Some of the difficulties encountered in judging the quality of translations are merely because of a lack of particular linguistic knowledge relating to the subject matter. The chapter proposes to provide an outline of some fundamental aspects that are, as a rule, not sufficiently taken into account. This chapter discusses problems related to quality in translation. The paper looks at a number of SL-TL translated pairs from authentic corpus data to identify construal-types and propose a typology of re-conceptualization. Re-conceptualization of a message in translation is constrained by content, and in some cases, form similarity, or resemblance between the SL and TL message. As the linguistic message consists of both conceptual-semantic content and the way this content is construed, important properties of construal such as granularity, focusing, prominence, and perspective, contribute to its overall meaning. Meaning, in all the cycles of translation, is constructed and emerges with the flow of discourse, forming a blended entity combining elements of TL and SL as well as subjective properties of language users' mental models. Any linguistic form with the TL morphology and syntax, which the translator considers a possible SL equivalent, brings about a new re-conceptualization cycle. Originating with a SL author, the message is re-conceptualized by SL recipients, the translator and eventually, the TL audience. Re-conceptualization is a matter of degree. The thesis put forward in this paper is that translation involves a number of cycles of re-conceptualization of an original SL message, expressed eventually in the TL. Finally, the analysis is positioned within the broader scholarship on translation studies to demonstrate how this approach expands our knowledge regarding effective translation. Data is analyzed using sociolinguistic and pragmatic criteria. Nineteen translators and fourteen end-users were also interviewed regarding the translation effectiveness of corpus examples. This corpus from nineteen Francophone countries covers three broad categories: Education, Legal, and General Administrative Correspondence. A sample of 151 pairs of source and target documents dating from 2011–2017 was purposively selected. The argument is made that sociolinguistic variables and Grice’s pragmatic maxims are essential in enhancing translation effectiveness. Through a sociolinguistic and pragmatic lens, this study explores how translating official documents by focusing on linguistic equivalences without taking into account national institutional systems can be misleading. Although underexplored in Africa, the translation of official documents presents a revelatory context for examining translation practice and theory.
0 kommentar(er)
