Theory of translation (its history and problems)

Among the problems of interest in linguistics, an important place is to study the linguistic features of active speech activity of the interlingual nature, called "translation". The theory of translation often falls into the focus of attention of linguists.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of translation, which since its inception began to fulfill the most important social function, creating conditions for interlingual communication of people. It arose in the extreme antiquity, when the associations of people who spoke different languages were formed in the history of civilization. Immediately there were people who own them two and help communicate other people from these associations. As such, the general theory of translation did not yet exist, but each specialist in this field had his own approach.

After mankind invented writing, specialists in the translation of official, religious and business texts joined the group of interpreters, interpreters, and translators.

Written translations have given people the opportunity to join the cultural heritage of other nations. National literature, science and culture have received ample opportunities for interaction and mutual enrichment. Knowledge of foreign languages makes it possible to read scripts. However, not everyone can master even one foreign language.

The first theory of translation was created by the translators themselves, who sought to generalize their own experience, and often the experience of their colleagues in the shop. Of course, the most wonderful translators of their time told the world about their strategy, although often their conceptual calculations did not correspond to modern scientific principles, so they could not form a coherent abstract concept. Nevertheless, the theory of translation still retains interest in the considerations they have outlined.

Even in the period of antiquity, a discussion arose between translators about the correspondence of the translation to the original. Making the very first translations of sacred books, including the Bible, most specialists sought to literally copy the originals, which made the translation vague, and sometimes completely incomprehensible. Therefore, the attempts of some translators to justify the theoretically greater freedom of the translated text from the original, it is quite reasonable to justify the need to translate not literally, but the meaning, sometimes even simply the impression or charm of a foreign text.

Even their early statements regarding the aims of the translator indicate the beginning of discussions, which today, in our time, are concerned with the theory and practice of translation.

Two types of translations, alternating, always succeed each other in the process of cultural development. One group of specialists believes that the translation should correspond to the peculiarities and habits of native speakers, while the other group, on the contrary, defends the preservation of the language structure of the original, even forcibly adapting to it the native language. In the first case, the translation is called free, in the second case it is literal.

Just as during verbal communication, texts for those who speak and for those who listen are considered to be equivalent, so the translated text is considered equivalent to the translated one.

Art translation, the theory and practice of which differs from the translation of texts of a scientific or technical nature, has its own specifics. The function of the language of fiction is the emotional impact that it exerts on the reader.

By acquaintance with foreign literature, all readers of the world are obliged to an artistic translation, one of the most complex, which requires the translator to be resourceful, live in text, sharpness of all sense organs, creative self-expression that does not obscure the author's originality.