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Abstract:The explosion of thinking and writing on and about translations has been made all the time by the researchers of translation studies. It makes hard for people to keep up with it. According to those recently discovering the field,the author of this paper would like to give a comparative study of Jerome model and Horace model for studying translations which is posited by Bassnett and Lefevere. Different students of translation have different orientation of choosing translation strategies according their own situations. The author finds out that the translator tends to be faithful to his/her customers,i.e.,the target audience,in the Horace model. It is also found that the translator tends to be faithful to the source text,in this case the Bible,in the Jerome model. Firstly the paper would give the literature review of equivalence and the brief reviews of Jerome model and Horace model. Then it comes to the discussion part of translation examples which related to the tow models in the practical way. Lastly it comes to a natural conclusion which is not to say which model is better but to use both of them efficiently in the translation process.
Key Words:Jerome Model;Horace Model;Translation
Ⅰ、Introduction
Bassnett and Lefevere posit the Jerome model and Horace model which have been always concerned with the equivalence. As far as equivalence is concerned,different terms about it come to our mind,such as dynamic equivalence,functional equivalence and pragmatic equivalence. Here this thesis just briefly reviews Nida's dynamic equivalence and Baker's approach to translation equivalence,both of which is related to the research in this thesis and is a great source of inspiration to the author.
ⅰNida's Dynamic Equivalence
Eugene A. Nida,an American translation theorist says,“…One is concerned that the message in the receptor language should match as closely as possible the different elements in the source language."(Nida,1964:159) Dynamic equivalence is defined as "a translation principle according to which a translator seeks to translate the meaning of the original in such a way that the target language wording will trigger the same impact on the target language audience as the original wording did upon the source text audience". (Nida,1964) It is the equivalence which is not tied down to the source text form,but is much wider. It caters to the receptor's linguistic and cultural needs. The translation is thus tailored accordingly. Dynamic equivalence is based on what is called "equivalent effect" which is achieved when "the relationship between receptor and message is substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message". (Nida,1964) A natural consequence of this is that the exoticism of the source text is minimized which of course is subject to criticism. Nida also says that to achieve equivalent effect where there is conflict between content and form,"correspondence in meaning must have priority over correspondence in style" (Nida,1964) But dynamic equivalence,as a concept,puts an overly narrow focus upon response of readers,perhaps sometimes at the expense of other factors which are also crucial to translation,such as accuracy of the message,the uniqueness of the original historical setting,etc. Dynamic equivalence which is receptor oriented allows adaptations in words,grammar,and cultural information which it considers essential to achieve the natural effect in target language. Because most translators recognize that translation adequacy calls for attention to a multiplicity of factors,most translators today do not use the term.
ⅱBaker's Approach to Translation Equivalence
New adjectives have been assigned to the notion of equivalence (grammatical,textual,pragmatic equivalence,and several others) and made their appearance in the works in this field. An extremely interesting discussion of the notion of equivalence can be found in the book In Other Words:A Course book on Translation by Baker,who seems to offer a more detailed list upon which the concept of equivalence can be defined. She explores the notion of equivalence at different levels in relation to the translation process,such as equivalence at word level and above word level,grammatical equivalence,textual equivalence,including all different aspects of translation and hence putting together the linguistic and the communicative approach.
ⅲComments
Jerome model indicates that equivalence is everything,Horace model,equivalence is not everything. What is the equivalence is revealed above by the literature review of equivalence. That will greatly help people to understand these two models.
Ⅱ、Brief review of Jerome Model
What is the aim of translating? To preserve the beauty of the original or to make a new text to make it sense to the target readers? "Jerome Model is after Saint Jerome(c.331-c.420) whose translation in the West until about two hundred years ago. In its simplest avatar it reads more or less as follows:there is a text,and that text just needs to be transposed into another language,as faithfully as possible. Faithfulness is insured by good dictionaries,and since anybody can,basically,use a good dictionary,there is really no reason to train translators well,and even less of a reason to pay them well."(Bassnett & Lefevere,2001:2) The studies on translation were no other than discussions on translation strategies and methods within the traditional framework of "equivalence" or "faithfulness",whether it be "equivalent" or "faithful" at the level of word,phrase,sentence,syntactic structure or style.Actually,equivalence is a normative concept. There are a number of basic requirements that must be fulfilled if the translator is to succeed in establishing equivalence between the source and the target text. In real translating situation,the equivalence requirements are rather hard to reach. Literature translations are traditionally expected to begin from the concept of "equivalence". In literature translation,the translator is expected to transfer not only the message of the source text but also the specific way the message is expressed in the source language (Reiss 1971:42,translated) The language is an effective tool to express thoughts and feelings. So similarities extensively exist between various languages. Words with similar meanings in different languages have become those which could be directly used in translation. Such words generally include,those used to indicate things shared by all the human beings,such as the sun,the moon and the stars,those used to express the common behavior of all the humans such as listening,speaking,eating and sleeping and those loanwords such as sofa(沙发),coffee(咖啡),mahjong(麻将)and Kungfu(功夫).These words mentioned above provide convenience for translation instead of difficulties.
Key Words:Jerome Model;Horace Model;Translation
Ⅰ、Introduction
Bassnett and Lefevere posit the Jerome model and Horace model which have been always concerned with the equivalence. As far as equivalence is concerned,different terms about it come to our mind,such as dynamic equivalence,functional equivalence and pragmatic equivalence. Here this thesis just briefly reviews Nida's dynamic equivalence and Baker's approach to translation equivalence,both of which is related to the research in this thesis and is a great source of inspiration to the author.
ⅰNida's Dynamic Equivalence
Eugene A. Nida,an American translation theorist says,“…One is concerned that the message in the receptor language should match as closely as possible the different elements in the source language."(Nida,1964:159) Dynamic equivalence is defined as "a translation principle according to which a translator seeks to translate the meaning of the original in such a way that the target language wording will trigger the same impact on the target language audience as the original wording did upon the source text audience". (Nida,1964) It is the equivalence which is not tied down to the source text form,but is much wider. It caters to the receptor's linguistic and cultural needs. The translation is thus tailored accordingly. Dynamic equivalence is based on what is called "equivalent effect" which is achieved when "the relationship between receptor and message is substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message". (Nida,1964) A natural consequence of this is that the exoticism of the source text is minimized which of course is subject to criticism. Nida also says that to achieve equivalent effect where there is conflict between content and form,"correspondence in meaning must have priority over correspondence in style" (Nida,1964) But dynamic equivalence,as a concept,puts an overly narrow focus upon response of readers,perhaps sometimes at the expense of other factors which are also crucial to translation,such as accuracy of the message,the uniqueness of the original historical setting,etc. Dynamic equivalence which is receptor oriented allows adaptations in words,grammar,and cultural information which it considers essential to achieve the natural effect in target language. Because most translators recognize that translation adequacy calls for attention to a multiplicity of factors,most translators today do not use the term.
ⅱBaker's Approach to Translation Equivalence
New adjectives have been assigned to the notion of equivalence (grammatical,textual,pragmatic equivalence,and several others) and made their appearance in the works in this field. An extremely interesting discussion of the notion of equivalence can be found in the book In Other Words:A Course book on Translation by Baker,who seems to offer a more detailed list upon which the concept of equivalence can be defined. She explores the notion of equivalence at different levels in relation to the translation process,such as equivalence at word level and above word level,grammatical equivalence,textual equivalence,including all different aspects of translation and hence putting together the linguistic and the communicative approach.
ⅲComments
Jerome model indicates that equivalence is everything,Horace model,equivalence is not everything. What is the equivalence is revealed above by the literature review of equivalence. That will greatly help people to understand these two models.
Ⅱ、Brief review of Jerome Model
What is the aim of translating? To preserve the beauty of the original or to make a new text to make it sense to the target readers? "Jerome Model is after Saint Jerome(c.331-c.420) whose translation in the West until about two hundred years ago. In its simplest avatar it reads more or less as follows:there is a text,and that text just needs to be transposed into another language,as faithfully as possible. Faithfulness is insured by good dictionaries,and since anybody can,basically,use a good dictionary,there is really no reason to train translators well,and even less of a reason to pay them well."(Bassnett & Lefevere,2001:2) The studies on translation were no other than discussions on translation strategies and methods within the traditional framework of "equivalence" or "faithfulness",whether it be "equivalent" or "faithful" at the level of word,phrase,sentence,syntactic structure or style.Actually,equivalence is a normative concept. There are a number of basic requirements that must be fulfilled if the translator is to succeed in establishing equivalence between the source and the target text. In real translating situation,the equivalence requirements are rather hard to reach. Literature translations are traditionally expected to begin from the concept of "equivalence". In literature translation,the translator is expected to transfer not only the message of the source text but also the specific way the message is expressed in the source language (Reiss 1971:42,translated) The language is an effective tool to express thoughts and feelings. So similarities extensively exist between various languages. Words with similar meanings in different languages have become those which could be directly used in translation. Such words generally include,those used to indicate things shared by all the human beings,such as the sun,the moon and the stars,those used to express the common behavior of all the humans such as listening,speaking,eating and sleeping and those loanwords such as sofa(沙发),coffee(咖啡),mahjong(麻将)and Kungfu(功夫).These words mentioned above provide convenience for translation instead of difficulties.