Contrastive Linguistics: implication for Education and Translation

Prof. Sattar Izwaini, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

The relation between Translation Studies and Linguistics has already had its share of discussion and disagreements. It started by looking at translation as an area of applied linguistics. However, contrastive linguistics can offer translation students with the tools to learn how to produce successful translations. This presentation will outline how CL is an important area of education that can aid translation students in acquiring the knowledge required in their professional work.

As translation is meant to convey a meaning encapsulated in a message that is a semantically well-formed text, a translator needs to have a good knowledge of the source language (SL) system as well as the target language (TL) system; hence, teaching a contrast between the levels of both systems would provide him/her with insight of how to achieve equivalence. Contrastive linguistics can help in highlighting similarities and differences between the SL and TL and using findings in practice when carrying out and researching translation.

Similarities can help having smooth, problem-free translation process. However, differences can cause mismatches, and this aspect should be focused on to try to find solutions to translation problems, and to make use of what the linguistic systems permit and what they do not permit. If the translation ignores the latter, we will have what is called translationese due to interference, by forcing the TL system (and style) on the TL system (and style), producing a ‘third language’.

Mastery of the translator’s language pair would require a contrastive knowledge of their mechanisms. The semantic level can be overarching of all other levels as meaning is paramount in translation, and it may include pragmatics, stylistics and cultural elements.

At the phonological level, borrowing and transliteration of proper names, words and expressions are to be dealt with in translation. Borrowing is using SL lexical items in the TL due to lack of a designation for a certain concept (process, property, item). This entails having the borrowed word written in the TL script depending (or not) on the phonological profile of the SL word (phonemes) and the corresponding phonemes available in the TL and the specific features of its phonological system.

At the lexical level, word-formation mechanisms, terminologization and collocations need to be contrasted when working with them in translation.

Finally, the textual level would require knowledge of cohesion and use of cohesive devices such as reference (anaphora & cataphora), ellipsis, repetition, and substitution.

All these levels need to be taught to translations students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels to be able to have a knowledge of, and a mastery of the language systems the translator students are studying in higher education.