947) and get replaced by Kasia, Jasia and Basia by Antoni
Marianowicz (Carroll 1988: 126); Słomczyński and Stiller leave the original
names (Carroll 1972a: 78 and 1990a: 151, respectively), but Jolanta Kozak again
replaces them with Wacia, Lucia and Tycia (Carroll 1997a: 79), while Bogumiła
Kaniewska offers Ela, Lala, and, not quite Polish, Tila (Carroll 2010: 102); geo-
graphical references get omitted: thus Zofia Rogoszówna in her translation of
Przygody Piotrusia Pana (Warszawa-Kraków 1913) omits virtually all the refer-
ences to the fact that the story is set in England (after Adamczyk- Garbowska
1988: 90); similarly, the original Introduction to Winnie-the-Pooh says: “You
can’t be in London for long without going to the Zoo” (Milne 1980: ix); the
Polish translation by Irena Tuwim says: “Każdy, kto przyjedzie do naszego mi-
asta, musi koniecznie pojść do Zoologicznego Ogrodu” (Milne 1962: 6; back-
translated: “Everybody who comes to our town must visit the Zoo”); specific
foods get replaced with functional equivalents: thus custard becomes krem,
śmietanka, or budyń (Carroll 1988: 20, 1972a: 17, 1990a: 39, 1997a: 13, 2010:
21, respectively), while condensed milk becomes marmolada,15 and słodka
śmietanka (Milne 1962: 26 and 47). (For more examples, see Adamczyk- Gar-
bowska 1988: 80-93.)
It could also be hypothesised that while in the 1960s and 1970s translators
tended to avoid foreign measures, weights, etc. and tended to replace those with
native units, more recent translations retain the original units. For example, in
Harry Harrison sci-fi story “Toy Shop” translated by Lech Jęczmyk and pub-
lished in 1970, we read: “Ponieważ wśród widzów było niewielu dorosłych,
a pułkownik ‘Biff’ Hawton miał przeszło metr osiemdziesiąt wzrostu, mógł więc
widzieć wszystkie szczegóły pokazu” (Harrison 1970: 291), with the height of
the Colonel expressed in metres. The same short story translated by Radosław
Kot and published twenty-four years later has: “Ponieważ w tłumie było
niewielu dorosłych, a pułkownik Biff Hawton mierzył ponad sześć stóp, dobrze
widział każdy szczegół pokazu” (Harrison 1994: 33), the height of the Colonel
being expressed in feet.
Another observable tendency seems to be that translators of murder myster-
ies and thrillers retain fewer culture-specific elements than translators of the so-
called serious literature.

15
At first glance, this rendering may look dubious and questionable, but the original is:
“Honey or condensed milk with your bread?” (Rabbit asking Pooh; Milne 1980: 23).

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For example, Mieczysław Derbień omitted both references to the American

writer Damon Runyon in his translation of Alistair MacLean’s Night Without
End. In the first one, the narrator is discussing Solly Levin, a suspect in a murder
case: “Solly wasn’t a New York boxing manager, he was a caricature of all I had
ever heard or read about these Runyonesque characters, and he was just too good
to be true” (MacLean 1979: 95). What we get in Polish is: “Solly nie wyglądał
na menażera z Nowego Jorku, takiego typowego menażera znad Hudsonu. Był
raczej karykaturą menażera, był przeciwieństwem menażerów, o których czyta-
łem w książkach. Był zbyt naturalny, aby mógł być prawdziwy” (MacLean
1977: 130). The second comment refers to another murder suspect: “Zagero bore
no more resemblance to a boxer than Levin did to any boxing manager who had
ever lived outside the pages of Damon Runyon” (MacLean 1979: 146). The
Polish text says only “Zagero tak był podobny do boksera, jak Solly Levin do
managera” (MacLean 1977: 195).
When MacLean writes about one of the characters in Night Without End that
“He had a voice like a Dixie colonel too, the Mason-Dixon line lay far to the
north of wherever he had been born” (MacLean 1979: 29), Derbień simply omits
the whole reference (MacLean 1977: 35). Of course, it could be argued that it
was his personal, rather than a general, tendency, but in another MacLean thrill-
er, Ice Station Zebra, there is another reference to that borderline between the
Northern and Southern United States: “ “I’m sorry, Dr. Carpenter.” The south-
of-the-Mason-Dixon-line voice was quiet and courteous, but without any genu-
ine regret that I could detect, as he folded the telegram back into its envelope
and handed it to me” (MacLean 1963: 7), and this also got omitted in translation
– this time by a different translator, Piotr Wolski – in the Polish version we read
only: “- Przykro mi, doktorze Carpenter. – Głos miał cichy i uprzejmy, ale żalu
w nim nie wyczułem. Schował telegram z powrotem do koperty i wręczył mi ją
ze słowami: [...]” (MacLean 1990). Presumably, the reference would be retained
in a scholarly book on the history of the Civil War.
Still, these are general tendencies rather than universal rules, and certainly
not rules to be followed blindly. Even in murder mysteries or thrillers there is
really no need to omit culture-specific references and/or to replace them with
hyperonyms or with descriptive equivalents, because readers have access to var-
ious lexicons and encyclopedias (not to mention access to the Internet and all its
resources) and can always check a vague reference or a quotation.
One more problem connected with culturally marked elements is that some-
times the translator himself or herself does not understand them. For example,
Arkadiusz Nakoniecznik visibly did not understand the quotation from Macbeth
in the novel Trevayne and thus made it impossible for his readers to really un-
derstand the passage. The original says:

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Janusz Wróblewski

“What is that quote?” asked the President with slim humour. “‘We three do meet
again …’ Is that it?”
“I believe,” said Hill slowly, still standing, “that the correct words are ‘When shall
we three meet again?’ The three in question had forecast the fall of a government;
they weren’t sure even they could survive.”
(Ludlum 1989: 426)

“When shall we three meet again?” are the opening words of Macbeth, spoken
by the First Witch (Shakespeare 1958: 1189), and “the three in question” who
had forecast the fall of a government and who were not sure that they could sur-
vive are of course the three Witches. Unfortunately, in Nakoniecznik’s transla-
tion we have the masculine form of the numeral three (“we trzech”) and then
a rather vague and somewhat misleading reference to “the three people who had
forecast the fall of a government”, which cannot really evoke any associations with
the three Witches:

– Jak to się mówi? – zapytał prezydent z niezbyt przekonującym uśmiechem. –

„I znowu spotykamy się we trzech …” Czy tak?
– Wydaje mi się, że słowa te brzmiały: „Kiedy znowu spotkamy się we trzech?” –
powiedział powoli Hill, ciągle stojąc. – Tamci trzej ludzie przepowiedzieli upadek
rządu. Nie mieli żadnej pewności, czy uda im się dotrwać do następnego spotkania.
(Ludlum 1992: 452-453)

Also Martyna Pilsenko evidently misunderstood a culture-specific expression.

One of the protagonists of the science fiction story “Memorare” by Gene Wolfe
wants to make a career in TV, because

“[...] they print your name on the toilet paper in the executive washroom. You think
I’m kidding?”
“Damn right I do.” March opened his suit. “You’ve never set foot in the executive
washroom.”
“Wrong. When I was talking to Bad Bill about the cooking show I had to powder
my nose, and he loaned me his key. It’s on the paper.”
March scowled, then chuckled. “And you used it.”
It got him the sidelong glance and sly smile he loved. “I’m taking the Fifth,
Windy.”
(Wolfe 2007)

The expression “taking the Fifth” refers to the Fifth Amendment to the United
States Constitution, and means that the person has the right to refuse to answer
questions. In my opinion, the translator could have used simple syntagmatic
translation without explanation: “Skorzystam z Piątej Poprawki do Konstytucji.”

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Alternatively, she could have used that plus an explanatory footnote. Also, she
could have used a descriptive equivalent: “Odmawiam zeznań” (literally, “I re-
fuse to testify”). But what we get from the translator is the phrase: “Biorę Piątkę,
Windy” (Wolfe 2009: 489), which means roughly “I take five”, and which does
not really mean anything (I have tested that on several groups of my students).
I would like to present one more example of the translator not understanding
a culture-specific element of the original. In the Polish translation (by Marek
Cegieła) of the science-fiction novel Lovelock by Orson Scott Card and Kathryn
Kerr, we find the following passage (Carol Jeanne is flirting with Neeraj in the
presence of a little capuchin monkey called Lovelock, using all sorts of allu-
sions):

“Jak ona głupio próbuje utrzymać to w tajemnicy. Myśli, że ja nic nie wiem?
Wskoczyłem na jej biurko i podbiegłem do komputera.
„Eyewhay otnay ooze-yay ig-pay atin-Lay?”, napisałem.
Roześmiała się. […]
– Lovelock twierdzi, że się domyśla, co nas łączy – oznajmiła.”
(Card and Kerr 1997: 235)

Of course, the line “Eyewhay otnay ooze-yay ig-pay atin-Lay?” is meaningless

in Polish, because it is not Polish. It is English or, more specifically, a variety of
English known as Pig Latin. The basic principle of Pig Latin is to cut off the
front consonant, move it to the back of the word, and add the diphthong [ei].
Translated into standard English, the line reads: “Why not use Pig Latin?” Of
course, translating Pig Latin into Polish might be tricky, but to leave it in Eng-
lish in the Polish text shows clearly that the translator simply did not know what
he was dealing with here (my own humble suggestion would be to change the
sentence into something like “Może użyjecie tajnego języka dzieci?” and then to
precede each syllable with the syllable “ka”, with the following result: “Kamo
każe kau każy kaje kacie kata kajne kago kaję kazy kaka kadzie kaci?”, which is
based on a “secret” language used by children in Poland).
Two final issues – (1) In time, with a lot of translation going on between the
languages, many culture-specific language items become less culture-specific
and they stop becoming barriers to translating: they get borrowed (Polish words
like bigos and pierogi have by now practically entered the English language),
they get calqued, they acquire established equivalents. (2) In the case of some
culture-specific elements an opposite process takes place: they become forgotten
even in their source culture. As certain objects, problems, or phenomena disap-
pear from our daily life, so do the words which denote them, and especially their
connotations. Soon they become as obscure to the native speakers of the lan-
guage as they were originally to foreigners.

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Let us consider such objects as sznurek do snopowiązałek, wyroby czekola-

dopodobne, or saturator [a typically Polish type of a soda fountain] and
gruźliczanka [the word resembles the name of a mineral water, but it is based on
the word tuberculosis, in connection with the fact that the glasses in which the
soda water was served were not disposable and were not rinsed very thoroughly]
– the objects disappeared from our life long ago; the words still linger, but fewer
and fewer people remember the associations which those words evoked (Bo-
gucki 2007: 21-22). Also all sorts of allusions and quotations become forgotten.
Who still remembers the source and the significance of “Sie panie częstują!”? 16
Who will remember it twenty years from now? The “winged words” of one gen-
eration mean little to the next one, and nothing to the one after the next.

Background reading

Adamczyk-Garbowska, Monika. 1988. Polskie tłumaczenia angielskiej literatury

dziecięcej. Problemy krytyki przekładu. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Os-
solińskich.
Baker, Mona. 1992. In Other Words. A coursebook on translation. London and New
York: Routledge.
Bogucki, Łukasz. 2007. Zarys przekładoznawstwa dla studentów neofilologii. Łódź:
Wyższa Szkoła Studiów Międzynarodowych w Łodzi.
Borowy, Wacław. 1977 [1922]. “Boy jako tłumacz”. Excerpted in: Balcerzan, Edward
(ed.). 1977. Pisarze polscy o sztuce przekładu 1440 – 1974. Antologia. Poznań:
Wydawnictwo Poznańskie: 209–227.
Catford, J.C. 1965. A Linguistic Theory of Translation. London: Oxford University
Press.
Florin / Флорин, Сидер. 1983. Муки переводческие: Практика перевода. Под
редакцией Вл. Россельса. Москва: Высшая школа.
Hejwowski, Krzysztof. 2004a. Kognitywno-komunikacyjna teoria przekładu. Warszawa:
Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Hejwowski, Krzysztof. 2004b. Translation: A Cognitive-Communicative Approach.
Olecko: Wydawnictwo Wszechnicy Mazurskiej.
Hervey, Sándor and Ian Higgins. (1994). Thinking Translation. A course in translation
method: French to English. London and New York: Routledge.
House, Juliane. 1997. Translation Quality Assessment: A Model Revisited. Tübingen:
Gunter Narr Verlag.
Katan, David. 2009. “Translation as intercultural communication”. In: Munday 2009:
74-92.

16
From the Polish TV serial Daleko od szosy, directed by Zbigniew Chmielewski and
starring Krzysztof Stroiński and Irena Szewczyk (1976).

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Korzeniowska, Aniela and Piotr Kuhiwczak. 1994. Successful Polish-English Transla-

tion. Tricks of the Trade. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Koskinen, Kaisa. 2004. “Shared culture? Reflections on recent trends in Translation
Studies”. Target 16(1): 143–156.
Ladmiral, Jean-René. 1979. Traduire: théorèmes pour la traduction. Paris: Payot.
Lewicki, Roman. 1993. Konotacja obcości w przekładzie. Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS.
Mounin, Georges. 1982 [1963]. Les problèmes théoriques de la traduction. Paris: Gal-
limard.
Munday, Jeremy (ed.). 2009. The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies. London
and New York: Routledge.
Newmark, Peter. 1982. Approaches to Translation. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Newmark, Peter. 1988. A Textbook of Translation. New York and London: Prentice
Hall.
Newmark, Peter. 2010. “Translation and culture (dedicated now to the dear memory of
a fine translation teacher and translation critic Gunilla Anderson)”. In: Lewandow-
ska-Tomaszczyk, B. and M. Thelen (eds). 2010. Meaning in Translation. (Łódź
Studies in Language, Vol. 19). Frankurt am Main: Peter Lang: 171-182.
Nida, Eugene A. 1964. Towards a Science of Translating. With special reference to
principles and procedures involved in Bible translating. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Nida, Eugene A. and Charles R. Taber. 1974. The Theory and Practice of Translation.
Leiden: Brill, for the United Bible Societies (2nd edition).
Nord, Christiane. 1997. Translating as a Purposeful Activity. Functionalist Approaches
Explained. Manchester: St Jerome Press.
Prunč, Erich. 2001. Einführung in die Translationswissenschaft. Band I: Orientierungs-
rahmen. Graz: Institut für Translationswissenschaft.
Pym, Anthony. 2010. Exploring Translation Theories. London and New York:
Routledge.
Snell-Hornby, Mary. 1988. Translation Studies. An Integrated Approach. Amsterdam
and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation. London
and New York: Routledge.
Vinay, Jean-Paul, and Jean Darbelnet. 1995. Comparative Stylistics of French and Eng-
lish: A methodology for translation. Translated and edited by Juan C. Sager and
M. J. Hamel. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Vlahov and Florin / Влахов, Сергей и Сидер Флорин. 1980. Непереводимое
в переводе. Под редакцией Вл. Россельса. Москва: Международные
отношения.

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Sources of additional examples

Barańczak, Stanisław (ed.). 1993. Od Chaucera do Larkina. 400 nieśmiertelnych wierszy

125 poetów anglojęzycznych z 8 stuleci. Selected, translated, and edited by
Stanisław Barańczak. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Znak.
Berlitz. 1984. Polish for Travellers. Lausanne, Switzerland: Editions Berlitz.
Brown, Fredric. 1983. Night of the Jabberwock. In: 4 Novels by Fredric Brown. London:
Zomba Books: 1-140.
Card, Orson S. & Kathryn Kerr.1997. Lovelock. Trylogia o Mayflowerze – Księga
I. Translated by Marek Cegieła. Warszawa: Prószyński i S-ka:
Carroll, Lewis. 1947 [1927]. Ala w Krainie Czarów. Translated by Maria Morawska.
Warszawa: Gebethner i Wolff.
Carroll, Lewis. 1972a. Przygody Alicji w Krainie Czarów. Translated by Maciej
Słomczyński. Warszawa: Czytelnik.
Carroll, Lewis. 1972b. O tym, co Alicja odkryła po drugiej stronie lustra. Translated by
Maciej Słomczyński. Warszawa: Czytelnik.
Carroll, Lewis. 1988 [1955]. Alicja w Krainie Czarów. Translated by Antoni Marian-
owicz. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia.
Carroll, Lewis. 1990a. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Przygody Alicji w Krainie
Czarów. Translated by Robert Stiller. Wydawnictwo Lettrex.
Carroll, Lewis. 1990b Alicja w Krainie Czarów. Po drugiej stronie lustra. Translated by
Robert Stiller. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa “Alfa”.
Carroll, Lewis. 1997a. Alicja w Krainie Czarów. Translated by Jolanta Kozak. Warsza-
wa: Wydawnictwo Plac Słoneczny 4.
Carroll, Lewis. 1997b. Alicja po tamtej stronie lustra. Translated by Jolanta Kozak.
Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Plac Słoneczny 4.
Carroll, Lewis. 1998. The Complete Illustrated Lewis Carroll. Ware, Hertfordshire:
Wordsworth Editions.
Carroll, Lewis. 2005. Alicja w Krainie Czarów. Translated by Antoni Marianowicz.
Alicja po drugiej stronie zwierciadła. Translated by Hanna Baltyn. Warszawa:
Nasza Księgarnia.
Carroll, Lewis. 2010. Alicja w Krainie Czarów. Po drugiej stronie lustra. Translated by
Bogumiła Kaniewska. Poznań: Vesper.
Chandler, Raymond. 1977a. Trouble Is My Business. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Pen-
guin.
Chandler, Raymond. 1977b. Kłopoty to moja specjalność. Translated by Michał Roniki-
er. Warszawa: Czytelnik.
Crichton, Michael. 1981. Congo. New York, New York: Avon.
Crichton, Michael. 1994. Kongo. Translated by Witold Nowakowski. Warszawa: Amber.
Dickens, Charles. 1981. The Personal History of David Copperfield. Harmondsworth,
Middlesex: Penguin
Dickens, Karol.1987 [1889]. Dawid Copperfield. Translated by Wila Zyndram-
Kościałkowska. Warszawa: Czytelnik.

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Gautier, Théophile. 1955 [1835]. Mademoiselle de Maupin. Paris: Éditions Garnier

Frères.
Gautier, Théophile. 1958. Panna de Maupin. Translated from the French by Tadeusz
Żeleński (Boy). Warszawa: PIW.
Harrison, Harry. 1970. “Stragan z zabawkami” (“Toy Shop”). Translated by Lech
Jęczmyk. In: Kroki w nieznane 1. 1970. Edited by Lech Jęczmyk. Warszawa: Iskry:
291-297.
Harrison, Harry. 1994. “Sklep z zabawkami” (“Toy Shop”). Translated by Radosław
Kot. In: Złote lata Stalowego Szczura. Warszawa: Amber: 33-39.
Kipling, Rudyard. 1983. Poems. Short Stories. Moscow: Raduga Publishers.
Ludlum, Robert. 1989. Trevayne. New York: Bantam Books.
Ludlum, Robert. 1992. Trevayne. Translated into Polish by Arkadiusz Nakoniecznik.
Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Amber & Mizar.
MacLean, Alistair. 1963. Ice Station Zebra. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcet Crest
MacLean, Alistair. 1971. Fear Is the Key. London and Glasgow: Fontana / Collins.
MacLean, Alistair. 1975. Siła strachu (Fear Is the Key). Translated by Mieczysław Der-
bień. Warszawa: Czytelnik.
MacLean, Alistair. 1977. Noc bez brzasku (Night Without End). Translated by Miec-
zysław Derbień. Warszawa: Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza.
MacLean, Alistair. 1979 [1959]. Night Without End. London and Glasgow: Fontana /
Collins.
MacLean, Alistair. 1990. Stacja arktyczna “Zebra” (Ice Station Zebra). Translated by
Piotr Wolski. Warszawa: Amber.
Milne, Alan Alexander. 1962. Kubuś Puchatek (Winnie-the-Pooh). Translated by Irena
Tuwim. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia.
Milne, Alan Alexander. 1980 [1926]. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen (A Magnet
Book).
Milne, Alan Alexander. 1986. Fredzia Phi-Phi (Winnie-the-Pooh). Translated by Moni-
ka Adamczyk. Lublin: Wydawnicwo Lubelskie.
Reverte, Arturo Pérez. 2003. Ostatnia bitwa templariusza (La piel del tambor). Translat-
ed by Joanna Karasek. Warszawa: Warszawskie Wydawnictwo Literackie MUZA
SA.
Shakespeare, William. 1958. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Ed. by
G. B. Harrison. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Sjöwall, Maj and Per Wahlöö. 1990. Jak kamień w wodę (Brandbilen som försvann).
Translated by Maria Olszańska. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.
Wolfe, Gene. 2007. “Memorare”. Available from: http://will.tip.dhappy.org/blog/Com-
pression%20Trees/.../book/by/Gene%20Wolfe/Memorare/Gene%20Wolfe%20-
%20Memorare.xhtml [accessed 8 September 2009].
Wolfe, Gene. 2009. “Memorare”. Translated by Martyna Pilsenko. In: Kroki w nieznane
Tom 4. 2009. Edited by Mirek Obarski. Stawiguda: Solaris: 474 – 565.

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Cognitive Approaches to Translation

Mikołaj Deckert

University of Łódź
mikolaj.deckert@gmail.com

Abstract: The chapter starts from differentiating between some of the different uses of
the term “cognitive” – in linguistics, and as it may describe translation inquiry. My main
focus is on Cognitive Linguistics, and its subfield known as Cognitive Grammar, the
underlying explanatory construct being that of “construing conceptual content”, i.e.
selecting portions of conceptual content, organizing it in one of the countless available
ways and coding that particular configuration in the form of linguistic expressions.
In addition to surveying the cognitive semantics tenets, I make reference to the arbi-
trariness-iconicity opposition, and discuss the implications of using Cognitive Linguis-
tics to explain translation phenomena. The chapter talks in some more detail about two
models that have been showed – notably based on examples from the English-Polish
language pair – to yield precise, comprehensive and principled accounts of interlingual
meaning construction. In the final sections the prospects of Cognitive Linguistics as it
can benefit translation research are addressed.
Keywords: Cognitive Linguistics, cognition, conceptualisation, construal, iconicity,
perspective, prominence, granularity, metaphor, image schema

1. Introduction

This chapter gives an overview of selected models of translation analysis that

can be labeled “cognitive”. One of the vital points to be made at the beginning is
that the terms “cognition” and “cognitive” can be understood in a number of
differently compatible ways. The focus here will be on approaches that use the
descriptive tools developed within the enterprise known as Cognitive Linguistics
– differentiating that enterprise from approaches to linguistic analysis that will
be characterized as “cognitive” by virtue of the fact that they view language as
a mental phenomenon, which is not a strongly discerning feature. That discus-

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sion will, however, first be contextualized by talking briefly about the notion of
cognition as it has been used in other frameworks to guide research in the pro-
cess of translation.

2. The process of translation

Since Holmes (1988) introduced the map of Translation Studies where the theo-
retical problem-restricted subtype can either by process-oriented, product-
oriented or function-oriented the cognitive aspect of translation as a process was
viewed in terms of what mental activity the translator engages in while produc-
ing a target text.
An important line of research employed psycholinguistic empirical methods
to look into bilingualism where tasks requiring subjects to translate were used.
That research was not primarily meant as translational but it nonetheless shed
light on translation and interpreting (cf. de Groot 1997). Another empirical ap-
proach makes use of an instrument originally developed in cognitive psychology
– think-aloud protocols – where the subject, in this case the translator, is asked
to talk about what is going on in his or her mind while performing a task, i.e.
produce “concurrent verbalizations” (Krings 1986; Lörscher 1991; Jääskeläinen
1999). The insights into the cognitive processes obtained from protocols can
then be complemented by keystroke logging data. Programmes such as Translog
(Jakobsen 1999; Jakobsen and Schou 1999) make it possible to follow the pro-
cess of target text production as manifested by the subject’s keyboard activity,
and then for instance see how much time the translator spends on a particular
segment or how he or she introduces corrections. Yet more information can be
obtained from eye-tracking (e.g. O’Brien 2006). This method consists in analys-
ing the reader’s (translator’s) eye position and movement to ascertain where he
or she is looking and where the fixation is higher than elsewhere (hot spots).

3. What is Cognitive Linguistics?

In this chapter the term “cognitive” is used in another sense, to talk about a way
of approaching language. But even when used to talk about linguistics the notion
of “cognitive” could be misleading. In fact it can be applied to designate ap-
proaches that are to some extent conflicting. Noam Chomsky’s Generative
Grammar (e.g. 1957, 1965) and its later proposals within Minimalist Program

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(Chomsky 1995) can be described as a cognitive approach, too. In that line of

inquiry language is viewed as a self-contained unit – a module, hence the notion
of modularity theory developed by Jerry Fodor (1983, 1985) – that is autono-
mous from other cognitive capabilities of humans. A crucial element that helps
us understand the formal perspective on language is that language reflects the
reality – a claim that is opposed in Cognitive Linguistics. What is more the focus
of investigations in formal approaches is on syntax rather than semantics be-
cause it is assumed that meaning is not necessarily the key since the structures of
language are governed by a set of rules that are not correlated with meaning. The
cognitive element of Cognitive Linguistics is that it highlights “the crucial role
of intermediate informational structures in our encounters with the world”
(Geeraerts and Cuyckens 2007: 5). The way we interact with our environment
cannot be fully accounted for without considering things like the composition of
our bodies.
To outline how Cognitive Linguistics differs from the broader field of cog-
nitive linguistics let us list some of the major features of CL:
 usage and experience-based – language structure is analysed empirically
as shaped by actual language use, which makes it necessary to consid-
ered in analyses factors such as frequency, whether evidenced by corpora
or elicited through experimental procedures. Also, no rigid distinction
between competence and performance is posited which again is against
the grain of the Chomskian approach;
 perspectival – language does not mirror the state of affairs in the world
in an unmediated fashion and one of the parameters that are at play here
is the relationship between the speaker and the object that is spoken of;
Cognitive Linguistics often uses a visual metaphor in this place to talk
about a viewing arrangement, i.e. the relationship between the vantage
point of a viewer (conceptualiser) and what is viewed (conceptualised);
the choice of a vantage point influences meaning and rules out the at-
tainability of total synonymy between two different linguistic expres-
sions;
 encyclopaedic – we produce and comprehend language samples we
make use of vast resources of background assumptions expectedly
shared by the addresser and the addressee; this allows our linguistic ex-
changes to be economical as what we explicitly code in the linguistic ev-
idence is typically only a very small portion of what we de facto intend
to communicate; That is why it is often hard to come up with an interpre-
tation of an utterance without contextual information or access to the cul-
tural assumptions the speaker originally envisaged as necessary for arriv-
ing at the optimum interpretation.

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4. Construal

The features of language outlined above are closely related to the concept of
construal proposed by Ronald Langacker within the framework of Cognitive
Grammar, a subsection of Cognitive Linguistics. Construal can be characterised
with the use of parameters like granularity, prominence and perspective.
Granularity – also referred to as specificity and resolution – is used to de-
scribe the level of construal’s detail. A schematic scene like “A person per-
formed an action” will have a number of increasingly specific elaborations like
“A woman performed an action”  “Jane climbed a mountain”  “John’s wife
Jane ascended Rysy in July last year”.
Prominence refers to the dynamics between the trajector-landmark align-
ment and profiling. As far as the first component goes, the trajector is defined as
the element on which attention is focused and which is described or located with
reference to the more stable, and often larger participant, known as the land-
mark. Profiling consists in designating a structure (profile) within
a superordinate construction (base). Common profile-base configurations are
“finger–knuckle”, “hypotenuse – right-angled triangle”. An example of how
prominence is distributed could be an expression like “a butterfly on a branch”
where the insect functions as the trajector, a smaller, and less stationary partici-
pant profiled against the landmark.
Perspective is about the relationship of the conceptualiser (metaphorically
called the viewer) and the conceptualised (viewed) object. A vital element in this
arrangement is the vantage point from which a scene is conceptualised. The im-
port of the vantage point can be seen in the semantic distinction between “Come
up into the attic” and “Go up into the attic” (Langacker 2007: 436) where the
first utterance construes the speaker as positioned in the attic and the second one
as positioned elsewhere.
Langacker’s claim is that the linguistic expressions we use are a way of
“construing”, or packaging, conceptual content which as a means of imposing
construal on a scene. An example would be conceptual content comprising ele-
ments such as a 250 ml glass containing 125 ml of liquid. The scene’s partici-
pants and relations between them can be differently organised on the conceptual
level and then packed in the form of a linguistic expression in a huge range of
manners. Depending on the resolution level, the glass’s colour and transparency
or the type and temperature of the liquid can be characterized but they might just
as well be referred to more schematically as merely “container” and “liquid”.
Moreover, different elements of the configuration can be profiled. We can draw
the receptor’s attention to the glass or to the liquid but, perhaps more consequen-

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tially, we have the choice as to which of the halves that comprise the container’s
interior will be designated, i.e. whether the liquid-holding or the air-holding half
is structured as more prominent. That the choice is consequential for the process
of meaning construction can be well seen in the proverbial pessimist-optimist
difference between “glass half-full” and “glass half-empty”.

5. Between arbitrariness and iconicity

The reasoning behind the idea that different ways of mentally organizing and
linguistically coding content differently impact meaning can be associated with
the notion of iconicity. To begin with, Charles Sanders Peirce (1931/1974) made
a distinction between three types of signs: an icon, an index and a symbol. In
icons there is a physical resemblance between the sign and what it represents and
the shared quality is there in the icon irrespectively of the object. Examples of
icons are photographs and diagrams and linguistic expressions like “yeeees”.
Sample indices include a weathercock or an expression like “here”, “that” or
“you” in which one can experience a property that implies the object. As for
symbols – signs such a flag or Morse code – there is no semblance between the
sign and object it stands for and the sign denotes an object be virtue of being
interpreted as denoting it.
As for linguistic signs more particularly, in traditional formulations they are
taken to be arbitrary (Saussure 1916) in the sense that there is nothing X-like in
linguistic item X. In other words, the signifier (the visual or acoustic manifesta-
tion) is not paired with the signified (concept) in any motivated fashion with the
exception of onomatopoeic expressions and musical forms.
Cognitive linguists argue iconicity is common in language and can be ob-
served on many levels of linguistic organisation. The view that language form
itself contributes to meaning is at loggerheads with an approach known as
“truth-conditional semantics” where the meaning of sentence is seen in terms of
truth conditions under which that sentence is true. In that framework “John
kicked the ball” and “The ball was kicked by John” would be considered to have
the same meaning. In turn, according to the Cognitive Linguistics view, the
meaning of those expressions is different as they differently construe conceptual
content.

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6. Using Cognitive Linguistics in translation inquiry

Cognitive Linguistics has been demonstrated to offer a useful set of concepts to

explore translation. In the following sections I will outline two models that draw
on Cognitive Linguistics to investigate translation – one proposed by Elżbieta
Tabakowska (1993) and the other one, proposed more recently, by Barbara
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (2010).

6.1. A Cognitive Linguistics approach to poetics of translation

Elżbieta Tabakowska (1993) uses the Cognitive Linguistics framework to inves-

tigate literary translation. Tabakowska’s (1993: 74) point is that “the merit of
cognitive linguistics is not that it makes great discoveries about the true nature of
human language (and languages), but that it makes it possible to systematize
people’s old and empirically well-grounded intuitions”. In her explorations she
makes use of Ronald Langacker’s (1987) “dimensions of imagery”, or “construal
operations” as they tend to be referred to more recently. In her view “equiva-
lence in literary translation should be considered, and ultimately defined, in
terms of poetics” (Tabakowska 1993: 3) and her formulation of poetics rests on
Jakobson’s (1960) proposal where it is the language’s function to structure in-
formation in a text in a particular way. Tabakowska (1993: 72) talks of stylistic
equivalence and competence which have to do with the translator being able to
identify “(in both the source and the target languages) linguistic minutiae: subtle
semantic differences on precisely the level of imagery dimensions”.
Tabakowska (1993: 78-127) illustrates the functionality of CL in the transla-
tion setting by analysing a number of case studies devoted to how particular
parameters work across languages.

6.1.1. Perspective

The construct is illustrated with a contrastive discussion of articles which ac-

cording to Tabakowska (1993: 82) are the main linguistic device setting up the
construal’s perspective. As opposed to English, Polish uses no definite and in-
definite articles, therefore when rendering a text from Polish into English and
introducing articles in the process the translator narrows the scope of interpreta-
tion. The choice of article implies a vantage point from which the scene is
viewed. The target variant can introduce the vantage point of the narrator “who

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relates scenes that had been observed prior to the time of relation” (Tabakowska
1993: 78-79). Because the events are already determined, the definite article will
be used. The second option is to introduce the viewpoint of “the ‘innocent’ read-
er” to whom they are not yet known (Tabakowska 1993: 79) and because the
reader is learning about them only at this point, they are paired with indefinite
articles, to generate a sense of recency.
Translational perspective shifts can also be exemplified with the analogy of
presence and proximity (Tabakowska 1993: 83). In a story the narrator can use
tense distinctions to differently position the vantage point. Tabakowska discuss-
es this on the example of translation of Tadeusz Konwicki’s “Kompleks polski”.
The source text employs present-tense narration which temporally aligns the
moment of relating events with the events themselves, thus – as in the case of
articles above – contributing to an atmosphere of urgency. Additionally, this
construes the narrator as the object and the subject simultaneously. The target
text, in turn, is narrated in past tense, which creates distance between the speak-
er’s point of view and the object of narration. Tabakowska (1993: 84) argues
that as a result of this alteration there is no source-target equivalence and the
target audience are presented with “an altogether different novel”.

6.1.2. Scale

The parameter of scale is elaborated on by discussing diminutives. They are

a good example of systemic differences between Polish and English because the
former has a rich inventory of suffixes to produce diminutive noun, adjective
and adverb forms as opposed to the latter in which different resource have to be
utilised for analogous purposes. Tabakowska uses the concept of prototype-
based radial categories whereby some members of a category are better, more
prototypical, instances of a category (are more central members) than others
which will be more towards the category’s periphery. In line with this, an eagle
will be a more central member of the bird category than a penguin. With respect
to diminutives, Tabakowska (1993: 101) argues, the central members are those
signalling smallness, and she remarks that while even in the case of those proto-
typical uses some degree of interpretation on the part of the translator is neces-
sary, the translator’s task gets harder when dealing with meaning extensions, for
instance when scale is openly construed non-conventionally as is the case where
the original author conveys irony or evaluation (Tabakowska 1993: 101-110) by
manipulating the construal’s scale .

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6.1.3. Salience

Tabakowska also uses the notion of radial categories to talk about the particle
“to” in Polish as she illustrates salience modifications in translation. “To” draws
the receptor’s attention to the part of the sentence the speaker assumes to be the
most prominent one in a given communicative situation (Ożóg 1990: 150) and it
imposes a subjective speaker-based figure/ground configuration where figure is
the participant on which attention is concentrated, i.e. the one that is located,
evaluated etc. relative to the less prominent entity. Prototypically, “to” points to
entities, in which instance Polish-English transfer is fairly straightforward. The
less prototypical members of the “to” category are for instance those communi-
cating emotional closeness, not just the more prototypical closeness in the physi-
cal sense. In Polish-English translation, once again the structural linguistic dif-
ferences surface, making the translator’s task potentially more demanding.

6.1.4. Metaphor

Tabakowska’s explorations of translation also include the concept of metaphor.

At this point it has to be pointed out that it is a key Cognitive Linguistics notion
and that the Cognitive linguists have revisited the classical understanding of
metaphor to see it as more than just a linguistic device or a stylistic embellish-
ment typical of literary discourse. In CL it is postulated that metaphor is “a ma-
jor and indispensable part of our ordinary, conventional way of conceptualizing
the world, and that our everyday behavior reflects our metaphorical understand-
ing of experience” (Lakoff 2006 [1993]: 186). Metaphor is defined as a mapping
between domains – a source domain which is an abstract one and a target do-
main which is more tangible. In other words, metaphor is about making it possi-
ble to understand and experience one kind of thing in terms of another (Lakoff
and Johnson 1980: 5). Some well known metaphors would be: LIFE IS
A JOURNEY, ARGUMENT IS WAR or KNOWING IS SEEING. Importantly, there is
a distinction between a single metaphor like KNOWING IS SEEING, which is an
association on the conceptual level, and then a wide range of metaphoric expres-
sions derived from that mapping, such as “You see what I mean”, “I see your
point”, “I can’t see any difference”, “The problem can be viewed in many
ways”. Pertinently for the translator, as a consequence of cultural variation some
cross-domain mappings will not be analogous interlingually. While metaphors
like GOOD IS UP will often work in similar manners across cultures, some map-
pings rely on concepts that are far from universally understood by speakers from
different cultures. This is just one of the challenges that translation analysts have

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addressed and all in all metaphor continues to be an important point where CL

and Translation Studies converge (cf. Hiraga 1991, Samaniego Fernández et al.
2003, 2013)to begin.
In Tabakowska’s account metaphor is seen as an aspect of construal and she
pays attention to one more crucial CL concept, known as “image schema”. Im-
age schemas are a special type of concepts, “a condensed redescription of per-
ceptual experience” that serves the purpose of reasoning about the surrounding
world and organising our knowledge (Oakley 2007; Evans and Green 2006).
Common image schemas are balance, blockage, container, counterforce, re-
straint removal, enablement, attraction, path, centre-periphery, cycle, near-far,
part-whole, merging, splitting, full-empty. Tabakowska analyses metaphors uti-
lising the CONTAINER image schema that has to do with the differentiation be-
tween the interior and exterior as well as a delimitation of those two. Tabakow-
ska looks into how CONTAINER metaphors found in Emily Dickinson’s poems
are translated into Polish by Stanisław Barańczak. Her analysis shows that
Barańczak makes some the original metaphors more conventional and modifies
the source construal. While Tabakowska finds it problematic to suggest a single
explanation of the translator’s decision, she mentions his motivation might have
been to retain a particular leitmotif, to treat each poem as a separate whole, or to
secure some strictly formal features of the original poems.

6.2. Translation as reconceptualisation

One of the premises behind the model proposed by Barbara Lewandowska-

Tomaszczyk (2010; see also Chapter 1) is that the relation between language and
the world is not a direct one. Instead, that relation is mediated by “both linguistic
and encyclopaedic knowledge, speakers’ intentions, their expectations and pref-
erences” (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2010: 106). The model shares the cogni-
tive principle that language users organise their experience differently and how
this is accomplished is actually guided by the language they use, by the con-
straints of context and discourse and by the fully subjective choices of the
speaker (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2010: 106).
A key concept here is that of “re-conceptualization” used to describe the
process in which the source language message is reconceptualised in a number
of cycles before it is expressed in the target language. Translators first absorb the
source message and re-conceptualise it. Then the “transduce the mental SL mod-
el they develop on hearing or reading the SL text into one in the TL, which they
consider most suitable to the TL audience and, at the same time, most faithful to

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the original, intentional meaning of the message”. At that point, the target ex-
pression initiates yet another cycle of re-conceptualisation in the target audience.
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (2010: 108) makes the point that “re-
conceptualization is not only possible but unavoidable in translation, as it is dic-
tated partly by the new construal parameters in the target language form, differ-
ent context (...), but also brought about by subjective preferences of the transla-
tor in choosing particular target language forms (...)”.
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk’s (2010) list of re-conceptualisation types is as
follows:
1. conventional coding
2. conventional coding with different [subjective] construals
3. language-convention induced conceptualisation by language-
specific (semanticised) syntax
4. shifting on the scale of negation
5. figure/ground organization of content
6. viewpoint shift
7. subjectification
8. iconicity of syntax and semantics
9. prototypical phraseological equivalents – different effects
10. instruments, utensils
11. social, educational, etc. structures
12. class-specific conceptualisation of pragmatic events
13. culture-specific onomatopoeia
14. proper names: domestication – foreignisation
15. cross-space re-conceptualisation of proper names
16. language/concept-specific word games
17. concept replacement
18. metonymy: activation of parts of one domain onto the whole do-
main
19. metaphorical sayings, proverbs, compounds: different source do-
mains (conceptual content and profiling] in target language than
in source language, mapped on identical source and target lan-
guage target domains
20. axiological markedness
21. quantitative re-conceptualisation: decreasing the prominence of
part(s) of the scenario

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22. quantitative re-conceptualisation: changing the prominence [cul-

tural convention/religious bias]
23. footnotes as lexical gap-fillers
24. digression as imposition of the translator’s ideology
25. elimination of neologism – conventionalisation
26. neologism for neologism
27. extending background knowledge
28. re-conceptualisation as an effect of foreignisation
29. domestication – re-conceptualisation in terms of familiar context
30. re-conceptualisation of a lexicalised term into a term and defini-
tional equivalent or substitution of a Latinate term into a native
term
31. different metaphors – different conceptualisations
32. literalness and granularity: metaphor-simile
33. change in the mental image; retaining the conceptual field
34. intensification: addition of granularity
35. reconceptualisation by addition
36. simplification: schematicity.

On the whole, the model’s postulate is that the product resulting from the cycles
of reconceptualisation is “a blend, a hybrid” of the author’s model of a scene or
event and the target audience’s model (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2010: 143).
The receptor’s interpretation emerges online and, what is important, the dyna-
mism of meaning is observable both in the source text and in new interpretations
of the translation (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2010: 143).
Some of the other approaches employing the apparatus of Cognitive Lin-
guistics in translation description are for instance Hejwowski’s (2004, 2007)
proposal to use the notions of verb frames, scenes and scripts (cf. Boas 2013). In
turn, Deckert (2013) looks into patterns of construal reconfiguration in interlin-
gual subtitling across the parameters of granularity, prominence and perspective.
Similarly, Jankowska (2013) used construal operations in her contrastive analy-
sis of audiodescription scripts.

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7. Conclusions

Cognitive Linguistics provides us with a set of principles and constructs that can
be used in systematic description of how meanings emerge. Vitally, then, the
apparatus can be implemented in translation analysis to compare how conceptual
content gets structured across languages. Such analyses presuppose the analyst’s
high linguistic competence (Tabakowska 2002) which is linked to an important
feature of those investigations, i.e. their high level of detailedness which –
though potentially problematic (Hejwowski 2004: 53) – makes the translator
more aware that even apparently small source-target shifts are consequential. At
the same time, this is not to say that shifts should be avoided at all cost. They
will be justified by a number of constraints imposed on the translator – from
technical limitations (e.g. in audiovisual translation) to the availability of cultur-
al assumptions of source and target audiences, to ensuring that the target text is
not ill-formed where no unconventional language use had been intended by the
original author.
What is more, the vital realisation that Cognitive Linguistics promotes is
that the mere consideration of conceptual content is insufficient for
a comprehensive account of linguistic meaning. An investigation of the matter
has to be supplemented with looking into the manner. Just as the ‘meaning’ of
a painting, photograph or film depends on how objects and events are represent-
ed (cf. Tabakowska 1993: 129), often much more than the objects or events
themselves.

Suggestions for further reading

I. Cognitive Linguistics
Evans, V. and M. Green (2006). Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction. Mahwah, NJ
and Edinburgh: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates/Edinburgh University Press.
Geeraerts D. and H. Cuyckens (2007). (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Lin-
guistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Geeraerts, D. (2006). (ed.) Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings. Berlin and New York:
Mouton de Gruyter.

II. Cognitive Grammar

Langacker, R. W. (2008). Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction. New York: Oxford
University Press.

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III. CL and translation

Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. (2010). “Re-conceptualization and the emergence of
discourse meaning as a theory of translation”, in B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and
M. Thelen (eds.). Meaning in Translation. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 105-
147.
Rojo, A. and I. Ibarretxe-Antuñano (2013). (eds.) Cognitive Linguistics and Translation:
Advances in Some Theoretical Models and Applications. Berlin: Mouton de Gruy-
ter.
Tabakowska, E. (1993). Cognitive linguistics and poetics of translation. Tübingen: Gun-
ter Narr.

IV. Cognitive Corpus Linguistics

Gries, St.Th. and A. Stefanowitsch (2006). (eds). Corpora in Cognitive Linguistics:
Corpus-Based Approaches to Syntax and Lexis. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. and K. Dziwirek (2009). (eds). Studies in Cognitive
Corpus Linguistics. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
V. Translation and cognition
Gutt, E.-A. [1991] (2000). Translation and relevance: Cognition and context. Manches-
ter: St. Jerome.

References

Boas, H. C. (2013). “Frame Semantics and Translation”, in A. Rojo and I. Ibarretxte-

Antunano (eds). Cognitive Linguistics and Translation: Advances in Some Theoret-
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Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague and Paris: Mouton.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Deckert, M. (2013). Meaning in Subtitling: Toward a Contrastive Cognitive Semantic
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Evans, V. and M. Green (2006). Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction. Mahwah, NJ
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Hejwowski, K. (2004). Translation: a Cognitive-Communicative Approach. Olecko:
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Corpora and Descriptive Translation Studies

Łukasz Grabowski

Opole University
lukasz@uni.opole.pl

Abstract: This Chapter aims to survey the scope of possible applications of language
corpora and corpus linguistics methodology in empirical research on translation, con-
ducted within the field of descriptive translation studies (DTS)1. First, the scope of the
field of DTS is described in some detail, followed by a presentation of the most im-
portant tenets of the corpus linguistics approach to studying language. Second, an over-
view of the types of corpora used in research on translation is presented. Third, the
Chapter explicates the difference between quantitative and qualitative research methods
offered by corpus linguistics. Fourth, translation universals, translator’s style and transla-
tion style are presented as key research problems in DTS, followed by an overview of
case studies addressing these problems with the use of corpus methodologies. The Chap-
ter ends with conclusions and observations regarding possible future development of
DTS as well as with some references to sources where readers can find more specific
information on the problems touched upon in this Chapter.
Keywords: corpus linguistics, descriptive translation studies, translation universals,
parallel corpora, comparable corpora, quantitative methods, qualitative methods

1. Introduction

This Chapter, which draws extensively on the author’s earlier publications

(Grabowski 2012a, 2012b, 2013), among other works cited in it, aims to survey
the scope of possible applications of language corpora and corpus linguistics
methodology in empirical research on translation, conducted within the field of
descriptive translation studies (DTS). First, the scope of the field of DTS is de-

1
This Chapter draws extensively on the author’s earlier publications (Grabowski 2012a,
2012b, 2013), among other works cited in it.

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scribed in some detail, followed by a presentation of the most important tenets of

the corpus linguistics approach to studying language. Second, an overview of the
types of corpora used in research on translation is presented.Third, the Chapter
explicates the difference between quantitative and qualitative research methods
offered by corpus linguistics. Fourth, translation universals, translator’s style and
translation style are presented as key research problems in DTS, followed by an
overview of case studies addressing these problems with the use of corpus meth-
odologies. The Chapter ends with conclusions and observations regarding possi-
ble future development of DTS as well as with some references to sources where
readers can find more specific information on the problems touched upon in this
Chapter.

2. Background: descriptive translation studies (DTS),

corpus linguistics and corpora

Although translation has played an important role in communication between

people from the time immemorial, the study of translation as an academic disci-
pline has seriously begun to emerge only in the 1970s (Kenny 2001: 49). In
a seminal paper, Holmes (1988/2000) – attempting to outline a conceptual clari-
fication – mapped out the scope of translation studies and singled out an empiri-
cal sub-discipline of descriptive translation studies (DTS) aimed at describing,
predicting and explaining translational phenomena, on the basis of authentic
empirical data, rather than prescribing rules aimed to ensure the production of
a hypothetical ideal translation. More specifically, Holmes (1988/2000: 172-
185) argues that the very aim of DTS is to conduct a systematic description of
three empirical phenomena underlying translation, namely a product of transla-
tion – text, a process of translation – decisions made by translators in the course
of translating, and a function of translation. This view of DTS is further devel-
oped by Toury (1995) who argues that translational phenomena could be ex-
plained in three ways, namely by specifying their position and role in the target
culture, by identification of norms that govern decisions made by translators
through comparing source-texts and target-texts for any shifts, and by formula-
tion – on the basis of the analyses of source-texts and target-texts – of probabil-
istic laws of translation, such as the law of standardization (i.e. a tendency of
translators to conform with the norms operating in a target language) and the law
of interference (i.e. a tendency of translators to transfer linguistic features of the
source language–mainly lexical and syntactic–into the target-text) (Munday

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2001: 115-116). In practice, however, DTS resemble a cluster of overlapping

perspectives as there seem to be no unified methods of approaching the empiri-
cal study of translation (Neubert & Shreve 1992: 6).
One of the attempts to introduce more scientific rigour and objectivity into
the study of translation is the application of the research methods offered by
corpus linguistics. Making use of large electronic collections of linguistic data
found in texts stored in what is known as corpora (singular: corpus), corpus lin-
guistics enables one to quantify selected linguistic features of translations as
compared with their source texts, with other translations, or with native texts
written in the same language as the translation. It is possible because corpus
linguistics treats texts as samples of countable objects which are various linguis-
tic features (e.g. lexical, morphological, syntactic, semantic etc.) found in these
texts. Hence, the frequency of occurrence of linguistic units and their classes is
of paramount importance, and that is why corpus linguistics advocates the study
of texts with the use of the same techniques as the ones employed in sociology
or demography, namely statistical (Piotrowski & Grabowski 2013: 59-60). Using
such methods, frequent and typical linguistic phenomena (e.g. specific linguistic
features identified in translations) come to the fore at the expense of rare and
unique items.2 Consequently, studying translation with the use of corpus linguis-
tics methodology researchers put emphasis on recurrent linguistic patterns used
by authors of original texts and translators at the expense of randomly selected
rare linguistic features, which for some subjective reasons have been deemed
important by researchers working in the pre-corpus fashion.
According to Olohan (2004: 16), there is an overlap between corpus linguis-
tics methodology and DTS, and the following points come to the fore as orienta-
tions and underlying assumptions for research:

a) an interest in the descriptive study of translations as they exist (i.e. as observable

facts)
b) an interest in language as it is used in the translation product, as opposed to the
study of language in a contrastive linguistic, i.e. system-oriented, sense;
c) an interest in uncovering what is probable and typical in translation, and through
this, in interpreting what is unusual;
d) combining quantitative and qualitative corpus analysis in the description, which
can focus on (a combination) of lexis, syntax and discoursal features;
e) application of corpus linguistics methodology to different types of translation, i.e.
translation in different socio-cultural settings, modes, etc. (Olohan 2004: 16).

2
Piotrowski and Grabowski (2013) present a discussion on certain problems with inter-
preting linguistic data extracted from language corpora.

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According to Zanettin (2012: 10), corpora used in DTS typically contain two
main sets of linguistic data representing different varieties of the same language,
e.g. translations, non-translations (i.e. native texts written originally in the same
language), or texts in different languages (which can be translations and the orig-
inals, or only texts originally produced in different languages). Importantly,
translational texts can be translations of different source texts, or they can repre-
sent multiple translations of the same text (which happens only in the case of
literary texts). Depending on the choice, there are two major types of corpora
extensively used in DTS, namely parallel corpora and comparable corpora,
which can be further broken into more fine-grained categories depending on the
directions of the translations.
The term parallel corpus is used to refer to collections of parallel texts that
are translations of each other. Such a corpus is composed of two corpora: the
first one includes original texts, and the second includes their translations into
a target language (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2005: 43). Such a corpus can be
also called a bilingual parallel corpus. A parallel corpus can also include paral-
lel texts in more than two languages, e.g. original texts in one language (called
a ‘pivot language’) and their translations into many languages – then it is re-
ferred to as a multilingual parallel corpus or mono-source-language parallel
corpus (Laviosa 2002: 36; Olohan 2004: 25).3 Parallel corpora can be unidirec-
tional (i.e. when they include source texts in language A and target texts in lan-
guage B only), or bidirectional4 (i.e. when they include source texts in language
A and target texts in language B, and source texts in language B and target texts
in language A) (Olohan 2004: 24). Finally, since parallel corpora contain both
source texts and their translations, they are also referred to as translational cor-
pora (Olohan 2004: 101).
A comparable corpus is used to refer to collections of texts in one lan-
guage and similar texts in another language (which are not translations). Then it
is referred to as a bilingual comparable corpus. Also, it is possible for
a comparable corpus to include similar texts written in more than two languages,
and then it is called a multilingual comparable corpus) (Laviosa 2002: 101).
All in all, a comparable corpus includes native texts (i.e. non-translations) in two
or more languages, which are typically similar in terms of all or some of the

3
An example of such a corpus is an InterCorp Project, which is a subproject of the
Czech National Corpus – a large parallel synchronic corpus of fiction covering 25 lan-
guages, including Czech as a pivot language. Available at:
http://www.korpus.cz/intercorp/?lang=cs
4
An example of bidirectional bilingual parallel corpus is English↔Russian Parallel
Subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus, which is available online at:
http://www.ruscorpora.ru/search-para.html

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following criteria: the same or approximately the same date of their production
or publication, theme, function, style, domain etc. (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
2005: 52). Texts collected in a comparable corpus are more natural than texts
collected in a parallel corpus, as they are not subject to any constraints typical of
the translation process. In other words, comparable corpora provide access to
multilingual collections of texts independently produced by native speakers of
particular languages (ibid.: 53).
However, Baker (1995) claims that comparable corpora are not just the ones
including independent texts in two or more different languages. Quite to the
contrary, Baker (ibid.: 233) argues that comparable corpora may also include
two independent collections of texts produced in one and the same language.
The first collection may include original texts produced by native speakers of
a particular language (e.g. Polish), which are not translations, and the other col-
lection may include texts translated into L1 (e.g. also Polish) from any language
L2 or L3 (e.g. English, Russian etc.). The texts included in each of the two col-
lections should be similar in terms of their type or genre, theme, function, date of
production and length. A corpus like this one is called a monolingual compara-
ble corpus, and it enables researchers to compare linguistic features of native
texts with translated texts in the same language, produced independently from
each other. An example of such a corpus is the Translational English Corpus
(TEC)5, which contains native English texts translated from a number of differ-
ent languages, on the one hand, and – similar in terms of type, theme, size and
function – original native English texts extracted from the British National Cor-
pus (BNC), on the other. However, more specific problems6 related to compila-
tion of all the types of corpora discussed above are beyond the scope of this
Chapter.
Since the 1990s, parallel corpora, comparable corpora as well as corpus lin-
guistics methodology have been widely applied in DTS research. In order to
emphasize the influence exerted by corpus linguistics on descriptive research on
translation, the latter has been frequently referred to as corpus-based descriptive
translation studies (Laviosa 2002: 18). In the following section, the most im-
portant quantitative and qualitative methods of the analysis of corpus data are
presented in greater detail.

5
TEC is available online at:
http://www.monabaker.com/tsresources/TranslationalEnglishCorpus.htm
6
More information on design and compilation of corpora used in research on translation
can be found in, among others, Zanettin (2012).

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3. Research methodologies: quantitative and qualitative methods

In the case of quantitative methods, linguistic data attested in corpora are first
classified and counted, and on the basis of these procedures more complex statis-
tical models are constructed to explain researchers’ observations (McEnery &
Wilson 1996: 62). Results of such quantitative analyses can be generalized to
a larger population of texts, or compared with results of the analyses conducted
on different corpora (e.g. source texts can be compared with their translations, or
translations compared with non-translations in the same language), be it parallel
or comparable ones. As a rule, quantitative methods of data analysis are facili-
tated by various computer programs custom-designed for text analysis (e.g.
WordSmith Tools, AntConc etc.), word processors and/or spreadsheets. Such
programs can help one obtain data in the form of descriptive statistics, wordlists
or their transformations (e.g. frequency profiles or frequency spectra). The pro-
cedures discussed below are typically employed independently for each lan-
guage component of a parallel or comparable corpus, for each source and target
text in the corpus, or for each translational and non-translational text in the cor-
pus, depending on the types of corpora used in a study.
Descriptive statistics describes the main features of texts or corpora in
quantitative terms, e.g. a number of running words (text length), word types
(different words) or sentences, mean sentence length, proportion of different
words (types) to the total number of running words, known as type/token ratio
(TTR), or standardized type/token ratio (STTR) calculated as average across
stretches of 100 or 1,000 word tokens in a text. As a rule, low TTR or STTR
means a narrow range of vocabulary, or narrow scope of subjects discussed in
a text or corpus, while high TTR or STTR indicates the opposite. A higher mean
sentence length as compared with another text tentatively indicates that the style
is more explicit and precise. On the other hand, a lower mean sentence length
indicates the opposite, i.e. the style being more concise and terse because, for
example, a translator used shorter sentences to translate long-form constructions
typical of an original text. Table 1 presents basic descriptive statistics on two
independent Polish translations of the English-original novel “Lolita” by Vladi-
mir Nabokov, completed by Robert Stiller (1991) and Michal Kłobukowski
(1997).

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Table 1. Example of descriptive statistics for Polish translations of Lolita by Stiller (1991) and
Kłobukowski (1997)

English- Translation by Translation by

Statistics
original Stiller Klobukowski
Number of tokens (text length) 112,230 101,130 95,936
Number of types (distinct words) 13,991 28,757 28,879
Type/token ratio (TTR) 12.46 28.43 30.10
Standardised TTR (STTR) 51.66 66.07 7 0.03
Standardised TTR basis 1,000 1,000 1,000
Number of sentences 5,549 5,628 5,529
Mean sentencje length 20.22 17.96 17.35

In short, these indicators provide basic information on style and lexical richness
of texts, and hence they may be used in comparisons of source texts and their
translations, or different translations of the same source text. However, when
comparing statistical data, in particular the ones generated for parallel texts, one
has to bear in mind that any source text and its translation are not directly com-
mensurable due to typological differences between any two languages. Such
a situation calls for the need to compare the statistical indicators with standard
measures obtained from reference corpora for each language (Zanettin 2012:
181).
A wordlist, or a frequency list, accounts for a register of all words that oc-
cur in a particular text or corpus. Usually, the wordlist is supplemented with
information on the total number of occurrences provided for each word. In other
words, such a frequency list reports the number of instances (tokens) of each
word (type), which occurred in a text or a corpus (Baroni 2009: 804). In practice,
a frequency list is a preliminary survey of the text or corpus under scrutiny.
However, it is important to bear in mind that any text or corpus presented as
a wordlist is not a text anymore, but rather its transformation that helps focus
researchers’ attention not on the message of a text, but rather on its form, or
other aspects of individual words found in it (Scott & Tribble 2006: 12). Using
a word processor, a spreadsheet or corpus software, it is possible to manipulate
data obtained in a frequency list so that it can be ordered in different configura-
tions, e.g. ascending or descending alphabetical order, decreasing or increasing
frequency order, decreasing or increasing length order etc. According to Scott
(2007: 132), wordlist analyses can be used for multiple purposes, namely for
studying the type, range and distribution of vocabulary used in a text or a corpus
(e.g. in two translations of the same original text), comparing frequency of
a word in different texts or corpora of the same or different genres (e.g. in spe-
cialist texts and translations produced in the same language), comparing fre-
quencies of cognate words or pairs of translation equivalents (e.g. in a source

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text and its translation) etc. Also, Olohan (2004: 77) argues that wordlists enable
researchers to find regularities or irregularities as regards frequency and distribu-
tion of grammatical words in texts (e.g. in non-translated and translated texts in
the same language), to identify common words (types) in a particular text or
a corpus, or to identify unusual and creative words or expressions, which typi-
cally occur in texts with low frequencies (which means that one should look for
such words at the very bottom of a wordlist). Table 2 provides an example of
a wordlist showing the twenty most frequent content words in the English-
original and two Polish translations of “Lolita”.

Table 2. An example of a wordlist, where *R stands for a rank of a word on a frequency list
English-original Translation by Stiller Translation by Klobukowski
R* Word Freq R* Word Freq R* Word type Freq
9 was 1486 21 już 365 21 już 275
30 have 388 29 Lo 236 22 Lo 274
37 said 344 33 jest 219 28 jest 228
39 were 305 37 jeszcze 201 35 jeszcze 202
42 little 287 43 było 181 42 była 166
51 lo 236 47 była 168 46 było 156
61 old 197 49 był 158 49 był 152
62 Lolita 193 59 Haze 135 57 Haze 124
63 two 192 63 Lolita 125 58 bardzo 120
81 know 139 71 pan 112 64 potem 108
84 haze 137 80 bardzo 99 69 Dolly 100
87 way 135 81 Humbert 99 72 raz 99
89 child 132 84 znów 98 76 Lolita 96
93 room 121 85 Dolly 96 79 nigdy 94
95 girl 120 98 raz 83 80 ma 92
100 am 117 102 jestem 80 87 Humbert 87
101 car 117 103 domu 79 93 domu 82
102 good 116 104 lat 78 97 pan 82
103 Humbert 115 107 wciąż 77 101 jestem 80
108 eyes 109 109 czasu 73 102 miała 80

Wordlists, like the one presented above as an example, can be subjected to fur-
ther transformations. One of them is a frequency spectrum, which is obtained
by assigning a number of words (tokens) to the frequency of their occurrence in
a text. It enables one to answer the question how many word types in
a frequency list have a particular frequency (Baroni 2009: 804). As a creative or
author-specific vocabulary usually occurs in a text with low frequencies, fre-
quency spectra can be used to quantify lexical variety or a degree of repetition
among low-frequency words. As a rule, a text is more varied lexically if the

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proportion of low-frequency words in the total word number of words is higher.

Table 3 presents an example of a frequency spectrum showing the numbers of
word types that appear in two Polish translations of “Lolita” with frequencies
from 1 to 5 and their proportion in the total number of words.

Table 3: An example of a frequency spectrum

Translation by Stiller Translation by Kłobukowski
f Proportion of
Number of Proportion of words Number of
words with
word types with frequency f in the word types
f frequency f in
with frequen- total number of words with fre-
the total number
cy f (in %) quency f
of words (in %)
1 19560 19.34 1 19586 20.41
2 4282 27.80 2 4389 29.56
3 1653 32.71 3 1770 35.10
4 902 36.28 4 782 38.36
5 533 38.91 5 490 40.91

If one compares either a source text with its translation, or different translations
of the same text, then higher values for lower frequencies mean that the text is
more lexically varied. It can further mean that a translator frequently uses such
translation strategies as explicitation where ambiguous words, phrases or terms
in a source text are rendered by more words in the translation; if the opposite is
the case, then it is possible that a translator frequently simplified or normalized
the vocabulary in the translation, and used fewer words with more general mean-
ings. If one compares translations with non-translations, then frequency spectra
enable one to determine whether lexical variety is either higher or lower than in
non-translated texts.
The corpus-driven7 quantitative methods presented above are limited in that
they focus on data sets with only two vectors presented in a tabular form, i.e.
specific observations (numbers) in the rows, with the vectors (column variables)
specifying different properties of the observations (e.g. 17.96 is a mean sentence

7
A corpus-driven approach is an orientation to the analysis of linguistic data where no
hypotheses are formulated before the actual analyses, and the data are not classified in
any way (i.e. described in terms of a particular language theory). The hypotheses are
formulated later as derived from the data under observation. The opposite orientation is
a corpus-based approach which implies prior classification of data (i.e. assigning la-
bels, derived from particular language theories, to corpus data) and formulating
a hypothesis grounded in a particular theory of language. The purpose of observation
of corpus data is therefore to test the hypothesis formulated before the actual observa-
tion of data.

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length in the Polish translation of “Lolita” completed by Stiller). It may be the

case, however, that the aim of a study is to compare many different texts (e.g.
translational and non-translational, or translations completed by one translator
with the ones completed by other translators) in order to assess the degree of
their similarity (for example in terms of the use of the 1,000 most frequent
words). In such a case, the data set has more than two vectors (e.g. 1,000 differ-
ent words, their frequencies, and a specific number of texts analyzed) and that is
why it is referred to as multivariate data. Such a situation calls for the use of
multivariate quantitative methods, frequently used in computational stylistics
and authorship attribution. The popular variants of multivariate methods are
Cluster Analysis, Correspondence Analysis and Principal Components Analysis.
In short, multivariate analyses are used to evaluate the distances, or differences,
between the frequency data for each text and these data are usually normalized
either as correlations of frequencies relative to the size of the text or as z-scores
of the word frequencies, as in the case of Burrows’s Delta (Rybicki 2012: 232).
Recently, there have been attempts to use multivariate analyses in DTS, for ex-
ample in explorations of translator’s style (Rybicki 2012, 2013), translatorial
attribution (Rybicki & Heydel 2013), and translation universals (Grabowski
2013). These studies are presented in greater detail later in this Chapter.
In general terms, the results of quantitative analyses may help one formulate
some preliminary hypotheses on style or lexical richness to be tested in greater
detail with the use of qualitative methods, which are not aimed to assign fre-
quencies or information on distribution to linguistic data under investigation. To
the contrary, qualitative methods are targeted at formulation of complete and
detailed description of linguistic features identified in linguistic data (e.g. in
parallel or comparable corpora). In this approach, rare phenomena receive the
same amount of attention as frequent phenomena, a situation opposite to quanti-
tative analyses, where the frequent and the common come to the fore.
Qualitative analyses typically involve comparisons of specific linguistic fea-
tures in parallel or comparable corpora through studying of concordances, in
particular of parallel concordances (if the focus of a study is to compare transla-
tions and their source texts), or of text fragments illustrating the use of specific
linguistic features, e.g. words or multi-word units deemed to be important by
a researcher for some reason (proper names, culture-specific items, specialist
terminology, collocations, lexical bundles, idioms, proverbs, catchphrases etc.).
Such a procedure enables researchers to address specific questions concerning
either specific choices made by translators (e.g. What techniques or strategies of
translation they used in the case of particular translational problems?; How do
translators typically translate a given linguistic feature?; Are translators con-
sistent in terms of the choice of equivalents etc.), or to explore specific differ-

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ences between translations and non-translations (e.g. If we assume that transla-

tions are typically simplified lexically, then which linguistic features are simpli-
fied?; If we assume that translations present some information more explicitly,
then which linguistic features are markers of explicitation?). Table 4 presents an
example of a parallel concordance, extracted from OPUS Parallel Corpus
(Tiedemann 2009), illustrating English-to-Polish translation of the noun unity in
what is commonly referred to as the European Constitution.

Table 4. An example of a parallel concordance

English original text Polish translation
Decisions given by the General Court Orzeczenia wydane przez Sąd na mocy
under this paragraph may exceptionally be niniejszego ustępu mogą zostać w drodze
subject to review by the Court of Justice, wyjątku, na warunkach i w zakresie okre-
under the conditions and within the limits ślonym przez Statut Trybunału Sprawiedli-
laid down by the Statute of the Court of wości Unii Europejskiej, poddane kontroli
Justice of the European Union, where there Trybunału Sprawiedliwości, jeżeli zachodzi
is a serious risk of the unity or consistency poważne ryzyko naruszenia jednolitości lub
of Union law being affected. spójności prawa Unii.
Where the General Court considers that the Jeżeli Sąd uzna, że sprawa wymaga orze-
case requires a decision of principle likely czenia co do zasady, które może mieć
to affect the unity or consistency of Union wpływ na jednolitość lub spójność prawa
law, it may refer the case to the Court of Unii, może on przekazać tę sprawę do
Justice for a ruling. rozpoznania Trybunałowi Sprawiedliwości.
Decisions given by the General Court on Orzeczenia wydane przez Sąd w sprawach
questions referred for a preliminary ruling pytań prejudycjalnych mogą zostać w dro-
may exceptionally be subject to review by dze wyjątku, na warunkach i w zakresie
the Court of Justice, under the conditions określonym przez Statut, poddane kontroli
and within the limits laid down by the Trybunału Sprawiedliwości, jeżeli zachodzi
Statute, where there is a serious risk of the poważne ryzyko naruszenia jednolitości lub
unity or consistency of Union law being spójności prawa Unii.
affected .
In the cases provided for in Article III- Jeżeli w sprawach przewidzianych w arty-
358(2 ) and ( 3 ) of the Constitution , where kule III-358 ustępy 2 i 3 Konstytucji pierw-
the First Advocate-General considers that szy rzecznik generalny uzna, że zachodzi
there is a serious risk of the unity or con- poważne ryzyko naruszenia jedności lub
sistency of Union law being affected , he spójności prawa Unii, może wystąpić do
may propose that the Court of Justice re- Trybunału Sprawiedliwości z wnioskiem
view the decision of the General Court . o poddanie orzeczenia Sądu kontroli.

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However, it is important to address a number of methodological issues to ensure

reliability of findings from qualitative analyses. Having said that qualitative
analyses typically involve comparisons of specific linguistic features through
studying of parallel concordances (if the focus of a study is to compare transla-
tions and their source texts), the question arises as to which particular linguistic
features to explore in greater detail. To explain this problem, I will use two hy-
pothetical examples of research studies.
The first study is aimed to verify whether a translator of a particular book
used a technique of syntactic simplification with respect to complex sentences
found in the source text. In other words, in the study like this one I would focus
on textual realizations of complex sentences in the target texts to see whether
they are preserved as complex ones or their syntax is modified in one way or
another. However, one may find hundreds or even thousands of complex sen-
tences in a literary text, which – to make matters worse – is not linguistically
homogeneous (i.e. it exhibits a high degree of variance with respect to distribu-
tion of complex sentences, e.g. some fragments of a novel may have more dia-
logues towards the end of the book – and fewer complex sentences there – rather
than in the beginning chapters etc.). Thus, the question would arise as to which
particular sentences in the source text to select in order for the analysis to yield
reliable results. Importantly, our aim in this case is to select those sentences (i.e.
a sample of 100 sentences) which are representative of the entire population of
complex sentences found in the text. In situations similar to this one, researchers
typically use the so-called stratified random sampling, the method described in
more detail by, among others, Oakes (1998: 10) and Rowntree (2000: 26-27).
More specifically, a text is divided into fragments of equal lengths (e.g. 30-page
long fragments) and from each fragment researchers randomly (e.g. by chance)
select the same number of complex sentences so that each individual sentence
has the same chance of being selected. This way the selection of a sample of
sentences is less biased and the sample itself is more representative of the entire
text (notably when compared with the selection of sentences from the first chap-
ter of a book only).
The second hypothetical study is aimed to determine the tendencies in trans-
lation of an English definite article the into Polish on the example of a large
purpose-designed English-Polish parallel corpus of contemporary literary texts.8

8
The choice of the definite article the in this hypothetical example does not mean that
one should pay more attention to how translators deal with specific grammatical cate-
gories. In fact, a platform of comparison may be any formal, syntactic, semantic or
pragmatic feature (corresponding to concepts conveyed in a source text which are for
some reason considered to be important by a researcher), e.g. proper names, culture-

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As expected, a parallel concordancer is bound to produce a list of hundreds, if

not thousands, of results illustrating occurrences of the article in specific con-
texts along with aligned fragments of translation. Because the results are pre-
sented in order (one concordance on top of another, as in Table 4), the sampling
frame is called an ordered one (Babbie 2013: 226). Also, since particular in-
stances of the use of the article the (e.g. 20,000 occurrences in a corpus) are
taken from many different texts, it is more difficult to divide them into disjoint
groups, which puts into question the use of stratified random sampling method.
Yet one still wants to ensure that each instance of the has equal probability of
being selected. In such situations, researchers typically select those elements
which occur at regular intervals (e.g. every nth concordance). For example, if the
total number of occurrences of the article the is 20,000 (a size of the population)
and the intended sample to be explored qualitatively is 200, then one would se-
lect every 100th concordance. Importantly, a starting point (i.e. the first occur-
rence of the to be selected) can be chosen at random (e.g. 13,456th concordance
from the list) yet after reaching the end of the list of concordances it is required
to start from its beginning in order to ensure that the intended sample consists of
200 occurrences.9
To sum up, the results of quantitative analyses often constitute a starting
point for formulation of hypotheses to be further tested in a qualitative way. It is
claimed that both quantitative and qualitative analyses are complementary – the
former provide statistically reliable and generalizable results while the latter
provide greater richness and precision (McEnery & Wilson 1996: 63). Using
a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the same lin-
guistic data one obtains different yet complementary perspectives, which ulti-
mately results in a more comprehensive description of the phenomena under
scrutiny. Also, by using both types of research methods researchers avert
a possible danger of conducting spurious quantitative investigations of transla-
tions and non-translations as an end in itself (Laviosa 2002: 25).
Due to length constraints, this section presented only a limited selection of
quantitative and qualitative methods offered by corpus linguistics that can be
applied in DTS. However, the following sections present specific research prob-

specific items, terms, constructions expressing politeness etc. Very often, the choice of
a specific linguistic feature depends on whether the corpus is an annotated or unanno-
tated one (and on the scope of annotation if the former scenario is the case).
9
Such method is known in statistics as systematic sampling (Babbie 2013: 222-223). An
excellent overview of statistics used specifically in the humanities is also found in
Canning (2013), a free open access online book.

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lems and case studies, and therefore shed more light on how researchers have
applied quantitative and qualitative methods in their research.

4. Translation universals, translator’s style and translation style as

key research problems in DTS

This section focuses on the presentation of a rationale behind using parallel

and/or comparable corpora in the exploration of translation universals10, trans-
lator’s style and translation style, which account for major research problems
addressed in contemporary DTS.
According to Baker (1993, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2004), parallel corpora and
monolingual comparable corpora can be valuable sources of empirical data for
DTS research, in particular on the so-called universal features of translation or
translation universals (from now on TUs), which are generalizations made on
the basis of repeatedly observed specific textual characteristics (e.g. lexical,
grammatical or stylistic) typical of translated texts, irrespective of specific lan-
guages involved in the translation process. Research on TUs is based on a belief
that translational language is a specific language variety and that there are lin-
guistic features that occur in translations but not in source texts, which can be
explained not by interference from the source language, but by the nature of
complex pressures of the translation process (Kenny 2001: 58). Similar concepts
were formulated earlier, notably in the 1980s (e.g. Vanderauvera 1985), but they
were not overtly labeled as TUs. According to Frawley (1984/2000: 168), the
language of translated texts accounts for the so-called ‘third code’on the contin-
uum between the source and target language; Trosborg (1997a, 1997b) labels it
a ‘hybrid language’11; in a similar vein, Gellerstam (1986) and Baker (1993)
refer to it as ‘translationese’.
According to Baker (1993), Laviosa (2001, 2002), Kenny (2001), Olohan
(2004) and Chesterman (2004), the most important TUs are explicitation, simpli-
fication and disambiguation, normalization or conservatism and levelling out.
The aforementioned researchers describe these types of TUs in greater detail as
follows. According to Olohan (2004: 93), the explicitation hypothesis, original-
ly formulated by Blum-Kulka (1986), provides that translators render the target

10
The fragment on the theoretical background of TUs has been adopted – with some
modifications and additions – from Grabowski (2013).
11
These labels are also cited by Baker (1993: 245) and Mauranen and Kujamaki (2004:
1) respectively.

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text more explicit as compared with the source text and overtly reveal hidden
meanings in the latter; this may manifest itself in, among others, more frequent
use of cohesive ties in translation, more repetitions in texts, longer sentences and
ultimately – translations being longer than original texts (ibid.). Explicitation can
be also achieved through overusing prepositions, adding nouns in attributive
function, disambiguation of pronouns and using geographical names in their full
form (Vanderauwera 1985). The simplification hypothesis concerns the tenden-
cy of translators to simplify the language used in translation, more often than not
in terms of lexis, syntax and stylistics (Baker 1996: 181-182). It may manifest
itself in, among others, overusing hypernyms, paraphrases and periphrases
(Blum-Kulka&Levenston 1983), avoidance of archaisms and sophisticated lin-
guistic expressions at the expense of colloquial and unoriginal vocabulary in
translations (Vanderauwera 1985: 102-103). In the same study, Vanderauwera
also observed the tendency of literary translators to substitute complex and com-
pound sentences with simple sentences and gerund clauses. Normalization,
described as a tendency of translators to adopt target texts to norms and typical
patterns of the target language (Baker 1996: 176-177), manifests itself in, among
others, substituting untypical, rare and creative words and collocations in source
texts with typical expressions in the target texts (Kenny 2001), overusing clichés
and truisms, using simple grammatical constructions in translations (Øverås
1998: 581-682, cited in Olohan 2004: 97), adapting cultural elements specific to
the source-language-culture with elements typical of target-language-culture,
substituting archaisms with frequent contemporary expressions (Vanderauwera
1985). Finally, the levelling out hypothesis refers to translations being more
homogenous (or more similar) in that they show more similarity between each
other than between translations and their source-texts or between translations
and native texts in the same language (Baker 1996: 184).12

12
As researchers focus on either specific texts or a corpus of texts (e.g. a parallel or
monolingual comparable corpus), then one can assume that the postulated TUs are ap-
plicable only to texts subject to study. Obviously enough, it is impossible to exclude
the possibility that these TUs have predictive power and hence can be applicable to
other texts as well, but such an assumption – proposed by Kenny (2001: 54) – requires
further studies. The rationale behind such a limitation of TUs is that tendencies in
translation change over time (e.g. translations produced in the 19 th century differ from
contemporary translations in many respects, let alone from the embellished baroque
translations), translations are subject to the influence of source and target language,
direction of translation, translator’s idiolects (including values and worldview), transla-
tor’s gender, translator’s ideology, social and political environment, text type and gen-
re conventions etc., which altogether exert profound influence on the choice of transla-

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Importantly, Baker (1993: 233) adds that research on translation (and TUs)
should not be limited to comparisons of source texts and their translations, but
should be extended to comparisons of non-translated texts with translated texts,
which are produced under different social, cultural and sometimes even political
circumstances. Tellingly, the relation between the source text and its translations
(represented by parallel texts or parallel corpora) is different from the one be-
tween translated texts and non-translated texts (stored in monolingual compara-
ble corpora). According to Chesterman (2004: 6), the former is the relation of
equivalence, which enables one to see a text as a translation of another text,
whereas the latter is the relation of acceptability of a text or its fitting into the
family of non-translated native texts in the target language. Thus, the hypotheses
about TUs may be postulated either on the basis of the relation of equivalence or
on the basis of the relation of textual fit. This problem was addressed by Ches-
terman (2004: 8) who proposed a division of TUs into S-Universals (i.e. the ones
postulated on the basis of equivalence) and T-Universals (i.e. the ones postulated
on the basis of textual fit). The former look into the ontology of translation and
its relation to the source text while the latter focus on specific linguistic features
that distinguish translations from texts originally written in the target language
(Kajzer-Wietrzny 2012: 25). According to Chesterman (2004: 7-8), potential S-
universals include the law of interference, the law of standardisation, the explici-
tation hypothesis and the reduction of repetitions, while potential T-universals
encompass simplification, conventionalization (later referred to as normaliza-
tion), untypical lexical patterning and underrepresentation of target language
specific items. Also, Chesterman (2004: 8) adds that both S-universals and T-
universals are to a certain degree interdependent, e.g. interference from the
source language might be a potential cause of unnatural lexical patterning or
underrepresentation of target language specific items in translation. In contrast
with S-universals, the search for T-universals constitutes an attempt to explore
translated texts in their own right rather than from a perspective of their source
texts, which requires a relative norm of comparison in the form of non-translated
texts written in the same language (ibid.).13
However, even if research on translation universals contributes to descrip-
tion of general linguistic patterns typical of translational texts, it is entirely pos-
sible to find translations which fail to conform to those ostensibly universal pat-
terns. According to Baker (2004: 173), since “there there will always be individ-
ual translators who opt to use different strategies, to go against the norm”, it is

tion strategies, techniques or procedures and hence – on lexical, grammatical and sty-
listic characteristics of translated texts.
13
A more detailed overview of TUs is also found in Kajzer-Wietrzny (2012).

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also necessary to study variation in patterns of translation among individual

translators. That is why other major research problems in DTS refer to the explo-
ration of translator’s style and translation style.
On the surface, the two terms seem to be strikingly similar because both re-
fer to style, which at its simplest refers to the perceived distinctive manner of
expression in writing (Wales 2001: 370). However, translator’s style and transla-
tion style are differently conceptualized and defined in DTS. In an attempt to
provide some conceptual clarification, Saldanha (2011: 26-28) argues that trans-
lator’s style is expressed in the individual profile of linguistic habits of
a particular translator as compared with other translators. In a similar vein, Ry-
bicki (2013) defines translator’s style as “the individual features of a translated
text that it supposedly shares with other translations done by the same translator
and that are due to the translator‘s impact on the text”. Both Saldanha (2011) and
Rybicki (2013) emphasize that this view was originally presented by Baker
(2000: 244) who argues that translator’s style is paramount to “translator’s pres-
ence in the text, or rather the traces that this presence leaves in the text”. This
concept opens up a possibility for comparative studies focused on the explora-
tion of patterns of variation in the use of particular linguistic features among
individual translators14. According to Saldanha (2011: 27), the study of transla-
tor’s style, as proposed by Baker (2000), focuses on pinpointing those linguistic
features (or stylistic idiosyncrasies) which are consistently used across several
translations completed by one and the same translator, irrespective of the differ-
ences between source texts. Thus, the search for those linguistic features that can
be unambiguously attributed to the translator’s individual linguistic habits is
essential in this approach15. Importantly, Olohan (2004: 144) adds that transla-
tors may employ specific linguistic features subconsciously, or they may be
forced to do so consciously in order to conform to particular ideological agen-
das.
Such an approach, which clearly adopts a target text-oriented perspective on
translator’s style seen as a personal attribute of a translator (Saldanha 2011: 27),
has significant methodological implications. It calls for the use as a research

14
An example of such a study is Grabowski (2012a, 2012b) who conducted a com-
parative study – with the use of quantitative corpus linguistics methods – of two inde-
pendent Polish translations (by Robert Stiller, dated 1991, and Michał Kłobukowski,
dated 1997, respectively) of the English-original „Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov
(1955).
15
According to Baker (2000: 262) and Rybicki (2013), the main challenge at hand in this
approach is to neutralize all the different variables (e.g. the impact of editors, publish-
ers, genre conventions etc., to name just a few) in order to identify only those linguistic
features that can be unambiguously attributed to the translator alone.

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material of translational texts (produced by the same or different translators,

depending on the scope of the study) and – optionally – non-translational texts
(for reference purposes) written in the same language. From that it follows that
source texts (and likewise parallel corpora) are typically not central in the anal-
yses conducted in this vein.
On the contrary, the concept of translation style enables source texts to re-
gain their central status. According to Saldanha (2011: 27), the term translation
style can be linked to another term, namely ‘translational stylistics’, originally
proposed by Malmkjær (2003: 39), which focuses on addressing the question of
“why, given the source text, the translation has been shaped in such a way that it
comes to mean what it does”. In other words, translation style is a result of trans-
lator’s subjective decoding16 of the meaning conveyed in the source text, and of
how the translator responds to the source text. In other words, translation style is
defined by its relation to the source text, and hence it constitutes a textual attrib-
ute, rather than a personal attribute of the translator (Saldanha 2011: 27). Focus-
ing on how the translator reproduces the style of the source text calls for the use
of parallel texts or corpora. The pursuit of how specific words, multi-word units
(or their semantic properties or discourse functions) are translated and conveyed
into a target language–obtained with the use of a variety of quantitative and
qualitative methods – typically results in the identification of the traces of the
author of the source text in the translation.
Summing up, the main difference between the two concepts, namely the
translator’s style and translation style, lies in the positioning of the style itself. In
the former approach, the style of translated text is seen from the perspective of
the target text, while in the latter it is perceived as arising from the source-text.
In the former approach, the activity of the translator is seen as a creative one
while in the latter it is merely seen as reproductive. According to Saldanha
(2011: 28), these two perspectives are complementary since they enable re-
searchers to explain stylistic choices made by translators as a result of their indi-
vidual linguistic habits, on the one hand, and of the way they respond to the
source texts, on the other. Importantly, the explorations of translator’s style and
translation style involve the compilation and use of author- and/or translator-
specific corpora, which is not the case of studies on translation universals where
larger balanced corpora – representing works of multiple authors and/or transla-
tors – are typically employed.

16
According to Saldanha (2011: 27), such a view of translation style is adopted by,
among others, Boase-Beier (2006) who adopts a cognitive perspective in her explora-
tion of the ways translators recognise particular stylistic effects in the original and rec-
reate them in translations.

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5. Case studies

An overview of specialist literature shows that much more has been written on
the application of parallel and comparable corpora in applied branches of trans-
lation studies, in particular in translator training, natural language processing,
multilingual terminology extraction etc. However, as mentioned earlier in this
Chapter, parallel corpora, comparable corpora as well as corpus linguistics
methodology have also been widely applied in DTS, typically in explorations of
translation universals, translator’s style and translation style. An overview of
selected case studies is presented below.

5.1. Research in DTS with the use of parallel corpora

Parallel corpora were used in research on translation strategies and lexical crea-
tivity. Kenny (2001) used a parallel corpus (German-English Parallel Corpus of
Literary Texts) and a comparable corpus (collections of German and Austrian
literature) to study lexical normalization and lexical creativity. The study re-
vealed a tendency for normalization (44% of instances) in the case of translation
from German into English of creative hapax legomena (i.e. author-specific
words which occur in a text only once), particularly in the case of derived forms
and complex verbal nouns. Kenny (2011) also revealed that certain translators
may use the normalization strategy less often than others.
Vanderauwera (1985), who compared a parallel corpus of fifty selected con-
temporary Dutch literary novels with their English translations, revealed that the
latter show a high degree of explicitation (e.g. frequent use of connectives and
prepositions, addition of nouns in attributive function, repetitions of previously
used expressions, use of full geographical names, disambiguation of pronouns),
simplification (e.g. substituting archaisms and sophisticated expressions with
contemporary and stock ones) and normalization (e.g. substitution of creative
collocations with typical ones).
Bosseaux (2001) used parallel texts of the English novel The Waves by Vir-
ginia Woolf and its two independent translations into French in order to investi-
gate differences and similarities between the two translations. On the basis of
measures such as sentence-length, type/token ratio (TTR) and analysis of trans-
lation patterns of selected culture-specific lexical items, it was revealed that
there are considerable differences between the two French translations, in partic-
ular in terms of the translation strategies (foreignizing vs. domesticating proce-
dures) employed by the translators.

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Serban (2004) used a custom-designed Romanian-English parallel corpus of

novels and short stories to study discourse phenomena in translations (such as
existential presuppositions) in order to reveal translation techniques used in ren-
dering definiteness and indefiniteness in translations. The study revealed the
tendency of definite references to be translated by indefinite references, which is
linked to translators’ distancing themselves from target readers.
Ramon and Labrador (2008) used English-Spanish Parallel Corpus to ex-
plore translation patterns of English -ly adverbs of degree into Spanish. The aim
of the study, focusing on exploration of translation style, was to develop
a classification of translation methods and reveal cross-linguistic correspondenc-
es to be further used in translator training and translation quality assessment.
In a study focusing on exploration of translation style, Zanettin (2012: 190-
196) used a purpose-designed Rushdie English-Italian Parallel Corpus with five
novels and one short story (with approximately 1.5 million words) to explore
translation techniques applied by two Italian translators (Ettore Capriolo and
Vicenzo Mantovani) to, among others, direct speech constructions and expres-
sions denoting indeterminacy. The results, which revealed different Italian pat-
terns to translate the same English expressions, were further evaluated against
a number of monolingual reference corpora of English and Italian in order to
verify whether the different Italian translations are stylistic variations or whether
they convey different nuances from the source texts.
In the study of translator’s style conducted by Rybicki (2012), interfacing
corpus linguistics (analysis of word frequencies) and computational stylometry
methods, two collections of English-original literary texts and their Polish trans-
lations were analyzed independently – using multivariate methods – in order to
verify whether it is easier in translational texts to tell one translator from others
or one author of the original from other authors. The results revealed that the
stylometric methods used in the study are able to tell a translator from
a translator only when translations of the same author are compared with each
other, e.g. Polish translations of le Carré produced by Rybicki were distin-
guished from those completed by other translators (Rybicki 2013). However, in
most cases analyzed in the study the features of authorial style present in the
source text and transferred into the translation supersede the translator’s lexical
traces. It therefore seems that “multivariate analysis of most-frequent-word us-
age (…) condemns translators to stylometric invisibility” (Rybicki 2012: 246).

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5.2. Research in DTS with the use of comparable corpora

Comparable corpora were typically used to discover systematic differences be-

tween non-translated and translated texts in a particular language in order to see
“whether translations function in specific ways which distinguish them from
ordinary language material composed independently of source text constraints”
(Baker 1995: 235). For example, Olohan and Baker (2000) used the BNC and
the TEC to study patterns of inclusion or omission of optional that with the re-
porting verbs to say and to tell. The study revealed local differences in the use of
that or in its omission – the pronoun that is more frequent in the TEC (which
includes translated texts) than in the BNC (which includes non-translated texts),
and that omission of this pronoun is more frequent for all forms of both report-
ing verbs in the BNC than in the TEC.
In a corpus-driven study on TUs, Laviosa (1998) explored distinctive fea-
tures of translational English as compared with native English (represented by
text samples elicited from the custom-designed English Comparable Corpus
(ECC) and the BNC respectively) in order to verify the existence of translation
universals of simplification and explicitation. It was found that translational
English has four core patterns of lexical use: a relatively lower proportion of
lexical words over function words, a relatively higher proportion of high-
frequency words over low-frequency words, a relatively greater repetition of the
most frequent words (i.e. a list head with the 200 most frequent words is larger
in translated texts), and a smaller vocabulary (i.e. fewer word types or lemmas
are used). In one of her later studies, Laviosa (2002: 60-62) also found that
translational English texts have a lower average sentence length and a lower
range of vocabulary than non-translational texts.
Baker (2000), apart from offering a preliminary methodological framework
for investigation of translator’s style, used a comparable corpus of translational
(extracted from the TEC corpus) and non-translational English texts (the BNC
used for reference purposes only) in order to compare translator’s style of two
British literary translators, namely Peter Bush and Peter Clark. In the said study,
a selection of quantitative (type/token ratio, average sentence length, frequency
of the reporting verb say in all its inflectional forms) and qualitative methods
(analysis of concordances illustrating different patterns of use of the reporting
verb say) were used. The methodology used in the study, focusing on the analy-
sis of a total of eight translations, is further developed and refined in a similar –
yet conducted on a larger scale – later study (Baker 2004) focusing on the total
of twenty one translational texts produced by four different translators (Giovanni
Pontiero, Dorothy Blair, Peter Bush and Lawrence Venuti).

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Tirkkonen-Condit (2002) conducted an empirical study on how to identify

translations when pooled together with non-translations. More specifically, the
study was aimed to determine the extent to which readers can correctly identify
translations and to identify specific linguistic features shared by texts deemed to
be translations as well as those shared by texts deemed to be non-translations. To
that end, a comparable corpus of Finnish translational and non-translational texts
representing different text types and genres was used. The results revealed that
translations are not readily distinguishable from non-translations on the basis of
their linguistic features. Also, it was revealed that some genres (e.g. sports news)
are translated in accordance with the norms of the genre, which makes it more
difficult for readers to distinguish them from original writing in Finnish.
Dayrell (2005; 2007) used a comparable corpus of Brazilian Portuguese (in-
cluding different text genres, such as fiction and self-help books) to investigate
lexical patterning in translated versus non-translated Brazilian Portuguese.
Another objective of the study was to propose a research methodology for com-
paring quantitative aspects of collocational patterns in the two varieties of the
same language. The study revealed that collocational patterns tend to be less
diverse in translated texts as compared with non-translated texts, irrespective of
a text genre.
Using ZJU Corpus of Translational Chinese (ZCTC), Xiao (2010: 5-35) ex-
amined core patterns of lexical use in translated and non-translated Chinese. The
study revealed that translational Chinese has a significantly lower lexical density
(i.e. the proportion of lexical words to function words) than native Chinese, but
there is no significant difference in the lexical richness as defined by the stand-
ardized type-token ratio. As compared with non-translated texts, translational
Chinese has a higher proportion of high-frequency words over low-frequency
words, and a greater repetition rate of high frequency words. The comparison of
frequent connectives revealed that simpler forms are used in translated texts,
which confirms the explicitation hypothesis (Xiao 2010: 21).
In the study conducted by Grabowski (2012b), focusing on the exploration
of translator’s style, two independent Polish translations, completed by Stiller
and Kłobukowski, of the novel “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov as well as
a purpose-designed reference corpus of ten native Polish novels were explored.
Using quantitative methods, such as descriptive statistics, wordlist analysis and
keyword analysis, the aim of the study was to compare the style of the two trans-
lators and determine which one is more similar to typical Polish literary texts in
the reference corpus. The results revealed, among others, that Stiller used more
archaisms and rare words untypical of contemporary Polish as compared with
Kłobukowski, who preferred more stock vocabulary, and that the latter transla-
tion which is more similar to typical literary Polish.

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Jimenez-Crespo (2011) used a comparable corpus of original and localized

corporate websites in Spanish, addressed to customers in Spain, in order to test
the hypothesis on syntactic explicitation in the entire corpus and in the websites’
navigation menus. More specifically, the study focused on the examination of
the optional use of Spanish personal pronouns acting as subjects that are obliga-
tory in English, the optional use of Spanish demonstratives in the navigation
menus, and the total word and character length of words found in the navigation
menus. The results confirmed the explicitation hypothesis for two optional ele-
ments in Spanish, namely personal pronouns acting as subjects, and demonstra-
tives.
Grabowski (2013) used two custom-designed reference corpora of transla-
tional and non-translational literary Polish (with seven texts in each) in order to
verify the hypotheses on the TUs of simplification and leveling out. The study
conducted with the use of selected corpus linguistics and computational stylistics
research procedures revealed ambiguous results. As regards verification of the
simplification hypothesis, the analysis revealed that translational texts are char-
acterized by higher lexical richness (higher STTR) and lower mean sentence
length, but only the latter finding was found to be statistically significant. The
comparison of frequency profiles showed that a list head (words ranked 1-200 in
a frequency list) in the translational corpus accounts for a smaller area of the
corpus than in the case of non-translational one, which invalidates the simplifi-
cation hypothesis. As for the levelling out hypothesis, it was found that the vari-
ance for lexical richness is higher in non-translational texts, but the difference is
not statistically significant. The variance for the mean sentence length is also
higher and statistically significant in non-translational texts, which confirms the
levelling out hypothesis. Multivariate analyses, such as the Principal Compo-
nents Analysis and Cluster Analysis, confirmed the levelling out hypothesis that
translations are more alike as compared with native texts in terms of the distance
– measured with the use of Delta (Burrows 2002) – between frequencies and
distribution of the 1,000 most frequently used words.
Rybicki and Heydel (2013) conducted a study of translator’s style – using
stylistic authorship attribution methods based on multivariate analysis of most-
frequent-word frequencies – to identify the point in the Polish translation where
one translator (Magda Heydel) of a novel Night and Day by Virginia Woolf took
over the work from another translator (Anna Kołyszko). The successful identifi-
cation of the location of the change of a translator shows that corpus linguistics
and computational stylometry methods can be used together in studies of transla-
tor’s style aimed at exploration of translatorial attribution (Rybicki&Heydel
2013: 8), notably in the contexts of collaborative translation.

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6. Conclusions

This Chapter outlined the scope of possible applications of language corpora and
corpus linguistics methodology in descriptive translation studies (DTS). Chiefly,
there are three types of corpora extensively used in DTS: parallel corpora (i.e.
collections of parallel texts, which are texts in source language aligned with their
translations), comparable corpora (i.e. collections of texts in a source language
and similar texts in target language) and monolingual comparable corpora (i.e.
collections of similar translated and non-translated texts in the same language).
More specifically, the Chapter presented selected case studies focusing on explo-
ration of translation universals, translator’s style and translation style, considered
to be major research problems in DTS, with the use of diverse quantitative and
qualitative methods.
It is possible to draw a number of conclusions regarding the current state of
DTS on the basis of the information presented in this Chapter. However, there is
one observation that stands out and it pertains to the growing awareness among
researchers of limitations of basic quantitative and qualitative research methods
which have recently become insufficient to address some more sophisticated
problems (e.g. translatorial attribution or translation universals). That is why
recent studies reveal that researchers refine their methodologies by additionally
using multivariate methods typical of computational stylometry and authorship
attribution, which may pave the way and provide stimulus for further develop-
ment of DTS in the future. However, the reasons which justify doing so are still
humanistic, which may appear to be dubious considering the level of mathemati-
cal sophistication found in these methods. Yet the number of books and transla-
tions published worldwide every year – running into tens of millions – is so high
(and still increasing) that it is no longer possible for a single researcher or a team
of researchers to analyze them, let alone read. And that is why scholars are in-
creasingly in need of more effective and more sophisticated quantitative research
methods that allow one to extract from texts specifically those features which the
scholars are interested in. Having been presented with more fine-grained results
and distinctions, it is later possible to return to those texts and explore them
qualitatively again to verify whether the hypotheses – descriptive, explanatory,
interpretative or otherwise – formulated in the very beginning were right or
wrong.

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Multimodal Communication and Multidimensional
Translation in Audiovisual Contexts

Łukasz Bogucki

University of Łódź
lukasz.bogucki@gmail.com

Abstract: This chapter discusses researching audiovisual translation, a dynamic new

genre characterised by the coexistence of visual and verbal communication. The visual
component distinguishes audiovisual translation from traditional translation of written
texts. The multisemiotic nature of audiovisual translation is discussed in the context of
interdisciplinary translation research.
The chapter sets out to define and characterise the main modalities of AVT, that is
captioning (subtitling, including subtitles for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing, as well as
live subtitling and surtitling) and revoicing (dubbing, voice-over and audiodescription).
Disadvantages and potential pitfalls of each modality are highlighted. In the methodolog-
ical part of the chapter, multimodal transcription and analysis are presented as methods
of researching audiovisual content. A discussion on a related methodological approach,
the Multidimensional Translation Project, concludes the text.
Keywords: subtitling, dubbing, voice-over, audiodescription, accessibility, surtitling,
respeaking, multimodality, visual

1. The visual and the verbal

Translation has long departed from being an operation on texts in the traditional
sense. The presentation of the written word is constantly evolving, from hand-
writing through typing, digitalised text, hypertext, electronic ink and beyond.
Moreover, in line with the common adage „a picture says more than a thousand
words“, information is increasingly transferred by visual means. Even the spo-
ken word, rendered in conference interpreting, is supported by multimedia
presentations consisting of visual slides. However, this Chapter is not concerned

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with static images that supplement texts, but with moving pictures supplemented
by the other elements of the audiovisual message (see below).
Moving pictures have been around for over a century, but currently they
may be taking the place of literature, however bold the statement may be (cf.
Zabalbeascoa, 2010: 25). We are living in a screen-dominated era. Blackboards
and chalk at school have now largely been superseded by interactive white-
boards and multimedia projectors. Personal computers, laptops, netbooks, tab-
lets, smartphones, PDAs, gaming consoles and the like are omnipresent. The
Internet is now an obvious concomitant of life, yet it is only a generation old.
Ostensibly unambiguous words such as “friend” or “like” now require redefining
to account for their Facebook senses. All of this clearly points to the visual
channel as a major medium of transferring informational content.
This Chapter is devoted to researching audiovisual translation, a dynamic
genre whose main feature is the coexistence of visual and verbal communica-
tion. The role of the visual will be highlighted here, as a feature distinguishing
audiovisual translation from translation in the traditional sense, understood for
the purpose of this discussion as transfer of information provided in writing from
the source language into the target language, maintaining the relation of equiva-
lence.
The filmic message is made up of four semiotic channels (Delabastita 1989;
Zabalbeascoa 2008):
 image (the visual-nonverbal channel), i.e. the moving pictures,
 writing (the visual-verbal channel), including displays (neon signs, road
signs, billboards...) and captions (credits, signboards, notices, burnt-in
captions, toptitles, subtitles),
 sound (the aural-nonverbal channel), including music and effects (both
on-location and added in post-production),
 speech (the aural-verbal channel), i.e. dialogue.
This Chapter will begin by defining and characterising audiovisual translation,
stressing the semiotic complexity of the genre. Consequently, methods of re-
searching audiovisual transfer that deploy the polysemiotic perspective will be
presented.

2. Nomenclature

Audiovisual translation appears to be the generally adopted term for the type of
activity discussed in this paper; however, other names have been used elsewhere.
“Film translation”, a term also commonly used outside academic and scholarly

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circles, is self-explanatory, but it narrows down the scope of research to films,

leaving out other audiovisual material that could potentially constitute the source
text. Audiovisual translation is no longer restricted to providing foreign language
versions of feature films but has expanded to include sitcoms, animated produc-
tions (including cartoons), documentaries, commercial clips, corporate video
material and (partially) video game localisation. “Screen translation” (compare
European Association for Studies in Screen Translation1), is broader than film
translation, since it may include localisation of websites and software, but on the
other hand it excludes surtitling for theatre and opera. “Language transfer” (see
the title of Díaz-Cintas and Anderman 2009) and “versioning” are practically
disused in relevant literature, especially seeing as the former may create confu-
sion with second language acquisition, while the latter is now used predominant-
ly in information technology. “Constrained translation” (Mayoral et al. 1988) is
misleading, since it may be a tautology, as according to some approaches (e.g.
Zabalbeascoa 1997: 330) all translation is constrained by definition. A relatively
recent coinage that may gain in popularity is “multimedia translation” (Gambier
2001; see also Sikora 2013: 35-37).
As widely accepted in relevant literature, we shall henceforth be using the
term „audiovisual translation” (abbreviated as AVT), to refer to the genre dis-
cussed herein. This term highlights the two channels through which information
is transmitted, and at the same time the two methods of translating this infor-
mation.

3. Taxonomy

Audiovisual material can be translated by means of captions in the source or

target language, or by means of adding a separate voice track with the source or
target language version. The source language is brought up here as a possibility,
because some forms of AVT are intralingual, that is to say they do not involve
a change in language as such; the translation either renders the visual, or repli-
cates the verbal for the benefit of visually-impaired or hearing-impaired viewers.
The former method is referred to as captioning, comprising subtitles (for the
cinema, DVD/BluRay industry, streamed content available online), intralingual
subtitles for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing, live subtitling (in the past utilising
purpose-made keyboards, currently mostly done with the help of speech recogni-
tion technology), as well as surtitling for the opera and theatre. The other method

1
www.esist.org

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is revoicing, that is dubbing, so-called half-dubbing or voice-over (where only

one voice2 is used for the translation, instead of an entire dubbing cast), narra-
tion, free commentary and audiodescription for the blind. These modalities have
all been extensively described and characterised (for captioning, see Belczyk
2007, Bogucki 2004 and 2013, Burton 2009, Deckert 2013, De Linde and Kay
1999, Díaz-Cintas 2004 and 2005, Gottlieb 1998, Ivarsson and Carroll 1998,
Karamitroglou 1998, Neves 2008, Romero-Fresco 2011 and Tomaszkiewicz
1993; for revoicing, see Baker and Hochel 1998, Benecke 2004, Braun 2008,
Chmiel 2010, Franco et al. 2010, Orero 2009, Ranzato 2011, Sikora 2013,
Szarkowska 2011, Tomaszkiewicz 2006 and Woźniak 2011).

4. Historical perspective

The birth of translation studies as an academic discipline is estimated at around

1960, concurrent with such publications as Jakobson (1959) or Nida (1964), but
it is generally acknowledged that writing on the nature of translation started
much earlier. In a similar vein, academic writing on subtitling and dubbing is
believed to have started only at the turn of the 1990s (Bakewell 1987; Delabasti-
ta 1989; Gottlieb 1992; Ivarsson 1992; Luyken and Herbst 1991; Mayoral et al.
1988; Tomaszkiewicz 1993; Whitman-Linsen 1992). However, earlier worksex-
ist, albeit either unpublished or only partially related to film translation, to name
Laks 1957, Fodor 1969, Dollerup 1974, and Marleau 1982. Moreover, the very
conception of dubbing spurred some debate (see Yampolsky 1993 for
a discussion of Artaud’s article “Les souffrances du ‘dubbing’” dating back to
1933 and Borges’s essay from 1945).
Early research into film translation was marred by the lack of a sufficiently
broad paradigm; stranded between translation and adaptation, audiovisual trans-
fer did not appear to be an interesting area of study. Whitman-Linsen (1992: 17)
commented that literary researchers considered the degree of difficulty involved
in film translating as “not worthy of their attention.” Díaz-Cintas (2004: 51)
observed that scholars were not interested in “complicating their academic life
with the re-elaboration of existing postulates or the development of new theories
capable of accounting for the specificity of AVT.”
On the practical plane, examining material recorded on a VHS tape was
considerably more time-consuming than effortlessly scanning and skimming the

2
or two voices, a male one and a female one, which is the case in Russia.

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contents of a DVD or BluRay disc. Moreover, the distribution and impact of

audiovisual material were a far cry from today’s standards.
Subtitling and dubbing researchers therefore focused on characterising both
modes, usually in isolation from one another, trying to establish relevant norms
and discuss appropriate constraints, applying principles and concepts of general
translation studies to revoicing and captioning (for example, Gottlieb [1994:
265] makes parallels between the criteria for appropriate interlingual subtitling
and Nida’s principle of equivalent effect). Many early publications were written
chiefly from a professional perspective, focusing on the technical aspects of the
craft, e.g. the positioning and length of subtitles, therefore essentially offering
guidelines for film translators rather than investigating the emerging genre from
an academic standpoint (cf. Luyken and Herbst 1991; Ivarsson 1992; and later
Ivarsson and Carroll 1998; Dries 1995). Moreover, they were by and large char-
acterised by a prescriptive stance and elitist overtones, presenting audiovisual
translation as a difficult enterprise that only a few can master (this can be seen in
the subtitle of Ivarsson’s book: A Handbook of an Art; see also Díaz-Cintas
2004a: 58). Among the few works that placed audiovisual transfer in a broader
semiotic perspective were Delabastita (1989) and de Linde and Kay (1999).

5. AVT in Poland

Poland was a dubbing country between the end of WW2 and the late 1980s (the
tradition seriously hampered by the tragic passing of arguably the most famous
dubbing director, Zofia Dybowska-Aleksandrowicz), but is now recognised as
a paragon of voice-over, a practice treated by foreigners with “a slight sneer of
disdain” (Szarkowska 2009: 185).The popularity of voice-over on Polish televi-
sion is indeed remarkable. According to a Canal Plus poll (Bogucki 2004: 69), in
the 1990s it was preferred by 50.2% of Polish respondents. Garcarz (2007: 131)
quotes a more recent poll, where it is equated with dubbing in terms of populari-
ty (approximately 45% each). Some Polish DVD releases of foreign box office
hits used to be advertised as having the Polish voice-over version as added value
(Chmiel 2010: 124). As Mera (1999: 73) observes, “over-exposure to one or
other technique affirms its acceptability and continued use.”
Poland seems to be one of the main European centres of research into AVT,
others being arguably Italy and Spain. This is largely due to the fact that all the
main modalities are practised here, unlike in most other European countries,
which seem to favour one method over the others (dubbing in Germany, Spain
and Italy, subtitling in Greece, Portugal and the Netherlands, for instance). Apart

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from voice-over on television, subtitling is widely practised for cinematic pur-

poses and the Polish dubbing of animated productions is becoming a trademark
due to heavy domestication and bordering on adaptation (see Sikora 2013 for
a comprehensive discussion). Although Poland may be lagging behind with the
implementation of EU regulations and recommendations concerning accessibil-
ity (see below), both audiodescription and subtitles for the hard of hearing are
gaining ground.

6. Making audiovisual content universally accessible

The focus of audiovisual translation research seems to be shifting from subtitling

and dubbing to accessibility, the latter understood as making audiovisual content
accessible to those who otherwise could not have access to it (Díaz-Cintas 2005:
5), that is by and large people with sensory impairments, who now constitute
a significant percentage of population (see Bogucki 2013: 19-20 for statistics).
Arguably the most interesting case of accessibility, that is audiodescription,
consists of “transforming visual images into words, which are then spoken dur-
ing the silent intervals in audiovisual programmes or live performances” (Díaz-
Cintas 2008: 7). Benecke (2004: 78) notes that it “describes the action, body
language, facial expressions, scenery and costumes. The description fits in be-
tween the dialogue and does not interfere with important sound and music ef-
fects.” Audiodescriptions must be objective, rather than interpretative; they are
selective by definition – the time constraints mean that the audiodescriber must
decide which elements of the picture are relevant. Thus the tenets of Relevance
Theory (see Gutt 2000 and Bogucki 2004 for applications to translation in gen-
eral and audiovisual translation, respectively) as well as generic guidelines for
other forms of AVT are applicable to audiodescription. Common errors in this
intralingual and intersemiotic type of translation include overinterpretation, re-
vealing the plot and using complex structures or compound sentences.
Making audiovisual content available to people with hearing impairments is
also enjoying its heyday, both in terms of production and research. A particular
case of subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing is live subtitling, these days
usually in the form of respeaking. This is where audiovisual translation borders
closely on interpreting (compare Bogucki [2013: 28-29] for a discussion on the
inclusion of interpreting in the taxonomy of AVT). The respeaker is like
a simultaneous interpreter (Eugeni 2008). His or her task is to repeat the original
input, making suitable alterations, that is eliminating any irrelevant features of
natural speech such as redundancies, false starts or hesitations, as well as saying

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aloud punctuation marks. Split attention is a necessity, as the respeaker has to

listen, speak and read practically at the same time. The respoken input is pro-
cessed by speech recognition software (Dragon Naturally Speaking being indus-
try standard), which has previously analysed the respeaker’s voice to identify
relevant prosodic features and possible speech defects, so as to improve the
recognition rate (though the software is sophisticated to the point where accura-
cy of recognition in the case of an unknown voice is substantial). It is then au-
tomatically converted into writing and appears on the screen in block or scroll-
ing mode (as a whole, or word by word, see Remael 2007).
For a comprehensive discussion on accessibility, see also Braun 2008, Díaz-
Cintas et al. 2007 and 2010, Perego 2012, Matamala and Orero 2010, Neves
2008, Romero-Fresco 2011, and Szarkowska 2011.

7. Mal nécessaire

This French expression is taken from the title of an influential paper on subti-
tling by Marleau (1982). The underlying assumption of this section is that audi-
ovisual translation is necessary evil and viewers everywhere would be better off
watching programmes in the original. Each modality has its own inadequacies
and deficiencies.
In dubbing, replacing the original voices of actors detracts from the intended
cinematic experience. Instead of learning what the voice of their favourite movie
star sounds like, audiences get to hear the voice of the actor/talent who dubs the
particular celebrity. By the same token, the target audience may confuse certain
actors if they are dubbed by the same voice talent. The lip-sync constraint (ad-
justing the target language version to the particular actor’s lip movements),
character synchrony (dialogue that is consistent with the visual image; for in-
stance, an affirmative response together with nodding) and isochrony (utterances
occurring between the character’s mouth opening and shutting) all mean that the
translator has to resort to less acceptable equivalents / departures from the origi-
nal, so that the foreign version appears more natural. Furthermore, dubbing
makes it difficult to render the prosodic features of an actor’s voice, thereby
detracting from his or her attempt to portray a character. Finally, the overall cost
of dubbing, in particular hiring the professional cast, may lead to some material
never being released in a particular country, where the expense may be deemed
prohibitive.
Subtitles occupy part of the screen and may block out relevant clues, thus
contaminating the visual channel. Conversely, in some cases the visual back-

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ground may render some subtitles unintelligible, for example if the colour con-
trast is too low. For these reasons, subtitles may occasionally have to be moved
to the top part of the screen, creating momentary confusion among the audience
and prolonging the reaction time. Due to the additive nature of subtitling, on top
of an already complex artistic creation made up of image, dialogue, soundtrack
and text, the viewer has to continually focus on captions. While it does not nor-
mally prohibit the viewer from following the plot, subtle details of camera
movements, viewing angle, actors’ body language and facial expressions may
pass unnoticed.The technical and other constraints on subtitling (see, for exam-
ple, Bogucki 2004) mean that condensing the original (spoken) text is par for the
course; according to the six-second rule (Díaz-Cintas and Remael 2007: 96-99),
subtitles should be comfortably read in six seconds or less, which means that
they have to be short and to the point.
In the case of voice-over, poorly recorded versions hinder comprehension,
as the volume of the original dialogue is almost as high as that of the voice-over
translation. This is particularly confusing for viewers who understand the origi-
nal, as attempting to focus on two simultaneously delivered language versions is
severely distracting. Voice-over is arguably the least natural of the three main
audiovisual translation techniques, especially when delivered by a single voice
talent for all the actors, regardless of whether they are male or female. The voice
talent does not attempt to act out the dialogue, but remains as neutral as possible,
which some viewers may consider monotonous and uninspiring.
Despite their significant contribution to making audiovisual content accessi-
ble to a wider audience, modalities of audiovisual transfer designed for the bene-
fit of the vision- or hearing-impaired cannot possibly be expected to provide
their recipients with an experience matching that of the original. For instance,
audiodescription consists merely of briefly describing the scene and the action,
leaving most of the visually-conveyed information to the imagination of the
blind person.
Finally, surtitling for the opera or theatre necessitates the installation of ex-
pensive hardware, whether above the stage or on the backs of seats.
We have thus characterised audiovisual translation as an extremely complex
genre. Traditional, text-based approaches do not suffice to account for this com-
plexity, neither do more modern, translator-oriented ones. Moreover, methods
and tools of translation research may be only partially applicable to studying
AVT. Let us explore two interdisciplinary proposals that could afford a more
holistic perspective of the genre under scrutiy.

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8. Multimodality in translation research

O’Halloran et al. (2010) note the influence of modern technology on interper-

sonal relations (see also section one above), stressing the need for a theory of
multimodal communication. Working on a rather original assumption that all
texts are multimodal, deploying “the resources of diverse semiotic systems to
facilitate [...] ways of making meaning” (O’Halloran et al. 2010: 4), the authors
propose an application of social semiotic tools to analyse meaning. The applica-
tion is software-based, but multimodal texts have already been researched using
more traditional methods.
Multimodal transcription, a methodology devised by Baldry and Thibault
(2006) and rooted in Hallidayan semiotics, focuses on thorough analyses of
(predominantly) the visual semiotic channel and is usually presented in the form
of a table with several columns, showing screenshots of the particular scenes
under scrutiny, depicting visual images and kinesic action, as well as the original
dialogue and subtitles (cf. Taylor 2009). The screenshot is documented by
a meticulous description of the image through a series of codes. These include:
 D for distance between the viewer and the world of the image, whether
virtual or simulated,
 CP for camera position, whether stationary or moving,
 VS for visual salience (which elements are important from the point of
view of presenting the story),
 VF for visual focus, i. e. where the participants are looking,
 VC for visual collocation, secondary items appearing on the screen,
 HP and VP for horizontal and vertical perspective; the former direct or
oblique, the latter high, median or low,
 CR for colour, if significant, and finally
 CO for coding orientation – naturalistic, sensory or hyperreal.
Multimodal transcription is based on what Baldry and Thibault (2006) refer to as
the resource integration principle, which in turn is rooted in the concept of inter-
textuality (Kristeva 1980 and elsewhere). The selections from different semiotic
resources integrated to the organisation of multimodal texts, both generic and
text-specific, “are not simply juxtaposed as separate modes of meaning making
but are combined and integrated to form a complex whole which cannot be re-
duced to, or explained in terms of the mere sum of its separate parts” (Baldry
and Thibault 2006: 18).
The rationale behind multimodal transcription, time-consuming and imprac-
tical as it may seem, is to focus on the information conveyed through the visual
channel, so as to verify and justify the translational choices made by subtitlers.

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The main disadvantage of multimodal transcription is clearly that it does not

seem to be suitable for any audiovisual material longer than short clips, having
been originally invented for short advertisements. Szarkowska (2013) proposes
a simplified form of multimodal transcription, which she labels multimodal
analysis and uses it to assess the quality of English subtitles to Polish soap-
operas. Each scene is presented in a table consisting of five columns: a screen
grab of the image, a verbal description of the scene, a transcript of the original
dialogue, its gloss translation, and the actual audiovisual translation (usually
subtitles). Thus the codes typical for multimodal transcription are absent from
multimodal analysis, as it is argued that they are not essential to understanding
the problems involved in film translation.
Action Dialogue Voice-over Back
translation
George, Bal- I spy with my A ja widzę coś, And I see
drick and little eye some- co zaczyna się something
Blackadder are thing beginning na literę „M”. which begins
playing “I spy with “M”. with the letter
with my little “M”.
eye”.

This instance of multimodal analysis comes from an episode of Blackadder

Comes Forth, where soldiers in the trenches of WWI are occupying themselves
playing „I spy with my little eye”. This simplified method shows the visual ele-
ment together with a contextual description, the original dialogue, its translation
and back-translation. Thus the five columns are somewhat different from
Szarkowska’s original formula, which is due to directionality (the example
above shows English-Polish translation, unlike the inverse translation in
Szarkowska’s work).
In the particular example, the visually salient element is the mug on the ta-
ble (hence the letter „M”), as this leads to wordplay, which can’t possibly be
ignored by the audiovisual translator. The other semiotic channels (the actors’
body language, murmuring to prompt the letter in question) reinforce the mes-
sage. The Polish equivalent for the visually salient object („kubek”) does not
begin with the letter „M”; had it not been for the picture and the other non-verbal
elements of the message, the translator would have had a wider range of choices
to render the wordplay. In the semiotic context, the translation had to be some-
what forced:

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Action Dialogue Voice-over Back

translation
Blackadder Mug! Mój kubek! My mug!
cuts in with
the answer,
annoyed.

Multimodality is a concept with huge potential. Forceville (2007:1235) opens up

his review of Baldry and Thibault’s seminal work with a bold statement: „Sud-
denly, multimodality is a hot academic topic. University departments that for
decades studied the honourable fields of language and literature – and if adven-
turous, their interrelations – now rapidly begin to change tack.” Many audiovis-
ual translation researchers have a linguistic background and approach audiovisu-
al material predominantly from the perspective of the aural-verbal semiotic
channel, thereby concentrating on the text. Multimodality helps the researcher
appreciate the complex nature of film and allows for more comprehensive scru-
tiny. It seems that it may be a contemporary answer to the seminal approach to
source text analysis as put forward by Nord (1991). Another recent approach
(below) acknowledges the multifaceted and interdisciplinary nature of transla-
tion, focusing on the interplay between the main modes (written and spoken) and
visual depiction of information.

9. Multidimensional translation

The term was introduced within the framework of the MuTra project, coordinat-
ed by the Advanced Translation Research Center (ATRC) in Saarbrücken, which
is an answer to modern developments and current challenges in translation and
interpreting studies. The project works on the assumption that the boundaries
between translation, interpreting and multilingual communication are becoming
increasingly blurred and multidimensional language competences (including
technology and (project) management skills) are required to meet modern multi-
lingual communication challenges in an enlarging Europe. Thus, whatever the
translation (or interpreting) product may be, there is certain common theoretical
ground as regards the translation process:

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Fig 1. The common core of translation and interpreting within the MuTra project approach (after
Gerzymisch-Arbogast 2005)

Members of the MuTra project see the following translation and interpreting
scenarios:

 spoken to spoken, e.g. interpreting,

 written to written, e.g. translation,
 spoken (plus additional media requirement/support) to spoken (plus ad-
ditional media requirement/support), e.g. voice-over or live subtitling,3
 written (plus additional media requirement/support) to written (plus ad-
ditional media requirement/support), e.g. localisation
 written to spoken, e.g. sight translation
 spoken to written, e.g. subtitling
 spoken to visual, e.g. sign-language interpreting
 visual to spoken, e.g. audiodescription
 visual to written, e.g. scanlations (translations of comics) or video game
localisation
 written to visual, e.g. pictograms
 visual to visual, e.g. infotainment

They also ask a number of relevant questions that ought to be empirically inves-
tigated, viz.:

3
The final product of live subtitling is written text, but the translational operation is very
much like simultaneous interpretation, i. e. spoken source input is interpreted as spo-
ken target input.

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 whether the reduction strategies developed for simultaneous interpreta-

tion are valid in text condensation for subtitling purposes,
 whether the expansion strategies developed for consecutive interpreta-
tion lend themselves for application in audiodescription,
 whether the narrative techniques of literary translation can be of use in
audiodescription (Gerzymisch-Arbogast 2005: 10).

Gerzymisch-Arbogast (2005: 3) is right in saying that all translation, regardless

of the language(s), media, process and intended recipients, is about transferring
some source material (knowledge and text in the widest sense) to another
knowledge system or text in its widest sense. These texts require comprehension
(by applying world knowledge and linguistic skills in text analysis) and the pro-
duction of a target text requires reformulation according to a selection of param-
eters applicable in the individual scenario. The value of the MuTra project lies in
raising awareness of what could tentatively be labelled “modern” types of trans-
lation, pointing to their place in translation studies as an academic interdiscipline
as well as in the practice of translating, and highlighting the similarities and
differences between them vis-à-vis the conventional, written-to-written scenari-
os.

10. Conclusions

This chapter has highlighted the multisemiotic nature of audiovisual translation

and pointed to the interdisciplinary nature of audiovisual translation research.
Hansen (2006: 6) mentions the relationship between interdisciplinarity and what
he labels “intermethodology” to explain that an interdisciplinary area of research
such as translation (in particular audiovisual translation) tends to utilise a variety
of methods and research patterns. Methodological aspects of translation research
remain underexplored (Saldanha and O’Brien 2013 is one of very few publica-
tions available), while the methodology of audiovisual translation is virtually
terra incognita (see Bogucki 2013 for a review). What appears unquestionable is
that theories, approaches, models and methods developed for general, special-
ised or literary translation, many of which are mentioned throughout this vol-
ume, are at best partially applicable to AVT. Audiovisual translation interfaces
with disciplines such as semiotics, film studies and information technology, and
is branching out to embrace new areas, targets and technologies. Just like trans-
lating a film is not about rendering the dialogue in isolation from the other semi-
otic channels, researching film translation is not about having to accept the limi-

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tations of traditional research patterns and paradigms. Multimodality and multi-

dimensionality are not merely buzzwords, but they may be breaking ground for
a theory of audiovisual translation.

Background Reading

Belczyk, A. (2007). Tłumaczenie filmów. Wilkowice: Wyd. dla szkoły.

Bogucki, Ł. (2013). Areas and Methods of Audiovisual Translation Research. Frankfurt
am Main: Peter Lang.
Deckert, M. (2013). Meaning in Subtitling. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Díaz-Cintas, J. and A. Remael. (2007). Audiovisual Translation – Subtitling. Manches-
ter/Kinderhook (NY): St. Jerome.
Díaz-Cintas, J., Matamala, A. and J. Neves (eds.). (2010). New Insights into Audiovisual
Translation and Media Accessibility. Media for all 2. Amsterdam/New York:
Rodopi.
Franco, E., Matamala, A. and P. Orero. (2010). Voice-over Translation: An Overview.
Bern: Peter Lang.
Garcarz, M. (2007). Przekład slangu w filmie. Telewizyjne przekłady filmów amerykań-
skich na język polski. Kraków: Tertium.
Matamala, A. and P. Orero (eds.). (2010). Listening to Subtitles: Subtitles for the Deaf
and Hard of Hearing. Bern: Peter Lang,
Perego, E. (ed.). (2012). Emerging Topics in Translation: Audio Description. Trieste:
Edizioni Università di Trieste.
Sikora, I. (2013). Dubbing filmów animowanych. Nysa: Oficyna Wydawnicza PWSZ.
Szarkowska, A. (2013). Forms of Address in Polish-English Subtitling. Frankfurt am
Main: Peter Lang.
Tomaszkiewicz, T. (2006). Przekład audiowizualny. Warszawa: PWN.

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Translation in Digital Space: Machine Translation, CAT
and Localization

Adam Bednarek and Joanna Drożdż

Wyższa Szkoła Studiów Międzynarodowych

abednarek@wssm.edu.pl; joanna689@wp.pl

Abstract: Contemporary solutions for translation have far exceeded technological re-
quirements in recent years. This has caused a shift in both professional enterprise and
scientific investigation. Global communication systems increase translation output and
insure quality, while hypertext type documents are far more frequent. Recent technologi-
cal developments have thus found their way into translation services. An array of transla-
tion tools have come into popular use over the last decade, while translation has entered
the realm of project management. The paper will focus on the use of computer tools
aimed at fostering the translation process and present an overview of the challenges that
lay ahead in digital space.
Keywords: corpus, CAT, Translation Memory, Terminology Management, Machine
translation

1. Introduction

There is some ambiguity to a certain extent within the term ‘translation’ since its
scope of meaning encompasses different notions, though they are inevitably
correlated with one another. The whole process intends to recreate the content of
the source language message by means of the target language in such a way that
the semantic subject matter of the former remains represented as accurately as
possible by the latter. Consequently, as stated by Savory (1968: 50), the target
text is supposed to be a reproduction of the words, ideas and style contained in
the source text. However, taking into account that the selection of lexis and
grammar along with the values and perception of meaning are unique for every-
one, the idiosyncrasies incorporated in the translated text result in attaching per-

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sonal message to it (Newmark, 1981: 8). Yet the purpose of this chapter is not to
focus on the theoretical background of translation, but rather on current devel-
opments in the digital realm. Contemporary solutions for translation have far
exceeded technological requirements in recent years. This has caused a shift in
both professional enterprise and scientific investigation. Files received from
customers may have different formats. Currently clients provide the whole web
content as well as collections of text chains extracted from software source code.
Global communication systems increase translation output and insure quality,
while hypertext type documents are far more frequent. Recent technological
developments have thus found their way into translation services. An array of
translation tools have come into popular use over the last decade, while transla-
tion has entered the realm of project management. Hence the term localization,
which can be defined as the second phase of translation project work, accounting
for distinctions, both socio-cultural, linguistic and technical within appropriate
markets. The following chapter will focus on the use of computer tools aimed at
fostering the translation process and present an overview of the challenges that
lay ahead in digital space.

2. From fiction to fact: machine translation

In order to understand the complexity of MT (machine translation), one must

first refer to the concept of corpus linguistics. The principle behind this area
involves collecting authentic texts of practical application as linguistic data,
which become the subject of further study. With regard to the number of lan-
guages within a corpus, it is possible to distinguish monolingual corpora consist-
ing of texts written in one language exclusively, bilingual corpora composed of
contents in two languages, and multilingual corpora containing texts in more
than two languages. Also, the use of corpora, specifically those which include
parallel texts, i.e. printed texts written originally in the target language with the
same communicative purpose as the source text, highly contributes to the im-
provement of the work of translators thanks to the fact that they provide access
to terminology and phraseology as well as style and format appropriate to use in
a certain contextual framework in the target language (Bowker 2002: 43).
In accordance with contemporary technological development, printed corpo-
ra have been gradually replaced with their electronic versions, whose size is
unrestricted and, as a result, are able to encompass an immense scope of records.
Taking into consideration that nowadays the term ‘corpus’ unequivocally per-
tains to an electronic corpus, it will henceforth be referred to in this way. The

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customary names for a bilingual compilation of texts are ‘bitext’ as well as ‘par-
allel corpus’, the latter of which can also pertain to a multilingual group of texts,
nevertheless both of the terms are solely relevant in the case when source lan-
guage texts and their translated versions underwent the process of alignment, i.e.
particular segments of the original text were connected with their matching parts
in the target language texts. It is essential to emphasize that parallel corpora
must not be mistaken for printed parallel texts, which solely belong the same
type and pertain to the same topic as the source texts, though do not constitute
their translations.
Additionally, within corpora directed specifically at facilitating the process
of translation there are also bilingual comparable corpora, which share the fun-
damental idea with printed parallel texts, namely they consist of texts whose
subject matter and purpose are in common. However, the records incorporated in
bilingual comparable corpora must not be translated – it is necessary that texts in
one language as well as those in another be initially written in their languages.
Not only can corpora play an important role in assisting translators in their
work, but also in theorising about the character of translated text. An example of
such text collections are monolingual comparable corpora composed of records
in a single language only, although divided into a group of texts translated into
this language and a group for whom this is the source language. The use of this
type of corpora in translation studies does not aim at assessing the quality of
translation, its ultimate purpose is to investigate translation as a process (Baker
1996: 175) and the inherent attributes of its result.
In the domain of machine translation, the concept of corpora led to the
emergence of corpus-based (as opposed to rule-based) machine translation sys-
tems, which incorporate large corpora as examples. Briefly, the process of trans-
lation is achieved through the recognition of the elements that overlap between
the SL text inserted into the system and the contents of the corpus, and conse-
quently, the generation of the TL text on the basis of the aligned units in the
corpus, where both of the steps are performed automatically. Nevertheless, on
account of the fact that corpus-based machine translation is further divided into
statistical machine translation and example-based machine translation, the pro-
cedures are more complex and vary depending on each type.
Pertaining to computer-assisted translation, it was the idea of parallel corpo-
ra, the pattern of which induced the development of a translation memory ena-
bling translators to utilize their previous translations while working on a new
project. Furthermore, all the tools for data retrieval from corpora at the same
time constitute computer-assisted translation tools since they are helpful to trans-
lators in such procedures as selecting more common target language terms with-

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in a particular subject field to be used in a translation or establishing accurate

equivalents in their target language environment.
The fundamental assumption of machine translation (MT) is based on the
aim to attain the final translation product of the highest quality possible with the
responsibility for the whole process on the part of a computer. Still, in practice it
turns out to be such a complex task that its accomplishment is highly demand-
ing, if not impossible, hence various approaches to MT have been emerging
since the beginning of its existence as researchers have been seeking to achieve
more and more satisfying results. As a consequence, depending on certain fac-
tors including the character of the SL text, the type of the language involved, the
purpose of the TL text or the amount of time to carry out the translation, not only
can a MT system alone be in charge of completing the translation (which would
obviously be preferable), but also human contribution at different stages of the
process is possible in order to enhance the output quality. However, if a human
is involved, his or her function must remain only supplementary since in MT it is
the system that is expected to perform the main task.
According to the principle behind rule-based machine translation (RBMT),
in order to perform the process of translation it is necessary to examine the
source language (SL) text with the aim of retrieving its semantic or semanti-
co-syntactic representation being the indispensable factor that enables the syn-
thesis of the target language (TL) text. The mechanism of RBMT systems typi-
cally functions on the basis of labelled tree representations transformed from one
into another, e.g. a morphological tree undergoes a conversion into a syntactic
one, which is subsequently altered into a semantic tree, and so forth (Hutchins,
1995: 3).
On the way of gradual evolution of MT, an innovative approach, namely
corpus-based machine translation, emerged in the late 1980s owing to the pro-
gress within the field of corpus linguistics, especially the facilitated availability
of text corpora from large databanks, as well as the re-discovery of Makoto Na-
gao's development from 1981 and the revival of the earliest statistical methods.
The two major corpus-based methods encompass example-based machine trans-
lation and statistical machine translation, the achievement of which does not
involve the application of any linguistic information (Hutchins, 1995: 6).
The foundation of statistical machine translation (SMT) lies in a translation
model composed of SL-TL frequencies and a language model incorporating
word sequences in the TL, both of which are retrieved from a previously aligned
bilingual corpus on the level of phrases, word groups and, eventually, single
words, nevertheless it does not necessarily have to be the same corpus for each
of the two models.

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If the whole process of translation is performed with no human participation

whatever, it is referred to as fully automatic machine translation (FAMT), never-
theless its output quality may frequently be questionable. Therefore, the applica-
tion of FAMT is adequate when the purpose of the TL text does not require be-
ing flawlessly translated, i.e. it allows for certain inconsistencies in comparison
with the SL input or stylistic shortcomings. In fact, such a rapidly achieved
rough translation may also be very helpful, e.g. for a scientist who needs an im-
mediate access to the content of a text within their domain written in a distant
foreign language for which traditional human translation is not easily available,
since he or she can employ their knowledge of the subject field in order to re-
trieve the actual intended meaning from the imperfect TL output (L. Somers,
1998: 137–138). Despite the fact that the idea of accomplishing fully automatic
high quality machine translation (FAHQMT) is essentially unfeasible on account
of the inability of computers to reason in the same way humans do (Bar-Hillel
1960: 41–42), a considerable reduction of mistakes and inaccuracies in a FAMT
output is, however, possible.
Tokenization is especially useful in the case of translating between lan-
guages of different writing systems, where one-to-one correspondence between
SL and TL tokens may not occur. In contrast to pre-processing, which influences
the TL text in an indirect way, post-processing involves a direct introduction of
modifications into the final output (Bogucki 2009: 89). Accordingly, the main
task on the part of post-processing is clearing up the rough translation by the
means of error correction or particular fragments revision as well as detokeniza-
tion and appropriate cases establishment. Not only is it possible that human in-
volvement in shaping the MT output can take place either before or after the MT
proper, but the system may also allow for the user intervention during the pro-
cess of translation, the phenomenon of which is known as interactive machine
translation (IMT).

3. Computer assistance

While machine translation is intended to perform the translation proper for

a human translator and leaves their scope of influence on the results relatively
limited, in the case of computer-assisted translation (CAT) it is the human trans-
lator who remains all the way intellectually responsible for carrying out the pro-
cess of translation and its final outcome, nevertheless with the support of various
computerised tools that facilitate the work (Freigang 1998: 134). On the one
hand, such technological developments as word processors, dictionaries on

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CD-ROM, online dictionaries, the Internet in general as well as spelling and

grammar checkers may in a broad sense be considered as CAT tools to a certain
extent; however, on the other hand they constitute basic tools that are applied for
a vast range of other purposes beside the profession of translation (Bowker
2002: 8). Consequently, excluding these multi-purpose inventions, the term CAT
tools pertains to more specific tools and encompasses terminology management
systems, translation memory systems, localisation tools and corpus-analysis
tools, which are designed particularly for translators or for linguists and have
been adopted by translators on account of the fact that the mechanism of CAT in
part overlaps with and actually is based on the idea of corpus linguistics. Taking
into consideration that CAT shares the intellectual function of the translator with
traditional human translation and the involvement of computer systems with
machine translation, it can therefore be placed approximately in the middle on
the scale of the two extremities.

3.1 Terminology management

Since the process of translation is inevitably dependent on selecting appropriate

equivalent TL terms for SL terms, which may appear in a text repeatedly, and
a given term (especially in technical translation) should systematically be trans-
lated in the same way throughout the whole text, it is necessary to pay special
attention to the use of terminology. In addition, when certain terms have only
one formally established and accepted equivalent, the translator must not invent
their own ones, therefore assembling subject-specific terminology within
a particular domain constitutes one of the fundamental factors in translation as it
increases the TL text quality by providing accurate equivalents. Accordingly,
CAT tools offer a number of solutions to facilitate terminology management.
The structure of a terminology bank (term bank) is based on a compilation
of electronically stored term records which comprise information, frequently
detailed, with regard to these terms. An entry may typically include such data as
definitions, contexts, synonyms, foreign language equivalents or grammatical
information (Bowker 2003: 50). In fact, term banks first appeared in the 1960s
as a consequence of the evolution of printed dictionaries, specifically within
technical domains, with the predominant aims of terminology unification, result-
ing in the increased terminological consistency of translations performed by
multiple translators, as well as the efficiency enhancement of translators' work.
As proposed by Nkwenh-Azeh (1998: 249–50), term banks can be classified
according to the form of data representation or the performed function. The for-
mer taxonomy distinguishes such categories as the number of languages (i.e.,

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monolingual, bilingual or multilingual term banks), the number of subject fields

(i.e., monodisciplinary or multidisciplinary term banks), thematic orientation
(i.e., whether a term bank is inclined towards terms or concepts) and lexical
orientation (i.e., whether a term bank encompasses both terms and words, exclu-
sively terms, or terms, phrases and sentences combined together); whereas the
latter is divided into term banks whose aim is to facilitate the process of tech-
nical and scientific translation (e.g., such multilingual term banks as Eurodicau-
tom or Termium) and those intended to keep term and concept data documenta-
tion (e.g., Normaterm).
An inevitable consequence of terminological data storage is the need for the
access to the assembled compilations, hence terminology management software
provides a number of methods for retrieving the stored terms, the most rudimen-
tary of which is to locate exact matches. In more advanced systems, other op-
tions are wildcard searches applied on the same basis as in the case of con-
cordancers (see section 1.3.3.2.) and fuzzy matches, which are akin, yet slightly
different forms of the search pattern, including morphological and spelling vari-
ants, spelling errors and wrong sequences of multi-word terms (Bowker
2002: 79–81).

3.2. Translation memory

The most significant aspect of CAT is, presumably, a translation memory (TM),
which constitutes a form of database, or more precisely an aligned parallel cor-
pus, since it is built of previous translations along with their equivalent SL texts,
both divided into segments (typically corresponding to sentences), at the level of
which the alignment is performed. The fundamental purpose behind a TM is to
provide an access to the previously translated texts and their original SL coun-
terparts during a new text translation process in order to enable a direct applica-
tion of TL equivalent segments, or at least to give a suggestion of possible solu-
tions, if certain fragments recur. Despite the fact that the idea of TM was initiat-
ed in the 1970s and first put into practice with, actually, MT systems in the next
decade, it was not until the mid 1990s when TM became widely available to
assist human translation (Somers 2003: 31).
The first approach to creating a TM is referred to as interactive translation,
which involves aligning equivalent SL and TL segments and adding them one by
one to an empty TM as the text is being translated. Next time the translator
opens the TM system, he or she may choose whether to continue building the
previous TM or start another one. The former option is recommended when the
new text to be translated covers a similar subject matter or is assigned by the

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same client on account of the fact that a TM is typically more effective if it

stores segments within a particular domain or orders placed by a particular cus-
tomer. Regardless of being extremely time-consuming, this method ensures
a high quality TM, nevertheless it does not allow for incorporating the transla-
tions performed previously to the implementation of the TM system.

4. Localization – current trends

Localization has become a popular trend in current ‘translation related markets’.

One might say that its ‘creation’ was a natural result of the development of soft-
ware engineering. In order to increase sales and expand into different linguistic
and thus cultural environments first companies were set up in the United States.
Esselink (2000) talks about INK (now Lionbridge) and I DOC (now Bowne) as
the first Multi-language Vendors. Its popularity achieved a new level with the
introduction of HTML and the ever expanding trends of the World Wide Web.
Although in a broad sense the idea of localization encompasses the adjustment
of a product to make it relevant for the target receivers in terms of their language
and culture, this term is frequently used with reference to a narrower concept
limited to the processes of translating and adapting a software or a Web product
(Esselink 2002: 1, 3). In fact, the level of complexity to which a given product
requires being localized is determined by the degree of similarity between the
SL and TL cultures including their technological development, thus, the more
akin the two cultures are, the less demanding localization becomes (Bogucki
2009: 97).
With a multitude of new tasks ahead, this process started to separate itself
from mainstream translation. As with any growing field, localization does lack
a fair degree of methodological background and support, allowing one to venture
into terra incognita. The process as defined by the Localizastion Industry Stand-
ards Association (LISA) is perceived as the second phase, post Internationaliza-
tion, recognized as I18N. By quote:

Internationalization is the process of generalizing a product so that it can handle

multiple languages and cultural conventions without the need for re-design. Interna-
tionalization takes place at the level of program design and document development
(LISA).

In other words, as mentioned by Lommel & Ray (2007) it is ‘enabling’ a product

at a technical level for localization. This requires, among others, international
software development within multicultural environments, or as one can say, find

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out what other cultures want and how they function. One thus takes away any
culture specific instances visible within the product making it generally accepta-
ble by all users. Please notice, the use of the term product as from hereonin we
shall refer to the finished translation project as product. As a result we change
the methodological approach instantly, especially in reference to TQA. Localiza-
tion, or L10N, in turn becomes taking the product and making it linguistically,
culturally and technically adequate for the target locale (Yunker 2002). Locale
can be defined as ‘a set of parameters’ used to identify the users language and
preferences (Sandrini, 2008). Localisation is often treated as a mere ‘high-tech
translation’, but this view does not capture its importance, its complexity or what
it encompasses. In general, localisation addresses non-textual components of
products or services. Translation thus becomes just a part of this process.
Similarly, cultural or rather cross-cultural knowledge becomes a pre-
requisite. R.A Hudson (1980) writes that “culture is something that everybody
has” and involves some “property of a community, especially that which might
distinguish it from other communities” (Hudson 1980: 73). Furthermore, it may
be defined as “the kind of knowledge which we learn from other people, either
by direct instruction or by watching their behavior” (Hudson, 1980: 81). The
author claims that if “culture is knowledge”, then “it can exist only inside peo-
ple’s heads” (Hudson 1980: 74). When outlining the basic assumptions of mod-
ern discourse, Deborah Schiffrin (1987) states that “language always occurs in
context” and that “language is context sensitive” (Schiffrin 1987: 3). She implies
that one’s world knowledge background is a key factor to understanding linguis-
tic elements and assumes that “language always occurs in some kind of context,
including cognitive contexts, in which past experience is stored and drawn upon,
cultural contexts consisting of shared meanings and world views, and social
contexts through which both self and others draw upon institutional and interac-
tional orders to construct definitions of situation and action” (Schiffrin 1987: 4).
In effect, culture shapes experience and affects our view of reality, thus becom-
ing an important component of localization.

4.1. Website localization

When referring to localization one cannot omit reference to web marketing. By

definition, using this is the process of digital space in order to increase product
output and in certain situations create demand among consumers. Naturally this
will require all realms available, however website value (and further localiza-
tion) plays an important role in the process. Website translation and localization
is a particularly delicate and complex operation, involving diverse skills and

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requiring experience in the coordination of work phases. Van der Meer (2002)
and Sandrini (2008) regard such a process as modifying the site in order to make
it more “accessable, usable and culturally suitable” while Yunker (2003) de-
scribes it as project-oriented including linguistic elements and ‘digital assets’.
Having this in mind the localizer thus becomes an agent of internet marketing.
Let us now analyze the very basics of what to consider in this process. First-
ly one must take into account the marketing function; secondly the socio-cultural
aspect and finally linguistic and technical issues. Thus, first and foremost the
localizer needs to address an array of non-linguistic issues. While honestly, this
seems to be an obvious statement, many forget that first and foremost one must
consider the informative value of website content. This allows for further co-
authoring of localized products. A website in effect is the symbol of the brand or
company in question and should, therefore, set up trends for prospective con-
sumers. Note the following figure.

WEBSITE

PRODUCT ESTHETIC VALUE

CONSUMER

Accurate presentation with Creating a good image of the

Consumer oriented approach
valid information company/product

Fig 1. Website functions.

Bearing in mind that our primary role as localizers is delivering properly func-
tioning products, the process will require work under the following:

 the contents must be adapted to the linguistic and cultural system of the
target language;
 the communication tone must be suitable for technical standards and sty-
listic requirements in the target market;

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 the graphical components must also undergo any necessary transfor-

mations to meet the linguistic and cultural communication requirements.

Furthermore, page formatting must be taken into account and made compatible
with the original graphical structure, and with the demands of search engine and
directory positioning. This allows Richard Sikes (2009) to present three possible
methodological approaches, which include:

 Controlled authoring
 The Global Pyramid Capstone (Globalize – Internationalize – Localize)
 Optimization

In the case of controlled authoring, the localizer may predict difficulties and thus
have huge influence on the original product. Schewe (2001) establishes a close
link between marketing strategy on localization in reference to language choice.
Texts must be adapted to domestic marketing strategies and they must be
adapted to domestic communication standards. This allows the transla-
tor/localizer to obtain the intended pragmatic/marketing effect or pragmat-
ic/sementic equivalence. The effect is thus based on cultural filtering and differ-
ence in expectation norms between recepients. In such a case, translation is
treated as recontextualization; as mentioned by House (1981), creating the re-
cepients’ contextual conditions. This approach sees texts as bound to their origi-
nal and new recepients, being the basis for the equivalence relation. What is
important is its communicative performance. The text, and in this case an entire
website product, aims at functional pragmatic equivalence. Generally, the L2
product must be a semantic and pragmatic equivalent.
General translation theory allows one to create a set of parameters to asses
the quality of translation. In reference to Newmark (1988), Hatim and Mason
(1990) House (1997) and Baker (1992) one can arrive at the following points:

 Typology and Tenor

 Formal Correspondance
 Cohesion and Coherence
 Dynamic equivalence
 Lexical and grammatical quality
 Nature of the text
 Purpose of the text
 Audience

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House (1997) assumes that unless influenced by pragmatic variance, only mini-
mal violations of the above mentioned are acceptable in translation. Due to the
fact that no two languages are alike, and thus no two cultures are alike, the na-
ture of the message, purpose of the producer and intended audience seem to be
variables most suited for quality assessment of both general translation projects
as well as websites. Further investigation within the area of assessment requires
referring to Skopos, a technical term for the aim or purpose of a translation’
(Vermeer 2000: 221). Skopostheorists believe that any action has a particular
aim, or rather a purpose. Thus, translation is considered not as a process of
transcoding but as a form of human action having its own purpose (Schäffner
1998b: 235; Hönig 1998: 9). The skopos of a translation, as explained by Ver-
meer (2000), is the goal, defined by the commission and adjusted by the transla-
tor. He defines commission as „the instruction, given by oneself or by someone
else, to carry out a given action [which could be translation] (Vermeer 2001:
229)”. Similarly, such can greatly build methodological background for website
localization. Let us now focus on strategies and procedures as used by transla-
tors. Krings (1986) defines translation strategy as “translator’s potentially con-
scious plans for solving concrete translation problems in the framework of
a concrete translation task (Krings 1986:18). Furthermore, Bell (1998) differen-
tiates between global and local strategies and confirms that this distinction re-
sults from various kinds of translation problems (Bell 1998:188).
On the other hand Nida (1964) sees procedures as performance actions,
which include making judgments on syntactic and semantic approximations.
These approaches have been analysed in depth in Newmark (1988). The open
question remaining, is how far these are applicable towards in-depth text inter-
vention during the process of localization, since the procedure itself requires
applying functional constraints. Naturally technical requirements many a times
prove to be of great difficulty to average translators. This naturally results in
group or rather project team work. Eva Muller (2009), thus suggests the follow-
ing in reference to the linguistic realm of the localization project. Please note:

Localization tests covering linguistics must be performed for each language inde-
pendent of the internationalization test. Typical test tasks to be fulfilled are proof-
reading of translated objects such as the UI and user documentation… All items
must be named consistently and according to the specification in order to build
a user-friendly localized product, and uniformity between user documentation and
online help, for example.

We can thus conclude that the localization process puts stronger emphasis on
translation tools and technology as compared to standard translation. The locali-
zation industry is rather young, as one can trace its origins back to the 1980’s,

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therefore as mentioned in the beginning of this paper one is still in the dark con-
cerning set methodological considerations. The following is thus a proposal for
reaching set criteria concerning quality assessment as based on project work.
Judging the quality of website products within objective requirements in-
volves the preparation of a model for assessment. Project work had been con-
cluded with the following points required for WLQA (Website Localization
Quality Assessment) based on earlier scholarly considerations:

 Skopos
 Functionality (Pragmatic/Semantic Function)
 Technicality
 Encoding of text elements
 Displayability
 HTML/XML acceptability
 Marketing value
 Target audience

The presented parameters represent an approximation of assessment based crite-

ria for product quality and may be grouped according to the proposed three vari-
ables: Cross-cultural communicative strategy, market function and digital
acceptability. In other words, pragmatic/semantic function of the localized text
must fulfill socio-cultural requirements (in accordance with Skopos); the site
must fulfill its market/advertising role in reference to the target audience; and
finally, displayability, that is the combination of text and image must support the
purpose of the product.
What has also been observed is the need for further training in this area as
contemporary translation courses rarely touch upon localisation. Within this new
field of translation study, experts call for further training among future transla-
tors. Given global monetary difficulties and the increase in the number of trans-
lators, the offer of training for localizers seems to be of great market value. Note
this quote form Muller (2009):

Train the translators in the software to be localized to make sure they are familiar
with the product, the target group, your style guide and the workflow they should
follow. Provide a teach-the-trainer course for your Multilanguage provider. In this
instance, you have to conduct a single training for all languages since you’re coop-
erating with a multi-language provider.

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4.2. Software and video game localization

This is yet another challenging aspect of localization. Software is a much more

complicated issue and requires specialized knowledge through applicable train-
ing or experience. Working under such projects will require the division of the
data into code and data segments or blocks. The code is restricted for developers,
while the data segment is stripped of source code elements. If properly prepared
this division is done by developers at the level of internationalization. Next,
localizers deal with linguistic restraints and these involve, keeping the language
simple or as simple as possible; unambiguous and consistent within terminology.
In the words of Esselink (2000) “Typical examples of a writing style that could
make the translation work easier are short sentences, simple vocabulary, con-
sistency in terminology, and careful use of punctuation” (Esselink 2000, 27-28).
This also refers to online help and documentation.
The application of CAT systems in software localization constitutes an inev-
itable occurrence owing to the repetitive quality of software-related linguistic
data, which are an excellent example of text that is appropriate to be translated
with such systems allowing for an extensive exploitation of their possibilities.
Beside the facilities incorporated in typical CAT tools (i.e., terminology man-
agement systems, translation memory systems, corpus-analysis tools), software
localization tools cover additional functions, the scope of which may vary de-
pending on the type of tool or a particular producer, since software localization
deals not only with linguistic and cultural aspects. Accordingly, software locali-
zation tools are supposed to support additional file formats as they cope with
entire Web pages or software applications consisting of pure text as a small part
of a greater entity, and, therefore, also manage such issues as physical distribu-
tion of text or shortcut key adjustment. In practice, it may, for instance, turn out
that a TL equivalence for a SL word on a button is too long to fit in the width
constraints, thus some systems provide a preview of the effect in the form of
user interface (in order to enable the verification whether a given TL word is
appropriate in terms of length or requires being abbreviated or altered into
a shorter one) or even allow for the button width modification to accommodate
a longer translation (Bogucki 2009: 99–100; Bowker 2002: 131). Furthermore,
the source code of a software or a Web page comprises text to be translated and
tags combined together, the latter of which must not be even slightly changed,
let alone translated, despite the fact that some of their elements deceptively take
the form of translatable words. In fact, the removal or alteration of only one
element within tags may cause that the expected user interface will not be dis-
played properly or will not show at all, hence software localization producers
have taken a number of steps to prevent such incidences, i.e. some tools exhibit

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tags and translatable text in different colours, other tools block the possibility of
introducing any modifications to the tags, and the most advanced ones retrieve
the text to be translated in isolation from tags and copy it to another file, at the
same time creating one more file where an appropriate annotation to enable rein-
serting the TL text in the proper place is preserved.
Considering video game localization, apart from the basics as graphical el-
ements, menus in the before mentioned code blocks, there are other significant
elements that apply to manufacturing a complete and valid product. These take
localizers very much into realms applicable to both literary and audio-visual
translators. Many have attributed this to ‘domestication’ as in terms of dubbing.
Some claim, however, that it is dubbing–and not any other form of screen trans-
lation–that can aspire to being the ‘ideal’ form of film translation in terms of
faithfulness, on the assumption that strictly linguistic considerations should not
determine the overall value of a translation. In dubbing, the translator has to be
faithful not only in the theatrical sense but also in terms of phonological syn-
chronisation (Pieńkos 1993: 131). Similar observations are frequently put fore-
ward in localization of video games.

5. Conclusions

In this sense, following Baker (1998) who states, that film is a semiotic composi-
tion consisting of four channels, the same logic may be applied to the matter at
hand as many new products make use of subtitling in their ‘video intermissions’
during thematically structured games:

 The verbal auditory channel, which includes dialogue and background

voices and maybe lyrics.
 The non-verbal auditory channel, which is made up of natural sound,
sound effects, as well as music.
 The verbal visual channel, comprising the sub-titles and any writing
within the film, as for example, letters, posters, books, newspapers, graf-
fiti, or advertisements.
 The non-verbal visual channel, which includes the composition of the
image, camera positions and movement as well as the editing which con-
trols the general flow and mood of the movie1.

1
Cf. Schwarz (2002)

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In effect, the translator needs to create subtitles in such a way so as they fulfill
their role within this polysemiotic environment (Shwarz 2002).
Finally, faithfulness to the lore or genre should be mentioned. Players fre-
quently reject localized products if its overall composition goes away from the
original. Character names, place names and language specific elements should
be as close as possible to the ‘world of the game’. As with any other action un-
dertaken, one needs to remember that a direct and ideally domesticated product
can in fact become a poor example of the localization process.

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Literary Translation

Jerzy Jarniewicz

University of Łódź
jjarniew@uni.lodz.pl

Abstract: The article starts with an attempt to define the specificity of literary transla-
tion by pointing to the characteristic features of the texts that this kind of translation
deals with and of various contexts (cultural, economic, political, etc.) in which it func-
tions. Much space is devoted to the discussion of what Roman Jakobson called the poetic
(or aesthetic) function of language. Examples are given, primarily of poetic texts and
their translations, providing practical illustration of the most common problems that
literary translators face. Issues addressed in the article include the significance of form in
literary texts, untranslatability and creativity, translation as interpretation (with reference
to Roman Ingarden’s concept of the areas of indeterminacy in a work of art), connotative
meaning, intertextuality and heteroglossia, and, finally, gender in translation. The article
concludes with a discussion of the changing status of literary translation, the concept of
translator as the “second author” and of the translator’s visibility.
Keywords: gender in translation, indeterminacy, intertextuality, translator’s invisibility,
limits of translation, literary translation, poetic function of language, untranslatability

1. Introduction

Among the numerous types of translation, literary translation stands out, argua-
bly, as translation par excellence, in which most problems of all types of transla-
tion find their manifestations in a condensed, highlighted form. What makes
literary translation different is, by definition, the kind of texts which it is con-
cerned with. Opinions vary as regards the distinctness of the language of litera-
ture, ranging from a belief that it is in fact a different form of language, with its
own grammar and lexicon; to claims that there is nothing intrinsically specific in
the language of literature, apart from the readers’ willingness to treat a literary
text as such. Yet it is agreed that literary texts possess characteristic properties

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which determine the way they are read, disseminated, evaluated, interpreted and
rendered into a foreign language. Francis R. Jones makes a list of these proper-
ties: “they have a written text base, though they may also be spoken; they enjoy
canonicity (high social prestige); they fulfill an affective/ aesthetic rather than
transactional or informational function; they have no real-world truth-value; they
feature words, images, etc., with ambiguous and/or indeterminable meanings;
they are characterized by ‘poetic’ language use (where language form is im-
portant in its own right) and heteroglossia (i.e. they contain more than one
voice), and they may draw on minoritized styles” (Baker 2009: 152).

2. Form and meaning in literary texts

From the point of view of translation theory and practice, the most significant
property of literary texts is that in their case the commonly applied distinction
between the form and the contents does not apply: in literary texts the “how” is
the “what”. This particular feature is the basis of what Roman Jakobson called
the poetic (or aesthetic) function of language, i.e. the one which makes the read-
er focus his or her attention on the text itself, on the way linguistic elements are
selected and combined to achieve specific artistic ends. Changing the way in
which a poem is written or recited, altering its visual or phonic arrangement,
affects the poem’s meaning.
If we look at Edwin Morgan’s poem “Summer Haiku”:

Pool
peopl
e plop!
Cool
(Finlay 2000: 21)

its contents, when severed from the way in which it is communicated to us, may
seem utterly banal: people see a swimming pool, jump into it and feel good. The
poet, however, turns this unexciting narrative into an exciting poem by inventing
its one-off, unique form, splitting it into four short lines and using a variety of
poetic devices. Lines 2 and 3 include the same set of five letters, yet in
a different order – such a rearrangement of the order in which letters in a word
appear so as to produce another word is called anagram. But the lines 2 and 3 are
formally linked not only due to the same set of letters. Line 2 consists of a word
the last letter of which (“e”) is not only mute, but also invisible, or rather: absent
(“peopl”), having been moved to the next line – an instance of what in literary

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theory is called enjambment or a run-on line. The effect of such an enjambment

is that the eye of the reader moves more quickly between the two lines, spurred
by the missing, yet expected letter “e”. If the poem is about, to put it crudely,
people jumping into the pool, then the act of reading thanks to the poet’s use of
the enjambment reenacts the jumping: the eye performs the jump, by moving
quickly from line 2 to line 3. Furthermore, once the reader arrives at line 3, his
or her attention is drawn to the phonic quality of “plop”, which is an instance of
onomatopoeia, a term for a word whose sound imitates the sound it denotes,
here: of people jumping into water. Due to the particular form of the poem, the
jump is thus made both visible and audible, with the two senses of sight and
hearing activated in an act of reading. It is communicated to us not by a word
with a lexical meaning, but by a highly inventive formal arrangement of linguis-
tic material (letters and sounds). The final line resolves the poem by rhyming
with the initial line (“pool” / “cool”), thus ending the poem where it began. Giv-
en the brevity of the poem, it seems surprisingly complex in its form and over-
organised: the horizontal dispersal of letters in lines 2 and 3 is contrasted with
the poem’s vertical extra-ordering in such a way that letters ‘l’ appearing in all
four lines (not without reason is this liquid sound dominant in a poem about
water!) are printed in exactly the same column – the device which resembles the
mesostic, i.e. a poem in which a phrase in its vertical line intersects in the middle
its horizontally typed text. In Morgan’s poem, we have been given four lines and
at least five literary devices: rhyme, onomatopoeia, enjambment, anagram,
mesostic.
It is not the trivial contents, but the unusual economy of expression and the
complex visual-phonic organization of the poem that creates its meaning, that
makes the poem what it is: a literary work. Translators may change the contents,
but the key to a successful rendering of this text into any foreign language is to
reproduce all or most of the devices which form a complex system of relation-
ships within a poem. In practice, to keep all these devices in translation and
maintain its brevity would be impossible. If some devices are lost, the translator
can look for compensation for the losses and introduce other devices which the
TL has to offer. It is part of the translator’s work to identify all formal aspects of
the poem, to define their functions and to decide which of them must be main-
tained in translation. Translation, due to unsurpassable structural differences
between languages, is always the art of losing – and it is the translator who de-
cides which elements of the ST must be kept, which can be left out, and which
can be replaced and compensated for. The now clichéd sentence by Robert Frost
that “poetry is what gets lost in translation” refers to this particular aspect of
literary texts: to the importance of linguistic form. Frost must have had in mind
that translation is a type of transformation, i.e. the alteration of form, hence in

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translation what constitutes the poem is unavoidably altered. One can quarrel
with Frost and argue that to alter does not always mean to lose. Or that perhaps
more is lost when poetry is NOT translated. Whichever side we take, one thing
seems indisputable: translation which loses sight of the formal qualities of the
source text is a translation which loses its literary – or poetic – quality.
In the light of what has been said, is it still possible to claim that a poem like
Morgan’s “Summer Haiku” can be successfully translated? The answer depends
on how we understand “translation”. Douglas Robinson writes that “If ‘transla-
tion’ is defined narrowly as the exact rendition of everything in the source text,
including meaning, syntax, and mood, then translation itself becomes impossi-
ble; every text lies beyond the ‘limits of translation’. If it is defined broadly as
a text that stands in some significant relation to a source text, including very free
imitations, then translation becomes ubiquitous; virtually everything can be read
as a translation, and the limits of translation are potentially infinite” (France
2000: 15). Despite these reservations, a group of students have recently worked
on translating Morgan’s poem. Their free, sometimes ridiculously so, versions of
the poem show a variety of approaches, but they also indicate that all the transla-
tors are aware of the necessity to go beyond the limits defined by the poem’s
contents, to write the poem anew, creatively following its formal determinants,
rather than to copy it. Here are four examples of their translations:

(1) Basen
Polsk
A plusk
Aaa

(2) z
łód
ki
chlup
w
chłód
wód

(3) na basenie
chłopak
i chlap ok
zadowolenie

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(4) człowiek
woda
chlup
trup

It can be guessed that in all four cases the starting point was to find a word that
could correspond phonetically with the onomatopoeic word for the sound of
splashing water. Thus in the first version, “plusk” is responsible for the unex-
pected appearance of the nearly homophonic “Polska”. In the second translation,
“chlup” must have started the sequence of one-syllable words with [u] sound:
“łód”, “chłód”, “wód”, and in the third translation “chlap” suggested the use of
“chłopiec”. It is interesting that, although the translators have all reproduced
rhymes, enjambment, and onomatopoeia, none of them succeeded in building
a proper anagram.
However, problems with translating Morgan’s short poem do not stop here:
“Summer Haiku” does not exist in isolation. The poem in its title and form refers
to the traditional Japanese haiku, such as the most famous poem by Basho,
which in literal translation reads:

Old pond:
frog jump-in
water sound
(Henderson 1958: 19)

This intertextual allusion is part of the poem’s meaning, changing the seemingly
banal situation into a sort of epiphany. Japanese haiku to which Morgan serious-
ly or ironically alludes is deeply set in the culture of Japan and in the context of
Buddhist Zen, which is clear to Japanese readers of Basho, though not necessari-
ly to non-Asians. According to Henderson, the Zen qualities which are present in
Basho’s haiku include: “a great zest for life; a desire to use every instant to the
uttermost; an appreciation of this even in natural objects; a feeling that nothing is
alone, nothing unimportant; a wide sympathy; and an acute awareness of rela-
tionships of all kinds, including that of one sense to another” (Henderson 1958:
21). These are all qualities which exist in Basho’s frog poem. To what degree
does Morgan utilize this tradition in “Summer Haiku”, does he try to invoke the
Zen context of Basho’s poem in his own text, are questions that the translator
should be ready to answer. The translator can of course ignore these Japanese
references while translating Morgan’s poem, as most of the student translators
quoted above did, but other translators being aware of the Zen connection may
try to keep them, producing different versions of the same poem which would
respect its intertextual context.

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3. Meaningful music

Morgan’s poem, humorous and experimental, can be seen as an extreme exam-

ple of a literary text, but what it displays – the unity, if not the identity of form
and meaning – is characteristic of any literary text. S. T. Coleridges’ famous
“Kubla Khan” starts with the line:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

before it develops into what looks like a beginning of a story:

A stately-pleasure dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

This first line of the poem seems to be just a series of sounds, with no discerni-
ble lexical sense: no single word here has a meaning of its own. The line in-
cludes two proper nouns, two names “Xanadu” and “Kubla Khan”, which as
names have no meaning (it is impossible to define a name so as to know which
objects are assigned to it). The other two words of the line are operative words
“in” and “did” – a preposition and a modal word that acquire meaning only in
connection with other words. And yet, despite its apparent “meaninglessness”,
this first line is a perfect opening of a poem which is (as the subtitle reminds us)
“a vision in a dream” and as such has more to do with the free flow of sounds
and images than with the commonplace logic. Instead of logical transitions and
identifiable references to external reality, it introduces the logic of another order,
an abstract sequence of sounds, like an incantation, which frees us from analyti-
cal thinking and invites the readers to open their minds to what is beyond reason,
in the realm of dream and the unconscious.
To achieve this, the opening line has been carefully patterned. We have in-
ternal rhymes: “xan” / “khan”, “du”/”ku” , and alliteration “du” / “did” and
“Ku”/ “Khan”. The arrangement of vowels is also ordered:

(i) aa aa
u u
i

What emerges is a perfect symmetry of sound, with “i” in the centre and
a double “a” before and after it, separated by a single “u” on both sides. Such an

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arrangement of sounds is not far from magical spells, like the cabbalistic charm
“abracadabra”, which work on us due to their hidden order. Any translation of
Coleridge’s first line that would fail to keep this orchestration would be
a significant loss, as the form of this line is its only meaning. There are a number
of Polish translations of this poem, but due to the differences between Polish and
English structures which do not allow such abstract music to be reproduced,
none has managed to retain this “magical” quality of the opening line:

W Xanadu kazał Kubla Khan

Wznieść pyszny pałac, tam gdzie płynie
W pieczarach, których myśl człowieka
Nie zmierzy, Alph, święta rzeka,
Co w mrocznym morzu ginie.
(Kubiak)

W Xanadu kazał Kubla Khan wznieść cud

Pałac rozkoszy, gdzie przepych bez końca;
Płynęła święta rzeka Alph, jej chłód
Wśród niezmierzonych pieczar trwał, aż z wód
Szum wlał się w morze mroczne bez krzty słońca.
(Pietrkiewicz)

If we agree that translation cannot depend on extracting meaning from ST and

transferring it to TT, then the practice, used once fairly often, of translating poet-
ry into prose should be questioned. “Do not translate poetry into prose”, was one
of the “don’ts” articulated by Barańczak in his manifesto (Barańczak 1992: 33).
Yet there are translators who translate poems into prose, arguing that in certain
cases such a practice is legitimate. This is what Adam Czerniawski did when in
his translation of Jan Kochanowski’s Treny he translated “Tren 17” into prose,
believing that this final poem of the cycle is primarily “argumentative”: its sense
lies in the discursive, paraphrasable meaning, all its “poetic” elements, such as
metre and rhyme, are secondary like background music. But translating poetry
into prose is to treat the formal aspect of the text, including its music, as an or-
namental feature which does not affect the meaning of the text. Below, two
translations of the same fragment of “Tren 17” are given, the first one by Czer-
niawski, the second by Stanisław Barańczak and Seamus Heaney, to illustrate
how form, contrary to Czerniawski’s opinion, shapes the meaning:

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Finally, what purpose that expense and effort of your labours and all those years
which you’ve almost completely spent poring over books, hardly ever enjoying
worldly amusements? Now is the time to gather the fruit you’ve cultivated and sup-
port your fragile wilting nature.
(Kochanowski 1996: 111)

What profit have you reaped for all that cost,

That foolishly, irretrievably lost
Time you spent poring over books, those years
Of study that still leave you in arrears?
By now your grafting should have yielded fruit:
Windfalls of wisdom, comfort resolute
Self-mastery.
(Kochanowski 1995: 53)

The author of the prose version ignored the poetic qualities of the poem, priori-
tizing its discursive meaning. When compared with the versed translation, the
fragment in prose, though faithful to the paraphrasable contents of the original,
seems to be deprived of the emotional charge of the argument, which is commu-
nicated by means of formal devices, such as rhythm, rhyme, or the variegated
line-length. The urgency of the voice disappeared, likewise the ceremonial sub-
limity of the diction. Authors associated with New Criticism thought such
a reduction of literature to a communicable message a fallacy, and called it “the
heresy of paraphrase”. Texts may differ as regards the degree of their discursive
component, but to define meaning independently of the form is to go against the
essence of literature. One can, of course, read Homer’s The Illiad in order to
learn about ancient warfare or Kochanowski’s Treny because of its debate with
ancient stoicism, but such readings ignore the literary status of these works, re-
ducing them to texts of informative function.

4. Creativity

In one of his anthologies Stanisław Barańczak quotes a short poem by Ogden

Nash:

In the world of mules

There are no rules.

What has to be preserved in the translation of this poem is the simple, if not sim-
plistic rhyme and the condensed epigrammatic form, which makes the sentence

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look like an authoritative declaration or a golden thought – generating the hu-

morous effect based on the discrepancy between the brevity of form, simplicity
of rhyme and triviality of its substance. Translation which would not be rhymed
would ruin the text, similarly failed would be translations which would offer
long, elaborated lines or a complex syntax. By contrast, what can be changed in
the process of translation is, for example, the name of the animal. The (hypothet-
ical) translation in which for the reason of rhyme or rhythm, we would have
a “donkey” instead of a “mule” could still be considered accurate. Taking into
account Nash’s economy of expression, which we have seen at work also (and to
a higher degree) in Morgan’s “Summer Haiku”, we can expect that this short
poem would require from its translator an ability to move freely away from and
back to the poem, to activate the resources available in TL and to search for
means to achieve a similar artistic effect. It would require creative inventiveness.
Let us look how Barańczak translates the poem:

(1) W świecie mułów

Nie ma regułów.
(Barańczak 1993:73)

What we see here is an instance of translation as a creative act: the effect of the
translator’s work is a text in Polish which is arguably more interesting than its
original version. Barańczak follows Nash very closely, but decides, as if forced
by the dictate of rhyme, to give the final word in an ungrammatical form:
“regułów”. Such a violation of a linguistic norm, deliberate and comic in its
effect, has no equivalent in Nash’s poem, yet fits well in its slightly absurd
world: the ungrammaticality of “regułów” does not only state, but also illustrates
the point made in the poem. If there are no rules, then, consequently, one can
violate grammatical norms. Barańczak’s creative translation, which makes use of
the characteristics of the target language: of Polish inflected suffixes, is
a legitimate extension of the possibilities that the English poem offers. The
translation, with its Polish surplus, enters the Polish language as a poem in its
own right. In his anthology Barańczak publishes also two other translations of
this short poem, though precedes them with a bracketed note saying that these
are only “additional variations which have nothing in common with the original,
but show how powerful its inspirational force is”:

(1) W świecie mułłów

Nie ma regułłów

(2) W świecie żyjątków

Nic prócz wyjątków.

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To provide two very different translations is already a provocative act, remind-

ing the readers that translation is always an open and diverging process, without
definitive solutions. As regards Barańczak’s self-belittling comments, it remains
an open issue if changing “mules” into “mullahs” is indeed a more radical depar-
ture from Nash’s original than introducing the ungrammatical form of the noun
in what Barańczak considered his legitimate translation. Even more debatable as
an example of free variation that has “nothing to do with the original” is the third
text: it does not seem to differ substantially from translation (1). Given that
translating literary texts is a creative act and acknowledging the translator’s ar-
tistic independence as its condition and consequence, the differences between
translations and such related genres as variations, adaptations, imitations, para-
phrases, etc. become not only vague, but spurious. Is it possible to define what
genre Mickiewicz’s “Giaur” is: translation or version? And Proust’s great novel
rendered into Polish by Boy-Żeleński – is it translation or adaptation, given that
the translator divided most of the long, convoluted sentences of the French orig-
inal into shorter, simple ones? Or, finally, Kubuś Puchatek which is marketed as
Milne’s Winnie the Pooh translated by Irena Tuwim, though she left out many
fragments she must have thought improper for young Polish readers and intro-
duced elements of the style which has no equivalent in the original work?

5. Untranslatability

The identity of form and meaning in literary texts which we have been discuss-
ing here is one of the central problems in translation. What is translation, if not,
as common sense would have it, saying the same thing in a different language,
i.e. in a different form? When the text is translated from one language to another,
the meaning should be preserved, while the form has to be changed. But this is
an inaccurate view, much contested by most of contemporary theories. “Mean-
ing is now more likely to be construed as fleeting and inherently unstable, highly
subjective and context-bound, and thus not amenable to replication, whether in
the same or other language” (Baker 2009: 96). Meaning is not an entity that can
be taken out of one context and transferred to another. Languages in turn are not
vessels that contain transferrable meaning, but rather generators of meaning.
They are never symmetrical, nor isomorphic, they do not correspond to each
other in a one-to-one relationship. Their grammars and lexicons are differently
structured and they differently conceptualize the world. If literary translation
deals with texts in which form is meaning, then translation of literary texts may
seem to us as a contradiction in terms. And indeed, literary translation is often

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deemed to be an impossible task. Much has been written on the concept of un-
translatability. Theo Hermans believes, however, that total untranslatability, as
well as total translatability, are limiting concepts: “Full translatability, in the
sense of an integral reproduction of a text’s full signification, may be possible
only in the case of artificial formal languages. Complete untranslatability would
be beyond words, as it would imply the impossibility of communication or even
semiosis” (Baker 2009: 300). So rather than proclaiming the impossibility of
translation, let us assume that literary translation is a creative activity defined by
the existence of the source text (in its various linguistic, cultural, and social con-
texts) and the target language with its history, traditions, norms, and many other
determinants, in which the target text has to be written. Rather than talking about
translation in terms of transference of meaning from one language to another,
suggesting thus that it is a reproductive, mechanical operation, we can speak of
literary translation as highly creative, original activity inspired by the SL text,
which takes into account linguistic and literary possibilities offered by the TL
culture. The decisions that a translator of a poem has to make are essentially of
the same order as the decisions that an “original” poet makes: translators, like
poets, select and combine elements of language, so as to achieve a particular
aesthetic or emotional effect. However radical this may sound, the translator is
thus a second author – not a reproducer, or imitator, involved in a parasitic, de-
rivative or automatic activity. Consequently, Anton Popovic claims that “the
translator has the right to differ organically, to be independent”, though Susan
Bassnett, who quotes these words in her book, feels the need to add: “provided
that independence is pursued for the sake of the original in order to reproduce it
as a living work” (Bassnett 2002: 85).

6. Translation as interpretation

Another important feature of literary texts which determines, and complicates,

the practice of translation is that such texts rely more on connotative than deno-
tative, or lexical meanings. The meaning of a literary text is always open and
always a matter of interpretation, which changes with each reader and with the
changing contexts in which the text is read. Hence, no literary work can have
a definitive interpretation. Between the acts interpretation and translation there
is a close affinity: not in the sense that interpretation precedes translation, but
that translation is always an act of interpretation. With each new translation of
“Hamlet”, we are given a different interpretation of his work. If in a given trans-
lation, Hamlet’s words directed to his mother are more lyrical and ambiguous

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than in other translations, the translator probably favours psychoanalytical inter-

pretations of the tragedy, which see Hamlet’s problem as an instance of the Oe-
dipus complex. Nietzsche translated by Leopold Staff is a modernist poète mau-
dit, different from the radical “postmodern” philosopher that contemporary
translations discover in him. Catullus in Anna Świderkówna’s translation is
a decent and respectable Roman poet, whereas in the translations by Grzegorz
Franczak and Aleksandra Klęczar he becomes a foul-mouthed lyricist inspired
by the language of brothels and city streets.
In his discussion of the ontological status of the work of art, Roman
Ingarden spoke of areas of indeterminacy, believing that a literary text is
a schematic structure with lacunae of definition which in each reading are com-
pleted or (the term he used) “concretized”, in a process which turns the potenti-
alities of literature into the actualities of our readings:

“a work of art requires an agent existing outside itself, that is an observer, in order –
as I express it – to render it concrete. Through his co-creative activity in apprecia-
tion the observer sets himself as is commonly said to ‘interpret’ the work or, as I
prefer to say, to reconstruct it in its effective characteristics, and in doing this as it
were under the influence of suggestions coming from the work itself he fills out its
schematic structure, plenishing at least in part the areas of indeterminacy and actu-
alizing various elements which are as yet only in a state of potentiality. In this way
there comes about what I have called a ‘concretion’ of the work of art”
(Ingarden 1979: 40).

Translation, just like interpretation, is always, to use Ingarden’s term,

a concretization of the literary work: it is a potentiality made actual and con-
crete. And as such, it is always tentative: even the most successful translation
will be followed by other translations, not necessarily better or more adequate,
but different, setting the work in new contexts and new networks of relation-
ships.
The problem with connotative meanings on which literary texts are based is
that they can never be codified and depend on the reader’s experience, some-
times very personal, on his or her cultural upbringing, on the place and the time
in which the work is read. In “Chosun”, a poem by James Fenton which is based
on the poet’s visit to Kampuchea, we come across a series of often alienating
bits of information about the distant culture, its lore and traditions. Many items
sound strange, as if they were translated verbatim from the Kampuchean, and
leave us disoriented, exposed to the foreignness of a culture we have a very lim-
ited access to. In one of the fragments of the poem, Fenton writes about Kampu-
chean plants:

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A wonderful cure for headaches was made

From dog’s testicle flower. Honeysuckle
Was a poultice for boils. Forget Your Troubles

Was a poison.

What is “dog’s testicle flower” we do not know, neither do we know what kind
of plant is called Forget Your Troubles, though the latter seems to echo the more
familiar forget-me-nots. They must be literal translations of native words for
plants growing in Kampuchea. The names are as alien to us as the uses to which
these strangely named flowers are put. While translating these names into Polish,
we can adopt literal translation and render “dog’s testicle flower” as “kwiat
psich jąder”, without having to identify the plant. Yet, in the fragment quoted
above there is one familiar-sounding English word for a popular plant, “honey-
suckle”. On the one hand, it might seem that the situation here is simpler: “hon-
eysuckle”, as the dictionary says, is in Polish “wiciokrzew przewiercień”.
Should we then translate “honeysuckle” in this poem as “wiciokrzew”? If it were
a technical text, a scientific article or a botanical guidebook, there would be
hardly any other option, but we are dealing here with a poem, a literary text in
which the “how” is the “what” and the meaning rests more on associations than
on lexical definitions. And in this poem, the pleasant word “honeysuckle” cre-
ates a surprising juxtaposition with the down to earth, unpoetic usage to which it
is put: a poultice for boils. The effect of surprise or incongruity between the
sweetly sounding word and the medical power it possesses is effected by means
of the enjambment: the word “honeysuckle” stays with us for a longer while
before we pass to the next line and learn about its unusual usage. And in this
while, what is activated is a series of connotative meanings such as the ones that
associate the sweetness of the plant’s name with a vaudeville song from 1901
“The Honeysuckle and the Bee” by William H. Penn and Albert H. Fritz, with
such lines as:

You are my honey, honeysuckle, I am the bee,

I’d like to sip the honey sweet from those red lips.

The connotative meaning of English “honeysuckle” is thus different than that of

its Polish lexical equivalent “wiciokrzew”, it is associated with something very
homely, familiar, and local. “Wiciokrzew” carries none of these soft, pleasant
connotations – to use it in translation would be to lose the effect of the surprising
juxtaposition we have just discussed. And of course, it would sound ridiculous if
we heard in a love song “Jesteś moim wiciokrzewem”. What the translator needs
here is not so much the Polish name of the plant, caprifolium in Latin, but

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a word which sounds familiar and evokes warm, homely feelings, sweet enough
to raise a few eyebrows when set against its prosaic medical usage.
Could we then instead of the emotionally bland “wiciokrzew” use the more
endearing “lubczyk” or “kocimiętka”? Both words sound sweet and poetic. Yet
while translating the word “honeysuckle” we cannot ignore its factual meaning,
i.e. that it is a plant that grows in Kampuchea and that it is or may be used in
medicine for the purpose stated. Before finding a Polish equivalent we should be
certain that the plant is not confined in its growth to Europe or that its effect
when applied to skin is not disastrous. Does lubczyk grow in Kampuchea?
The meaning of the word “honeysuckle” is thus far from being uniformed, it
is a cluster of different denotative and connotative meanings:

honeysuckle = caprifolium
familiarity
sweetness
“poeticality”
romanticism
plant in Kampuchea
plant used in medicine

It can be claimed that in the context of Fenton’s poem, it is not the denotative
meaning that is dominant, but the connotations of sweetness, familiarity and
romanticism, spurred by the pleasantly sounding name of the plant. And if that is
so, one of the possible ways to translate “honeysuckle” would be to cheat the
reader and invent a nicely and familiar sounding name, for example “mio-
dolepek”. Though such a plant does not exist, the word would perform well its
function in the poem.
One of the dangers in literary translation is narrowing the interpretative pos-
sibilities of the text. Though each translation is an act of concretization, i.e. fill-
ing the areas of indeterminacy by selecting out of the many possible meanings
the ones we think most important to the whole, the ideal would be to keep all the
ambiguities and indeterminacies in the translated text. Philip Larkin’s poem
“High Windows” ends with a symbolic image which can be read both as
a statement of nihilism or a nearly-religious affirmation:

And immediately
Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

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The poem has been translated by Barańczak in the way that narrows the possible
ambiguity to one, affirmative reading:

I w tej samej chwili

Zamiast słów, myśl rozjaśnia blask wysokich okien:
Słońce przeniknięte objawieniem słońca
Za szkłem błękit powietrza, puste i głębokie
Nigdzie, nic nie mówiące, nie mające końca.
(Barańczak1991: 101)

The third line of the fragment includes an interpolation which strengthens the
poem’s affirmative sense: Barańczak writes about “revelation” (“objawienie”).
His decision to use this theological word stems from the translator’s reading of
the poem and his interpretation of the open symbolic image. It does not falsify
the poem, but eliminates one of its ambiguities. That we are dealing here with
some sort of revelation is possible, though Larkin did not use such loaded words,
leaving us with another possibility, that there is no illumination, but a discovery
of the great void on which our life is founded.

7. Gender in translation

In literary translation many grammatical and formal features which in other

kinds of texts have secondary significance may become important elements of
the text’s overall meaning; what is arbitrary may become artistically motivated.
Such is the case with gender which in non-literary texts has a purely formal,
grammatical function, whereas in literature can acquire significance and become
an element of an elaborate symbolic structure. Concepts gendered differently in
source and in target languages may cause problems in translating literary texts in
which gender has been given symbolic meaning. While translating non-literary
texts, the fact that “spoon” in Polish is feminine (łyżka) and in German mascu-
line (der Löffel) does not create problems and has no practical consequences.
Neither do we pay attention to the fact that, in Polish, while “spoon” is feminine,
“knife” is masculine, treating the difference between the genders of these closely
related objects as purely arbitrary. We can however imagine a short story or
a poem in which these differences in gender become meaningful: the spoon and
the knife may be presented as a married couple with the spoon depicted with
feminine features, being dressed like a woman or becoming pregnant, and the
knife representing the husband and exhibiting masculine features.
A (hypothetical) poem of this kind, utilizing the symbolic significance of gram-

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matical gender, would pose significant problems in translating it into German,

where spoon is masculine. The spoon is not a particularly symbolic concept, in
contrast, for example, to death. Death is differently gendered in Polish (where it
is feminine) and in German or English (where it is masculine). This difference is
part of an old, deeply- rooted symbolic order of each culture. There are numer-
ous feminine representations of death in Polish art: it may be an old hag, or – as
in Malczewski’s paintings – a young seductress. These feminine personifications
of death in Polish culture become activated in the process of reading. What can
the translator do, when translating a poem like Paul Celan’s “The Fugue” in
which death (der Tod) is a Nazi oppressor? Translating the original he-death into
the Polish she-death would involve a conflict of symbolic orders: the Nazi op-
pressor has to be male. In the most popular translation of this poem (by
Stanisław Jerzy Lec), the line “Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland” was
translated as “Śmierć jest mistrzem z Niemiec”, although Polish has a feminine
form for “mistrz” which normally would be used here: “Śmierć jest mistrzynią z
Niemiec”. One can think of synonyms of death which would be masculine –
“kostuch”? This word, facetious and plebeian, would be inappropriate in Celan’s
poem.
There is a similar conflict of symbolic orders when the French feminine “la
lune” is translated into Polish “księżyc” – a noun in masculine. In Albert Camus’
Caligula the eponymous emperor desires the unattainable and cries for the
moon, as if it were his lover. The Polish translator rather than risking a violation
of grammatical rules: “księżycu, moja kochanko”, decided to use a synonym
“luna”, which is an archaic and poeticized form, but feminine.
The illustrations just given focus on the cases when a given concept is gen-
dered differently in the two languages of translation. Another kind of problems
may appear when one of the languages is gendered and the other is not. With
English being a language of a very limited gender system, novelists or poets
writing in English may leave the question of the narrator’s sex open – if the nar-
ration is in the first person there is no need to identify the speaker’s sex. A useful
device to employ in detective stories and crime fiction. But Jeanette Winterson’s
novel Written on the Body is also a good example in case. The author, who is
a declared lesbian, deliberately left the narrator unspecified, since one of the
novel’s issues is the contingent nature of one’s sexual identity: rather than being
inborn and stable, it is conceived as changing, multiple and constructed. Desire
has no sex, Winterson seems to be saying, and leaves the narrator in a state of
indeterminacy as regards sex. When rendering the novel into Polish the transla-
tor however has to decide about the sex of the narrator: all verbs in past tense
and all adjectives have to be formed as either feminine or masculine. Gendering
is obligatory. The Polish language offers a few solutions to this problem. Among

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the possible ways of avoiding gendering the narration one can count the usage of
passive voice, or non-finite clauses, or rendering the narration in the present
tense (which, contrary to preterite, does not require gendered inflections). So, if
we want to leave the sex of the narrator unspecified, the English sentence “I
burnt all her letters” can be rendered into Polish as “Jej listy zostały spalone”,
“Spalono jej listy”, “Palę jej listy”. The problem with these structures is that they
are of limited usage: they cannot be used too often, and certainly not throughout
the whole, 300-pages long novel. One can consider changing the sex of the nar-
rator every second paragraph so as to make the reader aware of the arbitrariness
of gender, but such a practice might make the novel difficult to read. Finally, as
it happened with the Polish translation, the translator can bypass these doubts
and decide to translate the novel in feminine, providing the reader with the trans-
lator’s note explaining the lost ambiguities of the original – naturally, such
a note would be an admittance of the translator’s failure.

8. Intertextuality and heteroglossia

Intertextuality, a term coined by Julia Kristeva, is another feature of literary texts

which translators can find difficulties with. No work exists in isolation from
other works – on the contrary, just as each sign has meaning only in relation to
other signs, so does each literary text become meaningful in relation to other
texts. It is always set in a network of ever-expanding relationships with other
works of the past, of today, as well as of the future. Each new sonnet by virtue of
its genre refers to all other sonnets, starting from the founder of the genre, Pet-
rarch, to its modern detractors. Each novel is a novel inasmuch as its readers are
aware of other novels which started, developed or challenged the genre. Litera-
ture is a space of an ongoing dialogue with other texts.
Literary references, allusions and quotations in literary texts create a special
type of problems for translators. First of all, if the author leaves them unattribut-
ed, they have to be identified by the translator. Such quotations should not be
translated, but quoted from the already existing translations, and if there are
a few competing translation of the quoted text the choice will depend on how
recognizable the quote is to the target language reader and how it is used in the
translated text. Translators quote from the most popular translations, the ones
that have become elements of the target language culture. So “Why, let the
stricken deer go weep” (Hamlet, III 2) would have its Polish equivalent in Pasz-
kowski’s translation, “Niech ryczy z bólu ranny łoś”, which has become a phrase
in the Polish literary tradition, an aphorism in its own right, despite the fact that

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the line is not an accurate translation: the animal in Shakespeare’s text is not
a “łoś” (elk). Barańczak’s translation, closer in this respect to the original, is not
that popular and has not replaced the older version: “Niech się zraniony jeleń
słania”. Hence, when quoted in translation may not be easily identified. What
has to be remembered is that intertextual references form part of the work’s het-
eroglossia, directing the readers to other texts and adopting their voices: no
wonder that the most famous example of heteroglossia in modern poetry, T.S.
Eliot’s The Waste Land, in which one hears words of Dante, Shakespeare, Rich-
ard Wagner, Joseph Conrad, Charles Baudelaire, and dozens of others, was orig-
inally called He Do the Police in Different Voices (my emphasis). If quoted
passages have already been translated into the target language, the translator
should not translate them, since this would go against the logic of intertextual
heteroglossia: instead of two (or more) voices we would have one voice of the
translator.
The source from which a given quote is taken may be familiar to the SL
reader, but not to the TL reader. Phrases well-known in England do not neces-
sarily enjoy the same popularity in Poland: „Tis the god Hercules, whom Antho-
ny lov’d, Now leaves him”. Translators often decide to depart from the original
allusion and look for an equivalent in the literature of the TL, trying to reproduce
not the reference, but the effect it has on the reader: of discovering familiar
works of literature of the past within the new or relatively new texts. In “Bur-
bank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a cigar” Eliot quotes from Shakespeare’s
“Anthony and Cleopatra”, a play less known in Poland. A quote from the Polish
translation of the tragedy would not help the reader to identify the source, nor
even to realize that Eliot speaks here with somebody else’s voice. With this in
mind, Adam Pomorski decided to quote not from Shakespeare, but from Mic-
kiewicz, and to include phrases which would be familiar to any Polish reader:

Defunctive music under sea

Passed seaward with the passing bell
Slowly: the God Hercules
Had left him, that had loved him well.

Muzyka coraz szersza, dalsza,

Biegła po morzu jak litaury
Rui: kto łeb w kolebce urwał
Do nieba właśnie szedł po laury

Pomorski’s quote from Mickiewicz’s “Ode to Youth” („Dzieckiem w kolebce

kto łeb urwał Hydrze, / Ten młody zdusi Centaury, / Piekłu ofiarę wydrze, / do
nieba pójdzie po laury”) is fragmentary and transformed. Yet it is easily recog-

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nizable in the Polish version, directing the reader to the famous older text. The
literary forefather has been invoked, the twentieth century has been shown to be
indebted to the great works of the past. There is also a connection between Her-
cules from Eliot’s poem (absent in the Polish version) and the phrase from Mic-
kiewicz’s “Ode”, since it was Hercules who killed the many-headed Hydra. Yet
Pomorski’s decision may cause doubts: implanting Mickiewicz into Eliot’s text
may sound like an act of cultural anachronism. Eliot most probably did not read
Mickiewicz. The translator presents Polish readers with his translation of Eliot’s
poem and tries to make them believe that they are reading a Polish poem, im-
mersed in Polish literature, stemming from it and dialoguing with it. Such
a juxtaposition of two contexts: Eliot’s English context and Mickiewicz’s Polish
context may create an unintended effect of grotesque incompatibility. Pomor-
ski’s translations of Eliot provide another example of the problems such
a strategy may generate. In Eliot’s French poem, “Lune de Miel”, we have:

Ils ont vu les Pay-Bas, ils rentrent a Terre Haute

“They saw the Netherlands, they are going to Terre Haute”. Eliot is seen pun-
ning here: Terre Haute is a place-name of a city in Indiana, the literal meaning of
which is “high-land”, as opposed to the Low-Lands of Holland. In Pomorski’s
version, the punning on place names is replaced by an interpolation of a Polish
phrase, which also juxtaposes the low and the high:

Widzieli Niderlandy, jodły na gór szczycie

The line echoes with the well-known Polish phrase from a popular national op-
eretta (“szumią jodły na gór szczycie”), locating the poem very strongly in
Polish culture, but at the same time being the work of translating a foreign, Eng-
lish-language poet. Is such a replacement of the foreign with the local, of Eliza-
bethan tragedy with the nineteenth-century national operetta, artistically con-
vincing, remains an issue. Pomorski’s version stems from his belief in transla-
tion as a work for and within the TL culture, which enriches the TL literature by
engaging in a dialogue with it. Eliot’s poems, as the two just discussed, have
been implanted in their new – Polish – context, and start resonating with allu-
sions to Polish poets and Polish literature, creating further networks of intertex-
tual relationships.

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9. Visible translators

The last few decades have witnessed the rapidly changing attitudes to translators
and their work. With their role as “second authors” more readily (though by no
means universally) acknowledged, the old ideal of the perfect translator as an
invisible agent can no longer be sustained. Lawrence Venuti’s book The Trans-
lator’s Invisibility published in 1995 was a powerful statement which has since
deeply reoriented the way in which translators are perceived. The invisibility of
the translator, as well as the idea of the transparency of translations, are, Venuti
claims, illusions.
Translators leave their signatures in the texts they translate – at all stages of
the translation process. They have their share in selecting or omitting particular
authors and books. Into texts they translate they introduce their personal aesthet-
ic, stylistic and ideological preferences, but also mark the text with characteris-
tics of the wider: cultural, political and social systems they are part of. Their
work does not exist outside the structures of political power, being involved in
an uneasy relationship with publishing companies, media corporations and insti-
tutions, such as arts councils, which administer the state patronage in arts, divid-
ing funds and grants, organizing promotion and offering publicity support. The
story of what is translated, when and how, reveals the supra-individual mecha-
nisms at work, reflects the relations of hegemony and subjection between cul-
tures as well as between variously defined groups of the privileged and the un-
derprivileged, the oppressive and the oppressed (e.g. women, ethnic and sexual
minorities). It is thus crucial to remember that when we read a text in translation,
we read not only the work of a given foreign author, but – more importantly –
words which have been written by a particular translator in a concrete historical
moment and in a specific social-political context. It becomes more and more
important to remember that a translated text comes to us from a different culture
than ours – and that this difference should not be ignored, as it constitutes the
sense of translation. Antoine Berman wrote about translation as the “trial of the
foreign” and understood it in a double sense: “In the first place, it establishes
a relationship between the Self-Same (Propre) and the Foreign by aiming to
open up the foreign work to us in its utter foreignness. (…) in the second place,
translation is a trial for the Foreign as well, since the Foreign work is uprooted
from its own language- ground.” (Berman 1985: 284)
Translation is a historical practice whose basic norms, standards and ideals
are not universal; they change in time, determined by, reflecting or opposing the
dominating ideas of the age. Today a radical shift may be noticed. We move
away from translation understood as an act of domesticating what is foreign, so

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as to eliminate any traces of otherness and achieve a text which would read as if
it were produced in the target language, with the acceptance of all target culture
norms and traditions. Instead, we move towards translation as a meeting of cul-
tures, a “trial of the foreign”, which does not try to wipe out the otherness, but
introduces it to target language and target culture. Literary translators of today
tend to preserve what is new and unfamiliar in the texts they translate. In this
way their works function as creative interventions into the state of their native
literature, if not their native tongue. This is by no means a development without
precedents: on the contrary, translation has always played a formative role in the
processes of creating literary variants of national languages. The beginnings of
literary English owe much to King Alfred’s translation project of the 10 th centu-
ry, when the monarch in order to “make more widely available those books most
necessary for men to know” assembled a group of distinguished scholars from
England and abroad (France 2000: 41). Similarly, at the roots of Polish literature
one finds translations, especially from the Bible, such as Kochanowski’s
Psałterz Dawidów, but also from the classics and contemporary writings of the
age. But translations play an important role in literary histories not only in their
initial stage. It is impossible to imagine Polish Romanticism without translations
of Goethe, Schiller or Byron. The artistic ferment of the post-1956 Thaw which
produced some of Poland’s best writing of the 20th century owes much to the
outpouring of translations, including American novelists, such as Faulkner or
Hemingway. It is significant that among translators of literary works one finds
the nation’s greatest poets and writers, from Jan Kochanowski via Adam Mic-
kiewicz to Czesław Miłosz, as if testifying to the fact that translators have to be,
either factually or potentially, creative authors, and that every translation, as
Octavio Paz once said, “is an invention and as such it constitutes a unique text”
(Bassnett 2002: 44). To claim that translations exist independently of, or that
they are external to, the so called “original” literature is to be blind to these pro-
cesses. Translations have now been recognized as an integral part of local litera-
tures, being at the same time constitutive of what is called ‘world literature’.

References

Baker, Mona and Gabriela Saldanha (2009). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation

Studies. Second Edition. Routledge. London.
Barańczak, Stanisław (1992). Ocalone w tłumaczeniu. Szkice o warsztacie tłumacza
poezji z dołączeniem małej antologii przekładów. Wydawnictwo a5. Poznań.
Barańczak, Stanisław (1993). Fioletowa krowa. Antologia angielskiej i amerykańskiej
poezji niepoważnej. Wydawnictwo a5, Poznań.

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Bassnett, Susan (1988). Translation Studies. Routledge. London.

Berman, Antoine (1985). “Translation and the Trials of the Foreign”. Translated by
Lawrence Venuti. In: Lawrence Venuti (ed.). The Translation Studies Reader.
Routledge. London 2000.
Fenton, James (1983). The Memory of War and Children in Exile. Poems 1968-1983.
King Penguin. Harmondsworth.
Finlay, Alec (2000). Atoms of Delight. An Anthology of Scottish Haiku and Short Poems.
Canongate. Edinburgh.
France, Peter (ed.) (2000). The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation. Ox-
ford University Press. Oxford.
Henderson, Harold G. (1958). An Introduction to Haiku. Doubleday. New York.
Ingarden, Roman (1972). “Artistic and Aesthetic Values”, in” Harold Osborne (ed.),
Aesthetics. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
Jarniewicz, Jerzy (2012). Gościnność słowa. Szkice o przekładzie literackim. Znak. Kra-
ków.
Kochanowski, Jan (1995). Laments. Translated by Seamus Heaney and Stanisław
Barańczak. Faber and Faber, London.
Kochanowski, Jan (1996). Treny. Translated by Adam Czerniawski. Wydawnictwo
Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Katowice.
Larkin, Philip (1991). 44 wiersze. Wybór, przekład, wstęp i opracowanie Stanisław Ba-
rańczak. Arka. Kraków.
Munday, Jeremy (2005). Introducing Translation Studies. Theories and Applications.
Routledge. London.
Venuti, Lawrence (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation.
Routledge. London.
Venuti, Lawrence (ed.) (2000). The Translation Studies Reader. Routledge. London.

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Legal Translation

Łucja Biel and Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski

University of Warsaw, University of Łódź

l.biel@uw.edu.pl, roszkowski@uni.lodz.pl

Abstract: This chapter gives a comprehensive overview of major issues involved in the
process of translating legal texts. It begins by highlighting the ways in which legal trans-
lation differs from other types of LSP translation. Defining characteristics of legal lan-
guage are then provided in an effort to account for the frequently-occurring difficulty in
comprehending and identifying legal source texts and genres. In the remainder of the
chapter, the focus is on legal terminology and phraseology as reflecting the basic units of
meaning in legal texts. This is followed by presenting classifications of legal translation
and discussing the central problem of legal equivalence. Two types of legal translation
are given a special prominence: the translation of multilingual law (EU translation) and
certified translation. Finally, this chapter signals a range of potential avenues for carry-
ing out research in the field of legal translation.
Keywords: legal translation, legal language, legal terminology and phraseology, certi-
fied translation, EU translation

1. Introduction

Legal translation has the reputation of being exceptionally challenging and de-
manding. By and large, this view is motivated by the complexity of the legal
domain and its arcane language. Indeed, translating legal texts is a complex lin-
guistic activity which involves mediating between not only different languages
and cultures but also between different legal systems and their institutions. Inevi-
tably, legal translation calls for special skills and knowledge on the part of the
translator pointing to the crucial importance of the triad of language, knowledge
and text. This chapter provides a general introduction into the intricacies of this
specialization and it offers a systematic overview of key concepts and a wide

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range of issues relevant to legal translation. First, we attempt to shed some light
on the nature of legal translation by highlighting its defining features.
The fundamental nature of legal translation can be clarified by reflecting on
its unique characteristics. One of the probably most frequent questions posed by
translation scholars concerns the uniqueness of legal translation, esp. in the con-
text of other types of specialized or LSP translation. It is generally agreed that
the cumulative effect of the combination of the following four features sets legal
translation apart from other types of specialized translation (see Harvey 2002
and Engberg 2013):

 Legal discourse gives rise to legal effects.

 Law is a system-bound discipline.
 Requirements on fidelity are higher than in other areas.
 Legal texts are characterized by ambiguity and interpretation.

The first feature draws our attention to the fact that the legal translator does not
only deal with textual artefacts but s/he must also consider the wider institutional
context(s) in which a legal instrument is embedded: legal interactants (e.g.
judges, advocates, litigants, business entities, etc.) who use it and the intended
purpose such instrument is supposed to serve in a given legal process or other
circumstances. Making sure that our translated document has achieved an equiv-
alent legal effect in the target legal language should be an overriding concern for
legal translators.
The second point emphasizes that, unlike the language of science (such as
biology or physics), legal language hardly ever relies on truly universal concepts
(even the seemingly universal concepts of justice and democracy may be con-
strued and applied differently in Western Europe, Ukraine or China). Instead, it
is inextricably linked to a national legal system. Legal language is said to be
system-bound, which means that it is the product of the history, culture and, of
course, the legal system of a given country. Each national law forms an inde-
pendent legal system with its own terminology derived from unique conceptual
structures, rules of classification, sources of law, methodological approaches and
socioeconomic principles (Šarčević 1997: 13). These factors carry enormous
implications for legal translation viewed as intercultural communication and
effected across different languages, cultures, and legal systems.
The word ‘fidelity’ in the third point brings into focus legal terminology and
terminological precision. Despite the inherent incongruity of legal systems, there
are exceptionally strict standards of quality expected from translation work. For
example, the European Commission’s in-house translation service, Directorate-
General for Translation (DGT) in its Guide for external translators (European

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Commission 2008) insists that “the target text is a faithful, accurate and con-
sistent translation of the source text” (2008: 6). Legal translation should be first
of all accurate by focusing on terminological equivalence and pushing aside
stylistic concerns. In the words of Susan Šarčević “it is agreed that substance
must always prevail over form in legal translation” (2000: 3).
Finally, the fourth point brings us to some of the essential properties of legal
language. Unlike most technical languages, certain types of legal language may
be fraught with ambiguity and vagueness. Consider, for instance, the use of the
word reasonable in the sentence below, which comes from a Tenancy Agree-
ment:

The Tenant will (...) permit the Landlord or the Landlor’s agents at reasonable
hours in the daytime to enter the Property to view the state and condition thereof.

Which hours are in fact appropriate to visit the premises may be a matter of
some debate. In case of a dispute over the meaning of a given word or expres-
sion, courts may have to interpret it according to different rules. For example,
the meaning of a disputed term could be determined in terms of the accepted
usage of the trade or course of dealing (also known as course of performance),
the latter referring to how the parties used the term in the course of their past
transaction(s) (Tiersma 1999: 116). Indeed, the meaning of legal terms, phrases,
or even longer chunks of discourse is often determined by courts, legislatures,
and government agencies and consequently it may differ from ordinary usage.
Such influence of jurisdiction on the development of legal discourse has often
led to problems connected with its interpretation and comprehensibility. When
interpreting or construing a term, there are certain rules that may be invoked, for
example, the three rules of statutory construction traditionally applied by Eng-
lish courts (the literal rule, also known as the plain meaning rule, the golden rule
and the mischief rule). It should be also borne in mind that a certain amount of
vagueness or indeterminacy in legal lexical units may be intended and strategic.
For example, the expression with all deliberate speed used by the Supreme
Court of the United States in reference to racial segregation in schools (e.g.
Brown v. Board of Education, US. 294, 30, 1955) was employed deliberately in
order to ensure greater flexibility when interpreting the law and to offer some
leeway in the subsequent decision-making process (cf. Jopek-Bosiacka
2006: 56).
The four aspects highlighted above can serve as a starting point to under-
stand the unique nature of legal translation. Its fundamental concepts and central
issues such as classifications of legal translation, legal terminology, legal lan-
guage, sources of difficulty in legal translation, translating different types of

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legal texts, equivalence and strategies of and techniques for selecting termino-
logical equivalents will be examined now in greater detail in the following sec-
tions.

2. Legal language

2.1 What is legal language?

In this section we take a closer look at the notion of legal language. It is general-
ly acknowledged that law does not exist without language. Legal rules and regu-
lations are coded in language. Legal concepts and legal processes are accessible
only through language. If a legal text is criticized for being abstruse and incom-
prehensible to the general public, the problem most probably lies with the lan-
guage. Whether it is at all appropriate to use the designation “legal language”
has been the subject of much debate. Klinck (1992) contains a detailed discus-
sion of various perspectives adopted with respect to this issue. Essentially, the
opinions range from those who maintain that “there is such an identifiable phe-
nomenon as ‘legal language’ and that it is meaningful to think in terms of such
a category” (Klinck, 1992: 133) and use the designation “law language” with
reference to a “technical, idiosyncratic sublanguage system,” to those like
George Mounin (1974) who assert that it is not scientifically correct to speak of
the language of law because legal language is only a specialized form of general
language rather than an autonomous and independent linguistic phenomenon. As
a result, no clear consensus exists on which classificatory term should be used.
Certain concepts often attributed to legal language include jargon, argot, style,
and sublanguage (see Tiersma, 1999: 141–3). They have not gained wide cur-
rency because they tend to be too restrictive to capture the complexities of legal
language. The term jargon refers primarily to vocabulary, while legal language
cannot be characterized solely in lexical terms. Similarly, argot can also be used
with reference to an informal highly specialized vocabulary from a particular
field but it is traditionally associated with secret language employed by various
groups, usually linked to illicit activity, to stop outsiders from understanding
their communication. It is thus a term with strong negative connotations and
hardly appropriate to describe the language of legal communication. The notion
of style has also been used in reference to legal English (e.g., Crystal & Davy,
1969). While it is felt that there seems to be a distinct legal style, the concept
lacks a sufficiently precise definition to warrant a rigorous and systematic study
of legal language. Finally, some scholars (Charrow, Crandall, & Charrow, 1982)

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suggest that legal language could be studied as a sublanguage, a concept associ-

ated with a computational approach to language analysis. It is argued that legal
language shares most of the features attributed to sublanguages, such as:
 limited subject matter;
 the presence of lexical, syntactic, and semantic restrictions;
 the occurrence of nonstandard, grammatical rules;
 and unusually frequent occurrence of certain constructions in compari-
son with general language such as, for example, nominalization, the
modal shall, passive forms, etc.
What is routinely referred to as legal language represents an extremely complex
type of discourse embedded in the highly varied institutional space of different
legal systems and cultures. In other words, the designation legal language
should be viewed as a cover term referring to a universe of remarkably diverse
texts, both written and spoken, which spans a continuum “from almost ‘normal’
formal usage to highly complex varieties that differ substantially from normal
formal usage.” (Charrow 1982: 84).

2.2. Basic features of legal language

Despite the internal variation of legal language and its dependency on

a particular legal system, there have been many attempts to specify its main lexi-
co-grammatical features (e.g. Mellinkoff 1963/2004; Tiersma 1999; Alcaraz and
Hughes 2002; Jopek-Bosiacka 2006). These may include:
 complex syntactic constructions resulting in unusually long sentences
 frequent use of the passive voice
 (multiple) negation
 nominalization
 conditionals and hypothetical formulations
 archaic adverbs (e.g. hereinafter, therein, whereby)
 prepositional phrases
 bionomial and trinomial expressions (also known as doublets and tri-
plets) referring to quasi-synonymous sequences of words belonging to
the same grammatical category (e.g. false and untrue, last will and tes-
tament, give, devise and bequeath);
 latinisms (e.g. bona fide, prima facie);

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 atypical anaphora (e.g. avoiding personal pronouns);

 terms of art (see section on legal terminology)
It should be stressed that certain features have not been statistically substantiated
and their actual occurrence may depend on a given text type or genre.
The text excerpt (from Indemnification Agreement) provided below illus-
trates some of the features outlined in the previous section and which are associ-
ated with legalese, i.e. type of legal writing in which such features tend to be
particularly frequent making the text rather obscure:

Text 1
In the event the Indemnitee in his capacity as nominee for election to the Compa-
ny's Board of Directors at the Annual Meeting was, is or becomes a party to or other
participant in, or is threatened to be made a party to or other participant in, a Claim
by reason of (or arising or allegedly arising in any manner out of or relating to in
whole or in part) an Indemnifiable Event or Indemnitee's being a nominee for elec-
tion to the Company's Board of Directors at the Annual Meeting, UtiliCorp to the
fullest extent permitted by applicable law shall indemnify and hold harmless the In-
demnitee from and against any and all Losses suffered, incurred or sustained by the
Indemnitee or to which the Indemnitee becomes subject, resulting from, arising out
of or relating to such Claim (it being understood that except as provided in
SECTION 3(c) with respect to Expenses, reimbursements of any such Losses shall
be made as soon as practicable but in any event no later than 15 days after written
request (a “CLAIM NOTICE”) is made to UtiliCorp accompanied by supporting
documentation).

This excerpt contains one very long and complex sentence which consists of as
many as 185 words. Noteworthy is the frequent occurrence of conjoined phrases
and lists of words (usually nouns) resulting in an exceptionally dense use of
technical vocabulary (e.g. Indemnitee, Company’s Board of Directors, indemni-
fy), the use of shall, avoidance of personal pronouns, etc. The sheer length of the
text is partly due to the extremely frequent use of phrasal and verbal coordina-
tion and past participle forms placed in post-nominal positions, as in was, is or
becomes, (Losses) suffered, incurred or sustained. While this text is fairly repre-
sentative of contractual provisions, there are legal genres which could differ
radically in terms of their lexico-grammatic features, phraseology, macrostruc-
ture, production circumstances, etc. (Goźdź-Roszkowski 2011). By way of com-
parison, below is a different excerpt which comes from a letter written by
a solicitor to his client:

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Text 2
Dear Mr Johnson
I am grateful for the e-mail message which you sent to my Secretary Elaine last
week and confirm that the letters are now being sent out to the beneficiaries in Po-
land. I also confirm that the letters are being sent in English but with a copy of the
Polish translation enclosed. (…)
Turning to the question of the Probate Court requirements, they are not disputing
the English translation of the Will as such, but require an affidavit from a Polish
lawyer (in English) to confirm the validity of the Will under Polish law and who is
beneficially entitled. I enclose a precedent of the necessary document together with
some notes provided by the Probate Court, and I am wondering whether your co-
executor in Poland has the necessary qualifications to deal with this. If not, presum-
ably she will be able to contact a suitable person who is conversant with both the
Polish law and the English language.

The language of the letter appears ‘normal’ in that it is written in standard for-
mal English. It uses a moderate number of legal terms (italicized in the text).
Importantly, there are hardly any features attributed to legalese as shown in
Text 1. These two excerpts come from different legal genres representing differ-
ent levels of specialist communication and different transactive goals. Linguistic
characteristics highlighted above reflect those differences. For example, the fre-
quent use of coordination and the determiner any in Text 1 is intended to allow
for all conceivable contingencies in contractual provisions. Accordingly, the
next section explores the question of variation in legal language.

2.3 Variation in legal language

The term legal language effectively stands for a multitude of specific classes of
texts (genres) created and used by various professional groups working in differ-
ent legal contexts. Legal genres thus range from legislation enacted at different
levels (e.g., supranational, international, national, state, federal, etc.), judicial
decisions (judgments, decrees, or orders), law reports, briefs, various contractual
instruments, wills, powers of attorney, etc.), academic writing (e.g., journals,
textbooks), through oral genres such as, for example, witness examination, jury
summation, judge’s summing-up, and so forth, to various statements on law
reproduced in the media and any fictional representation of the foregoing. Thus,
legal language may be used broadly to refer to language of the law, language
about law, and language used in legal communicative situations. In the case of
English, legal language shows enormous variation in many different respects.
The system of common law originating in Great Britain has spread to many oth-

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er countries around the world, notably to the United States, Canada, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, and to India and other countries where English was
recognized as one of the official languages. Despite sharing certain basic charac-
teristics, the language and legal institutions in the respective countries have
come to differ markedly from one another (Williams 2005). Legal language also
differs in terms of the level of formality, mode (spoken or written), and the use
of individual genres by different professional groups (e.g., judges, attorneys,
paralegals).
The complexity of legal language can be attributed to its long historical de-
velopment, which often ran parallel and independently of ordinary language.
Legal English was greatly influenced by Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and French. Inter-
ested readers should consult Mellinkoff (1963) for one of the most detailed de-
scriptions of legal English including its history (see also Hiltunen, 1990; Tiers-
ma, 1999). The oldest recorded evidence of legal translation is the Egyptian–
Hittite peace treaty of 1271 BC (Šarčević 1997), while, for example, Bible trans-
lation dates back to the third century BC. Significantly, the forms and meanings
of legal language developed through legal rather than linguistic processes. The
highly varied and somewhat fuzzy nature of legal language is reflected in nu-
merous attempts to classify it depending on different factors such as, specific
research needs, methodologies and perspectives, distinct professional groups or
text type/genre. For example, Tiersma (1999) provides a tripartite division of
legal texts into three major categories of operative legal documents (those that
create or modify legal relations such petitions, statutes, contracts, wills, etc.),
expository documents (e.g. judicial opinions which analyse objectively legal
points) and persuasive documents (e.g. briefs or memoranda). Gibbons
(2003: 15) reiterates some fundamental and classic distinctions of legal lan-
guage. The basic dividing line runs along the written vs. spoken mode. Thus,
there are written, largely monologic texts of legislation and other legal docu-
ments and the spoken more interactive and dynamic texts found in a variety of
law-related processes, such as, for instance, courtroom interaction, police inves-
tigations, prisons and consultations between lawyers and clients. In Poland, legal
language has been conceptualized in terms of the classic dichotomy: language of
the law (język prawny) and its metalanguage (język prawniczy) (Wróblewski
1948). The former includes the language of the legislator used to create legal
norms and the latter encompasses the language employed by lawyers to talk or
write about the law (e.g. judicial decisions, pleadings).
It seems that the term “legal language” has been all too often used as
a convenient label for a generalized functional variety, or register. Unfortunate-
ly, such labeling often implied that it was either stationary or homogeneous,
ignoring a great degree of variability of legal language and its constant evolu-

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tion. More recently, some scholars have questioned the relevance of using such
general, umbrella terms, suggesting that the complexity and intertextuality with-
in legal language should be ideally viewed in terms of domain-specific hierar-
chical system disciplinary genres (e.g. Bhatia 2004; Kjaer 2000). Thus, the des-
ignation “legal language” in fact seems to refer to the universe of particular sys-
tems of genres connected with different professional activities and intertextually
linked to large primary genres such as legislation or judgments. In the course of
professional activity, its participants need to refer to, interpret, and exploit such
larger generic constructs in order to achieve their professional objectives. Taken
together, all such genres combined form a set of domain-specific disciplinary
genres. These can be found in different configurations depending on the nature
of a particular professional activity and the extent to which other genres are re-
ferred to or relied upon.

2.4.Legal terminology and phraseology

Another source of difficulty in legal translation is legal terminology. One of the

fundamental properties of legal terms is their system-bound nature. This can be
illustrated by differences between terminology in English-speaking jurisdictions.
For example, the UK equivalent of spółka (kapitałowa) is company while its US
equivalent is corporation. In civil procedure, the parties are known as a claimant
(powód) and a defendant (pozwany) in England, a pursuer and a defender in
Scotland, and a plaintiff (sometimes a complainant) and a defendant in the Unit-
ed States. These examples show that legal terms are system-specific rather than
language-specific, which has some important implications for translators that
render texts into English. It is critical to identify the recipient of a translation in
the first place in order to consistently apply terminology from the target legal
system. It is not so infrequent to find translations with mixed terms coming from
different legal systems, in particular the UK and the US systems, which might be
confusing to the TT recipient.
Thus, legal terms are unique to a legal system and do not easily transcend its
boundaries. In consequence they show incongruity (or partial congruity) be-
tween legal systems. Each legal system standardises legal concepts according to
its own needs and in keeping with its legal tradition. The boundaries of legal
concepts are often artificially fixed, in particular by definitions, to extend or
narrow down their meaning as necessary. Take for example the broad definition
of the noun street in the UK Street Offences Act 1959 with reference to the of-
fence known as loitering or soliciting for purposes of prostitution:

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Łucja Biel and Stanisław Goźdź-Roszkowski

(1) It shall be an offence for a common prostitute to loiter or solicit in a street or

public place for the purpose of prostitution.
(...)
(4) For the purposes of this section “street” includes any bridge, road, lane, foot-
way, subway, square, court, alley or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, which
is for the time being open to the public; and the doorways and entrances of premises
abutting on a street (as hereinbefore defined), and any ground adjoining and open to
a street, shall be treated as forming part of the street.

It should be borne in mind that incongruity of terminology goes beyond single

concepts and often concerns higher-level structures known as concept systems
(or concept schemes), that is, complex interrelated networks that structure the
knowledge of a given branch of law. Terminology may be defined, after Wright
and Budin, as “a structured set of concepts and their representation in a specific
subject field” (1997: 325). Thus, terms provide points of access to legal
knowledge. They synthesise legal knowledge and are used for its representation
and transfer. Many areas of law are organised differently in each legal system,
and in particular: the civil procedure, the criminal procedure, the court system1,
typologies of offences, types of partnerships and companies, etc. For example,
the term spółka covers two distinct terms in UK law: a partnership (spółka
osobowa) and a company (spółka kapitałowa). While Polish law distinguishes
only two types of companies, spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością and
spółka akcyjna, UK law provides for: an unlimited company, private company
limited by shares, private company limited by guarantee and public company
limited by shares. The typologies are far more complex in US law, which regu-
lates company law (corporate law in the US terminology) at the state level;
hence, company (US: corporation) types differ from state to state to some extent.
The differences make it difficult, if not impossible, to find functional equivalents
for such terms.
Let us now go on to discuss other functional and structural properties of le-
gal terms. Some legal terms are restricted to legal language, for example estop-
pel or termin zawity; they are referred to by Alcaraz and Hughes (2002: 16-17)
as purely technical terms. A considerable number of terms are semi-technical
or mixed terms, that is polysemous terms which are known in everyday lan-
guage but also have additional legal senses, e.g. consideration, powód. Legal
texts also contain everyday vocabulary, e.g. paragraf, subject matter, as well as
terms which are related to the thematic field of regulation. Take for example the
Polish statute Prawo budowlane (Construction Law), which contains many terms

1
For more information on court systems in each EU Member State in each EU official
language, go to the European E-Justice Portal: e-justice.europa.eu.

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related to civil engineering: budynek mieszkalny jednorodzinny, budowla, obiekt

małej architektury, budowa, remont, teren zamknięty. In order to translate this
statute, a translator needs to be conversant with legal terminology, as well as
s/he should also have a thorough knowledge of specialized terminology related
to the area of regulation.
Legal terms may have a simple single-word form, e.g. contract, company,
share, reasonable, to rescind, but they often combine with other words to create
more complex sequences, the so-called multi-word terms: the Companies Act,
Companies House, the Registrar of Companies, private company limited by
shares, non-voting shares. Terms are embedded in text by collocations, in par-
ticular verbs and adjectives, which are standardized and more restricted in legal
language. Therefore, in order to be able to imitate the language of legal profes-
sionals and TL generic conventions in their translations, translators should pay
close attention not only to terms but also to the linguistic company they keep.
The table below shows the direct collocational environment of the Polish term
uchwała and its English equivalent resolution.

Table 1. The direct collocational environment of uchwała and resolution in Polish and UK law.
UCHWAŁA RESOLUTION
source: collocations based on Kodeks source: collocations based on the Com-
spółek handlowych panies Act 2006
podjąć, powziąć, protokołować, uchylić, cancel, confirm, forward, move, propose,
zaskarżyć uchwałę; zgłosić sprzeciw do register, revoke, sign, pass, circulate,
uchwały vote on the resolution
uchwały zapadają... the resolution has/takes effect, expires,
states, specifies; has been carried/lost
unanimously, is put to the vote; ~ is de-
cided on a show of hands
uchwała wspólników, zgromadzenia resolution intended to be moved at
wspólników, zarządu, likwidatorów; a general meeting, ineffective ~, resolu-
uchwała jednomyślna, uchwała waż- tion at a general meeting, resolution of
na/nieważna, stwierdzenie nieważności the company, resolution of members or
uchwały of the class of members

ordinary, extraordinary, special resolu-

tion; written resolution
uchwała o rozwiązaniu spółki, o podzia- a resolution amending the company’s
le zysku, o podwyższeniu/obniżeniu kapi- articles, approving a payment/ transac-
tału zakładowego, o umorzeniu akcji, o tion/ directors’ report, authorising pay-
dalszym istnieniu spółki; uchwała w ment/off-market purchase; conferring,
sprawie nieobjętej porządkiem obrad; varying, revoking or renewing authority;

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Table 1. (continued)

uchwała podjęta w trybie pisemnym/ disapplying pre-emption rights,

korespondencyjnym, z wykorzystaniem resolution for reregistration as a private
środka porozumiewania się na odległość company/for reducing share capital,
resolution to remove a director
projekt uchwały, dzień powzięcia uchwa- copy of resolution, records of resolution,
ły, sprzeciw dotyczący powzięcia uchwa- registration of resolution, notice of reso-
ły, wpis do rejestru wzmianki o uchwale lution, text of the resolution, the date of
the resolution, validity of a resolution,
agreement to the resolution

Collocations of terms are sanctioned in legislation, which is the primary legal

genre. They are expected to be replicated in legal genres of a lower status, such
as contracts or judgments, in order to ensure the stability of meaning. It is worth
stressing that legal terms may have colloquial or non-legal variants, for exam-
ple: korporacja, firma → spółka, wyjść za kaucją → wyjść za poręczeniem
majątkowym, adopcja → przysposobienie, and translators should be able to iden-
tify and eliminate such variants, if necessary.

3. Classifications of legal translation

Legal translation may be classified according to various criteria, depending on

a perspective. Such criteria may include: thematic fields, translators’ areas of
specialization, types of setting, genres, the status and function of the source text
and of the target text:
 Legal translators’ areas of specialization: they reflect the market percep-
tion of the subfields of legal translation. There is no uniform view of
such subfields but the focus is on areas (branches of law) that are most
frequently translated in market practice. Such areas are mainly of
a commercial nature, which is well visible in the specializations listed
by the American Translators Association (ATA)2: banking and financial
law, contracts, corporate law, patents, trademarks, copyrights, personal
injury law, and tax law. The typology used by its UK equivalent, the In-
stitute of Translation and Interpretation (ITI)3, takes a broader view and

2
http://www.atanet.org/.
3
http://www.iti.org.uk/.

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covers also criminal and international law, as well as probate and fami-
ly law.
 Genre-based classifications according to text types: legislation, judg-
ments and pleadings, contracts, articles of association, wills, powers of
attorney, notices, legal opinions, academic books/papers, certificates,
school diplomas, TV crime series, etc. (see section 2.3 above).
 The authoritative or nonauthoritative status of translations. A majority of
legal translations are nonauthoritative, that is, they only inform about
the content of the source text. By contrast, authoritative translations are
equally authentic as source texts; they are “(v)ested with the force of
law” (Šarčević 1997: 21) and include legislation in multilingual coun-
tries and organizations, e.g. the EU, the UN, Belgium, Switzerland.
 Types of legal systems involved: Garzone's classification into (1) texts
produced within a single national legal system, e.g. in Poland; (2) texts
generated in bi-lingual or bi-juridical countries, with both the ST and the
TT being authentic; (3) hybrid texts: international instruments produced
in the supranational multicultural environment; all language versions are
authentic (in particular legislation); (4) international documents which
regulate relationships between private parties in different nations (2000:
6–7).
 The purpose of translation: legal translation for normative, informative
and general legal/juridical purpose (Cao 2007: 10). Legal translation
for normative purpose covers target texts which are equally authentic
as their originals, in particular legislative instruments in multilingual ju-
risdictions. The function of translation for informative purpose is to in-
form the reader of the ST content (e.g. a Polish statute translated into
English). The last category is intended for general legal or judicial
purpose; these translations are also predominantly informative and are
used in court as documentary evidence. They are not always legal texts
in the strict sense, e.g. a medical report, financial documentation, an in-
surance policy or any other document that may be included in case files.
In Poland these translations are referred to as certified translation (tłu-
maczenia poświadczone) and are required to be provided by a sworn
translator (tłumacz przysięgły).
The classifications show that legal translation is a diverse field that can be ap-
proached from many angles. The translation of multilingual legislation, which
produces an equally authentic version of the source text, is often singled out as
a separate category. Another type of legal translation which is subject to unique
constraints is certified translation (translation intended for judicial purpose).
Both will be discussed in more detail in section 5.

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4. Equivalence: legal translation strategies and techniques

Legal translations are commonly expected to conform to TL conventions as re-

gards grammar, style and phraseology: “An acceptable legal translation is one
that contains correctly translated terms, utterances that have been translated cor-
rectly according to their pragmatic function, and textual conventions that are
familiar to the intended readers of target texts and conform with target-language
genre conventions” (Nielsen 2010: 33). Owing to the system-bound nature of
terms, such conformity is not expected at the terminological level.
Full equivalence between legal terms from two different systems is rare and
translators frequently face partial or zero equivalence (non-equivalence). First
the translator should choose the revelant strategy – a macro-level orientation for
solving terminological problems, that is either source-language orientation (the
foreignizing strategy) or target-language orientation (the domesticating strategy
which involves assimilation to the TL legal system). Such orientation is realized
through various techniques, which are micro-level procedures4, including:
a functional equivalent, descriptive equivalent, translation couplet, literal equiva-
lent, transcription, and recognized equivalent (the terms are adopted after Wes-
ton (1991:19–34), Harvey (2000) and Newmark (1981)).
Before we discuss techniques used by legal translators to deal with non-
equivalence, it is necessary to stress the communicative dimension of legal
translation. Legal translation is, above all, an act of intercultural communication
and mediation between legal systems. Therefore, in addition to the accurate
transfer of information content, the translator's main task is to facilitate under-
standing of the target text. This is recommended by recent approaches to legal
translation, including the receiver-oriented approach (Šarčević 2000) and the
functionalist approach (Garzone 2000), which have shifted emphasis from
literary fidelity to equivalent effects. As aptly observed by Pommer, the transla-
tor's responsibility is “to find adequate ways of explaining, transmitting and
clarifying these aspects for readers with a different legal background to be able
to grasp the meaning as accurately as possible from their viewpoint of the legal
world” (2008: 362). This means a preference for target-language orientation
(domesticating strategies); however, certain types of legal translation, in particu-
lar authoritative translations, might require a different approach.
In cases when two legal concepts are identical or very similar in the SL and
TL legal systems, the translator is recommended to use a functional equivalent,

4
See Venuti (2001) for a further discussion of foreignization and domestication and
Chesterman (2005) for the clarification of terms strategy, technique, method, etc.

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also known as a dynamic, natural or cultural equivalent, that is to approximate

the SL term by the corresponding TL legal term. Examples of functional equiva-
lents include: homicide (UK) – nieumyślne spowodowanie śmierci; a public
company limited by shares (UK) – spółka akcyjna; walne zgromadzenie – Gen-
eral Meeting (UK) / Shareholders' Meeting (US); przekształcenie w spółkę
akcyjną – re-registration as a public company (UK). Although it may sometimes
be difficult to identify the right TL term, this technique is regarded as the ideal
solution by many translation scholars thanks to its communicative value (cf.
Weston 1991: 23; Alcaraz and Hughes 2002: 178–179; Jopek-Bosiacka 2006:
134). It, however, is possible only when the degree of incongruity is relatively
small (Šarčević 1997: 236). In assessing the degree of incongruity, the translator
may apply the conceptual analysis discussed by Šarčević, which involves the
comparison of essentialia, vital characteristics of legal terms, differentiating
them from accidentalia (additional characteristics) (for more information see
Šarčević 1997: 237).
From the perspective of the TL legal system, any other equivalent which is
not a functional equivalent is a neologism. Thus, a neologism is understood
broadly both as a newly coined expression but also as any expression which does
not exist in the TL legal system (cf. de Groot 1998: 25). One of the most fre-
quent techniques is the descriptive equivalent, also referred to as a gloss, para-
phrase, descriptive circumlocution. A descriptive equivalent is frequently based
on a legal term known in the TL which is modified to clarify the difference. This
technique is TL-oriented because it accounts for the TL recipient’s knowledge
gaps by compensating the essential missing information. Such compensation
explicates information that is implicit in the source text and potentially inacces-
sible to the TL recipient. For example, spółka jawna is often translated as
a registered partnership to signal that, in contrast to the English partnership, the
Polish partnership requires registration. The Polish term prokurent, which does
not have its equivalent in the UK company law, may be optimally explicated as
an authorized signatory, (registered) holder of a commercial/general power of
attorney, attorney of the company, authorized agent. In this case the use of the
apparent functional equivalent proxy would be confusing, because proxy refers
to a different concept corresponding to pełnomocnik do głosowania.
A descriptive equivalent may be accompanied by the SL term in brackets as
in the following examples from the Polish versions of EU regulations: nadzór
nad bezpieczeństwem farmakoterapii (ang. pharmacovigilance); włączanie
problematyki równości płci do głównego nurtu polityki (gender mainstreaming);
spółka stanowiąca wspólne przedsiębiorstwo (joint venture). This technique is
referred to by Newmark as a translation couplet (1981: 76).

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Certain terms may already have the so-called recognized equivalents (cf.
Newmark 1981: 76), also known as established equivalents, that is, equivalents
which are imposed by institutions or a client or are sanctioned by usage. When
translating Trybynał Konstytucyjny into English, the translator should consult the
English version of the TK website (http://trybunal.gov.pl/en/) to check how the
institution has named itself in English – The Constitutional Tribunal. For con-
sistency and clarity of reference, the translator should use this English equivalent
even if s/he is aware of a different meaning assigned to the term tribunal in Eng-
lish law (domestic tribunals, employment tribunals, employment appeal tribu-
nals). Recognized equivalents are of special importance in institutional transla-
tion, in particular in the translation of EU multilingual law. In order to ensure the
standardization of terminology, one of the critical quality criteria is the compli-
ance with the institutional term bases, such as IATE5 (InterActive Terminology
for Europe) or the DGT in-house glossary6 published by the European Commis-
sion's Directorate General for Translation, as well as with equivalents in related
instruments to be found in EUR-Lex, a database of European Union law. For
example, the preferred equivalent of a joint investigation team is the descriptive
equivalent wspólny zespół dochodzeniowo-śledczy rather than the functional
equivalent which corresponds to the term from the Polish Criminal Procedure
Code, wspólny zespół śledczy, because the latter does not fully correspond to the
EU concept due to the involvement of the police in such teams (IATE ID:
914843). Even though both equivalents have a very high reliability, only the first
one is marked in IATE as ‘preferred’ and hence, translators are expected to use it
when rendering EU documents.
Another technique is a literal equivalent, also known as formal equiva-
lence, word-for-word translation, calque, loan translation and through-
translation. A literal equivalent is acceptable when its meaning is sufficiently
transparent, it coincides with a functional equivalent and when it is not a false
friend that refers to a different TL concept. For example, some Polish-English
legal dictionaries propose to translate spółka cywilna literally as a civil partner-
ship. This literal equivalent, however, is also a term of UK law under the Civil
Partnership Act 2004 which refers to a civil marriage between same-sex couples.
This, obviously, is quite a different concept than spółka cywilna, a type of busi-
ness partnership/association under the Polish Civil Code. Examples of accepta-
ble literal equivalents include: bearer shares – akcje na okaziciela, human traf-
ficking – handel ludźmi. However, care should be taken when applying literal
equivalents and the translator should double-check if a SL concept does not have

5
http://iate.europa.eu.
6
http://ec.europa.eu/translation/polish/guidelines/documents/glossary_polish_en.xls

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a more appropriate functional equivalent, e.g. use of force should be translated as

przemoc instead of użycie siły in the context of human trafficking while akcje
uprzywilejowane are preference shares (UK) / preferred stock (US) rather than
privileged shares which is found mainly on Polish and Turkish websites. As
a word of caution, let us quote Mason: “(t)he calque is the lowest common de-
nominator, as it were, of translating and may, for some translators, be a default
mechanism, to be overridden only where necessary” (Mason 2004 (2003): 477).
Finally, translators may use transcription (borrowing), in particular when
terms are unique to the SL legal system: common law, equity, trust or have be-
come recognized equivalents: acquis, Sejm, House of Lords. This technique may
include naturalization (adaptation of spelling), e.g. województwo →
voyvod(e)ship, powiat → poviat, wójt → voit. While these equivalents are quite
popular among Polish local governments, they have low semantic transparency
and may be difficult to understand by a native speaker of English. To assess the
prons and cons of this technique imagine the reaction of a Polish reader if s/he
encounters naturalized equivalents of similar English terms in a Polish transla-
tion, such as boroł (borough), junitary ofority (unitary authority) or solicytor
(solicitor)? Therefore, such equivalents should be used only as a last resort or if
the TT recipient is familiar with the source legal/administrative system.
We have discussed the most popular but not all techniques for dealing with
the partial equivalence and non-equivalence of legal terms. It should be borne in
mind that the selection of strategies and techniques depends on numerous con-
textual factors, such as the scopos of translation, the status of TT and ST, recipi-
ents, ST author, as well as co-text.

5. Translating different types of legal texts

The quality of legal translation may be assessed in relation to the source text
(equivalence, transfer of information) and in relation to other target texts of
a comparable genre (textual fit, naturalness of translation, readability). In partic-
ular, legal translation requires surgical precision to transfer ST information con-
tent accurately and optimally. However, it is also important to ensure that
a translation ‘reads well’ in the TL and meets TL recipients' expectancy norms.
Below we discuss two types of legal translation which are subject to more strin-
gent requirements than standard legal translation for informative purposes.

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5.1. The translation of multilingual law: EU translation

EU translation is classified as institutional authoritative translation. Under the

EU multilingualism policy, EU citizens of all 28 Member States must have ac-
cess to EU legislation (which has supremacy over national law) in their native
language. As a result, EU-wide law is adopted in 24 official languages and all
language versions are equally valid and authentic. Technically, there is no origi-
nal and no translations; all language versions form a single legal instrument pre-
sumed to have the same meaning in all of the languages, which is known as the
principle of equal authenticity. In the case of discrepancies between the lan-
guage versions, which are inevitable, the Court of Justice compares all language
versions in light of the actual intention behind the act. It should be noted that the
principle of equal authenticity applies only to EU law and other types of docu-
ments produced by EU institutions, such as reports, websites, internal docu-
ments, etc., are often translated only into procedural languages (English, French,
German).
The main procedural language is English, which has now become the lingua
franca of the EU. EU English is a hybrid different from UK legal English. It has
been adapted to the requirements of multilingualism and has been shaped by
translation, interference from other EU languages and non-native speakers who
often draft EU documents. The drafting and translation of EU legislation are
multistage and take place concurrently. The Commission legislative proposal is
first drafted mainly in English and is then translated into other official languages
before it is submitted to the Council. The proposal is revised, discussed and con-
sulted in national languages. After the negotiations between the Parliament and
the Council, the final joint text is prepared in English and then all the language
versions are finalized. Thus, translation is involved at all stages of drafting rather
than at the final stage only (Doczekalska 2009: 360); this constant shifting be-
tween languages increases the hybridity of EU language.
Other factors that contribute to the hybridity of EU language are connected
with adjustments necessary to make STs translatable into other EU languages
and to keep discrepancies to a minimum. Such adjustments include syntactic
simplification, supranational terminology, avoidance of national law terms,
standardization of translation procedures by institutional style guides7 and termi-

7
see Vademecum Tłumacza, a DGT style guide, which is an excellent resource for Polish
translators with a wealth of practical information on stylistic, grammatical, orthograph-
ic, and punctuation issues in translation. Available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/translation/polish/guidelines/documents/styleguide_polish_dgt_pl.p
df

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nological resources. EU terminology is ‘peculiar’ to the EU and in consequence

“legal concepts do not necessarily have the same meaning in Community law
and in the law of the various member states” (Case 282/81 Srl CLIFIT and La-
nificio di Gavardo SpA v Ministry of Health). EU instruments are also drafted in
an EU style which differs from TL conventions for the genre of (national) legis-
lation. As a result, the Polish of EU instruments is a eurolect, a distinct variety of
legal Polish.
Equivalence is presumed to exist between all language versions of an in-
strument. As argued by Koskinen equivalence is “not a qualitative requirement
but an a priori characteristic” of EU translation (2000: 49). The success of trans-
lation is determined by its uniform interpretation and application (cf. Šarčević
1997: 72). It is believed that uniform interpretation may be ensured by source-
orientation and preference for literal translation techniques both at the syntactic
and terminological level (Baaij 2010, Koskinen 2000: 54). Cultural (terminolog-
ical) adaptation is particularly discouraged in the translation of directives, which
– in contrast to regulations which are directly applicable in the Member States –
are binding as to the result to be achieved and are subject to transposition (in-
tralingual translation) into national law by national parliaments.
The above discussion points to the complexity of the drafting and transla-
tion of EU legislation, which results in the hybridity of EU Polish (often per-
ceived as ‘unnatural’, ‘strange’, ‘other’). Before the accession to the EU in 2004,
Poland had to translate acquis, the body of EU law, and harmonize national law
with EU law. This process took place under time pressure and was ill-organised.
The quality of EU translation improved after the translation process was taken
over by the EU translation service. Information about working opportunities for
EU institutions as well as resources for translators may be found on the DGT
website8.

5.2. Certified translation

The profession of a sworn translator is regulated in Poland by the Act of 25 No-

vember 2004 on the Sworn Translator/Interpreter Profession, which improved
the status of sworn translators and standardized their accreditation process. It is
worth noting that Poland has a long tradition of certified translation – sworn
translators have existed in Poland for nearly a hundred years. At present, there
are more than 10,000 sworn translators in Poland, who are certified in 49 lan-

8
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/index_en.htm.

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guages. The professional organization of sworn translators is TEPIS 9 (Polish

Society of Sworn and Specialised Translators); it was founded in 1990 and is
a member of FIT (The International Federation of Translators).
Under the Polish Act, candidates have to meet the statutory eligibility crite-
ria, including the knowledge of Polish, a clean criminal record, a master's degree
diploma, and have to pass the translation and interpreting examination organised
by the Ministry of Justice10. The accreditation is granted for both translating and
interpreting.
In addition to interpreting at courts, the police, and notary offices, sworn
translators provide official ‘notarised’ translations in which they certify that
a translation is a true copy of the original by affixing their official seal on the
document. Certified translations are mainly rendered for judicial authorities and
public administration but may also be provided to business entities (company
registration documents, financial statements, tender documents) and private in-
dividuals (BDM certificates, school diplomas), in particular, if they want to use
a foreign document for official purposes.
The Act requires sworn translators to maintain due diligence and impartiali-
ty, keep the confidentiality of facts and circumstances learnt in connection with
translation/interpreting and behave with integrity and in accordance with profes-
sional ethics. More detailed requirements and procedures of providing certified
translations are provided for in Kodeks tłumacza przysięgłego11 (The Sworn
Translator Code), which is a set of guidelines prepared by TEPIS in consultation
with the Ministry of Justice.
The models of translator accreditation and translation certification differ
from country to country. Some countries have a highly regulated model (Aus-
tria), some have deregulated (Finland, Portugal) or privatized ones (Ireland, the
UK)12. In many countries interpreting is separated from translation and only
court interpreting is regulated. More stringent requirements have recently been
imposed by Directive 2010/64/EU of the European Parliament and of the Coun-
cil on the right to interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings13.

9
http://www.tepis.org.pl/
10
More information about the ministerial examination may be found on the Ministry of
Justice website at http://bip.ms.gov.pl/pl/rejestry-i-ewidencje/tlumacze-przysiegli/.
11
http://www.tepis.org.pl/pdf-doc/kodeks-tp.pdf.
12
For more information about sworn translators in Poland and other countries, see Ku-
backi (2012).
13
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:3010L0064:PL:NOT

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6. Researching legal translation

Owing to its multifarious nature, unique constraints and interdisciplinarity, Legal

Translation Studies has gained a growing autonomy as a sub-field of Translation
Studies. Legal translation is researched from many angles with varied methodo-
logical foci, which are presented below.
Research on legal translation may be theoretically-oriented (descriptive) or
practically-oriented (applied). The objective of theoretically-oriented research
is to contribute new knowledge and generalizations about the nature of legal
translation, its constraints, procedures and regularities. Applied research is
designed to develop practical resources for translators, e.g. bilingual or monolin-
gual term bases, glossaries of terms and/or collocations, legal grammars, docu-
ment templates, and genre-based corpora.
As most types of translation, legal translation is interdisciplinary in nature.
It lies at the intersection of Translation Studies, Comparative Law, Linguistics
and Terminology. Legal translation is researched mainly by translation scholars,
but also by comparative lawyers, linguists and terminologists. Each field has its
prevalent methodologies and interests. Translation scholars are often interested
in the very process of translation, that is how translators make decisions and
solve problems, what resources they use, what competences they need, etc. (see
Alcaraz and Hughes 2002; Cao 2007). They are also interested in how legal
translation relates to other types of specialized translation. Comparative lawyers
are more theoretically interested in methods of comparing legal systems and in
legal consequences; they often engage in in-depth conceptual analyses. Termi-
nologists study how legal terms behave in context, how they can be optimally
approximated in other languages/legal systems and how they can be best cap-
tured in term bases to facilitate the translation process. Contrastive studies of
legal terminology and phraseology are particularly valuable to translators. Lin-
guists examine various aspects of legal language: (1) external variation: how
does legal language differ from general language and other languages for special
purposes?; (2) internal variation: how do legal genres differ from each other?
Description of legal genres (macroanalysis and microanalysis); (3) diachronic
variation: how does the current legal language differ from a historic one?; (4)
cross-linguistic variation: how do legal genres differ across languages?; (5) idio-
syncratic variation: studies within forensic linguistics to provide linguistic evi-
dence and to attribute authorship and detect plagiarism (cf. Biel 2010). Of spe-
cial importance for translators are contrastive studies, which compare source-
language and target-language genre conventions, including the macrostructure
and microstructure of documents, etc. For example, some legal documents, in

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particular contracts of employment, consumer contracts and guides for court

users are often formulated in plain English, that is, a type of simplified legal
English, to facilitate their understanding by lay readers. Corresponding Polish
documents use a much more formal register; hence, translation into Polish may
require the so-called register shift – in this case, translating into a more formal
register to meet TL readers' expectancy norms. Therefore, contrastive studies
raise legal translators' awareness of different genre conventions and TT recipi-
ents' expectations.
In the past legal translation was researched mainly qualitatively by the
manual analysis of data. Nowadays there is a clear shift toward empirical meth-
ods: at the very centre lie quantitative methods as well as quantitative-driven
qualitativeness, brought about by the advent of computers and recent develop-
ments in corpus linguistics. The application of corpora in translation studies led
to the emergence of Corpus-Based Translation Studies (CBTS). Translation is
researched on two types of corpora: comparable corpora and parallel corpora.
Comparable corpora are monolingual and comprise a corpus of translations
and a corpus of TL nontranslations of a comparable genre (this method of study-
ing translation was pioneered by Baker (1993)). For example, we may have
a corpus of Polish judgments translated into English and compare them to non-
translated English judgments. Such corpus design is intended to research how
translations differ/deviate from TL nontranslations, that is what is overrepresent-
ed and underrepresented in translations compared to the target language. This is
known as the relation of textual fit (naturalness of translation). The latter type,
a parallel corpus, comprises a corpus of originals aligned with a corpus of
translations. In a way it is similar to a translation memory in computer-assisted
translation tools (CAT tools)14. It is used for studying the relation of equivalence
between source texts and target texts. In addition to research applications, corpo-
ra have many practical applications in terminology (dictionaries, term bases) and
translator training and practice (for example DIY / ad hoc corpora developed
quickly for a given translation assignment; see Scott (2012) for more details).
Corpus-based research of legal translations is mainly product-oriented, that
is, it studies translated texts. Another important strand of research is process-
oriented studies, which use the so-called Think-Aloud Protocols, eye-tracking
software and key-logging software to study the process of translation, that is,
how translators think during translation, in order to understand the cognitive
processes in a legal translator’s mind (see for example Hjort-Pedersen and Faber
2010).

14
Another novel area of research is the impact of CAT tools and translation memories
on the process of legal translation and its quality.

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In order to progress as a discipline, legal translation studies needs infor-

mation from all related fields, research conducted with varied methodologies and
with varied degrees of granularity. This will help us to better understand the
nature of legal translation.

Essential readings

I. General and theoretical introduction to legal translation

Alcaraz, E. and B. H. (2002) Legal translation explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.
Assensio, R. M. (2003) Translating Official Documents. Manchester: St. Jerome.
Cao, D. (2007) Translating law. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd
Šarčević, S. (1997) New Approach to Legal Translation. The Hague: Kluwer Law Inter-
national.

II. EU translation
Kjær, A. L. (2007) “Legal translation in the European Union: A research field in need of
a new approach.” In Kredens, K. and S. Goźdź-Roszkowski (eds.) Language and
the Law: International Outlooks. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. 69–95.
Wagner E., S. Bech and J. M. Martínez (2002) Translating for the European Union
Institutions. Translation Practices Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.

III. English-Polish legal translation

Berezowski, L. (2012) Jak czytać i rozumieć angielskie umowy? 4th edn. Warszawa: CH
Beck.
Berezowski, L. (2011) Jak czytać i rozumieć angielskie dokumenty sądowe w sprawach
cywilnych? Warszawa: CH Beck.
Jopek-Bosiacka, A. (2006) Przekład prawny i sądowy. Warsaw: PWN.
Kierzkowska, D. (2002) Tłumaczenie prawnicze. Warsaw: Tepis.
Kierzkowska, D. (ed.) (2011) Kodeks tłumacza przysięgłego z komentarzem. Warsaw:
Translegis.
Konieczna-Purchała, A. (2013) Przekład prawniczy. Praktyczne ćwiczenia. Język angiel-
ski. Warsaw: CH Beck.
Kuźniak, M. (2013) Egzamin na tłumacza przysięgłego w praktyce. Język angielski.
Analiza językowa. Warszawa: CH Beck.
Myrczek-Kadłubicka, E. (2013) Egzamin na tłumacza przysięgłego. Przewodnik po
prawie karnym. Język angielski. Warszawa: CH Beck.

IV Legal language
Mattila, H. E. S. (2006) Comparative Legal Linguistics. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Tiersma, P. (1999) Legal language. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

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References

Baaij, C. J. W. (2010) “English Legal Discourse and the French Continuum.” In Gianno-
ni and Frade (eds.), Researching Language and the Law, 263-273.
Baker, M. (1993) “Corpus Linguistics and Translation Studies. Implications and Appli-
cations.” In Baker et al. (eds.), Text and Technology: In Honour of John Sinclair.
John Benjamins, 233–250.
Bhatia, V. K. (2004). Worlds of written discourse: A genre-based view. London, Eng-
land: Continuum.
Biel, Ł. (2010) “Corpus-Based Studies of Legal Language for Translation Purposes:
Methodological and Practical Potential.” Reconceptualizing LSP. Online proceed-
ings of the XVII European LSP Symposium 2009. eds. Carmen Heine and Jan Eng-
berg <http://bcom.au.dk/fileadmin/www.asb.dk/isek/biel.pdf> accessed 1 Oct.
2012.
Charrow, V. (1982). Linguistic theory and the study of legal and bureaucratic language.
In L.
Obler & L. Menn (Eds.). Exceptional language and linguistics. New York, NY: Aca-
demic Press.
Charrow, V., Crandall, J., & Charrow, R. (1982). “Characteristics and Functions of Le-
gal Language.” In R. Kittredge & J. Lehrberger (Eds.), Sublanguage: Studies of
language in restricted semantic domains. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.
Chesterman, A. (2005). “Problems with Strategies.” In: K. Károly and Á. Fóris (eds).
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Kiadó, 17-28.
Crystal, D. and D. Davy (1969). Investigating English Style. London: Longman.
de Groot, G.-R. (1998) “Language and Law.” Netherlands reports to the fifteenth Inter-
national Congress of Comparative Law. Antwerp/Groningen: Intersentia, 21–32.
Doczekalska, A. (2009) “Drafting and Interpretation of EU Law – Paradoxes of Legal
Multilingualism.” Formal Linguistics and Law. eds. G. Grewendorf and M. Rathert.
Berlin: de Gruyter, 339–370.
Engberg, J. (2013) “Comparative Law for Translation: The Key to Successful Mediation
between Legal Systems”, In: A. Borja Albi and F. P. Ramos (eds.) Legal Transla-
tion in Context. Professional Issues and Prospects. Bern: Peter Lang, 9-26.
Garzone, G. (2000) “Legal Translation and Functionalist Approaches: a Contradiction in
Terms?” Geneve: Actes <www.tradulex.org> accessed 1 Sept. 2009.
Gibbons, J. (2003) Forensic Linguistics. An Introduction to Language in the Justice
System. Blackwell Publishing.
Goźdź-Roszkowski, S. (2011). Patterns of Linguistic Variation in American Legal Eng-
lish: A Corpus-based Study. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang.
Harvey, M. (2002) “What’s so Special about Legal Translation?”, Meta, 47 (2), 177-85.
Harvey, M. (2000) A Beginner’s Course in Legal Translation: the Case of Culture-bound
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Hiltunen, R. (1990) Chapters on Legal English. Aspects Past and Present of the Lan-
guage of the Law, Helsinki Suomalainen Tiedekatemia.
Hjort-Pedersen, M. and D. Faber (2010) “Explicitation and Implicitation in Legal Trans-
lation ─ A Process Study of Trainee Translators.” Meta: Translators’ Journal
55(2), 237–250.
Jopek-Bosiacka, A. (2006) Przekład prawny i sądowy. Warsaw: PWN.
Kjaer, A. (2000) “On the Structure of Legal Knowledge. The Importance of Knowing
Legal Rules for Understanding Legal Texts”. In: Language, Text and Knowledge.
Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Klinck, D. R. (1992) The Word of the Law. Ottawa – Canada: Carleton University Press.
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Translator 6(1), 49–65.
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wiedzialność tłumacza przysięgłego. Warszaw: Lex a Wolters Kluwer.
Mason, I. (2004(2003)) “Text Parameters in Translation: Transitivity and Institutional
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York/London: Routledge, 470–481.
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Mounin, G. (1974) La linguistique comme science auxiliaire dans les disciplines jurid-
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Newmark, P. (1981) Approaches to Translation. London/New York: Prentice Hall.
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national.
Šarčević, S. (2000) “Legal Translation and Translation Theory: a Receiver-Oriented
Approach.” Genéve: Actes <www.tradulex.org> accessed 9 Jan 2009.
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and-I.Scott.pdf> accessed 25 Feb 2014.
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Studies. ed. Mona Baker. London: Routledge, 240–244.
Weston, M. (1991) An English Reader’s Guide to the French Legal System. New York:
Berg.
Williams, Ch. (2005) Tradition and Change in Legal English. Frankfurt am Main: Peter
Lang.
Wright, S. E. and G. Budin (eds.) (1997) Handbook of Terminology Management. Basic
Aspects of Terminology Management. Vol. 1. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Wróblewski, B. (1948) Język prawny i prawniczy. Polska Akademia Umiejętności. Race
Komisji Prawniczej nr. 3, Kraków

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Medical translation

Wioleta Karwacka

University of Gdańsk
w.karwacka@gmail.com

Abstract: Translation is a crucial factor in disseminating knowledge and new discover-

ies in the medical field. It can also be a critical factor in providing healthcare services to
foreigners or minorities. The translators of medical texts face a number of challenges,
some of which are the subject of research. They include medical terminology, lexical
equivalence of medical texts, readability, quality issues. This chapter offers a general
overview of the major issues in medical translation. It briefly presents the history of
medical translation and the development of medical language. It also discusses certain
characteristic features of medical language: terminology, including eponyms and multi-
word terms, acronyms and abbreviations, affixation, word compounding, the doublet
phenomenon, polysemy and synonymy. Translating for lay-readers and professional
audiences is the next issue presented in this chapter. Considerable attention is devoted to
problems in translating medical texts, and other issues, such as qualifications of medical
translators, verification and review.
Keywords: abbreviations, accuracy, acronyms, eponyms, translation error, medical
terminology, medical translation, quality, translation/translator competence, user-
friendliness

If medical communicators are not to betray the same commitment of the very au-
thors they are asked to translate – primum non nocere – we need to acknowledge
and correct certain problems (…): differences in scientific terminology, deceptive
lexical equivalence, misconceived readership level, out-of-focus translator training,
misjudged translation expectations, etc.
(Fischbach 1998:1)

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1. Introduction

Medical translation concerns a number of subject areas, including pharmacolo-

gy, medical rescue system, surgery, obstetrics, paediatrics, psychiatry, internal
medicine, oncology, cardiology and other fields of specialty, as well as other
disciplines, such as law or administration. Translation is a crucial factor in dis-
seminating knowledge and new discoveries in the medical field globally. Medi-
cal translation does not concern a single genre or a homogenous discourse. The
translated texts include popularizations, such as textbooks for medical students,
popular science book on medicine, but also research papers, conference proceed-
ings, case studies, case histories, discharge summaries, reports and relatively
simple texts for patients: information leaflets, consent forms, brochures.
A number of texts are translated due to regulatory requirements concerning
new medical products and medical devices or new applications of pharmacolog-
ical products. What also generates the demand for the translation of medical
texts is the need to conform to the formal requirements applicable to clinical trial
registration and conduct or marketing new drugs, which involves translating the
registration documents and other necessary materials to the local language. New
findings are published in English, which means that a number of research papers
are translated. The demand for medical translation is also the result of emigra-
tion. What is more, translators prepare medical files for patients who seek medi-
cal help outside their own country of residence. The translators of medical texts
face a number of challenges, some of which are the subject of research. They
include medical terminology, lexical equivalence of medical texts, readability,
quality issues. This chapter offers a general overview of the major issues in med-
ical translation.

2. Medical language

Medical discourse comprises a range of forms of communication. Gotti

(2008: 24) uses the term specialized discourse as ”the specialist use of language
in contexts which are typical of a specialized community stretching across the
academic, the professional, the technical and the occupational area of knowledge
and practice”. Three factors are of crucial importance: the user, the domain of
use and special application of language. Medical language is used in expert-
expert and expert-lay communication, with characteristic features varying from
genre to genre, depending on the communicative situation and its participants.

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Genres used in expert-expert communication such as discharge summaries, case

studies and case notes, imaging reports and research papers use numerous spe-
cialized terms whose semantic value is taken for granted; the only words or
phrases which are explained are those coined or redefined by the author of
a paper or a presentation (cf. Gotti 2008). Expert-lay communication covers
package leaflets, informed consent documents, patient factsheets etc., which use
(or should use) less complex terminology, which is illustrated or explained when
it occurs for the first time (cf. Gotti 2008). The main characteristics of special-
ized medical texts include terminology and syntactic features, such as nominali-
zation, heavy pre- and postmodification, long sentences, use of passives and
third person (Askehave & Zethsen 2000). The sections below present some of
the most prominent features of medical English with particular focus on medical
terminology and related translation problems and challenges.

2.1. Brief history of medical translation and the development of medical

language

The scientific world is predominantly English-speaking and major scientific

journals publish papers in English. The share of scientific papers written in Eng-
lish in the total number of papers published is 80% according to Montgomery
(2009) and 85% according to Kaplan (2001). But long before English became
the lingua franca of science, Latin was the dominant language of medicine as of
the 2nd century, while Greek remained the language of instruction for medical
students until the 3rd century (Fischbach 1998). In fact, Greek and Latin shaped
the conventions of scientific (not only medical) writing for over 2000 years
(McMorrow 1998: 14).
All the great civilizations kept records of medical findings (McMorrow
1998) and translation has for a long time supported the dissemination of medical
knowledge – Greek medical advances were imported to Rome thanks to physi-
cian translators, Asclepaides for instance (Fischbach 1998: 2). Physicians trans-
lated medical writings to other languages as well, which included Syriac, Arabic,
Farsi, and Hebrew (McMorrow 1998: 15). In the 7th century Baghdad had one of
the most prominent medical schools, which was also a school of translators. The
works of Persian and Arab physicians were translated into Latin at Toledo
School of Translators (Fischbach 1998). Jack Segura (1998: 37) observes that
“Arab armies brought with them a treasure trove of medical and scientific
knowledge from Ancient India, Persia, Egypt, Greece and Syria.” Arabs acted as
intermediaries in disseminating medical knowledge, including the Greek medical
heritage. Two recognized translators: Constantinus Africanus (1020-1087) and

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Gerard of Cremona (1140-1187) lived on the Arab-Christian frontier, the former

worked at Salerno and the latter – in Toledo (Ackernecht 1982, McMorrow
1998). Despite the significant role in translation, the Arabic influence on the
language of medicine is relatively small (McMorrow 1998: 15), and mainly con-
cerns botanic names or names of herbs. The 13th century marked the beginning
of the second wave of translations of Greek manuscripts, which were now ren-
dered directly and more accurately.
According to McMorrow (1998: 16) “Latin had a life of about 800 years in
academic medicine (1000-1800)”. In the Middle Ages both Latin and Middle
English were acceptable in medical communication: Latin in academic instruc-
tion and Middle English as the vernacular language. Anglo-Saxon had some
basic medical terminology e.g. head, skull, brain, nose, blood, wound, sore etc.
The 19th century was when the reign of Latin in teaching and writing medi-
cine virtually ended. The effect of that reign, however, is visible to date in the
relative similarity, or “quasi-uniformity” (McMorrow 1998: 21) of medical lan-
guages in the Western world, especially in the Western languages.
The importance of the exact and precise description of anatomy and disease
has been emphasized since the very early stage of medicine development.
(McMorrow 1998; Soubrier 2014). What is observed, however, is the heteroge-
neous and dynamic character of medical language:

Changes in medical knowledge and language have overtaken changes in political

and social context during the past 200 years. A major change in medical terminolo-
gy is well under way, one that will not wipe out the classical heritage, but enfold it
with many layers of heterogeneous material.
(McMorrow 1998: 14).

The modern language of medicine employs modern derivatives of Greek and

Latin words “with no concern for etymological purity” (McMorrow 1998: 21).
The corpus of Greek and Latin terminology is still the base of the contemporary
medical language, which also uses new eponyms, acronyms and trade names1.

2.2. Eponyms

Eponyms constitute a considerable portion of medical terminology; they include

names of anatomical parts, e.g. Fallopian tubes, Adam’s apple, names of diseas-

1
For more information on the history of medical language and medical translation see
Martí-Ibáñez (1962), McMorrow (1998), Segura (1998) and Zieliński (2004)

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es Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, signs and symptoms e.g. Babinski

sign, fractures e.g. Jefferson Fracture, procedures e.g. Heller myotomy, medical
devices e.g. Bard-Parker scalpel (cf. Meals 2007). Eponyms are frequently de-
rived from the names of researchers, but may also be derived from the names of
celebrity patients, e.g. Lou Gehrig disease, a common name for amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (cf. Walling, 1999), fictitious characters, e.g. Othello’s syn-
drome, or geographical places, e.g. Lyme disease.
Eponyms may be the source of translation problems – the correspondence
between eponymous terms and their equivalents does not necessarily mean that
both source and target terms will be eponymous, although it may be the case:

Table 1. Examples of English eponymous terms and their eponymous equivalents in Polish

English eponym Polish eponym

Achilles tendon (Achilles’ tendon) ścięgno Achillesa
Adam’s apple jabłko Adama
Down syndrome zespół Downa
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease choroba Creutzfeldta-Jakoba

What may be a potential challenge for a translator is the correspondence in

which only one of the terms (only source or only target) is eponymous, while its
counterpart is a descriptive term or is formed based on a Greek or Latin root.

Table 2. Corresponding pairs of eponymous and non-eponymous terms in Polish and English

eponymous term non-eponymous term

Lyme disease borelioza
Fallopian tube jajowód
metoda Vojty reflexlocomotion
odczyn Biernackiego (OB) erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)

Concepts may be referred to with eponymous terms which also have non-
eponymous equivalents, sometimes a concept will be referred to with
such doublets in one language, and only eponymous or only non-
eponymous terms in other languages.

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Table 3. Doublets of eponymous and non-eponymous terms and their equivalents

English non-eponymous Polish eponym Non-eponymous term

eponym term
Giardia Giardia duodenalis Giardia lamblia ogoniastek jelitowy,
lamblia2 Giardia intestinalis Lamblia jelito- wielkouściec jelitowy
wa
Giardiosis Lamblioza Giardioza
Cowper’s bulbouretheral gruczoły opuszkowo-
glands glands cewkowe
Bartholin greater vestibular gruczoły przedsion-
glands glands kowe większe

2.3. Acronyms and abbreviations

One of the characteristic features of medical language is the presence of acro-

nyms, initialisms and clipped forms. With English having the status of the lingua
franca of medicine, English acronyms enter other languages and are used both
by the medical professionals and patients, especially if no native acronym is
commonly used in the local language e.g. MCV, TSH, INR, CRP, LDL, HDL
etc. As presented in the table below, the correspondence between terms and the
type of abbreviation may vary.

Table 4. Examples of abbreviated forms used in English and Polish medical language
English Polish
X-ray Rtg
CT (computed tomography) TK (tomografia komputerowa)
℞ (prescription) Rp. (recepta)
CNS (central nervous system) OUN (ośrodkowy układ nerwowy)
COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary POChP (przewlekła obturacyjna choro-
disease) ba płuc)
pRBC (packed red blood cells) KKCz (koncentrat krwinek czer-
wonych)
GCF (gingival cervical fluid) PD (płyn dziąsłowy)

2
cf. Esch & Petersen (2013)

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2.4. Word compounding, affixation and the doublet phenomenon

Word compounding, affixation and the doublet phenomenon are three features of
fundamental medical English (FME) described by Salager-Meyer (1983). Com-
pound nominal phrases (heart failure, patient safety, contrast medium) are
common in FME (Salager-Meyer 1983: 61). Therefore, preparing a functional
medical translation which uses fairly natural language may involve syntactic
shifts (phrase change) (cf. Chesterman 1997). The extract below shows such
shifts based on two bolded phrases, whose literal translation would result in pro-
ducing the following prepositional phrases in the target units, respectively: inju-
ries of the orbit, means of the protection of the head.

Table 5. Example of syntactic shifts (phrase change)

Source Target
Urazy oczodołu stanowią trudny pro- Orbital injuries represent a difficult
blem diagnostyczny i terapeutyczny diagnostic and therapeutic problem
a ich liczba wciąż rośnie pomimo sto- and their number is still growing de-
sowania wielu, różnorodnych sposobów spite the use of a great variety of head
zabezpieczenia głowy. protection means.

The affixation process is not only common in the lexis of fundamental medical
English (fail – failure, relate – relationship/correlation – unrelated, define –
definition – undefined, improve – improvement) (Salager –Mayer 1983:61) – it is
also observed in specialized terminology. What is especially characteristic of
specialized terminology is the use of Latin and Greek affixes (e.g. prefixes:
all(o) –another, different, adip(o) – fatty, carni(o) – of the cranium, onco- relat-
ing to cancer, hyper – excessive, hypo – insufficient, suffixes: – itis – inflamma-
tion, – algia – pain, -lepsy – attack, seizure, -logy – the knowledge of some-
thing), and the obvious correspondences between suffixes, roots etc. and the
meaning of the term. Polish medical terminology is also heavily based on Latin
and Greek affixes, besides borrowings and descriptive terms.

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Table 6. Examples of suffixes and prefixes in medical terminology3

Affix Meaning of Examples of use Concept Polish equiva-

affix (EN) lent
Prefix: insufficient hypothermia too low body hipotermia
hypo- temperature
hypoglyc(a)emia too low blood hipoglikemia
glucose
hypocalc(a)emia too low serum hipokalcemia
calcium
Suffix: inflammation bronchitis inflammation zapalenie
– itis in the lining of oskrzeli
the bronchi
dermatitis inflammation zapalenie skóry
of the skin
gastritis inflammation zapalenie błony
in the lining of śluzowej
the stomach żołądka
hepatitis inflammation zapalenie
of the liver wątroby

The differences in affixation between terms in various languages lead to the

differences in semantic distribution observed in pairs of corresponding terms,
with a multi-word term in one language:

Table 7. Multi-word terms

Polish term English term
zakrzepowe zapalenie żył thrombophebitis
zapalenie midałków tonsilitis
tyreotropina, TSH thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH),
thyrotopin
mięsak prążkowanokomórkowy rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS)

Recognizing multi-word terms as single translation units is therefore one of the

crucial skills of medical translators.
The third feature of FME described by Salager Mayer (1983) is the doublet
phenomenon – terms (usually of Greek and Latin origin) which have their coun-
terparts (usually of Anglo-Saxon origin) in the general language: search – inves-

3
See e.g. Soltesz Steiner (2003) for more exhaustive information on Greek and Latin
affixes in medical English

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tigate, shot – injection, heart attack – myocardial infarction. The doublet phe-
nomenon is well observed in adjective vs. noun roots. That feature is of great
importance in writing or translating information materials for lay readers, which
is discussed in section 2 of this chapter.

Table 8. The doublet phenomenon observed in adjective vs. noun roots (Polackova 2006: 131, cf.
Salager-Meyer 1983)
Nouns Adjectives in use
bone osseous tissue (Lat.)
eye optic nerve (Lat.)
liver hepatic carcinoma (Greek)
fat adipose tissue (Lat.)
neck cervical vertebrae (Lat.)
backbone spinal canal (Lat.)
kidney renal artery (Lat.)
stomach gastric juices (Greek)
forehead frontal bone (Lat.)
navel umbilical cord (Lat.)
mouth oral cavity (Lat.)
windpipe tracheal intubations (Lat.)
ear auditory canal (Lat.)
breast mammary duct (Lat.)
lungs pulmonary embolism (Lat.)
teeth dental caries (Lat.)
heart cardiac muscle (Greek)
brain cerebral cortex (Lat.)

2.5. Polysemy and synonymy

The most desired feature in the terminology of any discipline is bi-univocity,

which means that one designation refers to one concept and that one concept
receives only one designation – thus, with this kind of control over terminology,
it would necessarily have two features: monosemy and mononymy (cf. Soubrier
2002, 2014). Desired as they may be, these features are not always present in
medical terminology, whose terms are, to a certain extent, polysemous, and –
sometimes – synonymous. The examples of polysemous terms include:
 inflammation: a physiological function, a clinical condtion, a diagnosis
(Soubrier 2014), all of which are expressed with Polish zapalenie

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 arm: a structure, a region (PL: ramię) or a study group in a clinical trial

(PL: grupa badana),
 discharge: secretion (PL: wyciek) or release from hospital (PL: wypis)
 opuszka: fingertip (finger pulp) or (aortic) bulb
 badanie: a test, a trial or an examination
Several of synonymous terms are presented above in the section on eponyms,
but they do not by any means complete the list of synonymous medical terms,
which also includes e.g. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or chronic lymphocytic thyroid-
itis, osteoarthritis also referred to as or degenerative joint disease or osteoarthro-
sis or degenerative arthritis.
This section is only a brief overview of certain features of medical lan-
guage, which is the focus of more detailed research papers published in Advanc-
es in Medical Discourse Analysis edited by Gotti and Salager-Meyer (2006) or
Vol. 4 No. 7 of JAHR (2013) devoted to medical language.

3. Translation of medical texts for lay readers

Expert-lay communication constitutes a large portion of medical discourse, en-

compassing documents prepared for patients by medical professionals, quite
often in order to comply with regulatory requirements. A frequently translated
document, which is the focus of a number of research papers (cf. Sand, Eik-Nes
and Lodge 2013) is the informed consent form (ICF) / informed consent doc-
ument (ICD) – a document explaining the nature of the procedures a patient or
a clinical trial participant is to undergo. In Poland, for instance, approximately
450–480 clinical trials are started, with the total number of participants reaching
30 thousand patients (Sikora 2010). Under the Declaration of Helsinki every
patient or every study participant has to be informed on the treatment-related
risks. An ICD provides a patient with the necessary information – by signing it
a patient declares that he or she understands the nature of the procedure or the
study. Consequently, a patient needs to be provided with an ICD in his or her
first language. The text needs to be clear and easily understood. Readability and
user-friendliness are of key importance in the case of informed consent forms as
ambiguity undermines the “informed consent” concept and breaches the provi-
sions of the Declaration of Helsinki. The ICDs, however, are often written in
a language which is too complex for lay readers (Pilegaard 2014). Pilegaard
(Ibid.) notices the absence of research into the linguistic manifestation of ethics
in ICDs and emphasizes the need for a deeper understanding of lay-friendliness

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and readability which would employ applied linguistics approaches and the par-
adigm of patient-centredness.
Apart from the Declaration of Helsinki, there are a number of national and
international laws which regulate access to medical information in patient’s na-
tive language; they include regulations concerning the package leaflet (PPI)
Directive 2004/27/EC provides that

the package leaflet must be written and designed to be clear and understandable,
enabling the users to act appropriately, when necessary with the help of health pro-
fessionals. The package leaflet must be clearly legible in the official language or
languages of the Member State in which the medicinal product is placed on the
market.

What is more, “the package leaflet shall be drawn up in accordance with the
summary of the product characteristics”. Under Directive 2001/83/EC the lan-
guage of PPIs should be easily understood:

the package leaflet must be written in clear and understandable terms for the users
and be clearly legible in the official language or languages of the Member State
where the medicinal product is placed on the market.

Package leaflet is the subject of research especially for its user-friendliness (cf.
Askehave & Zethsen 2000; Hall 2006; Ezpeleta 2012; Montalt & García-
Izquierdo 2014; Pilegaard 2014). The lack of user-friendliness may be a result of
two factors: inter-linguistic translation (between two languages) and inter-
generic translation (from one genre to another e.g. transferring information from
the product summary to package leaflet) (Askehave & Zethsen 2000: 64). The
requirements under Directive 2001/83/EC mean that PPI should contain the
same information as the product summary (PS). That requires structural and
lexical simplification, determinologizing, synthesizing information, expanding
relevant information, and adjusting tenor (Ezepleta 2012, 2014).

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Table 9. Corresponding passages from PS and PPI.

Product summary (PS) Package leaflet (PPI)
Acute overdose could lead initially to If you use more Somatropin Biopart-
hypoglycaemia and subsequently to ners than you should, you should con-
hyperglycaemia. Due to the prolonged- sult your doctor.
release characteristics of this medicinal If you have used too much of this
product peak levels of growth hormone medicine, initially your blood sugar
can be expected approximately 15 hours may decrease and become too low.
after injection, see section 5.2. Long Subsequently, it may increase and
term over-dosing could result in signs become too high. Prolonged overdose
and symptoms of gigantism and/or may result in a greater than normal
acromegaly consistent with the growth of ears, nose, lips, tongue
known effects of hGH excess. and cheekbone.
Treatment is symptomatic and support-
ive. There is no antidote for somatropin
overdose. It is recommended to monitor
thyroid function following an overdose.

Nevertheless, PPIs are still notorious for being vague and overcomplicated. The
main problem areas include: the use of synonyms, syntax and complicated sen-
tences, the use of passive, impersonal style and information overload (Askehave
& Zethsen 2000: 64). As a result, PPIs simply support management and trade
strategies of pharmaceutical companies rather share knowledge and empower
patients (Hall 2006), possibly because their main purpose is to meet require-
ments and not to educate lay audiences (cf. Pilegaard 2007).
There are also a number of regulations which should secure the rights of
ethnic minorities and immigrants with regard to full access to medical services.
They result from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Con-
vention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Convention
on the Rights of the Child, International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, European Constitution, European Convention on Human Rights,
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and respective
constitutions and laws applicable in particular countries (Baráth et al. 2007). In
the light of those regulations, patients should be granted with access to relevant
documents in their native language and interlingual communication with medical
staff should be facilitated. In reality, however, foreign patients with limited L2
skills are not always sufficiently assisted, which may lead to significant prob-
lems – there is sufficient evidence that language barriers may severely affect the
quality of medical services (Heine 2003; Flores et al. 2003; Chung 2006;
Sanchez 2007; Chen 2009).

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Apart from the genres discussed above, there are other texts translated in
order to ensure interlingual communication in healthcare settings – brochures,
patient diaries, questionnaires, forms etc. Medical translation can bridge the
linguistic gap between medical professionals and patients, thus becoming
a factor in improving the overall quality of medical services. Ongoing research
will hopefully shed more light on achieving lay-firendliness of original and
translated materials (cf. Pilegaard 2014; Montalt & García-Izquierdo 2014).

4. Problems in the translation of specialized medical texts

Regulatory requirements do not only concern medical documents for lay readers
Under international regulations, instructions for use (IFU) and user manuals of
medical devices also have to be translated, even if a given device is a highly
specialized tool only used by specially trained professionals, unless a formal
approval is granted for the English version of the documents. Exhaustive EMA
(European Medicines Agency) documentation covering the characteristics of
pharmaceutical products needs to prepared in the twenty-four official languages
of the European Union. Pharmaceutical dossiers are also translated into the
languages of countries outside EU – and that is only the European perspective,
with medical research and development activities, being a global issue requiring
international communication and thus translation worldwide (cf. Andriesen
2006). Clinical trial documents, including clinical trial synopses are also a large
portion of the translation turnover.
The most typical features of specialized medical texts, i.e. terminology,
nominalization, heavy pre- and postmodification, long sentences, use of passives
(cf. Askehave & Zethsen 2000), hedges ( Salager-Meyer 1994), metaphors and
rich images4, and, occasionally, the language of evidence-based medicine
(EBM) (cf. Gajewski 2003; Górnicz 2007, 2009) may constitute the areas of the
greatest challenge to translators, as presented in the passages below – extracts
from research papers translated from Polish to English by the native speakers of
the source language.
Extract (a) is an example of terminological density, the use of English acro-
nyms in a Polish text. The beginning of the target sentence is not written in natu-
ral English, posing more problems than highly specialized terminology. Sen-
tences (b) – (e) show the use of EBM lexis, with the controversial choice in (e) –

4
“rich images are metaphorical expressions that are ‘rich’ in detail and in associations”
(Shuttleworth 2014: 35)

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intervention vs. investigated. Target sentences in (c) and (d) are more explicit
than their source counterparts. Extract (f) is an example of information and ex-
plicitness changes, possibly related to significance threshold (cf. Chesterman
1997): przyspiesza osiągnięcie celów terapeutycznych – improves rates of blood
pressure control and requires less time to achieve target blood pressure, kwesti-
ami – benefits, korzyści ekonomiczne – cost savings, efektywniejsza współpraca
z pacjentem – better compliance; the linking expression z tego względu is omit-
ted, by most patients with hypertension is added, information that the monother-
apy concerns antihypertensive drugs is removed (but can still be implied).
Extract (g) is an example of transediting (cf. Chesterman 1997); a number
of shifts are observed in the translation of this text and their purpose seems to be
following target conventions and achieving better reader-friendliness. The topic
sentence is added. The strategies employed in this sentence include: emphasis
change najistotniejszą – important, the addition of female (explicitation – both
men and women can be diagnosed with androgenic alopecia), unit change (cf.
Chesterman 1997) and addition of newly developed techniques:

Współcześnie możliwości diagnostyczne poszerzyły się o fototrichogram, tricho-

skan, trichoskopię oraz refleksyjną mikroskopię konfokalną in vivo.
Newly developed techniques enlarge the spectrum of possibilities in diagnosing
hair loss. These include the phototrichogram, trichoscan, trichoscopy and in vivo
reflectance confocal microscopy.

Such maneuvers influence the explicitness of the text and its cohesion. The sen-
tence „Fototrichogram jest metodą rzadko stosowaną w praktyce” is not ren-
dered in the target text. The subsequent sentence is where clarity and cohesion
seem to be prioritized in the translation, and are achived also by means of a unit
change, information change skóry owłosionej głowy – a shaven scalp area and
adding allow the percentage of telogen hairs to be assessed:

Opiera się na obserwacji, że włosy anagenowe rosną, natomiast włosy telogeno-

we są niezmienione, gdy obserwuje się kolejne makrofotografie tej samej okolicy
skóry owłosionej głowy.
The basis for the phototrichogram is the observation that growing hairs are in the
anagen phase and non-growing hairs are in the telogen phase. Subsequent mac-
rophotographs of a shaven scalp area allow the percentage of telogen hairs to be as-
sessed.

Information changes, explicitness changes and other pragmatic strategies

are also observed in the remaining part of the text, a transition is added
(another recently developed method), some unit-content manipulation is

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observed – the information that it is not necessary to remove hair is

moved to the sentence which introduces the part about trichoscopy, and
the term trichoscopy is explained. Explicitation change is visible in the
segment łodygi włosów, lejków mieszków włosowych i skórę otaczającą
mieszek włosowy – hair thickness and structure, and the perifollicular
area. What is also observed in this segment is that the source elements are
richer images than those in the target version. Information on zoom val-
ues is omitted, and so is the penultimate source sentence, which is partly
a repetition of the information which is presented in preceding segments.
Although translators are frequently required to produce a target text
which is very close to the original, such shifts are not uncommon in trans-
lating research papers – pragmatic shifts may improve the readability of
the text, without misinforming the expert readers, who probably know the
implied information.

Table 10. Extracts from medical research papers translated into English5
Source Target
a) Ustalenie rozpoznania żylnej Making a diagnosis of venous
choroby zakrzepowo-zatorowej thromboembolism (VTE), mani-
(VTE), na którą składają się za- festing as deep vein thrombosis
krzepica żył głębokich (DVT) i (DVT) and/or pulmonary embo-
zator tętnicy płucnej (PE), wy- lism (PE) requires clinical assess-
maga zarówno oceny klinicznej, ment, as well as imaging and – in
jak i wykonania dodatkowych selected clinical settings – labora-
badań obrazowych, a w wybra- tory tests.
nych sytuacjach klinicznych –
także testów laboratoryjnych.
b) Przeprowadzone w ostatnich latach Large clinical trials performed in
duże próby kliniczne dowodzą, że the last few years prove that com-
terapia złożona nadciśnienia bined therapy of essential hyper-
tętniczego ma już ugruntowaną tension has reached a secure posi-
pozycję. tion lately.
c) W grupie kobiet z otyłością In the clinical sample of women
stwierdzono istotne statystycznie with obesity revealed significant
zależności pomiędzy ekspresją statistical correlations between an-
złości a dążeniem do szczupłości ger expression and drive for thin-
oraz symptomami depresyjnymi i ness, depressive and anxiety symp-
lękowymi. toms.

5
See the ‘References’ section for details

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Table 10. (continued)

d) Do badania zakwalifikowano 152 Total number of randomly chosen
osoby. hospitalized patients engaged in
the study was 152.
e) Glikemia w grupie interwencyjnej The glycaemia in the investigated
była znamiennie mniejsza niż w group was significantly lower than
grupie kontrolnej w 180., 330., in the control group in 180, 330,
420., 450. i 480. minucie. 420, 450 and 480 minute.
f) Większość pacjentów chorujących Most patients with hypertension
na nadciśnienie tętnicze wymaga require more than a single antihy-
leczenia więcej niż jednym lekiem pertensive agent, particularly if
hipotensyjnym. Dotyczy to szcze- they have comorbid conditions.
gólnie pacjentów z innymi współ- Combination therapy of hyperten-
istniejącymi chorobami. Z tego sion with fixed-dose combination
względu terapia nadciśnienia tętni- pills is required by most patients
czego przy użyciu preparatów zło- with hypertension to reach target
żonych jest konieczna do osiągnię- blood pressure. In many cases,
cia właściwych wartości ciśnienia combination therapy improves
tętniczego. W wielu przypadkach rates of blood pressure control
terapia ta przyspiesza osiągnięcie and requires less time to achieve
celów terapeutycznych przy po- target blood pressure with equiva-
równywalnej lub lepszej tolerancji lent or better tolerability than high-
niż w przypadku monoterapii er-dose monotherapy. Additional
wyższymi dawkami leków hipo- benefits may include cost savings
tensyjnych. Dodatkowymi kwe- and better compliance.
stiami mogą być korzyści ekono-
miczne takiej terapii oraz efektyw-
niejsza współpraca z pacjentem.
g) Współcześnie możliwości diagno- Recent years have brought signif-
styczne poszerzyły się o fototri- icant progress in hair diagnostic
chogram, trichoskan, trichosko- techniques. Classic methods of hair
pię oraz refleksyjną mikroskopię evaluation, other than clinical exam-
konfokalną in vivo. Fototricho- ination, include evaluation of daily
gram jest metodą rzadko stoso- hair loss, hair weighing, pull test,
waną w praktyce. Opiera się na wash test and the trichogram. Histo-
obserwacji, że włosy anagenowe pathological examination of the
rosną, natomiast włosy telogeno- scalp skin remains an important
we są niezmienione, gdy obserwu- method in differential diagnosis of
je się kolejne makrofotografie tej hair loss, in particular in differenti-
samej okolicy skóry owłosionej ating female androgenic alopecia
głowy. Trichoskan to cyfrowy, from chronic telogen effluvium and
zautomatyzowany odpowiednik in diagnosing alopecia areata or
fototrichogramu. Trichoskopia jest cicatricial alopecia. Newly develo-

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Table 10. (continued)

cyfrową metodą diagnostyczną ped techniques enlarge the spec-
opierającą się na technice wideo- trum of possibilities in diagnosing
dermoskopii. Najczęściej stosowa- hair loss. These include the photo-
nymi powiększeniami są powięk- trichogram, trichoscan, tri-
szenia 20-krotne i 70-krotne. W choscopy and in vivo reflectance
trichoskopii ocenia się łodygi wło- confocal microscopy. The basis
sów, lejki mieszków włosowych i for the phototrichogram is the
skórę otaczającą mieszek włosowy. observation that growing hairs are
Metoda umożliwia ocenę struktur in the anagen phase and non-
włosa bez konieczności pobierania growing hairs are in the telogen
włosów. Trichoskopia pozwala na phase. Subsequent macrophoto-
różnicowanie łysienia androgeno- graphs of a shaven scalp area
wego kobiet z przewlekłym łysie- allow the percentage of telogen
niem telogenowym oraz umożliwia hairs to be assessed. A trichoscan
rozpoznanie włosów dystroficz- is a computerized form of this
nych, resztkowych i ułamanych. technique. Another, recently devel-
Nowoczesną metodą wymagającą oped method, trichoscopy (hair and
dalszych badań jest nieinwazyjna scalp dermoscopy), allows evalua-
technika obrazowania włosów i tion of the whole scalp without the
skóry owłosionej głowy metodą need to remove hair. Trichoscopy
refleksyjnej konfokalnej mikrosko- allows one to analyze hair thick-
pii skaningowej in vivo. ness and structure, and the peri-
follicular area. In a recently pub-
lished study, the usefulness of
reflectance confocal laser scanning
microscopy in diagnosing hair
shaft abnormalities was docu-
mented.

What seems to be a noticeable tendency is avoiding the excessively impersonal

tone of a paper:
a) wyniki badań wskazują
our findings show
b) Celem niniejszej pracy było ustalenie, jaki odsetek stanowią wśród
nich pacjenci, u których potwierdzono rozpoznanie…
The aim of our study was to determine the percentage of children
with confirmed diagnosis of osteoporosis…
c) W pracy terapeutycznej warto zwrócić uwagę na rolę, jaką odgrywa
negatywny obraz ciała oraz sposób wyrażania złości przez osoby z
otyłością.

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We should take into account the large role that negative body image
and anger expression play in treating obesity.
d) Autorzy niniejszej pracy uważają, iż rekonstrukcja lewej żyły nerko-
wej jest stosunkowo prosta technicznie i jeżeli jest to tylko możliwe,
powinno się ją przeprowadzać w każdym przypadku.
We consider the reconstruction of the left renal vein to be technically
relatively easy and it should be performed in every possible case.
e) przedstawiono przypadek 16-letniego sportowca
we present a case of a 16-year old cyclist vs. w niniejszej pracy
f) Podsumowano dotychczas prowadzone i trwające badania kliniczne
poświęcone terapiom komórkowym w udarze mózgu.
Finally, we report recent and on-going clinical trials on stem-cell
therapy in cerebral stroke.

The variety of strategies used by medical translators is neither greater nor poorer
than that of translators who deal with other disciplines. The key factors here are
the requirements and conventions of particular genres –translators of informed
consent documents are expected to be very accurate and close to the original,
while translators of research papers need to consider e.g. the stylesheet used by
a particular publisher. Various aspects of the translation of specialized medical
translation are discussed in Translation and knowledge mediation in medical and
health settings edited by Vicent Montalt and Mark Shuttleworth (2012).

5. Qualifications of medical translators

The dynamic development of medicine and natural sciences as well as the global
nature of the international community, the demand for medical translation is
significant, but it still remains a controversial question who should translate
medical text – a medical professional or a linguist or a linguist with some medi-
cal background (cf. O’Neil 1998; Heine 2003; IMIA 2009; Nisbeth and Zethsen
2012). Ideally, a medical translator would not be a medical professional, but an
especially trained translator, i.e. a linguist who underwent appropriate training,
a view which is also supported by IMIA (2009: 4-5). According to IMIA (Inter-
national Medical Interpreters Association), medical documents should be trans-
lated by professionals who have “a native or near-native, formal level of lan-
guage proficiency, analytical capabilities, and deep cultural knowledge in the
source and target languages” (2009: 3), other requirements include at least col-
lege level formal education covering courses in translation theory and practice,

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proficiency in the source and target languages, expert knowledge of the subject
matter terminology, terminology research skills and adequate writing skills. Oth-
er components of medical translator competence include: application of transla-
tion strategies, relevant procedures, conventions or standards, use of medical
databases, text banks, dictionaries, CAT tools etc. as well as certain psycho-
physiological features such as decision making, thoroughness, honesty etc.
(cf. PACTE 2011; Nisbeth & Zethsen 2012; Karwacka 2012, 2014)
A medical translator’s command of medical English and his or her writing
skills involves a range of genres and registers. Transferring medical information
for patients means avoiding unnecessary jargon, complicated syntax, or highly
specialized vocabulary. Translating documents which are written for medical
professionals, on the other hand, requires specific terminology and discourse
markers typical of similar texts produced in the target language. Therefore,
a translator’s linguistic competence involves general and specialized languages.
That is why medical training is not limited to acquiring medical knowledge
(cf. O'Neil 1998: 73).
Having said that, background knowledge of medicine is necessary to ensure
that a message is transferred without distortions, which is one of the critical is-
sues in interlingual and intercultural knowledge mediation (cf. Montalt and Shut-
tleworth 2012; Karwacka 2014). Medical translators do not only acquire medical
knowledge through medical studies and they are not always physician-
translators: “there will always be more medical translations than can be handled
by the relatively few physicians who translate (and) medical translation will
perforce be done by non-physicians” (O’Neil 1998: 69).
Some information on the background of medically knowledgeable linguists
is provided by the results of a survey Marla O’Neil (1998) conducted among
translators who are not physicians, but specialize in medical translation. Her
study revealed that medical translators acquire background knowledge by study-
ing medicine, participating in medical courses, working in a position indirectly
related to healthcare or medicine or participating in medical translation courses.
Other factors included access to medical professionals, medical professionnal
relatives, and a medical condition which resulted in doing background research
and contact with medical professionals. Most respondents to O’Neil’s question-
naire admitted that their translation was hardly ever verified.
The reality of medical translation too frequently shows that translators must
assume sole responsibility for the quality and accuracy of medical translations,
which seems to be one of the factors behind the often poor or substandard quali-
ty of medical translation, rather than merely the question of medical ver-
sus linguistic educational background of the translator (cf. Karwacka 2014),
especially if it is medical translators themselves that decide whether they are

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qualified enough to perform a particular translation task that they are considering
to take on.

6. Verification and review in medical translation

Another related issue is quality assurance in medical translation since the quality
of translation may have clinical consequences (cf. Flores et al. 2003). The verifi-
cation guidelines involve a pre-translation preparation and analysis of the ST, its
actual translation and multi-step verification of the TT (cf. IMIA 2009). A valid
verification process also involves the conventions and requirements regarding
various text types and functions (cf. Mobaraki and Aminzadeh 2012), including
readability and clarity in expert-lay communication.
IMIA (2009: 6-11) suggest the following steps in the translation process:
preparing the final version of the ST (poorly written or confusing passages are
likely to be awkward and ambiguous in the target language), which is followed
by commissioning a translator who decides if she or he is qualified to translate
the text, then – translation, and finally – verification: the translated document is
reviewed and edited by another professional, who ideally should have more sub-
ject area expertise and be more experienced than the translator. It is then proof-
read, ideally by a third person. That, however, is not actually the final stage of
the process, as it may be necessary to adapt the TT to local requirements con-
cerning a informed consent documents and other medical texts (cf. Fernández
Piera and Ardura Ortega 2012: 291).
A fairly frequently applied but controversial method of translation review is
back-translation, i.e. the of translation the TT ‘back’ into the source language
by an independent translator who did not handle the original 'forward' translation
of a given text. IMIA advise against applying back-translation as a method for
verification for the reason that it might not reveal “the target language contextual
and usage nuances” (IMIA 2009: 2) or awkward literal translation. On the other
hand, what may appear as an inaccurate rendition in the back-translation is actu-
ally a passage written in idiomatic language (IMIA 2009: 3). Nevertheless, the
blind back-translation technique is frequently used to verify the accuracy of
translation (cf. Andriesen 2006; Fernández Piera and Ardura Ortega 2012), and
its advantages have been proven (Berkanovic 1980; Andriesen 2006). The back-
translation method is widely used in the sector of medical research and clinical
trials, as it is required by Ethics Committees and regulatory authorities in
a number of countries (see Grunwald and Goldfarb 2006: 2), but it should not be
implied that the sole purpose of back-translation is compliance with formal re-

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quirements. If it is handled in a professional manner, it can be a useful error

detection tool (Andriesen 2006: 15-16).
The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research
(ISPOR) has developed a complex review method which involves two parallel
forward translations, reconciliation, two back-translations, comparison and
reconciliation, a review and harmonisation of the target text. As effective as the
method may appear, it is not frequently employed possibly due to time and
budget constraints (Andriesen 2006: 15-16).
Parallel translation can also be applied as a standalone quality assurance
method: two parallel translations are produced, then compared and adjusted, if
necessary. The outcome of the process is the final TT which is a compilation of
the two parallel translations. This method affects the budget of a translation pro-
ject, but: “in this case the additional cost has a much more direct and positive
effect on the quality of the final document than is the case with a back-
translation” (Andriesen 2006: 16).
Another quality assurance method is cognitive debriefing. It is used as an
assessment tool for instruments such as questionnaires or scales. It involves
gathering feedback from a sample group of patients to learn how they under-
stand the wording of a given question. The purpose is to verify if the wording is
lay-friendly and reflects the intended concept at the same time (cf. Ploughman,
Austin, Stefanelli & Godwin 2010; Karwacka 2014).

7. Summary

This chapter is a brief overview of medical translation-specific problems rather

than an exhaustive presentation of all the issues in detail. Medical translation is
a complex and interesting phenomenon in which linguistic, sociocultural, scien-
tific, economic and other factors are at play. That is probably why multidiscipli-
nary approach is so useful in approaching medical translation in research.

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Interpreting

Paulina Pietrzak and Adam Bednarek

University of Łódź; Wyższa Szkoła Studiów Międzynarodowych

pietrzak.paulina@uni.lodz.pl; abednarek@wssm.edu.pl

Abstract: The chapter will demonstrate various types of interpreting with respect to
social context and delivery manner. Although typologies differ because of specific set-
ting-related constraints, all modes of interpreting share common features and involve
a range of critical skills which will be analysed with a view to defining interpreting
competence. A range of constraints and consequently additional requirements on the part
of the interpreter will also be discussed. The diversity and number of duties of
a contemporary interpreter calls for constant professional development and specializa-
tion, thus adding to a long list of requirements that need to be fulfilled in a successful
interpreting career. The chapter touches upon certain psychological, social and linguistic
aspects of interpreting that need to be taken into consideration in the process of develop-
ing interpreting competence. Finally, various methodologies that can be chosen when
designing a research in interpreting will be presented to answer a question of how to
establish and justify principles and strategies used in the research.
Keywords: community interpreting, conference interpreting, simultaneous, consecutive,
interpreting competence, memory, communication, empirical studies, observational
studies, quality in interpreting

1. Typology of interpreting

Presumably the earliest form of translation: interpreting had been practised even
before the invention of writing and is undoubtedly one of the oldest professions
in the world. Interpreting is indispensable for ensuring a successful channel of
communication between two nations of different languages and cultural back-
grounds. Although the primary purpose of enabling communication is common
for all types of interpreting, the means whereby the message is transferred are
divergent. Typologies of interpreting differ with respect to social context and

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delivery manner. The social context and institutional settings in which the inter-
preter works specify two main types: community and conference interpreting.
Community interpreting (which is also referred to as public service interpreting,
especially in the UK) takes place in public institutions such as hospital facilities,
prisons, police stations, state institutions and the courtroom (although court in-
terpreting is also treated as a separate type by scholars like Roberts (2002)).
Community-based interpreting is provided in a bidirectional way for instance for
visitors or immigrants who need access to social services in a foreign country or
for the deaf and hard of hearing (signed interpreting). The term conference in-
terpreting refers to various international meetings in conference-like settings,
including “such diverse settings as international tribunals, private talks between
heads of state, or television broadcasts” (Pӧchhacker 2004: 161).Other setting-
dependant types are media interpreting (interpreting live coverages or inter-
views) and escort interpreting (where the interpreter accompanies tourists).
As regards the delivery manner of interpreting, three modes of interpreting
are widely recognized, namely: simultaneous interpreting (in sound-proof
booths with live sound equipment), consecutive interpreting (taking notes and
delivering the speech after the speaker) and whispered interpreting or
chuchotage (whispering to a limited audience). Other modes are dialogue inter-
preting, relay interpreting (listening not directly to the speaker but to another
interpreter’s third language interpretation), liaison interpreting (or sentence-by-
sentence with no need for note-taking or sound equipment), on-site interpreting
(also called face-to-face) and over-the-phone interpreting or a variant of the
simultaneous mode called sight interpreting (also called a-vista or on-sight)
which is performed in real time but is “simultaneous not with the delivery of the
source text but with the interpreter’s real-time (visual) reception of the written
source text” (ibid. 19). Although typologies differ because of specific setting-
related constraints, all modes of interpreting share common features and involve
a range of critical skills required to become a successful interpreter.

2. Interpreting Competence

Translation and interpreting constitute separate domains of Translation Studies

or, as Kade (1968) puts it, translation and interpreting are hyponyms of the term
Translation and refer to activities of translating the source text which differ in
time and immediacy. Nevertheless, interpreting is still a translational activity
(Pӧchhacker 2013) so they do share a common sociological, cultural and meth-
odological background, which results in a common base of knowledge and com-

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petences required to practice Translation. Assuming the validity of multicompo-

nent idea of competence (see the chapter on Translation Competence in this
book), a number of skills is therefore common for both translators and interpret-
ers. One of the key competences that needs to be listed is proficiency in source
and target languages, as well as the awareness of cultural, political, economic,
social and ethnic issues and differences between the countries concerned. More-
over, the common core of competences necessary for both translation and inter-
preting includes a thorough knowledge of the subject matter. However, as re-
gards translation, some shortcomings can be overcome even in the middle of the
process of translating, as translators are able to do research and make up for
a lack of domain knowledge, while interpreters must possess it before undertak-
ing the action of interpreting (Gile 2005). It needs to be emphasised that this
competence covers not only the grasp of a particular field of specilisation but
also terminology and “differences in usage, style, register, cultural norms and
peculiarities etc.” (Kalina 2000: 4). Moreover, in a constrained environment of
interpreting, mere awareness of these differences does not suffice unless the
interpreter possesses a profound knowledge of how to cope with such issues in
practice, thus declarative and semantic knowledge must be accompanied with
procedural knowledge (ibid.), i.e. knowing how to handle the differences and
progress through the difficulties.
Furthermore, the difference between the source text availability in transla-
tion and its elusiveness in interpreting triggers a range of constraints and conse-
quently additional requirements on the part of the interpreter. The dynamism of
the source message involves instant production in an unpredictable, changeable
form, at the same time coupled with absolute finality of the first and only version
of the target text. The interpreter should show reasonable skill at multitasking
and be flexible enough to adjust the rest of the utterance to what has already
been or what is just being said. Furthermore, a prerequisite to undertake an in-
terpreting task is fluency in the spoken language and public speaking in both
source and target languages. Apart from a working knowledge of phonological,
grammatical, lexical and stylistic rules, an orally proficient interpreter is able to
have a flowing, effective conversation and emotional empathy for the speaker
(Kopczyński 1980: 24) as well as for the audience so as to aim at providing them
with the most accurate equivalence and equivalent effect.
Apart from linguistic expertise and knowledge of the world, which involves
constant self-learning, the interpreter needs a variety of mental skills, such as
concentration or mnemonic capacity, which obviously do not enable to interpret,
but contribute decisively to a good performance.
Moreover, using all the aforementioned interpreting skills must come in
tandem with “the capability of acting and performing in a situation characterized

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by externally determined constraints, such as the pressure of time, lack of se-

mantic autonomy and the potential interference between closely connected pro-
cesses of production and comprehension” (Kalina 2000: 5). With slight variation
between the modes of interpreting, all the processes occur under a significant
time constraint, which results in further “cognitive pressure in source speech
comprehension, decision-making and target-speech production” (Gile 2009:
247)
The imbalance between translation and interpreting that prevails in most
markets requires professionals to translate both the spoken and the written word,
which makes them translator-cum-interpreters (Gouadec 2007: 117). Similarly,
there has been an increase in the number of professionals who not only offer
translation and interpreting services but also carry out a range of other duties,
including negotiations with clients and all manner of international communica-
tion within one particular company. The diversity and number of duties of
a contemporary interpreter calls for constant professional development and spe-
cialization, thus adding to a long list of requirements that need to be fulfilled in
a successful interpreting career.

3. Emotions, prosody, memory and interpreting

Interpreting, like medicine is an art: the art of selection, interpretation and

skillful application of theoretical knowledge. You cannot conventionalize or
adapt to the needs of individual cases. This is especially seen in beginner inter-
preters, where the main factor hampering the effectiveness of interaction are
emotions. In order to better understand this concept we will focus on certain
crucial elements in emotion theory.
The classical theory of emotion by James-Lange (1884) assumes that emo-
tions are the result of one realizing a significant stimulus, causing somatic and
behavioral changes. Since emotional processes are directly related to the func-
tioning of the limbic system, the body becomes the expression of feelings. The
limbic system is a series of interrelated structures of the central nervous system
(hippocampus and amygdala among others), which are responsible for the
transmission of nerve signals to the hypothalamus. This results in the activation
of the parasympathetic system in response to a stimulus. Consequently, the enti-
ty subjected to strong stimuli reacts with somatic sensations (eg, in a negative
situation, people show an increase in blood pressure, etc.). This has automatic
effect in cognition, perception and finally language output. These assumptions
have been further developed in Cannon-Bard theory (1927), which sees the thal-

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amus as being responsible for assessing sensory signals and then transfering
them to the cerebral cortex. Emotions are therefore subjective reaction to
a stimulus.
Conceptualization and definitial discussion of emotions within psychologi-
cal, social and linguistic frameworks has produced conflicting results across
disciplines (Scherer 2001; Niedenthal et al. 2005; Frijda et al. 1995), recognizing
the need for cross-disciplinary research. Norman (2004) and Picard (2000) stress
aspects as experience and interaction with the surrounding world, arguing for
emotion as an important factor in cognition. Scherer (2001) sees emotions as an
impediment of cognition and rational perception of reality, providing distinction
into aesthetic and utilitarian emotions; the latter occuring in prototipically pat-
terned events. Linguists have argued for conceptual catagories of cognition,
emphasizing that meaning emerges from socially and culturally shared practice
and norms, implicating that interpretation has social origin. Recent investiga-
tions suggest, that within the crosscultural framework, processing emotions re-
mains the same (Schrauf & Sanchez 2004). Lutz’s (1986) study demonstrated
the cultural component in emotion manifestation, with the phenomena being
grounded in socio-cultural contexts and representative of our own cognitive
typologies. While universalists (Ekman 1972) argue for the independent nature
of emotion conceptualization, relativists see representation as based on linguistic
and cultural conditioning (Wierzbicka 2004). Consequently, interpretation is
conditioned by emotions and other affective phenomena, along with a set of
culturally and socially interpretative schemas, which arrise due to a set of ma-
nipulative patterns. Given that the SL material must be rendered in accordance
with the rules of accuracy and faithfulness, it all adds up to the fact that emo-
tional stress has huge impact on the quality of interpretation.
Translators in general have time to consider and revise the entire text before
they deliver their product to the client. Interpreters need to achieve total accura-
cy at all times. It is this constant need for instant transference that becomes the
first factor for stress. Further elements include public speaking or any type of
social phobias, the fear of mal-production and the impossibility of predicting
what is to come. For a fact, one cannot predict upcoming content, yet strong
somatic activity blocks proper cognition, thus in effect greatly deprives the qual-
ity of interpretation. There is no one way to reduce stress level and many believe
that the classic phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ is the only proper way to deal
with emotions during interpretation.
An interpreter needs to maintain eye contact, be heard and show confidence.
This is crucial, thus one must make sure that the interpreter does, physically
have, a strong enough voice. One must keep in mind that language is only one of
many tools of communication, especially in the aspect of intercultural and there-

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fore extra-linguistic sphere, ie. non-verbal behavior also falls within the scope of
observation. We refer here to the broader term of prosody and body language.
The fact that prosodic features, in their structure, enriches interpretation, does
not raise objections among linguists. Schiffrin (1987) believes that for many
years there was no uniform relationship between the semantic system and pro-
sodic features, due to the fact that this concept seemed to be too complex and
uncertain. In many extreme cases, researchers criticized their impact on the
analysis of discourse. Modern research, however, points to the connection be-
tween discourse and sound (see Couper-Kuhlen 2003). An important element is
the tone of voice and emotional feel. Intonation signals the content and high-
lights the expressive function. Threefold methodological assumptions presented
by Couper-Kuhlen (2003), see intonation as grammar (Pierrehumbert 1980), as
the flow of information, and as a contextualization as discussed by Gumperz
(1982). Thus, emotion does not only impact interpretation per se, but the vocal
product as well. The rate of speech and emotional color is a signal from the re-
cipient of how to interpret the message.
Turning to the nature of communication, the authors would like to mention
the classic model by Dell Hymes (1972) which constitutes a modification and
extension of the concept of linguistic competence by Noam Chomsky. Accord-
ing to the scholar, it is the knowledge of conventions and rules of language use
depending on the situation and the role of social interlocutors that determine
interpretation. Communicative competence includes the aspect of knowledge of
socio-cultural norms in the repertoire of linguistic performance. Semantic struc-
tures, therefore, like emotions, are conditioned socially and culturally.
Finally, one needs to mention memory and especially memory training as
a key concept during interpreter training. This may even be considered as one of
the primary requirements. Memory basically involves the ability to organise and
store information. Using memory involves three stages: encoding – storage –
retrieval. Trainers frequently focus on exercises which involve helping future
interpreters to use Short Term Memory (STM) by focusing on the gist, logical
links and keywords. In this area note taking becomes an important ability. It is
our notes that allow the recollection of information presented in the original
speech. Apart from the traditional focus on practising interpreting skills by
means of such tasks as shadowing or code switching, students should also be
aware of the need to maintain physical and mental freshness, e.g. by drinking
water to keep the body hydrated.
In other words, we tend to perspire under stress, and de-hydration can af-
fect our concentration negatively. Furthermore, many specialists advocate the
incorporation of brain activation techniques, such as Brain Buttons – this exer-
cise helps improve blood flow to the brain to “switch on” the entire brain before

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a translation begins. The interpreter may use various techniques in order to im-
prove memory, such as: categorization, generalization, comparison and mne-
monics. However, concentration is key.

4. Methodologies in interpreting research

Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies and research dedicated to inter-

preting contribute significantly to the development of the discipline as they en-
hance understanding of issues in interpreting among students, teachers and prac-
titioners as well as help to reconceptualise and refashion both the scientific bases
and actual practice. In order for a research to be reliable and valid, a number of
questions need to be resolved; what research questions should be asked? What
hypothesis should be formulated? What methodological tools should be used?
What is the most reliable research design?

Establishing an object of study is necessarily a function of the theory in whose

terms it is constituted, which is always geared to cater for certain needs. Its estab-
lishment and justification are therefore intimately connected with the questions one
wishes to pose, the possible methods of dealing with the objects of study with an
eye to those questions – and, indeed, the kind of answers which would count as
admissible.
(Toury 1995: 23)

Therefore, prior to embarking on a research project, a researcher must choose

the research object, i.e. the focus of the study and then, having determined re-
search questions and objectives, demonstrate its viability by means of observa-
tions and in the end explain variance. Methodologies that can be chosen when
designing a research in interpreting can be manifold, e.g. theoretical or concep-
tual (raising new questions and hypothesis about the old findings); descriptive –
also called applied or observational (providing non-experimental information
through data collection); hypothetico-deductive (formulating hypotheses, deduc-
ing predictions and seeking evidence that disprove these predictions), methodo-
logical (developing tools that help researching); experimental (implementing
a procedure or a programme and observing the results) or empirical (discover-
ing, revealing, explaining new information).
Empirical studies, which are given “the highest priority” in the scientific es-
tablishment (Gile 2001: 2) comprise product-oriented, process-oriented (Holmes
1972), capacity-oriented and user-oriented approach; in the case of interpreting,
product-oriented studies investigate the end product of interpreting, that is the

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interpreter’s performance and the interpreted text, while process-oriented studies

focus on the mental processes that occur during an interpreting activity. In order
to answer the niggling question of what goes on “in the interpreter’s mind as
s/he goes about performing this unusual task” (Shlesinger 2000: 3), the process-
oriented approach to interpreting research makes use of various techniques from
cognitive science, sociolinguistics, psychology to psycholinguistics. This type of
descriptive studies attempts to investigate the complex operations in the inter-
preter’s mind – the so called “black box” or, as Kiraly calls it, the “sub-control
workspace” (1990: 148).Empirically-oriented investigations of the interpreter’s
work are hampered by the limited access to all the unconscious processes that
occur during interpretation, referred to by scholars as non-strategic behavior
(Lӧrscher 1991), less controlled processing (Kiraly 1995) or unmarked pro-
cessing (Jӓӓskelӓinen 1993).
According to Gile (1997: 118), “observational studies should prepare the
ground for experimental work, as sets of ideas to be further investigated must be
identified”. Cognitive variables that can be investigated in process-oriented or
capacity-oriented studies are for instance: memory and recall, split attention,
code-switching (as opposed to involuntary interference), anticipation, stress
management, reformulation, etc. The main source of experimental data on the
abovementioned issues is ‘thinking aloud’ or ‘concurrent verbalization’. This
method, used in cognitive psychology for eliciting data on cognitive processes,
involves concurrent or retrospective verbalizing of whatever crosses the subjects
minds during the performance of a task. Applied to translation by such scholars
as Krings (1986) or Lӧrscher (1986), think-aloud protocols (TAPs) prove to be
an aid in delimiting the internal processes at play in translation and interpreting.
They help to make the convoluted process of interpreting a bit more comprehen-
sible by providing some information on what interpreters do, how they make
decisions or what strategies they use to solve translational problems. Although
the viability of the accounts yielded by TAPs is open to question, “the fact re-
mains – states Fraser –that introspection is the only methodology that has been
used on any significant scale to explore the translation processes” (2000: 52).
Tirkkonen-Condit posits the “transference of the emerging knowledge of
expertise to translation pedagogy” as belonging to the three major challenges
implicit in TAP research (2000: ix). She has implemented a new concept of in-
trospective TAPs into retrospective interpreting research, i.e. eliciting infor-
mation immediately after– not during the process of interpreting. Studying the
translation process of subjects who are either professional or non-professional
interpreters, may indeed contribute to the body of knowledge on interpreting and
provide both insight into the operations and important implications for the train-
ing of interpreters. Process research based on Think Aloud Protocols is not only

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useful in exploring interpreting processes but may also provide interpreter train-
ers with valuable information, bearing even more valuable implications for in-
terpreting curricula.
Nevertheless, it is hard to draw reliable conclusions from TAP studies on
translating and interpreting without detailed background information about the
subjects, e.g. their training and work experience, language skills, attitude, ethics
etc. (Jääskeläinen 2000). In a typical translation classroom, such background
checks will unavoidably result in different level of language competence, expe-
rience, not to mention attitude towards challenge. The results of research into
interpreting processes via such diverse student groups will not be valid and the
explanations of certain decisions made or problems encountered will remain at
the level of speculation (ibid.).Methodological shortcomings can, of course, be
remedied by supplementing TAPs with other data elicitation methods, such as
keystroke logging (e.g. Jakobsen 1999, 2003; Alves 2003), screen recording
(Perrin 2009) or eye tracking (e.g. Jakobsen and Jensen 2008) so as to corrobo-
rate results and capture data about cognitive processes more effectively (Alves
2003).
Similarly to the process of interpreting, its product also eludes precise
measurement, but it is assumed to be reflected in the product of interpretation,
namely the target language output and its quality. When it comes to the quality
in interpreting, quite peculiarly, excellence in this profession is not necessarily
commensurate with the number of disfluencies or omissions. Inerrancy is unat-
tainable because of what Gile (1999: 153-159, 2009: 182) calls the “tightrope
hypothesis” which states that interpreters are “vulnerable to even small varia-
tions in the available processing capacity for each interpreting component” even
when the source speech presents no particular linguistic or technical difficulties,
because they work “close to processing capacity saturation”.
Nevertheless, apart from cognitive-psychological experimental research,
linguistic or corpus-linguistic quantitative studies, there are also qualitative
methods of investigating the work of interpreters. Quality assessment in inter-
preting should therefore make allowances for a range of external factors that
influence quality as well as its attainment (Moser-Mercer 1996). Because of
various time and workload constraints, quality measurement cannot be conduct-
ed on the basis of general performance parameters. In a process-oriented frame-
work for defining factors which may influence an interpreting performance and
the types of possible repercussions on interpreting quality, Kalina (2007: 113)
distinguishes four dimensions to describe the components and conditions of
interpreters’ work: pre-process, peri-process, in-process and post-process phase.
Kalina (2005, 2007) advocates isolating individual factors and measuring them
one by one.

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If an attempt is made to assess interpreting quality from a more product-

oriented perspective, a typical error analysis would fail to reflect the actual
quality as interpreting is constrained not only by its own mechanisms and prin-
ciples but also by the context and its specificity. According to Pym (2008: 87),
“some degree of quality in simultaneous interpreting can be indicated by non-
omission”, but he emphasizes the difference between “valid” and “invalid”
omissions. Typically, in consecutive interpreting certain elements (e.g. false
starts, unnecessary repetition, hesitations) are left out but omissions involving
generalizations, substitutions, compressions and implicitations may be regarded
as instances of interpreting incompleteness, thus shortcomings or even errors.
However, as Pym observes, justified omissions of redundant information tend to
be low-risk and are “part of a general economy of time management, mostly as
part of a general strategy of implication” (ibid. 95). The interpreter should aim at
non-omission since it is the speaker who decides what is to be said; however,
what needs to be stressed is that theoretical and case studies should take into
account the source-text difficulty which justifies omissions in consecutive and,
to a lesser degree, in simultaneous interpreting. To recapitulate, a viable study
calls for establishing and justifying principles and strategies used in the research,
showing awareness of not only standards of good interpreting performance but
also numerous setting-related standards and constraints.

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Translation Competence

Paulina Pietrzak

University of Łódź
pietrzak.paulina@uni.lodz.pl

Abstract: The chapter will examine the concept of translation competence, its depend-
ence on and correlation with other factors with the benefit of the already functioning
theories. Various theoretical assumptions and approaches will be demonstrated in refer-
ence to the nature of translators’ competence. The process of its development will also
be analysed with the aim of specifying how it develops and differentiating between its
initial and terminal stage. Translators learn not only the skill of rendering a text from one
language into another successfully, but also, simultaneously, acquire other subcompe-
tences. A view on market demands and professional qualifications shows that translator
competence changes over time because of technology or numerous social demands. Thus
an attempt will be made to define the basic features of the competence. Translation com-
petence development requires taking all the characteristic features of the competence
into account. Complex and difficult though it may seem, the aim of translation trainers is
to provide their trainees with as rich and thorough translation education as possible.
Thus, however challenging it appears to teach something that is described as open-ended
and approximate, what is crucial in any approach is the recognition of the complexity or
the open-endedness of the process of translation in any curricular model.
Keywords: translator competence, translation competence, bilingual competence, skill,
subcompetence, minimalistic approach, language competence, transfer competence,
Think Aloud Protocol (TAP), verbalization, cultural competence, performance

1. Introduction

The following chapter is an attempt at the specification of translation compe-

tence which may plainly be described as the ability to translate. Its boundaries
hard to drawn, translation competence is an elusive notion. Translation scholars
have presented a vast array of conceptions and models of translation compe-

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tence, all in an attempt to establish an efficient method of defining what the

competence is. However, pre-defining the knowledge and skills necessary for
translators is a daunting challenge; it may perhaps suffice to note that it is the
very plethora of definitions of what knowledge actually is that serves as an ex-
ample of implausibility of arriving at a clear-cut conclusion; no more is it the
case that competing definitions simply replace one another, as it was with the
foundational perceptions of science all the way until the 1950s, but rather
a number of theories function at the same time. The same seems to be true in the
case of the translator’s knowledge inasmuch as the number of recognised notions
of what it is has proliferated greatly over the past several decades. No attempt
will therefore be made to redefine the concept of translation competence, but to
demonstrate its dependence on and correlation with other factors with the benefit
of the already functioning theories.
Chomsky differentiates between competence, an idealized capacity, and per-
formance, more ordinary and natural production; he shows that competence is
a kind of knowledge underlying the actual performance (1965: 3). However, if
this is the case, performance would not lie within the borders of the notion of
competence and such a statement seems difficult to maintain in regard to transla-
tion, bearing in mind the importance of the translator’s performance in the over-
all concept of the translator and his work. As Gilbert holistically describes it,
“competence is a social concept, a comparative judgment about the worth of
performance” (2007: 29) because we grasp the competence of one person only
by comparing it or a part of it with what is typical. The comparison of best per-
formers of translation enables the creation of a list of characteristics crucial to
perform it successfully.
Thus, for instance, if an attempt was to be made to define what translation
competence is and where it comes from, a neutral and reasonable definition may
be repeated after Schäffner and Adab who declare that the competence “is clear-
ly seen as demanding expertise in various areas: these will include at least
knowledge of the languages, knowledge of the cultures and domain-specific
knowledge” (2000: ix). Its foundation may be provided in Fraser’s definition in
which she considers the term translation competence to be a “shorthand for the
skills, expertise and judgement that a professional translator develops from
a combination of theoretical training and practical experience” (2000: 53). Re-
grettably, apart from translation education which is, as it is more often realised,
necessary in the process of acquiring and developing one’s translation compe-
tence, there is a prevailing common view firstly stated by Harris (1977) who
regards translation competence as a skill developed naturally by bilinguals as
they are ‘natural translators’.

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Although such theories were put forward not later than the 1980s, there has
been a sweeping generalization concerning translation which prevails in the
society that every person who knows languages of two different countries pos-
sesses the natural ability to translate. Such a conjecture must be refuted as not
every person who knows the history of two different countries can become
a politician and not every person who knows legal systems of two different
countries can become a judge just like two legs are not enough to become
a football player. Even more absurdly, as it is pertinently observed by Marconi,
“if a person can correctly translate the text into another language, we say that she
understood, but if she cannot and yet does know the second language, we are
inclined to say that she did not understand” (1997: 133). Indeed, translation
competence may be underpinned by understanding, but not only the understand-
ing of the meaning but also of the whole range of knowledge-related aspects of
translation. It is therefore the understanding of a subject domain, the linguistic
genre, the purpose of the source text, time constraints and creativity.
The generally acknowledged conviction mentioned by Marconi may also be
caused by the fact that, indeed, as Neubert points out, “a near-perfect knowledge
of the niceties of the grammatical and the lexical systems of the source and tar-
get language are basic ingredients of translation competence” (2000: 7). Yet, that
will not suffice as all the other sub-competences are not necessarily within the
scope of the competence of an ordinary user of a foreign language. As Kierz-
kowska aptly puts it, “whether translation is an art or a craft, we all believe that
everyone who possesses even superficial knowledge of a language can easily
translate it, ignoring the fact that tailors and shoemakers teach their apprentices”
(2004: 153, translation mine). Thus it is this basic tenet that must be acknowl-
edged by both translation educators and translation students before they apply
their efforts to translating.
Moreover, in an abyss of difficulty regarding translation education, this
need for the realization that even a perfect command of languages does not suf-
fice falls within the duty of those in charge of imparting the skill on the subject
of translation. Language skills must therefore be honed to perfection but in such
a way that students do not focus entirely on language only. Tricky as it may
seem, this must be incorporated into the course or the whole training programme
of the studies together with a wide range of other abilities translators are re-
quired to possess; the abilities span such divergent fields as technical expertise
and ethical concerns, hence, what may serve as a departure point and
a foundational framework in planning the structure of a translation course which
will include a training in the necessary abilities is a closer look at what is really
necessary for all future translators, before they start working and specializing in
particular types of translation and interpreting in certain subject domains. There

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is simultaneously no doubt that the needs are thoroughly contingent on the times,
the level of development of technology, the degree of globalization and the way
it unfolds.
It may therefore be concluded that the demands of the market should pri-
marily be taken into consideration when designing a course aiming at developing
translation competence. However, although translation competence is the goal to
be attained in all translation courses, it cannot be mistaken for all the demands of
the market that translators face in a given period of time. It is far more than only
qualifications to be a translator since it is independent of social, cultural, geo-
graphical or historical influence. Accordingly, Pym observes that it “cannot be
confused with questions of professional qualifications, no matter how much
teachers like myself might worry about training students for the workplace”
(2003: 482). Similarly, Wills notes that translation competence “as a uniform
qualification for translation work is, to all intents and purposes, nonexistent and
probably also nondefinable” (1976: 119). Thus, it may be ventured that transla-
tion competence is an invariable value which may be backed up by what Pym
goes on to say that “qualifications change with technology and social demands,
bringing in bundles of history that are simply too big for the eternal generalities
of a science” (2003: 482).
Above all, it has been regulated by The International Federation of Transla-
tors in The Translator’s Charter, approved by the Congress at Dubrovnik in
1963, and amended in Oslo on July 9, 1994, in Section 1(6) which reads: “the
translator shall possess a sound knowledge of the language from which he/she
translates and should, in particular, be a master of that into which he/she trans-
lates” and continues in Section 1(7): “he/she must likewise have a broad general
knowledge and know sufficiently well the subject matter of the translation and
refrain from undertaking a translation in a field beyond his competence” (IFT
2010: 1). Moreover, the Polish version of The Translator’s Charter, passed in
1993 by The Polish Translators Association, in Section 1(7) stipulates even more
stringently that translators “are obliged to continually upgrade their qualifica-
tions through the development of language and translation skills and improve
their general knowledge” (STP 2005: 1, translation mine). Thus, not only is
translation competence nondefinable, but also, together with all its intrinsic
components, it is nearly non-achievable.

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2. Approaches to translation competence

In order that the present chapter does not seek to redefine translation competence
and produce one more definition extending the long list of existing attempts,
a concise description of the main approaches to this notion developed throughout
the years will now be delineated. As posited by Pym in his essay from 2003
(481-497), there have been four, widely divergent notions of translation compe-
tence that may be distinguished since the 1970s:
 nonexistence of translation competence
 multicomponent idea of competence
 two-language summation model
 concept of supercompetence
Non-existence of translation competence may best be explained by sheer impos-
sibility to pin the concept down, reduce it to an unsatisfactory definition of
a simple ability to translate and enumerate its components. Numerous attempts
have been made to name the concept with terms like skills, proficiency or exper-
tise. More uncharacteristically, Lӧrscher (1991) would prefer to associate this
term with the very translation process rather than with the abilities so he refers to
‘strategies’ as a sufficient term; Shreve (1997) talks about translation compe-
tence in cognitive terms and calls it ‘mapping abilities.’ Yet, he goes on to dis-
tinguish between translation competence and translation expertise, positing that
“translation graduates may exhibit varying levels of translation competence but
not translation expertise” and ends by asserting that “a graduate translator could
never accumulate the requisite amount of deliberate practice to exhibit consist-
ently superior performance” (2008: 154). Therefore, is it likely that a concept is
indeed nonexistent if translation theory abounds in various terms and enuncia-
tions for it? Thus, with all the attempts to name it and with all the ways of defin-
ing it, the concept can be nondefinable but certainly not nonexistent.
However, the two-language-summation model seems highly debatable as
well and it has already been shown to be unviable. Harris (1977) together with
Sherwood (1978) advocate the idea of “natural translation” performed by bilin-
guals without any special training for it. They list four features of this special
disposition of bilingual children to translate naturally which are: the pleasure
that young children derive from translating, a bilingual mental lexicon,
a language-independent semantic store and the ability to converse meaning
across languages (1978: 168). Indeed, these are the stages that translators under-
go in their quest for translation competence, similarly to a bilingual child in the
developmental stages. Interestingly, Harris and Sherwood treated translation
competence as the third competence in bilinguals, beside their competence in

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two languages. If therefore, it is a separate competence developing parallel to

language competence than not every bilingual child must necessarily develop
this additional competence. Hence, this theory is contradictory and supports
a broader view set forward by Lӧrscher who states that “bilingualism is consid-
ered to be a necessary, but not a sufficient precondition for the development of
translation competence” (1997: 2006, emphasis in the original). Controversies
abound as for natural translation model, since it cannot account for translation
abilities of non-native bilinguals developed during formal instruction. It stands
to reason that a preliminary condition takes the role of a foundational basis on
which a more intricate structure, comprising inborn transfer potential or interlin-
gual proficiency, is necessarily to be erected.
As already hinted at, the multicomponent idea of translation competence
appears to be reasonably valid. If translation competence can be defined, the
most rational course of argument is to state that there are a lot of various skills
that it comprises. In the presence of so many lists of skills specified as the neces-
sary components of translation competence, we can choose from elaborate enu-
merations and schemata. One of them is created by Hansen (2008: 274) who
illustrates translation competence as a combination of skills and abilities influ-
enced by four major factors, namely knowledge terminology, translation theo-
ries, language cultures and translation technology. However, listing skills so
elusive as courage or attentiveness that supposedly represent a comprehensive
framework within which to identify an accomplished translator is infinitely rid-
den with controversy insomuch as translation competence is not an absolute and
therefore leaves a space for a significant number of minor skills or sub-skills
such as confidence or the ability to work under pressure. Therefore, it may also
be resolved that a significantly more minimalistic approach to the notion of
translation competence may suffice. The one originated by Pym is defined as
a system of two basic abilities, where the first one is the ability to generate
a series of more than one viable target text (TT1, TT2 ... TTn) for a pertinent
source text (ST) and the second one is the ability to select only one viable TT
from this series, quickly and with justified confidence (2003: 489).
Whichever model of translation competence appears to be preferable, the
multicomponentiality assumes that the numerous skills must be achieved in or-
der to translate successfully. However, as it has already been mentioned in the
previous chapter when discussing the suitability of the term translation compe-
tences with the emphasis on plurality, such approach suggests that even if one
subcompetence is missing, the translator possesses a wide range of other sub-
competences so he/she may still be regarded as a fully competent translator. In
each model (for instance Wills 1976; Bell 1991; Toury 1995; Neubert 2000;
Pym 2003; Beeby/PACTE 2000; Schäffner 2000) the number of the nature of

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the subcompetences vary either slightly or significantly so the notion is rather

relevant and unstable. In the face of such an abundance of divergent definitions
and a great many subcompetences mentioned in these definitions, one subcom-
petence more or one subcompetence less begins to seemingly make no differ-
ence; if a translator possesses one subcompetence less than defined in one of the
definitions of translation competence, he or she may still be considered to be
competent enough.
For instance, in the multicomponential model, the differentiation between
performance and competence prevails; performance understood as general no-
tion defined by Chomsky as “the actual use of language in concrete situations”
(1965: 4). Competence underlies performance just like linguistic competence
underlies translation competence; hence, as already established, linguistic com-
petence can function without translation competence but translation competence
will not exist without language competence; similarly, performance is also inex-
tricable with competence as the former cannot function without the latter.
A question arises, should it really be treated as separate elements in translation
competence or separate subcompetences? Can we still talk about partial transla-
tion competence when one element is missing?
A detailed enumeration of subcompetences seems unattainable; it may be
caused by the fact observed by Neubert who stipulates that “translation involves
variable tasks that make specific demands on the cognitive system of the transla-
tor” and he goes on to notice that “any attempt at defining competence must take
into account the sheer complexity of the demands that are made on the cognitive
faculties and skills of the translator” (2000: 3). The demands shall never be thor-
oughly defined and that is why multicomponential expansions of translation
competence have no conceptual validity since, as Pym observes, “they will al-
ways be one or two steps behind market demands” (2003: 481). Let alone the
fact that- translation studies being interdisciplinary- translation competence may
be gaining more and more components when more and more disciplines may be
used as a departure point for the analysis of translation competence.
Besides, defining translation competence should primarily serve improving
the level of translation education and satisfying the needs of the market from the
perspective of both those who commission a translation and those who are
commissioned. In order to supply such a valid definition of translation compe-
tence, lists of all the subcompetences may be made and relentlessly updated in
an attempt to keep abreast of the recent technological, scientific and cultural
advances. It means nothing but constant modification of the assumptions under-
lying translation competence and therefore also translation education whose aim
is the development of translation competence. This, in turn, means nothing but
constant changes introduced to the programmes constructed by translation edu-

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cators. Obviously enough, the programmes should be revised and adjusted even
to each particular group of translation trainees but enumerating necessary sub-
competences is more often than not devoid of any empirical research and in-
structions delineating how to implement the detailed subskills into the pro-
gramme and how to make translators have them; in fact this is what the point of
translation education is, not just the realization that they are necessary. Regretta-
bly, these lists of subcompetences hardly refer to the very process of translation
and may provide translation educators with an idealised picture of a translator.
Here emerges an alternative to regard translation competence as one, unified
notion, possibly called supercompetence, as it is only then that the inextricable
nature of all its subcompetences is duly emphasised. As Pym observes, this su-
percompetence approach means:

accepting that there is no neat definition of all the things that translators need to
know and will be called upon to do. Nor is there any reason to suppose that compe-
tence is at all systematic, like the grammatical or phonological rules that once pro-
vided the term with its archetypal content. (2003: 488)

No lists and systems can therefore serve the needs of translators, but only the
realization of the complexity of the process of translation. Competence is
a prerequisite for any undertaking; no attempt would ever be made without the
basic knowledge of at least the first principles of the task that one undertakes.
The fundamental principle is, above all, an awareness of the nature of the task.
In other words, one must know what it is that they are trying to do, to stand
a chance of ever doing it. The minimalist approach to translation competence
that Pym offers, namely the two abilities to generate possible equivalent phrases
and then choose the most suitable (1992, 2003) shall definitely suffice.

3. Characteristics of translation competence

The basic features of translation competence, listed by Neubert (2000: 5) are

complexity, heterogeneity, approximation, open-endedness, creativity, situation-
ality and historicity. Its complexity is best explained by the fact that translation is
an intricate process entailing a variety of subcompetences that are listed as in-
trinsic to translation competence. Pertinent to this characteristic of translation
competence, Robinson’s thesis stipulates that “translation is intelligent activity
involving complex processes of conscious and unconscious learning” (2003: 49).
Translators learn not only the skill of rendering a text from one language into

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another successfully, but also, simultaneously, acquire other subcompetences.

Nord (1991: 146) explicates that translation practice helps to enrich not only
translation competence narrowly conceived, i.e. transfer competence but also
other relevant competences, such as:
 linguistic competence in the native language (L1) and in the foreign lan-
guage (L2) with regard to formal and semantic aspects of vocabulary and
grammar, language varieties, register and style, text-type conventions,
etc.,
 cultural competence (e.g. studies about the target culture ranging from
everyday life to social and political institutions),
 factual competence in sometimes highly specialized fields (e.g.
knowledge of matrimonial law, economic policies, balance of trade, in-
formation technology, etc.),
 technical competence for documentation and research (use of dictionar-
ies, bibliographic methods, storage of information, etc.).
All these skills do not necessarily need to be practised separately but may be
incorporated in practical translation classes. However, the skills are very differ-
ent from each other, which is another feature characterising translation compe-
tence listed by Neubert (2000: 5), namely heterogeneity. It specifies the skills
required for translation as not only complex but also divergent as they comprise
the knowledge possessed, technical abilities, cultural competence, linguistic
skills and practical experience, all of them differing by nature and combined
together as inherent parts.
The vast array of these requirements explains another listed feature of trans-
lation competence, i.e. approximation. Translators “cannot be fully competent in
all the fields” (Neubert 2000: 5) as the expertise in all of them is simply unman-
ageable so they usually specialise in a limited number of core areas. Even when
it comes to the fields at which they are true experts, translators never cease to
search for new information or advice, which is another characteristic feature of
translation competence called open-endedness in the analysed list. Translators
never reach an absolute level of knowledge, however, they must never cease to
make attempts.
One more feature is creativity or rather guided creativity as their constant
researching includes also an incessant quest for equivalence; the reason why it
may be called guided creativity is that they are always stimulated to search and
create new ways of saying something by a source text. This creativity may
sometimes become inventiveness when translators try to find ways to differ from
the source text so as to better suit the needs of the target audience. Jääskeläinen
comments that “creativity in translation is relatively little researched area, alt-
hough creative problem-solving is an element of any kind of translating, not just

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the translation of creative texts in literature” (2011: 131). However, creativity

regarded as problem-solving and decision-making necessitate great experience
in translating, which is essential to identify the problem in the first place. This
ability may be subsumed under Neubert’s term situationality as it indicates the
translator’s need to recognise an old and a new translational situation and draw
from the experience gained on previous translational occasions. The list ends
with a feature called historicity which stresses the fact that, although at different
points in history the approaches to translation were diverse and constantly
changing, it may all be reduced to the need for flexibility common for translators
throughout the ages.
Translation competence development requires taking all the characteristic
features of the competence into account. Complex and difficult though it may
seem, the aim is to provide translation trainees with as rich and thorough transla-
tion education as possible. Thus, however challenging it appears to teach some-
thing that is described as open-ended and approximate, what is crucial in any
approach is the recognition of the complexity or the open-endedness of the pro-
cess of translation in any curricular model.

4. Translation competence development

In order to understand what the phenomenon involves, an attempt is made not

only to define translation competence but also to specify how it develops and
differentiate between its initial and terminal stage. The early manifestation of
translation competence from which it derives is unquestionably linguistic com-
petence. Taking into consideration the inevitability of a proficient command of
language in the work of translators, this prerequisite may be assumed
a necessary component of translation competence. It was Chomsky (1965: 4)
who originated the term linguistic competence to describe a speaker’s underlying
ability to produce (and recognize) grammatically correct expressions. All bilin-
guals have at least some partial translational competence, if not innate then
simply gained in the process of learning a language.
The fact is that each individual has diverse skills and thus also different
mental structures of understanding. Bearing this universal truth in mind, Presas
declares that the development of translation competence consists basically of
three kinds of processes:

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 the acquisition of previously non-existent competences;

 the restructuring of already existing competences in order to facilitate
transfer competence;
 the acquisition of strategic competence. (2000: 29)
It emphasizes the need to approach each translation trainee individually and take
his or her needs into consideration in the process of arranging and conducting
the translation course they attend. Robinson elucidates that “we all learn in dif-
ferent ways, and institutional learning should therefore be as flexible and as
complex and rich as possible, so as to activate the channels through which each
student learns best” (2003: 49). Therefore, when translation educators, facing the
multifarious challenge of translation competence development, additionally take
more personal approach, the organization of translation class seems even more
arduous. Bearing in mind that each translation task requires and employs
a different set of skills, a combination of the universal competences crucial for
novice translators must be decided on. The delineation of the universal compe-
tences is an attempt to answer the nagging question posed by Kiraly who won-
ders “what skills and knowledge are common to all translators, regardless of
context” (1995: 14).
As it has been established by Toury, translation competence is the ability to
translate which “presupposes the existence of two other, more basic abilities,
namely (a) to acquire more than one language, and (b) to establish similarities
and differences, on more than one level, between items and structures, if not full
utterances, pertinent to the languages that one has actually acquired” (1984:
189). Hence, linguistic competence precedes and conditions translation compe-
tence.
These two competences are therefore interdependent and inextricably linked
but in no way can they be assumed to be equivalent or to be the same. The
PACTE group of translation scholars working on translation competence ob-
serve that “it is postulated that translation competence is qualitatively different
from bilingual competence, the latter being one of the several components that
make up translation competence and that these competences are inter-related and
there are hierarchies amongst them” (2003: 47). What they also add to form the
basic premises of the holistic model of translation competence is that translation
competence “is considered to be expert knowledge and it is primarily procedural
knowledge, where strategies play a very important role and most processes are
automatic” (2003: 47), which corroborates the assumption that translation and
linguistic competences are mutually dependent but also separate, one of them
being the beginning of the other and the tool for the other; it may therefore be
stated that linguistic competence is the basis for translation competence.

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According to Malmkjær “within theoretical linguistics, the notion of compe-

tence is the notion of a native speaker’s knowledge of their language, which is
sharply distinguished from their performance” (2008: 297) which is defined by
Chomsky as “the actual use of language in concrete situations” (1965: 4). From
the idealistic perspective of Chomskyan linguistics:

Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener, in

a completely homogenous speech-community, who knows its language perfectly
and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limita-
tions, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors (random or characteris-
tic) in applying his knowledge of that language in actual performance.
(Chomsky 1965:3)

In the light of this theory, native speakers of a given language possess compe-
tence which is internal and variations occur only within the scope of perfor-
mance as it is dependent on an array of factors. A reasonably pertinent comment
is made by Kenny who asserts that “Chomsky, like Saussure (2006) before him,
bases his linguistics on a dichotomy between an abstract system that underlies
language use (Chomsky’s competence; Saussure’s langue), and real-life lan-
guage as used by real people (performance; parole)” (2001: 4). Performance,
though compared to parole (French term for word or speaking) implying only
oral utterances, should stand for any form (either spoken or written) of the usage
of language, which serves the expression of thought by means of language.
To form translation competence these two competences must be unified.
Since translators work to communicate the message encoded, they create com-
municative acts; this approach appears to take translation competence on a par
with communicative competence, which is what Bӧrjars provides the founda-
tions for when observing that:

In the Chomskyan tradition, there is a strict dichotomy between, on the one hand,
the abstract internal language ability, referred to as I-language (I for internal or in-
dividual; a similar, though not identical, concept in earlier versions of the theory
was ‘competence’) and, on the other, the physical and perceptible language, re-
ferred to as E-language (E for external; in previous versions of the theory, ‘perfor-
mance’ stood for a related concept). The latter also involves the communicative and
social aspects of language. (2006: 16)

However, not only linguistic factors matter here, but also a wide range of inter-
disciplinary ones like extensive memory, code-switching, ability to control inter-
ference, self-confidence in performance, communication skills, persistence in

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problem solving and so forth. All the factors combined affect the choice of the
skills to be taught or developed in translation training.
Nonetheless, the question presents itself whether the necessary abilities are
at all feasible to be taught to a translation trainee. This uncertainty is what un-
dermines the validity of the innumerable inventories of the necessary skills to be
acquired. When the skills are analysed from the angle of the cognitive processes
and mechanisms regulating translation, it is worth reiterating the observation of
Shreve and Diamond:

the implication is that both bilingual abilities and translation are the result of the
complex integration of a variety of common cognitive mechanisms acting over spe-
cific configurations of neural sites. The translator/interpreter is distinguished from
the nontranslating bilingual by the nature and development of the relevant LTM
(long-term memory) resources and the way they are activated in the different com-
municative tasks.
(Shreve and Diamond 1997: 246, 247)

It is this distinguishable principle between translators/interpreters and nontrans-

lating bilinguals that is in fact what is so necessary for translation. The nature
and development of the relevant LTM resources in both groups are of a different
character; since they are not typical or inherent in all users of two languages, can
it be assumed that the activation of certain resources may be learnable? Be it so,
the only legitimate assumption would be to attempt to sensitize students and
provide them with guidance rather than patterns of behaviour to follow. Practice
is therefore the very process whereby students establish their own individual
ways of dealing with translational problems by gradually activating the relevant
LTM resources thanks to natural processes of drawing conclusions, acting and
reacting on the basis of their experience. Instead of listing the skills to be devel-
oped, it is more reasonable to focus on particular components of translation
competence which may be necessary for performing a planned translational task.
The task will in turn serve as a means of sensitizing the students to particular
problematic areas; while performing certain tasks involving the activation of the
existent but latent resources, the intended components of translation competence
are developed.
Gile observes that there are some components of translation competence
that are considered “prerequisites for admission into translation schools, but do
not form an objective or component of training, although training should im-
prove the subjects’ capacity to use them more fully” (2009: 5). Among the most
vital components of translation competence, there are unquestionably not only
translation and interpreting skills. As Piotrowska puts it, traditional roles of
a translator or a philologist have been changing, making way for graduates who

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act as bilingual text editors, multimedia designers, IT specialists, cultural media-

tors, localizers, terminologists and others (2007: 103, translation mine). Hence,
to satisfy the demand for specialists of this kind, there are also computer- and
media-related techniques in which translators should be well-versed to rise to the
challenge of, for instance, voice-over, subtitling, interviewing, interpreting per-
formed on the Internet or telephone and so forth.
Additionally, if the list of all the skills required for a successful completion
of a translation is to be enriched, it should also include such abilities as proof-
reading, revising, editing and, last but definitely not least, self-assessment. It all
serves one purpose- attaining the goal of a job well done. Needless to say, apart
from the structure of a translated text, its content is what predetermines transla-
tion competence as well. Not only does translation competence require the abil-
ity to form a text with all the necessary devices used in the process of translation
but also a great deal of knowledge in the field the text is written in.
Bearing in mind all the skills needed to translate, a comprehensively struc-
tured list should be provided at this point. However, from a less theoretical and
more pedagogical perspective, rather than attempting to formulate a holistically
binding list of the necessary skills, competences, subcomptences and the like, it
is perhaps most plausible to face the fact that translation education is a solution-
seeking process whereby the contingently arising problems are dealt with in an
equally contingent manner. Translators have some conceptual tools to use during
their work, such as strategies, methods and procedures. Their taxonomies differ,
but they all combine to represent the means to meet certain ends, whose applica-
tion during a translation process is a rather subconscious activity. As Kiraly sees
it:

translation processing is probably a mix of conscious and subconscious processes-

a mix that may change as translators proceed through their training and become
more professional. The more automatic a process, the deeper inside the cognitive
“black box” it is. The automatic and conscious processes will respond to pedagogi-
cal intervention in different ways- and the former only to the extent that they can be
identified. (1995: 42)

This “black box” of a translator has been the focal point of numerous researches
and experiments but, try as translation scholars might, it is only its structure that
can successfully be described but, regrettably, not its content. Its interior parts
belong thoroughly to the translator and, however hard s/he tries, more often than
not it is virtually impossible to be revealed. However, the gravity of the subcon-
scious processes of translators and interpreters must not be disregarded only
because of the fact that they are indefinable. According to Kiraly, translation
educators must at least try “to address the question of the level and distribution

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of translation processes” (1995: 41). Prior to venturing into educating the future
translators, the chances of success must therefore be estimated on the basis of
the amount of conscious and subconscious processes that the trainees are able to
undertake. However, although only conscious processes can be revealed and to
some extent measured, for instance by means of Think Aloud Protocols (TAP),
translation education cannot exclude the subconscious.
The subconscious is therefore an uncharted area, but at least it needs to be
recognized together with its impact on translators and the process of translation.
To come to this realisation, the question what exactly it is and why it is so inac-
cessible must first be addressed. In simple terms, it may be seen as the mind of
the translator during the process of translation on the assumption that this is not
“an isolable process” but rather “a set of processes, a complex series of problem-
solving and decision-making processes conditioned by semantic, pragmatic,
situation-specific and culture-specific constraints operating on two ‘levels’- that
of the source and that of the target language” (House 2000: 150). Looking be-
yond translation processes, Séguinot explains the phenomenon of the unexplored
human mind by putting a translator on a par with an ordinary language user, i.e.
listener, reader, speaker and writer who he or she actually is:

For one thing, it is perfectly natural for people to let their minds wander, drift in and
out. Human beings rarely attend one hundred percent to the task at hand. Second,
readers and listeners hazard guesses based on the unfolding of the information they
receive. And third, readers and listeners with tasks to perform plan their interven-
tions as they listen or read. (2000: 145)

Inasmuch as there are limitations to human mind and the methods of its explora-
tion, the inaccessibility of the translator’s “black box” may be caused by the
limitations to the way through which these processes could be revealed. Namely,
it could be expressed and communicated only through verbalisation. Using the
study of Krings from 1987, Dimitrova notices that “an obligation to verbalise
may blur the clear-cut distinction between automated and non-automated parts
of the translation process” (2005: 72). Verbalising the thought is tremendously
constrained by, for example, time; this is because the thought is much quicker
than the process of speech production involving not only articulating the thought
but also a hectic search for words adequate enough to describe it.
The whole process appears to be so automatic on the part of translators and
interpreters that they would probably find it unfeasible to find the right words for
the explanation of the automated parts of the translation process. Moser-Mercer
uses the more apparent example of interpreters to draw the attention to the en-
couraging aspects of this lack of insight into the interior parts of the aforemen-

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tioned “black box” when she observes that “automation is essential to mastery of
the interpreting skill as it allows the interpreter to bypass common processing
limitations and to make optimal use of available processing capacity” (1997:
259). The quotation illustrates that these unconscious processes and therefore the
lack of constant conscious control over the activities the professional translators
perform, which causes the inability of the professionals to describe them, may in
fact be the reason why those particular people make good translators.

5. Terminological disambiguation

In the maze of theoretical dispute all the terms initially used by certain scholars
with time begin to develop unattended. The case may be that at one point deriva-
tives from those original terms should appear, which will inevitably become
conducive to further rendering the theoretical discussion equivocal. The notions
of translation competence, translator competence, translator’s competence or
translation competences have by now become so incorporated into the profes-
sional jargon of theoreticians and teachers of translation that their meaning is
frequently taken as read. Yet, their respective meanings cannot at all times be
used interchangeably.
As regards the nominal part of each of these phrases, the term competence is
“often linked to other concepts and qualities seen to be requisite for the task of
translation, most prominently to the following: knowledge, skills, awareness,
expertise” (Schäffner 2000: x). The term is therefore linked or even constitutes
other concepts indispensable for translation, as noticed by Bell who states that
translation competence is the “knowledge and skills the translator must possess
in order to carry it out” (1991: 43). All the knowledge and skills form compe-
tence which may be defined by Kelly as the set of knowledge, skills, attitudes
and aptitudes required to undertake professional activity in the field of transla-
tion (2005: 162). This stance is adherent to those of many translation scholars
such as Kiraly (1995), Neubert (2000), Presas (2000), Gile (2009).
Interestingly enough, Anthony Pym, a staunch supporter and defender of
a minimalist approach denounces enlisting sub-competences and advocates the
theory of two-fold translation competence consisting of only two skills, the abil-
ity to generate a series of more than one viable target text (TT1, TT2 ... TTn) for
a pertinent source text (ST) and the ability to select only one viable TT from this
series, quickly and with justified confidence (2003: 489). However, even this
standpoint corroborates the prevailing assumption that translation competence is
complex. No matter how many skills are encompassed in this concept, whether

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there is a plethora of sub-competences or, according to Pym, only two skills, it

can still uphold the validity of the statement that translation competence is multi-
faceted. Hence, translation competence acts as a summative term encompassing
a raft of various abilities and assumptions. Consequently, quite a natural way of
referring to this, in a sense, “collective” noun covering a plurality of elements,
would be by indicating the plurality in the structure of the noun, so it may be
ventured that instead of translation competence it would be more adequate to use
the tem translation competences? This term is used, for instance, by Kelly
(2000), though she uses it interchangeably with translator competence.
The reason why translators are expected to possess a great variety of compe-
tences may be a great variety of problems encountered during the process of
translation. As stated in Albir, “the specific constraints of each translation mo-
dality generate specific problems which require specific competences from
translators or interpreters, as well as the use of specific strategies and the devel-
opment of specific decision-making processes” (2009: 63). Indeed, translators
are required to abound in various abilities due to the abundance of challenges
presented by every text, sentence, phrase, word and even punctuation mark as it
tends to differ significantly in each language in terms of its usual position in
a sentence. Nevertheless, considering the suitability of the term translation com-
petences from yet another angle, it is mandatory to analyse how it functions in
reality, for example to describe the translator. A good translator should undoubt-
edly possess translation competence, or rather, as suggested above, competences
and then he or she is competent and therefore suitable to perform the translation
task. Hypothetically, if one element out of this plurality of abilities encompassed
by the term translation competences is not exactly within the capacity of the
translator, for instance the translator lacks an inconspicuous skill of decision
making or shows gross ignorance of the target language rules, can we persist in
considering the translator competent? If one of the competences is missing, but
he or she still has a variety of other abilities, is it still what we mean by the suit-
ability to work as a translator? Does it still add up to form translation compe-
tence?
Dimitrova observes that translation competence is “usually seen as
a combination of various competences or sub-competences, and the professional
translator is generally assumed to have gone through a developmental process
affecting all these competences” (2005: 13). However, if the development ends
in failure which results in deficiencies in one sub-competence, the translator will
no longer be competent. A logical term to call such a translator would be incom-
petent so if we refer to his abilities as to competences, is it still logical to discuss
his incompetences? Hence, the notion of competence is rather not “gradational”
or distributable; all the variables that translation competence consists of do not

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exist in isolation (Cao 2007: 50) and, similarly, when one variable is isolated the
rest is no longer complete.
Consequently, competences is not a suitable term when it comes to the dif-
ficult, “nondefinable concept” (Wills 1976) comprising all the necessary skills
that translators are obliged to have so as to deserve to be called competent or
proficient. The plural term competences may, however, be used to describe all
these skills as components of the concept behind this term. The components
cannot be separated and it should be reflected in the term chosen to delineate the
concept. The uniformity and inseparability may best be expressed by a term
equally uniform and inseparable, though complex, so definitely by a singular,
holistic term.
Having peremptorily elucidated the notion of competence, the time is ripe
for discussing the difference between and the validity of the abovementioned
attributives to the word competence: translation, translator and translator’s.
These three terms are often used interchangeably, for instance by Kiraly (1995),
but some scholars tend to confine to one of them, like Bell (1991) or Kelly
(2000), Way (2008) who decide to use the term translator competence or Alves
and Goncalves (2003) and Chesterman (2012) who refer to it as translator’s
competence. Others, like Shreve (1997) or Pym (2003) favour the term transla-
tion competence, although in 1991 Pym chose to call it translational competence
which is the term also used by Toury (1995) or Chesterman (1997). One more
term to describe this competence is transfer competence, used for instance by
Nord (1991) and interestingly, some scholars use a range of such comparable
terms to describe one notion but at various level of advancement. This is the case
with, for instance, Dimitrova who declares that “translation ability can develop
into translator competence, through formal learning and training and/or through
gaining practical professional experience. Translator competence can develop
into translation expertise” and elucidates further that “these are relative concepts,
of a prototypical nature, consisting of clusters of qualities and characteristics that
are typical to a higher or lower degree for a given category” (2005: 19).
So again, there is no need to opt for and stick to only one of these terms but
the difference, slight as it may seem, should be emphasized here. Dimitrova
believes that “translator competence is usually seen as a combination of various
competences or sub-competences, and the professional translator is generally
assumed to have gone through a developmental process affecting competences”
(2005: 13) so all the competences need to be considered through the translator
persona. This brings these two terms to an even wider discrepancy since assum-
ing that the competence is perceived through the translator and calling it transla-
tor competence implies that it has already been acquired and the translator pos-
sesses it; whereas the competence seen as a general notion described by the term

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translation competence apparently stands for a set of subcompetences that are

characteristic and required for translation but, from such a perspective, they still
need to be acquired. More generally, the term translation competence is process-
oriented since it refers to the process of translation and skills used in this pro-
cess, as opposed to the term translator competence which favours the product,
i.e. the translator, at least from the perspective of translation education- together
with the individual skills, background, education, experience, needs or progress
(Pietrzak 2013). Kiraly (1995, 2000) who applied Socio Constructivist principles
to translation education pioneered a student-centered approach which places
responsibility on students and focuses on developing their competence through
engaging in authentic translations, problem-based and collaborative learning.
Such a pedagogical approach favours the term translator competence to stress
the importance of individual professional performance and shift the focus to the
translator as well as the process-oriented research of translation. Insignificant as
the difference may seem, it is hopefully now clear and allows the reader to use
both terms interchangeably but with full awareness of the slight change in the
way and perspective from which the abilities encompassed by these terms are
perceived.

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Borrowing from English – Some Implications for Transla-
tion and Translator Training

Jerzy Tomaszczyk

University of Łódź
tomas@uni.lodz.pl

Abstract: While English lexical influences in the languages of Europe and beyond are
on the rise, the integrity of Polish, for one, does not seem to be threatened, Nevertheless,
the growing number of regular loans as well as semantic effects – loan translations and
semantic extensions – and the changes the borrowed properties undergo in the host lan-
guage are bound to pose a challenge for (above all trainee) translators and interpreters.
The paper presents some new data illustrating the extent of English lexical imports in
Polish, discusses in some detail the nature of the problems they generate and provides
a set of recommendations for translator/interpreter training designed to help aspiring
language professionals deal with the relevant problems. Finally, a list of recent publica-
tions – teaching aids – is included.
Keywords: cross-linguistic influences, false friends, language contact, lexical borro-
wing, translation between Polish and English, vocabulary learning

1. Introduction

The Anglicization of European lexis is a fact of life ( Furiasi et al. 2012; Görlach
2003; C. Hoffmann 2000; Z. Hoffmann 2011; Fischer and Pułaczewska 2008)
and non-European languages are not immune either (Rosenhouse and Kowner
2008). While Polish started opening up to English quite some time ago (Walczak
1983; Mańczak-Wohlfeld 1987) sizable influence did not set in until about
WWII (Koneczna 1936/37; Fisiak 1961; Ropa 1974) and, as the process has only
been gaining momentum since then, it continues to attract the attention of nu-
merous scholars (e.g. Dylewski and Jagodziński 2012; Kaczmarska 2006;

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Jerzy Tomaszczyk

Mańczak-Wohlfeld 2006; Molęda 2011; Piotrowska-Oberda 2006; Stępkowska

2011; Weber 2008; Witalisz 2013; Zabawa 2012).
The purpose of this Chapter is to present some data on the Anglicization of
the Polish word stock, place the Polish situation in the context of similar devel-
opments in the other languages of Europe, and discuss some of the consequences
the process may have for the teaching of translation.

2. The presence of English lexical items in Polish vocabulary

A recent study (Tomaszczyk in press) threw up the following data (Figure 1

below) illustrating the presence of English-origin lexical items in new additions
to Polish vocabulary as found in the Polish press in the years 1972-2005.

Figure 1. English lexical influences in the Polish press (percentages of total new vocabulary)

1972-1981 – 8.42%; 1985-1992 – 13.56%; 1993-2000 – 25.51%; 2001-2005 – 37.56%

These and other data in the study referred to above, including evidence illustrat-
ing the incidence of English-origin vocabulary in Polish texts, written and con-
versational (Figure 2), appear to justify the conclusion that – contrary to popular
and media opinion – English lexical influence on contemporary Polish is super-
ficial and presents no threat to the integrity of the Polish language. (cf. also e.g.
Mańczak-Wohlfeld 2004; Zabawa 2011)

Figure 2. Incidence of English lexical influences in Polish texts (Tomaszczyk in press)

Kurcz et al. 1990, frequency lists for five written styles of contemporary Polish – 100 000 running
words for each style – compiled 1974-77 – 2 % types, 1% tokens (own, unpublished data);
Otwinowska-Kasztelanic 2000:145, a conversational corpus of 70 178 running words – 0.41%
tokens;
Pułaczewska 2008, a study of a hip-hop fanzine sample, 42 000 running words – 2.7% tokens;
Zabawa 2011, a corpus of conversational Polish, 60 594 running words – 0.37% tokens; a corpus
of written Polish (internet message boards) 19 000 running words – 1.33% tokens

The figures in Figure 2 may seem small, but it should be kept in mind that the
loans are mostly content words, predominantly nouns (80 %+) and thus likely –
in some texts – to constitute a significant proportion of the meaning-conveying
items. Still, compared to what is reported for the other languages of Europe

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 Borrowing from English

(Figure 3 below) Polish is roughly in the middle of the league table of English
lexical influences in European languages.

Figure 3. English loans in sixteen European languages (Görlach 2003:163f) (percentage share in
the total of 3,639 entries in Gőrlach's Dictionary of European Anglicisms, Görlach 2001):
Norwegian 75.7, German 71.7, Dutch 68.3, French 65.8, Italian 63.1, Polish 46.9, Russian 45.7,
Romanian 43.7, Croatian 43.6, Hungarian 43.4, Bulgarian 40.6, Spanish 40.5, Icelandic 39.5,
Greek, 39.0, Finnish 29.3, Albanian 15.5

The figures in Figure 3 mean that in terms of the evidence in Görlach's diction-
ary (2001 ) in the last decade of the 20th c. there were e.g. almost twice as many
English lexical loans in Norwegian as in Polish. NB. this is dictionary evidence,
not incidence data, i.e. types, not tokens (types are words as found in dictionar-
ies, while tokens are words in a text; for example, in the preceding sentence the
word in is used six times, i.e. there are six tokens of a single type).
In a study of English (phraseological) influences in another Scandinavian
language, Danish, Gottlieb (2012) presents evidence to demonstrate that – lin-
guistically – Denmark is approaching a diglossic situation, with English chang-
ing its status from foreign to second language, and suggests that other speech
communities are likely to follow suit (see also Phillipson 2007). The process
manifests itself in a steady increase in the extent of ‘invisible’ influences from
English, including – among others – semantically extended meanings of native
words and loan translations (see also McKenzie 2012). To see to what extent this
prediction holds true for Polish, I have examined two numerically roughly com-
parable subsamples of my English-lexical-influences-in-Polish data (To-
maszczyk 2012), one for 2007 and one for 2013.
In Table 1 below loanwords are English-origin items showing minimum as-
similation (adoption of Polish inflectional morphology does not count as evi-
dence of assimilation), while morphologically derived forms are items that have
been subject to derivational processes in Polish (in the utterances in which they
were found). A distinction is also made between items that were treated by the
speakers as if they drew no attention to themselves in any way, i.e. could be said
to be fully assimilated pragmatically and sociolinguistically (plain) and items
that were made to stand out from the stream of speech through the use of meta-
pragmatic markers such as so-called, so to speak, as they say, reformulation etc.,
e.g.

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1. ...z tego wynika, że państwo powinno się zaangażować w pomocy [sic!] tym
tak zwanym, obco brzmiąca nazwa startapom, prawda, czyli nowym fir-
mom, całkiem nowym firmom (M65, 10/1/14)
...it follows that the state should help these, so-called, foreign-sounding
name, start-ups, that is new businesses, entirely new businesses
2. …młodzi ludzie, oni są zdolni do zrobienia flaszmobu, czyli takiego ad hoc
rzuconego pomysłu żeby się zebrać, żeby szybko coś zrobić …
… young people, they are capable of having a flashmob, that is such an ad
hoc idea to come together and do something on the spur of the moment
(M65, 24/1/14)…
(see Tomaszczyk 2013 for details) (prominent). Note that the figures represent
tokens and that percentages are calculated relative to total numbers of lexical
influences in the two subsamples, i.e. N=1786 for 2007 and N=1698 for 2013.
The data in row 7 are totals of the figures in rows 5 and 6 (to permit comparabil-
ity with Table 2).

Table 1. Basic statistics for English lexical influences in conversational Polish in 2007 and 2013
2007 2013
(N=1786) (N=1698)
1. loanwords 1265 (70.83%) 1223 (72.03%)
2. derived 256 (14.33%) 238 (14.02%)
3. plain 951 (53.25%) 913 (53.77%)
4. prominent 570 (31.91%) 548 (32.27%)
5. loan translation 123 (6.89%) 136 (8.01%)
6. semantic extension 142 (7.95%) 101 (5.95%)
7. 5+6 265 (14.84%) 237 (13.96%)

For comparison, Table 2 presents relevant data from an earlier study (To-
maszczyk in press) for loanwords, morphologically derived forms,
and combined figures for loan translations and semantic extensions (correspond-
ing to row 7 in Table 1). The comparability of the two sets of data (Tables 1 and
2) is limited because the earlier work (in press) focused on written texts and
dictionary words (types). As can be seen, the comparison is nevertheless inter-
esting. To make comparison easier, the relevant figures for 2007 and 2013 are
also included.

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Table 2. Basic data for English lexical influences in the Polish press over 1972-2005 (percentages
relative to total number of English lexical influences in the given period)
1972-81 1985-92 1993- 2001- 2007 2013
2000 2005
N=256 N=246 N=237 N=252 N=1786 N=1698
1. loanwords 25% 30.08% 45.15% 55.16% 70.83 % 72.03%
2. derived 66.40% 56.1% 41.77% 31.74% 14.33% 14.02%
7. 5+6 8.59% 13.92% 13.08% 13.1% 14.84% 13.96%

Extensive discussion of the tendencies visible in rows 1 and 2 is beyond the

scope of this paper. Let me only suggest that the distinct rise in the number of
unassimilated loans, and the corresponding fall in the number of derived forms,
between columns 1-4 and 5-6, may be related to the fact that the data in columns
1-4 are for newspaper (written) language, while those for columns 5-6 are for
(audiovisual media) conversational language. It may, additionally, provide fur-
ther support for the conclusion (cf. Tomaszczyk in press and Tomaszczyk 2014)
about foreign influences being relatively superficial and short-lived: instead of
taking root in the host language and entering into word-formation processes,
borrowed items come and go – at least in Polish – even though the numbers may
be large, as seems to be the case with English influences at present.
In terms of Gottlieb’s prediction referred to earlier, the data for loan transla-
tions and semantic extensions (row 7 in Tables 1 and 2) are very interesting,
especially in the context of the frequently made claims that the number of Polish
people speaking foreign languages, and English in particular, is rising fast: a few
years ago New Scientist newspaper put the number of proficient speakers of
English in Poland at 9.2 m. i.e. almost one in four, without however identifying
the source or defining proficient (Erard 2008). Loan translation, or calquing, is
a strategy of getting a foreign concept across by putting it into native clothing,
e.g. P na koniec dnia = E at the end of the day in the language of business and
markets analysts, while semantic extension refers to spontaneous, possibly inad-
vertent extension of the scope of a native word under the influence of a foreign
word, e.g. P ekpertyza = ‘expert knowledge’ under the influence of E expertise,
where the established meaning of P ekspertyza – a French loan – has always
been ‘expert opinion’. Thus, while it is not unusual for people who do not speak
much English to be using unassimilated loans as well as morphologically de-
rived forms, cf. e.g. the numerous attestations in Poland of gender, genderowy,
genderowo, genderyzm, genderysta, genderowiec, gender mainstreaming at the
turn of 2013/2014, culminating in gender earning the title of “word of 2013”,
with both loan translation and semantic extension a fair degree of foreign lan-
guage proficiency is a prerequisite, at least in the early stages of the item's pres-
ence in the host language texts.

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As can be seen, with the exception of column 1 in Table 2, the figures for
‘invisible’ influences are surprisingly stable and low. In other words, for Polish,
things don't seem to be working out the way one would expect on the basis of
Western European trends, at least not quite yet. Nevertheless, overall numbers
illustrating English lexical influence on Polish seem to be growing: Mańczak-
Wohlfeld’s first glossary of English loans in Polish (1994) listed ca. 1600 items,
while her 2010 work lists more than 3000 items (semantic phenomena are not
included in either).

Table 3. Type/token data for loan translations and semantic extensions in 2007 and 2013
2007 2013
loan translations
number of types/tokens 80/123 111/136
tokens/types 1.557 1.225
type/token ratio 0.65 0.82
single tokens/all types=% 60/80 =75 % 96/111=86.48%

semantic extensions
number of types/tokens 49/142 55/101
tokens/types 2.88 1.84
type/token ratio 0.345 0.544
single tokens/all types=% 34/49=69.39% 40/55=72.72%

Number/% in Witalisz 2007 9/18.4% 9/16.4%

In both cases – loan translation and semantic extension – tokens-to-types go

down, tending to unity, type/token ratios (the other side of the same coin) go up,
also tending to unity and, most significantly, percentages of single tokens, i.e.
items for which the type/token ratio is 1, are high and growing. This means that
rather than participate in the process of foreign influence assimila-
tion/conventionalisation speakers – to a significant extent – come up with their
own forms as they go along. Note that in both subsamples less than 20 percent of
the semantic extensions in my data coincide with those in a glossary of English
semantic loans in Polish (Witalisz 2007).

3. Relevance to translation and translator training

The argument advanced in this work is that – whatever the details of the situa-
tion in a particular speech community – the growing presence of English in the
languages of Europe is bound to pose a challenge for translators and interpreters,

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especially for trainee translators and interpreters. The reason is, very briefly, that
sooner or later the borrowed properties assume a life of their own in the host
language/community and gradually acquire characteristics that make them more
or less different from those they had/continue to have in the donor language
leading to the rise of deceptive cognates (faux amis) (cf. e.g. Beeching 2010;
Chamizo-Dominguez and Nerlich 2002; Krzeszowski 2000; Lauwers, Van-
derbauwhede and Verleyn 2010; Wełna 1977; see also the online bibliography at
www.uni-bonn.de/~dbuncic/ffbib).
That contact related phenomena, some of which in some contexts are often
referred to as cross-linguistic influence, transfer, or interference, play a role in
foreign/second language learning and translation/interpreting, including – in
particular – novice translation/interpreting, has been recognized for a long time,
and that role may be negative as well as beneficial (cf. e.g. Capelle and Loock
2013; Chamizo-Domínguez 2010; Granger 1993; Jarvis and Pavlenko 2008;
Jarvis 2011; Malkiel 2009; Nuccorini 2006; Paquot 2013; Podhajecka 2013;
Ringbom and Jarvis 2009; Tercedor 2010; Wolter and Gyllstad 2011; Zethsen
2004). Again very briefly, the effect seems to be beneficial at the earliest stages
of FL learning, when the problem for the learner is to acquire FL forms, above
all lexical, and that is also the main focus of the teaching effort. Hence the rele-
vance of the concept of latent bilingualism, first proposed in Poland by Rusiecki
(1980) – discussed extensively in Majer 1983: 57ff – and more recently translat-
ed into a learning tool by Otwinowska-Kasztelanic (2004), the point being that
before a speaker of Polish even starts learning English he or she already
“knows” quite a number of English words first because of the common Europe-
an linguistic heritage and also because of borrowing – direct or indirect – from
English. The same holds – except to a much greater extent – for more closely
related language pairs. On the other hand, as the learner becomes more and more
comfortable with his/her English and starts producing more sophisticated, origi-
nal texts, oral or written, where meaning comes to the fore, problems are likely
to start cropping up.
Those problems are related – among others – to the existence of lexical
items which are similar or very similar between the speaker’s (writer’s, transla-
tor’s) languages. The similarity is responsible for what is known as cognate fa-
cilitation effect, which means that bilingual/multilingual speakers recog-
nize/access cognates faster than non-cognates. The facilitation effect seems to be
the more pronounced the greater the similarity (Bultena et al. 2013; Kroll and
Dijkstra 2010). Details of how the bilingual mental lexicon works need not con-
cern us here, especially as the jury is still out on that; recent treatments include
Cook and Bassetti 2011; de Groot 2011; Grosjean and Li 2013; Kroll and Her-
mans 2011.

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If similar forms tend to become activated at the same time, then the initial
problem of form acquisition in the early stages of FL learning gradually gives
way to a problem – at later stages – of how to keep the two sets of words – one
for L1 and one for L2 – apart or, more precisely, how to constrain the surfacing
of non-target – unintended – items (cf. the inhibitory control mechanism dis-
cussed by Kroll and Dijkstra 2010 and by Michael and Gollan 2005; cf. also
Denes 2011: 185).
Below are a few examples illustrating the kind of translation problem in re-
cent student assignments that inspired the present work.

3. English original
... when you understand how beautifully Arabic fits together – why the
root meaning ‘west’ leads to the words for ‘sunset’ and ‘strange’ – the
sense of illumination is sublimely satisfying.
Polish translation of the italicized fragment
...sens tego przykładu sprawi ci niesamowitą przyjemność.
English back-translation
… the meaning of this example will give you indescribable joy.
4. Their owner is a DJ who has made a career out of his enthusiasm …
… który zrobił karierę dzięki swojemu entuzjazmowi
… who achieved outstanding success in his job thanks to his enthusiasm
5. ‘There is nothing I can do to top him’, one says in a resigned sort of way, all
fight knocked out of him
...każda walka kończy się jego nokautem
...any fight ends with him getting knocked out
6. The security mindset occasionally veers into the absurd.
To właśnie nastawienie ochrony zmierza do absurdu.
It is precisely the security (men’s) attitude that tends to the absurd.

What all four examples demonstrate is not just how easy it is to fall victim to
deceptive cognates, but that – more importantly – some people have no problem
according keyword status to a falsely identified ‘equivalent’ and building a story
around it. Also notable is that equivalence appears to be equated first of all with
lexical equivalence and that it does not seem to bother the translators that the
stories they invent do not fit in very well with the source texts or, as in the case
of example 3, the translation does not make much sense. In the first three cases
words in the English texts were identified with their Polish counterparts, viz. E
sense – P sense (= meaning); E career – P kariera, as in zrobić karierę = achieve
professional success; E knock out vb – P nokaut n = a knock-out, as in boxing. In
example 6 the relevant source text fragment refers to the US immigration offic-

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ers’ obsessive preoccupation with (national) security. The student apparently

took security to stand for the (mostly) men – formerly night watchmen – who
now sport black uniforms with the word SECURITY or OCHRONA printed on the
back of their jackets. Needless to say, security in the Polish context is
a loanword, and ochrona – a case of semantic extension/loan translation from
English.
Granted that 3, 4, 5 and 6 above represent only a fraction of possible lexical
problems aspiring translators may face (see e.g. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
2004), the ubiquity of such examples as well as of others like them (see below),
justifies the following recommendations for translator training.
(i) Rather than being a static condition which can be easily established with
the use of two-language dictionaries, equivalence is more usefully seen
as a dynamic process, something the translator will be trying to achieve
first of all – and above all – at the level of entire texts, and the treatment
of individual components will depend on the kind of text one is working
with (cf. e.g. Adamska-Sałaciak 2006; Kussmaul 1995: 128; Lewan-
dowska-Tomaszczyk, this volume; Pavlenko 2011). While Waddington
2004 finds that assessment through error analysis is superior to holistic
evaluation, his study focused on interrater agreement and involved trans-
lation into the L2 (Spanish to English) in academic sphere – second year
students in degree courses. In a later report (Waddington 2006: 71) he
“would like to insist on the pedagogical benefit of a model of assess-
ment which does not consider translation mistakes as absolute but tries
to take into account their effect on the communication process”. For an
update on the changing status of the concept of equivalence in transla-
tion studies see Leal 2012, and Pym 2010, Chapters 2 and 3. The prob-
lem of equivalence in specialized – above all – legal texts is discussed in
Paolucci 2011; and Pimentel 2013; while Philip 2009 makes a case for
the use of parallel/comparable corpora in establishing equivalence.
(ii) Words have to be known too, but words are complex entities with vari-
ous properties – learnable through a variety of approaches (cf. e.g. De-
coninck et al. 2010; Hatch and Brown 1995; Hulstijn 2013; Meara 1993;
Nation and Chung 2009; Newton 2013; Pawlak 2012; Pawlak and Kruk
2012; Schmitt and McCarthy 1997), but as the students move towards
more advanced stages – where autonomy and self-reliance have to be
developed – extensive exposure, also to parallel texts – combined with
active involvement (noticing) is the way to proceed (see also Chen and
Truscott 2010; Gillies 2004:Ch. II, Krashen 2009; Paradis 2009:Ch. II;
Płusa 2007; Rott 2013; Renandya et al 1999; Schmidt 1995; Van Hout-
Wolters et al. 2000; Yang and Sun 2013). With respect to equivalence at

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word level, it is useful to keep in mind that each use of a word is a new
phase in that form’s existence, at least a tiny bit different from all previ-
ous uses. In the majority of cases this is due simply to context effects –
again, every context of use is different from all the other ones – and thus
the newness is typically unintentional but there is room here for deliber-
ate action: Dennis Preston (e.g. 2013) has been promoting language re-
gard for what is otherwise known as language attitudes, François
Grosjean (2008) has been promoting guest-words for borrow-
ings/loanwords, while in translation teaching circles the more traditional
form translator training is gradually giving way to the (justified) dis-
tinction translator training vs translator education. Closer to everyday
life, the Polish bishops – and some MPs – have recently gone to consid-
erable lengths to make P gender (based on E gender) a dirty word.
(iii) In particular, considering the very unstable – or dynamic – nature of one
subset of Polish lexicon, i.e. borrowings from English as presented at the
beginning of this paper, time would be well spent if students were made
aware of the fate of the foreign element in Polish (progressive assimila-
tion, calquing, semantic extension). The teaching/learning aids that exist
would be a good starting point (e .g. Douglas-Kozlowska 1998; Korzen-
iowska 1998; Thornbury 2002; cf. also Review of practice materials
below) but the rate of change here is such that standard descriptive work
is unlikely to keep pace, although time is not the only factor here: more
than 20 per cent of the attestations of P gentleman/dżentelmen (from
E gentleman) in my 2006-2007 data had negative semantic prosody
(Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Tomaszczyk 2008), a finding that is
not reflected in dictionaries, and the word has been around in Polish for
several decades.
The situation does call for some consciousness raising and mindful-
ness work (cf. e.g. Jimėnez Ivars and Pinazo Calatayud 2013; Leow and
Bowles 2005; Wilss 1997). In addition to helping translation trainees
handle potential problems with better known types of foreign influence
viz. loans, assimilated and unassimilated, calques and semantic exten-
sions (for useful tips cf. Rivers and Temperley 1978/1981: 190ff; and
Hatch and Brown 1995 passim), the training should also include less
numerous categories such as false loans, hybrids, loan creations and loan
renditions e.g. smoking for dinner jacket, spot for a piece of advertising,
real for real life, or “real” reality, as opposed to virtual reality, komiks
for comic strip, or P stop, from EuroEnglish autostop for hitchhiking.
Obviously there is little chance of this type of influence coming up in
L2-L1 translation but it does surface in L2 writing and in L1-L2 transla-

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tion (cf. e.g. Dodds 1999). If – as is reported – such problem words are
sometimes avoided, that must apply to those cases where the stu-
dent/speaker/writer knows they are dealing with potential confusion (cf.
Meara 1993: 283; Malkiel 2009). Indeed, Kussmaul (1995: 18f) talks of
excessive fear of interference and regards it as a side-effect of teaching,
where students – faced with repeated warnings – develop avoidance
strategies to stay out of trouble. One cannot but agree with Colina's view
(2003: 37) that it is up to the teachers/translator trainers to explain and
raise students’ awareness and, more generally – and more basically –
help the students gradually shift from “heavy bottom-up orientation” in
text processing to a more balanced strategy , i.e. balanced between bot-
tom up and top down, giving due consideration to discourse and prag-
matic properties of texts (Colina op. cit,, Tirkkonen-Condit 1992:439;
cf. also recommendation (i) above), both SL and TL texts I would add
(on the last point cf. also Barbe 2000).
With respect to lexical problems involving cognates it is interesting
that a highly positive long-term effect of explicit instruction has been
observed (Perhan 2008, summarized in Helms-Park and Dronjić 2013),
and it has been suggested that “cognates be made a centerpiece of Eng-
lish instruction for Hispanic children in the USA” because of the extent
of lexical similarity between Spanish and English (Bravo et al. 2006,
summarized in Helms-Park and Dronjić 2013; cf. also Otwinowska-
Kasztelanic 2007).
One type of questionable lexical behaviour one does come across in
L2 writing and in L1-L2 translation is what looks like ad hoc morpho-
logical creativity based on the assumption that if there is e.g. a Latin-
based Polish form, there must be a corresponding form in English, as in
the case of (putative) E *metropoly, for metropolis, based on
P metropolia, E *pretendent, for candidate, based on P pretendent, or
E * politic for politician, based on P polityk. Such behaviour is by no
means restricted to general vocabulary and classroom contexts: in her
discussion of legal translation Matulewska 2013: Section 4.5 (165-179)
implies that problems of the kind presented here are due to insufficient
subject-matter knowledge on the part of the translator, but she does not
illustrate the point with real life examples. Suzan Šarčević (1997), on the
other hand, reviews the evolution of legal systems and legal translation
in bilingual countries together with problems generated by the insistence
on literal translation, first lexical then syntactic, which had its roots in
antiquity and affected, among others, the translation of religious texts
(pp. 24ff) (see however Lavigne 2006 for a critique). In a discussion of

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terminological problems of legal translation, she quotes E domicile and

its (deceptive) cognates in French, Italian, German and Spanish (op. cit.
251ff). In addition, she deals extensively with functional equivalence
(235ff) exemplified by E bankruptcy and Ger. Konkurs and Ver-
gleichsverfahren and with borrowing as a legal translation strategy (op.
cit. 256ff). Given that legal translation is often performed by people with
a background in language, not by experts in comparative law, the search
for acceptable equivalents must involve in-depth analysis of the relevant
languages and legal systems – the extra-linguistic reality represented by
the text – while reliance on dictionaries, bilingual or monolingual, re-
quires caution (op. cit. 240ff). The argument here is that this advice ap-
plies to all translation, not just legal. In the legal context most useful and
commendable is the approach to conceptual analysis adopted by Berlin’s
Internationales Institut für Rechts- und Verwaltungssprache (Šarčević
1997:240).
An extensive presentation of foreign words, phrases and maxims in
legal texts in various languages can be found in Kurzon 2013, transla-
tion procedures for dealing with cognates, calques and borrowings are
presented in Mayoral Asensio 2003, and a recent treatment of equiva-
lence in translating legal texts is Paolucci 2011.
The discussion so far leads directly to the next point, i.e. massive
exposure to the L2/TL as a preventive measure.
(iv) Reading skills need to be practiced and developed not only to make pos-
sible full appreciation of the text to be translated (ST) but also to make
sure that the target text is an acceptable and satisfactory version of the
source. Some useful literature includes Feist 2013, Gile 1995: Ch 4,
Kussmaul 1995, Mitchell 1996, Newmark 1997, Schaeffner 2002,
Shreve et al. 1993, Trosborg (ed) 1997. The trick here is to be able to
see the target as an independent text in its own right in terms of both
form and content. The problem with aspiring translators often is that
they will be going through the target text – their own translation – as-
suming content identity with the source not because there is identity (or
sufficient level of correspondence or similarity) but because they happen
to have memorized the source text, in other words, looking at the target
they are actually seeing the source. This is what examples 3 – 6 above
are taken to illustrate. An even better illustration is example 7 below.

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7. English original
Loosen the screws in the holder and remove every piece of the old wire;
wipe off the sooty deposit before replacing the burnt wire with a new
piece of correct strength.
Polish translation
...przed zastąpieniem przepalonego bezpiecznika na nowy
o odpowiednim natężeniu.
English back translation
...before replacing the burnt fuse with a new one of correct strength.
The text – Repairing a fuse – comes from an old handyman’s encyclopedia and
concerns fuses that went out of use many years ago. In England it was once pos-
sible to buy fuse wire for DIY repairs, while in Poland one was supposed to
replace them, never to fix them. The student would have known none of that so,
most likely, she consulted with her father or grandfather and wrote what she had
been told, not what the ST would have justified.
It could be argued that the effects of massive exposure to L2 texts would not
be easy to test. Informally, and with the present paper in mind, I have gone
through a sizable volume of essays written by Łódź University’s middle-tier
English literature scholars, all in their thirties, and have found nothing worth
quoting here: those people have spent years reading and they have all also taught
advanced-level English, mostly composition. This could be dismissed as an ex-
ception, but it does not invalidate the point that extensive exposure is good for
FL proficiency and performance.
(v) Consciousness or awareness raising, mentioned above, would also have
to include purely (historical) linguistic considerations to the effect that
foreign language material in host language environment, most obviously
lexical, starts out typically as an ad hoc answer to a communication need
of one kind or another and is then either discarded as nonce formation
and/or quote or else it is picked up by other speakers/writers and eventu-
ally ends up in host language dictionaries, a circumstance generally rec-
ognized as proof of its legitimacy. Of the ca. 1000 English-origin items
in a sample of new lexis in the Polish press 1972-2005 only about 16 per
cent found their way into the Mańczak-Wohlfeld 2010 Anglicisms dic-
tionary (Tomaszczyk in press).
Strictly speaking, such is the nature of language and human com-
munication that any linguistic item at any point of its existence is subject
to forces that push it in one direction or another as part of something that
is called linguistic evolution, an ongoing process. The more people use
it, the higher its frequency, the more likely it is to change, and change
here is inevitable. The question for the translator to answer him- or her-

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self is whether they want to initiate change, reflect it, or resist it, all
three options being equally available (cf. House 2011: 204-5; see also
Benhamida 1993; Baumgarten and Ȍzçetin 2008; Bennet 2011; Kranich
et al. 2011; Loock 2013). Responsible decisions of this kind require
a certain amount of self-reflection and self-confidence, but above all
knowledge and understanding of what is going on around them as con-
text for each text they work with and – more broadly – as input out of
which intuitions are built (cf. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk 2010). This
too is an ongoing process. What I have in mind in particular amounts to
day-to-day monitoring of the translator’s or translation trainee’s lan-
guages: this, by itself, is bound to open their eyes and minds also to the
underlying language variation and change processes that surface-level
micro events exemplify, but this would be even more likely to take place
if appropriate stimulation were provided while they are still in training;
a wealth of very relevant and useful ideas, advice and suggestions for
classroom activities and self study aimed at developing metalinguistic
awareness can be found e.g. in Thornbury 1997; Carter et al. 1997, and
Albu 2005, the theoretical underpinnings are dealt with inter alia in van
Lier 1996; van Lier and Corson 1997; Jessner 2006, and in various pub-
lications by Svalberg, e.g. 2012, while a piece focusing on translation
practice is Ehrensberger-Dow and Perrin 2009.
The language watching desideratum is all the more relevant in view
of the inexorable – it seems – rise of lingua franca English (Motschen-
bacher 2013); the consequences of this development for translation prac-
tice may be difficult to predict at present, but it does not look like a fad
that will soon go away (Hewson 2013; House 2013).

4. Review of practice materials

While Hatch and Brown (1995: 126-132, 136-138, 142-144, 181-188, 304-306)
is an extensive – and excellent – review of practically-oriented research involv-
ing various languages, it is clear that classroom practice and self-study materials
can only be truly relevant if they target a specific language pair (cf. Hatch and
Brown 1995: 130f, based on Nash 1978).
The exercises and activities that have been developed specifically for speak-
ers of Polish learning English – included in the volumes presented below – could
equally well be of use to speakers of English struggling with Polish.

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Douglas-Kozłowska, Christian. 1998. Difficult words in Polish-English

translation.
A list of several dozen problem words – many of them faux amis – with
ample explanation and illustration.
Otwinowska-Kasztelanic, Agnieszka. 2004. Słowa, które znasz. Praktyczny
słownik z ćwiczeniami.
A list of over 3000 words almost identical between English and Polish
presented in thematic fields (clothes and cosmetics; sport, hobby, pas-
times; food, drink and stimulants etc.), the items in each section being
arranged alphabetically. This is followed by an alphabetical index and
a set of exercises for each section of the book, as well as a list of 244
false friends with adequate explanation. The exercises are varied and
probably fun to do by younger learners.
Rudolf, Krzysztof Filip. 2003. Słownik angielsko-polski/polsko-angielski
wyrazów zdradliwych (=treacherous words)
A list of English words with, in each case, a Polish false friend (spurious
equivalent) and an acceptable Polish equivalent; a list of Polish words,
in each case an English false friend and an acceptable English equiva-
lent. About two thirds of the book is a section for the inquisitive user
where some of the items included in the first list are given more exten-
sive treatment. Altogether, there are over 1000 troublesome words in the
dictionary.
Rudolf, Krzysztof Filip. 2004. Słownik wyrazów pułapek: język angielski
(=lexical traps)
Basically a list of confusables, sets of English words which often have
one and the same equivalent in English-Polish dictionaries, e.g. Arab,
Arabic, Arabian. Other entries are e.g. critic, critique, critical and cubic,
cubical (though not cubicle). A small number of false friends are includ-
ed, but if an entry in Rudolf 2003 coincides with one in Rudolf 2004, the
treatment they get is different, as in the case of manifesta-
tion/demonstration vs. manifestacja, which means that the two publica-
tions should be seen as complementing each other.
Szpila, Grzegorz. 2003. An English-Polish dictionary of false friends
The main body of the book is a dictionary listing 473 English lexical
items with adequate etymological, semantic and usage information as
well as examples illustrating typical use. There is also an English index
of false friends, a Polish index of false friends, each with page refer-
ences, as well as an index of false friends entries also with page refer-
ences.

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Szpila, Grzegorz. 2005. Make friends with false friends.

A companion volume to Szpila 2003, a vocabulary practice book with
a wide variety of exercises, classroom and self-study activities intended
primarily for the advanced learner. The exercises are graded, there is an
answer key, a list of tested vocabulary, and information about pronun-
ciation. There is also a list of English-Polish false friends, without page
references.
Willim, Ewa and Elżbieta Mańczak. 1997. A contrastive approach to problems
with English.
Among some 180 pages of lexical and grammatical exercises for ad-
vanced learners there are four devoted specifically to false friends (trans-
lation into English, translation from English, and “choose the right
word”) and another four devoted to borrowings from English, including
false loans.
In addition to the above, there are corpora of various kinds which have a lot
more potential – and certainly more sex appeal – than the traditional, printed
aids (cf. e.g. Bowker and Pearson 2002; Frėrot 2011; Gesuato 2007; Hunston
2002; Kunz et al. 2010; Laursen and Pellón 2012; Laviosa 2002/2006; Olohan
2004; Papp 2007; Rodríguez-Inés 2013) but to benefit from them the students
have to have – as always – an awareness that they need help, have to know
where to look, and possess the sensitivity – and patience – that nuanced analyses
of numerous concordance lines requires (Tercedor 2010). The objection
(Malmkjᴂr 2003) that past behaviour is a poor model for the future because it
may stifle inventiveness – justified as it is on linguistic grounds – could conceiv-
ably only apply to the very advanced people who, as such, are less likely to have
to rely on such evidence to the extent – and in ways – that might constrain their
lexical decisions, not to mention the fact that, after all, the vast majority of novel
linguistic usage is like new wine in old bottles (cf. however the remark above –
recommendation (v) – that through the decisions they take translators will be
initiating, consolidating or resisting change). And it hardly needs pointing out
that technical (IT) skills and data mining have now become standard competenc-
es required of translators (cf. Gouadec 2007; and Biel 2012) and that corpora
have become an invaluable resource.
With respect to Computer Aided Translation (CAT) (see Chapter 8 this vol-
ume), Miłkowski 2012 reports that Language Tool, an open source proofreading
device, uses false friend rules capable of detecting possible false friends in trans-
lation involving a range of language combinations, mostly English, German,
Polish, Spanish and French.
It may not be irrelevant to point out that if translator trainers have been call-
ing for the integration of ICT into translation training programmes (e.g. Barr

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2013), these calls must be hitting fertile ground, for research shows that lan-
guage students have been quick to embrace new technologies both in and outside
the classroom (Grgurović et al. 2013; Sockett 2013; Steel and Levy 2013).
A catalogue of free/open-source software for the translation classroom is ap-
pended to Flórez and Alcina 2011. Furthermore, rather than making human in-
volvement in translation superfluous, the new technologies are making it more
demanding, albeit different (cf. e.g. Toudic 2014; Garcia 2012). This makes the
recommendations discussed above all the more justified.
NB. The terms interference, deceptive cognates (faux amis/false friends) as
well as problems, fall victim to, which appear in the present text, represent
a well-established tradition of talking/writing about the phenomena of interest.
They all imply that something undesirable or inappropriate is going on and such
indeed is the widespread – popular and media – perception of the external mani-
festations of bilingualism. Among those who study these phenomena the view is
gaining ground that bi- and multilinguals simply have richer speech repertoires
and – quite naturally – they tend to take advantage of the full range of linguistic
means they have at their disposal (cf. the extended discussion in MacKenzie
2012 and the references therein; see also Grosjean 2008). It is nevertheless the
case that language mixing and code switching have a bad reputation – another
fact of life – hence the large number of metapragmatic phenomena accompany-
ing the use of foreign lexical material (row 4, Table 1).

5. Conclusion

While the relative standing, economically and otherwise, of native English-

speaking countries in the world – for more than a century a major vehicle of the
global spread of English – shows signs of weakening (cf. e.g. Rachman 2011,
and Special Report: Britain, The Economist Nov. 9th, 2013), the English lan-
guage as the main donor of lexical material to the languages of the world contin-
ues to be doing very well. What we are seeing are the lexical stocks of various
languages becoming enriched, or infested, with unprecedented quantities of new
lexical material, some of which takes root. Considering the fact that the majority
of translation work performed at present involves English, either as SL or TL,
the development constitutes a real challenge for translation practitioners and
aspiring translators making it necessary for them to be watching all their work-
ing languages ever more closely and requiring them to be honing their skills on
an ongoing basis and deploying them with utmost attention and care. It is up to
the translators to develop the self-confidence and competences it takes to handle

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their assignments to everybody’s satisfaction and it is up to the translator trainers

to put their students on the right track. There is wisdom and experience in the
conviction that “Vocabulary cannot be taught. It can be presented, explained,
included in all kinds of activities, and experienced in all manner of associations,
but it is learned, absorbed, and finally possessed by the individual” (Rivers
1992: 252). And vocabulary is just one of the many things translators need to
master.

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Index

abbreviations, 7, 29, 273, 278 conceptualization, 5, 6, 9, 15, 18, 19,

accessibility, 187, 192, 193 20, 29, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48,
accuracy, 193, 291, 292, 307 151, 152, 156, 307
acronyms, 7, 29, 273, 276, 278, 285 Conceptualization, 307
adaptation, 5, 56, 61, 62, 111, 113, 120, concretion, 236
190, 192, 234, 263, 265 connotations, 26, 113, 120, 133, 138,
articles, 67, 68, 84, 100, 131, 148, 149, 237, 238, 250
257, 259, 294 construal, 9, 17, 20, 41, 47, 143, 146,
audiodescription, 153, 187, 190, 192, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153
194, 198, 199 corpora, 6, 9, 28, 31, 45, 46, 50, 145,
159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165,
back-translation, 196, 292, 293, 344 168, 172, 174, 176, 177, 178, 179,
bilingual competence, 315, 325 181, 182, 206, 207, 208, 267, 268,
Borrowing, 1, 56, 337 271, 345, 352
comparable corpora, 159, 162, 163,
Cabré, M., 48 172, 174, 177, 182, 207, 268
Calque, 25, 57, 120, 121 Corpus Linguistics, 50, 51, 183, 184,
Casati, R., 35, 36 185, 270
CAT, 1, 75, 205, 209, 210, 211, 218, cross-cultural transfer, 107, 108
268, 291, 352 cultural competence, 8, 315, 323
cognition, 16, 143, 306, 307 cultural filter, 111, 133
Cognitive Linguistics, 6, 9, 46, 50, 65, cultural transfer, 6, 111
143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 150, Cultural transplantation, 120, 122
153, 154, 155, 156
collocation, 22, 110, 195 definiteness, 68, 178
commensurability, 9, 13, 17 denotation, 26, 110, 120
communication, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 17, 19, descriptive equivalents, 107, 135
26, 63, 112, 160, 187, 188, 195, Descriptive statistics, 164
197, 201, 204, 205, 206, 214, 215, descriptive translation studies, 159,
222, 235, 248, 250, 253, 260, 274, 160, 163, 182
276, 282, 284, 285, 292, 297, 303, direct translation, 5, 53, 55, 56
306, 307, 308, 313, 326, 345, 349 domestication, 24, 43, 152, 153, 192,
Communicative translation, 120 219, 260
compensation, 45, 67, 82, 97, 227, 261 DTS, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 168,
172, 175, 177, 179, 182

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dubbing, 187, 190, 191, 192, 193, 200, interpreting, 8, 10, 34, 144, 161, 187,
202, 203, 219 192, 197, 198, 201, 249, 266, 303,
304, 305, 306, 309, 310, 311, 312,
empirical studies, 303 313, 314, 317, 327, 330, 343
English, 38, 49 intertextuality, 9, 23, 24, 195, 225, 255
entrenchment, 39, 54 intonation, 308
eponyms, 7, 273, 276, 282, 293
equivalence, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, lacunae, 56, 236
19, 21, 22, 25, 33, 36, 38, 39, 42, language competence, 197, 311, 315,
43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 53, 55, 56, 320, 321
60, 61, 96, 109, 121, 122, 125, legal language, 254
148, 149, 174, 188, 215, 218, 247, Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B., 39, 50
249, 250, 260, 262, 263, 265, 268, limits of translation, 225, 228
274, 305, 323, 344, 345, 348 linguistic untranslatability, 67, 73, 107,
error, 209, 292, 312, 335, 345 108
established equivalents, 119, 137, 262 literal translation, 5, 55, 58, 88, 89, 99,
explicitation, 25, 167, 169, 173, 174, 107, 111, 120, 121, 122, 128, 229,
177, 179, 180, 181, 286 237, 265, 279, 292, 347
literary translation, 7, 18, 44, 57, 71,
Fauconnier, G., 49 148, 185, 199, 225, 234, 238, 239
Fellbaum, C., 39, 49 Lutzeier, P., 50
foreignization, 43, 260
frames, 9, 11, 19, 38, 153 machine translation, 6, 206, 207, 208,
frequency of use, 9, 32, 46 209, 220, 221
frequency spectrum,, 166 medical terminology, 274, 275, 276,
functional equivalents, 134, 256, 261 279, 280, 281, 297
medical translation, 7, 273, 274, 275,
gavagai, 14, 15, 17 276, 279, 290, 291, 292, 293, 296
gender, 27, 56, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 90, memory, 211, 223, 303, 306, 308, 310,
174, 225, 239, 240, 261, 341 326, 327
gender in translation, 225 mental spaces, 9, 19, 20
gender mismatch, 71 metaphor, 6, 143, 145, 150, 151, 153,
granularity, 21, 36, 143, 146, 153, 269 156
minimalistic approach, 315, 320
heteroglossia, 225, 226, 241, 242 modulation, 5, 20, 56, 60
multimodality, 6, 7, 187, 197
iconicity, 143, 147, 152
image schema, 143, 151 neologisms, 28, 29, 31, 67, 99
indefiniteness, 68, 178 number, 6, 10, 18, 22, 23, 32, 36, 38,
indeterminacy, 5, 9, 14, 178, 225, 236, 43, 44, 49, 61, 67, 68, 69, 81, 92,
238, 240, 249 120, 126, 127, 132, 143, 146, 148,
interpreter, 8, 61, 121, 192, 303, 304, 151, 154, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167,
305, 306, 307, 308, 310, 311, 312, 168, 170, 171, 178, 182, 198, 206,
327, 330, 334, 337 210, 211, 217, 218, 231, 253, 256,

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273, 274, 275, 279, 282, 283, 284, re-conceptualization, 5, 6, 9, 18, 20, 29,
286, 288, 292, 303, 305, 306, 309, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 151, 152
311, 316, 320, 323, 337, 341, 342, register, 37, 46, 165, 185, 254, 257,
343, 351, 353 268, 305, 323
Relevance Theory, 192
oblique translation, 53, 55, 59 reproduction, 107, 123, 124, 125, 126,
oligosemy, 67, 73, 74 129, 130, 132, 205, 235
omission, 131, 132, 179, 312 respeaking, 187, 192, 201
ontologies, 35, 36
ontology, 36 semantic prosody, 9, 46, 346
semantics, 9, 10, 13, 21, 23, 26, 27, 35,
paratextual elements, 11 39, 46, 58, 113, 143, 145, 147, 152
performance, 8, 76, 145, 215, 216, 249, simplification, 41, 153, 170, 173, 174,
305, 308, 310, 311, 312, 315, 316, 177, 179, 181, 264, 283
319, 321, 326, 333, 349 skill, 305, 315, 316, 317, 322, 330, 331
perlocutionary effects, 12, 21 Skopos theory, 13, 107, 109, 223
perspective, 5, 6, 11, 20, 38, 55, 60, 62, sociolect, 9
108, 143, 145, 146, 148, 149, 153, speech acts, 9, 12
174, 176, 188, 190, 191, 194, 195, subcompetence, 315, 320
197, 258, 261, 285, 297, 312, 321, subtitling, 63, 153, 155, 187, 189, 190,
326, 328, 333 191, 192, 193, 194, 198, 199, 201,
Pig Latin, 137 202, 203, 219, 328
play on words, 11, 75, 76, 77, 86, 97 S-universals,, 174
poetic function of language, 225 surtitling, 187, 189, 194, 201
Polish, 38 syntagmatic translation, 126, 136
polysemy, 27, 37, 39, 67, 73, 74, 92,
273 terminology, 7, 31, 39, 50, 64, 69, 168,
prominence, 143, 146, 152, 153, 247 177, 206, 210, 211, 218, 247, 248,
prosody, 46, 306, 308 249, 252, 255, 256, 257, 262, 264,
puns, 6, 11, 20, 24, 67, 75, 76, 77, 78, 267, 268, 271, 273, 275, 276, 279,
79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 92, 281, 285, 290, 291, 305, 320
93, 94, 96, 97 terminology management, 210, 211,
218, 271
qualitative methods, 159, 163, 164, terms, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 20, 22,
168, 171, 172, 176, 179, 182, 311 25, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39,
quality, 13, 147, 178, 196, 205, 206, 40, 45, 47, 55, 57, 63, 73, 76, 96,
207, 208, 209, 210, 212, 215, 216, 99, 107, 118, 120, 121, 126, 133,
217, 218, 221, 227, 228, 231, 248, 143, 144, 147, 148, 150, 153, 162,
262, 263, 265, 268, 274, 284, 285, 163, 164, 167, 168, 169, 171, 173,
291, 292, 293, 303, 307, 311, 312 175, 178, 181, 191, 192, 195, 207,
quantitative methods, 159, 164, 167, 210, 211, 212, 218, 219, 234, 249,
180, 268 250, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257,
258, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 267,
realia, 114, 117, 118, 119 270, 273, 275, 277, 278, 279, 280,

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281, 282, 283, 297, 309, 319, 329, translator competence, 8, 291, 315, 330,
330, 331, 332, 339, 341, 348, 353 331, 332
tertium comparationis, 9, 10, 13, 16, transposition, 5, 27, 56, 59, 60, 120,
17, 50 265
Think Aloud Protocol (TAP), 315 T-universals, 174
transfer competence, 315, 323, 325, 332
translation competence, 8, 315, 316, unit of translation, 53, 55
317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322, 323, untranslatability, 73, 74, 107, 108, 110,
324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 330, 331, 114, 132, 225, 235
332, 333 user-friendliness, 7, 273, 282, 283
translation memory, 156, 207, 210, 211,
218, 268 verbalization, 310, 315
translation procedures, 5, 6, 53, 54, 55, visual, 6, 11, 19, 145, 147, 187, 188,
56, 58, 59, 63, 264, 348 189, 192, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198,
translation shifts, 53, 54, 55, 62 219, 226, 227, 304
translation strategies, 7, 9, 25, 41, 53, voice-over, 123, 187, 190, 191, 192,
167, 174, 177, 178, 222, 260, 291 194, 198, 203, 328
translation style, 159, 160, 172, 175,
176, 177, 178, 182 wordlist, 165, 166, 180
translation universals, 159, 160, 168, wordplay, 20, 67, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 82,
172, 175, 177, 179, 182, 184 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91,
93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 196

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