Definition and Usage of Literal Translation
– Literal translation is a word-for-word translation that does not consider the context or idiomatic expressions.
– It is often used in translation theory and can be referred to as metaphrase.
– Literal translation should be distinguished from interpretation.
– Literal translation can lead to mistranslation of idioms.
– Literal translation was a significant issue in early machine translation.
Cribs or Word-for-word Translations
– Cribs are literal translations used by writers who don’t know the source language.
– Robert Pinsky used a literal translation for his translation of Dante’s Inferno.
– Richard Pevear used literal translations provided by his wife for their translations of Russian novels.
– Cribs help in understanding the meaning of the original text.
– Literal translations can be prose translations of poetic works.
Literal Translation in Poetry to Prose
– Literal translation can represent the precise meaning of a poetic work.
– It does not attempt to convey the style, beauty, or poetry of the original text.
– Charles Singleton’s translation of the Divine Comedy is regarded as a prose translation.
– There is a difference between literal translation of poetry and prose translation.
– Literal translation can be error-free but lacks the poetic elements.
Issues with Literal Translation
– Literal translation is often full of errors.
– It fails to convey correct idioms or shades of meaning.
– However, it can be useful for understanding word usage in the source language.
– Literal translation can result in broken English or awkward phrasing.
– Loan translation or calques are literal translations that create new lexical items in the target language.
Machine Translation and Literal Translation
– Early machine translations relied on literal translation, resulting in poor translations.
– Later attempts used common phrases to improve grammatical structure and capture idioms.
– Synthetic languages require morphosyntactic analyzers and synthesizers for accurate translation.
– The best machine translation systems combine technologies and algorithms with human intervention.
– Machine translation failures highlight the limitations of literal translation, such as incorrect grammar and loss of meaning. Source URL:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_translation
