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Translation - Glossary

CAT (computer-aided translation): this term usually refers to software that supports and facilitates the job of the translator. CAT tools usually allow the creation of translation memories and terminology management among other things. This can help improve the efficiency and accuracy of a translation (e.g. through the use of customised dictionaries). 

 

Interpretation: process of facilitating simultaneous (simultaneous interpretation) or consecutive (consecutive interpretation) oral communication between at least two interlocutors who do not speak the same language.   

Resources: all tangible and intangible elements used by a translator to translate. These may be dictionaries, glossaries, lexicons, the Internet, etc.  

Terminology: collection of terms relating to a particular domain. Also, a discipline consisting of the scientific study of terms and concepts used in a specialised domain.

 

Translation: translation consists of interpreting the meaning of a text written in one language (the “source text”) and reproducing it in another language (the “target text”) such that it communicates the same message.  

 

Translatology: Another word for “translation studies” – discipline consisting of the study of the procedures and issues involved in translation.

Adaptation: unlike a literal translation, an adaptation is aimed at bringing the target text in line with the spirit of the language, thus producing a text which is not obviously a translation.

Calque: a type of lexical borrowing in the sense that the term borrowed has been translated literally from one language into another and based more on a word-for-word translation rather than the overall concept.

Chassé-croisé: a kind of double transposition that involves changing the grammatical category of two terms side by side in the source language such that their position is inverted in the target language.

Discourse creation: translating a concept that is present in the source language but which has no equivalent in the target language. This involves reproducing the meaning of the source text by creating a new element in the target language.

Borrowing: retaining in the target language a phrasal element of the source language by adapting its phonology, morphology and syntax. This frequently leads to changes in meaning.       

Equivalence: using a set expression in the target language in order to translate an idiomatic expression in the source language.

Etoffement / Lengthening out: elaborating on an element in a source language sentence so that it becomes clearer in the target language. The translation is therefore longer than the original.           

False friends: two words existing in two alphabets or two languages that resemble each other either in sound or morphology but which have very different origins and meanings.        

Modulation: changing the point of view of the text e.g. from lost to found: objets trouvés (found objects) is translated by “lost property”.

Nominalisation: replacing a concept originally based around a verb or some other part of speech with a concept based around a noun.         

Transposition: translation technique in which a word or structure from the source language is replaced in the target language with a word or structure from a different grammatical category.