TRANSLATION STRATEGIES, METHODS AND TECHNIQUES: IN PURSUIT OF TRANSLATION ADEQUACY

Abstract

The present paper examines the ways of achieving adequacy in translation. The aim of the study is to define and describe the options that the different translators choose while rendering the message of the same source text (ST) and to establish the translation adequacy conditions. The translators’ options are considered in terms of the techniques employed to achieve equivalence between the textual micro units of the original and those of the target text (TT). It is argued that the choice of the translation techniques is determined by the global translation strategy which is seen as a translator’s action plan to reach the functional identification between the ST and TT. In the course of translating the corresponding techniques are used by the translators to fit the local strategies which necessitate the specific ways of dealing with translation challenges. In order to identify formal, semantic and communicative features of the translators’ options we set out the specific task of exploring the notions of translation strategy, translation method, translation technique and translation equivalence and define their significance in achieving accuracy and/or transparency of translation and, eventually, the adequacy of translation. The study is based on the descriptive and comparative analyses of four translation cases (TTs). The examination of the English-Ukrainian correlative units intends to indicate the types of equivalents and point out their contribution to the translation adequacy. One of the important findings to emerge from the study is that translation adequacy may be measured against the TT acceptability which is considered on four levels and involves correlations between structural, semantic and pragmatic equivalents. The TT that reaches the first level of acceptability is viewed as the case of low translation adequacy; the TT on the second level of acceptability is seen as the case of near adequate translation; the TT on the third level of acceptability is termed as sufficiently adequate translation; the TT on the forth level of acceptability is defined as the case of complete adequate translation.