Comparative Models in Translation

Correspondence is a relation between two instances of language use, for instance two actual utterances or texts.

In the comparative model, equivalence is a relation of formal and/or functional equality between elements of two language systems.

The comparative model is not useful for charting equivalences in terminology work.

In the study of shifts, if we find only similarity between a source text and its translation, there must also be some difference.

A recent variant of the comparative model is used in corpus studies which compare translations with non-translated texts of different kinds in the target language.

Comparative Models of Translation

The earliest theoretical model of translation is a simple comparative model, which is static and product-oriented, centered on equivalence.
The basic comparative model can be represented as: ST = TT or TT = ST, where the equals sign signifies "is equivalent to".
However, the equals sign is misleading, as perfect identity in translation is not possible.
Instead, the relation is interpreted as "approximately equal", denoted by the sign ::::.
This model lines up the translation side by side with the source text, viewing translation as an alignment problem.
The task is to select the target language element that aligns most closely with a given source language element, considering contextual constraints.
Scholars such as Catford (1965) and Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/1995) have taken contrastive approaches based on this model.
Catford's work (1965) is particularly relevant, specifically pages 29-31.
Vinay and Darbelnet's work (1958/1995) is also important in this context.

Explore the earliest theoretical model of translation, which was static and product-oriented, centred on some kind of relation of equivalence. Learn about the simple comparative model and its implications for the field of translation.