Catford's Translation Shifts PDF

CATFORD'S TRANSLATION SHIFTS Dr. Atheer Alsuwayl ♤ Catford's Typology of Translation Shifts In his book, A Linguistic Theory to Translation, Catford (1965) tackled the notion of translation from a linguistic-oriented approach. He defined translation as “an operation performed on la...

CATFORD'S TRANSLATION SHIFTS Dr. Atheer Alsuwayl ♤ Catford's Typology of Translation Shifts In his book, A Linguistic Theory to Translation, Catford (1965) tackled the notion of translation from a linguistic-oriented approach. He defined translation as “an operation performed on languages, a process of substituting a text in one language for a text in another” (p. 1). He argued that translation theory is mainly a branch of linguistic theory as he first highlighted the fact that translation mainly deals with languages, then he described how translation happens between two languages. From his definition of translation Catfrod (1965) derived his general linguistic theory to translation. He explains, “any theory of translation must draw upon a theory of language a general linguistic theory” (p. 1). Catford (1965) associated translation with three fields of linguistics, namely general linguistics, comparative linguistics, and applied linguistics. He clarified that “General Linguistics is, primary, a theory about how languages work” (p.1). These two fields are relevant because they both have in common the aspect of ‘language’. Catford (1965) defined Comparative Linguistics as “an extension of descriptive linguistics which establishes the relation between two or more languages” (p.19). Since translation concerns a relation between two languages, it is relevant to Comparative Linguistics. Finally, translation is also seen by Catford (1965) as a branch of Applied Linguistics since translation is, in fact, a practice of rendering the content of the SL to the TL. He defined Applied Linguistics as “all those applications of the theory and categories of general linguistics which go beyond (i) illustration of how language work and (ii) the description of a particular language or languages for its/their sake’ (p. 19). During the process of translation, many linguistic changes take place, especially when the source language and the target language belong to different language families and hence have distinct linguistic systems. To trace and analyze such changes, many scholars, including John Catford, Anton Popovič, and Mona Baker, have proposed various types of translation shifts (Al-Hamed, 2016). Catford (1965) introduced the linguistic- oriented notion of ‘translation shifts’ and its types, which was his major contribution to the field of translation theory (Leonardi, 2000). For such contribution, Catford is named ‘The Father of Translation Shifts’ (Al- Hamed, 2016). Catford (1965) defined ‘shifts’ as the “departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the SL to the TL” (p. 73). According to Djamila (2010), “Whenever languages exhibit differences, translation shifts are said to occur and be the most required translation strategy in establishing equivalence” (p. 42). These translation shifts are described by Larson (1998) as the process of “reconstructing the same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context” (p. 3). 2.5.1 Level Shifts Catford (1965) defined ‘level shifts’ as the change that takes place when “a SL item at one linguistic level has a TL equivalent at a different level” (p. 73). He explained that shifts from ‘grammar to lexis’ are “the only possible level-shifts in translation; and such shifts are, of course, quite common” (p. 73). In other words, a grammatical item in the source language is expressed using a word in the target language or vice versa. An example of level shifts is the translation of “ ‫” أﻓﻌﺎﻟﻲ ﻛﻠﮭﺎ ﻣﻘﺪرة ﻋﻨﺪه‬into “all my actions have been preordained by him.” The lexis ‘ ‫’ ﻣﻘﺪرة‬has been translated into grammar ‘have been preordained’ (Al-Hamed, 2016, p. 33) 2.5.2 Category Shifts The other type of Catford's translation shifts─ category shifts─ is subdivided into four types: structure shifts, class shifts, unit shifts, and intra-system shifts. 2.5.2.1 Structure Shifts Structure shifts are the changes in the grammatical structure (word order) of a sentence at any linguistic rank (i.e., phrases, clauses, and sentences). For example, the Arabic sentence “ ‫” ﻗﺎل ﺻﺪﯾﻘﻲ ﻓﻲ ﺷﻤﺎﺗﺔ‬is translated into “My friend spoke gloatingly” where the Verb-Subject order in Arabic is reversed into Subject-Verb in English (Al-Hamed, 2016, p. 37). 2.5.2.2 Class Shifts Class shifts are the change from one part of speech to another without affecting the meaning. This shift corresponds to Vinay and Darbelnet’s ‘transposition’ translation procedure (Vinay & Darbelnet, 1995). An example of class shifts is found in the translation of “ ”‫ﺻﺪﯾﻘﻲ رﺟﻞ ﯾﺤﺐ اﻟﺠﺪل وﯾﮭﻮى اﻟﻜﻼم‬into “My friend is a man who likes to argue and delights in talking.” The Arabic noun ‘ ’‫اﻟﺠﺪل‬is translated into a verb in English. In spite of the change in part of speech, the meaning is still the same (Al-Hamed, 2016, p. 37). 2.5.2.3 Unit Shifts Another type of category shifts is unit shifts─ also referred to as ‘rank-change.’ Catford (1965) defined unit shifts as “departures from formal correspondence in which the translation equivalent of a unit at one rank in the SL is a unit at a different rank in the TL” (p. 79). They are changes in the units of language (i.e., words, phrases, clauses, sentences...etc.). For example, the Arabic sentence “ ”‫ﻛﯿﻒ ﯾﺨﻠﻖ اﻟﻜﺮاھﯿﺔ واﻟﻘﺒﺢ واﻟﺸﺮ؟‬is translated into “how then did it come that he created hatred, ugliness, and evil?” The Arabic word ‘ ’‫ﻛﯿﻒ‬is translated into the clause ‘how then did it come that’ (Al-Hamed, 2016, p. 2.5.2.4 Intra-system Shifts The last type of category shifts is intra-system shifts. This kind occurs when the “translation involves selection of a non-corresponding term in the TL system,” (Catford, 1965, p. 80). Intra-system shifts usually take place in the cases of plural and singular, definite and indefinite, and neutral and gender-specific (Al- Hamed, 2016). An example of ” ‫ “ﻟﻨﺎ ﻋﻠﻰ ذﻟﻚ ﺑﺮاھﯿﻦ ﺗﺆﯾﺪﻧﺎ وﺗﺸﺠﺐ ﻛﻼﻣﻜﻢ‬this type of shifts is found the translation of the Arabic into “We have evidence to support our view and refute yours. The Arabic plural word ( ‫ )ﺑﺮاھﯿﻦ‬is translated into a singular word in English ‘evidence’ (Al-Hamed, 2016, p 48).