The notion of the “translation quality” and its parameters

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between translating (a written text) and interpreting (oral or signed communication between users of different languages); under this distinction, translation can begin only after the appearance of writing within a language community.

At the very heart of translation studies is the issue of translation quality. Numerous scholars such as Reiss (1971), House (1977) and Lauscher (2000) have proposed various methods for determining what makes a good translation or whether a translation should be called good or adequate or appropriate. However, there is a tendency to regard translation errors solely from the point of view of academic studies and translation pedagogy, completely shut off from professional practice.

One of the most important conditions for a translation to be correct is accuracy. The criterion of accuracy varies according to the style and genre of the text. The translator should avoid altering the text, introducing improper, foreign elements in the translated text or performing a literal mechanical translation. To translate means to express exactly and to reproduce not only the content of the original text but also the form.

Until recently, there has basically been only quality translation, meaning the best a translator could reasonably offer. Translation work has strived at perfection and nothing less. Nowadays, however, demand has arisen for variation in both directions. "Levels of translation quality can be described at least in the following terms:

• •    raw translation

• •    normal quality translation

• •    extra-quality translation

• •    adaptation of original text

Raw translation means a translation which conveys the central meaning of the original text. There may be grammatical errors and misspellings, but the text has to be understandable.

Typically, this could be translations of large amounts of scientific abstracts.

Normal quality translation corresponds roughly to the translations of old. The original text is translated fully and the translated text is grammatically correct and reasonably fluent. The text may be awkward at times, but the contents of the original text should be understood completely from the translation. Typically, this could be a translation of a technical manual.

"Экономика и социум" №3(70) 2020