Translation course: Guide of contents: Chapters 8 to 12
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.”
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”