Grammatical And Linguistic Challenges In Translation (Case Study)

Translation is converting audio/text content from one language into another. The content might change from an audio format into a text format or a text format to a text format and lastly from audio to an audio format. Subtitling is the translation process that involves translating an audio format content into a text format content while Dubbing is translating one audio content into another audio content. The text to text translation is the common form of translation that many people know and are aware of. With that said, it is also very important to know the two dominant types of translations we have out here. We have machine translators and human translators. Machine translators – Normally referred to as MT, this is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of software to translate text or speech from one language to another. They usually work by using computer software to translate a source language into a target language. There are different types of machine translators namely, Statistical machine translation, Rule-based translation, Hybrid translation, and Neural translation. We will look further into these types in another article. Human translators – Normally referred to as HT, these are individuals who take up translation works which entail translation audio or text content from one language to another. They are the opposite of machine translators. This kind of translation relies purely on human intelligence and emotions to convert one way of saying things into another without changing the context of the original statement. It is the main form of translation that offers perfectly accurate translations. There are so many types of human translators that are divided across different fields. I will talk more about them in another article. From the sound of it, people might conclude that text to text format translation is the easiest form of translation and that all you need to know is the source and target language. To some extent, it is true because all translators must have a solid understanding of the languages they are working with. A lot of clients prefer working with Native speakers because they at least understand how languages are affected by their cultural, linguistic, and technical aspects. These three factors usually affect how a language is translated into another language. An example would be when a translator factors in the cultural aspect of the language they translate to, they avoid offending their target market by using words that mean a totally different thing when translated into another language and so on and so forth. You can only know this if you have a deep understanding of the languages you are working with as a translator. Many people might think this is a natural flowing process but the truth of the matter is that it is not. Translators are usually faced with challenges from time to time. How a translator handles these challenges determines how good and professional they are. Translation is difficult, a lot of Common challenges in translation include knowing about a variety of features such as the language structure which differs between languages. For example, a simple English sentence has a subject, a verb, and an object, such as ‘She eats chicken.’ However, not all languages share this structure, so the Farsi language has the subject first, followed by a verb and then lastly the object. In Arabic, subject pronouns become a part of the verb. Because of these differences’ translators have to frequently add, rearrange, or remove words to communicate effectively in the targeted language. Written By: Winny Moraa Obiso https://dubbingking.com/grammatical-and-linguistic-challenges-you-will-face-as-a-translator/