Chapter One
2
verb form occurs will have no difficulty in choosing the suitable tense for
that form.
Since translation is a text-oriented approach, the text must receive the
utmost attention from the translator. “One of the very few issues on which
there is substantial, if not universal, agreement among translators and
translation theorists is the centrality of the text and its manipulation
through the process of translation” (Bell 1991: 199). Understanding all
aspects of the original text is a requirement for proper translation.
Therefore, Wilss (1982: 112) asserts that the text-oriented nature of
translation necessarily “requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic and
textpragmatic comprehension of the original text by the translator.”
The importance of meaning in translation has been asserted by many
linguists and translation researchers. For instance, Tymoczko (1978, 29)
speaks about the belief that
translation is essentially a semantic affair. ... a translation of a sentence in
one language is, by definition, a sentence in a second language which
means the same as the original. Under this conception a translator begins
with sentences which have meaning in the semantic structure of one
language and attempts to construct equivalent sentences using the semantic
devices of the second language. Hence, semantic theory, built upon syntax
and phonology, is sufficient to provide an adequate theory of translation.
Meaning is so important to translation that it represents the common
core of many of the definitions of translation itself. For example, Nida
(1969, 210) defines translation as “the reproduction in a receptor language
of the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in
terms of meaning, and second in terms of style.” Also, Rabin (1958: 118)
defines translation as “a process by which a spoken or written utterance
takes place in one language which is intended and presumed to convey the
same meaning as a previously existing utterance in another language.”
Correctly conveying the meaning of a source text into a target language
is even considered a serious responsibility of translators by Campbell and
Miller (2000): “Translators have a serious responsibility to accurately
reproduce the meaning of the original text without personal bias, ensuring
that no information is omitted or altered.” Meaning has also been stressed
in teaching foreign languages through translation. “Students should be
encouraged to think first of meaning when translating. After that they