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Different languages give different ways to look at the world but translation provides us the
opportunity to explore and interact with these different views of the world. Translation refers to
carrying the meaning of a text from one language to another. This process involves interpretation
of meaning of the text and producing the same meaning in another language. Translation as an
activity is actually as old as written language or text itself. However as a discipline of study it is
comparatively new.
Since all word of one language may or may not have a corresponding word in the other language,
Linguistic study becomes crucial for the purpose of translation. Linguistics pertains to scientific
study of language. Linguistic approach to translation focuses primarily on the issues of meaning
and equivalence (same meaning conveyed by a different expression). Linguistics thus tries to
discover ‘what’ the language actually means. It is then the work of the philosophy of linguistics
to understand ‘how’ the language means.
Language has certain features like meaning, reference, truth, verification, speech acts, logical
necessity etc. it is through these feature that the linguists try to understand the ‘what’ and the
‘how’ of the text. Any language uses a particular set of signs and symbols to convey a particular
meaning or idea. These signs and symbols are ‘signifiers’. The meaning or idea that is being
conveyed by these ‘signifiers’ is called ‘signified’. All languages are used in a particular social
and cultural context. So the ‘signified’ for a particular ‘signifier’ may change from culture to
culture and society to society. For example, for signifier ‘yellow’ in America, the signified is
cowardice (“yellow bellied”- a popular saying) for Japan yellow signifies courage whereas for
Indians it signifies joy. Thus the translator has to understand what the author of the original text
actually wants to convey.
Beyond doubts language is the most vital component in translation. Translation can actually be
understood as transferring the meaning or the idea from one language to another. It thus becomes
imperative for a translator to understand the meaning of the source text (text to be translated) in
the context in which they are said or written.
Language is formed of grammar, words, syntax etc. this form the structure of the language and
pertains to structural linguistics. However beyond the structural approach the context also
becomes important as said before. This aspect of linguistics approach is termed as functional
linguistics.
There has been a historical debate in the field of translation between ‘word to word’ (literal) and
‘sense to sense’ (free) translation. Linguistic approach can enter both these aspects of
translation. However the ‘sense to sense’ translation is understood to actually carry to the same
meaning as of the source text. So the translator is expected to maintain a linguistic equivalence
between the source and the target text. Doing so involves an understanding of grammar,
convention, idioms, etc in the social, political, economic and cultural context in which the text is
written.
Thus it can be concluded that a Linguistic approach to translation covers all forms of translation.
It is the right way to move forward towards better language translation.
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Linguistics plays an important role in the translation of a document from one language to
another. Translating information includes more than just changing each word from the original
language to another. One must also decode and decipher all the facets and functions of the
original language into the new language. This is where the study and understanding of linguistics
comes into play in translation.
The study of linguistics is essentially the study of human language. It can be broken down into
several sub-categories.
Grammar: the study of language structure and the system of rules it uses. It includes
several fields as follows.
Morphology: the study of the formation of words.
Syntax: the study of the formation and composition of these words into phrases and
sentences.
Phonology: the study of sound systems. (Phonetics is a related field concerned with the
properties, production, and perception of speech and non-speech sounds.)
Accurate translation of one language to another requires addressing all the functions of
linguistics. One must determine the grammar being used, the meaning of the words as individual
components, as well as the phrases and sentences they create, how those phrases are placed in
time and history, and so forth.
Each language differs in its linguistic functions but there are commonalities among languages as
well. An accurate translation must determine where the similarities and differences lie. Relying
on only one area, grammar for example, will not produce an optimal translation. It may, in fact,
be lacking in vital information if the other functions are not fully realized.
A careful use of the tools provided by linguistic study will improve the quality and accuracy of a
translated document.