TRANSLATION STUDIES AS AN INTERDICIPLINE

INGGY YULIANI PRIBADY

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Introduction

In recent decades, translation studies has developed into an independent

discipline, yet it remains and interdisciplinary field which is constantly
borrowing ideas and methods from other disciplines.

Translation studies can bring together approaches from a wide range of

language and cultural studies, modifying them for its own use and
developing new models specific to its own requirements. (Munday,
2001:182)

As an interdisciplinary discipline, translation studies borrows much from

the different fields of study that support translation. These include
comparative literature, computer science, history, linguistics, philology,
philosophy, semiotics, terminology, and so forth. It is containing elements
of social science and the humanities, dealing with the systematic study of
the theory, the description and the application of translation, interpreting
or both these activities. (http://en.wikipedia.org , accessed 15th October
2009)

Over recent years scholars in translation studies have move towards

interdiciplinarity. And the first is Snell-Hornby attempt at integrating the
analysis of translation.

Snell - Hornby’s integrated approach

Snell – Hornby (1988/1995:33/32) classifies translation on the basis of

prototype theory, and points out that different types of translation are

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influenced to different degrees by linguistics and various other disciplines.
(Hansen,Malmkjaer&Gile:2004)

Depending on the text type under consideration, she incorporates cultural

history, literary studies, socio cultural and area studies and, for legal,
economic, medical and scientific translation, the study of the relevant
specialized subject.(Munday, 2001:183)

Her view of the field can be seen on her diagram:

In the diagram she illustrates a system of relationship between basic text

types as prototypes and the crucial aspects of translation (Snell-Hornby ,
1988:31) as cited in Trosborg(2000:213)

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On vertical plane , her diagram represents a stratificational model of six
level which proceeds from the most general level (A), presenting the
conventional areas of translation ( literary, general language, special
language translation)

Downwards to the most particular level (F) listing phonological aspects of

specific relevance for certain texts, e.g. alliteration in advertising.

Snell – Hornby’s level B presents a prototypology of the basic text types of

which only a selection are given :Bible, stage/film, lyric, poetry, modern
literature, classical antiquity, literature before 1900, children’s literature,
light fiction (related to the literary translation on level A) ; newspaper,
general information text, advertising language ( related to the general
language translation).

Snell – Hornby lights of the hypothesis which is important in the

translation process :

The more ‘specialized or pragmatic’ the source text, the more closely it is
bound to a single, specific situation, and the easier it is to define the
function of its translation;

The more specific the situation and the more clearly defined the function,
the more target oriented likely to be a translation is;

The more ‘literary’ a translation, the higher is the status of the source text
as a work of art using the medium of language (Snell-Hornby, 1988:115)
as cited in Trosborg (2000)

From the hypotheses above , it can be said that Snell- Hornby emphasizes
the importance of the text analysis in the translation process. A text
should not be analyzed in part, but as a whole, from the macro level to
the micro level.

A text is more than a linguistics phenomenon. It has a communicative

function, reflecting the culture and society in which it was written. The
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analysis begins on the macro level with identifying the text in terms of
culture and situation, and then it is reduced to the micro level, where the
structures of the text (title, etc) are analyzed. Afterward, the translator
will have a deeper understanding of the makeup and structure of the text
and this has a great influence on translation process.

Conclusion

Snell –Hornby ‘s integrated approach attempts to integrate a wide variety

of different linguistics and literary concepts in an integrated approach to
translation. She proposed the prototype theory which considers the nature
of language of the text types for which this type of translation is
appropriate. The different text types of translation are influenced to
different degrees by linguistics and various other disciplines.

References

Burry, Cyntia.2009.Translation Studies.Available at http://www.erudit.org

Hansen,Gyde;Malmkjaer,Kirsten&Gile, Daniel.2004.Claims,Changes and

Challenges in Translation Studies.John Benjamins
Publishing.Philadelphia.USA.

Munday, Jeremy.2001.Introducing Translation Studies.Routledge,New

York.

Trosborg, Anna.2000. Analysing Professional Genres.John Benjamins

Publishing.Philadelphia.USA.

Wikipedia.2009.Translation Studies. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org

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