Professional Translation - Essay Example

This framed Nida's dynamic equivalence which is understanding not only the meaning of the source text but also the manner in which the intended receptors of a text are likely to understand it in the receptor language (Tianmin). In other words, Nida is more concerned in how the receptors would understand or digest the intended message of the original text. Nida has been into biblical translations. One theory of equivalence is that of Vinay and Darbelnet who view equivalence-oriented translation as a procedure which 'replicates the same situation as in the original, whilst using completely different wording' (Kenny: 342).

They regard the method as ideal in dealing with proverbs, idioms, clichs, nominal or adjectival phrases and the onomatopoeia of animal sounds. Another theory of equivalence is that of Jakobson, known as the concept of equivalence in difference. Roman Jakobson's study of equivalence gave new impetus to the theoretical analysis of translation since he introduced the notion of 'equivalence in difference' (Jakobson, 1959:232). . There is no full equivalence between code units. According to his theory, 'translation involves two equivalent messages in two different codes' (Jakobson, p. 233). From a grammatical point of view, languages may differ from one another to a greater or lesser degree, but this does not mean that a translation cannot be possible, meaning that the translator may face the problem of not finding a translation equivalent.

Similarities of Vinay and Darbelnet's theory and Jakobson's theory can be found in the fact that both can rely on other procedures such as loan-translations or neologisms whenever linguistic approach is no longer suitable in the translation process. Nida and Taber's formal correspondence and dynamic equivalence is another theory of equivalence. Formal correspondence 'focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content' (Nida and Taber, 1982), unlike dynamic equivalence which is based upon 'the principle of equivalent effect' (1964: 159).

Formal correspondence consists of correspondence TL item which represents the closest equivalent of a SL word or phrase. There are not always formal equivalents between language pairs. These formal equivalents should be used wherever possible if the translation aims at achieving formal rather than dynamic equivalence. Nida and Taber assert that formal correspondence distorts the grammatical and stylistic patterns of the receptor language, and hence distorts the message, so as to cause the receptor to misunderstand or to labor unduly hard' (1964:201).

Dynamic equivalence is defined as a translation principle according to which a translator seeks to translate the meaning of the original in such a way that the TL wording will trigger the same