Translation course: Guide of contents: Chapters 8 to 12

PART 1: Introduction

Chapter 8:

Mental processes linked to writing:

- Every language categorizes the human experience in a different way.

- In our minds, the verbal language works to communicate with others, while we use our inner language to think, or “communicate with ourselves”: These are two different systems: Our inner system and our verbal categorizing system.

- For example, dreams are a direct expression of our inner system of language, and that’s why they are subject to analysis in psychology and psychoanalysis.

Chapter 9:

Translation as a mental process

“Let us follow Hönig's passages. The original, in order to be translated, is "moved out" of its natural context and projected onto the translator's mental reality. The translator does not work on the original text, consequently, but on its mental projection.”

Chapter 10 and 11: Verbal communication

A. The model of verbal communication

What does happen when language involve many people in communication?

Roman Jakobson has developed the most accepted model of communication

- Addresser Message Addressee

Context or Reference

Contact

Code

Correspond to the six following functions of communication:

REFERENTIAL

EMOTIVE -------> POETIC -------> CONATIVE

PHATIC

METALINGUAL

When considering a translation, we should consider which type of message we are dealing with.

Characteristic of each function:

Expressive function: Example: To explain how you feel…(subjectivity)

Referential function: Example: To describe an event. (Accuracy, objectivity)

Poetic function: To present a nice message or picture (beauty)

Phatic function: To create the contact (Hallo? Are you there?)

Conative function: “Second person function”: To persuade of something…To center the communication on the addressee.

Metalingual function: Explaining the words, explaining the code. It’s a meta-code.

B. Selection and combination
Language is organized within rules of combination and rules of selection. For example,

Combinative process: For example, I can combine a noun with an adjective but not with a pronoun: “A blue car” is ok but not “it car”. It can create metonymies: ex: “to daydream= to be during the day like if you were dreaming”.

Selective process: When I visualize a car, I must say “car” and not “horse”. Metaphors proceed from this process: “Golden years” is a metaphor resulting from a comparison between “successful” and “gold”