Shanghai foreign language education press
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| ATTITUDE
In passages making evaluations and recommendations, you have to assess the standards of the writer. If he writes 'good', 'fair*, 'average', 'competent 1 , 'adequate 1 , 'satisfactory 1 , 'middling', 'poor 1 , 'excellent', are his standards-relative to the context - absolute, generally accepted in his culture, or arbitrary? Often there is only a thin line in the critical difference between a positive and a negative opinion, which is not clarified by the 'middle' words I have listed. Similarly, approximately the same referent may often be expressed positively, neutrally or negatively in many languages; thus 'plump/fat*; rondeletjgras; mollig/dkh; 'slim/slender/thin 1 ; svelte Imincelmaigre; schlankldiinnfmager. (The process develops as writers become more aware of their language.) Regime ('government') is neutral in French but negative in English. SETTING You have to decide on the likely setting: Where would the text be published in the TL? What is the TL equivalent of the SL periodical, newspaper, textbook, journal, etc?, or Who is the client you are translating for and what are his requirements? You may have to take account of briefer titles, absence of sub-titles and sub-headings, shorter paragraphs and other features of the TL house-style, You have to make several assumptions about the SL readership. From the setting of the SL text, as well as the text itself, you should assess whether the readership is likely to be motivated (keen to read the text), familiar with the topic and the culture, and 'at home' in the variety of language used. The three typical reader types are perhaps the expert, the educated layman, and the uninformed. You then have to consider whether you are translating for the same or a different type of TL readership, perhaps with less knowledge of the topic or the culture, or a lower standard of linguistic education. Finally, if you are translating a poem or an important authoritative statement, should you consider the TL reader at all, apart from concessions or cultural ^scraps' to help him out (e.g, translating 'a half-holiday 1 as un apris-midi litre)} |