In his essay “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” Roman Jakobson arrived at three forms of translation
- Intralingual translation: Translation within a language which would involve explaining it in words of the same language
- Interlingual translation: Translation from one language into another or reinterpretation of the message in another linguistic code
- Intersemiotic translation: Translation from one linguistic system to another which means the transference of meaning from a verbal to a non-verbal system or from one medium to another
Jakobson points out how difficult it is to achieve complete equivalence because of the complexity of the codes involved. Even in intralingual translation we have to make use of combination of code units to interpret meaning. So even synonyms cannot guarantee full equivalence. This becomes complicated when the SL and TL are different. In addition to the difference between two language systems, cultural differences also pose huge barriers to translation activity. Eugene Nida says: “Since no two languages are identical, either in the meanings given to corresponding symbols or in the ways in which such symbols are arranged in phrases and sentences, it stands to reason that there can be no absolute correspondence between languages. Hence there can be no fully exact translations” (Venuti 126). |
